Basic Nutrition

The truth is, most of us know how to eat, or how we should eat, I should say. Unfortunately, it's not easy to make the right choices all the time. I'm going to give you some basic guidelines, most of which you know, but it's really good to hear it and recognize that this is really exactly what your body needs to be very healthy.

The old saying, 3 square meals a day, is a good guideline. However, there has been some excellent research done in the past 3-5 years that has proven that our metabolism is even better bolstered if we eat 5-6 times a day. No, that's not full meals, but in between breakfast and lunch, a small snack, between lunch and dinner, a small snack, and possibly before bed, a small snack, is okay. The choice of those snacks is important, of course.

In terms of your breakfast, lunch and dinner, it's important that you eat from all the basic food groups. You need to get good healthy fat in your diet, as well as enough protein and enough carbohydrates. There have been a lot of diets out there, in the past 10 years especially, that have caused people to take out of their food plans important nutritional components that your body needs.

We need healthy fat. What is healthy fat? Healthy fat is fat that is not saturated fat or partially saturated fat, as well as trans fat. So, we need to have oil, such as olive oil, fish oil, and in lesser doses, canola oil. These are our best fats, and the fats your body needs on a regular basis.

Protein, of course, needs to be lean protein. Beef is okay. Not every day, but certainly it is fine for you to have beef a time or two a week, as long as it is lean beef. Chicken and fish are excellent choices, as well as turkey and some pork. It's important that your portions in proteins range from between 2 to 6 ounces per meal.

Your carbohydrates are another very important component in your diet, and complex carbohydrates are your best choices. Those are all of your vegetables and fruits and very hearty grains; breads are okay. The less processed a product is, the better it is for your body. So, a good choice in bread would be very hearty bread that's very heavy in multiple types of grains versus a poor choice being Wonder bread, white bread.

Your grains are an important component in your carbohydrates, but your fruits and vegetables are huge. We recommend you get 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, which is a lot of fruits and vegetables! However, each serving consists of one half to a full cup. Your half cup servings are pretty much fruit servings and vegetables are considered full cup servings. There are reasons why these fruits and vegetables in your diet are so very important. Obviously, they are very high in nutrition with lots of vitamins and minerals. However, equally as important is the amount of fiber they create in your diet. The reason fiber is so important is that fiber slows your digestion down enough for your body to have the time to take the nutrients out of your food and absorb them into the body. Without enough fiber, your food passes through you too quickly, and your body is always looking for the nutrition it is missing, which is why, in part, people have cravings. So, getting your fruits and vegetables every day is really important.

In terms of your snacks, mid morning, mid afternoon and possibly in the evening, you want to chose things that are low in saturated and trans-fats. Protein is a good choice, such as part-skim mozzarella stick, handful of raw almonds or walnuts, a small container of low-fat or non-fat yogurt, an apple, an orange, a few carrot sticks. These are all good choices for snacks. You're looking for those snacks that are low in fat and offer a nice amount of protein or carbohydrates.

Your body's first choice for fuel is carbohydrates. It is important that you never, ever skip breakfast. If you chose not to eat your first meal in the day until lunchtime or later, your metabolism has been kept in low, low gear all that time. Fuel in the furnace is what causes your metabolism to crank up, and if nothing has been ingested, your metabolism is in the mode of being asleep. So, it's important that you have breakfast.

It's important, also, that you take in a good amount of water every day. Your body consists of at least 70% water and it needs to have about 60 ounces of water a day. It's important that you drink a large glass of water when you get up in the morning, because you have been without water all night; you are dehydrated. If losing weight is part of your program and your goal, you will not be able to lose weight if you are dehydrated. Water much be present in your body in order for your body to access fat for fuel, so water is crucial. I recommend a nice 16 ounce glass first thing in the morning, another large glass of water mid morning, one with your lunch, one mid afternoon, one with dinner and one before bed. If you're getting those glasses of water throughout your day, your body is maintaining a good hydration level and your body is able to go through its functional physiological processes with ease.

Another good rule of thumb is to avoid anything white; white potatoes, white rice, white pasta, white flour, white sugar. All of these things are so highly processed, that they go into your body and immediately throw your body into a sugar high. Your insulin levels go off the charts. You feel energetic for a while, but it will not last. Those kind of spikes in your blood sugar go way up quickly and drop quickly, leaving you craving more and feeling logy with low energy, and it's a really poor strategy to take in these products on a regular basis.

Your blood sugar being maintained at a steady level helps you to not have cravings, as well as feel energetic and satisfied throughout the day. In other words, you won't have huge hunger cravings or drops in energy. You should feel fairly level and even most of the day, if you're eating 3 good meals a day, as well as 2-3 snacks, getting plenty of water and making choices primarily of food that is lean in fat and processed as little as possible.

Portion sizes are probably one of our biggest problems in this society. We have been taught that bigger is better, and that is not the case. All of us are ingesting probably more calories in a day than we really need. A way to judge how much protein to have at your meals is a serving about the size of the palm of your hand. In terms of your fruits and vegetables, if you take a normal-sized dinner plate, at least half of your plate should consist of your fruits and vegetables. Your starches, such as your potato, pasta, rice, should only take up a quarter or less of your plate, and then the rest protein.

It has been my experience as a trainer that one of two things is happening to people for the most part. We are either eating way too little calories and our body has shut down our metabolism for fear that it doesn't know when it's going to get more nutrition, so it hangs onto everything it possibly can and won't let go of anything in terms of stored fat. I find this to be the case a lot.

Another obvious scenario is that we're eating possibly the right foods, but the portions are just way, way too large, and we are taking in many more calories than our body really needs, and therefore, the excess is being stored as fat.

So, the trick is to take in a proper amount of food each day. Eating slowly will help you to do this too. The pace that we set for ourselves in this day and age is intense and fast. Unfortunately, it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that you are full, so it's important to take your time while you're eating your meals and chew your food thoroughly. This is going to help you to feel full at an appropriate time and not overeat.

Most people want to lose weight and in order to do that, we need to eat from all the food groups, balanced amounts of food in their proper portions. Also, of course, the exercise component is critical, but that's for another day.