Healthy Meals for Hungry Athletes

If you've ever read a women's magazine, you'll know that a typical dinner for women is an egg white omelette with broccoli. Not! It turns out, even if you want to keep a trim figure, you have to actually eat, y'know, calories.

Believe me, I've tried skimping at meals. I ended up making up all of those calories at snack time on much less well-rounded foods.

So, here's how you put together a well-rounded meal that will actually satisfy your caloric needs. If you're a normal, active human being, you probably need to be eating 500-750 calories per meal. (Pro-tip: that's a LOT of egg whites and broccoli. Not recommended.) Let's assume you need about 700 calories, to make the math easy.

The Basic Components
1. Starchy food - 300-400 calories
That's a lot of food. We're talking two cups of cooked rice, 3 medium flour tortillas, about a quarter pound of pasta, or half of a baguette. Other options include quinoa, oatmeal, pita bread, polenta, potatoes, soba noodles, tortilla chips, pretzels, graham crackers, cold cereal, bagels, etc.

2. Protein-rich food - 100-200 calories
A solid meal has 20-30 grams of protein. Starchy foods and vegetables usually have some protein, so aim for 15-20g in this ingredient and you're doing well. Some examples: a half block of tofu, a half can of beans, 16 ounces of soy milk, half of a Tofurky sausage, a quarter cup of nutritional yeast, a serving of protein powder, or a Gardein beefless burger patty.

3. A plant or two - 50-100 calories
Vegetables and fruits definitely need to make an appearance on your plate, but they also don't have many calories. They should be a part of your meal—not the whole thing. I like to have fruit with breakfast and snacks, and veggies with lunch and dinner.

4. Sauce - 50-150 calories
Sauces make the meal. They're also a great way to adjust the calorie count on your plate. If you're looking to gain weight, use the sauce to add fat and calories. If you'd rather eat more pasta, go light on sauce or use a veggie-based sauce.

Some sample meals:
- Three cups of corn flakes with walnuts, soy milk and frozen blueberries
- Two cups of rice, half block of tofu, broccoli and teriyaki sauce
- Three tacos with a half can of black beans, cabbage slaw, salsa and/or guacamole
- A big pile of pretzels and veggie sticks with a bean dip (like hummus or black bean dip)
- Savory oatmeal with two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, two tablespoons of sunflower seeds, fresh spinach and cashew cheese

Veggie and tofu stir fry + rice 

Bagel + PB + berries + banana 

You'll need to eat THREE of these meals a day to fuel a decently athletic lifestyle, plus snacks if you work out a lot. If you're not exercising much, scale these meals back to the low end of the calorie range, or eat smaller snacks.

Advanced tips:
- Mix a starchy protein with a fatty protein to make a well-rounded meal without a specific starch (e.g. chickpeas and walnuts on a salad)
- Use whole grains in at least one of your three meals
- Vary your starches, proteins and veggies over the week to get a good mix of nutrients (i.e. don't eat rice, tofu, broccoli and teriyaki sauce at every. single. meal.)

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The Olympics - Team USA - Women's Rowing

If you follow rowing in the United States, you'll know that our women's national team is a dominating force, from the smallest boat class to the largest. In 2015:

• Our women's eight won its 10th consecutive world title
• Gevvie Stone reached the A-final in ultra competitive women's single
• The women qualified every. single. boat class. for Rio 2016, the only country to do so

Whoa. That's incredible!

Get excited to watch these ladies blaze down the race course in Rio de Janeiro—racing starts this weekend. Don't be surprised if all six of these boats find themselves in the A-final. Here's a little bit of what to expect.

W1x - Gevvie Stone
If you're looking for a rower to #fangirl (other than me, of course), Gevvie is a good start. She was seventh at London 2012, but has been consistently in A-finals at the World Championships this cycle. A medal is definitely a possibility, but there are a lot of women flirting with silver and bronze. (Kim Brennan of Australia has been winning all of the gold medals.)

W2- - Grace Luczak, Felice Mueller
Felice raced this boat class to a bronze medal at the World Championships last year. Grace and Felice were U23 World Champions in this event. The British pair have set the standard in this event for quite some time, including a win over the US pair earlier this year. However, the US is certainly capable of a silver medal in this event, and will likely be looking to challenge for gold.

W2x - Ellen Tomek, Meghan O'Leary
Ellen and Meghan are the only line-up on this list to have raced together at every World Championship this cycle. Their results have been inconsistent, everywhere from silver medals at World Cups to 11th place at last year's World Championships. Their goal is to medal at the Olympics; hopefully this doesn't take focus from their first challenge: make the A-final.

LW2x - Kate Bertko, Devery Karz
This is a new combination. Devery qualified the boat class last year with Michelle Sechser, placing 11th at the World Championships. Kate is ostensibly faster, having beaten Michelle for her seat earlier this year. While they posted fast times at Olympic Trials, their first international regatta in May saw them scratching from the C-final. If they are healthy and fit for the games, they should feature in the A-final.

W4x - Adrienne Martelli, Megan Kalmoe, Tracy Eisser, Grace Latz
The USA scored a surprise win over reigning world champions Germany at last year's World Championships. Two of that crew, Megan Kalmoe and Tracy Eisser, return to the boat. I expect Germany will be out for revenge, but this crew is capable of earning a gold medal.

W8 - Katelin Snyder, Amanda Elmore, Eleanor Logan, Meghan Musnicki, Tessa Gobbo, Lauren Schmetterling, Emily Regan, Kerry Simmonds, Amanda Polk
The line-up changes. The result stays the same. This crew would be disappointed with silver, and rightly so.

The schedule of events can be found on Wikipedia, because duh. Racing starts August 6th, and online live streaming coverage begins at 7:30AM EST on NBC Olympics. This year, USA Network will be the home of rowing coverage, so figure out which channel it is!

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