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On-the-Run Breakfast Burritos
Encourage student-athletes to pre-make burritos and freeze them for easy and quick re-heating on weekday mornings.
You'll need the following:
- Tortillas
- Cheese
- Scrabbled eggs
- Optional: Onion, tomato, pepper or other veggies
- Optional: lean meat (ground turkey) and salsa
Preparation:
Fill the ingredients in the tortilla, fold burrito and wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze until ready for use. Remove plastic wrap, cover in a paper towel and microwave for two-minutes. Enjoy!
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A healthy, protein-packed side dish with fruit and cheese!
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| FREE Download For Athletes & Coaches |
WINForum's Sports Nutrition Game Plan provides tips and information- like timing your nutrition correctly to improve athletic performance.
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What's the hype about breakfast?
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We've all heard it before, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." But WHY??
Read on for a few helpful facts about the reality of breakfast...
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What the US Olympic Training Committee Says About The Importance of Breakfast:
- Breakfast is refueling - the first opportunity to replenish glucose (blood sugar), glycogen (carbohydrate stored as fuel for the brain and muscles) and fluid.
- Breakfast eaters tend to have more strength and endurance.
- Eating breakfast daily improves mental skills athletes rely on, such as alertness, concentration, problem-solving and memory.
- Eating breakfast can benefit an athlete's mood, making it easier to stay calm, relaxed, motivated and positive.
- Eating breakfast decreases the chances of inappropriate snacking later in the day. Unplanned or out-of-control snacking can lead to a higher intake of fat and calories, and unwanted weight gain. Breakfast eaters make better food choices throughout the day.
- Breakfast provides a jump start to meeting your daily requirements of key nutrients such as carbohydrates, fiber, and more than 40 vitamins and minerals.
- Breakfast fuels and sustains the body through morning training sessions. This helps decrease the ravenous hunger that athletes often experience later in the day.
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| No breakfast? Starvation-mode sets in and metabolism is impacted |
Extended periods of time without proper nutrition can be detrimental to student-athletes, in particular, and throw off metabolism. Metabolism refers to all the physical and chemical processes in the body that convert or use energy.
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 If a student-athlete had dinner the previous night at 6:30 p.m., had nothing else to eat through the evening, slept, skipped breakfast and had lunch the following day at 11:30 a.m., that is 17 hours without food.
Our bodies go into semi-starvation mode at that point, zapping energy and causing problems physically and intellectually. Student athletes need to have a steady intake of food to maintain balance, focus and strength.
Eating breakfast on a regular basis is one of the best ways to stabilize metabolism, which can impact energy levels, muscle gain and maintenance of a healthy weight.
Skipping meals (especially breakfast) can throw off our entire system. Eating breakfast starts the day off right.
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Overwhelming hunger can make us forget all other considerations.
When breakfast is skipped, hunger pains can influence our food choices. If student-athletes let themselves get too hungry, they may be more inclined to hit the vending machine late morning, desperately wolfing down a candy bar out of convenience.
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Priorities drive time management. Recognize and understand the benefits of breakfast and it will be easier to make time for it.
Many people skip breakfast because of time. But breakfast doesn't have to be a four-course affair. There are many ways to prepare ahead of time and eat quickly or on the run. Sacrificing five minutes of sleep to ensure there is time for breakfast is a beneficial trade off. In addition, nourishing our bodies and minds will actually save us time in the long run, allowing us to be more efficient and effective.
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| Realistic solutions for coaches and student-athletes |
Now that we better understand the benefits of breakfast and the consequences of skipping it, let's consider some realistic solutions.
COACHES:
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If you have budget available, consider hosting a team breakfast the morning of a big game.
- Keep breakfast bars, trail mix and other snacks in the locker room and encourage your players to grab one on their way to class if they weren't able to have breakfast.
- Encourage the parents of your student-athletes to help prioritize breakfast. That may mean having the right food items in the house (like cereal, milk, eggs, whole wheat toast or bagels, peanut butter, etc.) and setting alarms a little earlier.
 Suggest to your student-athletes that they pre-make smoothies and freeze them for grab and go weekday options. Check out a recipe here. Breakfast burritos are another item that can be made ahead, frozen and then quickly re-heated each morning on their way out the (Check out our suggested recipe on the sidebar!)
STUDENT-ATHLETES:
- Wake up five minutes earlier in the morning to make time for breakfast.
- Grocery shop on the weekends to ensure you have easy breakfast options at home (yogurt, cereal, milk, apples, bananas, breakfast burrito ingredients, etc.)
- Keep emergency breakfast snacks in your locker.
- Don't let yourself get so hungry that you are tempted by empty calorie food.
- Recognize the importance of breakfast and how that initial intake of vitamins, protein, and carbohydrates can jump-start and set the tone for your entire day.
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The science-based contents of the Washington Interschollstic Nutrition Forum (WINForum) Site and Nutrition Navigator, such as text, graphics, images, and other material are for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. WINForum clinics are accredited by the WIAA for coaches credit hours, and promote a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein and low fat or fat free dairy. For more information, go to www.winforum.org, or contact info@winforum.org
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