What to eat and drink on a session day

You sit down to play at seven having eaten nothing since lunch, or having eaten a huge meal ten minutes ago, with an energy drink for hydration. An hour in you are foggy, irritable and slow, and you put it down to a bad day.

Your brain runs on what you gave it. Playing on empty means your attention and patience run out early. Playing on a heavy meal means blood is busy elsewhere and you feel sluggish. Playing dehydrated, which is most players most of the time, slows reaction and makes concentration harder. None of these feel like a food problem from the inside. They feel like a form problem.

A competitive session is two or three hours of sustained concentration. That is closer to an exam than to a hobby, and you would not sit an exam on a packet of crisps and a can of something fizzy. The players who last into the third hour with their decision-making intact are usually not more disciplined. They just ate a proper meal beforehand and had water on the desk.

This pillar does not need a diet, a supplement or a plan. It needs a few habits that take zero effort once they are in place.

1. Eat a real meal one to two hours before. Something with protein, some slow carbohydrate, and vegetables if you have them. Not a feast, not a snack. Enough that you will not be hungry during the session, early enough that you are not digesting during the first match.
2. Water on the desk, every session. A large glass or a bottle within reach, and drink from it between rounds. Mild dehydration makes concentration harder and reaction slower, and most people are mildly dehydrated by evening without noticing.
3. Do not use energy drinks as your drink. If you want caffeine, that is a separate decision covered in its own guide. As a source of fluid they are a bad trade, because the sugar and caffeine work against the reason you are drinking.
4. Avoid the sugar spike before you queue. Sweets, fizzy drinks and pastries give you twenty good minutes and an hour of fog. If you need something between meals, go for something with protein or fat that will not crash.
5. Have a small snack ready for long sessions. Past the two-hour mark, something light: fruit, nuts, yoghurt. It stops the late-session slump where every decision gets slower.
6. Notice the hungry tilt. Irritability, impatience and rushed decisions are the first signs of low blood sugar, and they look exactly like tilt. If you are getting angry in the second hour, check when you last ate before you blame the game.

None of this is complicated and all of it is skipped constantly. Eat properly, keep water on the desk, and watch how many of your "bad days" turn out to have been lunch.