12 Steps to Balanced Nutrition
I know nutrition can be tricky. It can be confusing sometimes, especially these days with stuff thrown at us every day on the Internet.
I believe this will help 95% of you.
1) Setting Calorie Intake. If you don't know how much you should eat, that's the number one step that you should be trying to achieve is figuring out how many calories I should be eating per day, based off my goal.
2) Macronutrient Ratios. If we're trying to gain weight, or lose weight, and we're only eating one macro – let's say carbs, or only fats – then that's not going to be good for our goal. What we want to do is make sure we have good ratios with protein, good ratios of carbs, and good ratios of fats so we're hitting our goals in the most optimal time.
3) Protein Intake. We all have different bodies, and we all have different sizes. So protein intake is going to be individualized to you. On average, it could be anywhere between .7g per pound of bodyweight if you're not too active in the weights, or 1-1.5g per pound of bodyweight if you are actively lifting weights three to five times a week. Number four is carb intake. How much carbs are you eating? If you're trying to lose weight, I would say a ratio between protein and carbs should be about 1-1. Maybe somewhere around there. If you're trying to bulk, or gain weight, somewhere around 2, or 4-1 carbs to protein ratio. Number five is healthy fats. How much fat are you eating? A lot of the times we think that fats are bad for us. They're actually very good for us and can benefit us in many ways, such as heart health, skin health, hair health, etc. The thing that we need to focus on is that we're eating the right kinds of fats. Avocados, nuts, peanut butter, extra virgin olive oil when we cook, rather than high fat butter. These things are going to help us be the most healthy. Number six is hydration. Without hydration, nothing else of this matters because our body will break down. Staying hydrated allows our body to function optimally. So make sure we stay hydrated by drinking water. Also by eating fruits that have a lot of water in them, such as watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries. Number seven is meal timing. It's very important to know when you're eating, when you're working out, when you should have your big meal of the day, and when you should have your snacks to keep your energy high. This is very important. Meal timing. Number eight is nutrient dense foods. There's a lot of foods out there. Sometimes if we're trying to lose weight we try to find the most nutrient dense foods so we can eat it without having to feel still hungry. Same with gaining weight. Sometimes if we eat not much nutrient dense foods it feels like we're just eating all day, eating all day, eating all day. So make sure that when you are choosing the foods to eat that we're not wasting energy on digesting food that is not nutrient dense. Number nine is hydration. We already talked about that, so I'm going to skip that. Number ten is meal prep. Meal prep is great for getting prepared for the week, getting prepared for the next couple days so you don't have to make the excuse that I didn't have time that day. Something always comes up. I'm sure you've dealt with an emergency that randomly comes in your day that was not scheduled. So meal prep helps you already be prepared for if that situation comes up. Number eleven is supplements. The reason this is at one of the bottoms is because it should be coming last after we have answered all of these questions. So make sure that we are consuming real foods, whole foods before we start to focus on supplements. But supplements can be great to add that extra vitamins and minerals that we're not getting from our diet, that extra protein that we're not getting from our diet. So supplements are a great way after we deal with the whole food situations. And then lastly, twelve – I put a star by it – is we've got to adapt and adjust. If something isn't working, adjust it. That's why I love tracking. Because we're able to see and measure things on a day-to-day basis. So make sure we know where we're going based off of our goals, and we're adapting and adjusting along the way. I hope these eleven steps help because hydration, we said twice. I hope these eleven steps help you have a better, balanced diet, and I hope it helps you achieve your goals a lot faster.
