Diet - I just don't know where to start.

Everywhere you turn you hear about diets.  Diet is a filthy word to some people as it makes them think they have to give things up or starve themselves or change.  Most of us hate change and will fight tooth and nail to avoid it.  Diet is merely a word and like many words evoke things within the individual.  Now lets replace the word diet with fuel.  So we all know that you put fuel in an engine and it turns over and propels a car or plane for example.  Bodies are all different and so are engines.  The engine in a lawn mower is not the same as the engine in a fighter jet yet they both share similarities.  Now not all bodies are the same yet we share a lot of similarities, however, its the stress and demands that we put on our bodies that make us different. A 20 year old track athlete's engine will be different to a 70 year old retired person.  It will even be different to a 20 year old student party animal.

So we take our car to the petrol station and we have a choice of fuels all of which do a similar thing but some are better and more refined than others.  A highly tuned street car can go ultra fast on Tesco 99 fuel but then put some actual race fuel in it and see the difference. Our bodies are no different we just need to see how our body reacts to certain foods. 

Now there are a million things in the supermarket we could eat to make our engine work but some will give us better performance. If we are looking to lose body fat and train hard then we really need to be wary about what we eat.  Now it really is a case of finding what works for you as we are all different.  Why not follow some of the simple rules below which are common place among a lot of the popular eating habits pushed to the fitness market these days. 

Eat regularly throughout the day or go the opposite way and simply eat when you are hungry.  You have to find what is right for you.

A meal should comprise of protein, carbohydrate and fat.  So good quality lean meat (turkey, fish, chicken). Get your carbohydrates from vegetables and fruit.  Get your fats from oils and nuts.  

Drink water regularly as this will keep you functioning and can cut out thoughts of hunger. Remember you can last months without food but only a few days without water. 

Avoid sugar, this guy is the enemy.  If you eat fruit you will be getting sugar via this. 

Stay the hell away from bread and pasta.  These guys are sugars cousins and they will love to gang up on you and attack the waist line.  

Now a lot of this is hard to understand and you don't really need to know the science behind it.  Its simple, eat a pizza and you all know you want to sleep afterwards. So that big base of dough ain't that good for you.  For years people were told to eat pasta before a big game.  Will it kill you, no, but some people eat like they are having a big game every second day.  Again, its a cultural thing if you eat bread and how you might have been raised.  Well then quickly look at the statistics for your culture and heart disease and obesity and work out if you want to continue eating like you are. 

Now with all of this its takes time, planning and often a huge shift in your way of thinking.  Its because the world doesn't really cater for a good diet. We are all used to convenience nowadays and often even when you eat out its hard to stick to any sort of really clean eating.  What I will say is eat out less and live a little.  Eating some "bad stuff" once in a while won't kill you but make sure it really is just that once in a while.  

Now I am no great chef. My meals are boring as some days, but I tell you that this stuff works. I still cheat like a mad man and have chocolate and takeaways but I try to minimise that and eat clean when I can. Mix this with high quality exercise and you have a formula. I really look forward to how strong and fit I can get in the future with further tweaks in my eating habits. I see this as a long term goal and I am getting there gradually. However, if you want to make some changes fast, ditch the bread stuff, cut out salt for a week, put down the bag of crisps and pick up some fruit. Eat more often and cut the portions and get yourself moving. I guarantee after a week or two you feel and look better.

Marcus