A Reminder On Your Exercise & Nutrition

The Aim Is To Start

No matter what your reasons are for starting a new exercise program, you really do need to pay attention to your nutritional needs. If you exercise like crazy, but, eat a high fat diet you will not reap the full benefits from your workouts.

In regards to your nutrition, you want to take one week and write down everything you eat, and don’t cheat!

This will give you a good overview of what you eat and when. By keeping a food journal for at least a week you can see if you skip breakfast, you can see how often you eat out and what your food choices are. From here you will see if you are eating a diet that is high in fat, sugar and fast foods, or if you are eating healthy already.

Once you have this information you can start to make changes. For example, if your problem is that you drink too many soft drinks or sugary beverages, you may want to start swapping a soft drink for water or herbal tea. You don’t have to quit cold turkey but start making the small changes. As easy as it sounds, just start.

If you go for a coffee and a doughnut every day, then maybe try and switch the doughnut for a lower fat choice. Or ideally take your own low fat granola bar for example, or some other breakfast snack or fruit. If you are eating out because of time, then you can quickly whip up a fruit smoothie or eat a piece of fruit along with some yogurt.

By eating correctly not only will you start to feel better, you will see the benefits from your exercise as well. By fuelling your body with high quality food choices you will have more energy to workout longer and at higher intensity levels.

Match Nutrition To Your Goal

Eat enough protein and calories to support your goal, whether it’s for fat loss, muscle gain, or just for body maintenance. Yes. Match your nutrition to your goal, means that you’ll be eating in a way that supports what you are trying to achieve. Here goes:

Building Muscle: Eat enough calories and prioritize protein.
Losing Fat: Eat fewer calories than you burn while keeping protein high.
Maintaining Your Current Weight: Eat roughly the same number of calories you burn.
Improve or Enhancing Performance: Get enough calories, carbohydrates, protein, and fluids to fuel training and recovery.

In simple terms: Your exercise sets the goal, and your nutrition helps your body reach it.

Fuel Your Workouts

Carbohydrates provide energy for training, while protein helps repair and build muscle afterward.

Supplements can be a useful thing to help improve your nutrition and exercise routines. If you workout straight after work, you can easily use a supplement or nutrition bar, while travelling to the gym. This way you are supplying your body with energy before beginning your exercise class. You will feel more energized, and won’t suffer from burn out, before the class is over.

To remind us of a general idea on when to eat carbs and protein around your workout:

Before The Workout: Have a meal at about 2 – 3 hours before exercise with carbs + protein.
Closer To Your Workout: If needed, have a small carb-rich snack 30–60 minutes before.
After A Workout: Aim for a meal or snack with protein + carbs within about 1–2 hours after exercising. You don’t need to eat immediately.

Here’s An Example:
🏋️ Workout at 5 PM → Meal around 2–3 PM, Small snack around 4–4:30 PM, Then protein + carbs around 6–7 PM.

Stay Consistent And Hydrated

Your results come from consistently combining good training, balanced nutrition, adequate water, and recovery and not from one perfect meal or workout.

Be consistent: Follow your exercise and nutrition plan regularly. Results come from what you do over time, not one perfect workout or meal.
Stay hydrated: Drink water throughout the day and around your workouts to replace fluids lost through sweat and support energy and performance.

It’s A Simple rule: 💪 Consistency = Progress | Water = Performance & Recovery

Start Now – Start Small – Start

You don’t have to make drastic changes in regards to both nutrition and exercise.

Small changes are also going to make an impact. By eating more fresh fruit and vegetables you will probably start to feel better and more energized. When you start to add exercise into the mix, you could see that you sleep better, and feel even more alert during the day. You actually feel as though you have enough energy to get through your busy day.

Start by making sure that you eat breakfast, and also try to add a short walk into your day. Once you have this achieved, then increase your activity level and begin to add more healthy food choices into your diet. Start!!!