Nutrition Tips from Olympic Gold Medalist - Kadeena Cox

Introduction hi my name is kalina cox i am four-time paralympic champion in cycling and athletics i most recently became a paralympic champion in the final meter time trial and the team sprint in cycling both of which i did in the world record time and as an athlete ensuring you feel your body correctly is key do you have any hints and tips that you can share with our city team nutrition is so key for performance i think a lot of people forget that as athletes it's not just about the training but it's about the rest and the recovery and part of that recovery process is making sure we get the right nutrition in and so timing is key with nutrition and making sure you get it at the right time making sure you have meals spread out across the day if you're doing any form of that kind of workout you want to make sure you're getting protein in after that if you're doing long work actually you want to make sure if you're doing long work i actually want to make sure you're having some carbs before that to make sure you're fueled for the session and if you're doing sessions back to back always have a carb treat in between and just to make sure you can get through your sessions effectively because there's no point in doing sessions if you're not going to be filled effectively amazing and we've got quite a lot of Cycling Nutrition runners and cyclists within our team is there anything specific for them that you would advise in terms of cycling i would always say to make sure you have you eat your meal two hours before um just so you avoid being sick but i would also say make sure you get a good carb in there and so i tend to have either a breakfast smoothie and which you can also have a little bit closer um if you're doing that in the morning because it means that it will be taken in quicker and so i have like some oats in there some milk for the protein and then just some fruit and but also if it's lunchtime i'll always have like and you know like some protein so some turkey or some fish and then like some sweet potato and some veg um which is always good um and then again it's about that recovery process so making sure you know within half an hour of finishing what you're doing you're getting in maybe a protein shake um or a protein smoothie um just to get in that protein straight away and then try getting um a protein-rich meal after um you've done your exercise um to make sure you are you know you have the protein in your body to be able to allow your muscles to um adapt and then recover um they say the same in athletics it's all about that fueling and if you're going for longer rides longer runs you want to make sure you're fueling while you're doing those and so you can use things like um bananas rice cakes um protein balls and or gels and you can take them you know throughout the duration taking them kind of every 20 minutes if you're on like a longer more endurance um effort and things like um the bananas and the rice cakes you have them earlier on um in in the in the ride or whatever um and then you start to use gels towards the back end just because of them being able to um digest that while you're out doing that exercise Protein Balls so you mentioned protein balls and things like that would you say that it's better for people to be making these at home or and if so what would you advise they put in these protein bowls what are the key ingredient so for things like protein balls it's they're really good they're really handy you know something that you can just pop in and you know kind of you're getting like a little protein hit and i do recommend doing them yourself just because you know exactly what's going into them um so you can put things like um almond butter peanut butter um cashew butter any type of like nut butter and then i kind of sometimes i'll put in like dates with that i'll put in oats and i like to put desiccated um coconut around the edge of some of mine um and you can put in honey um maple syrup there's lots of variations that you can do um of protein balls and i'm going to be doing some recipes for protein balls for people to create and you can put lots of different flavors in them and just you know do whatever like you you like and that's a good thing about making them yourself and you've got this you know go-to snack you know it's got a certain amount of protein in it and your container make it to what flavors you like and they're really simple if you've got a base for a protein ball you can then kind of adapt that and change it a little bit and put you know different flavours in to suit your needs Recipes amazing and in terms of recipes obviously congratulations on uh winning your math on winning celebrity masterchef are there any other kind of key recipes that you think would be uh good to share in terms of like when you're making up a dish like what's important to include nutrition wise et cetera um so i always say in terms of nutrition um i mean it's changed very much you know when you're doing a master chef dish it's very different to what you would do if you were fueling for a training session um but for me it's always about having that kind of balance of protein carb and vegetables and also having some fat in there i think people with a lot of diets you know people try to take out um carbs or take out fat and you actually need these things for your body to be able to fuel effectively um i as a power based athlete protein is most important for me so i tend to have half my plate tea protein um and then i'll have a quarter carbs and a quart of veggies and some people can have it more balanced so they'll have a third of each um but you know just making sure you've got good quality um uh lean meat so things like turkey is really good fishes are always really good so salmons and sea basses map rolls these are really oily fishes which also really good because you get the omega-3 and but then i don't eat meat personally but if you're a meat-eater you know things like you know lean beef um lamb those things are really good because they're that i am rich as well um so you get you know that that eye inside of things so you don't end up anemic or iron deficient which is what i know um things like um you know char swiss chard and spinach can try offset that though they're really good they're iron rich foods and you want to make sure i'd say always get seasonal vegetables seasonable there i'd always say i'd say always get seasonal vegetable and they'll always be better they're not you know farmed um and you know produced um when they should have been seasonal seasonal