By now you've probably seen the ads that invite you to "eat like an athlete" by stocking your Brooklin home with a certain sponsor's food products. Most of us believe that if we ate like Olympic athletes we would be fit and healthy too, but without another crucial component - exercise - a real athlete's diet would make most of us as big as houses! Read on to find out what athletes really eat, and how this food fuels their grueling exercise and training schedule so you can see what it really takes to be an athlete.

Athletes train every day, without fail. This is what it takes to achieve and maintain their strength and endurance. The exercises they do depend on their sport and what they want to achieve through their training, but you'd better believe they don't let things like having to work in a Toronto naturopathic clinic or pick the kids up at school keep them from their workouts. They don't make excuses about being too tired or put off their daily workouts into one big fitness blitz on the weekend. They suck it up and do what needs to be done. Every day.

Training every day prevents athletes from overstraining themselves. If they work out too hard or for too long, they know that they'll be laid up in their King West condos nursing pulled muscles for so long that they're set back in their training. Another way they avoid overstraining is to mix up their workouts. A runner might run every day, but he or she will also mix in workouts such as lifting weights and doing stomach crunches. These exercise tone specific muscles that will be important later on in intense competition.

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During their workouts, athletes are always conscious of two things: keeping hydrated and making sure they don't pull muscles. To make sure they're still able to move enough to train again the next day, athletes will do elaborate warm-up and cool-down routines that comprise of stretches and low level aerobic exercise. They often do this in the yards of their waterfront homes in PEI. Then while they are exercising and afterward, they take care to drink water and electrolyte-rich sports drinks to make sure their muscles don't cramp.

How do they manage these grueling routines? By filling themselves with the right foods. At home in their Trinity Park lofts, they prepare meals that have a balance of the athlete's nutrition trinity: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. They avoid fast foods, cheese, and red meat in favor of fruits, vegetables, fish, tofu, chicken, and complex carbohydrates like pasta and cereals. Their tough exercise routines mean their bodies need a lot of fuel, so athletes will often eat up to six meals per day.