Nutrition - What Everybody Needs to Know

Nutrition is of the utmost importance for achieving results in your fitness program and living a healthy life in general.  Like exercise nutrition must be goal specific.  If you want to lose weight you cannot eat a high Calorie diet.  If you want to gain weight you cannot eat a low Calorie Diet.

You cannot take a once size fits all approach when it comes to nutrition. 

What works for other people may not work for you.  The best way to approach nutrition is to use trial and error to figure out what works for you.  This is why writing down your calorie intake in a journal is so important.

I stress eating for variety.  The more different types of food you eat, the more you will be satisfied with your meals.  eating for variety will get you more vitamins and minerals.  There will also be far less negatives such as saturated fats, simple sugars and excess calories.

Having proper nutrition will allow you to achieve optimum and more rapid results in any training program.  Nutrition cannot be overlooked when optimum athletic performance is considered as well.

Eating healthy foods is most important.  The healthier the food is is blatantly obvious some times.  Steamed vegetables or fries?  Macaroni & Cheese or rice?  You see what I mean.

Food Intake Before and After Exercise is Crucial

Pre-Exercise Nutrition

Having optimal energy for intense exercise depends largely on what you eat in 1-3 hours before your session.

Finding the correct thing to eat before an exercise session may be a matter of trial and error as it varies from individual to individual.

Generally you should have a meal of a mix of simple and complex carbs with a little bit of protein.

Fat should be avoided because it takes too long to digest and could remain in your stomach, slowing you down for your exercise session.

Post-Exercise Nutrition

This oft neglected yet utterly important aspect of training is essential for recovery and progress through an exercise program. 

Depending on your goals you may have to eat 20% of your daily intake of Calories for the day within the hour after your workout session!

The keys to good post workout recovery intake are:

Easy to Digest

• The faster the nutrients get to the needed areas the better
• Should not upset your stomach
• Liquid is best and supplements are a good idea

Low in Fat

• Fat slows down food absorption thus should be avoided in the post workout recovery period

4 : 1 Carbohydrate to Protein Ratio

• Countless studies have proven this mixture to be the most effective for absorption and recovery
• Depending on your daily routine you can tweak this ratio to suit your needs

• Contains the correct vitamins and minerals (electrolytes)
  • Sodium, potassium necessary
  • Other vitamins, antioxidants optional

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