The sleep deprivation of the high school athlete may be due to several reasons:

• Late-night practices
• Homework
• Part-time job/ caring
• Online gaming
• Incessant ‘notifications’ on various devices and the need to respond.

or, more likely, a combination of all of them.

This, combined with a sub-optimal diet, means that the sleep is not only short but fitful. The alarm clock goes, the snooze button is tapped and tapped, the parent shouts, and shouts and the search for caffeine and/ or sugar to kick start the day begins.

Why do we need sleep?

This might seem like a daft question but in an age of macho-work ethic stories where business people and politicians compete to show how much work they can do in a day, the necessity for sleep is sometimes overlooked. Sleep is essential for mental restoration. Whilst the body can cope with less sleep in the short term the mind suffers. You may know this when you try to exercise after a bad night’s sleep: you dread the thought of it, struggle to lace up your shoes, but five minutes into practice you feel okay. Your decision-making might be sluggish but your body is moving fine.

This is only a short-term solution. Repeating this endeavor is likely to increase your risk of injury: especially in fast-moving, collision sports like football or high-skill/high-risk sports such as gymnastics. You need 100% of your brain capacity to perform effectively and safely.

Your body also needs sleep in order to repair and restore from its exertions. As athletes train harder than normal people and put their bodies under stressful loads, their need for sleep is potentially higher than normal.

Naps are one solution.

One way to increase the amount of sleep is to have a nap, or multiple naps, during the day. It is better to plan a nap and be fresh for your class, practice or match than to be tired and groggy and doze off in the middle of class or just before kick-off.

The early afternoon or early-evening slump is a natural part of our day. Unfortunately, work and school interfere with our natural tendency to nap. But, a 15-minute nap will improve your mood, cognitive ability and even cardiovascular health (as shown in one study on Greek men who removed their afternoon siesta.

A short sleep will leave you refreshed. So will a longer sleep of about 90-minutes. Anywhere between 20-60 minutes may leave you groggy, this is known as ‘sleep inertia’. It becomes even harder to get going after this longer, but not long enough, nap.

Of course, the problem with high school athletes napping is that they are at high school! It is unlikely that they have quiet rooms or sleep pods available for naps like Californian tech firms. The nap might have to take place in the bus or car on the way home or leave it until they are home and before they go on to practice.

To avoid sleeping too long, either set the alarm for twenty minutes or drink tea or coffee before your nap. There is a twenty-minute lag between caffeine ingestion and its effects that is useful for nap-timing.

Summary

Sleep is essential for everyone. It is especially important for high school athletes who are growing, learning, and competing. If they are unable or unwilling, to improve their nighttime sleep habits, then encouraging and facilitating planned naps will help them deal with the stress of their young lives.

Read More

• How Sleep Improves Athletic Performance
• Sleeping Tips for Youth Athletes
• How You Sleep, Eat and Hydrate Matters More Than Any Other Recovery Technique

It’s not often that a Freshman athlete is considered for a spot on a varsity team, but it’s a big deal when it happens. As coaches, we must carefully weigh our options; is this young athlete good enough, fast enough, or strong enough to take the spot of another potential upperclassman? Will this make waves among the current varsity team members? Is this athlete ready for the challenges and higher level of training they’ll encounter on a varsity schedule?

While coaches and players weigh their options, many parents think the same things. Can my son or daughter hold their own on that level of play? Will they be accepted? Are they at a higher risk for injury? Should we wait? Is he or she ready for the challenge?

All these and more are valid questions for parents of a gifted athletes. As a head coach who has taken that chance on a handful of freshmen in my career, I can offer a few suggestions to parents wondering: is my freshman varsity material?

When it becomes apparent that your athlete has a real chance at being offered a Varsity position, it’s important to start having specific conversations with your athlete and their coach.

