Most people tend to think that eating less is the key to a stronger and healthier body. But that’s not necessarily true.
Because what you might not realize is that when you have fitness and skill goals, eating too little can actually hurt your performance.
In fact, here’s what can happen when you try to significantly restrict calories when being active:
There’s no question that it’s not always easy to eat healthy when you travel.
Some people give up on healthy eating altogether, just reverting to old habits of junk food and forgetting that vegetables even exist. But there is a better way—a way that will both allow you to actually enjoy your travels while not straying too far from your health and fitness goals.
Recently, I left on a month long trip to Hong Kong and all over Thailand. I knew I wouldn’t eat perfectly the whole trip, because without consistent access to a fridge, health food stores, and healthy restaurants, the truth is is that it’s just not always possible.
Plus, part of the fun of traveling is trying all the new and local foods—some of which may not be considered perfect health foods, but are worth trying nonetheless.
I’ve written about what I eat in a day before, but thought it would be fun to share with you guys a typical day of eating from my most recent trip. I didn’t eat perfectly the whole time—but I enjoyed myself and overall felt pretty good about my food choices. And that’s what the 80/20 rule is for, right?
Here’s a snapshot of what I ate on a recent day while traveling:
As athletes, dreamers, and go-getters, we always want to be at the top of our game.
We want to constantly crush our workouts. We want to get as many new PRs as we can. And we want to keep getting fitter, stronger, and more awesome as often as we can.
In order to do this, not only do you need to work hard, stay consistent, and fuel your body properly, you also need to prioritize getting in enough water.
Yes, we all know water is important, but few of us actually make it a priority.
But without enough of it, you’ll be constantly walking around dehydrated, meaning your workout performance will suffer, you’ll have trouble thinking, you’ll get headaches, muscles cramps, not function at full capacity… you get the idea.
One way to make sure you avoid this is to drink water that includes electrolytes, minerals including calcium chloride, potassium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride that carry an electrical charge, which makes them good at transferring electricity in the body.
Snack foods get a bad rap sometimes.
Because while grabbing a candy bar or a couple of donuts in between meals definitely isn’t going to help you meet your health and fitness goals, healthy snacking in between meals is important for athletes and active people to keep their energy up and their workouts on point.
Because food is fuel for your body, and keeping your body nourished throughout the day will help you power through your day—and your workouts.
Here are 5 healthy snacks to fuel your life and your workouts, brought to you by Orchard Valley Harvest:
I’ve talked before about how I used to really struggle with binge eating, often devouring entire bags of popcorn, candy, cookies, and more in one sitting until I felt sick and terrible about myself.
Thankfully, due to a much healthier outlook on food and treating food as fuel rather than as the enemy, I’ve pretty much stopped any form of binging. Instead I focus on fueling my body with nutritious whole foods, in filling, yet reasonable amounts.
In fact, during the day, I eat fairly intuitively, giving my body what it craves (usually vegetables, some protein, and healthy carbs) in the right amounts based on my activity level for that day. I rarely even have cravings for sweets during the daytime, and feel the most energized and focused when I eat smaller, nutrient-packed meals every three hours or so.
But at night, it’s a whole different story.
I usually eat dinner at 6 or 7pm, what most people think should be the last meal of the day. But what inevitably happens is that even after I’m finished with dinner, I’m not quite satisfied.
Sometimes it starts immediately after dinner, where I need something sweet right away. And sometimes it’s more like a couple of hours later, where all of a sudden it’s 8 or 9pm and I’m absolutely famished.
So what happens when I don’t act smart when these moments hit? I snack. And snack. And snack. Until I inevitably feel overfull, bloated, and slightly sick from too much (usually not-so-healthy) food.
Sound familiar at all?
You probably know by now that no matter how hard you work out, you won’t be able get the most out of if you’re not eating a healthy diet.
So what can you do if your friends, family, and other people around you not only aren’t helping to support the way you eat, they’re actually judging you for it?
