{"id":952,"date":"2010-03-04T14:18:44","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T14:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/03\/healthy-eating-tips-from-olympiannatalie-coughlin.html"},"modified":"2010-03-04T14:18:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T14:18:44","slug":"healthy-eating-tips-from-olympiannatalie-coughlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/03\/healthy-eating-tips-from-olympiannatalie-coughlin.html","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Eating: Tips from OlympianNatalie Coughlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Natalie_SnackPack_75.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>With spring just around the corner, it’s time to get excited about fresh, seasonal food, and how our diets affect our health, mood, and routines.  I was lucky enough to chat with Natalie Coughlin–the swimmer who won a gold, 2 silvers, and 3 bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics–about how healthy eating drives both her physical performance and emotional well-being.<\/p>\n

Natalie is a paidspokesperson for the California Dried Plum Board (click here for a healthy dried plum-y breakfast recipe she developed<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Read on for tips on creating an “emergency snack packet,” how to stay inspired after achieving a dream, and more.<\/p>\n

FL: Do you feel it’s how you eat as much as what you eat that’s
\npart of a healthy eating lifestyle? Where you are, who you’re with, what time it is – how important are
\nthose things<\/b>?<\/p>\n

NC: Not only is it really important to have 3 good
\nmeals throughout the day–breakfast, lunch, and dinner–but also having snacks
\nthat keep your metabolism going, that keep your blood sugar going. I always have a little emergency packet
\nin my workout bag, or in my purse, or in my carry-on when I’m traveling, that
\nincludes California dried plums, nuts or trail mix, herbal teas. That way, if you are in-between your
\ngood meals, you have something to fall back on, instead of the vending machine
\nor whatever is in the airport.
\nI also find it really important to make that you’re eating
\nwith another person, or eating among other people. They’ve shown in so many
\nstudies that if you eat by yourself, you’re likely to eat more unhealthy [foods]
\nand you’re also likely to eat a lot more because you’re just not as mindful.<\/p>\n

FL: What is your opinion of coffee and caffeine? Are they allowed in your world?<\/b> <\/p>\n

NC: Yes, very much so. I love my coffee. I don’t drink gallons
\nof it a day by any means, but I definitely have my coffee in the morning. I
\nstart my mornings very, very early–I wake up about 4:45 or 4:30. I’m going to
\nthe pool by about 5:15, so I’m enjoying my cup of coffee then. Then as I’m stretching and warming up
\nin the pool, I’m also enjoying my coffee. It’s kind of my ritual in my daily
\npractice. The same thing applies for when I’m at a swim meet. It fits in. You definitely don’t have to worry
\nabout it being dehydrating or anything because honestly, it’s not
\ndehydrating. But you have to
\nrealize that you can’t drink it like it’s water.<\/p>\n

FL: As an Olympian, you must see food as fuel. How do you take that approach but still
\nget pleasure from food?<\/b><\/p>\n

NC: On so many levels I focus on healthy eating and how it fuels
\nmy body. The first being that I’m an Olympic athlete who has to be drug tested
\nconstantly. Because the supplement
\nindustry is not regulated–you really have no idea what’s going into those
\nmulti-vitamins and pills and potions–they could be tainted with a substance
\nthat’s illegal, so I never take any supplements. But I make sure I’m getting the proper nutrition from the
\nfoods that I eat. That includes
\nlots and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, a variety of whole grains, really
\nlean meats. Just having a variety in your diet is really important. I find cooking not only to be good for
\nme physically, but it’s one of those things that after a long day of training–I
\ntrain for 6 hours a day–coming home and cooking a really good meal is so
\ncomforting to me, it’s really therapeutic.<\/p>\n

FL: What is your favorite mood-boosting food, if you need to
\ncheer up or pep up?<\/b><\/p>\n

NC: It’s hard to say. I’m fortunate enough to have a garden, so
\nI grow tons of different vegetables and herbs. It’s really just what looks the best that day, what looks
\nthe freshest and what’s growing the best. So right now it’s different lettuces or dark greens, but in the summer
\nit might be a really ripe tomato. Whatever’s fresh.<\/p>\n

FL: Do you ever cheat, or feel food guilt?<\/b><\/p>\n

NC: I don’t really feel food guilt. I don’t see it as cheating
\nbecause I don’t ever tell myself I can’t have butter or chocolate. I don’t ever
\nsay that to myself. I just realize that you have to keep portions in mind, and
\nyou have to keep the attitude of moderation. But if you really want a hamburger, or if you really want
\nthat comfort food, whatever it is, you can have it. Just realize that can’t be your dinner every single night,
\nor you might want to have a smaller portion of it. But I don’t really have food guilt. Plus, I’m working out so
\nmuch every day. It’ll probably
\ncome on later when being a professional athlete isn’t my job.<\/p>\n

FL: You achieved so much in Beijing. After a pinnacle achievement
\nlike that, how do you stay inspired?<\/b><\/p>\n

NC: It’s really hard. I haven’t competed since Beijing, so it’s been 18 months. Taking the time away from the pool was
\nnecessary for me because I was very happy with my 6 medals I got in Beijing.
\nBut was I satisfied? No. I look back on those races and realize that I could
\nhave improved in certain areas, and I know I could do better. But just knowing that the perfect race
\ndoesn’t really exist, that keeps me motivated. And honestly, just being a
\nprofessional athlete–getting paid to train every day, to work my body, to be
\noutside, to travel around the world, to represent my country–I realize how
\nfortunate I am, and that keeps me going.<\/p>\n

(image via: http:\/\/tummywise.com\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Like what you see? <\/strong>Click here to subscribe<\/strong><\/font><\/a> and get Fresh Living in your in-box every day.<\/strong><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was lucky enough to chat with Natalie Coughlin–the swimmer who won a gold, 2 silvers, and 3 bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics–about how healthy eating drives both her physical performance and emotional well-being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,72,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-food","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\nHealthy Eating: Tips from OlympianNatalie Coughlin - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/03\/healthy-eating-tips-from-olympiannatalie-coughlin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Healthy Eating: Tips from OlympianNatalie Coughlin - 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Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}