The Ride to The Rink: How Young Hockey Players Can Fuel for Better Performance

This episode is powered by NHL Sense Arena. Hello, hungry hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of The Ride to the Rink. It is the original three today, Lee, Mike, and Christy here today to talk to you kids about food. I don't know where you're at, but food was one of my favorite parts of growing up, especially when you have good food. But kids, listen, here's the deal. Uh, in a busy hockey schedule, and we got to talk about your parents here. Not always easy to get you guys the healthiest food all the time. And you kids, you, I'm talking to you. I know you want McDonald's. I know you want that fast food. It's so easy and so good. Uh, but here's the deal it's not that good for you. It's not that great for you. Once in a while, anything is okay. Just to define once in a while, and a lot of you gonna think I'm crazy, like with McDonald's. Once every three months might be once in a while. So I know some of you are like, I do it twice a week. Yeah, it's not good. All right. Uh, and and we got to help your parents make more affordable, healthy options, which does exist, right, guys. So I'm gonna bring in Christy and Mike here. Christy, I'll start with you to the kids. This let's talk real quick about why eating good food is so important in Utah.

Right. Well, you know, you think about it, kids. How important what you're putting into your body matters. It's fuel. You know, a car can't run without gas. You need good fuel to help your body run at the best it can be. So what you're putting into your body will help your performance. You are not gonna feel as tired out on the ice. And this is what hockey is all about, right? You want to do your very best out there when you're skating. You can't do your very best if you're not fueled properly. So nutrition is really important. Something you can start right now at this age. Maybe you are a junk food junkie. You can turn the page now and you can start looking at more healthful snaps. And there are so many out there: apples, grapes, bananas, fresh fruits, veggies. And there's ways that your mom and dad can make it really easy for you to just grab out of the refrigerator and go. And you can do your part too, and tell them, hey, mom and dad, I really want to start eating better. Let's figure this out as a family on how we can make it easy on everybody, and let's do this as a family together. It'll be a lot of fun and you're gonna feel better.

Yeah, I mean, I would think, I would say too, when you're thinking about this and thinking about nutrition, routine is so crucial to a player's success. And when you talk to NHL players today that have retired, uh you could they could tell you exactly what their routine was. They'll tell you what their meal was. And there's not there's nothing wrong with that. There's some there's some players in NHL that ate the same exact meal before every game. Sydney Graves. And it did, you know, and it's just it's just something and and that routine helped them in a lot of different ways. Not only was it more nutritious for them and it gave them the energy they needed, but it settled their head because they could think about hockey, they didn't have to think about anything else, they didn't have to think about a difference in in how they were training and how they were preparing. So think thinking about nutrition and as a way to advance yourself as a hockey player uh by simplifying your meals, by planning them out, by having a structure in place. We all ask it from a coaching standpoint. We ask you to do that in all the other aspects of your game. And I think that uh figuring out what you're gonna eat and when is no different than that.

I'm gonna say a few things here. That was great stuff, guys. Uh, just borrowing from Mike a little bit, kids, is a lot of this is about habits. And if you're eating bad food, you're creating a bad habit for the rest of your life. Okay, and that's not something that's so easily breakable. If you're like, I'll just when I'm not playing or something, I'll be better. That's harder than you think. All right. Not to mention, that brings me to my next point. Um, if you're serious about playing, and I'm gonna say if you're listening to this show, you're probably pretty serious. This is a huge component of it. You have to be hungrier to eat healthy than you're hungry for the fast food. They say that again, you got to be hungrier for the healthy food for the energy than for the fast food because that's gonna help you perform a lot better. Okay, Mike said it with the routine. Um, here's another thing, kids, and I'm gonna say this in front of your parents that may be listening with you. Uh, you can cook. Kids, you can cook. You can do it, you can learn to cook. It is not as hard as you think. Uh, my wife and I encourage my kids, they're uh 12 and 9, to learn how to cook at a pretty young age. They help us in the kitchen, they want to help us in the kitchen. The more you learn about how the food is made, and the more you partake in helping make the food, the more not only will you enjoy it, but the more you're gonna do a better job with it. Okay. Um, and I'm gonna say it again: you will save your parents money if you jump into this with us. Okay, it is more affordable. We said it on our big episode, to get a rotisserie chicken than it is to get a Big Mac. Okay. And it's important that you guys find those foods. And my last note for you kids, I know some of you are are picky eaters, and I'm not actually making fun of you with that. I have a picky eater at home too. Um, I know it's tough to try new things. I want you to all go out there this week and try something new. Okay, and don't psych yourself out of it before you have it. Don't go, I'm gonna hate this. If you say that 10 times before you eat something, you're probably gonna not like it. Okay. Try some new foods. You there are definitely foods out there for you that you will enjoy. All right. And and we talked about I would encourage you kids to listen to our big episode this week because we actually shared a lot of recipes on that show from uh listeners of what their kids like to eat and how kids like to eat different foods. Okay. So just check it out, kids. We're making you aware of it. At the end of the day, it's up to you, it's your choice. Uh, Mike, Christy, anything before I close this out?

I just wanted to share some of my kids' favorite snacks. And they found this really helped them with their energy, their focus, and even their attitude when they're out there during a game or during practice. So they loved banana with peanut butter, Greek yogurt with berries, apples, string cheese, applesauce, uh, small turkey wrap was one of my son's go-to's. Oatmeal was sliced bananas, a fruit smoothie. Sophia loved that. Those are good. With uh, she was lactose intolerant too. So she would have lactose-free milk with some um Greek yogurt, and they also make that lactose-free as well.

They make everything lactose-free now. I'm just saying that right now.

Yeah, and there's so much protein in foods now, too, that they're adding. So you can even have a nice slice of you know, wheat bread with protein added to it as well. So there are lots of really good choices for you. Do your homework, share it with your teammates, do it as a team. Uh, it's a lot easier for everybody on your team is eating the same way. And um, you're gonna see a huge difference in your performance, I promise you.

Yeah. And kids, uh, listen, when you do do this and you're in that third period and you go, man, I got way more energy. Remember your friends over at the ride to the ring, Christy, Mike, and Lee. We stepped up for that. We stepped up. All right. Uh, advocate for yourself, kids. Listen, that's gonna do it for this edition of The Ride to the Rink, kids. Listen, you're on a great journey here. And remember, wherever you're at on that journey, we believe in you. You should too. We're Mike and Christy on Lee Kids. We'll see you next time. Work hard, have fun, go learn something. Take care.