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What Novak Djokovic Eats in a Day is Nearly Impossible For ‘Regular People’

Published 05/16/2020, 10:32 AM EDT

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With 17 Grand Slam titles in his trophy cabinet, Novak Djokovic is certainly one of the greatest players ever to play the sport. However, with great talent, his strict gluten-free diet has played a major part in his success. Djokovic’s diet is certainly hard to follow for a regular person. However, in order to be the best he can be, he has to eat right.

The change in diet helped Djokovic go from regular mid-match collapses to a Grand Slam winning streak. Changing his diet was unquestionably the turning point of his career. He is a great example of how diet is important for greater performance and bringing in significant performance in the body.

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In 2010, Djokovic saw a defer against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2010 Australian Open quarter-final. He took a lead of two sets to one but then suffered a physical crisis and lost the match.

The Serbian was at a low career point and was struggling with his health. However, Dr. Igor Cetojevic came as a messiah for Novak, who saw him playing in the 2010 Australian Open. Subsequently, Dr. Igor suggested some changes to Djokovic. He then adjusted his intakes by removing gluten, sugar, and dairy and kept a strict and clean diet.

“I start with warm water” – Novak Djokovic

In an interview on ‘In Depth with Graham Bensinger‘, Novak admitted diet was one of the most integral parts of the problem. The 32-year-old revealed that he started off taking off layer by layer. He explained that he went really deep into things that are related to his health and trying to understand what is the core of it. Djokovic also shared his average plant-based diet.

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“Changing the diet was something that allowed me to get rid of the allergies and everything particularly gluten, dairy, and refined sugar that I removed from my diet,” said Djokovic.

“I start with warm water and lemon so I can help my body detoxify and then I would have celery juice on an empty stomach and then I would take a break-in,” he said revealing about his diet.

He further added: “And I would have my green smoothie, with different algae, different fruits, superfoods and great supplements that I use that allow me to have mental clarity, feeling good, longevity and different benefits on health.

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He explained that he eats a lot of fruits for the first part of the day, salads. Novak doesn’t like to eat any food that would require much energy for digestion especially in the first part of the day because that’s when he needs the most energy for his training.

“So I am keeping things quite light. I would have probably like so the grains like quinoa and millet and wild rice, sweet potato, normal potato-like steamed or boiled,” he concluded.

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Novak Djokovic Reveals the Most Heartbreaking Moment of His Career

To follow Djokovic’s diet is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. However, one can surely take inspiration from Djokovic’s work ethic and discipline in his eating habits.

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Written by:

Varun Khanna

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.
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