Fueling Your Best Tips from Kerri Walsh Jennings
Kerri is a force of nature, balancing the insanely competitive spirit needed to compete at her level with her positive attitude and joyful personality. To accomplish her goals and feel her best, she puts a huge focus on her routine and shares the philosophies she lives by.
1) Create Healthy Habits
I’m a huge believer that we are our habits and we become what we’re surrounded by. That said, I work to stimulate healthy habits to positively affect my physical and mental state. As a prime example, I keep nutrient dense food like whole almonds, my custom-made trail mix and almond milk always on hand. With abundant healthy choices at home and on-the-go, it naturally becomes a habit to have better snack choices.
2) Prepare Nutritious Fuel with the People You Love Most
Eating the right foods to maintain high energy for my long days of volleyball drills and school drop-off is hugely important. I’ve learned over time that natural and nutritious food preparation is essential to face the challenges each day brings. Every week, I make an almond-based trail mix with my kids to spend quality time together and teach them the rad energy-boosting benefits of good snacking – after all, we are on the road to gold together! The trail mix provides us with ideal amounts of protein and fiber to feel our best and conquer our day-to-day, every day.
3) Create a Vision of Success
My motto is: breath, believe, battle. Believing you can overcome a hurdle at work, at the gym, or in your personal life is crucial to overcoming it and inspiring others. I visualize my success and play it back in my mind every time my feet hit the sand. I envision myself in peak shape; spiking and diving my way to gold. My vision helps inspire my partner, my team and the people around me. Got a big presentation in the morning? Picture yourself nailing it! Do you dread coaxing your child to try a new healthy food? Visualize how you’ll teach them to love it! Whether it’s for yourself, your team at the office or your loved ones at home, once you create a vision of success, you can figure out exactly how to achieve it.
4) Move Your Body in Ways that are Challenging and Fun
Our bodies are capable of amazing things when they are nourished adequately with energy-rich foods like almonds and fruit. When I’m properly fueled, I like to push myself out of my comfort zone and embrace diversity in my workouts to make sure my body sustains excellence. As I prepare for competition, I am committed to showing up for three gnarly hours of beach volleyball practice a day, Pilates three times a week, and cross training twice a week. I love it because I keep it fun with the people I care about around me and I take plenty of snack breaks.
5) Engage in Self Care, Daily!
I wouldn’t be where I am today without generous amounts of self-love and self-care. To me, this means getting a good night’s sleep, meditating when I wake up, maintaining my hydration and nutrition throughout the day, and moving my body. I am mindful of eating natural foods that provide me with the sustenance I need. I spend hours stretching to keep my body limber and resilient and ready to go for the gold. My day always ends with a moment of gratitude. Self-care is the key to remaining agile and strong to care for my family, performing at a sky-high level, and helping others achieve greatness.
