What an historic day for Mayo!

                                             On our way to the pub: Dad, Dolores, Breda and me.

Last Sunday (26th July 26) It was a great day of sportmanship.

A great day for all of us who are from Mayo or we have Mayo connections - especially for me, having married a girl from Killala only a month ago.

We watched the match in a pub in a Ballina.

Before, the match, I was (probably the only one in whole Mayo!) optimistic. I had in mind the Euro 2004 where Greece got the title defining odds and Gods of soccer! So, why not Mayo? Why not TODAY? It's 70 minutes and anything can happen in a match. Anything!

At 1st half, when we were 6 (or 7?) points behind, I thought that that's it. But the Mayo lads found the guts (or maybe by ignoring danger and fear!) and the determination to start reducing the deficit. And when at the second half, when Mayo got the lead for the first time in the match, I though (quite correctly as the final score proved) - we got a good chance to beat Kerry.

At the end, when Mayo were the All Ireland Gaelic Football Champions, after 75 years of pain, blood and tears, we all had tears of Joy! Not bitter ones, anymore. HON MAYO!

                                             After the final whistle : the champions of Ireland!

P.S.

Here, you can read a great analysis of the match.

Sports and Diet

People use say that we are what we eat,or may be not?

But, who influences our food choices?

The is a clear answer: our family!

Our parents lead by example and their choices have huge impact on our diets/lifestyles!
Here is some related research supporting this view.

Coping with Time Pressure and Stress: Consequences for Families’ Food Consumption

Abstract

This study explores the coping strategies that families apply when under time pressure and stress (time stress), and how such strategies affect food consumption at dinnertime. The data were based on photo interviewing methodology with a sample of 12 Norwegian children (ages seven and eight) and their parents. In this case, the children were asked to take photographs during their dinners at home and while shopping for groceries with their parents. The findings show that the most dominant explanation for time stress was the children’s participation in sport activities. In this regard, the families applied several coping strategies, such as skipping dinner and eating snacks instead, consuming convenience food, avoiding preference conflicts, planning for healthy dinners, involving children and grandparents in food preparation, and practising compensatory health beliefs and behaviours. This might be the first study that identifies parents’ use of compensatory health beliefs to justify children’s diets. More specifically, the parents stated that the children’s high activity levels could compensate for unhealthy food consumption. The strategies that were applied had varying influences on the families’ food consumption, depending on the parents’ confidence in cooking and meal-planning skills. It was found that parents with high confidence and skills were more likely to make healthy cooking a priority. Consequently, they served more healthy dishes at dinnertime, compared with other parents. Unlike previous studies, the findings indicate that children’s active lifestyles might not be directly related to healthy diets.