A+LUNCHES FOR TRIATHLETES
By Kate Davis
Packing a school lunch can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips and tricks to make fantastic school lunches that will fuel your after-school practices.
Try to include a whole grain, low-fat/lean protein, a source of unsaturated fat, fruit and vegetables. Here are examples to add to your grocery list. Some items are useful to have on hand in both single serve containers and bulk.
Pack splurge foods such as chips or fruit snacks only once or twice a week (but not on race days). These are not effective for fueling or recovery but can be part of school lunch occasionally.
Prep as much as possible on the weekend to save ti me during the week. Make sandwiches (minus sauces that can make them soggy), cut up vegetables or fruit and put in sandwich bags, bag nuts and dried fruit and make individual salads or create your own single-serve yogurt or cottage cheese by placing into reusable containers. Hard boil eggs and make rice or quinoa.
With a little planning, packing performance enhancing lunches is a snap!
Fats: Lightly salted nuts and/or seeds, nut butters that consist of only nuts or only nuts and salt, olives, avocado/guacamole packets
Extras: Low-sugar jelly/jam or honey
Whole Grains: Whole wheat bread, tortillas, English muffins or pitas, brown rice or quinoa, whole grain tortilla chips and crackers
Proteins: Low-sodium lunch meats, canned tuna, eggs, canned beans, part-skim mozzarella cheese sticks, low-fat (2% milk) cheese, low-fat regular or Greek yogurt, low-fat cot age cheese, shelf-stable low-fat cow/ soy milk
Fruit/veggies: Any fresh fruit (peaches, bananas, oranges and apples are easier than fruits that require cutting), any canned fruit in its own juice (no syrups), dried fruit (ideally without added sugar), any fresh veggies (baby carrots, mini sweet peppers, snap peas and cherry tomatoes come ready to eat)
5 EASY SCHOOL LUNCHES
THE TRIED AND TRUE
• Jam and nut butter on whole wheat bread
• Greek yogurt
• Whole grain tortilla chips
• Apple • Snap peas
THE VEGETARIAN’S DELIGHT
• Hummus & fresh veggies in a whole wheat wrap (optional non-veggie addition: chicken breast)
• Lightly salted nuts and dried fruit
• Mozzarella cheese stick
• Pear
THE CARNIVORE’S LOVE
• 3-4 slices deli meat on whole wheat bread (optional slice of cheese and mustard)
• Regular, nonfat yogurt
• Whole grain crackers
• Blueberries
• Pepper slices
THE LAST-MINUTE FRENZY
• Granola bar with at least 10 grams of protein and around 30-40 grams of carbohydrate
• No-sugar-added dried fruit
• 1 packet of nut butter
• Baby carrots
KATE DAVIS, MS, RD, CSSD, LDN is a triathlete and registered dietitian who is board-certified as a specialist in sports nutrition and the owner of RDKate Sports Nutrition. To learn more, visit
www.rdkate.com.
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