The Importance in the balance of Nutrition and Exercise
I am walking proof that health and wellness is a balance ofnutrition and exercise. I know you all have seen the memes that go aroundtalking about the gym is easy and the kitchen is hard. Well I am here to tellyou that it is 100% true!!
There is a healthy balance needed between nutrition and exercise. Last year my new years resolution was to do a better job of being consistent with my workouts throughout the entire year. I even succeeded. There were probably less than a handful of weeks that I worked out less than 3 times a week and some of that was due to my back injury.
My Journey Last Year
I started out the year strong and lost some weight and did a half marathon. During the summer I did a couple of races and then as the year went on, I went lax on my nutrition. I’ve never been very good at being consistent with eating well. What makes matters worse is I love my fast food and my cookies and ice cream. Even the normal food I would cook for dinner wouldn’t be considered exactly healthy.
Where I failed
I am not a huge fan of veggies and the list of fruits I eat is small as well. I felt like I was getting tired of eating the same thing repeatedly. And I wasn’t willing to try new foods or if I was, they were very limited. Normally my husband is my chef and cooks the veggies just the way I like, I still haven’t mastered this yet. But his job has been keeping him extremely busy and he wasn’t cooking like he used to.
Then I hurt my back. I did workout and even lost some weight because I watched what I ate for a while. But then I stopped worrying about it and started eating whatever I wanted. I gradually started gaining weight. Fortunately for me I am 5’10” and the weight was evenly distributed because I didn’t even realize.
New Year NewNutrition
I weighed in 1/2/18 at 187lbs the heaviest I had been sinceI had my son and I knew exactly what had happened. Even though I was workingout 3-5 times a week I was eating whatever I wanted including drinking mybeloved Pepsi. The holidays came and went in a whirlwind of food and traveling.
With the New Year brought new goals. And I have already started my Master’s in Nutrition this week. I wanted to focus this year on Nutrition. I am trying to find creative ways to implement healthy eating. My goal is to start eating more fruits and veggies. For me this is where I am seriously lacking.
My View
I am a huge fan of CrossFit’s view on nutrition: “Eat meatand veggies, nuts and seeds, some starch, little fruit and NO Sugar.” I don’talways follow it but I believer it is one of the best views out there. Ageneral guideline is 45-65% carbs, which includes 25% or less of added sugar,protein intake should be 10-35%, and fats 20-35% of your daily intake.
I am currently following a 40/30/30, or as close to it as I can get with one reload day where I increase my carb percentage. What I am focusing on more is getting more of my carb intake from veggies than from bread like products. I am not completely shutting them out but by simply increasing my greens intake I decrease my starches.
Why is Nutrition Important
Nutrition is the basis for how your body functions. The foodswe eat provide energy and nutrients for growth and health. As many of you know poornutrition can be caused by eating too much or not eating enough. Poor Nutritioncan even impact the progress of some chronic diseases.
In America alone at least 14% of the population has limited availability to safe and nutritious food. Food is how we as humans get essential nutrients into our body that we don’t naturally produce but need to live.
Nutrients
What people fail to realize is that you can get many ofthese nutrients without eating a lot of processed food. The biggestmisconception is that carbs come from grains, but you can get carbs from veggiesas well. They also usually have a lower glycemic index number which means theydon’t spike the blood sugar levels as quickly.
Proteins are the building blocks for everything you body does.And there are 9 essential amino acids that your body doesn’t produce naturallyso you must get it from food! EAT YOUR PROTEIN!!!
And while the subjects of fats are very controversial the gistis that you still need them. They make up parts of cell membranes, deal withsex hormones and general growth and health.
Exercise
With a healthy diet you still need to exercise or be activeat least 30 minutes a day. Your muscles need you to move. Your blood flow needsyou to move! Your overall health is not solely reliable upon nutrition just asequally as it isn’t solely reliable on exercise.
It’s a balance. You can’t just workout and be healthy. Soget up and move and go eat a salad!!
I hope this helps some of you. I am going to be writing moreon nutrition this year so please send me any questions or concerns you havethat I can potentially share with everyone. If you have a question I am suresomeone else does as well!!