STARTING OUT - SIMPLE NUTRITION TIPS
Here at USN we’re aware that the majority of people involved in sports nutrition are long-term exercisers and have been into it for a few years, but occasionally we should all be taking a step back to basics; to help a friend starting out, or perhaps you haven’t been in a routine for a while.
So, if we divert back to simple nutrition, what is the best practice?
FOCUS ON CONSISTENCY:
It’s almost like when you start jogging as a form of exercise. If you run up a hill on day 1, it will be really tough, but if you do it everyday it gets a little easier every time you do it and it’s like that with dieting and nutrition. You may not feel up to eating that bowl of chicken salad, when you’re on meal 5 of the day, but it becomes easier to adjust your taste buds and your metabolism to eat it. Also, consistency means eating at the right times too to increase digestion processes.
HYDRATION IS KEY!
Whilst your food intake does generally cover your minimum water intake, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t constantly hydrate throughout the day with water. You’ll find yourself feeling tired, dried out and it can have effects on skin quality.
POST WORKOUT MEAL:
Some people say eat before, others say eat after, the key is to eat a couple of hours before the gym to give time for your food to digest and metabolise to give you energy and then eat a couple of hours afterwards to replenish any lost nutrients. For your post workout meal, you should focus on getting in your protein, carbs (mainly) and a small amount of fat too to give you some store of energy.
SUPPLEMENTS!!!
As sports nutritionists, we can’t recommend supplements enough, especially our own (cheeky plug inbound…)Being on top your nutrition means making sure you have the essentials and our supplements contain the base essentials to make a solid foundation to build your meal plans on. If it’s mass gain that you need then you could do a lot worse than the Atom Bomb, Pre-workout Shot a small powerful boost of mass gaining potential!
If you’re on the move too much one day and don’t have the time to cook up a full meal and your goal is to lose some mass, then you could try the Diet Fuel Ultralean meal replacement supplement.