Sunday, December 12, 2010

Tip of the week by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark – Salad as a meal

Any season, brunch, lunch or dinner, salad can be a soccer and sports-worthy meal-IF you make the right choices. Below is a "complete program" for building the best salad for your sport from Food Guide for Soccer: Tips and Recipes from the Pros.

Salad for Lunch

Salads, whether served as a main dish or an accompaniment, are a simple way to boost your intake of fresh vegetables-that's good! But as a soccer athlete, you need a substantial, carbohydrate-based lunch. Most salads get the bulk of their calories from salad oil-not good. You'll be better able to fuel your muscles if you choose a sandwich with a side salad for lunch, rather than eat just a big salad for the entire meal. However, if a salad is your choice, to make it a meal, make sure to add from the substantial choices below.


Three tricks to making a healthy sports salad are:

1. Choose a variety of colorful vegetables-dark green lettuces, red tomatoes, yellow peppers, orange carrots-for a variety of vitamins and minerals. If the vegetables you buy for salads tend to wilt in your refrigerator, consider frequent trips to the salad bar at the grocery store and deli as an alternative to tossing veggies that spoil before you find the chance to eat them. And here's a tip: dig from the bottom, to make sure to get the coldest (and therefore best preserved) part of the salad bar.

2. Add extra carbohydrates, or protein:
• dense vegetables, such as corn, peas, beets, carrots
• beans and legumes, such as chickpeas, kidney beans, and three-bean salad
• cooked rice or pasta
• oranges, apples, raisins, grapes, craisins
• toasted croutons
• whole-grain bread or roll on the side
• hardboiled eggs, cheese (moderate amounts), chicken, flaked tuna or imitation seafood, preferably without mayonnaise. (If it comes with mayo, hold off adding any extra dressing to the salad or add lemon or vinegar.)

3. Monitor the dressing. Some soccer players drown 50 calories of healthful salad ingredients with 400 calories of blue cheese dressing! At a restaurant, always request the dressing be served on the side. Otherwise, you may get 400 calories of unhealthy oil, or mayonnaise-fatty foods that fill your stomach but leave your muscles unfueled.

If you choose to use regular dressings, try to select ones made with olive oil for both a nice flavor and health-protective monounsaturated fats. If you want to reduce your fat intake, simply dilute regular dressings with water, more vinegar, lemon, or even milk (in ranch and other mayonnaise-based dressings). Or, choose from the plethora of low- or non-fat salad dressings. These dressings are good not only for salads, but also sandwiches, baked potatoes and dip.

Excerpted from Food Guide for Soccer-Tips & Recipes From the Pros, with Women's Professional Soccer, by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark, RD. Available on www.amazon.com or www.nancyclarkrd.com

Check out the latest news on the 2011 Women's Professional Soccer season at www.womensprosoccer.com





Sunday, October 31, 2010

Tip of the week by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark – Make Time for Breakfast!

As an aspiring soccer star, plan to start your day with breakfast preferably within two hours of waking. From female athletes on a 1,800-calorie weight reduction diet, to tall men who devour 3,600+ calories a day, soccer athletes deserve to eat  a hefty 500 to 900 calorie morning meal(s). If you train in the morning (such as in summer camps or team pre-season), you might want to eat part of your breakfast (as tolerated) before practice, and then enjoy the rest of the breakfast afterwards, either at home, on the way to class, or in your car.

Despite our clear message about breakfast being the most important meal of the day, we have to coax many soccer athletes to experiment with eating (more) breakfast. Far too many of them under-eat in the morning. Let’s take at look at just one standard breakfast excuse—and solutions.

“I don't have time to eat breakfast…”

Lack of priority is the real problem, not lack of time. If you can make time to train, you can make time to fuel for your training. Even if you choose to sleep to the last minute before dragging yourself out of bed to go to school, work, or a soccer practice or game, you can still choose to eat breakfast on the way. Some simple portable breakfasts include:

• a baggie filled with raisins, almonds, and granola.
• a tortilla rolled with a slice or two of low-fat cheese.
• a peanut butter and honey sandwich on wholesome bread.
• a glass of milk, then a banana while on the way to your destination.
• a travel mug filled with a fruit smoothie or protein shake.
• an energy bar and a banana during the morning commute.



