How to Have a Healthy Super Bowl Sunday

I love to watch football. I am plugged into the NFL from the summer preseason games through the Super Bowl and I follow off the field NFL developments all year. So, today is a real culmination for me.

I was surprised to learn that in terms of total amount of food consumed, Super Bowl Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving. Wow! I have seen some estimates of the tons of pizzas and beers that will be consumer eaten and drunk today. Staggering. Papa John’s and Domino’s must love it.

So, it seems like the Super Bowl presents a potential roadblock to someone working on weight control.

Here is how my day looks: I just came back from a 15 mile bike ride. You may have heard that Chicago is flirting with blizzard conditions today. That is true but I ride on the lower level of Wacker Drive which is covered. You may not have heard of lower Wacker, but you have likely seen it. Christian Bale wheeled his Bat mobile all over it in the Batman movie.

So, I feel that I have paid for some of the extra snacking I will be doing come game time.

A lot of folks go to Super Bowl parties to enjoy the game. My girlfriend and I are planning a two-person party complete with all the goodies.

Since there is so much snacking over the course of the afternoon, the game starts at 5:30 PM, Chicago time, we thought we would start watching and snacking at 5:00 PM.

Here are some of our Super goodies.

We plan to simply snack through the afternoon and game and forgo any kind of dinner. This frees up around 400 calories for the festivities.

Interestingly, our choices mostly came from our neighborhood Costco. We will have Sabra hummus and pita bread which is delicious and a very healthy item. There will also be toasted seaweed  and Edamame (a soybean snack). The Energy Blend Snack, a mixture of cranberries, nuts, soybeans, etc. Only the nice dish of tamari roasted pepitas will be from Whole Foods.

She is bringing some fancy hors d’oeuvres in addition to nachos and halfway healthy chips for dipping.

Finally, I will make stovetop popcorn with coconut oil which is as nutritious as it is delicious. If you aren’t familiar with the numerous benefits of coconut oil check out my Page Why You Should Include Coconut oil in Your Diet

I fell for the Bud Light Lime ads back when they first introduced it, so I will be drinking Bud Light Lime beer. My girlfriend who is infinitely classier than I, will have wine.

You will notice that I haven’t spent a lot of time with calorie counts. I think this is definitely a celebration day and if you go over some on your calorie, you go over and that’s okay. I don’t want to spoil the fun. I know you can eat healthy and still have a good time.

Tony