Choices. Portions. Timing
All of these are key components in shaping your nutrition to be healthier, lose weight or maintain your current weight. If these are your goals, read on!
When you make decisions about food, you want to consume foods that have the best nutritional value possible. Your choice of foods should be considered clean and provide natural vitamins and minerals that are not provided in highly processed or fried foods. These unclean foods are high in sugar, salt and fat and do minimal for the body nutritionally speaking. You want to opt for lean proteins such as chicken or turkey breast, eggs, fish, tofu, and lean beef. Whole grains such as brown rice and oatmeal, nuts, beans, healthy fats such as olive oil and avocados and lots of fruits, vegetables and water (water consumption should be 1/2 your body weight in ounces or 64 oz minimum).
When it comes to portions, you want to think smaller but with more frequency during the day. Think 4-6 small meals and/or snacks. An example menu: your breakfast is 2 hard boiled eggs and a piece of whole grain toast, your morning snack is a piece of fruit and a serving of yogurt, lunch is a salad with chicken breast, vegetables, pumpkin seeds or olives and beans, an afternoon snack is a serving of nuts with more fruit and dinner is a piece of fish, lots of vegetables with a serving of brown rice. Your body has to function all day long even in your slowest mode and during your sleeping hours. You still need nutrients to allow your organs to function. Your nutrients come from the needed calories consumed and when you spread those calories out evenly throughout the day rather than in one or two meals, this allow the body to optimally process the food for body functions and physical movement. It also helps keep your metabolism revved up, which is the chemical process necessary for the maintenance of life. The slower your metabolism, the more likely you are to gain and keep weight on.
Timing is very important with eating. As alluded to in the last section, your body has to function throughout the day and needs an even amount of calories to burn throughout the day. If you exercise or are training for an event, your body will need more because you are burning more, but in the big picture, you want to try to eat at least every three hours and never go more than four hours without eating. Also, try to eat something within the first hour that your wake up to break your fast from overnight. This helps to get your body going and get on a cycle for the day. Finally, avoid eating anything at least two hours prior to going to sleep. If you time your meals during the day, you will find that you will not be hungry and wind up going to bed with food lingering in your stomach trying to digest. This sometimes can lead to a unrestful night of sleep.
Contact me for nutritional counseling. http://www.simply-fitness.net/nutrition.html
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