Saturday, September 22, 2012

Beginners Guide to Nutrition and Nutrition/Lifestyle consultation offer




Nutrition:

 First off everyone’s nutritional needs and practices will be different. UNDERSTAND THAT LAST STATEMENT. The first thing to establish is your goals. Are you eating for performance or for weight loss? Are you eating for weight gain and to gain strength? This all matters when you decide how to eat.

Second, solid nutrition practices are a daily habit, not some fad diet or something you do for a few months at a time. Eating well is a lifetime pursuit, just like fitness is. It takes practice, some tweaking and guidance. At Crossfit Binghamton we have seen clients successfully make tweaks to their diet and improve their nutrition and most importantly their understanding of nutrition greatly over time.

In our OPINION, small changes in your nutrition is the way to go when you are attempting to lose weight or fat. The reason for this is if you overhaul your whole diet and go from eating like shit all the time to eating completely clean, this is unlikely to be sustainable in the LONG TERM. And the long term is what we are looking to make changes to.  If you aren’t the type that is capable of making small changes, then by all means try something extreme like a detox, a fast or a 30-day paleo challenge.  Questions about this stuff?  Ask us.  For some it works, but for the rest we make the following suggestions and hope to see you implement them over time.


For fat loss and optimal leanness.

1.) Drink more water. I don’t know how much water you drink now but good chance it is not enough. Get a water bottle, fill it, and bring it to work. Finish and refill that bottle of water 3-5 times daily.   Also, drink 12-16 ounces of water immediately upon waking.




2.) Stop drinking soda.  Non-negotiable point. Need more proof use Google.

3.) Eat a quality breakfast. No cereal, no bagels, no toast. Meat/eggs and healthy fats. This change alone from cereal to meat/eggs and healthy fats can make a huge difference.
Just to show the variety of options I’ll list a few:

Meats:
Lean ground beef
Lean ground turkey
Eggs
Venison
Bison
Salmon

Fats:
Cashews
Almonds
Macadamia nuts
Hazelnuts
Brazil Nuts
Olive Oil – very small amount
Coconut Oil- very small amount

The fats should be limited but do not skip these and replace with anything. For the nuts, 1 handful is good. For the meats, eat a normal sized portion.

This breakfast will sustain you throughout the day and leaving you feeling full.  For a more through look at this read : http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/270/The_Meat_and_Nut_Breakfast.aspx

4.) Lower the amount and eventually eliminate bread from your diet. If you currently eat a foot long sub every day, start ripping off chunks of the bread so you are eating less bread each time. Eventually get to the point of not eating any.

5.) Get a minimum of 7.5 hours of sleep per night. What happens when you don’t get enough sleep is nasty.  “But I can’t, I’m so busy.” If you think you are so busy write down how you spend your time daily. Do it for a week. Make changes to your schedule and your habits to allow for better sleep. I understand some are legitimately busy and that’s good, but certain sacrifices and changes need to be made if you are serious about your health and wellness goals.

6.) Clean up your carb sources. Bread is a no. If you love it, great keep eating it- just don’t expect optimal results. When transitioning, we can allow small amounts of rice, quinoa, and all fruits and vegetables. When fine-tuning is needed, we cut the rice and quinoa as well as reduce fruit.

7.) Bring your lunch to work. This is an easy one. If you bring your lunch to work make it a healthy lunch.  Options are any variety of salad with meat. Vegetables with meat. An apple with meat and some nuts. You are starting to get the idea here, but if you bring your lunch you won’t eat the pizza that a co-worker brought or run over to Taco-Bell etc, etc.,
In the past few months I have used all the following ingredients on a salad, so I don’t want to hear that there is no variety.




Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Kale
Spring Mix

Carrots
Cucumber
Radish
Tomatoes
Beets
Blueberries
Raspberries
Olives
Any color pepper
Sauerkraut
Broccoli
Mushrooms


Now don’t screw up your otherwise perfect salad by putting gobs of blue cheese on it. Sprinkle olive oil or balsamic or Stone Ground Dijon Mustard on your salad and enjoy.  Savor the taste of the fruits and vegetables you put on your salad.

8.) Introduce yourself to some vegetables. There are so many good vegetables in the perimeter of the grocery store that people tend to just skip over. Get yourself a variety of vegetables and cook them all on Sunday (or any non-busy day). Now when you go to make meals you have a nice stable of vegetables to choose from.

9.) Don’t beat yourself if you aren’t perfect with your nutrition. A couple beers here or a sandwich there isn’t going to suddenly send you off the tracks. The idea is to eat good MOST of the time. Eating well all the time is obviously best but if you can improve your meal quality and have things under control an occasional indulgence is not a bad thing. In fact, many have found that allowing oneself a meal or two a week that isn’t perfect helps to allow them to continue to eat healthy the rest of the week.

I look at it like this: If right now 50% of the food you eat is good and the other 50% bad, then there is room for improvement. If we can move that to 90% good food and 10% bad, your nutrional profile has greatly improved and you WILL see success.



How Crossfit Binghamton Can Help You:  Nutrition/Lifestyle Consultation 


We understand losing weight and making changes to your nutrition and lifestyle can be extremely challenging.  Sometimes people just need a little bit of help to get started in the right direction. With that in mind, we are offering a nutrition/lifestyle consultation to anyone that is interested. The consultation will consist of a 1-hour sit down and discussion of goals and then specific nutritional practices and specific lifestyle practices to implement to achieve those goals. The cost for this service will be $50. 

We expect the slots for these to fill quickly and want to get everyone on track to successfully reach their goals, so contact us immediately to set up your nutrition/lifestyle consultation. This offer is extended to those currently outside of our gym community as well.


Get on track and started today! 

       mandyjskinner@yahoo.com  
   

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