Winter sporting wellness guide
Lying on the couch, catching the game and scrolling through the lower reaches of your Instagram feed while buried in pistachio shells, your mind naturally turns to wellness.
The coming months put many barriers between you and staying healthy. Frost. Winter bugs. Cricket, netball and rugby world cups coming up, all at times that will mess with your sleep. Sport-induced existential dread.
This week Sport Review newsletter presents tips for keeping your mind and body fighting fit, or at least in a state to make it to the couch.
Mind
Your days of going on a four hour letterbox smashing rampage through the streets because the Chiefs had a niggly draw with the Stormers in the third round should largely be behind you. Try and keep defeat and victory in perspective and consider how they bring balance through the universe over time. If you can't do that, utilising voodoo dolls to inflict pain on your enemies and cleanse your soul is an option, if done in private. Don't tweet the dolls.
Space
Look at your couch. It's going to take you on an emotional roller coaster in the next few months. Sporting feng shui is all about maximum health through minimum movement and in practise means moving the fridge and a wheelie bin into the lounge.
If you're going to the game, consider all factors. Stumping up for expensive stand tickets for the rugby may keep you dry and seated, but you're going to be that much closer to pies and beer. Alternatively, going for the standing / bogan zone puts natural barriers between you and poor dietary choices - but you could also be beaten up. Swings and roundabouts. Take a raincoat!
Diet
Face facts, you're in for plenty of stress-eating over the next few weeks. Plan for dietary health by loading up on nourishing fruits, vegetables and grains earlier in the week before going into a snack-slump at the weekends. Remind yourself that heavy drinking during the game is not socially acceptable when it kicks off at 8am, even less so when you're at work.
If you're truely concerned, using bags of supermarket coleslaw as couch pillows puts healthy options directly in your eye line. Probably don't this when there's people over.
Thanks for reading - Richard
The week's best NZ sport writing
Herald writer Christopher Reive gets seriously put through the ringer, training for 14 weeks for a three round boxing match [NZ Herald]
If you can, there's nothing more fun than playing organised team sport. Here's Hannah Spyksma on returning to netball in her 30s [The Spinoff]
Very cool interactive that runs you through the BLACKCAPS' world cup squad [NZ Herald]
Speaking of which, there are two, count 'em, two local pop up cricket podcasts for the tournament, with the return of RNZ's Not Your Average Cricket Show and The Offspin from the Spinoff
Video nasty
Baseball pitcher makes a catch straight out of The Matrix.
Long read
Insane story of how a smuggler's boat with half a tonne of cocaine washed up on a small island outside Portugal and changed everything [The Guardian]
Selected weekend fixtures
The Champions League final is happening on Sunday morning between the mighty Tottenham Hotspur and qualifiers Liverpool, it kicks off at 7.00am on SKY
The BLACKCAPS' world cup gets underway Saturday night at 9.30pm as we take on Sri Lanka in Cardiff. West Indies v Pakistan is on at the same time tonight, it's all on SKY
The Chiefs and Crusaders play each other in Fiji on Saturday night at 7.30, while the Hurricanes take on the Sharks on Sunday morning at 1.30am, the're on SKY
NBA Finals between the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors starts this afternoon at 1pm, it's on NBA League Pass and SKY
Bring back the gif
When you go into the self-service checkouts vs when you leave.
