My clients often come to me asking how they can make eating well (or eating clean) part of their busy lifestyles. They’ve gotten the message that eating clean and eating often is important to their fitness goals, whether it’s to compete in an athletic event, gain muscle, or lose weight.
What’s sometimes challenging though is figuring out how to implement the basic rules when life happens-travel, new jobs, moving homes, taking care of older relatives, the demands of multiple children, business meetings, and so on. Finding the time to cook, prepare, and pack meals can’t always work for everyone, so here are a few of my suggestions for no-fail basics:
1) HYDRATE. Drink at least 12 cups of water, minimum. If you’re exercising, in a hot climate, pregnant, larger, etc drink more. When I don’t drink enough water, I’m usually hungrier too and I don’t perform as well in the gym or at the track.
2. EAT every 2-4 hours. Move away from the silly social constructs of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Frequent meals and feeding intervals stimulate the metabolism, help control fluctuations in blood sugar levels, and keep you AWAY from reaching for the less-desirable food choices.
Eating like this is great for weight loss, and it’s also great for athletes and those wanting to gain weight. After all, it’s much easier to get in 4,000 calories spread out over 6 meals than trying to fit all those calories into breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 5 or 6 meals in a day usually fits in for our waking hours. No need to sleep walk to the fridge.
3. Always include a lean, clean protein at every single feeding. Egg whites, whey protein, salmon, tuna, lean ground beef, bison, chicken breast, turkey breast, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, low-sodium jerky, etc are all good options. If you’re not near a food scale, judge a portion by the size of your palm (generally, one for women, two for men). All the athletes I’ve worked with who display the best body composition know that frequent protein intake stimulates metabolism and keeps you fuller, longer.
4. Eat your veggies at every feeding. It might be hard to wrap your mind around vegetables at “breakfast,” but over the course of your day, aim for 5 cups of cooked vegetables spread through out feedings, at a minimum. You’ll need to eat more if you’re a big fan of salad greens! There are an endless choice of variety for your veggie options, so vary them and shop in season if you can. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that many vegetables are high in fiber and full of vitamins and minerals.
5. Generally, for fat loss, time your carbs around your high activity hours (like when you hit the gym) and eat them early in the day. Pick clean carbs (e.g.,veggies, oats, sweet potatoes, brown rice) over starchy, processed ones (breakfast cereal, bread, muffins, bagels, cereal bars, white rice, pasta).
6. Don’t forget the good fat! Nuts, avocado, fish and flax oil, nut butters, ground flax seeds are all excellent choices for healthy fats. For most of us, at least 30% of our daily calories need to come from healthy fats-those that can positively influence energy levels, body composition, and fat metabolism in the body, but choose them wisely.
So there you have it. A 6-step guide to the basics of eating well. It doesn’t have to be complicated to work.
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