Super Bowl Nutrition Survival Guide

Don’t let one day throw off your long term goals. There’s plenty of ways to enjoy Super Bowl parties and still stay focused on your nutritional goals. I must preface this post by saying I do not recommended any alcohol especially for competitive athletes with upcoming goals but I also understand that many people are not athletes and they do want to enjoy life so for those who are training to be the best at life here’s my guidelines for keeping it as “healthy” as possible.

Avoid Beer, excessive alcohol and flavored shots. I’m not saying that you can’t drink but what I am saying is the less you drink the more food you can have. And if you do decide to drink choose a light beer, clear liquor, dry red wine or homemade alternative to the fancy drinks. Here’s a few of my favorite low sugar drinks:
Mojito (can be made frozen)
What you need:
Fresh Mint
Fresh limes
Ice
Light Rum
Sugar Alternative (Sweet & Low, Splenda or stevia) .
Club Soda

Non frozen-Muddle mint and some fresh-diced limes at the bottom of your cup, put in 1 -2 packets of sweetener top with ice. Fill cup ¼ with light rum. Add 1 ounce of fresh lime juice. Shake up until well mixed. Top off with club soda (AFTER you shake).

Frozen- Add a hand full of mint, ice, juice from 8 fresh limes (NOT lime chunks), pour rum on top of ice until ¼ full. Add sweetener (probably 5-8packs) Blend thoroughly. Pour in cup and top with club soda.
Yields about 5 servings depending on the blender size.

Skinny Margaritas:
What you need:
Fresh lime juice
Tequila
Sugar Alternative (Sweet & Low, Splenda or stevia)
Ice

Pour ingredients over ice & shake or blend.

Caprinana
What you need:
Cachaca Rum
Limes (diced)
Sugar Alternative (Sweet & Low, Splenda or stevia)
Ice

In a rocks glass add 1-2 packets of sweetener, diced limes and muddle well. Add ice and pour cachaca over.

Beer– Guinness is the lowest calorie & carbohydrate Beer. Other beers are any light beer, avoid ciders & flavored beers .

Wine- Dry red wine is best, avoid champagne (quickly adds up in calories and sugar), white wine and sweet red wines have more sugar.

Ok now that I just gave recipes for alcohol, which is not something I condone when trying to reach body composition goals and NEVER for athletes with actual goals in their sport especially anything that involves building muscle, I will move onto food.

1. Guacamole is always abundant for sports parties; yes you can have some but keep in mind 2 ounces is about 100 calories all from fat.
Use veggies to dip into the guac instead of chips.
AVOID CHIPS AT ALL COSTS =)

2. Make your own dip. Use a Greek Yogurt , add Lipton’s French Onion Packet to the yogurt. Make your own Hummus or buy Hope Brand. They don’t have a lot of tahini, Tahini is the ingredient in Hummus that adds extra fat. When making your own hummus avoid using tahini and add other flavors such as roasted peppers, cilantro, hot peppers or curry.
– Use sliced veggies for dipping rather than chips

3. Magic Pop- If you haven’t tried these they are a must for “snacking”
* Snacking is not something I recommended but I understand it will happen on special occasions.

4. Boneless wings– see recipe in my previous blog post www.fitmissnycblog.com/boneless

5. Nuts– 1oz has 15g fat and about 200 calories, similar to Guac this isn’t the best choice for volume or picking. But it can be done if you are careful.

6. Tomato Mozzarella salad– Slice tomatoes with ½ ounce of mozzarella & fresh basil. Each slice has 2.5 grams of fat.

7. Cheese & Crackers- Avoid. There is no way for me to justify eating cheese and crackers. Sorry. This also goes for Pizza. Stay away from Pizza.

8. Popcorn– There are many “healthy” pop corn alternatives on the market now, my favorite is Lesser Evil or Skinny Pop. I love the Wasabi Lesser Evil flavor. Skinny Pop has a white cheddar, dark chocolate and jalapeño flavor! Once again portion control is important.

9. Meats- Roast and slice some fresh lean meats, make mini turkey meat balls with a Marinara dipping sauce – recipe in blow

10. Dessert –if the food above isn’t enough and dessert is tempting always stick with fresh fruit, preferably berries. Offer Fat free whipped cream, raw cacao nibs to top the fruit. Make some protein muffins, cookies or bread pudding. See recipes in previous blog posts.

Now you have the perfect way to make the healthiest Super Bowl Party in town. Keep in mind above all- PORTION CONTROL IS MOST IMPORTANT. You can over eat healthy food.

Enjoy the game!