Athletes Advise-Healthy Choices for Optimal Performance

Different perspectives on how people incorporate healthy habits and how to use them properly.

By: Ariana Lopez

When you’re a teen, so many factors play to live a healthy life. People all over the world go their whole life treating their bodies properly, to live the best quality of life. Athlete students are more likely to live a healthier life than their non-athlete peers if they are eating properly, staying active, trying to get enough sleep, practicing mindfulness, connecting socially with others, and also learning how to manage stress. Not only teens but everyone deals with stress, the important thing is how we manage that stress, to take time out of our day to take a moment. To reduce stress for a healthier version of yourself, one important thing to take into consideration is your mental health. Our emotional, physiological, and social well-being is important. Our mental health affects how we handle our stress, so it’s important to care for yourself, and always put yourself first.

Some believe that being clean in all ways is a compass toward clarity and purpose in life. Our physical strength anchors our bodies to achieve our goals and aspirations.

Kevin Sharton, an alumni class of 1986, also known as Coach Sharton, the Redwood Football Coach believes that keeping a healthy life plays into maintaining a healthy mind.

Sharton likes to meditate which helps his digestion, he says, “Eating healthy is the start of healthy lifestyles, as getting plenty of exercise such as taking my dog out on a walk or doing a workout in the gym. And that would be more a part of the physical sense.”

“We have food so far, and now we have exercise. Another thing to live a healthy lifestyle is to have a healthy brain. Our mind is one of the most important places. With that, I meditate, try to be me, and find out who I am. Not the coach, not the teacher, but me. Trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do and how I’m supposed to do it. Body, mind, spirit!”

It’s important to be right in all places and to acknowledge that you have another opportunity to better yourself tomorrow. Sharton says, “One thing I always try to tell kids is that a healthy lifestyle is never really found, but more like a growth that goes with you through life. So always search for the body mind and soul, and always try to understand everything about yourself. And what it needs to grow and just get better in general.”

“Many common bad habits I see kids get into would have to be social media. They get so lost on the internet, like video games, and doing other things that take their mind off of who they are. And what they want to accomplish in life, and that is kind of a distraction. When you are on social media, you are not exercising, you not thinking about how you’re going to better yourself. You may be researching but it’s different. Take the time to know yourself, take care of yourself, and most importantly love yourself. Take time every day to acknowledge how far you have come and to always spoil yourself.”

Kai Preisendorf, ‘24, is a wrestler and is very fond of the sport. Preisendorf says, “Difficulties faced when being a wrestler would have to be that its a very mental sport. It’s a tough schedule, trying to balance time, planning practice, meals, school, and homework, and making sure that it is manageable. I try to maintain a healthy lifestyle by making sure I get enough sleep. That’s where all my stuff gets laid into, making sure I don’t stay up late and get to bed on time.”

“I think staying consistent matters a lot. Make sure that you aren’t running around and doing some other stuff, making sure you have a plan and know what you’re doing. To have a goal set in your mind.
We only have one body might as well take care of it.”

Alex Ramos, the athletic trainer at Redwood High School says, “The biggest mistake most people make during recovery would have to be improper cooldowns.”

Ramos adds, “Coaches always say have cool down after a workout. It’s important because it’s trying to get oxygen back into your body that you lose in that workout. It helps soreness, it helps alleviate, and also helps bring back the PH balance and recover faster.”

Ramos says that it’s healthy to have a healthy diet because it’s all about fueling the body. What an athlete puts in his or her body is what determines what comes out in athletic performances.

“If you are eating a bunch of processed foods, you’re just going to feel tired all the time, compared to if you’re eating vegetables and fruits. Also, chicken and salads, it’s fuel, Your body is like a car, if you put in cheap gas it’s going to run out quicker. Similar to food, and then that ties in with sleep. Making sure that you get the proper rest to make sure you are focused, and awake during class.” says Ramos.

Ramos adds that he can’t fix it by himself. “A common tip I give my athletes would have to be consistency. A lot of athletes come in and they think that just because they do rehab once a week, that it’s going to take away all their problems they are going to get better, but that’s just not how it works. It’s just being consistent, trusting that what we’re doing in here is the right thing to do.”

A very important aspect would be the fuel atheltes intake. It provides the necessary nutrition, energy, and support for bodily functions. Without adequate fuel, your body may struggle to perform optimally, leading to fatigue, and also illnesses.

