Eating Healthy

By Mercury forward Kayte Christensen

I think a lot of teenage girls don’t eat properly.

There are two extremes. They either eat a lot of junk food or they just don’t eat enough food. I think people don’t realize how much more food you need than the average person when you’re working out or playing a sport. That doesn’t mean cheeseburgers, though. That means grilled chicken.

Don’t get me wrong. I do eat red meat all the time. I eat steak, but I always have salad and vegetables and rice with it. I love junk food as much as the next person, but you don’t see me eating candy bars 10 minutes before the game starts or before practice starts. It’s all a matter of moderation and balance.

My breakfast, for example, consists of a big bowl of strawberries, raspberries and bananas, and a bowl of Raisin Bran.

That’s better than having a bowl of Cap’n Crunch. As much as I love Cap’n Crunch, I don't think it's quite as healthy. I also make crepes and put berries in them, so I still get that sweet touch from time to time.

For dinner, I try to do easy stuff during the season. I’ll bake chicken and put a can of cream of mushroom soup or cream of chicken soup on top of it and bake it in the oven for an hour at 350. Then I’ll have white rice and vegetables with that. It’s easy, it’s really tasty and it doesn’t take a lot of preparation. It’s good and good for you.

Everyone's different, though, so it's hard to generalize. Every body type is different and it also depends on what sport you're playing and how much you play. If you run track, you need to be eating really healthy because you’re constantly running. That’s a serious sport where you really need to make sure your diet is right. If you’re playing basketball, but are a bench player, your diet should be different than if you’re playing a ton of minutes a game.

What’s good now compared to when I was in high school is that there are people available to talk to. If you have questions about your diet, there are people that you can go to in your school that know exactly what you should be doing. My suggestion to you is that if you have serious questions, you should go to someone, a coach, a trainer or a school nurse, that would know these things and can point you in the right direction.