36

WELLNESSLesson Five

When developing your fitness plan, be sure to also develop healthy eating habits. What goes into your body is just as important as being active. It is recommended that you consume three well-balanced meals per day and make healthy snack choices. Aim to include an item from each of the following groups for every meal:

NUTRITION EDUCATION

üFruits üVegetables üProtein üGrains üDairy

DEMONSTRATE!

Selecting healthy choices from each food group and including them in your diet is key. For each of the food groups, list five healthy choices. Think about ways to make your favorite food healthier and some healthy snack alternatives you can try to incorporate.

FruitsGrains

VegetablesProtein

Dairy

Fruits: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________Vegetables: __________________________________________________________________________________________________Grains: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________Protein: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________Dairy: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Be sure to start your day with a healthy breakfast! Eating a nutritious meal first thing in the morning not only helps you do better in school, but it gives you the energy to start your day and stay active all day long.

KEY CONCEPTS: MY PLATE Five FOOD GROUPS

FITT TIP! Try creating meals with fresh fruits instead of those that come pre-packaged or in a can. If you and your family like to buy canned fruits, make sure that your canned fruits are labeled with “in water” so that you know they aren’t soaked in syrup. Eating whole fruits instead of drinking fruit juice is another alternative.

TURN & TALK!Discuss the difference between food choices

that are healthy for you and those that just appear healthy. For example, think about a

salad from a fast food restaurant versus one that you make at home with fresh ingredients. Which of these options is healthier and why?

37

JAKE SANKAL

Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach, Registered Dietician & Sports Nutritionist,

Washington Redskins

Executive Chef, Washington Redskins

JON MATHIESON

Why is it important to start eating healthy at an early age?

“When you’re a young kid, your body is growing really fast so you have to give it the nutrients it needs to grow and to grow properly. You really set the stage early on for the eating habits you will have for the rest of your life. Working to establish those healthy eating habits to give yourself the nutrients you need to grow is key at a young age.”

COACH JAKE

How do healthy eating and physical activity correlate with each other?

“They go together hand in hand really. We like to think of nutrition, around exercise and physical activity, as ‘fueling your exercise.’ I think there is a good relationship between the two.”

COACH JAKE

WITH COACH JAKE SANKAL AND CHEF JON MATHIESON

One-on-One

38

What are some long term effects of healthy eating?

“Lower risk for diseases is really the number one thing. Managing your weight better throughout your life and just feeling better about yourself are also important. Keeping a healthy body is the most important thing to stress. Think about how eating certain foods impacts your performance playing sports, how it affects the way you play in the neighborhood with friends, and how it impacts the way you feel when you do any type of physical activity.”

COACH JAKE

Why is it important for athletes to eat healthy?

“Athletes need to fuel their bodies as much, if not more, than anyone [else]. Going through as much physical activity as they do and putting their bodies through as much stress as they do, they need those nutrients to build their body back up and to perform well every single day.”

COACH JAKE

How do athletes change their meals based on their workouts?

“We try to diversify what they are going to eat. We vary on different days. The most important thing from a food standpoint is diversity; trying as many different things, especially new things, and developing a palate for those things. You want to try as many vegetables as you can, try different starches, different grains and try to stay away from fried foods. Steamed vegetables or [vegetables] lightly cooked in oils are very important. Eat your salads, tomatoes, onions and celery. All of these things have a lot of nutrients that help you grow.”

Chef jon

Is ‘junk food’ ok sometimes?

“Anything in moderation is fine. Anybody can be as strict as they want to be, but you also have to treat yourself. People sometimes call it a ‘cheat day.’ It’s really a treat day. You are giving yourself something positive. You shouldn’t feel bad that you want a candy bar or an ice cream cone because those all fit within the diet in some way or another. It’s just the excess. You don’t want to take it to an excess.”

Chef jon

What piece of advice do you have for students who struggle to eat healthy?

“Take baby steps. Slowly learn about foods you like, and foods you don’t like. Try to gradually add things to your diet that you don’t like. Give them a second try.”

“I would recommend trying things multiple times. Over time our palates change, our tastes change. If you don’t like things now that’s ok, but don’t hesitate to try things later on down the road. Try things prepared different ways. You may not like chicken prepared a certain way, but maybe you like it on the grill for example. Try to season things different ways.”

Chef jon

coach jake

39

Lesson Five: Wellness

ACTIVITY:Create a list of your five favorite unhealthy foods. Under each food choice, replace it with a healthy alternative!

NUTRITION EDUCATION WORK PAGE

Unhealthy

Meal or

Snack

Fried Chicken

healthy

Meal or

Snack

Baked Chicken

FITT TIP! Try a new snack from the suggestions below provided by your favorite Redskins players!

Favorite Healthy Snacks

üChris Baker Strawberries FITT TIP: Recommended serving size = 1 cup

üTress Way Beef Jerky FITT TIP: Look for low-sodium beef or turkey jerky!

