GOOD NUTRITION
Are you tired of feeling tired? Are you tired of not having the energy to play with your kids or clean out the pantry or walk the dog? Have you had enough of feeling this way?
So much of not feeling like your body is operating at 100% has to do with our nutrition. And not only what we eat but how we eat.
Good nutrition starts with energy balance.
Calories in vs calories out.
Food is our fuel source (much like gasoline is the fuel source for our car). It gives us the energy we need to attack each day. Just like we can’t hit the road without enough gas in our car, we can’t hit the day without enough food in our bodies. And just like we can’t overfill our gas tank without it pouring out into the street, overfilling our bodies leads to inflammation, weight gain and chronic disease.
Good nutrition helps control our energy balance.
Good nutrition gives our bodies the nutrients that they need.
Different foods have different nutrient densities. Imagine in your head a bowl of raspberries sitting next to a bowl of ice cream. Not only do the calories differ between the two quite drastically but also the nutrient density differs.
Ice cream is high in calories but low in nutrients. This is a low nutrient density food.
Raspberries are low in calories but high in nutrients. This is a high nutrient density food.
We want nutrients. Remember those micronutrients we discussed in depth last week? We need those vitamins and minerals that come from quality to food to be healthy as much as we need the right portions of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
Don’t be tempted to choose the bowl of ice cream in this scenario for the short term enjoyment. Think of the LONG TERM… think about living an active life full of energy, enjoyment, and health.
Good nutrition gives us the nutrients we need to live.
Good nutrition helps us look, feel and perform our best.
Good nutrition is outcome based.
This doesn’t mean we can never choose that bowl of ice cream but if we choose the bowl of raspberries most of the time… we are skewing our outcome toward success.
Every choice you make every day feeds into this equation. That is why we always say to be prepared. If we start off the week with some foods prepared in advance, some snacks to bring with us to work, and no junk food in the house… we are setting ourself us for success. If on Thursday we get invited out with some friends … GO. Enjoy the evening. Don’t go crazy but let the reins off a little if you feel inclined to. We’ve been successful all week and feeding into our good nutrition habits and skewing our outcome toward success. Dial it back in on Friday and finish the week off strong.
Let’s talk for a minute: Think for a second about all the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights there are in your entire life. (since Thursday is the new Friday I’ve included it here). If we completely let the reins off each and every weekend and then struggle through the beginning of the following week as our bodies recover, we are skewing our outcome toward failure.
What if we held back.
What if we cared about our bodies and our long term health enough to make the smart choices more often than we don’t.
You already know what would happened… The good nutrition you are feeding your body would show on the outside and you would feel, look and perform better than you ever thought you could.
Let’s take away all of the excuses.
Let’s not blame our genetics, our schedule, the weather, our gym (or lack of) schedule, the food we have on hand, the food we ‘like’ to eat, the food our friends are eating, eating for comfort, eating socially, not liking to eat the same meal twice in a row, not wanting to count our calories, not wanting to understand how many calories are in a donut, not wanting to stop drinking cokes, not wanting to remove sugar from our coffee....
Instead let’s change our mindset.
Let’s make more good choices more often than bad ones.
Let’s erase the negative self-talk and believe that you can do anything you set your mind to do.
Let’s decide right now that our body and our life matters enough to understand good nutrition.
Let’s give ourself the same advice we might give to another… and follow it!
Let’s change, today!
Isn’t the one body you’ve got worth good nutrition?
Isn’t your life worth good nutrition?
Isn’t your health worth good nutrition?
You know that it is.
Your path, your results.
Now that you’re ready to start, just remember there is no best ‘diet’ or nutrition plan. The best one is the one that works for YOU. Don’t start to follow others down the Keto or Intermittent Fasting or Whole30 path just because they saw results… choose your own adventure this time and choose the long term, sustainable plan that is right for YOU.
Read up on why Calories Matter, What is Food? , How Food Affects our Health, 5 Things to Avoid Buying at the Grocery store, How Your Body Uses Food for Energy, Why It’s Important to Move, and Why We Shouldn’t Eat too Much Sugar.
Ready?
Let’s do this.
Need help?