Talkin’ Turkey – Holiday Game Plan

The holidays are a time to reflect on the bounty of nature and, more importantly, pig out with family and friends. For many athletes, the holidays are also a time to compete in a special tournament or competition. Whether soccer, basketball, running or some other sport, you want to enjoy the great spread, especially the desserts, without giving up your game. What’s a player to do?

If you’re trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, don’t feel like you need to be deprived of your holiday favorites. Fitting all the yummies into a healthy eating plan is easy. Try to eat smaller portions, replace high calorie foods for lowfat options or slightly alter your recipes. For example, replace two egg whites for one egg or used dried fruits intead of nuts, or try evaporated skim milk in place of cream or whipping cream. You can also snack on foods that are high in soluble fiber such as fruits, veggies, and legumes – they actually slow down food digestion and make you feel full longer.

Roast turkey, a holiday staple, gets high marks from most dietitians for overall nutrition. It’s low in fat and high in protein. It’s also a good source of iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, potassium and B vitamins. A 3-ounce serving of boneless, skinless turkey breast contains 26 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat and 0 grams of saturated fat. To keep it healthy, you may want to forgo the skin and choose white over dark meat. Also, try to buy a wild or farm-raised bird without hormones and antibiotics. If you’ve got a holiday sports event you’ll be burning plenty of calories so for this one day, it’s probably okay to “have it your way.”

Side dishes can be traditional or creative but chances are there will be some potatoes on the table. You can add butter and sour cream, or you can make them lower in fat by using broth as a liquid or 2% milk instead of cream. Another way to add a lot of flavor without adding extra calories is to mash them with a few cloves of roasted garlic, which adds a mellow flavor. However you eat ‘em, they’re a great source of vitamin B6.

Stuffing can also get a holiday makeover and added nutrition by using whole-wheat bread and adding ingredients such as:

• Chopped vegetables (onion, celery, mushrooms, and eggplant)
• Nuts (toasted walnuts, pecans, or almonds)
• Fruits (fresh or dried cranberries, apples, apricots, or pears)
• Wild rice

Cranberry Sauce, always a staple, is rich in antioxidants which help protect your body from free radical damage. Cranberries also contain salicyclic acid, the same anti-inflammatory found in aspirin. Less inflammation means faster recovery so eat up!

Freshly picked pumpkins from the pumpkin patch are ideal for decoration, but the canned version wins for ease of preparation as well as for its nutrient score. In terms of both dietary fiber and beta-carotene, canned pumpkin’s nutritional profile far surpasses that of fresh. If you’re concerned about carbs and calories, consider:

• Pumpkin mousse or soufflé as an alternative to pumpkin pie.
• One-crust or no-crust pies rather than two-crust pies.
• Nonfat or reduced-fat whipped topping rather than full-fat whipped cream.
• Replace refined sugar with whole-grain sweeteners such as barley malt syrup.

Most experts say you shouldn’t view a holiday dinner as a meal of extreme excess or extreme restriction. To support the rigors of training, you need to eat well, but don’t forget a dose of good, sound common sense. The best game plan is to eat small portions of a variety of protein, fat, and carbohydrates throughout the day. And most important, take time to enjoy your friends, teammates and family.

Cheers, and happy, healthy holidays to all.

Turkey day and football

November 27, 2008 – When it comes to Thanksgiving weekend lots of people think football (after feast and family of course).  To be sure, there are a lot of high-stakes late-season college battles and numerous high-school homecoming games around the nation.

If you need some tips for getting into the game (whether watching or playing), be sure to review our Football Basics and Football Lingo.  By now, we’re sure you know that football is definitely not just for guys so don’t miss out on a second of fun.

Enjoy your day and be sure to make time to tell the people you love how thankful you are that they’re in your life.

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

Not home for the holidays

Not everyone can make it home for the holidays, especially collegiate athletes.

Some may say that athletes get ripped off during holidays because when everybody else is relaxing, the athletes are in the gym, field, arena or natatorium getting ready for their next performance. Winter and fall sport athletes may end up training harder than ever just when other students are packing up to go home.

There may be no place like home for the holidays but you can create a holiday mood wherever you are. Get together with some teammates to cook a dinner and create your own extended family celebration. You have a unique camaraderie with your team that allows you to bond not just on holidays, but on any occasion. Having that second family helps many athletes get through the holiday and a weekend of competition.

And if you’re not an athlete in training during the holiday, and you find yourself sitting on your butt wishing you had a longer break, remember the athletes who are back at school practicing, training and competing. If they have a bad game for whatever reason, then don’t give them a hard time. Give them a break because they never get much of one.

The First Thanksgiving Meal

November 24, 2008 – With the big turkey meal on tap this week (which can average more than 2,000 calories girls so watch out) we got to thinking about the first Thanksgiving dinner. Ever wonder what the pilgrims and their Native American guests ate at the first feast?

In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is now known as the first Thanksgiving. The truth about the first meal may surprise you. Contrary to popular belief, they didn’t sit down to a meal featuring turkey,corn, cranberries, and pumpkin pie (in fact, they didn’t even eat with forks!).

What Was Actually on the Menu?

Historians aren’t completely certain about the full bounty, but it’s safe to say the pilgrims weren’t gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists  at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl.

Foods That May Have Been on the Menu:

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster

Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles

Meat: Venison, Seal

Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn

Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots

Fruit: Plums, Grapes

Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns

Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

What Was Not on the Menu

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving  meal, didn’t appear on the pilgrims’s first feast table:

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.

Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.

Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.

Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.

Pumpkin Pie: Wasn’t a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.

Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it’s unknown how many they had left or whether the hens were still laying.

Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it’s possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

Talkin’ Turkey

Today, the holidays are a time to reflect on the bounty of nature and, more importantly, pig out with family and friends. How do you enjoy the great spread, especially the desserts, without giving up your game? [+]

Mayflower Girls

November 13, 2008 – Ever wonder what life was like for the first girls to sail to America?

Well we’re not historians by any stretch of the imagination but with Thanksgiving right around the corner, we got to thinking about the first females to arrive in the New World. With a little help from Google, old textbooks, and friendly teachers we cobbled together the following:

In 1620, nearly 100 passengers boarded the Mayflower for one of the most important journeys in history. As with all great adventures, the journey was fraught with hardship and danger. The ship carried about 51 men, 22 boys, 20 women, and 11 girls.

By any definition, the girls onboard the Mayflower were Pretty Tough. Some of the passengers included:

Mary Chilton
At the age of 13, Mary came with her parents on the Mayflower. Legend has it that Mary Chilton was the first female ashore at Plymouth. There is no contemporary recording of the event, but there are also no competing claims. Mary Chilton’s landing on Plymouth Rock is celebrated in Bacon’s The Landing of the Pilgrims, painted in 1877 on exhibit at Pilgrim Hall Museum.

Her father was one of the first who died after the ship had anchored off Provincetown Harbor. Her mother also died sometime later the first winter, orphaning her in the New World.

Mary Chilton went on to marry John Winslow around 1627 and they had 10 children.

Constance Hopkins
Constance, also 13, came with her father Stephen, step-mother Elizabeth, brother Giles, and step-sister Damaris on the Mayflower. Her younger brother, Oceanus, was born while the Mayflower was at sea, so she probably spent a lot of time taking care of her mother’s needs. Oceanus did not survive long, however, and apparently died by 1623. Constance’s future husband, Nicholas Snow, arrived on the ship Anne in 1623.

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