Talking to your athlete, ask the following questions:

1. Is this an opportunity you feel ready to take on?
2. What are the pros and cons of accepting this offer?
3. Is there anything about playing on Varsity that worries you or makes you nervous?
4. Let’s talk about balancing school, sports, and your social life; let’s make a plan.
5. Is this a sport you see yourself possibly playing in college?

Once you and your athlete are on the same page about moving forward, it’s important to speak to the coach (along with your son/daughter) and be sure to ask these questions:

1. What brought you to choose my son/daughter for your team?
2. What qualities do you see in them?
3. What do you see their role being on this team?
4. What is your coaching philosophy?

After having these important conversations, you will have a better idea of what is expected of your athlete and feel better either way about the decision they will soon make.

Ultimately, it’s important not to forget that this is an amazingly positive opportunity for your son or daughter that could launch them into a lifelong career within their sport!

I am a Division II College Coach, 11-year Elite Club Coach, and an 8-year Varsity Coach with almost 200 wins. I was a Division I Scholarship Athlete and a Semi-Pro post-collegiate athlete. And as a Freshman, I too made my Varsity team. I was of course, nervous, wondering if I was ready, worried I wasn’t good enough, fast enough, or knew enough about the sport. But all those doubts and uncertainties went away with time and support from my coach and teammates. I quickly earned playing time and respect among my peers and it ended up leading to a career in this sport and others. I look back upon those 4 years on Varsity as one of the best and most challenging times in my young sports career. I would not have changed my decision for anything in the world.

On the occasions, I have made offers to Freshman athletes for a spot on my Varsity squad and have had those parents come to me and ask, “Is my Freshman Varsity Material?” My answer is always “Yes.” Yes, I will support them and lead them as youth athletes because I will be patient with them and their teammates. But also yes because as a coach, I know what I’m doing and I know talent when I see it and your athlete has what it takes, and that’s why the offer was made.

Ultimately, it comes down to the decision to be made by your son or daughter for what they want for their future as an athlete. And as you begin having conversations and weighing your options remember that your Freshman does not need to be as big as their Senior classmates or even as strong or as fast. As Varsity coaches, we often take chances on Freshmen who showcase potential to be all those things and more and that’s why we make those offers. This is a chance for your Freshman to grow and learn at a more rapid and challenging pace than they would otherwise and more often than not, can be the biggest blessing of their athletic career! Good Luck and Congratulations!

Enter The Job Market

Going to college may provide a four-year degree, but almost every college graduate will lack on-the-job experience. And the advantage of taking a job – any job – straight out of high school is that one can get on-the-job experience immediately. Plus, there’s never been a better time to enter the job market and your teen can start saving money and enjoy perks like 401k and health insurance plans. Some employers may even help pay for college if your teen decides to attend later on.

Attend Trade School or Vocational School

If your teen is interested in a specific skill, such as welding, plumbing, electrician, practical nurse, emergency medical services, and many more, a trade school or vocational school offers a fast, low cost opportunity to quickly learn and master a skill. Learning an in-demand skill or trade now can put a teen in the job market faster than four years of college, and that job will never be outsourced or automated. It can even provide the skills to start their own business down the line.

Join The Military

Enlisting in a branch of the military will allow your teen to choose their own training path, while immediately providing a paycheck, health care benefits, support, and structure. Plus a career in the military can provide an opportunity for early retirement, the chance to apply one’s military skills in a private sector job later on, and the opportunity to earn lifelong veteran’s benefits.

Become A Business Owner

If your teen has a particular passion or hobby, see if they can turn that passion into a business opportunity. As the pandemic showed, a successful business can even exist online without the need for a retail front or office location. Plus, given all the tools available to entrepreneurs today, it’s never been easier to be self-employed.

Try A School/Work Hybrid Path

If your teen isn’t sure about college, they can still enter the job market now and take some college courses concurrently, either online or at a local community college. Doing so provides the best of both worlds, as your teen can gain real-world, on-the-job training and still start earning college credit while they figure out the best path forward. Plus, online or community college options are usually less expensive, so your teen can also knock out basic college courses and save money at the same time.

