As is often the case, many of you will have made changes to your nutrition for this year, maybe related to a change in your body composition … unfortunately we can never out train poor nutrition. That is just the way it is. So if you are serious about making body composition changes this year or whatever your goal for 2019 here are 5 nutritional habits to keep in mind this new year for all round better nutritional habits!
Habit 1: Eat Every Two to Four Hours
Contemporary research shows that eating at regular intervals stimulates your metabolism, balances out your blood sugar, helps prevent any overeating and helps the body burn extra fat mass while maintaining lean mass.
This habit also ensures that active people like you who have greater calorific demands can meet their caloric needs without calorically dense foods.
Habit 2: Eat Complete, Lean Protein
Good sources of protein include:
– Lean Red and White Meats
– Salmon
– Eggs
– Low – Fat Plain Yogurt
Supplementing these are things such as:
– Milk Protein isolates
– Whey Protein isolates
It has been previously claimed that additional protein is harmful however the research is fairly clear: a diet with the right amount of protein is safe and is important for achieving your best body composition and performance.
Protein not only helps with your muscle recovery, it also aids muscle mass improvements as well as stimulating your metabolism and reducing body fat.
Habit 3: Eat Veggies (All Colours)
Vegetables contain essential micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as important phytochemicals (plant chemicals) that we need for the optimal function of our physiology.
Outside of this, in our bodies we have a Ph Balance that needs to be kept in line. These vegetables and fruits provide our blood with an alkaline load which counteracts the more acidic load that things like proteins and grains provide … If we have too much alkalinity and/or too much acidity can lead to the loss of bone strength and muscle mass so we need to ensure we have a good balance!
Habit 4: For Fat Loss Eat Carbs other than Fruits and Veggies after training
This can be a good strategy if you are finding you have stubborn and hard to remove areas of body fat stores. But also it can be used as a plan for people who are interested in gaining muscle too!
Habit 5: Eat Healthy Fats Daily
These include both monounsaturated fat (things like extra-virgin olive oil, some nuts, avocados) and polyunsaturated fats (other nuts, vegetable oils and fish oil supplements).
It must be said that these habits must all be modified according to your body type (Ectomorph, Endomorph, Mesomorph) and training goals.
A Final Word Of Caution
Finally these recommendations shouldn’t all try to be implemented at once! As we recall from last weeks blog: in order to build long term, sustainable, consistent habits we need to slowly bring them into our daily routine over time piece by piece… try bringing one in each week over the next 5-6 weeks to gradually see improvements in your nutrition and body composition.
Jack Coxall