Chapter One:
Welcome To The Official Snack Guide
for Beleaguered Sports Parents
One morning you wake up and it has happened. You find yourself thrown into a world for which you have no training. Today, you are a Soccer Mom or a Basketball Dad. And it’s your turn to bring a snack. The pressure is on.

“High drama is in”, says an amused and tired soccer Mom named Mary Beth Smith. If a snack doesn’t “gush, morph or implode”, Mary Beth fears she will fail miserably in her daughter Tara’s eyes. The word is out in their neighborhood. Orange slices just don’t cut it anymore.

Ann Shuman says “guilt” is her predominant emotion. When it comes to planning snacks, this working mother of three says she waffles between “doing the right thing” and buying her children all the junk food she loved when she was a child. In case this news hasn’t reached your town yet, Twinkies and HoHos are not considered “PC” anymore.

Ken Matthew says he often had to hold his breath and count to ten when it was his turn to drive daughter Britt’s carpool. Without fail, they’d be running late. Then, just seconds from the field, Britt would yell from the backseat, “Hey Dad, I forgot to tell you. It’s our turn to bring the team snacks.” Ken learned that, once you take on the role of sports parent, with all associated responsibilities, there’s no turning back!

Then there are the important “gastronomic” concerns every parent faces. If your child’s kick-off time is at nine in the morning, do you feed him a big breakfast and risk an upset stomach on the sideline…or do you offer a light breakfast and risk energy drain mid-event? And how do you know how much fluid your daughter should drink, before, during, and after a game, to reduce the likelihood of dehydration or injury?

With these real life questions in mind, The Official Snack Guide For Beleaguered Sports Parents offers practical, easy to implement suggestions and strategies. We want you and your child to have the home-field advantage. So, our Sports Nutrition recommendations for “game day” are designed to improve your child’s concentration, reduce fatigue and injuries, and avoid upset stomachs.

You won’t find any “pie in the sky” recommendations in this Guide. As busy parents, we know better! Instead, you’ll find useful lists like “Grocery Store Pick-Ups On the Run”. In Chapter Five, you’ll learn how to “Score Points In The Drive Through Lane”. Before you reach our recipe Chapters, Seven through Eleven, we’ll answer many questions commonly asked by Moms, Dads, Grandparents, and Coaches who care about the nutritional needs of an active child.

Your options for using this book are as follows. Read all about the basics of sports nutrition and hydration, and how to apply these simple suggestions to your child athlete. Or simply punt and pass all of the nutrition facts and go right for the recipes! We promise all of our recipes will taste just as good, with or without the nutrition lesson.

The referee just blew her whistle. Our first quarter begins now.

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