Take your athletic performance to the next level with these nutritious, simple, and convenient recipes. This new cookbook is an indispensable resource for athletes of all ages and experience levels. Fuel Your Body: How to Cook and Eat for Peak Performance: 77 Simple, Nutritious, Whole-Food Recipes for Every Athlete is filled with nourishing recipes that are not only quick to prepare and simple enough for beginner home cooks, but don’t sacrifice flavor in the process. Whether you are an athlete at the elite level or a weekend warrior, the foods you put in your body have a direct impact on your overall health, performance, and recovery. This book compiles useful guidelines to sports nutrition and expertise from Angie Asche, a certified specialist in sports dietetics and founder of Eleat Nutrition, and can be used to help everyone reach their fitness goals through a whole-food and anti-inflammatory approach. Whether you are a recreational half marathoner, the parent of a teenage athlete, or competing at a high level in your chosen sport, Fuel Your Body has recipes and meal plans to help you reach your full potential. This is the ultimate resource for anyone looking to educate themselves on both the nutrition necessary for optimal athletic performance and the simple recipes you can use to get there. Angie Asche, MS, RD, CSSD , is a sports dietitian and nationally recognized food and nutrition expert. She owns and operates Eleat Sports Nutrition, which provides nutrition coaching and counseling to athletes nationwide, and is based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Since founding her company in 2014, she has worked with hundreds of high school, college, and professional athletes nationwide in the MLB, NHL and NFL. Angie has also worked as the nutrition consultant to the University of Nebraska volleyball team. She is a board certified specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD) and a certified exercise physiologist (ACSM-EP). Her expertise and recipes have been featured in national publications including Men’s Journal , Muscle & Fitness , Food Network , Shape Magazine , Runner’s World , and NBC News . Chapter One: Performance Nutrition Performance nutrition, also referred to as sports nutrition, is the study and field of nutrition based around improving athletic performance. The focus of performance nutrition is the right types of foods, in the right amounts, and at the right times in order to optimize training ability and recovery. To put simply, nutrition is essential for athletes as it provides the source of energy necessary to perform. In other words, food is fuel. Anyone who is living a physically active lifestyle, regardless if they are a competitive athlete or an avid gym-goer, can benefit from implementing aspects of performance nutrition. I use the term athlete often in this book. Keep in mind that when I use this term, I am referring to anyone who competes in a sport or who is habitually physically active. Performance nutrition is not one-size-fits-all, and an individual’s lifestyle, sport or activity, personal goals, and/or medical condition can all lead to variations in nutrient needs. Reading through this book in its entirety will help to figure out what’s right for you. This chapter discusses the three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. It then covers what’s called nutrient timing, the ideal timing of your meals to best optimize performance and recovery. Finally, it provides a breakdown of supplements, followed by steps to calculate your energy needs, as well as the importance of implementing “nourishment over numbers.” The Macronutrients Macronutrients are the types of nutrients that your body requires in large amounts: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Macronutrients provide your body with energy (calories), and all three play crucial roles in making sure your body is functioning at its best. While most foods contain multiple macronutrients, they are typically categorized by the macronutrient that they contain the most of. For example, rice and potatoes are often categorized as carbohydrates, even though they do contain small amounts of protein. And beef and salmon are often categorized as proteins, but they do both contain fat as well. Let’s discuss each macronutrient individually and why they’re all three important for your overall health and performance. Carbohydrates Carbohydrates are the body’s most efficient source of energy. When consumed, the body converts them to glucose, which then provides us with an immediate energy source for all forms of exercise. Glycogen, or the body’s stored form of carbohydrates, is used during high-intensity exercise to provide both power and speed. Intense exercise depletes most of your glycogen stores, which are restored by consuming carbohydrates. When you do not consume adequate carbohydrates, you run into the risks of poor concentration and focus, a decrease in performance, and a breakdown of lean muscle mass as a fuel source (i.e., amino acids