After the practice, I wash the cups so they’ll be ready for the next hard practice.
Actually, my real title should be: Invisible Chocolate Milk Mom! Teenagers do not appreciate their parents being too obviously involved in their practices. So, I tend to show up with the container of cups and coolers of chocolate milk just before the hard practice ends.
Voila. Two coolers containing nine gallons of chocolate milk and umpteen cups appear — just like that.
Then I go home, and my daughter shows up at the house with empty coolers and a container of to-be-washed cups.
Voila. Nine gallons of chocolate milk disappear — just like that.
Anyway, since it’s my rookie year as Chocolate Milk Mom, I had to first find an answer to the question: Chocolate milk? After a hard run?
Some quick Internet research revealed that chocolate milk is, in fact, a great post-workout drink. Turns out chocolate milk — not plain old milk — has just the right ratio of carbohydrates and proteins to help bodies recover after a difficult workout. (Chocolate milk has more carbs and proteins than plain milk.)
And there was even a study about the benefits of chocolate milk as a post-workout drink in International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. (If you’re really interested, you can read about it at www.whymilk.com/fitness_article/athletes_rethink_drink.)
So, take that, Gatorade.
But then I had to wonder about gulping down chocolate milk after a hard workout. That sounds a bit difficult to stomach. I can’t imagine running seven-plus miles and then wanting chocolate milk.
Of course, I can’t actually imagine myself running seven-plus miles. Not all in a row. Maybe in quarter-mile increments. Yep, my routine would look like this: jog a quarter-mile, collapse in an exhausted, panting pile and then rally enough for my own version of a post-workout recovery drink. Say, a nice iced cappuccino. Followed by a massage. And a nap. All of which should prepare me for my next quarter-mile increment ... sometime later in the week.
So I asked my daughter, who not only imagines running seven-plus miles, but actually does so, if chocolate milk really does hit the spot after a hard workout.
She assures me that it does, and that all her teammates really look forward to their hard-work-out-chocolate-milk days.
I’ll have to take her word for it.
I also can’t figure out why no one at the grocery has ever commented or even lifted an eyebrow at me hoisting 9 gallons of chocolate milk into my cart.
Maybe there are lots of Chocolate Milk Moms out there, and women buying 9 gallons of chocolate milk at one time has become a common sight.
Or maybe I just look like someone who reeeeaaaally likes chocolate milk.
If someone did say to me, though, “excuse me, ma’am, why are you buying 9 gallons of chocolate milk?” I’d tell ’em, and tell ’em proudly.
Because I reeeeaaaally like being Chocolate Milk Mom for a very simple reason: It’s a simple volunteer task with clear parameters that’s very appreciated and doesn’t take a lot of time or effort.
Well, except, of course, for lifting all those gallons of chocolate milk into the cart.
After which, I turn to my own post-workout recovery beverage — that iced cappuccino!
Sharon Short’s column runs Mondays in Life. Send e-mail to sharonshort@sharonshort.com.
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