"Ness, I don't want to eat all that pasta. I want to feel light for the game."
I hear it from players over and over. It's usually this, or the polar opposite.
Then I look at what they’re eating instead. A big salad. Broccoli. Two or three chicken breasts.
It’s the day before a game, and he thinks he’s being the perfect professional.
He’s got it the wrong way round.
Fruit and veg are amazing for you. They don’t help you run.
They’re high in fibre, and fibre fills you up. It takes the space on the plate where the fuel should be, and close to a game it can upset the gut.
So the player who skipped the pasta to feel light ends up full, heavy and short of energy.
What he needs is a beige plate.
Three fists of fuel. Rice, pasta or noodles. A full plate or a full bowl.
One palm of protein. The same as every other day.
Fruit and veg right down, and only the easy kind. A tomato sauce, a juice, a smoothie, a soup.
And that isn’t one day. It’s three for every game. The day before, the day of, and the day after.
Think of a phone. You charge it before you use it. When you’ve used it all day, you charge it again.
Most players get nowhere near enough. They think they’ve carb loaded because they had an extra pancake or an extra slice of toast.
A team sport athlete needs around 600g of carbohydrate on those days. Spread that across three meals and a couple of snacks, and you have to be aggressive at every one.
This problem is not the chef’s fault.
Everything we’re taught about healthy eating is written for 'normal' people. More veg, more fibre, less sugar. For someone who doesn’t train, that’s right.
Your player isn’t a normal person. And nobody ever built a place for chefs to learn the difference.
A beige plate is not a boring plate, either.
When I started at Chelsea the food was plain. By the time I left we were doing crepes, pancakes, desserts and fuelling stations, all built around what the players needed that day.
Make the fuel something they want to eat, and they eat enough of it.
Here’s one thing to try.
Build one beige plate you’d be proud to serve the day before a game.
Try:
- Pasta with a smooth tomato sauce where the side salad used to be
- Rice pudding with a fruit
- Pancakes with a chocolate spread, let down with milk so it’s thin
- A juice, a smoothie or a soup for the fruit and veg
Sooner or later someone will look at that plate and ask where the vegetables are. A player, a coach, a manager.
Then you tell them why it’s beige today, and why it flips on a rest day. One fist of fuel, three of fruit and veg. Same player, different formation.
Right time, right place. That’s the job.
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Some fuel for thought,
Ness.
