Lindsey Vonn Says Banana Bread Was The Key To Her Winning Gold In The Olympics And We've Never Loved Her More
Pro skier, gold medal Olympian, world champion—we could go ON—Lindsey Vonn shared what she ate to win the coveted gold medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics and what she eats now that she's retired.
What did you eat when you used to race?
It was a little bit more challenging because we were always staying at hotels and we never knew what we were going to be able to get. In the morning usually I'd try to eat eggs and oatmeal, or in Europe they'd have muesli. When we'd go up on the mountain I'd always have some sort of snack like a protein bar, but I'd always get nervous so I never ate a lot when I was on the hill. Twenty minutes before the race I'd have a Red Bull, I always needed that extra energy. When I finished the race I'd have a banana and protein shake to replenish and refuel—it was usually a couple hours before I'd get back to the hotel, so I would eat what I could find. By the time I got back to the hotel, it would be dinnertime so I'd try to have protein, carbs, and veggies: My ideal meal was salmon, rice, and veggies.
What are three things you always have in your fridge?
First point to know is that I'm always traveling so I never have anything perishable. I always have beyond meat in the freezer, RedBull, and pancake mix. Even if you don't have eggs, you can still make pancakes. Birch Benders mixes are really good, they already have the chocolate chips in them—which, you can't have pancakes without chocolate chips, clearly.
What's one thing you could eat forever?
Ice cream is always my favorite indulgence. I would say preferably froyo, I really like it with Reese's pieces combined with Reese's cups—but crumbled. If you're really going for it you can add some brownie bites in there. But if you can't get froyo, Ben & Jerry's always hits the spot.
What is one of your favorite wins in your career?
It's definitely winning the Olympics in Vancouver. We had like three days of rain; so we had three days of canceled races, so I needed to find something to do with my time and I baked a lot of banana bread. I definitely think my coaches gained about ten pounds cause I probably made 25 loaves of banana bread because I didn't want to turn on the TV and distract myself. So I basically ate banana bread before I won the Olympics and the night before was a salmon night, since it's always my lucky meal before races. So I won the Olympics on banana bread and salmon.
What foods help you perform your best?
I think eating as clean as possible. Sometimes I get emotional and I need my comfort food and I'll eat banana bread or ice cream or chocolate—but I think the more I can keep things light, the better. One thing that I don't eat before my races is meat. No steaks, no burgers. Your body is spending a lot of energy trying to digest it instead of using your energy to recover and rest and get ready for the race.
What's the most you've ever spent on delivery?
My friends don't really thing that vegan food is great, so I found this new great vegan restaurant called Sun Cafe and I wanted to show them all the different things on the menu so I literally got almost everything on the menu just to prove my point and it was nearly $400. It was intense. I also spent $100 on Ben & Jerry's delivery once. I don't know if I should probably say that out loud.
How has your diet changed since retiring?
My eating doesn't look anything like it used to. I still try to eat healthy but I definitely let myself indulge a bit more, especially after dinner. It's pretty simple in the morning: eggs, avocado. Lunch is usually chicken and kale or a chicken salad, I try not to have too many carbs because I'm not working out that hard so I don't really need a ton of carbs. For dinner, I either do a beyond meat burger or a bolognese but the noodles are zucchini. And then dessert is almost always ice cream—I can't help myself, it's like, OK, I'm not competing any more so I get to treat myself.
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