Athlete profile: I am a Paralympic rower and I have represented Great Britain for nearly 10 years in two different sports: athletics and rowing. I spend 25 hours a week training and my goal is to always get faster and faster, so that I can compete at Paris 2024. This would be my third Paralympic Games and my goal is to win my third Paralympic gold medal there too!
Biggest achievement: My biggest achievements are winning gold at the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, becoming World Champion in 2019, and becoming European Champion in 2021!
Fun fact: I am a bit of a gamer and play lots of computer games when I am not training.
To me, healthy eating means that you are putting the right food in your body to make sure that all your muscles and organs work at their best. Healthy eating also means that you have a healthy relationship with food. We all have our favourite snacks and treats, which may not be that healthy on their own. But, as long as we have a balanced diet and that other things we eat are giving our bodies the nutrients it needs, then it’s okay to have those treats and enjoy them too!
Being an athlete means I have to eat a lot more than the regular person – because I’m training so much, my body needs lots of energy to help me row as fast as I can. My main source of energy is the carbohydrates that I eat – my favourites are rice and pasta. Along with the carbohydrates to give me the energy, I also need protein to make my muscles strong. My favourite proteins are chicken and Greek yoghurt. Finally, to give my body all the vitamins it needs to stay healthy, I eat lots of vegetables with my meals and snack on fruit. My favourite vegetable is corn on the cob and my favourite fruit is a banana.
A dish that I really enjoy cooking because it’s easy but tasty, is creamy chicken pasta. I enjoy making this dish because it’s super simple to cook which, for someone like me who isn’t the most talented in the kitchen, makes it the perfect choice for my lunch or dinner! It’s as simple as cooking some chicken in a pan, adding salt, pepper, herbs, and paprika, then adding in veggies such as peppers, spinach, onions (these are my favourites, but you can add whatever you like best!). I make the sauce by adding Greek yogurt and a handful of grated cheese and serve it with wholegrain pasta for a delicious, easy dinner!
The biggest challenge I face when learning how to cook healthy and tasty food is time. As an athlete, I train for nearly six hours a day. When I come home, I am very tired and need to recover before the next day of training, so finding the energy to cook can sometimes be really tough. However, I have found that this becomes easier if I am more organised and take the time to plan out my meals.
I find that eating well is easiest when I am prepared and have a plan. At the end of every week, I will plan out all my meals for the week ahead, depending on my training schedule and how long I will have each day to cook. Then, I will go to my local Aldi and buy all the food I need for that week so that I have all the ingredients to cook those meals each day. Sometimes, I will cook a meal one or two days in advance, which is helpful on days when I’m too busy to cook a meal from scratch. By making sure that I have a fresh, healthy meal in at home that I can heat up in the microwave means I am less likely to make less healthy choices on the go, which can make me feel low on energy.
Sustainable and healthy food means choosing items that protect or help our environment be healthy, too. To have a healthier, more sustainable diet you could eat more vegetables that you have grown yourself or have bought from local shops and buy less food that comes in plastic packaging, to help reduce waste. We can all look to make small changes to our diet and the way we eat and drink to make sure the planet is as healthy as we are!
Corn on the cob, sweet potato, bananas, oranges, spinach and melon.
We can all look to make small changes to the way we eat to make sure the planet is as healthy as we are!
βI spend 25 hours a week training and my goal is to always get faster and faster!
I really enjoy cooking creamy chicken pasta, with peppers, spinach, onions because itβs easy but really tasty!
Corn on the cob, sweet potato, bananas, oranges, spinach and melon.
To give my body all the vitamins it needs to stay healthy, I like to snack on fruit β my favourite is banana!