How star athletes get their nutrition right

Katie Cunningham | Presented by Lite n' Easy

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Proper recovery is essential for every athlete. That means plenty of sleep, loads of water, electrolytes, regular stretching and, perhaps most important of all, good nutrition. 

But finding the time to research nutritionally balanced recipes then shop for the ingredients and actually cook the meals every day can be a tall order – especially for those juggling a sporting career with full time work and being a mum, like many of today's NRLW athletes.

That's why more female athletes are turning to Lite n' Easy to fuel their sporting dreams.

By providing dietitian-designed, chef-prepared meals, Lite n' Easy makes healthy eating easy and convenient for everyone, including our high-performance athletes – giving them back the time they need to focus on everything else in their busy lives. Here's how Lite n' Easy is helping three of the NRLW legends.

The young gun: "I need to gain weight and gain muscle"

Montaya Hudson had dreamt about playing professional footy ever since she was a kid. Now, at just 18-years-old, she's two years into a contract with the Brisbane Broncos. "Dreaming of it as a kid, you don't really ever think that it's ever going to happen," Hudson says. "But when you see it and it feels close, it's surreal."

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To perform her best and keep taking her dream career to the next level, the NRLW fullback makes proper nutrition a priority by eating with Lite n' Easy. "Lite n' Easy helps me a lot," Hudson says. "I'm not the biggest person – I need to gain weight and gain muscle. So, I have about four or five meals a day of Lite n' Easy.

"Cooking four or five different meals a day – each with the macros just right – would be a huge time drain. Lite n' Easy takes that job off Hudson's plate. Ordering in advance and always just having those meals in the fridge, it really does help," she says. "You don't have to worry about finishing training late, then going home to cook, clean and everything else".

The coach: "What you're fuelling your body with is massively important"

Karyn Murphy understands better than most the importance of nutrition to an athlete. She's gone from being a highly decorated and respected rugby league player to an esteemed coach for the Gold Coast Titans, to just recently becoming an inductee to the NRL Hall of Fame. "What you're fuelling your body with is massively important," Murphy says.

But getting it right isn't always easy for a busy athlete. "When I played, which was a few years ago now, we never had the support of someone like Lite n' Easy to help us with that part of our game – our preparation… it was definitely something that we would have appreciated."

Since stepping into her role at the Gold Coast Titans, Murphy has made simplifying nutrition a key focus for the team.

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"I saw that as a really big gap when I came into coaching – all of [the team] are working during the day, then coming into training late afternoon, and not finishing training until 8pm. We've got examples like a young mother traveling a couple of hours back to Toowoomba at night.

"To be able to quickly heat up some Lite n' Easy and have your meal before you head home, it's massive – that way they're not eating at 10 o'clock at night."

Getting her girls on Lite n' Easy, she adds, has been a massive gamechanger. "A lot of them are time poor, a lot of them don't have the time to put effort into preparing their own meals. It's about making it easy for them in their lifestyle so they can be consistent with nutrition."

The star player: "Nutrition is huge – it all comes into recovery"

Tamika Upton is now in her sixth year in the NRLW, currently playing for the Newcastle Knights. She's seen the way having access to Lite n' Easy has changed the game for her and her teammates.

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"Nutrition is huge – it all comes into recovery," the star fullback says. "And because we train in the afternoons, into the night, I think food is probably one of the biggest parts of recovery that we've been missing in the past couple of years because we finish pretty late. Lite n' Easy means the girls can eat before they head home, and that part of recovery is ticked off."

For Upton, who's recently moved out of home and is juggling work, footy, sponsors and media with handling her own meals, Lite n' Easy has been a godsend.

"I like the convenience of it, and I know I'm not alone when I say that" she says. "The days are pretty busy when it comes to work and training and other commitments we've got going on. I'm not the best planner and not the best cook, so it's actually very convenient."

Lite n' Easy customers can save over 8 hours per week shopping for groceries and cooking dinner so they have more time to train n' play. With over 235 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks to choose from, and a range of dietary preferences including higher protein meals catered for, the core part of your healthy diet is taken care of. To learn more about Lite n' Easy's delicious and nutritious meals, head to liteneasy.com.au/active-lifestyle.