Volunteer Work

If your teen is unsure about their career path, encourage them to volunteer to learn new skills, network, establish business contacts, and maybe even discover a career path that interests them. Plus, the volunteer hours they put in now will look great on any college application, job application, or résumé later on.

Take A Gap Year

No law says your teen has to begin college immediately upon high school graduation. If none of the options above appeals to your teen, and you have the means to support them, encourage them to take a gap year to figure out what to do with their lives. A gap year can give your teen more time to figure out what to do with their lives and more time to mature and, if it’s an option, more time to save for college.

If your teen, doesn’t want to go to college, there are plenty of other paths to pursue. Remember that they have plenty of options and plenty of time to decide the path their life will take. And, if the path your teen does choose isn’t what you hoped for them, just remember they’re now old enough to make their own choices. Let them choose, but don’t stop providing love, support, and the benefits of your own life and work experiences.

Either way, players have to build themselves up and learn specific techniques to play the game. They have to train and coordinate their muscles to do baseball-specific movements to succeed and not get injured.

The key is to practice these drills until they become second nature. You want the movements ingrained in your body, so you can do them fast without even thinking about it.

Bottle Cap Drill

The bottle cap drill is excellent for high school players to improve their hand-eye coordination. All you need is a bat, a bunch of bottle caps, and a coach or teammate to toss the cap to the batter.

The batter tries to hit the significantly smaller cap than a baseball. Although it’s moving slowly compared to a fastball, the cap will dip and drop uncontrollably, so it makes it a little harder to hit than you’d think.

Two Tee Drill

The two tee drill is another drill for hitters that helps with proper swing plane and hand-eye coordination. You need two tee’s; one waist high and another one about a foot in front slightly lower.

Place a ball on the second tee. Swing over the first tee to hit the ball off of the second one. This helps you keep your head down and eyes on the ball through contact.

Positive-Negative

The positive-negative drill is great for young hitters. Hitters stand at the plate in their batting stance. Coaches should draw a line down the center directly under the batter’s belly button and nose.

Coaches: Make sure the batter rocks back and stays firm on their back foot. Then the batter should explode through the line with their swing. Have them focus on driving through the power zone from their back leg.

Underhand Flip Drill

The underhand flip drill is great practice for turning double plays. Have two lines of players—one from the shortstop position and one from the second base position.

A coach should roll a ground ball to one of them and the player who fields it flips it to another who’s waiting on the 2nd base bag, and that player throws it to the first baseman for the double play.

Coaches: Switch sides of where you throw the ball to and don’t telegraph it, to challenge your players more.

Charge and Drop Drill

Coaches stand about 10-15 feet from your outfielders who are lined up single file. Throw the ball either five feet short or 15-20 feet behind them in the air. The outfielders will have to charge or drop back to make the play. This drill is great for transitioning and footwork. It’s also a good conditioning drill if you keep up the pace.

Pitcher’s Count

The pitcher’s count drill is fun. Split into three teams of 4-5 players each. One team takes the bat and the other two take the field. Each batter will enter the box with an 0-2 count.

The batting team gets a point for each baserunner and another point for each run scored. After three outs are recorded, rotate the teams until each team bats three times. The losing teams after three innings have to do extra sprints.

Fundamental Drills For All

Here you have drills for hitters, infielders, outfielders, and pitchers. Coaches should remember to focus on fundamentals and keep the drills tight.

High school baseball players are easily distracted. However, if you incorporate these drills that allow them to learn, get better, and have fun, they’ll be much more focused on the field.

Watching the world unfold from behind the computer screen late at night with the blue haze shadowing everything in a murky glow, a teen bent on going to college on scholarship slumps as dread sets in.

Being a high school s with aspirations of going to college is already a lofty goal, but during a pandemic with record-high applicants and minimum standards and requirements consistently rising, that goal seems akin to bowling a perfect 300.

