You Are What You Digest!
Anyone can workout hard, get their heart rate up, sweat and do extra after a workout, but a large percentage of people do not fuel or recover optimally to see the progress that matches their workout efforts!
Ask yourself these:
Are you having problems with digestion?
Are you losing your drive and motivation to workout?
When you wake up do you feel, foggy, tired, and under recovered?
Do you think you eat well and yet have no clue how many calories or macros you eat?
Are you always tired in the afternoon looking for stimulants to make it through the day?
Do you take supplements that can help with recovery, like the basic multivitamin and Vit D daily?
Are you drinking enough water daily and do you know the amount you drink?
Are your progressing in the gym, or are you the same strength?
Are you seeing physique changes good and bad?
When I am asked the question, “Why am I not seeing results?”. These are some of the questions I dive into in search of answers. A very high percentage do not know the answers to the above questions and continue to struggle day in and day out.
For this help article, lets focus on food.
Here is some help:
HOMEWORK
- Write down an hourly time sheet starting from when you Wake to when you Go to Bed.
- On the hour track and write down exactly what you ate and drank for the day
*below you will see an example to follow and use yourself
- Next you will place acronyms labeling what type of food you are eating. See below for the acronyms you will write beside the foods.
WMP = Whole Minimally Processed
Not all processing is bad, steaming and cooking are a type of processing and help fight off bacterial growth, good for digestion, especially helping cruciferous veggies be digested, lowering raffinose in those veggies.
Here are the Acronyms you will place by the foods you track:
V = Veggies
Fr = Fruit
GLV = Green Leafy Veggies
F = Fat (nuts, Seeds, oils)
P = Meats, eggs, milk, full fat yogurt plain, whey protein
S = Starches from mother earth, yams, potatoes, beans, lentils, squash, corn
HMP = Heavily to Moderately Processed
Heavily to Moderately Processed foods are all about the drastic alteration from food processing. Thus what the food looked like originally, then after processing that food turns into a food that is totally different that it’s original state.
Enriched products have taken out minerals and nutrients, then added some back into the processed food, thus a lower nutrient profile that the original state.
Fat & Sugar free = if sugar or fat has been taken out of product, something must be added back into the product for increase shelf life. Most times this is a nasty preservative of some sort. Here are your Acronyms to use:
D = Dairy products like cheese, yogurts fat free and sugar free with fake fruit
WG = Whole Grains like bread and cereals
RG = Refined Grains like white rice, enriched breads and flours
SCA = Sugar, Candy, alcohol
Example Sheet
7am Foods WMP HMP
1 ½ cup fat free strawberry yogurt D
1 cup coffee with Hazelnut creamer D, SC
10am
1 English muffin RG
1 whole egg P
1 slice processed cheese D
12pm
Apple Fr
3pm
1 large coffee
2 cream D
2 sugars SCA
6pm Post workout
1 scoop whey protein P
1 banana Fr
9pm
Slice of white bread WG
Large spoonful peanut butter F
1 bag pop corn S
Large glass of wine SCA
This is a normal eating profile I receive from people who think they eat well. You can see why they think this as you see some fruits, some bread, an egg and protein powder. So, it is not bad by any means, but to get transformation results and help recover and fuel workouts, this is low grade help.
BREAKDOWN
You can see that this person is dominant in Heavily and Moderately Processed foods.
Low in Whole and Minimally Processed foods.
Extremely low in
- Protein
- Healthy Fats
- Veggies (none)
- Green Leafy Veggies (none)
- H20 (no water!)
OUTCOME
- recovery and workout performance will be very poor
- muscle loss do to low protein, thus body will use muscle as a protein fuel source
- fat gain based on the body’s protective mechanism to survive do to down regulation of metabolism
- always being in a sympathetic stressed state of poor recovery and digestion based on stimulant use, low grade food and improper macronutrients
- high processed foods can cause insulin sensitivity issues
- low fiber from low veggies, thus digestion and elimination issues
- low healthy fats to help with adequate and proper hormonal function
- poor and low quality carbohydrate choices will increase insulin sensitivity issues and hormonal issues, plus energy crashes will lead to search for stimulant use. Outcome possible adrenal fatigue
- dehydration from no water intake, poor nutrient and mineral transportation
- low vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients to help in energy and recovery
How can this person improve?
Here are an Example of 2 Meals that can help this person improve
7am Foods WMP HMP
2 whole eggs P, F
1 cup mixed veggies V
3 cashews F
1 coffee
1 creamer D
10oz high quality H20
10am 3oz chicken breast P
½ apple Fr
1 medium wrap WG
1 tbsp hummus P,S,F
Spinach GFV
chopped veggies in wrap V
4oz High Quality H20
IMPROVEMENTS
As you can see, these simple changes have drastically improved her eating moving the majority of their food into WMP.
-Energy and mood will be increased
-Focus increased
-More water will increase many rolls in the body such as nutrient, mineral, carbohydrate transportation.
*Look at the word “carboHYDRATE” you will not use carbs well if you are dehydrated!
- Protein is increased, thus muscle can recover and not be used as a fuel source
- Healthy fiber is increased via veggies and healthy grains
- Healthy fats are increased via nuts and seeds, meat and egg yolk
*Nothing but improvements!
This is one small area that I help people with in our Nutrition Prescription Program!
If you need help, we want to help!
Book your initial consultation now!
www.sculptedbybrandt.com
I hope this small educational nugget can help get you started on the path to new transformation gains
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