NUTRITION FOR A HEALTHY LIFE
Hello again, I hope you have had a great day after a solid night’s sleep. Here is part A of Blog 3 about getting healthy. As it says at the top of the page, I am going to write about Nutrition for a Healthy life and not some sort of fad yo yo diet or anything weird and wonderful that will magic fat away overnight, but if you get it right, you will see a consistent, steady fat loss that will amaze you.
Not only that, but coupled with good sleep you will find that your energy levels throughout the day will rocket and you will look and feel a totally different person and that is without having to Exercise (which will be the icing on the cake).
Once again we need to look back to our ancestors, and what they were eating for thousands of years, it basically comes down to Berries, fruits, roots and Meat (that they had to hunt and kill) in the western world sugar was not even known about until the 14th Century when it was discovered in the Pacific Islands. Potatoes weren’t brought to Europe until Walter Raleigh bought some from South America for Queen Elizabeth 1. We are genetically predisposed to our Ancestors Diet (of course this is my opinion, but plenty of other far more clever people are of the same opinion as me) that doesn’t mean you just have to rely solely on the diet of our ancestors, but if you keep on a similar tack you will find that your fat loss is quite phenomenal. More about this later.
First of all let’s have a look at the modern day diet for the majority of working people these days. I will use myself as an example and then I can explain what I mean through my own experience.
When I was working as a strength Conditioner I worked long hours along with the other coaches. I would get up at 6am; skip Breakfast so I could have an extra bit of time in bed. Drive to work, get into the Gym, do an hour’s training (fairly intense most days), do my work, maybe get a break around 10 am dash off to the Supermarket, get a Sandwich (Healthy Wholemeal option) then back to work, usually get a piece of Chicken and another Sandwich about 2 or 3 pm, get home for 6.30pm and my wife, bless her would have cooked a large evening meal for me, Meat, Vegetables etc. Then I would do a bit more work, planning, and then just drop down knackered on the couch and be fit for nothing, couldn’t even be bothered to talk to the Mrs. Sound familiar?
The problem was, I was piling the weight on (Fat weight) how could this be? I trained hard and led a very active lifestyle with Professional Athletes.
Well, when I study the above lifestyle I had entered into, there are some fairly stand out errors to my diet.
1. I never had breakfast
2. I trained hard, but never had anything to eat after training
3. By the time I first ate, my energy levels were so low, I needed sugar. So I had to eat at 10 on the go, and that was just a sandwich.
4. With the Bread, even though it was supposedly the Healthy wholemeal, it caused a fairly sharp rise in my blood sugar, and accompanying that was what is known as an a insulin spike. Followed by a quick burst of energy and then an even quicker loss of energy as the body can’t stand to much insulin so it manufactures a hormone to drive the insulin back down. Giving me a series of highs and lows throughout the day.
5. By the time I ate mid afternoon, I was in the same situation. I needed sugar and I would always have a bar of chocolate on the way home, just to tie me over till my tea.
6. Then, big meal at Tea time, felt full, tired and just wanted to doss.
Please bear with me; I will explain what was going wrong shortly.
I am 5’11 tall and I weighed in at 109 kg and over 20% body fat and looked and felt terrible and I was a Strength and Fitness conditioner, what a poor advertisement for my trade.
3 years ago in 2008, I packed in the Conditioning job and got a new job abroad, whereI had a stable diet,
a) Breakfast every morning, consisting of a bowl of Porridge followed by 3-4 poached or fried eggs (with yolks) Bacon and a pint of milk.
b) Lunch, was a stack of meat, and vegetables including peppers and 2 pieces of fruit, an Apple and an orange. I stopped taking sugar in my Tea (of which I drink a lot) and started to drink more water.
c) I trained for an hour at 4pm every day and had a Protein shake and a banana straight after training.
d) For my evening meal I had Meat and Vegetables again, no potatoes or chips. However I did have a small pudding occasionally if I fancied what was on offer.
Now to the point.
I was away for 3 months; I dropped from 108kg, to 92kg a loss of 16kg or 35lb, so roughly 3lb per week. What was more my Body fat had dropped from over 20% down to 12%. Not only that, my energy levels were through the roof, I hadn’t felt as good as that since I was in the Army when I was in my early 30’s
I trained the same as I always had, 60 minutes a day, weight training. So what made the difference?
a) I ate Breakfast
b) I ate 3 meals a day, every day at the same time each day
c) I ate more protein – fish and meat With Saturated fat, and eggs with the yolks all natural produce to sustain my muscle mass and raise my METABOLIC RATE (Calories I burn at rest)
d) I ate more fruit
e) I ate more vegetables
What I didn’t eat
a) I didn’t eat bread
b) I didn’t eat starchy Carbohydrates, such as potatoes and chips, Pasta and Rice
c) I didn’t eat crap, such as chocolate and cereals
d) I didn’t have sugar in my tea
e) Oh yes, and the big thing is, I ate plenty, no diet, just a lot of the right foods.
I ate food that was more similar to how my Ancestors ate, although probably more of it, as it was harder to come by then of course, and it worked and it still works for me, I feel great most of the time. I get the odd ailment but that is due to where I am working.
Tomorrow, I am going to write about, Diets and so called Health foods and how they do not work, and sugar substitutes and of course the effects of Sugar on your body.
Have a great day, wherever you are.
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