Staying active means your body is using a lot of energy.  How do you refuel? Here are some simple ideas to consider when making food choices.

1. Eat nutritious foods. Your foods should be high in fiber, protein and calcium. We need to also make sure that our foods contain the essential vitamins, minerals, iron and complex carbohydrates to maintain peak physical conditioning.

2. Eat a Healthy Breakfast. It’s not just an “Old Wives Tale” that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After sleeping for 8 hours, your body is starving for the essential nutrients and energy necessary to function during the day. A healthy breakfast to consider might be:

• An 8oz glass of Orange Juice– which is an excellent source of Vitamin A and Potassium.
• Heart Healthy Oatmeal– which has the necessary grains for your body to turn into energy.
• Blueberries– which contain antioxidants that reduce the oxidation damage caused to cells during periods of physical activity. Blueberries also support healthy blood pressure and are rich in vitamin C and fiber.
• You can substitute Blackberries and Strawberries for Blueberries.

3. Never Skip Lunch. The schedules that we keep are incredibly busy ones; however, it is important to never skip lunch. After a busy or physically exerting morning, lunch refuels the body to create the necessary energy to help you get through the rest of your day.   Some healthy lunch suggestions could be:

• a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat bread,
• a side salad of mixed greens
• a piece of fruit, such as an apple, banana or an orange.

4. Eat an Appropriately Sized Dinner. Eating an appropriately sized dinner helps the body get the necessary nutrients needed to recover from the exercise performed that day, as well as the daily routine. An example of a healthy dinner meal might be:

• a baked or grilled piece of white fish,
• a side of sweet potato (without the butter)
• a mixed greens salad.
• Trading a boneless, skinless chicken breast for the fish would also provide the protein for necessary for muscle building and recovery.

5. Healthy Snacking. Eating healthy snacks in between meals (three a day) helps to keep your body from ever reaching the starvation point. One idea is to combine your snacks so that you are receiving a healthy amount of fat, carbohydrates and protein. Snacking with this combination in mind supports energy, concentration and information retention.
Some ideas for healthy snacks are:

• string cheese
• nuts
• whole grain crackers
• low-fat cheddar cheese
• vegetables & hummus
• greek yogurt
• Provide Gold 1 shot
• trail mix

6. Practice Moderation. Your snack should not be the size of a meal and your meal should not feed a small army. Snacking is simply to prevent you from getting so hungry that you make poor meal choices, or overeat. When it comes to eating out, most restaurant meals are are grossly over proportioned. Most of the time you can get two meals out of one when eating at your typical chain restaurant. Consider sharing a meal with a friend, or ask for a take home box when your meal comes.  Put half of your meal in the box.  Out of sight, out of mind.

7. Drink Fluids. Fluids provide the body with the necessary energy to help all of your muscles. In addition, staying hydrated helps the body digest the protein you have consumed during the day. Protein is hard for the body to break down, and even harder when your body is dehydrated. It is recommended that you should drink water at every meal, as well as before, after and during physical activity. Water is the very best choice, however, sports drinks and diet drinks are better than no fluid at all.

What are some things you do to make healthy choices when it comes to food?

Being the mother of teenagers can be at times worse than being the mother of a newborn baby. At least you can leave the baby in the same place and it will stay there, it doesn’t talk back and you can sleep when the baby sleeps. Usually.
Teenagers? Not so much.
They are not only physically demanding, but emotionally demanding as well. Teens keep ridiculously late hours, giving sparkly vampires a run for their money. They eat nonstop, making it seem as if their life’s goal is to consume their weight in food– Daily. As their loving care givers, we are given the ominous task of trying to make sure that all of these needs– the ones that they are dutifully neglecting– are not only being met, but “please finish your homework”, too.
See? Exhausting. And all you did was read about it.
Add into the mix any sort of sport and you have your hands full trying to meet their needs.
Most teens need on average between 9-10 hours of sleep a night. Are they getting that? Usually not. How can they with the amount of extracurricular activities they are involved in along with homework?
Girls and boys differ on the amount of calories they should be eating. According to the Livestrong website “…Boys between 15 and 18 need roughly 2,755 calories daily, and girls in the same age range need roughly 2,110 calories… ” Before exercise.
What does this mean for Teens? The first thing to consider is Provide Gold’s 1 Shot Protein Supplement. It starts working at the cellular level to rebuild muscle and to aid in the muscle recovery process. It comes in a one ounce package and contains 15 grams of protein. The other thing to note is that with Provide Gold it is already predigested with fruit enzymes, so when it enters the body it will be immediately absorbed. Unlike those heavy protein shakes that leave you feeling full and could leave you feeling bloated during your workout.
“Protein molecules are notoriously hard to break-down by the body. There is usually a long time lag between eating protein and its’ eventual absorption and utilization by the body,” said Dr. Joyce Gilbert. “For example, some protein products will not benefit the body for many hours. However, Provide Gold is different in that it benefits the body immediately rebuilding muscles and aiding in recovery.” Provide Gold’s 1 Shot Protein Supplement delivers nearly 100% absorption at the cellular level.
Provide Gold can help in the teenage body’s absorption of all the necessary calories to help aid not only in the recovery process from exercising but in the overall caloric intake of a growing teen body.

What do you do to make sure your teen gets all the necessary calories to be healthy?

"I started taking Provide Gold™ during my sophomore year of high school. It works great! It is the only protein product I will ever take. I dramatically increased all my max’s in bench press, squats and power cling and added 20 pounds of muscle. It made all the difference to my sports career."
—Rick
High School Athlete

Teenagers—they have the potential to eat you out of house and home, especially teenagers that are involved in sports. More than likely they are asking you for protein supplements, too, along with all the other food that they are consuming. It can be a never ending battle trying to keep these athletes stomachs full.
I found myself really questioning the necessity of Protein Supplements when my food bill shot through the roof at the beginning of football season this year. It seemed to be something that the coaches were “suggesting” without really understanding the cost involved feeding growing teenage boys, who are also dedicated athletes.
A typical workout routine for a teen boy on a high school football team is first one hour of lifting weights and then one hour of conditioning—usually involving lots of running. The best time for the athlete to take their protein would be in between the weight lifting and the conditioning. That is the optimal time for your body to be able to absorb the protein and help in the muscle repair process. However, drinking the protein shake during that window usually results in one thing happening: Throwing Up.
Drinking an entire protein shake and then running several miles will make even the fittest person puke. Some of the boys may be willing to make that sacrifice and those are the ones who’ll end up puking every day at practice; however, it’s just not realistic to be making Protein Shakes right in the middle of practice. The coaches aren’t going to stop practice and wait for the boys to mix up their protein. Nor do the boys want their Mommy showing up with their protein shake. So the majority of teen athletes skip that optimal window and their bodies do not heal as quickly.
Why is protein needed and further are protein shakes really even necessary? Is it healthy for kids or will it cause damage down the road to their bodies? What’s the difference between whey protein and other types of protein available? What are the benefits of taking protein while exercising? What does the protein do to their bodies? And lastly, do medical professionals recommend taking protein supplements or is this strictly an “athlete induced” craze?
Because so many parents have these same questions, we are going to address them head on in this  blog. Keep checking back for answers to all of these questions and more as we try and educate the public on the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle and utilizing Protein Supplements.

What other things would you like to know about Protein and Protein Supplements?

Leave us a comment below and we will make sure to cover it.

Check out this video of Rick, Teen Athlete and Provide Gold fan.

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