Nutrition Strategy

The word “Diet” is probably the second most hated word when it comes to starting an exercise program.  If you missed Part 1 you can read it here. But in Part 2 of this series, we’re not talking about a diet to lose weight nor are we talking about a diet that you’ll go on to lose weight and have it come off later.

Actually…What I want you to do is eliminate “Diet” from your vocabulary altogether! Instead of saying or thinking “diet” think changing your eating habits.

This is basically what you need to do – if you can just train your body to eat healthy, you’ll feel and look fabulous without starving and feeling miserable all the time. Also remember that changing the way you eat will not be a temporary change, but a permanent change that you’ll continue to do for the rest of your life.

What’s healthy you ask?

Eating the right foods play an important role in your health. Think of food like fuel for your body. If you fuel your body well then your body will be able to do a good job at any task when you need it to.

However, if you don’t give your body quality food, it won’t perform the right way.

Imagine this:

You’re in your car and you drive up to the gas station. It’s not the best gas station in the world and the fuel is low quality…not even standard!

As much as the fuel sucks, you still go ahead and use it, after all you need something to fill up your car. As you drive off you notice that your car drives very slow, you don’t get the mileage that you’re used to and within a couple minutes of driving the car just shuts down.

This is the same thing as your body.  I’m sure you’ve heard the popular saying “Garbage in…garbage out”

This saying is no different when it comes to your body and what you put into it.  If you choose to eat the wrong foods all of the time, your body will not be able to perform as well as if you gave it the highest quality foods.

Here are just a couple of facts that prove my point.

• Without proper nutrition, your body will become sick faster and with greater intensity.
• Your body won’t heal as quickly from injury and diseases.
• Your blood pressure rises, and your heart rate increases to unhealthy levels at rest.
• You’ll be more prone to limitations physically as well as mentally.

From the short list above you can clearly see that all sorts of problems come into play from not eating healthy foods. But, before I go and tell you to eat healthy foods, you first gotta know what foods are healthy and why it’s healthy for you!

Read on…

1. Vegetables are one of the highest nutrient rich foods out there. They provide high level of antioxidants to that help to heal your body, improve your fitness from the inside to the out, and are very low in calories which means you can eat more without worrying about gaining weight.

2. Fruits can solve your sweet tooth because of their natural sweetness. They also provide you with antioxidants and all types of nutrients that give your body the fuel it needs to power through a good workout.

3. Whole grains are also an important product of a healthy eating plan. When comparing “white” foods to whole grains you’ll easily discover that whole grains give you so much more benefits. Choosing the whole grains alternatives to bread, pastas and potatoes (sweet potatoes or yams) allows you to get the tastes that you love but without the added calories, fats, and sugars that end up sabotaging your health and fitness goals.

4. Proper intake of water is also important. If you don’t get enough fluids in, your body ends up retaining the water rather than having less of it. This causes your body to go into dehydration mode, which causes you to keep all the fluids in your body. By consuming enough water you’ll be able to hydrate your system, eat less, and save some calories by not drinking other liquids (beer, wine, etc.).

5. Lean meats are important parts of your daily eating plan, too. Being able to help your muscles recover faster, you’ll need to eat some quality protein but you don’t want to get it from fatty meats. Selecting lean meats will literally save your life. Because lean meats have less fat it will help you cut down your intake of cholesterol which will ultimately clog your arteries and minimizing blood flow to throughout your body.

Being able to improve on these five areas will sky-rocket your health substantially. So taking the short amount of time to work on them daily shouldn’t be a problem for you. Right?

If you have specific health issues, your doctor may have additional or different recommendations. He or she might suggest something a little bit more specific for your unique situation.

As a final point, if you need to lose weight, the bottom line is that you need to minimize the amount of calories that you’re taking in. This can easily be done, by charting, and monitoring how much calories you’re consuming.

The average person should consume approximately 1800 to 2000 calories per day. And, if you’re trying to lose weight, you need to reduce this amount to at 1500 to 1600 calories per day.  But depending on your body you may need to modify that a bit. Go with the reductions that your doctor or nutritionist recommends so that you have enough fuel for your day but also so you’re not storing any extra fuel as fat in your body.