Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be talking about what makes an effective nutrition plan. This is going to be the first part in a two part series, so be on the lookout for part two coming soon. And if you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188
So, what makes an effective nutrition plan? I mean this is really what a lot of people are digging down for, they’re researching online, most of the time it takes them to, first off Google and Facebook and then friends and family, but so often we’re just taking the word of others and hearing that okay, well this worked for you and this is what you’ve read about so maybe that works.
The thing is, we’ve got to understand that nutrition has certain foundations, there are truths about nutrition that we all need to understand, at least to a degree, to where we understand how the body’s working, what it’s needing. So often we get into these nutrition plans that really are more of a crash diet, they’re taking out macro nutrients or they’re really stripping you of the precious nutrients that your body needs and focusing just on calories.
You can lose a lot of weight, not saying that you can’t, and I know there’s a lot of people out there that really, at least in the front of their mind, they don’t think that there’s anything else that they need. They see that they need weight loss and they are so frustrated about it that they are desperate to do anything that would cause them to lose weight. What honestly, typically happens is that, that causes a lack of health, it causes some chronic health issues that can stay with you for the rest of your life.
That sounds like I might be being a little over dramatic, but it’s true. Every now and then I get people that just are the worst case scenario because they’ve been on so many crash diets, they have torn their body up and really, honestly we have to get medical help in order to get their balance back and get them back into somewhat of a level of health. Often times you’ve done such damage to yourself, that it’s not possible to regain that health to heightened levels. You can get back to a certain place but it’s very hard to get beyond that. Obviously each person’s a different case and I by no means mean to be a negative Nellie about it or anything like that, I just want to bring to the forefront the idea that there is a certain foundation of nutrition that our body expects, that our body needs and that our body thrives on.
So, in order to get an effective nutrition plan, we really have to have five things. We have to have, number one, balance. We have to make sure that we’re getting the right amount of things, nutrients, you know your phytochemicals, your macro nutrients, your micro nutrients, I mean I’m talking everything right, so whenever I say nutrients, I mean all of it. So you’re getting the right amount of those things and you’re limiting the things that could have a negative effect on your health. So anything, I mean you already know what they are, right, the sugars, the alcohols, all that kind of stuff, you’re limiting that because it could have a negative effect on your health, that’s all I said.
Alright so number two is through calorie control. Now this is not just reducing calories, because we all know that if we reduce calories, we’re going to lose weight, but we also know hopefully, that if we reduce calories too much our body will suffer and our health will suffer, our hormones will suffer, everything will suffer. I’ve got people that I’ve met with in the past that had reduced their calories so much that they actually have brittle teeth now, their teeth were chipping. They couldn’t figure out what the problem was, but they also weren’t ready to eat more either. So we’ve got to understand that the body gives and takes and we got to have certain things going on.
So, instead of just thinking about reducing calories, it’s more about making sure that you have the right amount of calories throughout the day to keep your system working effectively. So, let’s think about this like your gas tank in your car only pretend like your gas tank is the size of a walnut. So let’s say that you had 50 errands to run in the day, excuse me, and you had a walnut sized gas tank. So you would have to fill that up frequently throughout the day, right? You couldn’t just fill it up in the morning and call it good, you probably couldn’t wake up in the morning after driving yesterday and have it drive you anywhere. So we have to fill it up frequently throughout the day and we got to make sure that it gets the right kind of fuel. Right? Makes sense when you think of it that way, but for some reason when we think of our bodies, we don’t think of it that way, at that point that our bodies are like, we need this and our brains say ah we can deal without that, you’ll be fine, I need to lose weight.
So as we go through this, we’ve got to understand that the body is physically craving these things because we need the energy, we don’t, we’re not talking about excess calories at this point, we need energy from the nutrition of our foods to be able to perform daily functions. That’s playing with your kids, that’s being able to read on your iPhone, or your Android device, being able to do your homework, being able to go to work and focus, these things take energy and every bit of energy comes from your food.
Alright, so we’ve got balance and calorie control, what about moderation, right, that’s number three. So moderation, we don’t take in an excess amount of those things that could have a negative impact on your health, so the stuff that we talked about earlier. We don’t take in an excess amount of that, but we also don’t cut them out completely. So it’s not gone forever, it’s not something that you can never eat again, it’s something that you might work into your nutrition plan every now and then or you might just have a surprise one day and end up having some birthday cake, that’s fine. You may not feel well afterwards if you hadn’t had it in a while and that could just be your body’s signal of saying, yeah I really don’t need this. It was great at one point, I really don’t need it and that’s fine, but again, it’s not that you can’t have it, it’s that we work on that moderation.
I’m going to end part one here. If can’t wait for part two, or you want to know more about Custom Fitness and what we do here, then please give us a call. If you’re wanting the accountability and help with creating an action plan to see results, or are wanting to someone to help create a workout plan to push you to your greatest potential, then that’s what we’re here for. Our trainers are here to look out for you and make sure that you are meeting your goals in a safe way.
At Custom Fitness, we customize a plan for you. We sit down with you and find out what your needs are and then build a health and fitness plan around that. We have an entire team of dedicated professionals to help you with your health and fitness goals. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.