5 eating tips to get energy for a new sports season

I’m sure that everyone has experienced themselves that if you eat something “wrong” you can’t deliver your full power and performance during a workout. Especially now, when starting off into a new summer sports season, we need to keep in mind what we eat.

Together with our caterer, Company Sports offered a cook@work class power breakfast for efficient training! At this cooking class, “early training birds” got great ideas for getting the right power at the right time for strong performance.

I think the pictures clearly show how much fun we all had in the kitchen.

Give it a try and prepare your own power breakfast!

Most of the time we are at work the whole day. So how can we get through the day in a healthy way? I asked Holger Stromberg, Chef of the German football national team, to provide us with some of his personal eating tips to get energy when starting off into a new sports season.

1. Start your day with a workout (the new GYM is perfect if you don’t want to train alone). Before enjoying your workout, get a quick espresso, a powerbar and some non-sparkling water.
2. After training, take your time for a nice breakfast. Now give your muscles what they need the most to recover from your workout, such as scrambled eggs, natural quark or beans. In addition, have complex carbohydrates such as wholewheat bread or cereals (muesli) always in combination with vegetables (e.g. juice) to fill your carbohydrate reserves and to be able to concentrate until lunch without your blood glucose level dropping too low.
3. For lunch, you can take everything from the vegetable buffet or make yourself a salad. In addition, you can eat a few carbohydrates such as brown rice or potatoes. Proteins can be added.
4. For dinner, a rich protein meal is ideal. If you don´t like cooking or do not have the time, I suggest you buy fish or meat already at the canteen (stripes/aditeria) during lunchtime. But a cup of quark is fine as well.
5. It is very important to ensure that your fluid balance is right. Still water and unsweetened herb tea should cover 90% of your fluids/drinks during the day. At the adidas Group you can find hot water almost everywhere on campus. Just add a mint leaf from our own adidas herb garden and you have a delicious drink.

Here are two more power smoothie recipes exclusively from Holger. I have also included our fabulous muffin recipe as well as a recipe for Bircher muesli, vegan bell pepper spread and a protein bar:

Muffins (for 2 people)

• 2 medium-sized red onions
• 10 tbsp olive oil
• 240 g feta cheese
• 500 g low-fat quark
• 4 medium-sized eggs
• pinch of salt
• 300 g spelt flour
• 200 g egg white powder
• 6 tbsp sesame seeds

Preparation:

Cut feta cheese and onions into cubes. Blend low-fat quark, eggs and salt until smooth. Add flour and egg white powder. Carefully knead in feta cheese and onions to the rest. Fill dough into muffin cups and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake muffins for about 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C.

Bircher Muesli (for 1 serving)

• 4 tbsp fine oat flakes (40 g)
• 150 ml milk
• 1 small red apple (150 g)
• 1 tbsp chopped hazelnuts
• 1 tsp honey

Preparation:

Blend oat flakes and milk. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight. Wash, dry and roughly grate the apple. Blend apple, hazelnuts and honey with oat flakes.

Add warm milk if the muesli is too firm.

Bell Pepper Spread (vegan; for 2 people):

• 100 g sunflower seeds
• 100 g sunflower oil
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into cubes
• 1/2 apple, cut into cubes
• 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 onion, cut into cubes
• 1 garlic clove, cut into cubes
• 1/2 – 1 tsp salt (to taste)
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground oregano
• 1 tsp sweet paprika powder
• 1/4 tsp ground rosemary

Preparation:

Put sunflower seeds, spices and tomato paste in a blender and blend until the mass slightly stiffens.

Add the remaining ingredients -– all but a small rest of the bell pepper – and blend again. Don’t blend on high speed as the mass is quite firm and doesn’t blend properly on high speed. Add oil and then the rest of the bell pepper. Don’t blend too long, so that your bread spread still contains pieces.

Protein bar

• 550 g oat flakes
• 340 g raisins
• 420 g brown sugar
• 270 g sugar
• 170 g margarine
• 440 g apple purée
• 200 g eggs
• 560 g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• vanilla essence, cinnamon, salt

Preparation:

Put soft margarine, sugar, salt, vanilla essence and eggs into a bowl and beat until fluffy. Add apple purée, oat flakes and raisins. Blend flour, baking powder and cinnamon and fold into the mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes at 180°C.

I hope you got inspired to try some recipes, follow Holger’s tips and enjoy a great sporty and healthy summer season.