Honley heptathlete Zara Tyas knows maintaining a balanced diet across seven different disciplines is a difficult skill to master.

However, the Loughborough University student believes attending a special nutritional workshop, organised by Aldi, can enhance her ever-growing expertise.

Tyas, 19, is a member of Aldi’s Rising Stars programme, an initiative that supports 20 young athletes by providing a financial award to help with training and competition costs, while also delivering personal development opportunities to many athletes through workshop sessions.

The programme allowed her to attend a unique Taste Kitchen workshop at Aldi’s Atherstone HQ, providing her with valuable insight into fuelling an athlete’s body for training and competing, as well as top tips for recipes, batch cooking and eating on the go.

Tyas only recently made the switch from high jump to heptathlon and says experiencing the insight can catalyse her journey to competing at the Olympic Games.

She said: “It’s been so much fun today I really enjoyed the practical side of it, but also the theory when they gave us all this information and knowledge that we could go and use. The information about what you eat and when you eat it surprised me – for example, I didn’t realise it took longer to digest fats you eat before training.”

The Rising Stars athletes will receive financial support through Aldi, as well as a monthly food voucher to fuel them through training, competitions and to future Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Aldi have a top 10 shopping list of affordable, healthy items recommended by nutritionists, Nigel Mitchell and Jenny Tschiesche – both of whom attended the event to help Tyas develop a better understanding of nutritious foods key for training, skills for cooking and how to maximise her monthly Aldi vouchers.

Tyas, who has aspirations of competing at next year’s Under-23 European Championships, learned that eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming, with Tschiesche and Mitchell taking her and her fellow athletes through multiple recipes throughout the day.

She loved getting an insight into some new innovative recipes and as she prepares for her post-season winter training block, joked: “Maybe I’ll opt for some avocado and toast later in the day and not just before training! It’s been really good and a very productive day.”

Mitchell, a Team GB nutritionist with three decades’ worth of experience working with athletes to create bespoke nutritional plans to aid performance, added: “Supermarkets like Aldi really provide an affordable opportunity for the consumer to look at getting excellent quality food at a much more affordable price.

“I think that that is so important in today's age, where people are much more price aware, but are also really wanting the quality of foods that they really need to get the range and in depth of nutrients.”

Aldi is the Official Supermarket Partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB and have partnered with Team GB since 2015, ParalympicsGB since 2022 and will be supporting them through to Paris 202