1. Reading good labels
Everyone probably knows these days what to eat and what not to, well, more or less anyway.
We all know crisps, chocolate, all the processed junk, fizzy drinks & high fat/sugar/sodium products should be avoided.
However, unless you’re really into nutrition, there is much confusion with all the contradictory things we read about in the magazines, tv, hear from people, friends, family, etc.
Here’s what you should be looking at!
FAT
Watch out so that most of the fat content comes from healthy unsaturated fats. Avoid the products that have the fats that are mainly saturated and/or the product has any trans fat. Trans fat has been shown to increase levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol while decreasing levels of “good” HDL cholesterol—a double health whammy.
Don’t be fooled by a label that lists 0 grams (g) trans fat. Because of a labeling loophole, a product can contain up to 0.5g trans fat per serving & say it has none. Check the ingredient list.
FIBRE
Look for at least 3g per serving in any product that contains grains, including bread, pasta and even some soups.
SODIUM
Excess sodium raises blood pressure, which increases heart disease risk &it may be a sign of a more highly processed (read: not so good for you) food.
SERVING SIZE
The amounts shown on the label refer to a single serving, where more often than not people have at lest twice as much if not the whole ‘thing’ which can be up to 10 times as NYC as te serving suggests. If you tend to eat more than the listed serving size like t majority of people – then do the math to get the right numbers.
CALORIE COUNT
For many people, this is the first and most important stop on the label. But a higher-calorie food might be worth eating if it also contains lots of nutrients, the good ones that are better than low nutritional value ones tat may contain less calories. It’s not jut y quantity, quality is much more important. For example 100grams of nuts will have about 600 calories (god ones!), where as a full loaf of bread will amount to the same amount of calories, but we all know nuts are better than bread nutritionally. Likewise, crisps have almost half the calories that nuts do per 100 grams, but again, crisps as you know should e avoided!
SUGARS
This number doesn’t distinguish between naturally occurring sugars (like lactose in milk or fructose in fruit) and added sugar (like high-fructose corn syrup or brown rice syrup). Eo always look at the ingredients for sources of added sugar (see next slide).
Look for the words sugar, as in palm sugar or invert sugar; sweetener, as in corn sweetener; or syrup, as in brown rice syrup or malt syrup. Also watch for words ending in ose, like fructose or glucose.
ADDED SUGARS
If sugar is one of the first two ingredients, don’t bring it home. Ingredients are ordered by volume, so the higher up on the list an ingredient is, the more of it a product contains. This is an easy way to spot foods that include a lot of added sugar. Naturally occurring sugar won’t be listed here.
But this method isn’t foolproof. Manufacturers often split up sugar into dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup, cane crystals and so on, so none of them are the first ingredient, even though if you added them up, they would be. Try avoid any product if there is sugar in more than one form.”
VITAMINS & MINERALS
The Daily Value is the amount of each nutrient that’s considered sufficient for most healthy adults. A food that contains anywhere from 10 percent to 19 percent of the DV is considered a good source of a nutrient.
WHOLE GRAINS
To ID heart-healthy and fiber-rich whole grains, look for the word whole before the name of any grain, as in whole wheat. Popcorn, oatmeal and quinoa are also considered whole grains. If you see the word enriched before a grain, it’s a sign that the grain has been refined, meaning it has been stripped of the germ & bran, which pack most of the grain’s nutrients including fibre, so not good!
PROTEIN
Last, but not least, the one thing you do not have to worry about having to watch out for or avoid is finally protein. Taking a wild guess, 99% of people would under eat the amount of protein that we need on a daily basis, so the more of it – the better. Besides, protein has so much benefits to human body & is virtually one thing u don’t have to worry about (unless you’re diet is lacking in it & you need to get more of it). It’s good for our health, recovery, body in general – including pre/ post workout, muscle, hair, bones, sleeping problems etc. So remember protein is your friend!
2. Progression in workouts
Any type of training is good for us – good for our heart, well being, staying healthy, fit, strong and yes, anything is better than nothing.
So whether it’s football or tennis, running or weight training – you’re going to benefit from any of the above. However, if you want to improve you need to aim at progressing from whatever level you’re at.
If you are happy the way you are & not interested in getting better, then tapping away at the same thing day in day out (week in week out) will suffice.
However, human nature usually strives for more, better. Always, and that’s the good part. We always want to be smarter, richer, happier – so why bit stronger, healthier, fitter etc?
So if you’re one of those people who always want to better your life & yourself – you need to also look at your work out progression.
Do no matter what your workout are like – whether you’re a gym bunny who always does classes or pounds away on treadmill or even better do resistance training – you can & should always progress, isn’t that a definition of what experience is in the first place? Experience is sound the same thing again and again – so its only natural to want and get better, even if it’s a small step time after time?
Try beat your own goals, times, kg all your personal bests – whether it’s the same distance to be run in shorter time, or winning instead of being eaten at your match or doing heavier weights/ harder exercise in your weight work outs.
Granted, the fitter you are the harder to see improvement, nevertheless, it’s still going to happen. With every training session you will (even if you didn’t set a particular goal) get a little faster, fitter, stronger, that’s if you train smart. But if you actually set goals – you’re more likely to succeed better/ faster!
Remember, it’s not just the quantity, it’s the quality. So, whilst you don’t need to be ‘killing yourself’, you should still always ask yourself – did I do my best today? Did I do the maximum I could do? Or did I jut went to gym so I have my 2nd training session of the week in? If you want to better yourself it’s really not thy hard, and with every session you will naturally improve – do make sure you set a goal, put your best in every session & monitor your progress and you will reap te rewards of stronger, fitter, healthier, leaner & above all – happier self…