They may tell you to chill out, relax and not to be so “anxious” about your food all the time. It’s the weekend! Let’s have pizza! Take it easy! Have some cake!
And while there’s definitely a place and time for treats, non-stop donuts, ice cream, and wine simply don’t fit into the 80/20 plan.
It depends on your own personal goals, of course, but for most people it works best to stick to your healthy diet around 80 to 90 percent of the time.
We all know that protein is important.
We’ve previously talked about how to figure out how much protein you really need, but today we’re going to take a look at the best protein sources and the typical serving sizes of protein-rich foods to give you a better idea of how to get in your muscle-building macronutrients.
Just like carbs and fats, protein is absolutely essential to our body. Yet the ratios of all three macronutrients can vary in your diet, depending on your goals.
There are diets that stress the importance of fat, and are usually low in carbs (like HFLC–High Fat Low Carb and often Paleo as well). Other diets focus on the opposite, going very low in fat (as can be typical in an athlete’s or bodybuilder’s diet).
Protein, on the other hand, seems to be the “veggies” of macronutrients—hardly anyone argues that you don’t need them in your diet.
At the beginning of February, we started a brand new 6-week Fuel Your Body Nutrition Challenge.
If you missed it, you can read about it here. We’re about to start Week 5, but if you’re new to this challenge, no worries! Jump in next week when we are rewarding ourselves with dessert (this is where the 80/20 rule comes in!).
To get the most out of this nutrition challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.
Being a part of the community will not only help you to stay accountable with your own goals, but also see how others are doing, find support, share your successes and struggles, and of course, get some great, new meal ideas.
Every week during this challenge, we are focusing on one thing that helps us to improve our diet and keeps us on a healthy eating track. The focus of the Week 1 was to eat a protein-packed breakfast. On Week 2, we talked about the importance of healthy snacks. Week 3 was all about veggies, the nutritional powerhouse, and Week 4 we focused on having a nutritious post workout meal. After meal prepping in Week 5, we are ready to start off the last week of the Nutrition Challenge. Are you ready?
In Week 6 of the Fuel Your Body Nutrition Challenge we’ll celebrate the last five successful weeks with healthy desserts!
At the beginning of February, we started a brand new 6-week Fuel Your Body Nutrition Challenge.
If you missed it, you can read about it here. We are about to start Week 5, but if you’re new to this challenge, no worries! Jump in next week when we are preparing our meals for the busy week ahead.
To get the most out of this nutrition challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.
Being a part of the community will not only help you to stay accountable with your own goals, but also see how others are doing, find support, share your successes and struggles, and of course, get some great, new meal ideas.
Every week during this challenge, we are focusing on one thing that helps us to improve our diet and keeps us on a healthy eating track. The focus of the Week 1 was to eat a protein-packed breakfast. On Week 2, we talked about the importance of healthy snacks. Week 3 was all about veggies, the nutritional powerhouse, and Week 4 we focused on having a nutritious post workout meal.
Week 5 of the Fuel Your Body Nutrition Challenge is all about meal prepping. Here’s why you should take time every weekend (or whatever day fits best in your schedule) to prepare foods for the week ahead:
At the beginning of February, we started a brand new 6-week Fuel Your Body Nutrition Challenge.
If you missed it, you can read about it here. And even if you didn’t participate in the first few weeks of the challenge, don’t worry—it’s not too late to jump into week 4, where we’ll be focusing on post workout meals.
To get the most out of this nutrition challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.
Being a part of the community will not only help you to stay accountable with your own goals, but also see how others are doing, find support, share your successes and struggles, and of course, get some great, new meal ideas.
Every week during this challenge, we are focusing on one thing that helps us to improve our diet and keeps us on a healthy eating track. The focus of the Week 1 was to eat a protein-packed breakfast. On Week 2, we talked about the importance of healthy snacks. Week 3 was all about veggies, the nutritional powerhouse.
Week 4 of the Fuel Your Body Nutrition Challenge is all about post-workout meals. Here’s why post-workout meals are so important, and what you should be eating after a tough workout: