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

Diet - Just One Thing!

Here is an easy one for you - Identify one thing in your diet that you know is suspect. For me, it would be chocolate. You could cut out alcohol, one less sugar in your coffee, crisps, breakfast rolls. Make a commitment and don't eat them for 6 weeks. See how you feel, see if you have lost body fat. It's the small changes that make the difference. Now if you are a big drinker then cutting out alcohol altogether will be a big change and you might not have the will power to do it. Why not work out what you consume in an average week and then cut that in half. We want to be able to stick to it. It's not meant to be easy but we need it to be achievable. We take baby steps and when we get good at this stuff we can make the bigger changes that will impact massively on our lives and those around us.  Your mission is to take one thing that's not helping you in the long term and take it out the diet for 6 weeks. 

Get on it and make the changes!

I Want To Be Him/Her...

You are not your training partner, you are not the person you sit next to at work. You are not the cover model, you are not the Mr Olympia in the magazine or the movie star in Men's Health. This is not the movie Fight Club either. You are you and you are unique. You won't be that girl or that guy as you are different, physiologically, mentally, psychologically. Don't be a sheep and follow trying to emulate someone else. Its good to have a goal, an idea but you don't want to replicate someone else, you want to be you. 

If you want to look like the guys in Flex with 20 inch biceps say screw that I'm going for 22s. If you see someone in a magazine that can run 400 metres in 50 seconds then smash that time. Don't ever try and be anyone be yourself and be the best at it. We are all different in shape, size, height and health. Work out what works for you and don't concern yourself with what others are doing. Use the information as a template and expand and explore and educate yourself in order to improve all areas of your life. Question everything and accept everything you read with a pinch of salt until you have tried it for yourself. There is no magic formula, there is no silver bullet. 

Work hard, get results!

Diet 101

So there is a wealth of information out there for you concerning diets. Adverts on the radio saying eat this, weigh yourself, all will be fine. Or eat caveman diet or start weekly fasting. Or even don't eat real food have this stuff from a packet as if you were a space man. Celebrity diets are everywhere and everyone has their own take on what we should be eating. The truth is we are all individuals and lead such different lifestyles that our diet is a very unique thing. If you want to take control and haven't got the time to do the research then try and stick to some simple guidelines that we will offer to you over the coming weeks.

If you are looking to lose weight, gain weight, gain muscle, tone up whatever you want I think the first port of call is a food diary. So for the next month, keep a journal of everything you eat and drink and I mean everything. Describe the portion size so that it means something to you. People weighing food have far too much free time on their hands or are following recipes. We are trying to keep it simple here. Also, record how you feel in your food diary. Sometimes it can take a few days for a "bad" food to show up and make us feel lousy. Stick down the time you eat at as well and how long it takes you to consume said meal. The idea behind this is to frighten you into your actual food intake, your lack of water or your over consumption of alcohol. It might even highlight foods you should take out your diet as they make you feel crap. On the other hand you might realise why you are not putting on that lean muscle as your diet consists of a protein shake and a subway.

Get a little notebook from a supermarket for a £1 and write in it. Keep an excel spreadsheet or I am sure there are apps out there that will do it all for you. The thing is, we want to do it ourselves and take control of this. Do it for a month, then spend some time going over the information you recorded and see if anything jumps out at you.

You don't need hand holding you can do this. Take control, this is the first step. If you have any questions about it drop me an email or post them up and I will try and help.

Marcus