With every passing New Year, we promise to start working out regularly or to lose weight, and while we are barely able to hold onto that promise, a lot of us tend to neglect the more important aspect of staying healthy and losing weight, and that is our diet. If we look at it in terms of percentages, then we can say that working out accounts for 30% of our weight loss, whereas diet accounts for 70%, yet we end up focusing on just the working out aspect and neglecting our nutritional needs.
Nutrition is the biggest aspect of our journey to a healthier body and mind, however, we find ourselves ignoring it. We either continue our unhealthy eating habits where we feed our body food that has no necessary nutritional value, or we end up having really restrictive diets that end up depriving our body of essential nutrients. This is why it is really important to go to a physician or a nutritionist to make sure that you are meeting your necessary nutritional needs or else you either end up losing water weight, or you just fail to lose weight in a proper and healthy manner, because if you are on a restrictive diet, you will end up gaining the weight back once you start eating normally, even if you do happen to continue exercising, so it is safe to say that we need to start paying more attention to what we eat.
Our body has necessary nutritional requirements, and cutting off entire food groups does absolutely no good for the body. So, a restrictive diet is not going to help your fitness journey, if anything, it is only going to end up making you feel weaker and making you more vulnerable to getting sick or injured, and there is no point to weight loss if it ends up making you feel weak instead of strong and healthy.
Our bodies require protein, good carbohydrates, good fats, and unrefined sugars. It does not really matter if you are trying to lose weight, become leaner, or gain more muscle because, at the end of the day, your diet will factor in your progress. So, unless you tweak your diet, you are not going to get any proper results even if you have a great fitness plan and trainer.
A lot of people are now utilizing superfoods, which are foods that are known for their rich nutrient content, and this can include things like chia seeds, moringa, quinoa, flax seeds and so on. Most of these foods have Omega 3 fatty acids and other important acids and vitamins that are great for our health. So, incorporating superfoods can also be great for your fitness routine, and of course supplements and protein powders can also become your best friend, especially if you happen to be vegetarian, vegan, or just someone who is looking to get more protein in their diet. You can find more info on the subject by going through different websites that are dedicated to the subject.
An antioxidant is an essential ingredient that can lead to a healthier and happier you. This is because antioxidants are great for reducing inflammation, bloating, and they also play an important role in keeping you healthy by keeping the cells inside your body healthy and safe. A diet rich in antioxidants helps prevent the chances of developing serious health problems like cardiovascular diseases in the future. Quercetin is an example of a powerful naturally occurring antioxidant that can be found in different fruits and vegetables like broccoli, apples, and different berries. It is really great for healing, especially if you happen to be a professional athlete or someone that does a lot of intensive workouts because quercetin is great for handling inflammation, especially post-workout inflammation in the body.
Capsaicin is another example of a great food to keep in your diet. Capsaicin is essentially what makes your food spicy. So, it is found in all kinds of spicy peppers and chilies, and can even be found in pure powdered form as well. Capsaicin is great for you because spicy food is also known to help with inflammation, and it is also really great for increasing your metabolic rate. So, if you are someone that can handle spice, then including spices in your diet can be great for your fitness as well.
Protein is the most essential part of your diet, and you should be making sure that you are getting enough of it regardless of whatever your fitness goal is. Protein will help you build muscle because muscles are made up of protein. So, regardless of whether you want to build muscle, or just tone your body, protein is going to play a very important role in your fitness journey. So, you need to make sure that there is enough protein in your diet, and you can consult a trainer, a nutritionist or a physician to make sure that you are meeting your daily protein quota.
Fats are also really important for you. Of course, you need to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy fats, because fatty foods are also good for building muscle mass, and for keeping your brain running and healthy. So, healthy fats include foods like avocado, nuts, fatty fishes like salmon and so on.
People tend to completely cut out carbohydrates from their diet, and that should not be the way to go. Carbohydrates are essentially what helps up make glucose, which is what our body needs to run since it is a source of energy. Of course, too many carbs are converted into fat, which is why you need to include limited carbs in your diet, but cutting it off entirely is not the way to go because you are only going to end up becoming low energy, irritable and sluggish, and that is not really what constitutes as a fit and healthy body. So, what you need to remember is moderation, and understanding what your body’s needs are, and it is only when you are consuming a diet that meets your body’s nutrient requirement that you are able to have healthy fitness results.
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