Sid’s favourite Snacks for training session fuelling and day to day fuelling

Sid’s favourite Snacks for training session fuelling and day to day fuelling

This past summer whilst In Girona, I started working with an awesome nutritionalist Gemma Sampson. I’ve never followed a specific diet, or calorie counted, as I’ve tended to have a belief that everything in moderation, and if you just get a good balance of fruit, veg, proteins and carbs, then you’re pretty much going to be good. I don’t believe in supplements, so it’s a “no go” to protein powders and the rest. I believe you can get all your nutrients and vitamins and fuel from natural foods.

However, I still felt I was missing something and wasn’t quite getting my fuelling right. Possible falling into the undereating, and scared of eating too much and putting on weight. Yes, that one! I have an appetite that means I can eat for England. I once ate two rowing boys under the table at the Pizza Hut challenge sinking 26 slices of pizza! Yep super proud of that one, not! So, I’m conscious of my appetite and my portion control. I was also finding that I would get those sweet sugar cravings at night, when your will power is particularly low too, most likely as a result of under fuelling throughout the day. I’d also be struggling a bit for my afternoon session at the pool. Yes, part of this is that mental battle of a swim session for me, but part was because I hadn’t fuelled sufficiently in the morning and during the day. I’d head to the local café for a coffee hit, and probably something else as I felt I needed some extra energy to get to the pool and get the swim session done, but it wasn’t necessarily the right fuelling choice for getting the most out of my body and session.

Working with Gemma has been great. There’s been no drastic changes but more some tweeks around some of the fuel and food. One of the areas we worked on was snacks and healthy, nutritious, energy giving snacks that can be used between sessions and work outs.

Therefore, I’m going to share with you two of these – but they have lots of variations. These are great regardless of the time of year and where you are in your training cycle and progression.

Now these are also SUPER SIMPLE!! That was in my brief to Gemma. I need food that isn’t complicated. Doesn’t take a lot of ‘thinking’ or need time to prepare or make. These hit it right on. So easy and simple, and quick to make. Also, they can be made wherever I am in the world, which was key for me as well as I travel a lot, and don’t always have a full kitchen set up.

Sid’s Smoothies – Pre Work Out Snack

The thing with smoothies is that you can just about chuck anything in. Sometimes I add a carrot, or different fruit, for example berries, but most of the time ginger. I love ginger.

Also, for the pre work out I tend to add just a little bit of honey.

Additionally, no real rules on the quantities, but we’ve given some standard quantities just for the nutritional content.

Almond Milk	Unsweetened	125ml	0.5 cups / serving
Cottage Cheese (0% fat)	We used Arla Protein as we were in Spain, but any cottage cheese works.	125g	125g
Apple		120g	1 x small
Banana		100g	1 x medium
Honey, raw		7g	1 x teaspoon
Ginger		5g	1 x ave portion

Serving size 482g

Basically, throw it all in a blender and mix! Then enjoy!

So now the scientific bit…the fact.

	Per 100g	%RI	Per 482g	%RI
Energy (Kj)	267 ^kj	3%	1286 ^kj	15%
Energy (Kcal)	63 ^kcal	3%	304 ^kcal	15%
Fat of which saturates	0.8 ^g 0.4^g	1% 2%	4 ^g 1.7^g	6% 9%
Carbohydrate of which sugars	9.7^g 8.7 ^g	4% 10%	47^g 42 ^g	18% 47%
Fibre	0.9 ^g	4%	4.6 ^g	18%
Protein	3.7 ^g	7%	18 ^g	36%
Salt	0.14 ^g	2%	0.65 ^g	11%

Sid’s Smoothies – Post Work Out Snack

Post work out, again you can add in pretty much whatever you like, but I just remove the banana and honey, and perhaps replace with berries or carrots.

Almond Milk	Unsweetened	125ml	0.5 cups / serving
Cottage Cheese (0% fat)	We used Arla Protein as we were in Spain, but any cottage cheese works.	125g	125g
Apple		120g	1 x small
Strawberries, frozen		70g	½ cup / 7x strawberry
Ginger		5g	1 x ave portion

Serving size 445g

Basically, throw it all in a blender and mix! Then enjoy!

You can also use just semi-skimmed milk or whatever preference you have!

And the science bit….

	Per 100g	%RI	Per 445g	%RI
Energy (Kj)	212 ^kj	3%	942 ^kj	11%
Energy (Kcal)	50 ^kcal	3%	223 ^kcal	11%
Fat of which saturates	0.9 ^g 0.4^g	1% 2%	4 ^g 1.7^g	6% 9%
Carbohydrate of which sugars	6^g 5.3 ^g	2% 6%	27^g 24 ^g	10% 27%
Fibre	1 ^g	4%	4.6 ^g	18%
Protein	3.9 ^g	8%	17 ^g	34%
Salt	0.15 ^g	3%	0.65 ^g	11%

The other great thing about smoothies, is that you can make more and save some for later. Use a jar or container and keep it in the fridge for another day.

Sid’s Vanilla Chia Snack

This is another great snack that’s super simple and easy to do. You can make it in minutes, and eat straight away or you can make it and leave it in the fridge for a few days.

Milk	Semi-skimmed	175g	¾ cups
Chia Seeds		30g	3x tablespoon
Vanilla Essence		1g	0.2 x teaspoon

Serving size 206g

To make the chia pudding, just add the chia and milk into a jar and add some vanilla essence (or honey / maple syrup).

The chia soaks up the milk, and over the next few minutes the pudding gets thicker and thicker. Keeping giving it a bit of a stir every now and again.

Then add any fruit you’d like for a bit more flavour and goodness.

And here comes the science bit….

	Per 100g	%RI	Per 206g	%RI
Energy (Kj)	446 ^kj	5%	919 ^kj	11%
Energy (Kcal)	107 ^kcal	5%	221 ^kcal	11%
Fat of which saturates	6 ^g 1.4^g	9% 7%	12 ^g 2.8^g	17% 14%
Carbohydrate of which sugars	5^g 3.9 ^g	2% 4%	10^g 8.1 ^g	4% 9%
Fibre	5.6 ^g	22%	12 ^g	48%
Protein	5.5 ^g	11%	11 ^g	22%
Salt	0.1 ^g	2%	0.2 ^g	3%

Gemma Sampson – Gemma works with Triathlete and Cyclists all the way from beginners in the sport right up to Pro Tour Cycling teams. Click here for more information