It's Not Always What You Do But What You Eat

I’m choosing this Thanksgiving week to discuss nutrition. Thanksgiving marks the time when eating tends to take an upswing while time to exercise falls to an all time low. It seems like a good time to talk about the fact that no matter how hard you work out and how active you are, if you aren’t consuming good, healthy food your body isn’t working at its prime state.  If you want to optimize your fitness and get and stay at a healthy weight you have to be mindful of what you consume. 

We will start with that word you’ve heard so often—calorie. There are two ways to look at the term calorie. When referring to food it’s the unit of energy that food supplies your body. When referring to physical activity a calorie is the amount of energy your body uses in performing an activity. To maintain your current weight you want to take in the same amount of calories as your body burns. To lose weight you want to take in fewer calories than burn during activity. If you are interested in gaining weight you will want to take in more calories than you burn (OWH 2008).

With all the nutrition advice out there it’s easy for a person to get confused. One minute we are being told to avoid carbs and eat large quantities of meat. The next minute we need to follow a gluten-free vegan diet. We won’t even talk about the fad diets out like the one promoting the use of cayenne pepper and lemon juice to cleanse the digestive tract (I won’t even provide the reference link for this diet, just believe it exists).  

The soundest advice I have found and try to follow in my own life is something along the lines recommended by the Harvard School of Public Health. “Eat a plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; choose foods with healthy fats, like olive and canola oil, nuts and fatty fish; limit red meat and foods that are high in saturated fat; and avoid foods that contain trans fats. Drink water and other healthy beverages, and limit sugary drinks and salt. Most important of all is keeping calories in check, so you can avoid weight gain, which makes exercise a key partner to a healthy diet.”  



The Harvard School of Public Health’s website has 10 simple and helpful tips to eating right that you might want to check out. 10 Tips For Healthy Eating

 

They have also developed a Healthy Eating Plate which is a visual reference to what and how much you should be eating.  To learn more about how it works click here: Healthy Eating Plate

Remember to help your body work efficiently you need to be attentive to the fuel you feed it. We all slip sometimes but sticking to a healthy diet will help improve your fitness experience.



References:

(2008, June 17). “Fitness and Nutrition. Office on Women’s Health website. Retrieved from: http://www.womenshealth.gov/fitness-nutrition/food-fitness-healthy-weight/index.html
 

 “The Nutrition Source: What Should I Eat?” Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved from: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/

 

"The Nutrition Source: Healthy Eating Plate. Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved from: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/index.html