Couple these minimum standards and requirements with the pressures of high school life and athletics, the goal becomes as unfathomable as particle physics. However, with proper preparation and discipline, something an athlete understands implicitly, a scholar-athlete can accomplish that goal.

One of the best ways to prepare for that goal is to perform beyond excellent on the SAT which has been known as one of the top college entrance exams. A scholar-athlete can conduct a quick internet search for “best ways to prepare for the SAT” or even “how to get a good score on the SAT” or even “what is a good score for the SAT,” but they will more than likely be bombarded with link after link without any guidance.

SAT Practice Tests with textbooks on a desk.

Tips To Help Lead The Scholar-Athlete

1. CollegeBoard Official SAT Study Guide

CollegeBoard is the organization that sponsors the SAT and other various tests such as the PSAT, NMSQT, and AP colleges. They release a new, up-to-date study guide based upon the previous year’s test. Purchasing this guide for a nominal fee straight from the entity that oversees the exam can allow the scholar athlete a glimpse into the mind of their opponent’s game-plan that is the structure of the test.

This study guide will highlight detailed descriptions of the math and evidenced-based reading and writing sections, targeted practice questions, and even guidance on the essay. Any scholar-athlete would enjoy having their opponent’s playbook in their hands, and this study guide is no exception.

2. Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a multi-media platform that offers online an abundance of videos, tutoring, and practice for a plethora of subjects. Though Khan Academy primarily focuses on the STEM subjects such as algebra, statistics, and biology, history, language arts and more help can also be found on the site.

The platform is completely free, though there may be some premium options offered at some point in the student’s studies and navigation with the platform. These premium options may offer a deeper look into the subject of note.

The most helpful part of Khan Academy is the ability for the student to create their own learning plan. A student can set up the plan to notify them to complete a certain amount of student-selected questions a day to prepare for the SAT.

3. Prep Experts

A scholar-athlete may be predisposed to a certain sport or athletic event, but that does not mean that they know everything about the sport or event. No, an athlete has coaches and other trainers around them guiding them to become the best athlete they can be. Similar to the athletic aspect, the scholar aspect can be guided through the investment into experts. For the preparation for the SAT, investing in prep experts will be the coach equivalent to the scholar-athlete.

Prep Expert and Prep Scholar are two examples of prep expert resources. A simple internet search will provide any number of other prep expert resources available. Nevertheless, prep experts are those that specialize in the test they are covering. Most of the experts have earned a top score of either perfect or within the top 1%.

Prep experts will know and be able to show the scholar-athlete various tricks and techniques to speed through the SAT and answer each question methodically and efficiently. Prep experts should provide the scholar-athlete with a toolbox of techniques to utilize for each question akin to how a coach would provide techniques for kicking or throwing the ball at certain moments during a game or match.

Scholar athletes have a seemingly exorbitant amount of duties and responsibilities, these tips will hopefully allow them a fighting chance at performing beyond well-enough to enter into the target school.

Take Care Of Yourself

Taking care of your body is a priority to stay at the top of your game athletically, but also to keep you healthy off the field. You must sleep right and eat right. To perform both academically and athletically, you need to put yourself in a position to succeed. If you’re exhausted from an all-night movie marathon, you will struggle in your sport and in managing your time.

Use Shorter Study Sessions

I know this is counterintuitive to everything you’ve heard about studying, but it’s actually based on an accepted educational theory. Students remember what they’ve read or studied first and last. Most of what they review in the middle portion of a study session is not fully absorbed.

To maximize the amount of material that you retain, break up your studying into short sessions [15-20 minutes], with breaks between. This way, you won’t have a large middle section of material that is easy to forget. At the start of each session, give yourself a mini-refresher to make sure you haven’t forgotten what you reviewed in the previous session.

Make Your Note Cards

In recent years, there’s been a huge surge in professionally produced note cards sales. These cover many topics, from SAT vocabulary to AP American History. Yes, note cards are fantastic study tools, but pre-made ones are not the way to go. Notecards are much more effective in helping students remember important information when they actually write the information. The act of writing [creating a note card] is why they are more effective. Pre-made note cards eliminate this important benefit.

