Nutrition

How much you need & when you need it.

If there’s one thing that gets most people undone when it comes to their results, it’s nutrition.

Why though?

There’s a million and one different ways to answer that question. 
Put simply, most people don’t know how much they ‘NEED’ to be eating. That’s because most people are not educated enough in this field to understand how much they need, to get the result they want.

– Understand the importance of caloric intake.
– Understand the importance of macronutrient break down.
– Understand how to calculate your personal requirements for each macronutrient.

Once you’ve wrapped your head around that, start looking at ‘WHEN’ you should be consuming your calories.

Science has proven that we enter an anabolic state post training. This means that our body is ready to suck up whatever nutrients your willing to fuel it with.

What’s going to be of most benefit?

Carbs.

 That’s right. The best time to consume carbohydrates is intra / post-workout. So if you’re smashing out a tough session in the gym, make the most of your post workout meal and refuel your glycogen levels.

This will help your body with the recovery process so that you’re not pulling up too sore from training.
Ideally, you’d be looking to keep fat intake away from training, and protein intake consistent throughout the day.

Consistency

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

You’ve heard it many times before, because it’s true. Consistency is the key to success.

It’s great to start ‘eating healthier’ but what you should be doing is developing new habits. Good habits that you can implement on a daily basis that will ultimately help you reach your end goal.

The key here is, don’t be too hard on yourself. Many of us have a tendency to change things too suddenly and too aggressively. Then before we know it, we’ve fallen off the rails because our ‘genius plan’ was too difficult to maintain.

We all need a plan that we can stick to, something that works with us not against us.

If you can’t see yourself sticking to the plan for 12 months, then it’s not a realistic plan.
Develop 5 good habits that you can implement on a daily basis that will lead to improving your quality of life.

It could be as simple as:

– Waking up to your alarm first time
– Going for a walk
– Going to the gym
– Tracking your food
– Having a protein shake
– Doing 10k steps a day
– Drinking 2L water a day

Set your long-term goal, then set yourself minor goals that will push you in the right direction.

Training

Stronger is better.

If your goal is weight loss, fat loss, muscle gain, body re-composition, strength gain, toning, athletic performance, cardio conditioning etc.
You should be aiming to get stronger.

“ But I want fat loss, not strength gain? ”

That’s fine, but remember this…

If you can move a heavier weight than previous, it means you’re getting stronger and building muscle mass.
Muscle mass is active tissue, as opposed to fat which is inactive tissue. So, the more muscle mass you have, the higher your BMR will be, the more calories you’ll be able to burn, the more fat you’ll be able to shred.
So you’re setting yourself up for better fat loss by increasing your strength gains.

Stronger & Leaner?

That sounds like a win/win to me!

Sleep

Recovery is of equal importance.

Our 2 main sources of recovery: Nutrition & Sleep

You could be training hard, eating great, doing all the right things to get results, but if you’re not getting enough sleep, it could bring all your hard work undone.

Exaggeration? Not at all…

Some of the top athletes in the world sleep for 10-12 hours every night.
Their days a spent training for hours and hours, so to balance it out, they need time to recover.
You may not be an elite athlete, but the same principles apply to you. With hard training must come adequate recovery.

Prioritize your sleep and make sure you’re getting enough of it.

Handy tip:
Magnesium is a great supplement to take before bed to relax the muscles and can help with sleep quality, as well as reduced muscle soreness.

Stress

Stress less.

Easier said then done, right?

For most people, probably, but let’s just take a second to understand why you should make the effort to reduce stress levels.

Your body is very, very smart, however, it’s not smart enough to differentiate between internal and external stresses. Training, injury, pressure from work, arguments with your spouse, it all falls under the same tree.

So just imagine, you’ve come from a terrible day at work with your boss barking orders at you, smashed out a grueling session at the gym, gone home to more frustration with your partner because you forgot to pick something up on your way home.

That’s stress, followed by stress, followed by more stress…

See the problem here?

Stress isn’t always a bad thing.

Training, for example, is a good type of stress. So there are some benefits to putting the body under stress, but it’s where that stress is coming from, and how effective it is that we should be aiming to control.

If we’re overloaded, then your hormonal balance will be out of wack, you’re recovery will be impacted, making it harder for you to lose fat, gain muscle, gain strength, keep mental clarity & sanity etc.

Unfortunately, there are many stresses in life that we cannot control.

Some of the most successful people in the world implement meditation and relaxation exercises to help manage stress.

I’m not saying you need to become a monk, but something along those lines could definitely help to balance out stress, improve you quality of life, and help you to view things in a different perspective.

So, find something that’s going to help you to clear your mind and relax.
Meditation, walk by the beach, listen to relaxing music, have a bath, whatever it may be …find your zen.