We bring you a guest post today, compliments of two young men — Miles Rouzer, with additional research by Willie Pate, both seniors at Dos Pueblos High School — who have been members of a nutrition club, study nutrition and haven’t had soda in more than a year.]
Now that school has started back up, I am here to offer some advice to those teens who might be struggling to keep their resolutions about eating more healthfully, especially at school.
But this isn’t about trash-talking school lunches, because I want this to actually be read in less than four hours. Teens actually do want to eat food that’s good for them, not just pizza, chips and sodas every day. So, what are some good things to pack as a snack or lunch?
The absolute best thing to bring is a mad grip (aka a handful) of tangerines! Not only are they delicious and nutritious, but you can waste some precious minutes of class time in an attempt to peel off the skin in one whole piece!
A nicely rounded healthy lunch would look something like this:
» Peanut butter and jelly (from the local farmers market) mashed between two pieces of whole wheat bread (makes one heck of a fine sandwich)
» Banana
» Planters NUT-rition mix
» Finish strong with a delicate cherry pie Larabar
If you want to be known as a gourmet chef, try this one out for size:
» The night before, cook up a batch of quinoa and a vegetable medley of some sort (stir fry also works, and I actually prefer it), then just microwave that goodness at school or carry a microwave to school in your backpack (LOL).
» Those Juicy Juice boxes go great with this.
» A snack with this could be a Zbar, which are actually really dank (translation: awesome).
Another lunch that I make quite often:
» Turkey jerky for a snack.
» A turkey sandwich, with turkey from a local deli, of course, with some fresh lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Feel free to add homemade bacon to this. Just kidding! Unless you do that kind of thing …
» Some apples, which help get your body enough fiber without making you have to eat that horrid “fiber sticks” old-person cereal instead of Cap’n Crunch in the morning.
» Lastly, there are some interesting pouches called Mashups Squeezable fruit that you can eat to get a straight injection of healthfulness.
I know that many people think teens just eat junk, but we actually like stuff that’s good for us, too. Except shrimp; I hate shrimp. And here’s a little hint for adults: If you put healthy stuff into the school vending machines, that’s what we’ll eat. We are also concerned about our future.
I bring this up because I found out about a cool company called H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Vending (helping unite man and nutrition). It’s a company that places healthy vending machines in schools (and other places) and gives 10 percent of the proceeds back to charitable causes that fight obesity and malnutrition. Some of the snacks they sell are mentioned above, so you know it’s regular food that kids eat. Some of the snacks were definitely not me.
Anyway, I hope parents are reading this, too, so you’ll know to buy us healthy food for us to pack in our lunches.
Giveaway: Thanks to Healthy Vending, we have one sample pack of healthy snacks to give to one lucky reader. Named in Entrepreneur Magazine as a “Top 100 Brilliant Company” and in Forbes Magazine as one of “America’s Most Promising Companies,” they are on a mission to put healthier food options in front of consumers.
For your chance to win the sample pack pictured with this column, put a comment below and (if you’re on Twitter) send out a tweet mentioning this giveaway via @healthyvending. Let us know in the comments that you’ve sent the tweet. If you want to find them via Facebook, they are at H.U.M.A.N. Health Vending. The contest will end at midnight Friday, Jan. 20. We’ll notify the winner on Saturday, Jan. 21.
If you’re a student, what are some healthy foods you pack for your lunches?
— Identical twins and fitness pros Kymberly Williams-Evans and Alexandra Williams have been in the fitness industry since the first aerobics studio opened on the European continent. They teach, write, edit, emcee and present their programs worldwide on land, sea and airwaves. They co-write Fun and Fit: Q and A with K and A. You can currently find them in action leading classes in Santa Barbara and Goleta. Kymberly is the former faculty minor adviser at UCSB for its fitness instruction degree offered through the Department of Exercise & Sport Studies; Alexandra serves as an instructor and master teacher for the program. Fun and Fit answers real questions from real people, so please send your comments and questions to info@funandfit.org.