Introduction to Nutrition

If you don't know where to start when it comes to eating healthy, you've arrived at the right place!

Warning: this post is longer than the ones to follow but stick with me as there’s an abundance of important information that you can immediately apply as well as key terms you’ll want to know for future posts.

The way in which you eat – referred to as your ‘nutrition’ – is a foundational pillar to health and wellness. In fact, your nutrition could arguably have the GREATEST influence on your health, as poor eating has been associated with many chronic illnesses that would take multiple pages to list but include conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and the development of many cancers. Unfortunately, a large number of individuals aren’t concerned about how they eat whereas others tend to subscribe to the multitude of inaccurate narratives claiming the ‘proper’ way to eat. The significant variations in what is being promoted leaves people with their head spinning in confusion.

In this post, I will clear up this confusion by sharing easy and concise ways to develop a healthy eating lifestyle that suits your needs and desires. As you’ll soon learn, not only can eating healthy be incredibly easy, but it can also be something you enjoy. That’s right, you CAN take pleasure in eating healthy! A healthy meal does NOT have to be a boiled chicken breast, steamed broccoli, and white rice… although it can be if that’s what you enjoy (most don’t).

What type of eating ‘belief’ do I have?

Not vegan, not keto, not carnivore… none of that. Instead, I believe in prioritizing a whole-foods, balanced approach to eating that includes both plants and animals. What do I mean by ‘whole-foods’? A whole-foods diet consists of foods that are minimally processed, minimally refined, and have very few extra ingredients added to them. Ultimately, it entails eating as little as possible from food that is pre-packaged although frozen foods such as vegetables and meat are absolutely fine. Take a look at the ingredient list on the Pop-Tarts box the next time you’re at your local store and you’ll see first-hand what ‘processed’ really means (and please, don’t buy them!). One rule of thumb to live by is the fewer the ingredients that are included, the better!

Timing

Many studies have shown that along with the contents of your meal, the timing in which you eat your meals is also important. The block of time that you are consuming food is called your ‘eating window’. Let’s say you eat breakfast around 8 am and have your last bedtime snack around 8 pm; your eating window for the day would be 12 hours and your ‘fasting window’ would be 12 hours (didn’t even need a calculator for that!). This example assumes you’re not waking up in the middle of the night and eating a snack, which is a problem to be discussed at a future date.

If your goal is weight loss, reducing your eating window and extending your fasting window can be very beneficial. Here are two very simple and easy rules to follow:

-       Wait AT LEAST one hour after waking to eat your first meal of the day.

-       Try to not consume any food beginning two hours before you lay down for bed.

Notice how ‘AT LEAST’ is in all capital letters in the first line. I want to emphasize that this is the minimum amount of time to wait after waking; if you aren’t feeling hungry and your goal is weight loss, do NOT feel the need to eat just because the hour is up. A future post will go into greater detail, but intermittent fasting (IF) has been shown to be very beneficial for weight loss and may even have additional benefits that I will share in a future newsletter. The typical fasting window with IF is 16 hours, meaning you would only have an 8-hour window to eat. I’ve personally found that my body responds best to eating for about 10 hours throughout the day and fasting for 14 hours, although this changes with fluctuations in my daily schedule.

Note: Women *sometimes* have a difficult time with intermittent fasting due to various reasons so they need to be especially careful if they decide to try an extended fasting regimen. If you are female and want to learn more about this, here’s a great resource for you: https://www.livescience.com/intermittent-fasting-for-women

Macronutrients

If you haven’t heard the term ‘macronutrients’ before, it simply refers to carbohydrates, protein, and fat – the three main nutritional requirements our body demands for energy and proper functioning. You’ll sometimes see individuals drastically decrease their intake of a specific macronutrient for the purposes of losing weight or to achieve some other desired health outcome. The two most popular approaches for this are a Ketogenic diet (very low carbohydrate intake) and a low-fat diet.

 While I do believe there may be very rare situations in which these styles of eating can be beneficial for a very select population, this is NOT something I would recommend to the general population. Instead, as part of a whole-foods approach to eating, all three macronutrients are consumed. It is significant to note that there are both good ‘forms’ of getting a certain macronutrient and bad forms. For example, while both french fries and a baked sweet potato are going to provide your body with carbohydrates, I assume you can guess which one is actually going to have a net positive impact on your body.

Here's a quick breakdown of the macronutrients:

#1 Protein is your best friend!

• Aim to consume 0.7 grams per pound you weigh. For me (205 lbs), my goal is 143.5 grams of protein (205 x 0.7). You should attempt to consume 20-40 grams of protein per meal to reach this goal – none of your meals should include less than this! Note: If your goal is to gain muscle, the recommendation goes up to 1 gram per pound of body weight which can be very difficult (although attainable) to do.

#2 Healthy fats are encouraged in moderation

• Processed foods like chips, boxed meals, and margarine are not recommended.

• Nuts, seeds, avocados, and eggs are examples of fats that are highly nutritious.

#3 Carbohydrates are necessary – find the right ones!

• Sugary drinks, processed chips, & candy are a NO

• Sweet potatoes, rice, & fruit are a GO

Pro tip: Check the nutritional label for ‘added sugars’ – you’ll be surprised how much sugar is added to the food you are eating. This is especially prevalent in items like granola bars, yogurt, and juices. Added sugars are incredibly easy to avoid when eating whole-foods because nothing (including sugar) is added!

Alcohol:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the poor health effects that alcohol has on the body. Simply put, it’s not good for any of your organ systems, it’s a form of worthless calories, and it heavily impedes weight loss and muscle gain. This isn’t to say that you can’t enjoy an occasional cocktail but try to keep it to a minimum and steer clear of the sugary beverages such as mixed drinks with soda, wine coolers, and heavy beers (no, this is not a Michelob Ultra commercial).

