O’Keefe cooks his way to the top

Ryan O’Keefe’s best on ground performance in last year’s famous grand final victory by the Sydney Swans did not happen by chance.

Among the most decorated and dedicated players in the AFL, O’Keefe’s carefully constructed diet lies at the heart of his success.

“For my industry, diet is critical,” says O’Keefe. “It’s crucial to eat really healthy and I am really meticulous about what I eat, the way I feed my family and what I put in my body.”

The Clovelly resident has now placed his wealth of knowledge on display in launching his personal online cooking show, Healthy Eating with Ryan O’Keefe.

“I’ve been playing for 14 years,” says O’Keefe. “It has been a great wealth of knowledge that I’ve picked up and hopefully I can pass that on. People are interested in that and I thought I’d share my knowledge.”

O’Keefe, 32, is well known to be one of the most ardent trainers in the AFL, enabling the midfielder to regularly run over 17 kilometres per match.

His demanding regime includes individual training outside of club sessions, including bike riding from his home at Clovelly to Swans training at Moore Park.

The results have netted O’Keefe two premierships, an All Australian jumper, a Best and Fairest award at the Swans, and ultimately the Norm Smith Medal with a magnificent performance in last year’s grand final victory over Hawthorn.

“It’s about being professional and doing all those little extras – diet is just one aspect of it,” says O’Keefe.

“There’s a whole array of things that contribute to it, so it’s all about just trying to improve and looking at the best ways to do things.”

The father of two children – Levi and Savannah – O’Keefe avoids processed food at all costs and brings his own ingredients when playing interstate.

“I get all my food from farmers markets – I go to the Eveleigh Markets and it’s close to the source as possible,” says O’Keefe.

“Sugar is probably the big one to steer clear off. A lot of people go for low fat this or low fat that, but it’s actually sugar is the biggest killer in today’s diet.

“You find that the full fat or unmodified foods are better for you and some fats are good for you. I think a lot of people eat highly processed and highly refined food.

“You need to get as close to the source as possible and eat food that is as natural as possible. Unprocessed food is better for you.”

The idea of an online cooking show was hatched after O’Keefe used Twitter to broadcast his eating patterns, helping to expand his Twitter followers beyond 11,000.

“The idea, theme and philosophy are all mine,” says O’Keefe. “I’m trying to show people how easy it is to eat healthy and how it tastes nice as well.”

Healthy Eating with Ryan O’Keefe will be available at 9.40am every Tuesday at www.mvpmanagement.com.au/RyanOKeefe