{"id":687224,"date":"2026-07-12T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T06:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687224\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T06:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T06:30:14","slug":"michelle-heyman-diet-what-the-matildas-star-eats-in-a-day-to-fuel-her-soccer-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687224\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Heyman diet: What the Matildas star eats in a day to fuel her soccer career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Nicole Economos\" data-testid=\"author-avatar-image\" height=\"64\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/09567d11e3b233ab3116a1b3034e2e8a7d9cd7ca.png\"  width=\"64\" class=\"sc-9a01536c-0 libeSR\"\/>Save<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-d1b14060-4 JmUoF\">You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n<p>Remove items from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/goodfood\/saved\" class=\"sc-3f16ee48-12 sc-d1b14060-2 jyLmZI iQLtAb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<p>AAA<\/p>\n<p>Michelle Heyman is a soccer player. The 38-year-old shares her day on a plate.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\" \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/eb9cf6cc95de24083f16bf385bf4024f178941619f9160e9c35b5e02b79281e4.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/> Photo: Artwork by Eliza Iredale<\/p>\n<p>7am A flat white and two eggs with smashed avocado on toast.<\/p>\n<p>7.30am Creatine in orange juice and an electrolyte drink.<\/p>\n<p>9.30am Post-gym, a high-protein Chobani yoghurt.<\/p>\n<p>12pm Chicken Kyiv with sweet potato, carrot and broccoli.<\/p>\n<p>2pm I have a banana with peanut butter before a run.<\/p>\n<p>6pm A big bowl of delicious laksa. It\u2019s full of protein, vegetables and ingredients that are great for your gut.<\/p>\n<p>7pm A snack of papaya with more high-protein yoghurt and granola.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Top marks for\u2026 A well-timed spread of protein \u2013 eggs, yoghurt, chicken and laksa \u2013 across the day. This will support muscle repair and recovery after gym and running sessions. The yoghurt twice a day also gives your calcium intake a strong boost, important for bone health and resilience in a high-impact sport.<\/p>\n<p>If you keep eating like this you\u2019ll&#8230; Stay well fuelled for general health, but on heavier training days you could fall short on carbohydrate, the premium fuel for repeated sprints, endurance and topping up muscle glycogen. Iron is also worth keeping an eye on, as female athletes are at higher risk of low stores, which can sap energy and impair recovery and immune function.<\/p>\n<p>Why don\u2019t you try&#8230; Adding an extra carbohydrate serve in the form of oats, wholegrain toast, rice, noodles, pasta or potato around harder sessions and matched to the day\u2019s training load. Include iron-rich foods, such as lean red meat, mussels, eggs, legumes and tofu, and combine the plant sources of iron with foods rich in vitamin C to help absorption.<\/p>\n<p>Michelle Heyman is an ambassador for the partnership between the Australian Institute of Sport and Chobani.<\/p>\n<p>Get the best of Sunday Life magazine delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. Sign up here for our <a class=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5jutx\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Save<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-d1b14060-4 JmUoF\">You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n<p>Remove items from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/goodfood\/saved\" class=\"sc-3f16ee48-12 sc-d1b14060-2 jyLmZI iQLtAb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Nicole Economos\" data-testid=\"author-avatar-image\" height=\"40\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769308810_193_09567d11e3b233ab3116a1b3034e2e8a7d9cd7ca.png\"  width=\"40\" class=\"sc-9a01536c-0 libeSR\"\/><a class=\"sc-cba76dee-0 hdiTqm sc-b5b9fd03-2 jcGta-D\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/by\/nicole-economos-h0fwtd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nicole Economos<\/a> is a Social Media Producer\/Journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via <a class=\"sc-cba76dee-0 hdiTqm sc-b5b9fd03-5 czsZcI\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/lifestyle\/health-and-wellness\/mailto:nicole.economos@smh.com.au\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[102,6636,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-687224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}