Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be talking about fruit. If you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188.
This time of year, more stores are carrying more fruit that actually has flavor and taste and smells good, and those kinds of things, instead of the stuff we’ve been carting in from all over the world that may not be the freshest. Right? You know how good it tastes to have some really fresh fruit and just be able to taste it and smell it.
I used to have a friend that, she used to go to Scotland on a regular basis. Like, at least once a year. Sometimes twice a year. She loved it over there, and one of her favorite things about it was the absolute freshest fruit that she could taste. She’d come back just raving about how it had so much flavor and it was just so wonderful compared to what she eats here. And so, she always made me a little jealous.
I’ve never been that big of a fruit person. And I know that this time of year everybody starts digging into it, but it’s also the same time of year that everybody is starting to say, “Oh, I want to look good for summer, and I’ve gotta do this and I’ve got to take out all these things, and I can’t have any sugar.” So, they feel like they can’t have fruit.
Well, there’s two sides to that coin. So, yes there are plans, nutritionally, that you would take out the fruit, and there’s reasons for that. It might be to leave certain things in and take other things out, or it might be take it all out. What we want to be cautious of is that we do that only for a short amount of time, because we do want to make sure that we get all the nutrients from those fruits.
If we don’t eat fruit ever we should probably add some in every now and then. I have a tendency to add them into my green smoothies more than anything, just because a lot of fruits, I really have texture issues with, but in a smoothie I can’t tell the difference so I can throw it in there. I can still get the same benefits from it, but not have the texture issues related with chewing it. So, that’s a possibility for some of you.
But what comes out of this is usually around this time of year, I hear people say, “You know, I want to get in shape. I want to do this, but I’m not willing to give up my fruit so I’m gonna keep eating the way that I want to eat.” And, the thing is that fruit can be a very great part of a healthy diet. Fruit can be a part of a nutrition plan that can help you to lose fat and tone muscle and all those things, you just have to know how to use it right. So, I would never ask somebody who was that headstrong to not eat any, but I might ask them to reduce it.
I know I’ve had several clients even in the past few years that maybe before bed they’ll have an entire bowl of fruit. That’s a lot of sugar, and if you’re not adding some protein or fat with it, if you’re not eating as a dessert, and you’re not keeping it minimal, then your body’s gonna go crazy with that because sugar is sugar to your body. It doesn’t know the difference between this kind of sugar and that kind of sugar, it just takes it and it stores it as fat whenever it’s not being used for energy right away.
So, we do need a little bit of sugar. We do need some fruit, but we’ve got to be careful and not overdo it. And like I said, this time of year whenever it starts to come out in bulk everywhere, people tend to go home with baskets full of it and they can’t even fit it all in their fridge, so they feel like they’ve got to eat it right away and get it all done.
So the first thing to know is that yes, fruit is good, and yes, a lot of fruits can be frozen. So, you could make ice cream out of pineapple by cutting it into cubes and freezing it, and then blending it. That can actually work really well, so if you’ve got some fresh pineapple, that’s a great way to save it. Other fruits could be put into your smoothies and things like that.
Now, here’s the tricky part: A lot of people get into dehydrated fruit. Kind of that season usually that it comes in is before all the fresh fruit hits, but kind of as people’s taste buds are starting to move that way. We’re kind of coming out of winter and we want something sweet, and so we grab for the dehydrated fruit.
The rule of thumb with dehydrated fruit is that when you eat it, it has a higher sugar ratio. The content of sugar is the same. So if you take a grape, it has a certain amount of sugar. Let’s say for example that it had 10 grams of sugar, I’m just making that number up, and then you take an bring all the water out, now that still has that 10 grams of sugar in it, right? But it’s not diluted. It doesn’t have the water with it, so the body’s gonna react differently eating a grape versus eating a raisin. Now one, you’re not gonna notice the difference, but if you start to eat 20, 30, anything like that moving up, it’s going to start to affect you.
So, the raisin, the dried fruit, any type of dried fruit, doesn’t mean that it has more sugar added to it, but it does mean that since it’s dehydrated, it’s not as diluted so the body doesn’t have as much filtering ability and all that sugar goes straight in. So, what we want to do, is if we’re eating dehydrated fruit, we want to keep it to a minimal serving, and we want to make sure that we drink an extra bottle of water for every one serving of dehydrated fruit to be able to introduce more water into the body even though the fruit itself didn’t have that water. So, making sure that we get that done to keep the body healthy and to keep everything moving forward.
The other thing is, that if you’re eating fruit or dehydrated fruit every single day, and you’re doing the same fruits every day, then we definitely need some variety in there. For instance, most of the time people are reaching or aiming for about anywhere from five to ten servings of vegetables a day. That should be the goal. If it’s not yours, make it yours today. With fruits you’re looking at something more like one to two servings a day. I know that sounds like a big difference between the two, but the thing is that your vegetables have more nutritional value and less sugar so we want to try to balance that out. That way the body gets what it needs, but it doesn’t get too much of what you think it needs. Just because it’s good for you does not mean that you need a ton of it.
So, I hope that helps to clear up this whole fruit thing just a little bit. Make sure that with your dehydrated fruit, you’re drinking another bottle of water. Make sure that with your regular fruit, you’re limiting it to about one to two servings a day, and just really finding those fruits that really just stand out in your mind, taste really great. And then, vary it up. Find three or four and switch them out during the week, and then the next week find some different ones. Just because pineapple’s on sale does not mean that you need to buy a tub of it. So, just kind of find what works for you.
All right, so as I said, summer’s coming. If you need help getting ready for summer, if you are looking for the answer to your body transformation woes and you’re looking to lose some body fat, gain some muscle tone, get ready for swimsuit season and all that good stuff, feel free to give us a call. We’ve got a few spots left for our transform in four program, and we’d love to get you started in that. That includes nutrition, it includes exercise, it includes world class coaching, accountability and motivation. All of it’s in there together, and we’re gonna help you get ready for the summer. So feel free to give us a call, 806-322-3188, and I hope that you have a fantastic day.