4 Keys to Fitness Success: 3 Food/Nutrition

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at our first two keys to fitness: Sleep and Water. 

I laid out the challenge in week one to focus on getting to bed consistently and waking at a consistent time. For the second week, I set the challenge of getting two glasses of water before or during each meal.

This week we will look at the third key to success, nutrition, which is the hardest to do consistently but has one of the most significant impacts on your fitness success.  

Food fuels the body and provides it with the materials it needs to recover from workouts. Food is also used for bringing people together and often used for when we are bored or sad. 

There is a lot more than just talking about protein, fats, and carbohydrates when talking about food. There are emotions and many decades of wrong and sometimes harmful nutritional advice given out in the media over the years. 

The simple truth is if you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you are taking in, and if you’re going to gain weight or put on strength, you will need to eat more calories than you are putting out so the body can use that extra energy for recovery. 

Simple? 

In a vacuum, very simple, in the messy world, we live in, not so much. 

The Challenge 

Track your food for one week. 

The point of tracking is to bring awareness to what you are eating; most of us don’t even know what we are putting into our bodies on a day-to-day basis. 

I like the app MyFitnessPal, I know some people are overwhelmed with it because it is technology, but I feel it is the best way to track. The other way is with a notebook and something to write with. 

Do this for a week and see what trends you notice. 

Your Fitness Sherpa,