Making the Right Choices

With spring camps finishing up this past weekend, and numerous players still competing on teams this spring in various tournaments, one almost forgets that the winter season has recently finished.

This in mind, there are 3 months left till training camps and team tryouts begin. The training over the next 3 months that each goaltender partakes in must revolve around one's improvement in developmental areas on the ice, one's off ice workout routine, and ones nutritional dietary plan. Set specific goals in these areas directed towards your future improvement and towards where you hope to play this upcoming year.

With numerous distractions that pull and tempt you into staying away from your goals for the future, it is important to remember that your goals are set and it takes dedication to follow them.

Keeping in mind that spring is a time to rejuvenate your mind and take a break from hockey, one must still remember that the little things you do away from the game can make a difference in how you progress in your training and how far you can excel past your competition. Lets start with the choice of choosing water over a carbonated soft drink.

Why choose a drink that is detrimental to your health and athletic performance when you can make the easy decision of choosing water, milk, or juice. Is choosing pop an O.K decision? Well... not only are carbonated drinks unhealthy because they contain large quantities of sugar, calories and caffeine, but they also have no significant nutritional value and have shown a strong link with scientific proof between pop consumption and childhood obesity.

What is really in a carbonated drink? The coloring makes them look more appetizing, the phosphoric acid makes them tangy, the flavors add the taste, and the carbonated water makes them fizzy. Caffeine is known to be a stimulant which is addictive, and the corn syrup is a less expensive type of sweetener and it provides almost no nutrition and a lot of calories.

What about a Diet pop drink? It is said that the artificial sweeteners in diet soda can make your body crave more calories. Lets call a diet pop a consumer. The more you consume, the more you crave food. Most likely this ends up being fast food. Diet soda may not have the sugar or calories of regular soda, but it’s chock-full of other health-draining chemicals, like caffeine, artificial sweeteners, sodium and phosphoric acid. Different studies have been flying around on this subject, but a majority show that diet soda may actually set you up to gain even more weight. For an excellent resource on more information on Diet Carbonated drinks click here. Also, take a look at a great bulletin on msnbc here.

Making the right nutritional choices is a stepping stone that will help you progress with your goals. Goals that you set are in form of desire and channeled into direction. It takes perseverance and an inner drive to make your goals a reality.

Remember that your goals should be set in stone. It takes constant dedication over time to follow them!

Making the Right Choices