Notecards are great for directing you to topics and areas you need to study, but they are not efficient in remembering specific facts. Get a pack of blank index cards, and create note cards for each topic you are studying. Develop your own customized, comprehensive set.

Practice Tests

Throughout your preparation, you’ll do tons of practice questions and tests. To benefit from them, you need to review the concepts they are testing—taking particular notes of the ones you get wrong. In a journal, write down the concepts and correct solutions, and continually review them to make sure you can recall them.

Be Transparent With Your Teachers

If you have to miss class on Friday because you travel to an away game that weekend, make sure your teacher or professor knows well in advance. When you are open with them, they are more likely to help you out if you begin to struggle with course material. Y

Where to Start

If one attempts to study for nothing, one will inevitably achieve nothing. That goes for studying for the SAT/ACT without any goal or target score in mind. The best way to go about deciphering what target score to study for will vary per student but googling the average scores of the schools the student is interested will give a good gauge of where to aim while studying.

From there, a student should take either a real or a practice SAT/ACT to determine where to start studying. For instance, if the student scored a 1000 on the SAT and needs 1200, that student would need to study for around 40 – 80 hours in order to fully prepare to improve at such a jump. More estimated hours of study can be found here.

Tips for All Students

Come Up with a Plan:

Adhering to a schedule will better allow a student to be able to balance all his/her duties to be able to prepare for the SAT/ACT. Have the student begin with what time they will wake up and go from there.

A sample general plan based upon the need to study 40 – 80 hours as per the student above could be:

• 6:00 a.m.: Wake up
• 7:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.: School
• 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Homework
• 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Relaxation time
• 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.: Dinner
• 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.: SAT/ACT prep
• 9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.: Relaxation time
• 10:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m.: Sleep

A student adhering to this schedule for 4 to 8 weeks should fully prepare for the jump needed in target score. This plan, however, is dynamic and can always be adjusted as the student’s needs diversify.

Relaxation and Fun:

Students often neglect downtime and blocks just to be themselves. They become obsessed with the “perfect score” that leads only to detriment. As with the body’s muscles, the brain builds during recovery after a strenuous exercise regimen of studying vocabulary, mathematics, and grammatical arguments.

Rewards:

Students should reward themselves with blocks of time to listen to music, watch television, hang out with friends, indulge in a favorite treat, etc., for a job well done in test preparation. These rewards can be tier-based upon smaller goals for motivation, such as achieving an increased score of 10 points on a practice SAT/ACT.

Tips Exclusive to Athletes

Athletes often have more responsibilities than students without sports or other extracurricular activities. School-sanctioned sports often take up at least two hours of a scholar athlete’s day. That being said, an athlete should follow all the above tips and some more specific to an athlete’s day.

Homework during school:

Being proactive with homework during school hours will aid in overall studying. A student may have to be on the lookout for times to complete homework during the school day, but there should be some blocks to eke out some time.

For instance, a student could work on math homework as the teacher is going over the material or even in another class if a review is conducted. Time blocks will make themselves apparent, it is up to the athlete to take advantage of them.

Make Studying into a Game:

Athletes perform best under pressure. Making studying into a game such as studying while throwing the ball, shooting hoops, or even rapid-fire question and answer lightning round style can mimic the adrenaline summoned during a sports event. Athletes are often kinesthetic learners and games often help them most learn information.

Long-Term Impact

Students only need to remember that the SAT/ACT is not a test one can simply cram for the next day. Only long-term studying will lend to improvements in scores. And, for athletes, akin to practicing year-round, only early studying can help improve scores.

Click here for PrepScholar article.

It’s no secret. I love wrestling. Ask anybody who has ever wrestled, “What is the toughest sport you have ever done?” I can almost guarantee you that they will say wrestling. Not everybody can do it, but everybody can learn from it.

Before we go further, let me tell you a little bit about my background.

