Reflecting on Life as a High School Athlete

So I’m sitting here playing around with creating what an ideal full day of eating might look like for a high school female athlete (for my dietetic internship), and it is giving me major flashbacks. As I’m coming up with various food combinations, trying to make sure there’s enough protein, fats, carbs, etc. in each meal/snack, I can’t help but to reminisce on what I was eating at this age. Or should I say….wasn’t eating.

It’s appalling, it’s alarming, and it is downright concerning that I was doing that much off of that little. I genuinely have no idea where any of my energy was coming from or how I sustained the lifestyle that I did while staying overall pretty healthy. And the worst part is that I wasn’t the only one who was doing it, and I’m definitely not the last female teenage girl to do so. It has been a couple years, but I’m going to try to recall the foods I ate to the best of my ability, or at least what sticks out the clearest in my mind.

I don’t really remember eating breakfast, maybe I grabbed a granola bar or banana while I was rushing out the door to go to school. I mean who had the time to eat an actual breakfast while also trying to get ready, and pack your 6 bags for the day to go from class to practice to class to another practice and then to another practice? Y’all really expected me to eat food at a time like that, when I also probably woke up late? I was starting my day running on little to nothing, going to a couple classes and then going to practice. Strike one. After practice #1 of the day we had lunch, which looked different day to day when I was able to go off campus for lunch. Though where I ate changed by day, one thing stayed consistent-I was sure to eat as little as possible. I don’t know if this was intentional at that age, or maybe it was just a habit because I thought I didn’t need a lot of food. Either way, I wasn’t eating enough to sustain me through more class, followed by practice #2. I think I would have a snack before the next practice, at least I really hope I did, but can’t confirm. Strike two.

Depending on the time of year/what sport I was playing, I would sometimes have to go straight from practice #2 at school to practice #3 for club ball. This was my life during basketball season while I was also playing club volleyball. I would either go straight from school to practice #3, or I would stop by my house to change into shorter shorts and different shoes, and grab whatever my rockstar of a mother had prepared for me to eat on my way there (thanks mom). Then after practice I would come home at 10pm and finally start my homework…idk what life I was living or how I sustained any of that, but what I do know is that I absolutely loved it.

Now, I do have to acknowledge that my chaotic life and schedule played a big part in me not eating enough. It’s hard to do so when you’re always on the go, and don’t always have food with you. But it didn’t help that when I did eat, or did have food with me, I wasn’t optimizing that. I was eating as little of the food available to me as possible, rather than taking advantage of the opportunities I did have to fuel my body. I definitely could have been better about snacking throughout the day to sustain my energy as well, but I probably had bigger things to worry about, like physics.

The other side of this is (yes, you guessed it)….society, diet culture, etc. The main flashback that hit me was how I used to be obsessed with ~meal replacement shakes~. When I say obsessed, I mean it. I would sometimes go for breakfast, but definitely went for lunch multiple times a week. #expensive. Think about the lifestyle I just described above….these shakes should not have been a part of my diet, much less used to replace an ENTIRE meal. Whether they had “protein” or not…there is simply no way they were providing the same nutrients that whole foods could have. I would legit eat (drink?) these for lunch, and then not consume another calorie before going to practice #2. I vividly remember this being the norm during my junior and senior years. If you recall, lunch was right after practice #1, so that means I was eating this as post workout fuel, on top of using it as the only energy source before practice #2. Strike three.

I went all throughout the year, but I remember the frequency being heightened around prom time, as well as when season ended my senior year and I wasn’t practicing as much. There is an obvious correlation as to why I went more often during these specific times. That correlation is because I thought it was better for me to only “eat” these if I wanted to look good in my prom dress, and because I didn’t think I needed to eat food since I wasn’t in season/burning as many calories (yikes). I knew I wanted to be as small as possible (because I legit thought I was supposed to be), and I knew that these shakes were “lower in calories.” So obviously they had to be better for me than food, because food has calories..and this wasn’t technically food, right? Strike four..maybe five too.

At surface level, we know that athletes/more physically active people need to consume more calories due to increased energy requirements. They have different needs and simply can’t eat the same as everyone else. But athlete or not, everyone needs real food. You literally need it to live. To optimize your school/work day, ability to stay focused, to boost your mood, and so much more.

The high school age group requires a heightened need of all nutrients, macros, and micros the world has to offer. This is when immense growth and development is happening. The tough part is that this is also the age where body image and the pressure of society’s expectations becomes so loud that all that nutrient stuff doesn’t matter.

If you’re a teenage girl, please hear me when I say that you need to eat food. You deserve to take up space, to make it through a school day without being so hungry you can’t focus. You deserve to fuel yourself properly both before and after practice. You deserve to have enough energy to be the best athlete and best version of yourself in general that you can possibly be. You not only deserve these things, but your body requires them.

If you’re a parent, a coach, teacher, anyone who has direct contact with this age-you have a responsibility. This is to make a difference in these young women’s lives. (Boys struggle with all of this too, so please don’t forget to support them as well. I’m just speaking from experience as a female). You have the power to speak life into this age by not talking about diets, your body, their body, someone else’s body or food choice, etc. They are listening to everything you say, and whether either side realizes it or not, your words have a direct impact on their food choices and the way they view themselves/their bodies. If we want this age to grow up to have a good/healthy relationship with food and their bodies, it starts here. You’re in a really cool, powerful position, and I urge you to use it for the most good.

I know this post alone won’t change the cycle of what this age is going through, but I’m hoping it starts a ripple among those who do read it, that will eventually turn into a wave. Put simply- we need to teach this age how to properly fuel their bodies, and more importantly that food is fuel and not the enemy/something to fear or restrict.

PS) This doesn’t just apply to teenagers, but to all of us as humans. <3