Nutrition happens to be the true beginning and path to any fitness journey. If you don’t understand the concept, the foundation for long term fitness and health will always be compromised. Unbelievable right? Just a few years back about 5/6 years ago, I felt exactly that way. But, then again, I was ignorant and didn’t realize how little I knew. Up until 2015, I really thought that if I cut carbs out of my life, ate leafy greens and lean chicken breast morning, noon, and night, then exercised everyday by doing sit-ups, walking outdoors and the treadmill, I’d lose weight, be fit and above all be healthy. It was frustrating when nothing I did ever lasted for long at all. I was grumpy from hunger, and I couldn’t understand how on earth anyone could keep up with intense and excessive exercising 3 hours a day, every day, and find time for other stuff in life. After going through this cycle for almost a lifetime, I finally broke down and decided to enter the gym for personal training services, at my worst weight gain in a long time. I struggled with chronic back pain from my mid to late twenties and lingering pregnancy weight and destroyed abdominals from a C-Section that occurred 2/3 years earlier. Not good. And I was depressed and emotionally eating all the time. I would binge on food, feel guilty and then try to eat “clean” as I had previously indicated. Mentally, I was not the best version of myself either and I knew the first step was admitting that I needed help and guidance regarding how to clean up my health and wellness.
When I started my gym visits, I felt really shocked on multiple
levels that 20% was exercise and 80% was nutrition. I was so ignorant and
confused that I almost thought that it was a ploy to sell me fitness
supplements that I didn’t need. But I was at my wits end and my whole life at
that point hurt in a variety of ways. I needed to start with changing my health
first before I could start the process of the other changes. Or at least I had
to give it a try. As the months rolled by, what they were telling me to do was
indeed working! I ate relatively how they advised me to and when I worked out,
I did what they advised me to do in the gym. The weight was coming off and I was
becoming hopeful that I could do it for the long-term... provided that I kept
on getting this level of coaching and guidance and that I just went along with
it willingly and blindly. Unfortunately, I had to give up the training sessions
because I couldn’t afford it any longer. All of a sudden, I was back to square
one once again gaining the weight back and losing that small taste of success
that I had. I then fell back on bad habits because they were comfy and
familiar.
After about two years of back sliding, I knew I had had
enough again and needed to make real lasting changes this time. I started doing
research and began looking into things I knew were based upon fact and personal
experience that were true. I knew for a fact now that proper nutrition was at
the heart of the issue. I knew that from experience that it really was 80% nutrition,
but I didn’t know why or how. I can’t remember when my research led me to the
term regarding macronutrition but that one term was the beginning
my fitness journey and education based on science and fact. I believe the term started
coming up when I started researching about eating for muscle tone/growth for women
instead of fat loss. Just that shift alone in my research helped me to stop
seeing information regarding fad diets and trends populate and crowd my google
search results. The information I began seeing was now more facts about the
functionalities of our bodies and what they actually needed that was
quantifiable and measurable… tangible information. As I continued my research
further, it began to make more sense even if I still felt overwhelmed and
apprehensive. It was a few more years of trial and error before I started
catching on and getting it right. Then it wasn’t until years later after
receiving both of my CPT certificates, it finally became crystal clear. As per
my studies from both certification programs for becoming a certified person
trainer, macronutrition can be defined as the energy yielding food nutrients
that make up our food intake/diet that are required in order to yield the
specific energy needed to fuel our very own life force. There are three nutrients:
v
Proteins (lean meats – chicken Breast, eggs, fish,
red meat, etc.)
v
Carbohydrates (simple, starchy and complex –
veggies, fruits, breads, grains, etc.)
v
Fats (olive oil, butter, nut butter, etc.)
Understanding macronutrients and the individual combined
quantities needed to eat them in together is key to better health and wellness.
This is where it all begins! And when you learn as much as possible about this
concept, the better your results will be. Did you realize that the combination
of the three energy yielding nutrients can and most likely will be adjusted
depending upon what phase of your fitness journey you are in? I didn’t know
that! I just thought that if I ate the same thing repeatedly, as long as it was
lean meat and salads, I’d lose the weight. I wasn’t entirely wrong, but I was
definitely far off from reality. When you are beginning your fat loss journey,
depending upon your assessment results and stats, your individual breakdown and
combination of fats, carbohydrates and proteins will look a bit different after
a few months of losing weight, then look slightly different when you reach a
plateau and then look different when you reach your goal and are at
maintenance. And then it will look different yet again when your goals change,
and you are interested in further toning, conditioning, and promoting more
muscle growth. Making your eating habits fall in line with muscle growth helps
to keep your body healthy, strong, and functioning at optimum, and will also help
to keep your hunger and satiety levels on even keel because we are all
biologically preset to respond favorable to having a strong body for survival.
Give your body what it needs, and it will fight you less and less over time. At
the center of this is well balanced macronutrition percentages. When you fully
learn about macronutrition and combing it with tracking your calories, you’ll
be able to guide your nutrition and eating habits through rough and frustrating
times because you understand your body and its unique needs therefore making
the necessary changes for long-term success.
What does this mean for you? Very simple! At this point, you
should start by tracking your meals to determine the quality of nutrients you
are consuming. Whether you decide to use a journal or a free fitness app like
myfitnesspal to assist you with your analysis is up to you. My preference was
utilizing an app because the apps tend to have the information provided by
nutrition labels found on the packaging of our foods already stored in their
databases which helps to make analysis much easier and efficient than
handwriting this into a physical journal or keeping it on an excel spreadsheet.
When possible, work smarter, not harder! Now, begin the process of getting use
to the categories and making the connection between how you feel when you eat
certain meals and the macronutrients that are in your meals. Take note of the
combination and percentages of the meals that make you feel satisfied and full.
Was the percentage for protein slightly higher than the other three? What was
the category of carbohydrates? Simple, complex or perhaps both? Was the fat
intake adequate and appropriate for your particular health needs? Collect your
data and begin analyzing it for your knowledge in correcting your eating habits
and thereby becoming healthier by making wiser choices based upon your unique
needs. This is why fad diets are just fads and trendy diets are just that: they
are all just passing trend that lasts for a season because they don’t really
address your unique needs. If you look at them closely, even though they help
you clean up your eating habits and give you a great launchpad to start eating
healthier, after a while it becomes apparent, they are all very general. If you
don’t understand this and where macronutrition comes strongly into play and
educate yourself, you won’t know what to actually change for lasting results.
You won’t know why your body is reacting one way instead of the desired way.
I do have a helpful PDF
to download for free that can help with understanding macronutrient. It
even has a chart that I used while studying the topic to pass my certification
programs. Please feel free to check it out here
and don’t be afraid to reach out to me and let me know what you think!
I’m always here for
you when you need me to be!
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