Kara Winger is throwing her javelin – in her workout gear. In a new social media post the Olympian shows off her skills and her amazing figure, wearing a two-piece exercise set. “A throw from my last practice before Olympic Trials this year, on my high school’s runway, in tune with the Washington nature,” she captioned the Instagram clip. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
1. Adjusting Nutrition
“It’s important to adjust your nutrition plan when it comes to training and competition because you’re asking different things of your body, especially in my sport. Training is about volume and building strength and making sure your body is prepared for quick, explosive, violent movements. You’re putting in a lot of work that takes a lot of energy and a lot of calories for your training,” Kara tells True Sport. “When it comes to competition, the output isn’t the same. You’re doing a very specific thing for a very short amount of time. I don’t need to eat the same way to prepare for a competition as I do for getting through a long training session.”
2. Eating Enough to Avoid Injury
Kara explains that if you don’t eat enough, it can lead to injury. “I had an experience where I tried to be really lean. Going into Olympic trials in 2012, I had been very lean for about two seasons. Vanity played a role in that because I wanted to be your stereotypical female athlete with a six-pack, but it very negatively impacted my performance,” she told True Sport, explaining that she ended up injuring her ACL. “It wasn’t necessarily because I was lean, but because I had been asking a lot of my body and not giving it enough nutrients for a long time. Ultimately, I couldn’t recover. I wasn’t strong. I wasn’t throwing far. Then, I tore my ACL. I attribute a nutrition deficit a lot to that happening.”
3. No Restrictions
[instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/C8x7ovsvE8v/?img_index=1“I’m not a restrictive person when it comes to my diet. I need to be a little bit heavier to know that I’m throwing far. I don’t eat massive quantities of everything, but I’m not shy about having a cupcake when I want one sometimes,” Kara explains. I’m in a sport where that’s okay and I’m an athlete that knows that’s okay. If I have a little bit extra on me for one practice a week, that’s 100% fine and maybe even keeps me healthier. It’s all about feeling good, feeling powerful, and feeling strong.” expand=1 site_id=26817431]
4. Hydration
Kara stresses the importance of hydration. “Drink water on the regular! I think water is boring so I try to spice it up (LaCroix, SpinDrift, Emergen-C up to once per day, Propel, etc.). Hydration is huge! It moves stuff around your body and flushes out inflammation. Related to this is monitoring caffeine and alcohol intake. I drink about two cups of drip coffee in the morning and might have a dirty chai in the afternoon on my way home from training, but that happens maybe twice per month if I remember to bring my to-go mug. I do enjoy a glass of wine or a margarita with dinner sometimes, but only a few times per week and only if I’ve been good about staying hydrated. I quite enjoy decaffeinated hot tea at night before bed!” she writes on her blog.
5. Planning Ahead
She also encourages planning ahead for healthy eating. “Stock your fridge. There is basically nothing worse than arriving home and realizing you have no good food,” she says. “I try to have two or three dinner options in mind for the things in my fridge, and always have breakfast foods. My lunches usually consist of sandwiches or dinner leftovers, so I don’t worry too much about them, but I like to have options. I am not a fan of meal planning, but having ingredients available that meet a few different sets of cravings is important to me, and to me eating healthily instead of hitting up Noodles & Company or ordering Papa John’s,” she says.