A future post will dive into the nitty gritty details of what alcohol does to your body as well as tips if you do choose to drink occasionally, which I understand many will.  

Supplements:

There are a few supplements I believe nearly everyone should be taking for overall health; however, nutrition, training and sleep are the meat and potatoes to a healthy lifestyle so supplementation should be considered once you have your foundational health secured and not before.

In the upcoming weeks, I will discuss many supplements and the health benefits they bring to the table so stay tuned for those!

What to Avoid:

Avoid vegetable/seed oils – in recent years, one of the landmark findings in the field of nutrition is the detrimental impacts that vegetable oils have on our health. Vegetable oils, including soybean, sunflower, palm, canola, and corn oils were initially thought to be healthy but it turns out the early studies were wrong. Instead, vegetable and seed oils (including the sprays) are extremely damaging to our body and here’s why. They contain a high amount of omega-6 fatty acids which cause inflammation when consumed regularly; inflammation has a whole host of damaging effects on all tissues in the body. In addition, during the heating and extraction process, seed oils become oxidized which increases their radical activity which also has damaging effects on the body. Therefore, antioxidants are super important to consume – they help ‘neutralize’ these detrimental molecules.

• Try to steer away from vegetable/seed oils (a quick Google search will give you the entire list) - use olive, avocado, and coconut oil instead!

• You’ll be shocked when you look at the nutritional labels on the products you buy – nearly EVERYTHING that is pre-packaged contains some type of seed oil. This makes preparing your meals (containing whole-food ingredients) even more important.

Avoid eating until you’re 100% full – this is MUCH easier said than done. Some of us (myself included) instinctively eat until our plates are clean which often leads to overeating; we either reach the 100% full point or even to where we are overstuffed (I know you’ve been there too). Especially for those that are trying to lose weight, a great skill and yes, it IS a skill, is to learn to ONLY eat until you’re about 75% full and then terminate the mission… regardless of how much is left on your plate. Try to become more cognizant about this and it can be a game changer!

• One way to make this easier is to be present while you’re eating. What I mean by present is put the phone down, turn the TV off, and actually taste the food you are eating during a meal. Make this time sacred!

Avoid thinking in terms of ‘diets’ - in my opinion, the word diet is a terrible term. Going on a ‘diet’ implies that it’s just a temporary break from an eating style that you will return to once you reach some milestone – typically loss of weight. The problem with this is that once you revert from this ‘diet’, you’ll often gain back what you lost and oftentimes even more! This is where the ‘yo-yo’ dieting terminology comes into play because it’s exactly that. Up and down, up and down, up and down, you get the point. A much better approach to your nutrition is a ‘lifestyle’ approach as I call it. You need to develop a style of eating that is healthy and becomes natural to you. If you don’t enjoy the way you eat, it will never happen.

• Personally, I’ve found that once you realize how good you feel after developing a habit of healthful eating, you tend to start enjoying the taste of healthy foods even more, it’s the wildest thing.

For me, keeping things simple, quick, and repeatable is the best way to stay disciplined. My day-to-day eating rarely fluctuates unless I’m doing something social like enjoying a meal out with friends/family. To get a better idea of how this looks for me, my shopping cart typically looks something like this:

Foods to stock up on: (I basically survive on this list)

-       Eggs

-       Egg Whites

-       100% Whole Wheat Bread

-       Oatmeal

-       Whey Protein Powder (I like Optimum Gold Standard)

-       Milk (I like Fairlife but any is fine!)

-       Rotisserie Chicken

-       Ground Turkey

-       Lean (90+%) Ground Beef

-       Pork Chops

-       Canned Chicken/Tuna

-       Salmon

-       Bagged Rice/Quinoa/Grains

-       Cottage Cheese

-       Blueberries, Strawberries, other berries (these are great frozen as well)

-       Bananas

-       Any other whole fruits

-       Fresh or Frozen Vegetables

-       Nut Butter (Peanut, Almond, etc.)

-       Greek Yogurt (check the label for added sugar!)

-       Granola (low sugar added)

-       Protein Bars (20+ grams of protein per bar!)

Pretty simple, wouldn’t you say?

I’m also including what a typical day of eating looks like for me which tends to include three meals and one snack, but I want to make it clear that my current goal is NOT to lose weight. Again, these foods are just what I like to eat as they help me refuel from hard gym sessions and are relatively easy and convenient to make. There are millions of variations that are just as healthy so find something you like and don’t feel like you have to do exactly what I do!

Typical day of eating for me:

Breakfast:

-       3 egg omelette with spinach 

-       1 piece of whole-wheat/sourdough toast + peanut butter

-       Handful of fruit

-       Glass of protein-dense milk

Lunch:

-       Serving of rotisserie chicken with hot sauce/ketchup

-       White rice

-       ½ avocado

-       Roasted broccoli

Dinner:

-       Grilled Pork Chop

-       Sweet potato with cinnamon & natural honey

-       Roasted vegetable OR side salad (large portion)

Snack Options:

-       Greek yogurt w/ granola and berries

-       Oatmeal w/ scoop of protein powder, berries, and nuts or peanut butter.

-       Piece of fruit + protein Shake

*Here are a couple images of what my plate usually looks like!

In the upcoming months, I will be taking a deeper dive into the nitty gritty of healthy eating and give you tips to prioritize eating healthy with limited culinary skills, lack of time, and even help you find healthy foods that you enjoy if you tend to be on the pickier side (yes, I’m talking to the chicken tenders and fries folks here!). Leave a comment on what you’d like to hear more about!

Quote of the week:

“Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments.” – Bethenny Frankel

DISCLAIMER

-       This is NOT Medical advice. Consult your medical professional before starting any supplement, diet regimen, or workout program.