Super Bowl Parties: Are You Ready?

Teammates, CM SEAL Team blogger Mike Ryan is back with an update of his Labor Day classic "Don't Fall Off the Wagon". What's more dangerous than a Labor Day bar-b-que? A Super Bowl Buffet! Fortunately, there's still time to prepare your Dive Plan. How about throwing some Perfect Pushups in front of the TV? Challenge your friends to push out twenty perfect pushups each time your team scores a touchdown. Just remember, you'll be pushing 'em out too! AMM

The goal: To navigate a Super Bowl party successfully.

Keep in mind that your body, to feel satisfied and full, needs four things:
Volume * Fat * Fiber * Protein. So my prescription for preparing for a Super Bowl party is simple. You want to arrive feeling full! BEFORE you leave, drink tons of water. Prepare a big dark green leafy salad or a plate of at least 2 cups of grilled/steamed vegetables like broccoli or spinach. Throw 3 oz of turkey on top and use a good quality salad dressing made with olive oil. That's the formula:
1. Water
2. Fat
3. Vegetables
4. Protein

Drink as much water as you can -- almost, but not, to the point of feeling sick. Are you drinking half your body weight in ounces of water daily? For the really hardcore, swallow a tablespoon of high quality olive oil on your way out the door to get a sensation of saity.

When you get to the party, go crazy eating vegetables. Make sure that protein is part of everything you eat. Let's face it, an all day celebration with a sporting event as its centerpiece (like the Super Bowl) is a dangerous time if you are trying to stick to a nutrition plan. Just one poor meal can erase an entire week of productive training. Let me put this into perspective. A typical weekend get-together usually consists of a bar-b-que with an assortment of appetizers and cocktails. We're talking, for most people, a minimum of 1,500 calories with 81 grams of fat. In just one meal! It will take you 1.5-2.0 hours of moderate to intense exercise to burn off that many calories. This assumes that there was no net gain in your net caloric intake over the previous week. Bottom line, it’s not worth it.

Here’s a better meal. 1.5 chicken breasts, 20 grilled asparagus, ½ avocado, one whole tomato, and about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Put the oil in a flat dish and dip coat veggies first – meat last. Some of it will burn off on the grill. Salt, pepper, and season everything to taste or use Santa Maria Grill seasoning on everything! This meal only sets you back about 570 calories in an almost perfect 40:30:30 PRO, CHO, FAT ratio. Just remember, everything else you eat adds to the caloric values above – so watch out!

Here are some other tips to keep you on the right track.

Avoid all dips – the better they look and taste, the faster you should run. Buffets up the ante! Everyone's favorite -- the traditional 7-layer dip weighs in at a hefty 3,696 calories!

Avoid mixed drinks – this is a killer. Mixers can be as much as 300 calories of sugar per cocktail. Aim for wine, soda water mixers, or shots. Try to keep slamming water.

Chuck the buns. You can save almost 150 calories of useless carbs by chucking the white bread.

One final tip.

Plan for a brutal training session at 0600 the morning after your festivities. (When I say brutal, I mean 1 hour of "dry-heave difficult": the worst workout ever.) You have two choices – a) eat anything you want and throw up what’s left 30 min into your workout or b) eat my meal, sleep in, and blow off that workout!

Don’t quit. Stay focused. Remember, you only get one go-around. Live with Intensity.

Mike Ryan
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Michael Ryan is the President and CEO of Intensity Nutrition LLC. Founded by former Navy SEALs, Intensity develops super-premium sports supplements for professional, semi-professional, tactical, and functional athletes. Intensity goes live in Feburary 2010: stay tuned! Mike and Alden met during “running remediation” at Basic Underwater SEAL (BUDs/s) training. Special thanks to BMC Pardue for the introduction.