üKirk Cousins Bagel with honey FITT TIP: Other great toppings include almond butter, peanut butter or cheese.

üDavid Bruton, Jr. Mangoes & pineapples FITT TIP: Mango season is primarily in the spring and summer. Try a pomegranate or grapefruit in the fall or winter.

üRyan Kerrigan Yogurt parfait with raspberries & blueberries FITT TIP: Try mixing in granola with your parfait!

Healthy Alternatives

Potato Chips ò

Veggie Chips

Ice Cream ò

Frozen Yogurt

French Friesò

Sweet Potato Fries

Milkshakes ò

Smoothies made with fresh fruits or vegetables

Canned Vegetablesò

Fresh Vegetables

40

What is your favorite healthy snack?

“My favorite healthy snack is protein pancakes. They are made with coconut flour, banana, protein powder and eggs. I love cooking, and another one of my favorite things to do is to bake protein bars from scratch!”

What is your favorite warm up activity?

“Jumping jacks! They are a great cardio warm up.”

Describe a typical cheerleading practice.

“We start our practice with a 30-minute workout. Following the workout we will stretch as a team to warm up our muscles for the next few hours of dancing. Then we will go across the floor (four at a time) to demonstrate and work on technique. Our coach will always incorporate challenging and intricate moves that helps us to improve each week. After technique, we start going over upcoming dances and performances we have. Depending on the rehearsal, the practices could be for a preseason game, calendar release performance, military

appreciation tour shows, regular season games, dances for appearances, or preparing for fan day or draft day. Our practices are certainly a cardio workout! We have a solid four hours of dancing non-stop!”

What goes into creating cheerleading workouts?

“Our workouts are generally high-intensity interval training (HIIT). We like to get the most out of our workouts and love how HIIT is only 30 minutes and yet we finish completely drenched in sweat.”

Why is healthy eating and physical activity important for cheerleaders?

“We are on the field and performing from March to January. That’s almost an entire year! We have to do things the right way in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It truly is a lifestyle for us. Healthy eating is so important to me because it fuels me to be able to practice long hours and perform to my highest potential at all times. When you eat better, you feel better!”

What is your biggest piece of advice to students regarding eating healthy and staying physically active?

“My advice would be to do your own research. Research the importance of eating healthy. Research the effects of certain foods on your body. It is important to be educated on what you put into your body. For me, when I realized what certain foods were doing to my body I stopped eating them, but I didn’t know better until I educated myself. This is the only body you have! Treat it good and you will reap the benefits for years to come.”

Meet Maya!

MAYA

Team Captain, Washington Redskins Cheerleaders

41

Lesson Five: Wellness

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Exercising your brain on a daily basis is just as important as being physically active. Developing your cognitive (thinking) skills at an early age will help improve your memory, attention to detail and critical thinking.

Use things such as puzzles, word games, reading and writing to make your brain more efficient!

CROSS-BRAIN TRAINING

The left and right sides of your brain process information in completely different ways. While the left side is more logical and analytical, the right side tends to focus more on creativity and imagination. Most people consider themselves to be mainly left-sided thinkers or mainly right-sided thinkers. The challenge lies in effectively using both sides of your brain to solve problems and to think critically.

DEMONSTRATE!

The Concentration game is a great way to exercise both parts of the brain. Collect a total of ten small objects around the room and select a partner. Take turns placing a number of the random objects in front of each other for different amounts of time. Remove the objects when time expires, and see how many of them your partner can remember. You can also give your partner a list of names, numbers or words to remember as they try to concentrate on remembering the objects in front of them.

TURN & TALK!

Stress can affect your body, mood or behavior. What are common effects of

each category? For example: a headache is a physical effect, anxiety is an effect on mood, and angry outbursts are an effect

on behavior.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. This reaction can affect your health with or without your knowledge. Stress can cause similar symptoms to illness: headache, insomnia, decreased productivity.

42

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Lesson Five: Wellness

BRAIN BREAKS

Brain breaks are short and simple mind and body challenges. These are easy ways for you to regain focus during class time and they are designed to help keep you energized throughout the day.

ACTIVITY:Research three to five brain breaks that you and your friends can do during class time, when appropriate.

These should be one to two minute activities that get you out of your chair and moving.

EXIT TICKET

1. What are the five recommended food groups? Name at least one healthy food item for each

category. __________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

2. What are the benefits of starting your day with a nutritious meal? _________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

3. How many meals should you consume each day? ______________________________________

4. What are brain breaks? ______________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

5. What are physical things you can do to relieve stress? ___________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

6. Exercising your brain is not as important as a physical workout. oTrue oFalse

7. Left brain thinkers are those who are typically more creative and imaginative. oTrue oFalse

KEY CONCEPTS: COGNITIVE STRESS