Eating on the road

Two months of tournaments means most of your meals happen somewhere you don't control — a hotel, a concession stand, whatever is open at nine at night. Having a default for each one mattered more than any single meal.

Breakfast was carbs and protein, every time. During camps and tournaments I kept snacks with quick sugars in my bag, because you're playing several games a day and you burn through breakfast faster than you'd think.

Electrolytes the night before and the night after. Hydration is the thing that quietly ruins a weekend if you get it wrong, and it's hard to fix once you're behind.

No fast food before or after a camp. That isn't a rule about good foods and bad foods — it's just that it made me feel slow when I needed to feel the opposite.

Dinners were simple and repeatable: grilled chicken, pasta, rice. Protein to recover, carbs to put back the energy I'd spent that day. Nothing clever — and grilled rather than fried, which is usually the only real choice a menu gives you.

Protein to recover, carbs to build back what the day took.

I also worked with Lindsay Hazard, a registered dietitian who specializes in teen athletes. The most useful part wasn't a meal plan — it was understanding why I was eating what I was eating, so I could make the call myself in a hotel lobby at ten o'clock.

Lindsay Hazard, MCN, RDN, LD
Owner of Cherish Nutrition in Dallas, and a registered dietitian who works specifically with teen and youth athletes. She's also on Instagram as @fueling.young.athletes. Not a sponsor — I paid for my sessions like any other client