If I’m honest there’s not much we’re going to talk about that you probably haven’t heard before a thousand times but it’s always nice to get a kick up the back side to remind us what we should be getting on with.
The plan with this blog, however, is to help you with “how” to put the information into action with the help of a few extra treats for you to download at the end in the form of a shopping list and my Upgrade 2.0: The Food Prep Guide.
Right then, let’s get to it.
Protein
You know that the Protein we eat helps you to build muscle and strip fat. However, the protein you eat has more important jobs to take care of first if we want to stay alive and healthy. Such things as digestion, brain function, repair from injury and recovery from illness.
The first point of call is assess if you’re eating enough quality, lean protein through the day.
The reason why is this: Your bodies priority is to use the protein to make enzymes for digestion and little fellas called carrier proteins that shuffle all sorts of good stuff around the body to keep us alive. Another priority is to repair our organs, only then will any surplus protein be allocated to muscle growth and stripping body fat.
To make sure you’re getting enough protein through the day eat a fist sized portion with each meal if you’re a female and one and a half to two fist sized portions if you’re male. Aim for a minimum of three meals a day.
The sources of protein are in your complementary shopping list, just click the link at the bottom of the page.
If you’re a veggie, vegan, pescatarian, Ewok, or whatever you want to label yourself, choose whatever protein source you think has the least feelings.
Hydration
I’m talking about water with this one, hydrating with pints of Guinness or glasses of wine after work doesn’t count. Unlucky. Neither does the water in tea and coffee or any fruit juice.
Fun fact: When you’re thirsty you’re already 1-2% dehydrated and that’s going to affect your mental focus and mood state as well as your physical performance by affecting your strength, endurance and dehydration can put extra strain on the old ticker. Not the best if you want to stay mental sharp or working towards getting leaner.
Get 2-3 litters of filtered water a day and I promise you’ll feel and see the benefits, and add a pinch of sea salt or pink salt to your food, this will help you hydrate quicker.
If you can pour litres of beer, gin, wine, vodka, or Bacardi breezer (if that’s your tipple) down your neck at the weekend, which as you bloody well know will make you feel like you’ve been dug up for the next few days, then I know you can drink 2 litres of water a day that’s going help you feel great for the day. It’s just a habit, and to help you with habit change have a 10 minute read of the Science of Habit Change article. You can apply the principles there to any positive habit that you want to work on.
The theme of this section is to drink more filtered water. Aldi do 8 litres for under a quid so go and buy some and keep a 2 litre bottle with you all day. Job done.
Dietary fat
Dietary Fat won’t make you fat if you keep it under control. Just like protein your body need’s it to survive. Dietary Fat is a wonderful thing and comes in many forms, but that lesson is for another day.
What you need to be aware of is that there’s very well behaved fats and very, very badly behaved fats that we get from food.
The good fats we find in animal proteins, read meat, poultry, fish, and butter. You’ll also find your healthy fats in plant-based foods such as coconuts, olives, oils, nuts and seeds.
Again, as with protein all the good sources of fat are in your shopping list that you can get at the bottom of the page.
The badly behaving fats are called trans-fats and are man-made to increase the shelf life of processed foods and enhance the flavour. Too many of these and they can contribute to Alzheimer’s, bad cholesterol, fat gain, and even lymphoma. None of which are cool. Your trans fats are in all junk food and any overly processed foods. Do your best to say away from these, so one meal max per week of your favourite junk food is enough so won’t suffer from any of the negative consequences. They’re just not worth it, too many too often and you’ll have to pay a health tax one day, such as diabetes, heart, liver and digestive diseases, fat gain and worse.
If you’re eating a decent mix of animal protein, especially fish, then you’ll be on point the dietary fat especially when cooking at a low to medium temperature with butter. Adding a few nuts, seeds and plant sources to meals will also keep your dietary fat topped up and help keep your mental and physical health in check, which is the most important thing. To be healthy and keep disease away.
Carbs
Carbs have been given a rough time the past few years and to be hones they’re not the riddle there’re made out to be.
They’re two types of carbs and neither are bad carbs so to speak. Both have a place in a well-planned nutrition program, what’s important is what type to eat, when to eat them and how many to eat.
The two types of crabs are:
- Complex carbs
- Simple carbs
Complex Carbs and Simple Carbs and Insulin
Before we crack on, I’m going to put on my serious voice as its important to know.
