Hidilyn eats her way to top
What exactly fueled Hidilyn Diaz’s epic gold medal lift in the Tokyo Olympics?
You can easily point to the winning tandem of her coaches: Chinese Kaiwen Gao and Filipino Julius Naranjo.
But likewise deserving of praise is nutritionist Jeaneth Aro, who was the second person to hug Diaz seconds after that monumental feat last Monday. So, were Aro’s handprints all over the Tokyo International Forum at Maronouchi District as well? You bet they are. Though exiled in Malaysia for 16 months due to the pandemic, Diaz made sure her nutritional needs won’t be sacrificed given that Aro won’t be there to look after her on a daily basis.
They both agreed that an arrangement be made to ensure this important facet of the 30-year-old Diaz’s Olympic buildup will be addressed.
“Every week, we worked on her nutritional needs based on her training program,” Aro told Daily Tribune from the Japanese capital.
Finding the right ingredients wasn’t that hard, according to Aro, stressing that “there was not much of a difference” compared to what’s readily available in Manila.
Aro didn’t enumerate what kind of diet is given to Diaz but stressed her requirement is “basic.”
“It’s more like what’s available in the Philippines but I base the program in relation to body weight for a particular period in the preparation,” she said.
“The diet is not meat-heavy,” Aro said, noting that “the carbs, proteins and fats is based on needs for a particular training session… it changes daily, weekly and monthly and is aligned with our body weight target for a particular period.”
As for the liquid intake, Aro swears “there is no limit although I always encourage her to drink water so she doesn’t get dehydrated because her training sessions are very intense.”