A beginning step that anyone who is starting a new workout routine or diet plan needs to take is to look seriously at the foods they are eating. In order to get serious results you need to get rid of anything that can hinder your progress. This of course means anything that will work against you and slow your body down from being an efficient fat fighting machine. There are all kinds of things you can do to begin to eat healthy but for now let’s keep things simple. To start there are 5 things that you must cut from your eating and drinking habits if you want to reach your fitness goals.
Refined Sugars: For those that don’t know what the term refined sugars means just think of plain old white Dixie crystals from your local grocery store. In addition to white sugar would be, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, sucralose, Splenda and pretty much everything else that calls itself sugar yet doesn’t come from fruit but rather a factory. Why these refined sugars are so bad for us is because they’re harmful to the metabolism. They can also negatively affect your insulin levels as well as your mood and emotions. Eliminating refined sugars from the food that you eat will take a lot of work and reading of many labels. Because most of the food that we eat found in the typical grocery stores of today contain these kinds of refined sugars you must be choosy with your food and do some homework.
Alcohol: Please note that although alcohol in a general needs to be eliminated not all alcoholic cocktails are bad for you. More than likely at some point during your workout program or diet plan you will feel it to be necessary to have a drink, if you do so just make sure it’s the right kind of drink. When speaking about eliminating alcohol from your diet this is in a general sense because alcohol carries empty calories just like processed sugars. The raw numbers tell the tale when you consider the fact that alcohol carries about 7 calories per gram you can begin to see why it should be avoided entirely.
Alcohol also works against your body by dehydrating you which can slow down the recovery process and compromise growth of your muscles. It also is not a stimulant as many people believe it to be but a depressant therefore having the effect of slowing down your metabolism which allows your body work slower and less efficiently. To sum it up drinking alcoholic beverages inhibits your body to grow muscle and promotes body fat- really the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish with your workout routines.
Caffeine: The promotion of eliminating caffeine from someone’s diet seems to always be a touchy subject. Most people seem to be able to get rid of caffeine but never coffee, so lets leave coffee on the table for now and focus on all other caffeinated drinks. Why caffeine needs to be eliminated and to not get too technical is because caffeine in high doses can actually hinder muscle mass growth. This reason alone should be enough to eliminate it from your diet but there is also a secondary reason. Caffeine for many people keeps them up at night and therefore allows them to sleep less. A good nights sleep is essential for your body to recover, muscle tissue to grow, and for you to be able to wake up the next day and continue on your weight loss journey.
Get Rid Of Anything With A Butt: Back in the good old days meat as a source of protein was good quality and lean as well as good for your body. Today though meat is very different and not beneficial. We happen to live in a society where the large majority of the meat that is available to us has been processed with ingredients such as hormones, chemicals, and antibiotics rendering our meat nutritiously useless. To hear that meat as a source of protein is no longer a route to take amay sound like bad news to many carnivores out there. However the facts are the facts and in today’s society some of the best sources of protein come from vegetarian sources like nuts, tofu, and beans.
Gluten: Eliminating gluten from your diet will result in a diet that is healthier and one that lends itself to receiving the benefits from exercise and eating right. Similar to many other ingredients in our food today gluten does not occur naturally in the world but was created in a lab to increase the taste and texture of many foods as well as increase profitability. For those that don’t know, gluten is a protein that actually comes from grain and seems to show up in just as many of our food products as does high fructose corn syrup. Why gluten is named what it is is because it comes from the Latin word for glue. Gluten does have a gluing effect to the products that contain it allowing our breads to be softer and more moist.
When considering what a healthy nutritious diet would contain you probably would never add glue to that diet. So why on earth would you eat foods that contain a main ingredient whose name is derived from the Latin word glue? The simple answer is you wouldn’t. There are millions of people out there that are forced to cut gluten from their diets because they are allergic to it, yet for everyone else you would be wise to follow that same course. Finding foods that do not contain gluten is not too difficult, but if you need a little help select foods that contain millet, amaranth, quinoa, or oats and you will be just fine.
When a little bit of time is taken to carefully examine one’s choices of foods and ingredients that are in those foods you will quickly begin to see what has been keeping you from reaching your fitness and weight-loss goals. By eliminating the bad and only working with the good you allow your body to become efficient at building muscle and effective at burning fat. When a diet full of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains is delivered to your body you will be providing it with the high quality energy and fuel it needs to bring you the results that you have been searching for.
Dumping foods and ingredients that harm your body will go a long way in helping you maximize the results of your work out routines and dieting programs. An exercise program that incorporates healthy eating with intense exercise is P90X by Tony Horton.