@Catrin Johnson @Sherriden Sherriden — this one's basically for you two this week 😅 I've been putting together a full Tournament Survival Guide. What to feed them 48 hours out, the night before, hour-by-hour on game day, fast food orders that actually work, hotel breakfasts, hot/cold weather curveballs, all of it. Before I finish it off, I want the people who actually live this to tell me what's missing. Here's a taste of two of the chapters: What NOT to Stress About: "My child had a chocolate bar." Fine. One chocolate bar isn't undoing a weekend of good fuelling. "They missed breakfast." Not ideal, but recoverable — just adjust the next meal and move on. "They had McDonald's." It happens on tournament weekends. A plain burger and a drink is a completely reasonable tournament meal, not the end of the world. Fast Food Guide (McDonald's): A plain cheeseburger or hamburger with a small fries works ok 2+ hours out. Closer to a game, keep it to juice or a soft drink with a small fries. A Big Mac or anything heavy on sauce suits a longer gap better. (Nuggets get reached for as "the protein option", but they're fried. Better for a longer gap than the 45 minutes before kickoff.) Genuine questions for you: - What's the one tournament moment that always throws you, that I haven't covered here? - Anything in here that doesn't match what's actually worked for your kid? - Would "The Tournament Survival Blueprint" grab your attention, or does something else sound better? (Poll coming on this soon 👀) Drop your answers/thoughts below. Building this with the people, for the people who'll actually use it.

Hi everyone, I'm new to the group. I'm very interested in sports nutrition, and one topic I've been struggling with is calorie intake. I'd like to understand how many calories an active child should consume if they attend a sports school and also have three training sessions and one match each week. I'm talking about children aged 11–13 years. Sometimes it seems to me that they could easily eat around 3,000 kcal per day, but I'm wondering if that's too much. If we build their diet around high-quality protein, healthy plant-based fats, and plenty of carbohydrates, it ends up being a very large amount of food. I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts or experiences with fueling young athletes of this age.

Next time you’re at the supermarket, pick up something you buy regularly and turn it over to read the ingredients. Then find the same product with the shortest ingredients list you can. I’ll start. Two peanut butters. Same product. Different story on the back. One has added oil and sugar and less peanuts. The other just two ingredients. 99.7% peanuts & salt. That’s it. You don’t have to buy the cleaner version — sometimes it costs more and that’s real life. But I want you to SEE the difference. Your challenge this week 👇 Find something you regularly buy, find a version with fewer ingredients, and post both photos here. Tell us what you found. Let’s see what’s in everyone’s cupboards 👀

@Sherriden Sherriden said it best: "I thought they were both the same". And honestly? She's not far wrong. Both are good. Neither is bad. The case for frozen is: The vegetables are picked at peak ripeness and frozen within hours, locking in vitamins and minerals. In some cases, frozen can actually edge out supermarket fresh on nutrient content. That's not a myth. Fresh tastes better in my opinion. I find there's a difference in texture, flavour, and satisfaction. And farmer's market fresh versus supermarket fresh? Completely different again. If you can get it from the source, do it. How you cook them matters too. Steaming and stir-frying hold onto more vitamins and fibre than boiling. But here's the real conversation for most parents in here: Getting vegetables into young footballers is a battle. I know it. My son is a picky eater, and it has been a journey. Most kids just don't love veg. They're not sweet, they're not exciting, and forcing them rarely works. Here's what actually does: Start with ONE vegetable. Not a plate full of carrots, broccoli, and beans. Just a few sticks of one thing alongside their normal meal. Don't make it a big deal. Let it sit there. Watch whether they start noticing it, touching it, interacting with it. That's the first win. The sensory process for kids goes: Visual first → Touch → Taste. You can't skip steps. Let them look at it for a few meals. Then encourage them to touch it. Then eventually taste it. It takes time and patience, but it works. Their taste buds genuinely adapt. If your child is a bland-food lover, frozen vegetables might actually be an easier starting point. They're milder in flavour than fresh, which can make them less confronting. Try one single frozen vegetable, heat it up, put a small amount on the plate and leave it there. And if they genuinely won't touch vegetables at all right now? I'd strongly recommend getting a good quality children's multivitamin in to cover the nutrients they're missing in the meantime. Keep trialling vegetables alongside it. Don't give up. But don't stress yourself out either. A multivitamin buys you time while you keep working on it.

Hi all, after messaging Craig yesterday of my sons ‘bump in the road’ with his fuelling at the moment, he mentioned it may be beneficial to post here for some other parents that are struggling with their kids wanting to eat or not eating enough on game day. 13 yo boy who’s never love eating meals, prefers snacks and has always struggled eating prior to games. Even this weekend he didn’t want to snack his usual foods or eat his usual breakfast. So a quick change of plans and this is what we came up for his fuelling - Very small smoothie- base was choc milk as he hates full cream, added a little oats, a bit of banana and a bit of Nutella to hide the oats and banana taste 😆 2 pieces of toast (he ate some) with berries on the side. Car ride to game - store bought pikelets Pretzels & grapes. He had a juice popper just before getting out of car and gave him a few snakes to eat before his game. He had an up and go after the game with a bbq lamb wrap they sold at the field ✔️ Is it a ‘picture perfect’ breakfast? - No, did he get some carbs in before going out on field - yes! Sometimes it’s something better than nothing. So don’t be afraid to give them whatever it takes on the odd occasion they refuse everything else!