Super bowl shuffle

Ah, Super Bowl Sunday.

It’s the day that rivals an holiday. A day where the football gods smile upon us. It’s a day of sports and celebration.

But it’s also a day of mass consumption.

Pizza, burgers, ribs, chips, dips and my personal favorite — the buffalo chicken wing.

Calculating the average caloric intake for the typical football and cholesterol hungry football fan would probably send some into an absolute state of shock.

Bags of Doritos, vats of salsa and trays of ribs and wings. Wash that all down with your favorite beverage, and it makes for a pretty good day, right?

The problem is, you’d need about 14 hours on the treadmill to work it all off.

All week everybody has been asking me if I am going to blow all of my recent work on Super Bowl Sunday.

Am I going to put those 17 pounds back on by eating all of my favorite football foods on Sunday?

Well, I am certainly not going to fast on Sunday. I’ll just be doing my own version of the “Super Bowl Shuffle.”

We’re still going to put out the Super Bowl spread before kick off. We’re just shuffling things up a bit.

There are a few key points when it comes to adjusting your diet, and creating a more healthy lifestyle.

Substitutions and moderation.

Part of the logic behind the Weight Watchers plan, at least the way I see it, suggests that you don’t always have to avoid the food you crave.

You can have the burger, just don’t have it every day.

You can probably get a way with a small number of wings. I think a serving size is three, but who can just eat three?

That leads me to substitutions.

Rather than serving the deep-fried chicken wing, all battered up with the skin on, how about chicken breast baked in a spicy sauce? Serve some celery and fat free dressing.

It’s good, trust me.

Here are some other suggestions for your Super Bowl menu.

— Black bean quesadillas

Use the whole wheat or carb smart tortillas. Black beans are a low-fat, high-fiber alternative. Chicken and different types of vegetables also work. I recommend the Weight Watchers brand cheese.

—Turkey chili

Chili is always good on a football Sunday. Substitute lean ground turkey for the meat. The Jennie-O brand has only about 120 calories and 1.5 grams of fat per serving. It’s actually not too bad either.

—Buffalo chicken dip

This one will be at our Super Bowl fest. Chicken, hot sauce, fat-free sour cream and fat-free cream cheese are the main ingredients.

We’re also making pizzas. Weight watchers has a recipe for a sensible crust. I know I’ve put in an order for at least one chicken fajita pizza, spiced chicken and fresh peppers. Other than that we’ll just go light on the cheese and heavy on the vegetables. Chicken and turkey sausage are alternatives to the traditional pepperoni and Italian sausage.

Even though we are preparing some low-fat, low-carlorie menu items, I still can’t down an entire pizza and bowl of buffalo chicken dip.

I still have to be sensible with my portion sizes.

But it’s nice to know we can still have something that’s at least similar to the football fare we had in the past.

Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday,

JB