Excerpted from Food Guide for Soccer—Tips & Recipes From the Pros, with Women’s Professional Soccer, by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark, RD. Available on www.amazon.com or www.nancyclarkrd.com
ww.nancyclarkrd.com.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tip of the week by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark - Hooray for Carbohydrates!


Athletes and other active people should embrace, not shun, a diet that relies primarily on carbohydrates. Fortunately, the cooler temperatures of fall and winter often lend themselves to traditional “carbohydrate cravings.” Ironically, avoiding these cravings usually leads only to other, more destructive cravings: such as for refined carbohydrates, like the kind in sweets. So, do yourself a favor, and include wholesome grains as the foundation of each meal!
Below is some advice and recommendations from Food Guide for Soccer: Tips and Recipes from the Pros.


Carbohydrates for Your Sports Diet

By eating grains, fruits and vegetables as the foundation of each meal, you'll consume about 55 to 65% of your calories from carbohydrates. This is exactly what you need for a high-energy sports diet. These carbohydrates are stored in muscles in the form of glycogen and provide the energy you need for performing on the soccer field.

Grain foods are a popular source of carbohydrates for most soccer athletes. The exceptions are the weight-conscious athletes who believe they will get fat if they eat breads, cereals and pastas at each meal. False. Carbohydrates are not fattening; excess calories are fattening.

Fruits and vegetables are also excellent sources of carbohydrates. But some players have trouble figuring out how to consume the recommended daily 2 cups (500 g) of fruits and 2-1/2 cups (600 g) of vegetables. As one 22-year-old soccer player sheepishly remarked, "I'm lucky if I eat that much in a week." The trick is to eat large portions. Most soccer players can easily enjoy a banana (counts as one cup fruit) and 8 ounces (one cup) of orange juice in the morning. That’s already the minimal 2 cups of fruit for the day! A big bowl of salad filled with colorful tomato, carrot, and pepper can account for the minimal recommended 21/2 cups of vegetables.


Eat Right for Yourself, And for Your Team

Just as each teammate depends on the others to be fit, focused and ready to play, so too with being well-nourished. When you eat right, you do so for yourself and for the team effort, since what, when and how you fuel has a direct impact on your performance. Parents, coaches, team captains and/or managers: take a poll before games. Ask players what and when they ate before arriving. If it isn’t up to speed (often that means not enough), pass the pre-game snacks. Make sure to do this, particularly for important games. The players will soon got the message, and learn to eat well on their own.


Excerpted from Food Guide for Soccer—Tips & Recipes From the Pros, with Women’s Professional Soccer, by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark, RD. Available on www.amazon.com or www.nancyclarkrd.com.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Tip of the week by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark – No Sweets? - No Way!


Some players love their sweets and treats, and others feel that a good soccer or sports diets means no sweets whatsoever. The truth is a good sports diet can include a reasonable amount of treats. Below is some advice on how to balance sweets and treats in your sports diet. The information is taken from Food Guide for Soccer: Tips and Recipes From the Pros by Nancy Clark RD and Gloria Averbuch.

Although nutritionists recommend eating a wholesome diet based on grains, fruits, and vegetables, some soccer athletes eat a diet with too many sweets and treats. If you have a junk-food diet, you may be able to easily correct this imbalance by eating more wholesome foods before you get too hungry. Athletes who get too hungry (or who avoid carbohydrates) tend to refuel with too many sugary, fatty foods (such as apple pie, instead of apples).

A simple solution to the junk-food diet is to prevent hunger by eating heartier portions of wholesome foods at meals. And once you replace sweets with more wholesome choices (including whole grain carbs), your craving for sweets will diminish.

Take note: You need not eat a "perfect diet" (no fats, no sugar) to have a good diet. Nothing is nutritionally wrong with having something sweet, such as a cookie, for dessert after having eaten a sandwich, milk, and fruit for lunch. But a lot is wrong with eating cookies for lunch and skipping the sandwich. That's when both nutrition and performance problems arise.

The key to balancing fats and sugars appropriately in your diet is to abide the following guidelines:
• 10% of your calories can appropriately come from refined sugar.
(about 200-300 calories from sugar per day for most soccer players)
• 25% of your calories can appropriately come from (preferably
healthful) fat. (about 450-750 calories from fat per day, or roughly 50-85 grams of fat per day)

Hence, moderate amounts of chips, cookies, and ice cream can fit into an overall healthful food plan, if desired.


Need Some Help Shaping Up Your Diet?

