Tips on how not to get sidelined on Super Bowl Monday

For most people, Super Bowl Sunday tends to be a night when normal diet and sleep routines are punted right out the window, positioning themselves for a tougher than usual Monday morning. While osteopathic physicians (DOs) promote living a healthy lifestyle by eating nutritious foods and getting plenty of rest, temporary indulgences shouldn't fumble a normally healthy lifestyle. The American Osteopathic Association shares some tips on how not to get sidelined on Super Bowl Monday.

Pre-Game

Antoinette M. Cheney, DO, a board-certified osteopathic family physician in Lone Tree, Colo., suggests preparing for game day just like the pros:

• Make sure you get an adequate night's sleep several nights leading up to the Super Bowl. That way if you skimp on sleep on Super Bowl Sunday the impact might not be as great. Try to keep your normal schedule. If you decide to sleep in Super Bowl morning, it can throw your normal sleep cycle off and make you sluggish when you're awake.
• Try to eat a little healthier a few days before. Make smarter food choices so that come game time you can treat yourself a little. And don't forget or skip your vitamins the days leading up to or on Super Bowl Sunday.
• On Super Bowl morning and early that afternoon, make sure to eat a good snack with some protein. People tend to not eat all day in an effort to "save their calories" for the party, but this leads to overeating later because by then you are overly hungry. We then tend to make poor choices and our bodies hold onto the unhealthy calories in the fat-laden foods we end up choosing. Have a morning or afternoon snack of something like a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat, some string cheese, and a handful of nuts.
• Try to squeeze a good workout in at some point before the game. Hydrate and have a good snack afterward, then get cleaned up and ready for the festivities.

Post-Game

Rob Danoff, DO, a board-certified osteopathic family physician at Aria Health System in Philadelphia, shares some useful tips for cutting through that post-Super Bowl fog on Monday:

• Wake up and walk for at least 15 minutes. There is no doubt you will be tired so you need to rev up the engines.
• Drink 12 ounces of water to hydrate and wash out the high salt taste from all the snacks and prepared Super Bowl meals.
• Fuel up with a high-protein breakfast, such as an egg white omelet, Greek yogurt with some almonds or walnuts sprinkled in, along with at least 12 ounces of water or seltzer water with lemon. The lemon scent increases your early morning stamina and elevates your post Super Bowl mood.
• Come mid-morning, fight fatigue with an apple and a dab of peanut butter, followed by a brisk 15-minute walk if you are able to take a morning break. Top it off with a cup of green tea to keep your mind on full alert and add some cinnamon to increase your concentration and keep you smiling.
• If you can't take a mid-morning break or if you're stuck working at a desk, stand and stretch, make phone calls while standing and walk in place.
• Lunch time will test your post Super Bowl stamina. Eat light, eat lean, and hydrate with unsweetened water or seltzer water. Keep your mind and energy levels steady at lunch with a salad of green leafy vegetables, carrot slices, small pieces of tuna, and a clear soup. After lunch, stand and stretch, take five good and deep belly breaths (breath in and out by expanding and contracting your waist and not your chest).
• By mid-afternoon there is no doubt you'll be feeling a bit thirsty and tired. Chew on pieces of celery along with a piece of string cheese mid-afternoon. This will keep you fueled up on lean burning fuel that won't bottom out your energy levels. Take a stand and stretch break while lifting your arms over your head then back to shoulder level while pulling back towards the shoulder blades and then back to normal position. This will relieve some upper back tension.
• Time for the commute home. Grab some tea or coffee, non- or lightly sweetened, for your journey home. Add the scent of jasmine to increase alertness.