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How to Eat Like an Olympian

Well let’s face it… we will never need to eat exactly like an Olympian unless we’re training like one, because their calorie needs are probably higher than what we need. However, an Olympian’s diet, for the most part, is ideal believe it or not, but it boils down to making good nutritional decisions. For an Olympian, healthy eating is a lifestyle. They view food as a fuel, rather than an obsession.

Key components to an Olympian’s diet:

olympic rings

  1. Don’t skip meals. This includes breakfast! It’s important to eat healthy and regularly. In doing so, you are providing your body with the energy and nutrients that are needed for optimal health and weight maintenance.
  2. Variety, variety, variety! Don’t allow yourself to get into a rut, which may end up causing you to snack on your junk food of choice. If you have a craving for chips, cookies, or chocolate, allow yourself to indulge. If you constantly pass on temptation, then the day you do take a bit of the cookie you may end up eating the entire bag because you had restricted yourself for so long. Eating cookies on occasion isn’t the worst thing in the world.
  3. Pick nutrient dense foods. Try to avoid empty calories. You want to provide yourself with nutrient packed foods. This will provide you with vitamins, minerals, and you’ll find them more filling and satisfying.
  4. Limit fat, but do not avoid it. The right kind of fat is important for optimal health. Try to minimize the amount of trans and saturated fats you eat and eat more mono-unsaturated fats.
  5. Choose whole-wheat, whole-grain. Whole grains provide you with fiber, which is great for your health!
  6. Go lean with your protein! Try to minimize the amount of red and high fat (i.e. pork) meats you eat and switch to more lean sources, such as fish, chicken, and turkey.
  7. Limit or avoid alcohol. Alcohol in moderation (one drink a day) has been shown to provide you with some health benefits. However, excessive alcohol consumption has been proven to take a toll on your body and health.
  8. Fill up on fruits and veggies. Fruits and veggies are the original fast food! They are easy to carry with you and are the true definition of a nutrient-dense food.
  9. Include dairy. Pick low-fat or fat-free dairy choices.

Eating like an Olympian boils down to eating healthy and making it your way of life, not just a fad to drop a few pounds.

Kinsey

August 12th, 2008
by Kinsey
Posted in Diet Tips, Healthy Lifestyle, Nutrition, Olympics




2 Responses to “How to Eat Like an Olympian”

Ann
Aug 12th, 2008
5:49 pm

My problem is that just great tasting food gives me a kind of satisfaction that I don’t always get from eating healthy. Will the benefits from eating healthy come as I get more fit. In other words the benefits will over-ride my need for comfort foods.

Kinsey
Aug 12th, 2008
9:36 pm

Well, I think it’s all about retraining your taste buds. To me, eating “comfort foods” provides me with a very short-lived satisfaction, afterwards I feel sluggish and worthless and want to take a nap. However, if I eat hummus and veggie wrap I can go for a run 30-45 minutes after I finish. You don’t have to give up your comfort foods, instead try to make some healthy substitutions to help cut fat and calories. Instead of mashed potatoes do mashed sweet potatoes…start off small and make changes as you go. You don’t want to do an unrealistic diet overhaul, you want to set realistic and attainable goals. Once you accomplish your goal, set another more difficult goal. Once you start eating healthy on a regular basis, you will find yourself craving healthier options and you will a lot more energy!


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  • “oh and you say that it isn’t starving yourself? try to lower your calorie intakes the way they had to. Just go ahead and try it tomorrow. Try eating half of the calories you normally eat? and also eat different foods than you are accostumed to eating. Plus, I don’t see how it could be healthy to lose that much weight in such a short time. and I’ve heard doctors say the same. and I am sure they were under care of doctors during the show, but I still don’t think it can be healthy. that’s my opinion. GO VICKIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!”

    on Biggest Loser 6: Vicky Vilcan by Stop and Think for a second

  • “It’s a shame that you don’t know the real Vicki. She’s really a sweetie, and a great anesthetist. We love Vicki, and her patients do too. It’s a shame that she is portrayed the way she is portrayed. I don’t believe that she was acting at all. But I do believe that they pieced together Vicki at her worse and crankiest for ratings. and i’m sure that some of the facial expressions were shown out of context with what was happening on the show. You do realize that she sacrificed alot to be on the show. I can see why it’s so competitive for her. She isn’t just competing against herself. She’s competing against everyone else. Why does everyone act like 350,000 is chump change?? Have you guys ever watched Real World Reunions on MTV? I’ve seen on a few occasions where the editors edited the scenes to make fights/arguments seem over the top, when in fact the people of the shows say it wasn’t as it seemed. That it was a 5 minute fight that ended in a hug, and they were friends again later that day. Please don’t talk bad about my friend. she’s a great person!!! She really is!!! and by the way……..she looks amazing!!!”

    on Biggest Loser 6: Vicky Vilcan by Stop and Think for a second

  • “Her own husband told her “that’s enough” in one of the episodes. SHE is making the faces. The words that come out of her mouth are HERS. The body language is HERS. She is not being starved or worked to death. SHE is the one who made the decision to get up in the middle of the night, while everyone else was sleeping, to exercise. SHE made the statement at the beginning of the season that the goal was to win it all. SHE is playing the game and all she can see is the money. All $350,000.00 of it. SHE is the one making herself look ugly. Not NBC.”

    on Biggest Loser 6: Vicky Vilcan by TC

  • “Stop and think for a second — I just thought of something else. The purpose of this show is to change people’s lives so they shouldn’t be starving as you mentioned because that would not be healthy. Marisa you made a very good point about no one else saying horrible things or laughing at people getting hurt. And her smirks were the first thing that I noticed about her. Is her fan club saying NBC told her to make those smirks so it would be caught on camera and she would be the “bad” guy. Is this the first season they told one of the contestants to do that? Are ratings so bad that they need to stoop to this? Isn’t this going down the same lines of fooling their audience that 21 did many years ago making people look smarter than they actually were? Just wondering. It’s really hard to not think of her as just plain mean and being a bully. If I were in her position, I wouldn’t want a tv show portraying me like that, and I don’t care how much hush money they were to offer me, and I could use the money but it just wouldn’t be worth it.”

    on Biggest Loser 6: Vicky Vilcan by Not understanding

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