If you want personalized dietary advice, Nancy Clark recommends you seek professional advice from a registered dietitian (RD) who specializes in sports nutrition and, ideally, is Board Certified as a Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD). To find a sports nutritionist in your area, use the referral networks at the American Dietetic Association's website (www.eatright.org) or the website of ADA's practice group of sports dietitians (www.SCANdpg.org). Or try googling "sports nutritionist, your city." You'll be glad you did! This personal nutrition coach can help you win with good nutrition. Better yet, consider doing this on a teamwide basis, and get group nutrition analysis and education.

Excerpted from Food Guide for Soccer-Tips and Recipes From the Pros, with Women's Professional Soccer, by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark, RD. Available on www.amazon.com or www.nancyclarkrd.com

Gloria Averbuch/Sky Blue FC
Director, Marketing & Public Relations
Phone: 732-271-7700 x307 | Cell: 973-449-8880 Fax: 732-271-7735
80 Cottontail Lane | Suite 400 | Somerset, NJ 08873
www.SkyBlueFC.com
www.Facebook.com/SkyBlueFC
www.Twitter.com/SkyBlueFC

Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD
Sports Nutrition Services LLC
www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com
www.nancyclarkrd.com (books, handouts, CEUs)
Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 4th Edition
Food Guide for Soccer: Tips and Recipes from the Pros
Healthworks, 1300 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill MA 02467
Phone:  617.795.1875 Twitter.com/nclarkrd
"Helping active people win with good nutrition."

Friday, September 10, 2010

Tip of the week by Gloria Averbuch – How much should you weigh?


Being on the "inside" of any female athlete’s life, whether soccer or otherwise, the obsession with weight and body image just gets stronger, despite all efforts to combat it. The beauty of soccer, however, is that the pleasure and success derived from the game are completely contrary to the obsession with thinness. In other words, good appetites and healthful eating contribute to the strong bodies that will prevail in the rigors of the game. Good coaches, parents and players are wisely on the lookout for any behavior that  contradicts this fact.

Body consciousness, however, is not a bad thing in and of itself. People often wonder: how much should I weigh?  Below are some general guidelines on weight from Food Guide for Soccer.

Target Weights
Although only nature knows the best weight for your body, the following guidelines offer a very general method to estimate a healthy weight range. Add or subtract 10%, according to your body frame and musculature. (Note: These guidelines do not work for very muscular soccer players.)

Women:100 pounds (45 kg) for the first 5 feet (1.52 m) of height;
5 pounds (2.3 kg) per inch (2.5 cm) thereafter
Example: A woman who is 5'6" could appropriately weigh 130 lbs, or 117 lbs at the lower end if she is petite or 143 lbs if she is muscular. (1.7 m; 59 kg, 53-65 kg)

Men: 106 pounds (48 kg) for the first 5 feet (1.52 m) of height;
6 pounds (2.7 kg) per inch (2.5 cm) thereafter
Example: A man who is 5'10" could appropriately weigh 166 lbs, or 150 lbs at the lower end if he is petite or 182 lbs if he is muscular. (1.8 m; 75.5 kg, 68-83 kg)

If you are striving to weigh significantly less than the weight estimated by these general guidelines, think again. Remember: in addition to skill, soccer is a game of strength, endurance and power. In addition to the genetic design for your body, if you are a serious player, your soccer training, as well as the conditioning (including weights) is meant to increase performance and prevent injury. It is also likely to create a muscular body. The best weight goal is the weight that makes you feel strong and powerful. That's the "body beautiful," and the body for performance and health!

Excerpted from Food Guide for Soccer-Tips & Recipes From the Pros, with Women's Professional Soccer, by Gloria Averbuch and Nancy Clark, RD. Available on www.amazon.com or www.nancyclarkrd.com


Congratulations to FC Gold Pride that locked up the regular season league championship title, and thus earned the right to host the WPS Championship presented by Citi. Most of the teams are still statistically in the playoff hunt, which ensures an exciting finish to the final games in the regular season. Stay tuned to the action on www.womensprosoccer.com.

Gloria Averbuch/Sky Blue FC
Director, Marketing & Public Relations
Phone: 732-271-7700 x307 | Cell: 973-449-8880 Fax: 732-271-7735
80 Cottontail Lane | Suite 400 | Somerset, NJ 08873

www.SkyBlueFC.com
www.Facebook.com/SkyBlueFC
www.Twitter.com/SkyBlueFC