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By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern Food is a glorious thing. It keeps our bodies alive, functioning, and happy. Taking on social and cultural roles, food plays a huge part in our society. We go out to dinner to catch up with friends. On holidays, we get excited for old family recipes. ...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern Swimmers are hard workers. We practice for countless hour, we are pushed to our physical and mental capacity everyday, and on top of that we are expected to have energy for school, family, and a social life. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own sw...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern To swimmers, leisure time is not part of our vocabulary.  Since starting swimming, we have ingrained the “never rest” attitude into our brains.  To put it into perspective, our days consist of going from practice to school, school to practice, practic...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern We can see the light at the end of tunnel as taper approaches. During the short course championship season, sweat and tears clear the chlorine-filled air and are replaced by good moods and underwater selfies. All those weeks of grueling lactate sets, ...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern In the swimming world, there is so much emphasis put on carbo-loading. At the end of practice, during a swim meet, or sometimes even in your own home, you hear your coach and parents nagging you to fill up on carbohydrates. Naturally, a swimmer will t...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern There are many conflicting views about protein needs for athletes. Bodybuilders believe they should be eating only protein for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Endurance athletes think they have a very small protein requirement because they are not tryin...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern Lunch is one of the more difficult meals because you eat it right before practice and it can be tough to figure out how much to eat. Some of the time you end up eating too much and this can make you feel heavy in the water. At other times, when you do...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern It’s that time of year again. "Mindful eating" is not commonly associated with the holiday season. School is out, the Christmas lights are up, and all of your schoolmates are talking about how excited they are to sleep in everyday and eat as many of t...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern A swimmer’s day consists of endless amounts of yardage, weight sessions, and a busy class schedule. On top of that you are expected to fuel your body properly in order to perform at an elite level. With all this training, school, and focus, our bodies...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern Athletes all fuel up differently. You will find this even at the highest level. Something that may work for one athlete may not work for another. There are noticeable trends among high-level athletes in performance and fueling. I recently talked with ...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern Other than goals and training, food seems a top priority in a swimmer’s mind. Before finishing breakfast you may already be thinking, “What’s for lunch?” or “I can’t wait for my mid-day snack in an hour.” I love talking about food, but I often leave o...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern As swimmers, we train for countless hours in the pool and in the weight room. We push our bodies to their maximum capacity over again, until our physical limitations are exceeded. Long-term, this training will mean a lot less if you do not give your b...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern When you hear “carbo-load” what is the first thing that comes to mind?  Pasta and bread, right?  I asked a group of swimmers this same question and ten out of ten answered, pasta and bread!  Although pasta and other grains are a GREAT source ...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” – That phrase has been ingrained in your head since you first learned how to speak. Well, it’s the truth! Breakfast gives you energy to power through a busy day. Although breakfast may indeed be the mo...

By Tasija Karosas, Swimming World College Intern We all know that feeling when you get to the last 50 of a race and your muscles are screaming at you to stop. You know you have put in all the training, so why can’t you finish the race? Could it be race strategy, or could be the way you are fueling y...