The coffee shop on Bank Street smelled like cinnamon and wet wool that morning when I met Véronique Séguin and Rebekah De Couvreur. Outside, sleet tapped against the windows. Inside, two registered dietitians unpacked Tupperware containers filled with quinoa bowls, berry parfaits, and what looked like a very thoughtful sandwich.
March is Nutrition Month across Canada, and this year’s theme centers on a phrase that feels almost defiant in its simplicity. Nourish to flourish. Not optimize or maximize or hack your metabolism. Just nourish. And then see what happens.
Séguin and De Couvreur co-own Built to Perform, a nutrition consulting practice in Ottawa that works with everyone from recreational joggers to elite athletes. They had just finished a segment on CTV’s Your Morning Ottawa, demonstrating what they call performance plates. Three versions of a balanced meal, each tailored to a different level of physical activity.
“When we nourish our bodies well, we have the foundation to make sure we flourish in our sport, in our activity,” Séguin told me, pushing a grain bowl across the table. The broccoli was still bright green. The tahini dressing pooled at the edge like liquid silk.
The conversation we had that morning wasn’t about restriction or calorie counting. It was about alignment. Matching what you eat to what you do, and doing both with intention.
Most people think protein is the star of the athletic plate. Egg whites after a run. Chicken breast after yoga. But De Couvreur gently redirects that focus. “When we talk with active individuals, we’re actually focused a lot more on the carbohydrate and how that changes on your plate,” she explained. Protein stays fairly consistent, about a quarter to a third of your plate depending on your goals. Carbohydrates shift and stretch based on your output.
Canada’s Food Guide offers a helpful baseline, but athletic demands require something more dynamic. That’s where the performance plate model comes in. It’s visual, flexible, and rooted in real meals, not meal replacement shakes or powdered supplements.
For someone on a rest day or engaging in light activity like a daily walk or gentle yoga, the plate looks balanced and calm. One quarter carbohydrates, one quarter protein, and half fruits and vegetables. De Couvreur suggested a curry chickpea sandwich with a side of colorful produce. It’s nourishing without being heavy. Restorative without being indulgent.
When activity ramps up to moderate intensity, the plate begins to shift. Séguin described this level as appropriate for someone completing one intense workout lasting over an hour, or two lighter sessions in a day. The quinoa grain bowl she presented was a study in texture and color. Grilled chicken for protein. Broccoli florets, zucchini, peppers, carrots. Dark greens for iron and folate. The carbohydrate portion increased slightly, reflecting the body’s need for glycogen replenishment.
“There’s a touch of colour. Beautiful greens there as well,” Séguin said, pointing to the bowl with quiet pride. It wasn’t just fuel. It was also a meal someone might actually want to eat.
The third level is where things get serious. Hard training, defined as two sessions per day or over ninety minutes of intense exercise, demands a plate where half the real estate belongs to carbohydrate-rich foods. De Couvreur’s example included a wrap with eggs, black beans, and vegetables, accompanied by roasted potatoes and a generous bowl of raspberries. The fiber, the antioxidants, the slow-release energy, all of it working in tandem.
This isn’t about eating more for the sake of it. It’s about strategic recovery and sustained performance. Carbohydrates restock muscle glycogen. They stabilize blood sugar. They prevent the kind of deep fatigue that creeps in after consecutive hard efforts.
Timing matters too, especially before a workout. If you’re eating within thirty to sixty minutes of exercise, the body needs quick-digesting carbohydrates that won’t sit heavy in your stomach. De Couvreur recommended toast with honey, melon, grapes, or even Rice Krispies. Simple sugars that enter the bloodstream fast and provide immediate energy. “We don’t want something packed with fibre and protein if it’s right before,” she said. “That’s too slow to digest.”
If you have more than an hour before your session, you can afford to add complexity. Séguin suggested pairing those carbs with a source of protein like yogurt, which slows digestion and provides a steadier energy curve.
What struck me most during our conversation was how little moralizing took place. There was no good food or bad food rhetoric. No shame attached to eating Rice Krispies before a run. No performative kale worship. Just practical guidance rooted in physiology and respect for individual needs.
Dietitians of Canada has made free Nutrition Month resources available online, including meal ideas and evidence-based tips. The organization emphasizes that dietitians are more than just meal planners. They’re translators between science and daily life, helping people make sense of conflicting nutrition headlines and fad diets.
I left the coffee shop with a new respect for the plate in front of me. Not as a battleground or a moral test, but as a conversation between body and intention. What you need shifts with what you do. And when you listen closely, the answers are often simpler than the noise would suggest.
Nourish to flourish. It’s not a command. It’s an invitation. And in a culture obsessed with doing more with less, it feels quietly revolutionary to suggest that sometimes, more is exactly what we need.
