NUTRITION

This is not the question. Rather the question is 'What should I eat, and how much of it?'.

No matter what the exercise, sport, or particular physical challenge, how you prepare, sustain, and progress successfully depends on your nutritional intake. Simply put, what you put into your body is what you'll get out of it.

Ask any doctor, trainer, fitness guru, or professional athlete and the answer is consistent. All of the past challenges I've completed, from Body For Life to P90X advocated sensible nutritional habits to help bring about what seemed to be speedy transformations and new heights attained. Here are some practices I found along the way that have help me keep off the weight I lost for over 13 years...

1) My portion sizes of my meals went from how much I could fit on a plate, and sometimes on a plate and a saucer, to fist size portions of protein food, complex carbohydrates, and a fruit.

2) My frequency of eating went from 3 big meals to 3 smaller meals and 2 - 3 snacks that included fruit, nuts, yogurt, or nutrition bar.

3) Instead of drinking that big diet coke, or that 16 oz Sobe, I switched to water drinking up to a gallon on some occasions. Of course, my physical activity demanded this much.

4)I started taking multivitamins consistently, and also took other supplements for my body such as glucosamine for my joints, and omega-3 for my heart.

5)I stayed away from the processed foods as much as possible and made my wife very happy by letting her cook for me. She loves to watch me eat her cooking. Seafood, lean meats, very lean, fresh uncooked and cooked vegetables, and complex carbs like brown rice and sweet potatoes are GOOOOOOD!

6) I made one day an official "cheat" day. Yep, Sunday is the day where I don't worry about "does this have too much fat?", or "what about the sugar contents in this?", or "I shouldn't have had those two PB & Js earlier." Those habits above took a while to develop, and after seeing just how much I slowed down or sped up with intensity, strength, endurance, and physical transformation, I am convinced of the dominating effect nutrition plays in reaching my goals and maintainng my weight.

We all know deep down that for the long term, the improvement of our overall health depends on our ability and commitment to developing similar habits to the ones above. It can be challenging, but with someone to help you as in your spouse, kids, or parents, or friend, it can be habit-forming, which is what we want.

I encourage anyone that may have any questions to ask, and also do your own research into this subject. Nutrition.gov and Life Extension at www.lef.org are two good sources of nutrtional information.

Keep Movin, Keep Improvin,
Willie