Taking Control of Your Diet

Of all the things people do as they attempt to improve their fitness and begin strength training, changing their diet is one that proves to be a bigger struggle than others. Let’s face it – we’re inundated with information about diet and nutrition. Who can make sense of it? You’re constantly hearing nutrition advice that contradicts what you were told 6 months to a year ago. In one breath, you hear that eating eggs is as bad as smoking a non-filtered Camel cigarette. In the next breath, you hear that you should be eating three or four eggs a day for optimal health. Then there’s the fad diets that take you to all kinds of extremes – all promising to cure what ails you and provide extra years of vitality to your life. While it’s easy to get overwhelmed and fed up (no pun intended), I hope to provide you with some tools to improve your diet and wade through the nonsense out there concerning nutrition.

Diets That Come & Go

I’ve tried different diets throughout my life, always looking for better performance and improved health and longevity. I’ve seen many fads come and go, and I can say most of them looked better going than they did coming. There’s the vegetarian diet that eliminates meat, and then there’s the vegan diet that eliminates all animal products whatsoever. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s the paleo diet, which contains no dairy, grains or legumes, and then there’s the keto and carnivore diets, which are primarily meat-based diets. After many years of experimentation, I have learned that good old-fashioned moderation is best and to avoid extremes. Humans all have the same basic biology, so there are some standard truths about nutrition that we can all benefit from. We are all made to digest the macronutrients protein, carbohydrates and fat, and there are no “good” or “bad” foods – only foods made up of some ratio or another of those three macronutrients. We tend to do best when our meals are made up of these elements in a balanced ratio. Dr. Barry Sears, who developed the “Zone” diet, does a very good job of explaining how consuming your meals with the proper macronutrient ratios helps to balance your hormones and enable your body to function optimally. Once you gain an understanding of this information, it will help to eliminate the confusion about nutrition that is plaguing our society. Much of this information on the “Zone” diet – in fact, maybe all of it – can be accessed readily on the internet.

Nutrition & Fitness

Make no mistake about it – nutrition is a touchy subject, and there’s not “one right plan” for absolutely everybody. Adherence or compliance is a big part of what makes a diet effective. There are, however, principles and facts of biology that must be observed when designing a sound approach to managing your diet for both performance and health. In general, avoid extremes that tell you to eliminate entire food groups, unless of course you have some personal health reason why you must do so. Learn about how your body responds hormonally, primarily with regard to insulin and glucagon, when you consume protein, carbohydrates, and fat. “The Zone”, authored by Dr. Barry Sears is an easy source to access this information. Then consistently apply this information in your daily life. If you’re lucky, you have 3 to 4 chances a day to make good choices as to what you will eat. Making better choices more often than not will benefit you not just in reaching your strength training goals, but also by improving your overall health. In closing: learn, make a plan, tweak it as needed and adhere to it consistently. It will make all the difference in meeting your fitness goals.