vegetables always better um and you know that they're in the season there's plenty of them so we want to think about not wasting um you know food and you know helping with uh the ecosystem and global warming and getting you know the seasonal season season getting the seasonal veg is always better um in terms of your carbohydrates you want to make sure you're having um complex carbohydrates and things like um sweet potatoes my go-to it's a really good one i always have like things like quinoa bulgari if i have rice it's always kind of whole grain or white rice i tend to avoid the starchy potatoes like you know white potatoes white rice um bread those things can be great you know as a quick snack but they're not as good for you um in terms of the way that they're digested um and you know things like you know quick things that you can do you know have a wrap uh which you can if you've got leftover chicken and you can use leftover chicken or turkey and just put some salad in there and make a dress in uh these things are all really simple things that you can do you know having some staple um kind of marinades that you have some having some staples salad dressings that you have so you can just throw these things together and you know quick and easy meals because when you're training or when you're getting back from you know working out or getting up in the morning to work out you don't want to have to think about you know doing loads of like cooking you want to be able to get back and just have your meal and so you're getting that protein hitting straight away you know getting that carbohydrate in to make sure you're recovering Eating disorders yeah and it's really important that you say about having things prepared um obviously we know some people can often try to skip meals or different things and i believe that you also have suffered um with eating disorders could you maybe talk a little bit about how you've overcome these and how kind of our colleagues some advice that you might have for them yes well i'm very openly speaking about the fact that i have an eating disorder um so i have um disordered eating or bulimia and it's something i suffered with for a long time and i felt like um kind of skipping meals was the best way to lose weight um and the not eating was going to make me the the body type that i wanted um in actual fact it's really detrimental and you risk injury you risk health issues um obviously mentally it's not great and if you're training when you're not fueled effectively um you do massively risk injury like in terms of you know being out on the bike being in the gym you're not as alert you're not as strong and you may be feeling dizzy if you know you're skipping meals and also in terms of recovery your body's not able to you know do the recovery process so rather than um helping to build up your muscles it's actually breaking down to try and feel your body and your body starts to break down the muscle instead of the um the kind of the the um energy sources that it's getting from the food that you're taking in and so i'd always say it's key to make sure you know you're getting your meals and you're having regular meals throughout the day um i know a lot of people do things like intermittent fasting but making sure you're feeling well when you're having those meals and you're feeling well around your training sessions making sure your your fluid intakes really high you know i think on average you're supposed to have like three liters a day and because of my working out i always kind of try to aim for like four liters a day and you'll notice i've always got my water bottle on hand and so just making sure yeah you're getting in in the liquid you need and but you know yeah your body needs fuel to function you know your brain needs field function and your organs can't work effectively without without fuel so making sure you're not skipping meals is important not just for your health and not just for your sport also for your health Competition amazing and could you maybe just obviously i know that you have to train quite intensely all the time but then when you've got competition how does your eating and meals um how are they affected in the lead up to a competition and during competition and so i try to keep things the same you know from competition to uh or from training to competition but obviously once you get closer to competition you want to be making sure that you are you know as lean as possible and you are um at raceway um if you know that's kind of something that you focus on and so for me that i have a more optimal weight so we kind of aim for that and that means rather than do i work on what's called an 80 20 basis so 80 of the time i'll eat well 20 of the time i will have a little bit of a treat um that goes nine to ten when i'm kind of close to competition to make sure that i'm you know as lean as possible and everything that i'm getting is nutritionist i'm not gaining unnecessary fat um but making sure all my training um is all the food that i'm feeling is to kind of um allow me to do the training and also when you get closer to a competition you're also doing less training so you don't need all that extra fuel so my meals are more focused um you know making sure i'm just kind of getting protein and i reduce the um the carbohydrate and taking the evening um and yeah we kind of still have a real like scheduled meal plan for race days so for race days i'll make sure i'll be having the right amount of carbohydrates in the lead up to my competition um i'll also have them cut um caffeine supplements as well so i'll take that at the right time and i try to have like a snack just before like an hour and a half before my actual competition so whether that's you know a banana and a rice cake a um protein ball um and then also i try to have make sure well i make sure i get my um protein gels and straight after my competition whether that's protein gel or protein shake and always have someone on hand to give me that straight away um so it's been amazing you know being supported by this by city um and being supported throughout things like um kobe they're a great partner to work with so i just want to say massive thank you to you and um yeah i hope we continue to work together and also thank you to all people behind the scenes and thank you to everyone that's working hard um i hope you're all you know working hard at work but also you know enjoy taking time to enjoy training and taking time to enjoy watching us compete um and yeah just keep up the hard work with everything that you're doing and i'll do the same over here