It’s simply amazing what the proper diet and nutrition can do for a person. Imagine how much more energy, intention, focus and determination you will have to do the things you want to do with your life. Just think for a second right now. If you are 35, you may not be in a great place physically right now physically. However, the fact that you are making a positive change in your life is a great attitude and will get you where you want to be.
Many factors play a role in whether you will be a successful diet and or nutrition athlete. However, the following 5 tips that you can put into practice right away will help a lot in your diet and increase your performance as an athlete.
1. Drink adequate amount of water: Not drinking enough water can cause a whole array of health problems, and one of the most common issues related to this is a lack of energy. Basically, your body loses water every day when you go about your normal functions, and if you don’t drink enough water, this can lead to many dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.
Hang on, I thought dehydration was a new experience?
Unfortunately, yes. There is a lack of knowledge about the amount of water you should be drinking on a daily basis, so people will drink water in different forms. For example, some people will drink 12 to 16 ounces of water in the morning, and then walk it all day. This is still water, however there is no nutrition value in that water!
Hang on. What if you just drank a glass of water, and in between you ate?Say Yes!To take it even further, you could take smaller amount of water throughout your day, like ¼ glass before each meal, and larger amount at the end of each meal. This would be better from a hydrating point of view, but would also probably help you from being too full of a meal to actually eat the meal.
Yep, you can have all the water you want, but if you don’t know how to eat correctly, it will do you no good. Heck, you couldn’t even have a half a glass of water before you get into the gym.
2. Eating foods that are not fast food type: Yes you got it right, we are talking about food you find in the produce section, or at the meat counter. Fast food and junk foods really add no value to you in terms of what you can and will put into your body. Fast food type food is well seasoned often with a lot of additives, preservatives, but overall it’s garbage. Eating these types of foods will make you put on weight easily.
To keep lean and slim, stay away from these types of foods as much as possible. You want to know what to eat, and more importantly you want to know which foods are good for you.
3. Eliminate Alcohol and caffeine: Right in the first statement, I said you totally can’t have any fast food or junk foods. This is because they do the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. Furthermore, those 2 drinks I was talking about are on the house most of the time at most bars and restaurants. They do not help in any way, but only add 8 paces per beer, or 8 pences per ounce of liquor.
Caffeine is not good for you. Same thing with alcohol. They make you put on weight, and drinking on avarage makes you thirsty every 15 minutes, causing you to drink more. Get rid of them both.
You don’t have to completely take out the drinking, but you do need to cut it down significantly. Remember, it takes 21 times ammonia to make one pound of alcohol (that’s not a hard number to remember, it’s actually about 4 times the amount of ammonia it takes to make one pound of any standard laboratory fuel) , but the worse part is that these 2 substances are apart of 2% of all drinks that people consume that last into the night.
So I’m asking you, should you be drinking, let’s say, 5 beers per week? Sure, why not. You know your health more than anyone, right? If you want to have a good quality of life, and you should, then you’ll want to drink in moderation, and also like everything else, you’ll want to make sure it’s on par with anything you’ll be doing.
Like I said before, everything needs to be done in moderation. Drinking more than a few beers every week is not ideal, and like I said before, everything should be done in moderation. Does this mean you can drink a six pack and not be deficient in vitamin D?
