Haley Black and Caroline Baddock are both female swimmers on the Auburn Swimming and Diving Team.
These swimmers often have twice a day practices, working both on land and in the water. As a result of their vigorous practices, they must eat to sustain their energy.
Haley Black, senior in psychology, said she has been swimming since she was young, around five years old.
“When we’re training hard, especially like not before a big meet, it’s so intense,” Black said. “There’s times where you’re like ‘I don’t even know if I’m going to survive this practice’ but your teammates are yelling at you and your coaches are there for you.” ***
On a typical day Black finds herself at the wellness kitchen after morning practice.
“I love eggs. Eggs, toast, bacon, just keep it that simple. Usually I’ll get a smoothie with like all the fruits and stuff,” Black said.
Often her snacks will include easy things like crackers and cheese.
Lunches are on the light side since there will be another afternoon practice for the swimmers.
“I just go straight to dinner,” Black said, for after practice. “Which is usually pasta, chocolate milk, carb heavy.”
Black said that the team nutritionist is available for the athletes, but leaves nutrition choices up to the swimmers.
“Our coaches definitely prefer it if we eat healthier, because like it’s definitely better for our training but it’s more the nutritionist,” Baddock said. “So we have a new team nutritionist and we often go to him and be like ‘Should I eat this, or that or what would be better post training, what would be better pre training, and he kind of guides us towards the correct food to be eating and so to optimize performance and recovery.”
Baddock, senior in marine biology, said she enjoys eating at wellness.
“I often go to wellness and I’ll have an omelet, an egg white omelet, along with fresh fruit,” Baddock said. “And that sets my day up pretty good after Morning Practice. For lunch, because we have afternoon practice, I tend to just have a smoothie and some nuts or maybe a sandwich or something like that.”
For dinner Baddock also loads up on carbs.
“For dinner I often try and get a lot of protein, a lot of carbs and some vegetables and fruit as well, just to keep it well balanced,” Baddock said.
After first starting at Auburn, Baddock admitted that healthier eating was more difficult.
“It was harder when I first got here and suddenly I had options of what to eat but I think the background of enjoying good food and meals has really helped me and keep me towards maintaining a good diet over here,” Baddock said.
One of her favorite foods, Baddock said is salmon but her sweet craving is dark chocolate and she goes through a bar a week, typically.
“Everyone’s different. So I’ve always enjoyed eating good meals but a lot of people love eating fast food and pizza and stuff,” Baddock said. “And as long as you stick to what you always kind of do, it doesn’t tend to defeat you that badly … It’s more about consistency within the diet and consistency with how you’re eating.”
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