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Diet & nutrition

You cannot out-train
a bad diet.

This is the fortnightly chart we hand out at the academy — fourteen days of breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, then it repeats. It is ordinary Indian home food, nothing bought in a tin, and it is built around the hours a player actually trains.

What a player eats

Build the plate from these

Before the fourteen-day chart, the shortlist. If a meal is made of these things, it is a good meal — whichever day it falls on.

Fruits and vegetables

Every day, with as much colour on the plate as you can manage.

Protein

Paneer, beans, peanut butter, eggs, milk and dal.

Curd and ghee

Curd (dahi) daily, and home-made ghee rather than refined oil.

Sprouts

Green moong, kala chana and groundnut.

Daliya

Easy on the stomach before an evening session.

Dry fruits

Almonds and dates (khajoor).

Healthy carbs

Oats, cornflakes, poha and roti — not maida and not sugar.

Plenty of water

Through the day, not only at training.

Avoid junk food. Chips, fried shop snacks, cold drinks and packet sweets. A few times a year, not a few times a week.
Fourteen days

The chart

Day 15 starts again at day 1. Swap a day with another if you need to — keep the shape.

1 Sunday Egg, bread, milk, poha Pulse and rice, roti, curd One fruit Nutri nuggets, roti
2 Monday Daliya / kheer, milk Pulse and rice, roti, salad One fruit / Sprouts — green moong, kala chana Chhole, roti, salad
3 Tuesday Dal paratha, milk, poha Chhole and rice, roti, Sprouts — green moong, kala chana One fruit, vegetable soup Paneer, roti, salad
4 Wednesday Vegetables, milk, oats / cornflakes Pulse and rice, roti, salad One fruit Nutri nuggets, roti
5 Thursday Vegetables, milk Nutri nuggets, roti, curd One fruit / Sprouts — green moong, kala chana Nutri nuggets, roti / vegetables
6 Friday Halwa / kheer, milk, poha Mutton, roti, Sprouts — green moong, kala chana One fruit, vegetable soup Sprouts — green moong, kala chana, roti, vegetables
7 Saturday Vegetables, milk, oats / cornflakes Pulse and rice, roti, Sprouts — green moong, kala chana One fruit / Sprouts — green moong, kala chana Nutri nuggets, roti / vegetables
8 Sunday Egg, milk, oats / cornflakes Pulse and rice, roti, salad One fruit, vegetable soup Egg, roti, salad / vegetables
9 Monday Vegetables, milk, poha Chhole and rice, roti, salad One fruit / Sprouts — green moong, kala chana Chhole, roti, salad
10 Tuesday Vegetables / daliya, oats / cornflakes Pulse and rice, roti, curd One fruit Paneer, roti, salad
11 Wednesday Vegetables, milk Nutri nuggets, roti, salad One fruit Nutri nuggets, salad
12 Thursday Dal / kachori paratha, milk Pulse and rice, roti One fruit / vegetable soup Pav bhaji, roti / vegetables
13 Friday Vegetables, milk Chhole and rice, roti, salad One fruit Chhole / egg, roti, salad
14 Saturday Egg, milk, oats / cornflakes Pulse and rice, roti One fruit, vegetable soup Fish, roti / vegetables, salad

Questions about a player's diet?

Growing players, players cutting weight for a tournament and adults playing twice a week do not all need the same plate. Ask the coach — it is easier to adjust than to guess.

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