Schwan's Foodservice for Grapplers?

Later this week, I'll be back with more match analysis but today I'd like to address a growing trend that all grappling athletes should steer clear of!

As an athlete who's always on the go, I look for ways to get my meals and workouts in even if it means cutting corners sometimes.
My philosophy is a few minutes of productive training is better than none at all. Even if that training consists of going over strategies or technical points because I don't have the time or there are too many other things to do to train physically.
My point is that as life can sometimes get in the way of training, it helps to have backup plans to get as much as you can in when there just isn't enough time.

So for many people this extends into getting less sleep or sacrificing on their nutrition and meals.

I decided to mention this today because there are some common trends that initially might seem like good ideas but in the longrun will only hurt your training.

Most people can clearly see that cutting down on sleep is a bad idea as sleep is one of the most important factors in recuperation not to mention how important it is for keeping you sharp, quick-thinking and helping to prevent and heal injuries.

But when it comes to nutrition, I've seen many athletes neglect their nutritious intake only to later see it seriously affect their performance. The thing is that because diet plays mostly a longterm role on your performance as opposed to a short term. Many don't realize it's negative effects before they've occured.
I once knew of someone who ate 5 chocolate bars after training just because they didn't have time to eat a quality meal. We'll you can just imagine the crash they later felt when the sugar rush wore out.

The real trend that I want to address today is actually frozen food.

More and more, we see people eating frozen food because of the convenience. But if you are a regularly training athlete then you'll want to stay away from this as much as possible. Why?
Regardless of what many companies say, frozen food does lack important nutrients that are vital for athletes, especially hard training athletes like grapplers.
The antioxidants in fresh fruits and vegetables are VITAL for recovery and will make a difference in your fitness and health in the long run. Nothing beats fresh fruit and vegetables for the antioxidants that you need, especially after hard training.
Although frozen foods still contain antioxidants the truth is that athletes need ALOT of these nutrients to fight off the damage that free radicals cause after hard training. These free radicals can damage your health and 6-10 servings of FRESH fruits and vegetables (more like 10 for hard training athletes) are the best way to prevent the damage these free radicals can do and help improve your recuperation after training.

Right now there is a huge marketing campaign being put out by companies like Schwan's Foodservice for frozen food. They claim that their food is frozen quickly and the nutrients are intact. The best advice you can get is to stay away from marketing hype and stick to common sense.

Think about it.

Science has only discovered phytonutrients and bioflavinoids that are in fruits and vegetables in the past 20 years. There are millions of these nutrients in fresh foods and most of them haven't even been identified yet, not to mention that scientists still aren't sure how they work together for added benefits.

Use common sense and stick to nature. Our ancestors have been eating fresh foods for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. This is the way we've been eating for the longest time.

My point is simply to make sure you're not neglecting the fuel you put in your body to ensure you're getting the most out of your training and optimizing your performance.
Eat a balanced diet that includes at least 10 servings of fresh fruit and vegetables. Don't forget the general guidelines for nutritional servings are not for hard training athletes but for the general population.

Which we all know we aren't a part of!