9781422284988

Try It Yourself

Make your own “training table” menu. See if you can create a list of meals for a long weekend of hard work at training camp. Try to create meals that follow the myplate.gov diagram below. The diagram shows how much of each kind of food you should eat each day. Look up recipes online and check ingredients. Can you build menus that are worth 3,000 calories each day? Try to make a breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner that fill the grid. It’s okay to choose meals that you’d like to try yourself, but make sure to add some food challenges, too. Trying some new things (including vegetables!) won’t hurt!

Materials:

• paper and pencil • poster board • Internet access • cookbooks (check your pantry; your family probably has some)

1. Make a grid on the poster board that shows four food sections for each of three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 2. Make notes on what you know you like to eat and research some calorie counts. If you can note sugar content, that’s even better to know. Make sure to in- clude protein in each meal (except maybe the snacks). 3. Can you keep carbohydrates down? Can you keep protein up? Can you find a variety of vegetables? There is no right answer to this activity; it’s an exercise to make you think more about what you eat and how it affects your body. Making plans like this is a lifelong activity! Why not start now?

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