Everything I Currently Know About Nutrition
May 6th, 2007I’ve been working with a personal trainer for the past three weeks, and this post is an effort to both share what I’ve learned and have a record of what I’m learning. To lose body fat and maintain (or increase) muscle you need to do three things: eat right, weight train and do cardio. This post is for the nutrition part of what I’ve learned.
How to Eat:
The menu below serves a few purposes. First, it teaches your body to burn what you take in throughout the day, speeding up your metabolism. Quite frankly, even if you excercise an hour a day every day, that’s only 7 hours of your 168 hour week. Teaching your body to work more efficiently with food goes a long way to getting you in shape. Here’s the diet I’m typically using now:
- 7 a.m – Breakfast
A scrambled egg and some whole wheat toast. Or, if you’re crunched for time like me: a protein bar. My experience has been that the peanut butter ones are the most edible. - 10 a.m – Morning Snack
Either a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts. - 12 p.m. – Lunch
A turkey sandwich on whole grain bread and a piece of fruit. - 3 p.m – Afternoon Snack
Either a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts, whatever I didn’t have for the morning snack. - 7 p.m – Dinner
A dark green salad with roasted almonds, a chicken breast, a fistful of vegetables and a half fistful of potatos. - 10 p.m – Evening Snack
Some vegetables, some nuts or a small piece of chocolate or ice cream. Something to keep you from being hungry before bed. Try to make it a reasonable snack though, because anything calories you don’t use before bed will stored as fat.
Understand this: I have a wicked sweet tooth (talk to my dentist) and it’s safe to say that most things I eat probably fall into the areas of carbohydrates and fats. But this diet hasn’t been that tough (except for weekends). It’s mostly been making small substitutions, which haven’t been that painful. Instead of a handful of candy at work, it’s now a handful of nuts. Instead of eating a giant ham sandwich at Jimmy John’s for lunch, now it’s half a turkey sandwich at White Hen. When I really want a soda, a Coke Zero instead of a Mountain Dew. Not that bad really.
The most important things to remember about switching your eating habits are: eat a number of small meals throughout the day, don’t be so restrictive that you can’t stick with your diet, and remember that it’s not a diet – it’s a lifestyle change. Plus, if you totally screw up and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream – don’t give up because of it. Just get back on the horse and do better. Lots of good decisions will add up, just not overnight.