The rest of the article I ‘m leaving out the junk food, the white bread, doughnuts, biscuits, chocolate, cakes, crisps, anything from Gregs, full fat fizzy drinks and your dinner time meal deal from Tesco. We all know that these foods won’t do us any good and I’m assuming that you know too many, too often will keep you from results you’re after and only contribute to poor physical and mental health. The carbs we’re looking at are those that we will include, and what will make up 90% of our carb intake through the week.
There’s a time and place for your favourite junk food in your nutrition and we’ll get to that, the cabs below like I mentioned will make up 90% of your carb intake and are those that can have a positive impact on your health, or at least not contribute to the negative consequences of eating too much junk food long term.
That’s the serious bit done now. Let’s have a look at carbs and insulin.
Complex carbs release slowly and help with sustainable energy. Foods such as potatoes, sweet potato, basmati rice, oats, barley, spelt, and quinoa If you can eat the stuff.
Simple carbs release their energy quickly. Such foods as sourdough bread, pasta, white rice, and table sugar.
When you eat carbs, they will spike a hormone called insulin.
Insulin’s main job is to take sugar to the muscle or the fat cells.
- Complex carbs cause a slower spike of insulin in smaller amounts.
- Simple carbs cause a quicker spike of insulin and in higher amounts.
Each scenario has both its positives. However, issues will pop up when insulin is being spiked continually by eating too many cabs and too often from either complex or simple carbs.
It’s not complex or simple crabs that can cause issues by themselves, its how many and how often you’re eating them that can have a negative effect on your belt size.
For sustained fat loss and good health, in the meal following your workout, get a palm sized portion if you’re a female and one to two palm sizes if you’re a male. This is when your body is most likely to store them in the muscle to help fat loss rather than send the carbs to the fat cell to be stored as fat.
It doesn’t have to be any more complicate than that. All the sources of carbs are on your shopping list at the bottom of the page.
Last bit here, the relationship between carbs and insulin is a complex one, and it is worth taking 15-20 out of your life to understand it. I have an article, ALL About Insulin that takes all the scientific nonsense and dilutes it into something understandable.
Please give it a read, I promise you it will help empower you to take control by understanding. That way you will be able to make your own informed decisions when it come to carbs in your nutrition.
Veggies
Last but not least come you vegetables. Straight to the point, add between a handful of chopped veg or 2 handfuls of various leaves to each meal.
The’re packed full of vitamins, minerals and compounds that improve fat loss and overall health in a massive way. Don’t eat them and you’re doing yourself a mischief.
To help with flavour add seeds, oils, salad dressings such as the two below, lemon and lime juice or hummus.
My two favourites are below:
Balsamic Vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- ½ garlic clove finely chopped
Horseradish & Lime
- 1 teaspoon horseradish
- Juice from ½ lime
- Finely grated zest of ½ lime
- ½ teaspoons worth of grated ginger root
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of honey
- A bit of rock salt or pink salt
- A bit of course/ground black pepper
That there is the basics of healthy nutrition.
Here’s a little recap.
When creating meals just follow the guidelines choosing your food items from your shopping list.
For women per meal
- 1 palm sized portions of protein
- 1 cupped hand sized portions of carbs – for fat loss, have carbs with post workout and evening meal
- 1 thumb sized portions of fat
- 1 fist sized portions of veg and or 1 to 2 cups of green leafy veg
For men per meal
- 1-2 palm sized portions of protein
- 1-2 cupped hand sized portions of carbs – for fat loss, have carbs with post workout and evening meal 1-2 thumb sized portions of fat
- 2 fist sized portions of veg and or 1 to 2 cups of green leafy veg
There we go, nutrition 101 is class dismissed.
As always thank you for taking the time to be here and read this article, without your support we couldn’t do what we love to do, which is bring you the most accurate and up to date information for you to action to live your healthiest and happiest life possible.
Below as promise are your two complementary downloads for today. Just click on the image and it will be with you straight away.
Add image of the eBooks
=========> Metafunktion Shopping List
For a comprehensive ebook on how to save money, time and effort and still get a weeks worth of meals boxed of you can download your Upgrade 2.0: The Food Prep Guide below.
=========> Upgrade 2.0: The Food Prep Guide
Thanks for taking the time to read the blog, if you have any questions head over to the Facebook or instagrap page and ask away, or send an email to rick@metafnktio.com. Oh and be good to us and give our page a like. Makes us look popular.
Thanks again. Speak
Yours in health
Rick
