What’s a typical day of nutrition for you?
To be honest, that’s always something I’ve struggled with. Every team that I’ve gone to, they always say that I need to be better at it. I just do what works for me.
It’s a bit unorthodox, but every time I’ve gone on a strict diet and I’ve eaten everything that people have wanted me to eat and lost weight, I don’t feel good. My body doesn’t feel as comfortable and my body doesn’t have the same energy. I’ve done it about four or five times in my career where I’ve gone down to the weight that people have wanted me to.
So for me, I go to training and afterwards I’ll probably have some pasta with chicken and marinara or pesto sauce, with a little spice. After I get home, I’ll take a little chill from eating until dinner. I have a chef at home and he makes all types of stuff, from octopus, to salmon, to chicken salad, to risotto. I try to eat stuff like that.
Throughout the day, snacking is my biggest weakness. I’ve been trying to get on healthier snacks.
When you’ve earned a cheat meal, or cheat snacks, what are you usually going for?
This last summer was very different for me because I was injured for like two months before the summer break.
And this summer I was on a roll. I was eating less carbs and if I was eating carbs, I was making sure it was from quinoa or rice. I was doing salads. For the month I had off, I probably only had dessert three times. I really tried to cut off all of the sugary things. I stayed away from sodas.
If it’s a normal summer and I get to choose what I get to eat and I still have my workout regimen, I’m getting Chick-Fil-A or something like that. I try to do it during that time period because I know that when it’s time to get back to the field, I really have to take care.
I know I’m still young, but I’m not as young as I used to be. I can’t get away with a lot of stuff that I was able to before.
Speaking of being back home, you have a really diverse background in terms of places that you’ve lived. Which country has the best food in your opinion?
Italy has the best natural ingredients for food—the food we have there has a different taste. It’s amazing. As far as health wise and getting the best bang for your buck, I’d probably say Italy for sure.
I don’t think a lot of people would argue with you on that.
It’s kind of hard to.
I was wondering how you maintain your nutrition when you’re in a country, like Qatar, that’s completely new to you and you’re not familiar with the food options.
The benefit for us is that we’re bringing our chef with us. I’m sure they’ll find a way to get all of the ingredients so we can eat how we normally eat.I think our diets will be pretty easy to maintain.
What’s going to mess with us is going to be the times that we’re eating at.
Because of the time difference?
That, and because the games we’re playing are like at 10 o’clock at night. That’s normally when we’re eating after the game. Now that we’re playing at that time, we have to find the right balance and the right timing to eat certain things to have the best amount of fuel to play the game.
Gerald Flores
Source link
