Cleaning Up Your Nutrition For Results

Achieving fitness results the right way will require good nutrition. Although exercise is important, nutrition does play the largest role in getting fit and maintaining your health.

Eating Right is Easy

Eating right for results isn't complicated as many people believe. This line of thinking has much to do with fitness products and supplements marketed as the only way to lose weight, get fit, and increase muscle size. Wrong!

Let's put these myths aside and take a simple look at what really is required nutritionally.

Food Journals Can Help

It may be helpful to use a food journal for a short time until you have adopted how to eat right. Food journals are shown to keep you on track and enable you to repeat healthy weeks. This part may sound like a burden to start, but it really is quite simple.

Forget about charting calories, grams, weighing food, etc. for now and probably won't be necessary later. Keep your journal simple and enjoy the process of learning. As long as you're eating healthy throughout the day to support your body and physical activity is the goal.

A simple food journal may look something like this:

• Water intake for the day: 2 quarts
• Meal 1: 1 slice seeded toast, 1/4 to 1/2 avocado, 1 boiled egg
• Meal 2: large greens and fruit blended shake  
• Meal 3: large green salad topped with grilled chicken breast, balsamic vinegar
• Meal 4: sliced apple with 2 tbsp peanut butter
• Meal 5: grilled salmon with lots of veggies
• Meal 6: yogurt topped with raw nuts

Dump the Junk Food

Eating right will require cleaning out the junk food. This is difficult especially if you struggle with tossing out food. If it helps, box it all up and donate to a food kitchen or church. You can do this!

Take a day and go through your refrigerator and pantry. Remove all processed, packaged, frozen dinners, pastries, white products, etc. Unhealthy food products contain a lot of trans fats, high-sodium, and chemicals you really don't want to be ingesting. A shortlist includes:

• sugary drinks, sodas, and some sport drinks
• white bread
• refined vegetable oils (corn, soybean, cottonseed, canola)
• margarine
• pastries, cakes, cookies
• boxed crackers and chips
• low-carb meals and bars
• yogurt high in sugar and chemicals
• processed gluten-free products
• ice cream, candy, candy bars, and some protein bars
• processed meats (salami, pastrami, deli meats, hot dogs, etc)
• processed cheese (American, cheese in a can, etc)

Eat Clean for Results, Fitness, and Health

Getting fit for life requires eating cleaner which is just another way of saying you are eating healthy. You have taken the steps to remove all processed foods from your house and now ready to replace those with real whole foods. 

Let's go shopping! The best way to stay on track at the grocery store is not going when you're hungry. Eat a healthy meal first and stick to your written list of items.

Having healthy food at home will also reduce eating at restaurants and fast-food chains. This keeps you in control of your food intake and is the goal of adopting a healthy lifestyle.

We all differ in nutritional likes and that is great because there is a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods for everyone. You will want to include all the macros in your nutrition which just means eating a balance of lean proteins, nutritious carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

The following shortlist includes healthy selections from each category and also takes into consideration vegetarian/vegan preferences:

Proteins:

• B/S chicken and turkey breast
• Salmon, halibut, tilapia, albacore tuna
• Lean beef  (90% lean)
• Greek yogurt (natural, no sugar added)
• Cottage cheese
• Eggs
• Milk (2%), almond milk, coconut milk, low-fat chocolate milk
• Lentils, dried beans, navy beans, no to low-sodium canned beans
• Peanut butter (natural, no-sugar-added), almond butter
• Raw mixed nuts
• Tofu
• Edamame
• Quinoa

Carbohydrates:

• Vegetables (broccoli, peppers, squash, asparagus, etc) 
• Leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, etc)
• Fruits (apples, berries, mango, cherries, etc)
• Legumes (lentils, chickpeas, peas, and beans)
• Quinoa, Kamut, barley, buckwheat, flax meal
• Brown rice (white rice for some athletes)
• Whole wheat, whole grain bread
• Steel-cut oats
• Sweet potatoes
• White and red potatoes (baked not fried)

Fats:

• Avocados
• Chickpeas (hummus)
• Walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, pecans, etc (raw-unsalted, not roasted)
• Olive oil
• Salmon (Omega-3 fatty acids)
• Nut and seed butter (natural, no sugar added)
• Ground flaxseed or flax meal
• Chia seeds

You Can Do It!

Eating better is typically the biggest struggle with adopting a healthy lifestyle. I believe in keeping nutrition simple and fun. When eating right is enjoyable, you will repeat it for life. You can do it!

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