Interview: Nutrition with Robyn Love

With sportscotland focussing on nutrition throughout October, basketballscotland chatted with GB’s Robyn Love to discover what nutrition means to a Paralympian…

What does a typical day consist of for you?

“I always start a training day with some breakfast and a coffee. My first training session is usually a court session where I work on fundamental skills. Then I’ll have a re-fuelling break for a couple of hours where I’ll get some life admin done and rest before hitting the gym for a strength and conditioning session. On the days I’m resting from strength and conditioning training, I’ll focus on injury prevention exercises in the gym. Then I’ll head home, make dinner and relax.”

How many meals do you have a day?

“Fuelling your body is one of the most important aspects of being an athlete. I’ll usually have three meals in a day, with protein-based snacks after sessions.”

What do your meals typically look like?

“I try to have balanced meals designed to help me fuel for a session or help me recover from a session. All my meals will have around 20+ grams of protein, depending on training load I’ll adjust the carbs and always have lots of vegetables.”

How many calories do you eat in a day?

“On a typical training day, I aim for 1700 calories, this fluctuates depending on training load. I like to track my calories using the ‘My Fitness Pal’ app, it gives me a visual overview of my day and whether I’m fuelling my body sufficiently.”

What’s your favourite meal?

“My favourite meal would have to be seafood linguine. Coming from Scotland, I love all seafood especially shellfish.”

What’s your go to cheat meal?

“To be honest, I don’t have a ‘cheat meal’, my personal philosophy is that you can eat what you want within moderation. I think labelling food as ‘bad’ or ‘good’ can lead to unhealthy habits.”

What’s your usual snack of choice?

“Peanut butter is one of my favourite snacks, I take it on all of my trips. Banana and peanut butter is a great combo!”

Why is nutrition so important to you?

“My food is my fuel, whatever I put in my body has a direct impact on my training. I want to be a world-class athlete and to do that, I need to be fuelled and ready to perform.”

What’s the best nutritional advice you would give to someone?

“You can eat balanced meals without spending hours on meal prep. I personally use balanced microwave meals from different supermarkets when I don’t have time, don’t want to use my energy on cooking. They are tasty and well-priced!”

Nutrition often comes hand in hand with exercise, can you give us an insight into your gym routine?

“Our gym programmes adjust depending on our focus. Right now, I’m building a foundation of strength, focusing on technique which is leading into a strength building phase i.e getting hench. My strength training consists of four main exercises which are heavy, followed by a couple of core exercises to help with my trunk function. My main push exercises are bench press and weighted dips and my pull exercises are pull-ups and bench pull with all exercises at 8-10 reps for three sets.”