This is the first in a series of blogs on nutrition subtitled "Fuel for the WODs" (workout of the day).
Hey what's that you are eating? Did it come in a packet? Do you know what it's ingredients are? Did you read the label?
Most of us wouldn't think twice. It's just a packet of chips, it's just a frozen pizza, it's just food isn't it...? But is it? Since when did food become a list of scientific ingredients? Let's take a look at the list of ingredients in a popular brand of chips:
Potatoes, vegetable oils, maltodextrin, sugar, flavour enhancers, salt, flavours, hydrolysed vegetable protein, onion powder, yeast extract, garlic powder, herbs, spices.
How many of those things do you recognise? How many of those things are actually good for you? how many of those things are holding you back from being the best you can be?
Working out is great, but more importantly what you eat will have a huge part in how you look and how you feel. In other words, you are what you eat! If you are going to eat crap then you are going to feel crap and look like crap. Conversely if you eat good wholesome foods then you will be able to think better, you will feel better, you will perform better, and of course you will look better.
So what foods should you be eating? It's pretty simple. Stick to whole fresh foods! When you go to the super market the vast majority of your food shopping must be done in the fresh food section. The less food you buy from the aisles the better. All the food in the aisles come in packets and cans. Those things have labels, read those labels and you will come to realise that you don't know what you are eating. You think you might be buying a jar of pasta sauce, but read that label. Do you understand 100% of the contents on that label? Do you want to eat or even worse feed your family with something that you don't understand? Delicious wholesome nutritional foods do not need labels!!!
If your goal is to lose body fat, or to build muscle, or to perform better in the gym, or even to think and feel better then you must pay attention to what you are eating. Nutrition plays the biggest role in all of these things, more than 50% and up to 80% in some cases.
Of course no one is going to be able to eat good wholesome food 100% of the time which is why I live by and advocate the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I am eating good wholesome nutritious food. The other 20% (or less) of the time I am more relaxed and might include a treat. My 20% time is not a time to destroy myself and eat a bucket of ice cream, just a time where I am more relaxed and feel free to eat what I want in a normal sized portion. I apply the 80/20 over the course of a week, not per meal, or per day.
So to summarise, here are my top two tips for you today:
- Do the vast majority of your shopping in the fresh food section.
- Follow my 80/20 rule.
Give them a go and let me know your results!
Coach rmk
0416 494 668 | coachrmk.com | instagram
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