Why Exercise Alone Isn’t Enough For A Total Body Makeover

When you first learn to get back into shape, your personal trainer or class will teach you what exercises to do. When you watch a fitness DVD or read a book about fitness, this appears to be the main focus, too. You will find yourself engaged in learning and practicing how to perform each exercise properly.

While the value of diet will be mentioned by your trainers and fitness literature, it will almost seem peripheral. After all, the idea of cooking a bland meal is far less exciting than the endorphin rush that comes from a vigorous workout session in the gym.

What’s more, if you find classes through a facility like Fitness 19, you’ll have a tremendous amount of fun working with other people just like you who are also eager to get back into shape. Perhaps you’ll get quite good at Power Core Yoga or feel totally exhilarated after a session of a Total Tone workout. Thinking about proper diet might be limited to grabbing a protein bar on your way out of the gym or drinking a little more water than you usually do.

Why You May Not Be Getting Noticeable Results

Still, somewhere in your fitness journey, you’ll notice that others in your fitness classes, who are doing the same amount of work as you are getting much better results than you. They may be building up more muscle or burning off more fat.

Recalling how they first looked when you met them, their transformation has been remarkable. Yours, by comparison, are rather modest.

If you ask them about the secret of their success, ask them about what they are doing right, you will discover that they are putting an emphasis on eating healthy.

The Missing Ingredient to Success

While exercise will certainly transform your body, compared to before you got on a fitness rampage, you will notice dramatic improvements too once you add the missing ingredient, a healthy eating plan.

If you don’t eat healthy, continuing to enjoy your favorite foods, from pizzas to French fries and coffee lattes—after all, the tastiest foods have plenty of salt, sugar, and fat—then the benefits of your workout will be countered by the nutrient poor foods that you enjoy.

The way to make the most of your workout is eating healthy! Now everything is aligned. Exercise is good. But exercise and diet is better. And if you can improve how much sleep you get every night, the supplements you take, and how much water you drink every day, you will be optimizing your health.

Before we discuss how to get on track with eating the right meals on a regular schedule, let’s briefly cover the idea of supplementation.

Supplementation

If you’re eating a nutritious meal four to six times a day, why do you need supplementation?

Three reasons:

• 1. Your carefully-chosen foods may not contain all the vitamins and minerals that you need. Our soils are not as rich as they used to be and the fruits and vegetables you eat may not be able to give you the recommended daily allowance of certain vitamins or minerals.
• 2. When you cook food, some vitamins and minerals are destroyed.
• 3. Since you are putting an additional strain on your body, you may be in need of more micro- and macro-nutrients than you are able to get from a regular diet.

If you don’t like the idea of taking tablets, you can get your supplements in a powder form and blend it into a delicious smoothie.

3 Tips for Meal Prepping

By preparing your meals ahead of time, you will be able to stick to your diet plan.

Here are some tips for meal-prepping:

1. Spend a few hours on your day off to prepare meals for the week. Plan a week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and healthy snacks.
2. Store the meals in Tupperware containers. Label everything to make it easy to find.
3. Each Tupperware container should have the perfect blend of protein, carbs, and vegetables -- for instance, chicken, rice, and broccoli.

5 Major Benefits of Meal Prepping

• 1. You are less likely to be tempted to cheat with an unhealthy snack or meal during the week when you are hungry but have no time to cook.
• 2. You are going to save time and money by not running to the store several times a week or going to a restaurant.
• 3. You’ll be able to know exactly how many calories you are eating, and how many grams of proteins and carbohydrates and healthy fats you are getting from each meal.
• 4. You’ll be able to adjust your meal plan if your current plan is not working for you.
• 5. You’ll be regularly fueling your body with what it needs throughout the day.
• 6. You will have more energy during the day, sleep better at night, and recover faster from your workouts.

A Word about Ab Sculpting

Remember that perfect abs are made in the kitchen and the gym! Whether you are trying to lose weight or to gain muscle, sculpted six-pack abs will be the central focus of attention when you are wearing a swim suit. While aerobics and specific ab exercises like crunches or leg raises will build your ab muscles, diet still plays a huge role in burning off fat around your abs, hips, and buttocks.

This is a blog post by Nancy Evans.