so this is a topic on the fierceboards right now but i was wondering about your guy's opinion on this.
do you think it is okay for coaches to become involved in an athletes/a teams eating habits? or to tell an athlete to eat healthier in order to be more fit? what about bringing in nutritionists and weighing athletes?
I am not sure if weighing athletes is the best way to encourage healthy eating. But a nutritionist is not a bad idea. Many of the children involved in cheer are going through growth spurt after growth spurt and poor nutrition will lead to unhealthy weight gain as well as weaker bones. I know as a parent that faced a 45 minute drive home right at dinner time I have stopped for fast food way too often. Both my child and I agreed to fast food once every other week and me bringing healthy snacks to tie her over until we can get home. It is a pain, but she has a lot of growth ahead of her and I would prefer not to sabotage her health at such a young age.
i think it's wrong to "weight your cheerleaders" and put them on a diet, because everyone has different body types, some are naturally skinny and some are curvy, i am a ball of muscle i always have been, whenever i start to cheer again i gain weight but not fat only muscle and when i stop cheering or i don't workout i lose weight, i pretty much eat whatever i want but i do watch myself as well, i love ice cream so i eat that almost everyday but i am not a fast food person, maybe once a month ill get something from a fast food place and only because it's the only option i have, i love fruit, chicken and brown rice and i have egg whites almost everyday so my diet is pretty healthy but at competitions when there is nothing else but ice cream, hot dogs, fries, pretzels its really hard to eat healthy, i usually bring protein bars & apples and i try to eat before i go but we're still young so getting some dip n dots or a pretzel from the competition isn't bad, some competitions have smoothies and i always get those!! No one should tell their child or athlete that they can't have a hot dog or an ice cream cone. Being a level 5 athlete myself i burn so many calories at practice and on competition days that it really doesn't matter weight wise but for energy the food you eat is important
