The Impact of Good Nutrition
Hey Cliff Jumpers,
You’ve taken that leap to better health and fitness and I want to talk to you a little about what “Good Nutrition” is. Now, occasionally I’ll enjoy a slice of pizza, some Tostitos and salsa, a little BBQ here and there when I’m crashing someone’s party. We can get away with the a cheat meal every now and then, and there’s no penalty for falling off track for a meal or two, that’s human…what matters most is that you always get back on track. However, you have to keep in mind that if you’re goal is to be healthier, fitter, or to have more energy, nutrition plays a vital role in sleep, recovery, and strength. I’ve said many times over, good nutrition doesn’t have a singular benefit. Good nutrition improves health, body composition, and performance.
You can scroll down to the section that corresponds closest to you whether you’re here for Executive, Corrective, or Performance enhancement training to see how good nutrition can benefit you.
EXECUTIVE
You’re busy, on the go, maybe on a business trip, good nutrition can be a challenge if you don’t plan ahead, but it’s not impossible. In fact, good nutrition will help with clarity, decreased stress levels, and mental health that can increase brain function and therefore work productivity. If you’re a busy executive, you have to be cautious of the type of energy you put in your body. I’ve seen offices with candy, potato chip vending machines, and even doughnuts trying to promote daily eating…yes that’s good but it’s more “junk” eating than anything else. As you gain those inches and get more tired you sit there wondering why. Well, the reason is simple, your office is in desperate need of a nutritional make over.
If you’re looking for long, sustainable energy, you have to skip the “junk” food and go for more low glycemic foods. Foods that release energy slowly to prevent you from crashing. Instead of reaching for those sandwiches and processed foods get some vegetables and fruit into your daily routine, fats like nuts, seeds, lean protein such as fish, chicken, and eggs all provide energy that will slowly burn, stroking those fires to give you lasting energy throughout the day.
Why would you want to skip a meal? It’s your energy source. And though it may seem counterproductive at crunch time consider a meal, having healthy snakes and meals throughout the day (nuts, fruit, seeds) can help with mental acuity. For that matter it may be easy to reach for that coffee if energy is low but if you’re not eating those slow digesting carbohydrates then you’re not getting a constant supple of glucose to function properly and that caffeine can stimulate you in the wrong ways especially if you’re over stressed and also affect your sleep.
Let’s see how you feel after a week of making a few of these changes and move on from there to a healthier lifestyle.
CORRECTIVE
Injuries unfortunately are part of life, they’re going to happen…sorry, there’s nothing you can do about it. When it does happen, be prepped with information to help you heal faster, nutrition plays a vital role in healing. Your metabolism can easily increase between 15-50% when you’re injured and that’s when sedentary, keep in mind that you shouldn’t completely stop exercising when your injured, just be careful on what you are training and how hard.
The path to quicker healing isn’t just pushing a few weights around and hoping you get stronger and heal more efficiently. Proper nutrition assists in recuperating from muscular damage such as a sprain, tears, post surgery rehab, and a grueling work out. It may sound counter-intuitive but taking in extra calories during a recovery period has been shown to decrease recovery time, decrease cortisol levels, and increase energy throughout the repair process. Adding foods fortified with vitamin A, C, Copper, and Zinc can actually aid your recovery as well.
A balanced diet is essential and anti-inflammatory fats such as olive oils, avocados, fish oil, salmon, nuts can help bring down the inflammation and increase the rate of healing. This is definitely the time to stay away from processed foods, corn oils, vegetables oils and the like. If you’re going the healthy route you mine as well eat some managing herbs such as turmeric (hmm thinking about curry chicken), garlic, pineapple and even cocoa has inflammatory managing properties.
I can talk all day about the healing power of food but contact me and we can talk a little more on it or during your next nutrition check we can go over those benefits.
PERFORMANCE
The energy required to push beyond our perceived limitations begins with nutrition, without that you can forget about breezing through those half marathons or triathlons, running up and down that basketball or tennis court without energy. Food timing, fluid balance, carbohydrates loading, proper balance of protein, and fats to keep the energy up and keep your body lean is a must for peak performance. Just a simple tweak in nutrition can make you feel different in a matter of days…just ask some of my pre or post natal clients, who needs more energy than them?!
Taking in that good fuel an hour before exercising can improve performance especially if you’re taking in carbohydrates rich foods to top off those glycogen stores prior to exercising. You can see a significant boost in energy but it has to be paired with protein and fats for better digestion. You always want to keep in mind the amount of food you intake for the larger amount of carbohydrates the more hours prior to exercising you should have for digestion.
The amount of fluid you have throughout the day also affects performance, recovery, and body composition. Prior to exercising, having between 5 and 7 mL per kilogram of bodyweight of fluid and taken at least 3 hours before exercise can be the deciding factor on whether or not you make it up that hill in that half marathon or begin looking around to see if anyone will notice you stop to catch a breather.
Though food timing is important for optimal performance, proper day to day nutrition is essential in keeping the musculature, energy, and recovery needs met for high performance athletes, the stay at home mother with three children running around, or the busy executive that also enjoys a few marathons per year.
If you need help with your nutrition, want to learn more about how eating the right types of foods and food timing can help your health, body composition, and performance, contact me.
To your best body and your best health,
Clifton
Very interesting newsletter. I didn’t know
a lot about anti inflammatory. I love Ava codes, I already take fish oil & eat different kinds
of nuts.
Thanks