How are we all today?
I'm writing this in a different location to my normal writing desk, since we live on the top floor of our building and the successor to Hurricane Bawbag (Scottish humour - love it!) has pulled a bunch of tiles of the roof and dumped a ton of water onto the now unprotected roof, there are leaks in 3 of our rooms including my study/ office/ place where we dump stuff! So I've moved through to a drier area to get this done...
Anyhoo... Since this is the time of the year when everyone and their granny is making new years resolutions, gonna get fitter, gonna eat better, gonna give up smoking, gonna, gonna, gonna... I thought I would do a couple of posts giving some tips on the nutrition/ fitness/ being more awesome resolutions being made.
A load of people I've spoken to have decided that getting fit and eating better are the goals for this year, so first up some basics about nutrition.
Nutrition is one of those things that derails a lot of fitness, fatloss goals. It gets over complicated. Nutrient timing, supplementation, supplement timing, macro ratios, no carbs on a full moon, blah blah blah... It all gets way more complicated than it needs to. Simple works.
You just have to know the rules.
1. If you are eating for fatloss or muscle gain, the amount of calories you consume matters. You want to get rid of some fat? Eat less. Want to get bigger? Eat more. Simple.
2. Eat a portion of protein at every meal. Protein gives you a fuller sensation for longer, meaning you snack less, and is vital for retaining ( or building muscle) whilst shedding fat.
A good rule, is for men - 2 palm sized portions per meal, for women - 1 palm sized portion per meal.
Choose from chicken, turkey, lean beef, fish, beans, tofu, tempeh, protein powders. Any of these will do, "chicken" nuggets won't!
3. Eat veggies. Lots of em. With every meal. They are high in fibre, low in cals, high in nutrients and they taste great! Raw, steamed, baked, juiced, you name it (ok, except deep fried...or microwaved) they taste great. ( I like spinach in with my morning shake, you dont even taste it once its blended, and you get a green shake! How cool is that!?)
4. Cut back on the starchy and sugary carbs. Carbs are kinda necessary. They are great for refueling post-training. Thats about it... Once you replace the energy stores in your muscles and liver (as muscle glycogen) the rest has to go somewhere and that somewhere is onto your hips, ass, stomach and bingo wings as fat. We don't want that to happen, so if you are having some carbs, opt for unprocessed types of paste, rice, bread. The processed options are basically just sugar with no redeeming nutrients.
Guys - 1 fist sized portion is good for you,
Ladies - 1/2 a fist sized portion is good.
5. Eat good fats. What!? Eat fat? Really?? Yup, but they can't be any old fat, I'm talking, healthy, unprocessed fats.
A lot of processed foods are full of processed fats, which are bad for your general health and can lead to fat gain. Healthy natural fats are important for a number of reasons, storage of certain vitamins, cell insulation, healthy skin and hair amongst many more.
Sources of these oils include raw nuts and seeds, olive oil, avocados, oily fish and omega 3 rich fish oil supplements.
Fats should make up about 30% of your total calories each day, try to keep the unhealthy fats (saturated fat typically from red meat and processed fats) to less than 10%.
Use these guidelines, and you will see great strides in your general health and body compositon, use them to get the best out of your training.
Stay healthy
