Novak Djokovic gives tips to start your day in top form

James Richardson 17 Nov 2022 9:57 AM

Novak Djokovic at the ATP Finals

Novak Djokovic has explained how he starts his day in the best possible shape, and its all about nutrition.

Djokovic undertook a revolutionary change to his approach to the sport of tennis and life as a whole early on in his career.

Struggling to overcome what he has described as a form of allergic asthma which was compounded by the stress of competition, Djokovic started to monitor everything in his diet very closely.

Under the guidance of a medical team, it was this change that he credits with turning him from somebody on the brink of quitting the tour into one of the greatest champions of all time.

Djokovic started the process by cutting out foods containing gluten and refined sugar before eventually transitioning to an entirely plant-based diet.

That has left many to question exactly what Djokovic eats on any given day.

In a recent interview with Graham Bensinger, Djokovic revealed what he might eat in a typical day.

Explaining the troubles that afflicted him and came to a head at teh 2010 Australian Open, Djokovic said: “I was always struggling with respiratory problem, a kind of mild version of asthma and suffocation during the night for many years since I was seven years old.

“For some reason, you know, as the time was passing by these allergies were gaining more intensity in terms of the reaction I felt.

“It was just getting stronger and stronger and the place where I felt that the most was always the tennis court.

“That’s where you know, emotions kick in expectations, pressure, and when you mix it all together, you get a formula that is causing you to really experience some major health problems on the court.

“And because of it, I was retiring matches and I was it took me a lot of time recover.

“So we started slowly taking off layer by layer and really going, deep into things that are related to my health and trying to understand what is the core of it.

“Of course, diet was one of the most integral parts of the problem and changing the diet was something that allowed me to get rid of the allergies and everything, and particularly gluten and dairy that I removed from my diet and refined sugar.”

Having given up so much, Djokovic pays close attention to what he eats on training days.

“When I rise from the bed I start with warm water and lemon to help my body detoxify.

“And then I would have celery juice on an empty stomach.

“Then I’ll take a break and have my green smoothie with different algae and different fruits and superfoods and great supplements that I use that allow me to have mental clarity and feel good.

“I eat a lot of fruits for the first part of the day and salads.

“I don’t like to eat any food that would require too much energy for digestion, especially in the first part of the day because that’s when I need the most energy for my training.

“So I’m keeping things quite light and I would have grains like quinoa, wild rice, sweet potato and normal potato, like steamed or boiled.”