We keep small snacks/drink in our lockers to eat if we get hungry during practice, and in our gym bag for during competition. What do you take for snack at gym practice / competition? I like to bring fruit - grapes work well b/c they are small and won't get brown spots from biting into it once and then leaving it out a while, but even bruised brown they still taste good too - like sliced apples, peach, nectarine, etc. Sliced is easier. And I also like to bring something salty too - like pretzals, chips. The fruit takes care of the sugary thing pretty much, but I also keep chocolate and candy too - really good for when you feel your blood sugar is low. Water is good as a drink for when you're thirsty but don't want any sugar - when you're just thirsty. I like to keep a juice drink as well, for when you're thirsty and also want that something extra - like apple juice or something.

We eat small snacks during practice too if we get hungry - something like fruit, chips, chocolate or candy, left overs from lunch - depending on what we feel like. We don't have any rules on it, but this one time a couple of girls brought some kind of pastry for a snack and the coach ate it! Yes, without asking. When some of the girls confronted him about it - everone was surprised - he said he ate it because they shouldn't. lol. I don't agree with what he did. He obviously wanted to eat it too, because or else he could have just thrown it away. He does have muscle and is strong - he's the 'heavy-spotter' coach who spots you when you're just learning a skill and can catch you if it's necessary - but he also has his stomach sticking out a lot of times like he is pregnant - way to be an example. We don't have set times for snacks - you just get a snack when you want. I thought this was a pretty common thing, but apparently some coaches/gyms are against it, and think it gets in the way - from my experience eating when you're hungry and drinking when you're thirsty, listening to your body, is the way to go. From gymnasticscoaching.com: [quote]It makes

We take bites of snacks when we get hungry too, but no set time for it unless like you said it overlaps lunch time or something like that. Fruit, vegetables, crackers, cereal, popcorn, the left over pizza, lol. I don't think kids should have to ignore being hungry or thirsty - it can really affect your concentration and increase your risk of injury then. Plus, anyways it is recommended that you not eat 3 big meals a day, but more like 5-7 smaller meals a day - so this does follow in with this too. From USAG: [quote]If your practice lasts longer than three hours, then you probably need a snack to help you perform your best. During gymnastics practice your brain needs constant energy to help you concentrate and stay motivated. Your body needs energy to help its muscles give you power and strength. When you run out of energy for your mind and body, you become tired and unmotivated. This will happen after two to two-and-a-half hours of practice because your glycogen stores become depleted. Pretty soon the instructions your coach is giving you do not make much sense. All you can think about is making it to the end of practice. This is also the same time when most injuries occur! [/quote] Totally makes sense that it is important to fuel your mind and body - especially in a sport like gymnastics. Apparently USAG knows that some coaches may be reluctant to allow snacks: [quote]3 Notes for Coaches Snack break can be a short break between rotations and doesn't have to take up too much valuable practice time! Sports drinks can also serve as an energy refueler in addition to food and can be kept in your gymnast's water bottle. Although it takes a few minutes from practice, you will see the benefits of giving your gymnasts a small snack break in their performance and attitude. [/quote] Their recommendations for a snack: [quote]Energy Boosters: High Carbohydrate Snacks to Eat During Practice A few orange wedges Handful of Cheerios A few pieces of dried fruit Handful of dried cranberries Half of a banana 1/2 of a bagel 6 ginger snap cookies Baby carrots Sports drink 10 bing cherries A few bites of a sports bar Small apple Fruit roll-up 15 frozen grapes 6 vanilla wafers Handful of pretzels or popcorn [/quote] It's from the article in the September/October 1998 USA Gymnastics magazine issue. "DO YOU NEED A SNACK DURING PRACTICE" By Kim LaPiana, MS, RD

One of the coaches at the gym sometimes uses drinks/snacks as a manipulation tool - like no drink or no snack until you do such and such. He says in his homeland Romania the girls would go without eating - like skipped meals - if they didn't perform something as the coach wanted, for punishment. I think also if they weighed more than they should have at a weigh-in. Really healthy huh. The coach at my gym can't go that far though, obviously, but it makes you wonder when he tells these stories that what his thoughts are. Here's Alexandra Marinescu's story on this subject: [quote]One of the biggest pressures was to remain slim, and the gymnasts lived in constant terror of the scales. Marinescu soon found out there was more to keeping your figure than just a moderate diet and hard training. "The others used to introduce their fingers into their throat and voluntarily provoke vomiting, in order to eliminate the food from the organism. At the same time, the feeling of being hungry was somehow deluded." The gymnasts also used diuretics: "We took into consideration the fact that it might do us harm, but the fear of the scales was even worse. Afterwards, we found out that this medicine remained in the blood and it might have been traced at doping controls, which didn't really exist at that time. They had taken us to a medical control and the doctors were amazed when they read the analysis and they saw how much furosemide we had inside". If the gymnasts failed to reach the weight the coaches expected of them, the girls were punished both physically and psychologically by head coach Octavian Belu. Once, Alexandra recalls, he made the gymnasts put on five track suits and sit in the sauna. "We stayed in there until we were almost fainted." According to Marinescu, the toughest punishment she ever received from Belu was being locked up in his room for three days. For the first twenty four hours, she says, she was given neither food nor drink. "I stayed there all day and only came out with an attendant, for training, and afterward he locked me back into his room." After training the second day, she was brought back to Belu's room, where he gave her an orange. "I squeezed it in my mouth in order to quench my thirst with its juice. He didn't even allow me to drink any water, because I was putting on weight." The same procedure followed the third day, in the evening she was allowed back to her room.[/quote] Marinescu has a book called "Alexandra's Secrets"; read more excerpts from the book at: http://www.gymworld.de/news/article/index0056.html

SOYJOY bars!!!

I like to bring something dry - like cereal, crackers, etc. and something wet like fruit. A couple of times we got a mouse behind the lockers!! One of the girls that likes playing with hamsters and apparently rodents, coaxed it outside with a broom or something. And we're not in New York with all the mice and rats - you now David Letterman's jokes on that lol, they are funny. You have to be really careful not to leave food in your locker!

One of the boys at the gym eats lots of power bars, but I heard on the news or something that they aren't so good for you. I stick to real food snacks - fruit, vegetables, crackers, cereal, etc.

i usually take A LOT of water and fruits and crackers. never bring anything like soda or candy

I like to bring granola bars for carbs and some kind of fruit or veggie and a sweet treat!