What is a good diet for a teenage athlete?

40 Healthy Living Tips for Teenage Athletes

If you desire to be a great athlete, you must have a healthy diet and nutritional program.  Some might ask the question, what is the good diet? I consider the good eating program or diet to be one of balance.

Balance shows up in a life not void of tough times, but one with enough good times, laughter, and joy to overrule the hard times we experience. A life with enough obstacles and circumstances to build character without making us weary.

Life includes hard work, joy, and love…  Life is not without sadness, but one that allows us to appreciate love. A life that shows us unfairness so we can stand on the side of empathy and compassion.

A good eating program mirrors this type of balanced life: an overall healthy diet with room for enjoyment. A healthy diet includes disciplined eating so that you nourish your body, which teaches you to enjoy the healthy foods while allowing a small amount of comfort foods along the way.

Athlete’s Healthy Life

The good life is just enough of everything so that we can experience life in fullness. The good life, I think, includes it all – lack, sadness, love, beauty, activism, prosperity, joy, and vigorous health. The most important component that allows us to experience life to its fullest is health in all areas – a healthy mind, body, and soul.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the minutia of what we want – whether it’s a slimmer physique, fatter bank account, or more fulfilling job – that we forget to see the big picture.  Fad diets can be stressful on both the body and the mind.

The Right Healthy Lifestyle Changes for Athletes

Lifestyle changes, however, can bring such major improvements that you’ll find yourself energized by the results!  If we can shift our focus to living a healthy life, rather than “losing 20 pounds,” we’re bound to find more rewards along the way.

Here is a list of 40 best practices and habits that can help you ditch the notion of a “diet” and embrace a lifestyle change that centers on healthy, whole foods, regular exercise, and adequate sleep.

