Thursday, February 25, 2010

Athletic Nutrition

By Tina Avon


When it comes to training and sports healthy eating habits are a must. Proper athletic nutrition is crucial to give you that boost of energy you will need to get you through those intense training sessions.


Indeed, one of the most important aspects of training and keeping at a healthy weight is to take an honest, harsh look at what you put in your mouth. Regardless of whether you are training 1 hour per day or 10 hours per day, the quality of the foods you eat are going to go a long way in either boosting your training sessions or bringing them crashing down on you.


Medical science has proven that one of the most significant health indicators is the food that we eat and athletes need to be hyper vigilant about this. While you are working out, you lose minerals and this is normal - however, it is crucial to replace those minerals with a healthy diet. If you do not eat well, you will find yourself either being very sluggish and tired all the time or you might end up wondering why on earth you are not gaining/losing weight as you should be and the answer is in the foods that you consume.


While it was believed that athletes needed to eat more fats than "usual" people, this has now been disputed. As a matter of fact, athletes should be eating a combination of healthy carbs (such as grains) and protein as well as minimal fats.


It is also important to eat your meals at strategic times. If you like to train in the mornings, then you should eat some light fruit and perhaps an ounce or two of nuts to get you through your morning session. After you have finished the workout, make sure to eat within two hours. Your body is still in "burning" mode and will easily process a healthy breakfast. It is imperative that you eat breakfast each morning - do not skip this important meal.


If you work out at lunch or later, then consider eating a small, light meal approximately 1 hour before you go for your workout - this should be light and considered a "mini" meal. The goal is to give you the energy that you will need for the workout - without making you feel full. Once the workout is completed, you should have your meal - remember that you should be having a healthy meal and this meal should not be too close to your sleep time. Your body needs time to digest.


For many people, eating more small meals during the day makes a lot of sense. As long as it is healthy stuff! Finally, don't forget to drink as much water as possible - water cleans out your body and removes the toxins that can make you ill.

Tina Avon
http://www.cutting-edgesp.com

Do High Protein Diets Help You Lose More Fat or Body Weight?




If I ask you how what percent of your diet at the moment is carbs, proteins and fats, could you answer within a 25% confidence interval? Most people just eat and forget. When all it takes is a few days of tracking your daily intake and you will know more than 99% of the population. Protein is essential in your diet, but is not the be all and end all.


Diets are made up of all different percentages based upon certain factors such as your goals, your current weight, your budget, your level of ignorance, your willpower etc etc.
Example: If you wanted to lose weight, you would go on a diet high in proteins, low in carbs, eat some beans to get a good enough caloric intake so that you won't get tired, but also eat a lot of fats.


People wonder about this and always think it is a mistake or a typo.

'It is neither.

We need to eat healthy fats to lose weight.

A diet should be based around a high percentage protein, medium percentage healthy fats and low percent carbs.

Proteins are chicken, lean meats, eggs, beef, turkey etc Carbs are bread, pasta, rice, fruit drinks, puddings etc Fats are avocados, eggs, e.v olive oil, fish, most meats

A diet like this will leave you lacking in energy if you cut out all the carbohydrates such as bread and pasta, rice, puddings so...

Eat some legumes in each meal!

This is the meal plan used by most intense bodybuilders, if you can stand eating the same things over and over again.

One day a week (I prefer Sat) it is advisable to eat all the carbs you want to stop your body

adjusting to the diet.

Johnny Palmer is a fitness fanatic and practices what he preaches. He stays in great shape all year round and helps people get abs, build muscle, lose body fat and maintain a sexy figure, no matter what their current weight/shape.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Athletic Nutrition



When it comes to training and sports healthy eating habits are a must. Proper athletic nutrition is crucial to give you that boost of energy you will need to get you through those intense training sessions.


Indeed, one of the most important aspects of training and keeping at a healthy weight is to take an honest, harsh look at what you put in your mouth. Regardless of whether you are training 1 hour per day or 10 hours per day, the quality of the foods you eat are going to go a long way in either boosting your training sessions or bringing them crashing down on you.


Medical science has proven that one of the most significant health indicators is the food that we eat and athletes need to be hyper vigilant about this. While you are working out, you lose minerals and this is normal - however, it is crucial to replace those minerals with a healthy diet. If you do not eat well, you will find yourself either being very sluggish and tired all the time or you might end up wondering why on earth you are not gaining/losing weight as you should be and the answer is in the foods that you consume.


While it was believed that athletes needed to eat more fats than "usual" people, this has now been disputed. As a matter of fact, athletes should be eating a combination of healthy carbs (such as grains) and protein as well as minimal fats.


It is also important to eat your meals at strategic times. If you like to train in the mornings, then you should eat some light fruit and perhaps an ounce or two of nuts to get you through your morning session. After you have finished the workout, make sure to eat within two hours. Your body is still in "burning" mode and will easily process a healthy breakfast. It is imperative that you eat breakfast each morning - do not skip this important meal.


If you work out at lunch or later, then consider eating a small, light meal approximately 1 hour before you go for your workout - this should be light and considered a "mini" meal. The goal is to give you the energy that you will need for the workout - without making you feel full. Once the workout is completed, you should have your meal - remember that you should be having a healthy meal and this meal should not be too close to your sleep time. Your body needs time to digest.


For many people, eating more small meals during the day makes a lot of sense. As long as it is healthy stuff! Finally, don't forget to drink as much water as possible - water cleans out your body and removes the toxins that can make you ill.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Can Cinnamon Help Me Lose Weight?



A large range of herbs and spices can help the body burn fat, but because you take them in such small quantities, you wouldn't even think that they can help in the least. Herbs and spices can be used to make boring meals far more flavorsome, enticing, and therefore easier to stick to a certain pattern of eating. Cinnamon is one of the more popular spices to help burn fat, and here is why.


Cinnamon can help the body increase its metabolism far beyond its normal levels, enabling you to burn fat far easier, especially fat stored away that your body was going to use on a rainy day. Cinnamon can also help control your appetite and food cravings by lowering blood sugar levels.
Cinnamon can be used on so many different foods, pumpkin is one of the odd things that I use it on!


Sprinkle some on yoghurt and have a cinnamon coated banana with it. Delicious healthy snack that will help you burn fat.


Have a cup of tea, green tea or coffee and sprinkle some cinnamon on it and stir it up. Great way to squeeze some more fat burning foods into your day.


I have used it on many different vegetables and fruits and meats. I think the only way for you to get a good dose every now and then is to put your pack of cinnamon right in plain view and use it on heaps of different foods until you find something that really grabs you!


Do you want to learn how I do it? Download your free course on How To Get Abs today, visit my fitness blog.


Johnny Palmer is a fitness fanatic and practices what he preaches. He stays in great shape all year round and helps people get abs, build muscle, lose body fat and maintain a sexy figure, no matter what their current weight/shape.