Weight Management Routine

MORNING – Weigh yourself and record in training log. *Determine how much you “float” each night between bedtime and morning weigh-in.  Drink 1-2 glasses of water to replenish what you lost in your sleep that night. You may want to add lemon and/or little bit of honey for taste and energy burst.

BREAKFAST – Biggest Meal of the Day! You need to feed your body from the long 8 hour fast it just had from sleeping all night. You also will have burned a pound or two in your morning workout allowing you to eat a little more. Further, you have the entire day to burn off a big breakfast just by walking around campus, daily activities in classes, etc.

• Juice and/or fruit with a bagel

• OR Cereal w/skim milk

• OR 1-2 eggs w/ whole wheat Toast

• OR Pineapple, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, etc.

• Drink tea (1-2 cups hot liquid)

BEFORE NOON

Snack – Glass of water and piece of fruit

NOON – LUNCH

• Sandwich (chicken, turkey) on whole wheat bread with lettuce

• OR pasta with tomato sauce

• OR salad with spinach lettuce, broccoli, cucumber, light dressing

• Drink 2-3 glasses of water

MID-AFTERNOON – Pre-Practice

• Glass of water and power bar OR rice cakes OR piece of fruit OR protein water

Check weight before and after practice and record in training log.

Determine how much you “float” on average between lunch/snack and pre-practice.

*Post practice-as soon as you are done wrestling live/conditioning, get your sweatpants/sweatshirt on to keep warm and keep your sweat going. Work at a low to moderate intensity for an extra 10-15 minutes afterwards to get a little bit more off each day. (Can be on the air-dyne, shadow drilling, jump rope, etc.) This will also give you an advantage over your competition in terms of a slight edge with conditioning. Then just sit down with your sweats on for another 5 minutes while your heart rate comes back to normal. You will continue to sweat or even sweat more because your body will know that it’s time to “cool down” and the sweat will pour.

EVENING – DINNER – Lightest meal of day

• Organic pasta shells

• OR Organic Macaroni

• OR salad with chicken, broccoli, cucumber, spinach lettuce, etc.

• OR chicken breast with whole grain rice

BEFORE BED

*Check weight before bedtime to help determine how much you “float” between bed-time and wake up.

*Remember this: it’s all about portion control. You should never be feeling like “I’m starving” but also never feeling like “I’m stuffed”.

Eating multiple small meals/snacks throughout the day will eliminate these feelings while keeping your metabolism burning. Your body is like a wood stove. Once you get the fire started, you should only have to put a log on every couple hours to keep it steadily burning. The idea behind having the mid-meal snacks is to keep you feeling content and “stoking the fire”. Your body needs to know that it’s not going to be starved of food and water. If you miss a handful of meals just one or two days each week to make weight, your body will hold on to whatever meals/water it takes in the remainder of the week because it goes into “survival mode”. This makes it harder and harder to make weight each week. Conversely, once you follow this routine, your body will get back into sync, and no longer hold on to whatever is put into it, because it knows there will be a steady stream of nutrients entering throughout the day. Your body won’t store a lot of extra if it knows there will be plenty coming in.

Also, by feeding your body and then working it off, you will have more energy to train at a high level. To reach your goal, you MUST be able to train at a high paced, championship level every day in practice without a pile of sweatpants and sweatshirts on. Think about it…you never wrestle in a match with that same type of feeling. You never grip a sleeve or pant leg when you attack your opponents, so practice should be no different. You will feel lighter and faster in practice, and I know that makes you even more dangerous!!

The psychological advantages of maintaining a good nutritional routine are also great. You’ll obviously wrestle better if you feel better physically AND mentally. You will wrestle better because you know you were disciplined, committed and you did everything in your power to reach your goal. Therefore, YOU DESERVE TO WIN!