Golden Cake and Other Treats

Nastia Liukin going for the gold... cake...

Desserts. From the most delicious chocolaty cake to the most delectable banana split. Who can resist the calling of a home-made blond brownie? Not to mention the ice cream that has your name written all over it. Besides, you're a gymnast. Surely someone can eat a brownie, so long as they work out for like, 12 hours a week. 

A brownie here, an ice cream sandwich there. How much is too much? Sure, you don't struggle with weight gain now, but you're most likely not going to be a gymnast for the rest of your life. Surely your habits will catch up with you...

Gymnasts, along with most athletes, need mostly proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in their diet. When a gymnast is craving one of these things, they go and get it. In this instance, they are probably craving carbohydrates, or "carbs". Cake and Cookies are filled with tons of carbs, so they provide the necessary parts to fill the hole. Though these sweet treats are delicious and work for filling in for the carbs you need, they aren't really beneficial in any other way. Getting used to eating sweets all the time could lead do bad eating habits when you are older. besides, there are foods that are both delicious and nutritious as well as full of carbs to fill your needs. Also, you could think about eating more snacks in-between your meals in order to better space your intake. Dr. Josh at Gymnast Care reccomends you eat breakfast, a midmorning snack, lunch, a pre-workout snack, during workout snack, and dinner.

Some delicious and easy-to-make desserts for your lunch include:

Ants on a Log
Take a celery stick, fill the concaved part with peanut butter, and top with raisins or chocolate covered raisins.

Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwich
Take two slices of sandwich bread (white or wheat), spread nutella over one slice, spread peanut butter over the other slice, put the two peices together with the spreads facing inwards.

Dark Chocolate
This one is pretty self explanitory, I enjoy eating it dipped in peanut butter, but just plain is fine too :).


Rock on my hungry internet gymnasts!

~Joanna






p.s. I got the information for this post from stayfueled.com by Gymnast Care. Check them out on facebook!

Snacking During Breaks

Think. Yes, right now. When was the last time you had practice? Now think of all the cool (or not so cool) stuff that you did. Ok, now I want you to try and remember what you ate for snack. Was it healthy? Did it fuel you enough for the rest of practice? It seems that every day I'm at gym, at least one person on my team may have a snack that is delicious, but not good for her. So while things like TGI Friday's' "Potato Skins" chips may look good you might want to swap that one out for some trail mix. 

BAD

Of course, You have to start off with the obviously bad stuff. Things like cold pizza, cake, and burgers. One of my old coaches actually had a teammate that had a McDonald's burger at snack once, and they all had to run until she threw up (it only took 30 minutes). There's also things like chips, candy, and other "junk" type foods that probably shouldn't be on your snack time menu. Those granola bars that are covered in chocolate and deliciousness? Yeah, you should probably supplement them with something better if you really want one. Always, always, always make sure that those fruit snacks are really beneficial, too. Labels that contain weird names like polydimethylsiloxane probably aren't that good for you either. 

(By the way, polydimenthylsiloxane [PDMS] is used in foods at some of your favorite fast food restaurants as well as in Silly Putty, dry-cleaning solutions, silicone and head-lice treatments AND it's also a bonding agent. Eat up!)

GOOD

Good foods are almost as easy to find as the bad. Things like nuts and meats give you the protein you need to maintain your energy throughout your practice. Fruits and Vegetables are low in fat while still filling you up and giving you the  essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and other substances that you need. The best thing to remember when choosing a healthy snack is to balance your food groups. Just protein is great, but you're missing those vitamins, and just fruit is delicious, but it's not going to hold you up for long. Some awesome choices for the best of both worlds are things like apples in peanut butter, fruit and nut granola bars (check the ingredients for artificial sugar content. Usually things that end in -ose), fruit filled yogurt, and other things of that sort!

Recipe!

Homemade chewy dark chocolate cherry almond granola bars

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups rolled oats 

1/3 cup raw honey 

1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour 

1/2 tsp salt 

1/2 Chocolate Bar, crushed (chocolate chips are also fine)

1/2 cup dried cherries 

1/2 cup slivered almonds 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1/4 cup coconut oil 

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

Directions:

1. Butter or oil an 8x8 baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix thoroughly. 

3. Place the mixture onto the prepared baking pan and pat down firmly so that it's 1/2" thick. 

Tip* When using a larger baking sheet, scoot the mixture to one side and cover the exposing edge with a thin piece of foil to prevent it from getting hard in the oven.

4. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

5. Allow to cool before cutting.

Tip* The coconut oil gives these bars a hint of coconut flavor. If you’d like more, feel free to add 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes.

I don't know about you, but these sound DELICIOUS to me! They also sound pretty easy to make, that way people who have a busy schedule will have time to make them too :)

Bake on my hungry Internet gymnasts!

~Joanna

Information on polydimethylosiloxane found at: http://science.discovery.com/life-earth-science/10-common-weird-ingredients.htm

See more recipes at: http://www.spain-in-iowa.com/2012/08/homemade-chewy-dark-chocolate-cherry-with-almond-granola-bars/#sthash.K7lOd4aF.dpuf

Chocolate Milk: Real or Myth?

Hey everyone! 
I know it's a little late, but I really want to do this post! Anyways, I've heard from multiple sources that one of the best options for an after-practice drink/snack is chocolate milk. As well as hearing the positives, I'm also asked, "what's so good about chocolate milk?". Well, this is a very valid question. I mean, chocolate milk has "chocolate" in the name, and people all over consider it a "candy". Why not just regular milk? Now here's where I come in. I did some research to find if chocolate milk is beneficial like they say, or just a hoax to make people feel better about drinking it. 

Alas, I found a website that informed me of the truth. Dr. Charles Smith, UAMS family medicine doctor, shares that it may be more beneficial than you think. Apparently, the chocolate in the milk contains as much as 11g of protein. That's just about as much as  A 50-gram commercially prepared protein bar. In relation to only drinking this milk after practice, experts suggest that you should have between 15g and 25g of protein after a night at the gym. This would be the equivalent to either An 80-gram protein bar from a national candy company, which usually contains a surplus of sugar (see my other post "The Candy Bar Scandal"), or about 200ml of chocolate milk, equivalent to one cup. 

Now, it seems that the answer is clear, I'm gonna have chocolate milk after practice! With it, an athlete will have the protein they need, and not the extra sugar they don't.

Are you going to drink chocolate milk after workout more often? Why or why not? Tell me in the comments!     \/ \/ \/

Tumble on, my majestic internet gymnasts.
~Joanna


p.s. information from http://www.uamshealth.com/?id=5453&sid=1 and http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/much-protein-protein-bar-have-6571.html