I began wrestling at age 4. I was a pretty dominant high school wrestler and went on to wrestle in college for five years in the Big Ten at Michigan State University. I went from being a walk-on to being named team captain during my senior season. Was I a national champion? Nope. All American? Nope. I never even won a state title, but I beat All-Americans and 3-time and even 4-time state champions. I won a lot of matches that I had no business winning. I did it not with talent, but with heart and mental toughness. That mental focus still burns inside me, and I apply it to every single thing I do every single day.

1. You are only as good as your practice partner makes you

Most of the time in wrestling practice, you get to choose who you want for your partner. Sounds like a simple task right? It’s not. You have the choice of the guy who will give you a fight for your life or the kid you beat with one arm. Choose the latter and you will not succeed. Trust me, you can be good to a certain point, but not at the higher levels.

I first heard this from my oldest brother R.J., on the way home from a youth practice. He saw me beating up on a weaker kid while I could have gone up against a state champ who was way better than me. He was so mad at me, and it broke my heart. I never let it happen again.

2. There are no shortcuts. If you fake it, everybody will find out

We have all been there. That moment during practice when you start to get tired and you find yourself looking for an easy way out. You know that if you take it, nobody will know except you. It’s so tempting, and after more and more fatigue—you do it. You skip a rep or jog through a sprint. You make it look like you’re tired, but really you could go harder. That’s what we call coasting.

Coasting is when you know you can work harder, but you settle for doing just enough to get by. Toward the end of my freshman season I was guilty of it a few times. Guess what happened? I got my butt handed to me!

I knew I was doing something wrong, so I went to my coach. We were watching the NCAA Championships from the stands, and I told him I wanted to be out there wrestling. He called me out and told me I had been coasting. It was right in front of my dad, too. Man, was I upset with myself! I made the change right then and there.

If you take it easy during your workout at the gym, you will not see the results you want to see. You know if you are pushing your body past the point of comfort. You can grunt and yell and act like you’re tired, but deep down only you know if you’re able to push out a few more reps. There are no shortcuts. Work your butt off every day, because if you don’t, everybody will soon find out.

3. Get comfortable being uncomfortable

Take your arm and put it behind your back. I don’t care how you do it. Now have somebody take that arm and crank on it until it feels like it’s about to rip off. Sucks, right? Try doing that after losing 10 pounds in a week with every muscle in your body sore and you can barely breathe because you’re inside an 85-degree room.

That, my friends, is just a glimpse of what wrestlers have to go through on a daily basis. It is extremely uncomfortable. As a young athlete, I had no choice but to learn how to deal with it and even love it! I found that the wrestlers who could look at that situation and embrace it were the ones on top of the podium at the end of tournaments.

Every time you train, you have to push your body past its threshold to reach progression. It could involve adding 5 pounds to your bench or shaving time off your mile run. Forget about how hard you are working and focus on getting as tired as possible. Learn to crave being exhausted. Don’t run from it. Embrace it!

4. You have to train every part of your body

Wrestling requires you to be in the best shape of your life from head to toe. You don’t realize how many muscles you use while wrestling until you truly attempt the sport. One second you’re using all legs, the next you’re using just your neck. It’s crazy. I was lucky enough to have some great strength coaches in college. We trained every muscle from head to toe in a balanced fashion, which allowed our bodies to adapt and become strong for our sport.

Don’t be that guy who never trains legs or only does bench for the upper body. Nobody remembers that guy. Find a coach who knows what he is talking about and have him write you up a balanced program. If you’re struggling with certain exercises, it most likely means you’re weak in that part of your body. Check out the video player above to learn more about improving your weaknesses to have full-body strength.

5. Play the game, not the name

I’ll never forget it. I was wrestling a nationally ranked opponent from where else—the Iowa Hawkeyes, which is probably the all-time greatest team in college wrestling. Just before the match, my teammate and roommate on the road whispered to me, “Wrestle the match, not his name.” I heard that loud and clear. I wrestled the match with clear confidence because I knew that I trained harder than he did.

