Last week I revealed the results of my 2012 summer weight-loss challenge and have since been thrilled with the feedback.
Split your food intake into five meals per day: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner- Matthew Muscat Inglott
While volumes have been written about the practical intricacies of constructing an effective fat-loss exercise and nutritional regimen, I decided to focus instead on the virtue of simplicity and power of the mind.
Building any endeavour on a wrong attitude, or for the wrong reasons, is like building your proverbial house on sand.
The reception of this message was positive but it seems the general hunger for specific nutritional guidance remains largely unsatisfied.
While I strive to predominantly tackle exercise-related concerns specifically, the subject of nutrition all too often creeps in through the gym back door.
Exactly, how important is nutrition in helping us reach our distinctly physical goals? How should we best be eating to complement our workouts and optimise results? A tall order indeed; it’s time to dig out my literary knife and fork and dig in.
Reaching fitness goals is a little like carrying your shopping bags home from the supermarket, only you have to climb a challenging hill along the way: a physically arduous task but unless you are masochistic or insane, an unavoidable discomfort to be endured before reaching your objective. The loftier your fitness goals, the heavier your shopping bags will be.
Nutrition, therefore, is like that special friend or family member who accompanies you to the supermarket and helps you carry your bags home. Yes, you could go it alone, but it’s certainly easier enlisting the helping hands of a willing assistant.
The more attention and dedication you pay to your nutritional regimen, the stronger this assistance becomes, and the lighter your physical workload will be.
I will garnish this image with a practical example. Many years ago, for my sins, I took part in a military course that basically consisted of a ridiculous physical workload equivalent to anything from two to four workouts every day. Most of these workouts involved pushing to, or pretty close to, the absolute limit.
As a fitness instructor, I began in reasonably good shape; however after just a month, fat started literally melting off me, making me look gaunt. I preferred a bit of bulk to the lean and sinewy appearance I was developing, so I started gorging on fast food at every opportunity over and above my regular meals.
Fried chicken and burgers became welcome daily treats.
Being in the UK, every time I walked past a convenience store or newsstand in a train or underground station, I would buy a sweet treat, which basically meant two to four chocolate bars a day.
For breakfast I began eating sugar-coated waffles drenched in jam on top of my regular cereal portions. I discovered a charming little sweet shop round the corner that stocked boxes of tasty icing sugar-coated cupcakes which also became a daily staple of what could not by any stretch of the imagination be entitled a ‘diet’.
One memorable day I managed the disgusting feat of about 12 cupcakes in one sitting.
Despite my best efforts to the contrary, fat continued to pour off me with the daily onslaught of physical punishment, resulting in a drop from 80 kgs to 67 kgs throughout the entire six-month period.
By the end of it, I had not an ounce of fat on me, and a full medical revealed I was in the best shape of my life. Add to this, every other participant who also managed to survive the entire duration of the course came out looking identical, regardless of their eating habits.
I narrate this tale as an example of a 100 per cent exercise to zero per cent nutrition-structuredfat-loss regimen.
The modern Crossfit sensation also illustrates this phenomenon perfectly. Top competitive Crossfitters are often notorious for their lack of dietary discipline, but their workouts aren’t just difficult, they are gargantuan.
If you don’t believe me, have a spirited crack at the workout they affectionately call ‘Fran’ and be careful not to choke on copious cold servings of humble pie.
Do you really need to sacrifice the foods you love by settling for the fraction-over-satisfaction, for the least-over-the-feast?
No you don’t, but ask yourself truthfully: are you willing or even able to exercise that hard?
Thankfully, here comes our willing shopping assistant. Here’s the good news: you can get home carrying only half the loadby observing relatively simple nutritional guidelines.
Split your food intake into five meals per day: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. Small, frequent meals keep you going with small supplies of energy while never leaving enough leftover to be put into storage.
Fill these meals with natural unprocessed foods like fresh fruits and vegetables.
Small servings of rice and wholegrain bread are acceptable prior to the most physically active segments of your day. Include good-quality protein sources in your main meals like eggs, fish, nuts, beans and lentils.
In this way, your workouts will be both preceded with and followed by balanced meals, regardless of when you choose to exercise.
For marginal workout-optimisation, you may go slightly wholegrain-dominant before, and natural protein-dominant after.
If you think this sounds overly simple or too good to be true, it isn’t. It takes mental fortitude to overcome the habits of a lifetime and adhere religiously to a set of guidelines like these without cheating yourself.
For more on this, revisit my ‘Weight-loss challenge’ online.
Good luck!
info@noble-gym.com