Zackahrie Vargas, ‘26, “Before meets or practices I eat yogurt with oats and fruits like bananas. It’s a healthy meal to eat before anything but definitely, a great meal to eat before meets.”

Vargas says that “It’s important to fuel your body when doing a lot of exercise daily, especially as a runner. You burn so much, running 6 days a week, with no breaks. Your body is like a car, if you don’t have your fuel you won’t move.”
“It’s important to live a healthy lifestyle in general because you stay in shape, so you live longer and life will be easier.”

For Vargas, a healthy lifestyle has been a constant. “In the first grade, I found a passion for track and it has just stuck with me from then.”

Daniel Hernandez, ’25 says “If you don’t live a healthy you won’t be able to perform well and your body won’t be able to perform at its best abilities.”

“Having healthy meals is important, making sure to ingest lots of vitamins, and before race days, I usually try to carb up. And then just eat light on the race day.”

“Both your diet and exercise can affect your mental health, so it is important to always try your best to do well in those aspects to be better overall.”

Dr. Hugo Lopez, MD in medicine currently works at Adventist Health in a rural clinic and agrees with everything said.

Dr. Lopez says, “Living a healthy life has a lot of attributes. It’s different actions and activities that you can do daily, especially if we talk about nutrients and exercise, normally the human body we are created to eat mostly fruits and vegetables, something called herbivores, not carnivores. So I think that it is important that your nutrition should be based more on legumes, vegetables, and fruits as well as some sort of protein that we don’t have to always necessarily get from meat. But that we can also get from other sources.”

“The other important thing is that what we put in our body is how our body will also react and feel. If you put good stuff, and good nutrition in your body, your boy will feel well and have more energy. The other important thing is that we are created to be moving so it is very important to be doing some sort of activity, especially daily, doing some exercise.”

“Some examples to help people imply exercise on a daily basis has to do with the foods you pick, for example, If you are thinking about breakfast, nowadays you see that a lot of people skip meals, especially breakfast. Either because they wake up late and have to go to work, school, or something else that they need to attend. But it is very important not to miss any meal, especially breakfast. You should always have a good quality meal but it’s most important for your breakfast to be in regards with that. This is because it is the first meal after you have been not eating after 8, 10, or however many hours you sleep. If you skip breakfast you will most likely feel more hungry throughout the day. So you can implement on making sure you eat at least 3 meals a day and make sure you try and choose the healthier options for meal planning.”

“Nutrition in childhood is important because that is how you are going to start creating your habits, it starts as a kid. As a child, you learn everything by looking and especially looking at your parents. So whenever you eat as a family, you learn to eat what your parents eat. So if your parents are eating healthier when you are younger age, you will tend to eat healthier foods just as they do. And you will feel like it is normal to eat healthy because that is what you’ve grown up around. And that creates good habits since it will feel normal to eat healthier meals during childhood and as you take it along with you as you grow up.”

” Social economic status definitely plays a role because nowadays, unfortunately, fast food is sometimes cheaper than trying to go to the supermarket and get a better meal. Organic food choices are more expensive. So a lot of people prefer to get a whole pizza probably for ten dollars at Costco then buy a salad, get tomatoes, cumbers, everything to make a salad. People think that it’s better just to get a pizza because it’s easy and easier to access, but I think that that’s just one of the many common mistakes many people make that lead to poor eating habits.”

“I think those decisions also are a result of middle class or poor class in regards to healthy options, and nutrition.”

The importance to learn that your life is not in a rush to unfold before yourself. To enjoy where you are. It’s not a marathon, not a sprint. Once reaching this mindset the limits do not exist, it is important to stay in the moment and focus on what you can control, to focus on what you have. Prioritizing living in the present enables many to live more authentically and appreciate the ones that are around them with gratitude. And that is one of the most crucial things for cultivating a healthy lifestyle. Many minds look into the thing we wish for, or hoped for, or preferred for. But it gets like a distraction, and the human mind tends to focus on the wrong things that push them further away from lying to their full potential. To eliminate all external distractions focus on the process itself and enjoy your growth every single day.

Tags: athletes, coach, diets, Doctor, exercise, food, healthy, lifestyles, nutrition, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood rangers, redwood sports, track, trainor, wrestler