You can either wait for success to come to you, or you can chase it.

RELATED: 

• 3 Small But Costly Workout Mistakes You Must Avoid
• Pros and Cons of Working Out with a Partner

It is possible, though to better manage your nutritional habits during this time of year, and here are a few strategies that you can implement to help aid you during the holiday season eating.

Enjoy yourself and Relax!

It needs to be said that the holidays should be a joyous occasion that you get to relax and spend around your loved ones. During this time you may come off of your rigid nutritional plan and it will be okay!

Unless you’re involved in a highly competitive weight management sport such as wrestling, you should take a deep breath and understand that the occasional dessert or stray away from perfection isn’t going to affect your long-term goals. You didn’t develop those healthy habits in one sitting, and they’re not going to go away in one either.

Depending on what sport you play or where you are in season this time of the year can be seen as a great opportunity. Athletes looking to add some muscle mass to their frame during the offseason should embrace this caloric surplus and athletes in seasons such as basketball and travel leagues can let their minds decompress and enjoy some things that they may have been limiting previously.

Occasional is the keyword. Avoid overdoing it on a consistent daily basis as those habits develop slowly into larger problems, but do not stress the occasional indulgence when it occurs.

Accepting When It Does Go Bad

Don’t be too hard on yourself when you eat poorly and slip briefly. This is completely normal and healthy to an extent. Although when this occurs do not view it as a free pass to go crazy and eat poorly the rest of the day either. Eating one or two cookies doesn’t mean your healthy nutritional plan is ruined for that day, and you have a free pass to eat whatever you like.

That mindset usually creates a negative cycle where you feel worse after the day is over. Consider this, if you were driving down the road and blew one of your tires out. You would be initially upset and think that this day is horrible and potentially even ruined due to the setback. You wouldn’t then immediately slash the remaining three perfectly inflated tires, would you? Not, you would accept the circumstances you’re in and change the flat tire for a spare to move forward. Eating is no different.

Maintaining Similar Nutritional Habits

An easy strategy to help you stay on the path of healthy habits during the holidays is to maintain the nutritional and eating habits you were already previously doing.

A major contributing factor to poor nutritional habits during the holidays is the schedule change. During the holiday break, your routine is disturbed, causing you to justify straying off the previous plan. Things such as staying up later, eating at home instead of school, and the larger-scale family dinners lead to this disturbance.

Work to maintain many of the same eating habits such as the time of the day you eat, number of meals, similar types of foods, and a similar quantity, of course. Following this can help maintain a healthy diet and mindset.

Choose the Healthier Options

This strategy, I understand, is easier said than done, but many times there are healthier options when considering your food selections. Examples such as;

• Drinking water instead of soda
• Eating plain sweet potatoes instead of the marshmallow loaded option
• Loading up on vegetables first, so you’re not as hungry when dessert comes around
• Taking the sauce on the side so you don’t drown your food in gravy
• While these alternatives are small and simple strategies, they pay off in the larger health system. The little things do add up when performed consistently.

Supplement Wisley

Before going into this next strategy, I will always recommend real, whole foods before supplementation. It’s in the word supplementation itself and is meant to “supplement” your diet of natural, whole foods.

Yet if you’re reading through this and know that you’re not to be trusted. If you are going to overindulge at every opportunity and eat till you drop, this next strategy is for you.

Drinking a protein shake (1-2 scoops) 30 minutes before a meal can lead to a drastic effect on your appetite. Not only is the protein supplement going to help better manage your unruly appetite, but it will also help achieve some macro and micronutrient demands as well as a taste similar to a pre-meal dessert.

The holidays should be a time of joy, gratitude, and relaxation. Do not allow the stress of maintaining the perfect nutritional plan or food temptations to prevent you from enjoying this time with your loved ones.

Follow the strategies listed to give yourself an increased advantage to maintain some healthy nutritional habits and enjoy the festivities.