Post-Game Munchies

About four years ago I was asked to appear as a guest on a sports talk radio show, in a segment about feeding kids after sports practices and games. Driving home from hockey the other night, I got to thinking about how radically the fast-food world has changed in those four years.

The realization came to me as I used the car’s navigation system to find the nearest St. Louis Bread Co. in the unfamiliar neighborhood around the rink. I could have also simply browsed the system’s fast food options or, better yet, used one of the apps on my cell phone – there are quite a few that show the nearest restaurants based on your location, including one I just downloaded from Yelp and am playing around with. So while you're sitting in the stands, you can be scouting out the healthiest options in your vicinity.

Back when I did the interview, fast food menus were different too. There’s been a proliferation of fruit smoothies (not all super healthy, but at least they’re better than Slushies!) and salads and wraps and even fresh fruit and veggie options.

Of course, my boys do love going out for “burgers and fries” on Thursdays. But the rest of the week they have no complaints about not being allowed to eat fried stuff. If it happens that hockey night falls on a Thursday, so much the better – they discovered that there’s a Five Guys closer to the rink than the nearest Bread Company.

The radio folks also asked about supplying post-game snacks. Donuts are kind of a sacred commodity around hockey rinks – must be the Canadian influence … too bad there’s no Tim Horton’s nearby, eh? – and so showing up with bagels instead can get you labeled as the “mean” mom. Lucky for us we live near Gus’ Pretzels, and I’m willing to trade the sugar for a little extra dose of sodium. I have yet to see fruit at the rink, but I hear that other parents have banded together to offer apples, bananas and oranges after workouts. Fabulous idea, and I hope more team parents join them.

And like any good mom chauffeur, I have one entire car console dedicated to shelf-stable snacks like granola bars (the crunchy kind, not candy bars in disguise!), cheese crackers, whole-grain Goldfish, on-the-go peanut butter containers and nuts. In the cooler months, I add ultra-pasteurized milk boxes to the stash. When the boys are starving, I break into the snacks before we even start driving, and by the time we pass the fast food outlets, they’re already happily munching.

By Amy De La Hunt, Health Blogger for SmartParenting