1. 1. Avoid processed foods and artificial sweeteners. Become familiar with the names of ingredients you should avoid (i.e., unhealthy high fructose corn, aspartame, and other negative additives).
   2. Breakfast. This is an essential meal to eat every day. Make it a good one! Focus on fueling your body with properly prepared whole grains, proteins, and fruit. Click here for What Should and Athlete Eat For Breakfast!
   3. Drink water. Your body needs water to function properly.  If you don’t like water, try adding flavors using fresh fruit, lemon, and veggies like strawberries, cucumbers, mint, etc. Furthermore, drinking more water high in PH aids in losing weight. The nutritional researchers believe that it’s because drinking more water helps fill your stomach, making you less hungry and less likely to overeat.  Whereas when you drink water often, your body knows that it’s going to get its proper supply of fluids, so it does not try to retain more water. It releases the excess, including toxins.
   4. Farmer’s markets. Visit your local farmer’s market, take a family drive to the market, and enjoy the seasonally changes. Talk to the farmers and learn the knowledge of the vendors. We were meant to eat seasonally! By eating seasonally, you’ll get the most nutrients from your food because it’s at its freshest point.
   5. Spend time outside. Get some natural Vitamin D, the most difficult vitamin to get from food. This will boost your immune system, energy, and your mood!
   6. Imagine your best self. Not necessarily your ideal weight, but your best self.
   7. Junk food cleanse. Go through your fridge, and purge all the junk food and make a promise with yourself that you will not buy more.
   8. Lean proteins. Focus on high-quality proteins like grass-fed beef, wild or sustainably farmed fish, free-range chicken, turkey, eggs, and healthy nuts. These foods will be the most beneficial when it comes to fueling your body.
   9. Meal plan. Plan your healthy meals every day/week. This helps you stay on course and avoid having to come up with quick, possibly unhealthy meal options.
   10. Nap! Often sleep is all that you need to do! Sleeping during the day for 15-30 minutes will give you a great boost of energy! Get lots of sleep! Try getting more rest at night and taking a little nap during the day.
   11. Omega-3s. Studies have shown that healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation, combat mental issues, and improve your mood, memory, focus, and concentration. Try to get omega-3 fats from healthy food rather than supplements. Excellent sources include salmon, walnuts, flax seeds, leaf greens,
   12. Pack your lunch. Often, when working in an office or attending school, it’s easy to make trips to the nearest fast food joint. Pack your lunch to keep it healthy.
   13. Quit making excuses. No more excuses. Take ownership of your life and you will feel empowered and happier in the long run.
   14. Reduce stress. Reduce your level of stress by praying and taking time for yourself!
   15. Take care of yourself! Make it a priority to do what you need to do to get and stay healthy.
   16. Understand your cravings. Focus on what’s causing them. Many times you can offset your cravings with something healthy. If you crave jellybeans, try some fresh berries. Drizzle a little honey on them if you need to amp up the sweetness while you work on getting your sugar levels in balance. The more you minimize processed sugar from your diet, the less you will crave it.
   17. Whole food diet.  This is a diet that includes proteins, healthy fats, fruits, and vegetables.
   18. Exercise.  Not just 2 times a week, but every day. Movement is the secret.
   19. A Good Life Includes Prayer. Prayer is essential
   20. Meditate. Meditation quiets your mind and renews your soul and body. Meditate on something specific, like kindness! and health
   21. Pick exercises you enjoy. When you enjoy sports, you’ll naturally want to do participate. Exercise isn’t about suffering but rather about moving your body, being healthy, and having fun. Adding variation in your workouts will keep them interesting.
   22. Barefoot running or walking. There have been many positive benefits of barefoot walking and running, from better posture, less stress for your feet, to less stress for your joints. It’s also very balancing for your energy levels to experience direct contact from your skin to the earth.
   23. Forgive yourself. You don’t need negativity from others, and you don’t need it from yourself either. Listen to yourself, learn from your past, and release yourself from the past. Choose to let go of negative thoughts you hear.
   24. To have a good life, you must breathe. Oxygen is a vital source of life. Most of us don’t breathe properly. Athletes are coached by proper breathing techniques to get their best performance.
   25. Address emotional eating issues. Emotional eating is eating based on feelings of loneliness, depression, anger, or some other negative feeling. Do you eat when you feel stressed out, down, or frustrated? Do you reach out for food when you hit a block at work? Take note of what you do and why you do, and make appropriate changes.
   26. Stop eating when you feel full. Don’t feel obligated to eat a lot. Just because there’ food on the plate. Stop when you feel about 3/4 full.
   27. Live a life with purpose. Positive health starts from within! Are you living a life of meaning and purpose? Are you living in a way that lines up with your gifts an vision for your life?
   28. Cut out sugary foods. These are your candy bars, cookies, cakes, and other junk foods. Not only do they not give you nutritional value, but they also trigger you to eat more due to their lack of nutritional value
   29. Go organic. Organic food usually costs more, but a few extra dollars for a cleaner, healthier body, is worth it!
   30. Improve your posture. Good posture improves your breathing and makes you look smarter and more attractive.
   31. No soda and caffeine. Nada, none, zero. Drinks with high amounts of caffeine are diuretics that will speed up the rate of urine production and dehydrate you. These types of drinks are horrible and do not contribute to the recommended eight glasses of water/day requirement.
   32. No alcohol. Like caffeine, alcohol is a diuretic. Not only that, but alcohol is also proven to have negative effects on our body and health, impacting the proper function of your brain, liver, lungs, and other organs.
   33. Prepare your meals. Gain an appreciation for preparing your own meals. My superstar wife does this for my family, so I can’t take credit. But I cooked a meal on Mother’s Day, and everyone loved it. I hated it! Anyway, a home-cooked meal is the best meal you can have. When you prepare your meals, you control how they are prepared and what goes into them.
   34. Learn to say no. Don’t feel like you’ve got to eat just because you’re out with your friends, group or because other people offer you food. Simply learn to say no and say you’re not hungry if you don’t feel like eating. Bring out the athlete in you and learn to be mentally tough!
   35. No smoking. It has been scientifically proven that smoking is detrimental to health,  severely increasing the risk of disease, lung cancer, kidney cancer, esophageal cancer, heart attack, and more. Find out more!
   36. Listen to music – Music stimulates the mind, calms you, and brings you joy!
   37. Juicing. Juicing is where you squeeze the juice from vegetables and fruits. It is one of the most powerful things you can do to improve your health! Find out more about juicing for weight loss!
   38. Go on a Cleanse. Remove the parasites! If you do experience a lot of cravings, odds are your digestive system is overrun with yeast and other parasitic organisms. A good cleanse can get you on the fast track to eliminating bad cravings and actually beginning to enjoy more nourishing foods.
   39. Oral Hygiene – Oral health is one of the most overlooked health issues. Bad teeth usually equal bad health! Get rid of bad breath naturally by caring for your teeth and gums, as well as eliminating processed foods. When you nourish your body, your oral health will be directly affected.
   40. Hang out with healthy people. You are the median average of the seven people you spend time with and talk too. The more time you spend around positive, healthy people in mind, body, soul, and good habits, the better off you will be.

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