If you’re just starting to eat a healthier diet, boost your nutrition and lose some weight, you couldn’t be blamed for being overwhelmed by all the information out there. From bogus crash diets, to legitimate ways to balance proper nutrition and weight loss, there’s endless amounts of info and data on the web and in print. Your job, as much as trying to live a healthy lifestyle, is to filter through the information clutter to find what’s real and hat works for you.
Fortunately, most athletes have already been down the road you’re on. They need to maintain good nutrition and manage their weight to succeed in their “faster, higher, stronger” world.
So one way to make sense of the clutter and get a better focus on where you need to take your diet and nutrition is to look at the nutritional advice being given to athletes for 2016 to help get to and stay at your target weight.
1. Get Enough Water – Many athletes neglect their hydration when they aren’t training. But all of us need to get the right hydration every day. Adult males should drink 3.7 litres of water per day, and adult females should get 2.7 litres. And if you decide to do something athletic, you’ll need to drink even more water.
2. Eat Healthy Fats – Many athletes are so concerned about any excess fat on their bodies, they rob themselves of the fats that are essential to their health. And you can make the same mistake. You need fat to live. Unfortunately, many of us get far too much of the wrong types of fats in our diets. Healthy unsaturated fats, in the right portions, help your body absorb the vitamins and minerals it needs. They also improve hormone production, brain function and your body’s healing processes.
3. Eat More Fruits & Vegetables – The story about fruits and vegetables is so good, even athletes don’t fully appreciate their benefits. Weight loss and nutrition are just the start. Add to it reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, and many forms of cancer. And don’t forget improved lean muscle production (which boosts your metabolism and further helps you to lose weight), bone mass and fibre consumption.
4. Diversify Your Diet – Athletes’ lives are busy too and even they can fall into the same rut of comfortable, familiar foods that don’t deliver the range of nutrients they really need. You should make it a point to try a new fruit, vegetable and/or grain every week. Look for new recipes and start talking to friends about some of the healthy dishes they enjoy. It will all lead to a more varied and fun diet, as well as a wider range of nutrients.
5. Alkaline for Life – One area that’s gained more attention recently is the importance of alkalinity in our diet. Your blood’s pH balance is tightly controlled by your body. If it gets out of balance, your body starts using up many important nutrients, like the calcium in your bones, to keep it in line. The problem is that processed foods are major sources of acid in your system and, because we eat so many of them, it puts your pH out of balance and threatens your nutrition levels. So just in case you need any more reason to boost your fruit and vegetable consumption, this is it.
Nutrition and weight loss is what the specialists at your local Herbal One Centre know most about. Stop in any time you have a question or concern and they’ll be happy to give you straight answers and get you started towards a healthier lifestyle.