Oops.

I was in and out of my teamed class today while working with an assistant principal to help a student, so I didn't really observe eating habits. As such, I'll own that failure and take a loss for the day, even though I rocked over an hour of interval work on the bike.

Since I messed up, I'm down another day (total: W1 - L2).

As such...

I thought I'd write a little bit about sugar. The American Heart Association (AHA) released a much-ballyhooed article in the journal Circulation regarding added sugar consumption (view here). Many foods contain naturally occurring sugars and are perfectly healthy, but the AHA targeted sports drinks and soda specifically as being unhealthy. Based on a simple evaluation of their numbers, it's not that surprising.

The abstract lays out a pretty strict recommendation for men and women: 150 calories of added sugar to the males, 100 to the females. One 12-ounce can of Pepsi contains roughly 150 calories (41g) of added sugar, so by the recommendations of the AHA, a single can would be the the limit for men and exceed the limit for women. For the day. That doesn't include the added sugar we consume in many boxed cereals, processed snack bars, sauces, pastes, canned goods, sports drinks... pretty much anything that didn't come directly out of the ground or directly out of an animal seems to have some form of added sugar.

What's the point? Nothing big. Just one of the largest and most influential medical associations in America encouraging us to watch what we put into out bodies.

Second day: conspicuous documentation

I started brazenly documenting student food consumption habit today, and they are going to make this day a landslide in favor of the snacks. I haven't done the math yet, but it's looking pretty grim. Here's a rundown:

Snacks
Kellogg's Fruit Snacks: 200cal x 2packs= 400calories
Rold Gold pretzels: 110 calories
Nestle chocolate milk: 340 calories
Propel: 25cal x 4bottles = 100 calories
Handi Snacks Dunk'ems: 90 calories
Minutemaid Pomegranate Lemonade: 110cal x .5bottle (3.5 servings) = 395 calories

Students also consumed an unspecified number of Starburst and mini-Snickers. I couldn't track the consumption.

So, from what I saw, students stuffed 1,435 unhealthy snack calories down their throats.

Exercise
Swim 30 mins: 331.8 calories burned
Barefoot run 30 mins: 294 calories burned

That totals a measly 625.8 calories.

Verdict
Maybe I should be less vigilant of what students are eating. I got crushed today, 1,435 to 625. I'm 1-1, but unless students start eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed snacks, I'm in deep trouble.

I guess this doesn't count as junk...

For anyone who wants to be entertained (or somewhat grossed out), here's the cafeteria menu for September and the ala carte menu for the year. I don't want to take anything away from the wonderful work done in food services, especially considering the balancing act necessary to deal with so many people every single day.

Still, country steak and gravy on the first day is an aggressive choice. Where do you go from there?

First Day of School

Student Food
Even though it's one of my stated blogging purposes, I didn't see a lot of food today. First day of school and all, I suspect that some students were worried about being made example of.

Highlight: Baked Cheetos being consumed right after lunch was over. Ever look at the ingredients on Baked Cheetos? They're basically identical to regular Cheetos. Wouldn't make me feel any better about eating them. Take out a little bit of fat and add a whole lot of... whatever the ingredients list says. In other words, add a lot of processing.

My Workouts
Core circuit on swiss ball (about 10 minutes); 60 min spin (10 warm, 40 big ring work, 10 cooldown). Standard Tuesday for now.

Verdict
I win, about 600 calories burned for the 130 my student consumed. Still, if I was supporting myself on Baked Cheetos, I'd be in some serious trouble.