Cheer Cincy, July 2011
Keeping It Tight: 4 Quick Nutrition Tips
Getting hooked on healthy nutrition and exercising at a young age is one of the best investments you will ever make in your life. I started my fitness journey at 16 and wish I had started even sooner! At Keep It Tight Fitness we offer a fun, challenging and unintimidating Teen Boot Camp all summer on Mondays & Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. for girls who want to stay fit, get healthy and be prepared for try outs and the season ahead.
At Keep it Tight, we also offer nutrition guidance. These tips can help you make great decisions with your daily nutrition choices.
Healthy Eating Tips For Teens
1. Don’t skip breakfast. – Bypassing breakfast seems like an easy way to cut calories, especially if you are not starving in the morning. But eating first thing gets your metabolism going and studies show that girls who eat breakfast are healthier overall!
2. Increase calcium intake. – The importance of calcium and exercise for healthy bone development in young girls is crucial. A few foods high in calcium are yogurt, milk, cheese and almonds.
3. Make healthier choices at fast food restaurants. – Instead of getting something fried try to go for grilled. With condiments try mustard instead of fatty mayo or sugary ketchup.
4. Choose healthy snacks. – Instead of going for a bag of chips in the pantry, try a cup of fresh fruit or some multi-grain pretzels with Better’n Peanut Butter!
Get $25 off your first month of Teen Boot Camp at Keep it Tight Fitness. Just mention that you’re a Cheer Cincy subscriber!
Melissa Matson is the owner of Keep It Tight Fitness, a fitness boutique off Fields Ertel Road in Cincinnati. Melissa is a mother of 6 and instills passion into every aspect of her life and has built a strong foundation in the principles of both fitness and nutrition.
Mini Food Makeover Tips for Teens
1. When grazing appetizers at a party, place your food on a plate — it helps you judge how much you’re eating. Don’t eat directly from serving bowls or trays.
2. Pick the darker food: red sauce instead of creamy, sweet potatoes rather than white, spinach instead of lettuce. Usually the deeper the color of a food, the healthier it is!
3. You know how family and friends like to schmooze before eating? Have a few sticks of celery topped with peanut butter as a pre-party snack—it will keep you from gorging when that first tray of pizza rolls comes out!
4. At parties, survey the entire food spread before you dig in. You might be sorry you already had a sugar cookie when you find your favorite pie on the other side of the room!
5. Be the one who brings healthy options to parties: low-fat tortilla chips with salsa or air-popped popcorn sprayed with butter-flavored cooking spray and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar tastes just as good as junk food and is much better for you.
6. In the mood for candy? Pick the one that lasts longest—a minute sucking on a Jolly Rancher is better than a minute popping Skittles!
7. If you know you’re going to an afternoon or evening party, don’t skip breakfast! Eating this meal will help prevent you from overeating later in the day.
8. Skip the hot mini pastries or fried appetizers that get passed around. Buffet-table items like veggies and dip, cheese and crackers and sushi are often healthier.
9. Avoid mysterious punch-bowl concoctions and eggnog; these drinks can be loaded with calories! For something healthy but festive, try club soda with splashes of orange juice and cranberry juice.
10. Choose the food that looks like it was processed the least. A beef skewer is healthier than rolled-up deli meats; cheese cubes are better than fried mozzarella sticks.
Source: Seventeen.com, Jennifer Goldstein
Bored to Eat
Do you ever find yourself snacking even though you’re not hungry — at all? We can help you how to break the habit. We asked Marlene Schwartz, Ph.D., director of research and school programs for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, for the best tips to curb your “bored” snack cravings.
1. Recognize that you’re doing it: One of the easiest ways to find out when you’re eating out of boredom is to write down everything you eat and at what time for two to three days. You can do this in your daily planner, on a piece of paper, or in a journal. When you analyze your list, you might notice that you’re eating a lot of random snacks right when you get home from school because you’re wandering around the kitchen. If you can identify the times and the places that you eat without being hungry, you’ll have something concrete to focus on.
2. Set rules: Tell yourself that you eat only when you’re sitting down at the kitchen or dining room table. Don’t eat in front of the TV, on your bed, or in front of the computer. Those are high-risk areas because you might not necessarily be hungry, but you’re not going to be paying attention to what or how much you’re eating if you start to snack.
3. Make a regular eating schedule: You want to have breakfast , lunch, and dinner, and it’s okay to have a healthy snack or two if you have a long stretch between your meals. But don’t stray from that schedule. Do you always need a dessert after dinner? That’s fine. But don’t throw in another dessert two hours later when you’re writing a paper at 1 a.m.
4. Keep your hands busy: It sounds obvious, but if you’re doing something else with your hands, it’s pretty hard to eat at the same time. Polish your nails, try a new hobby like knitting, read a book, play video games — anything to make it tough to eat at the same time.
Source: Cosmo Girl
MEET THE OWNER
Melissa Matson, Creator/Owner, of Keep It Tight Fitness, located in Cincinnati, OH, instills passion into every aspect of her life. Melissa has built a strong foundation in the principles of both fitness and nutrition.
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