1. Eat Well, Live Well
Making sure that you’re getting the right amount of goodness is essential to living a healthy lifestyle, this starts with the food you eat. Having a lack of fruit and vegetables in your diet can lead to your microbiome changing which can cause a gain in body fat percentage and a reduction in your athletic performance.
Getting the right amount of fruit and vegetables helps to improve your gut health by sustaining good bacterial colonies. They’re also great for a light pre workout snack for any additional carbs you might be lacking.
Keep in mind that while eating fruit and vegetables is great, there is no ‘perfect food’ that would give you all the nutritional benefits you need by itself. Getting a good range of foods that are distributed well throughout the day ensures your body gets all the nutrients it needs.
2. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
Sometimes a majorly overlooked factor is the importance of adequate water intake, making sure your water levels are up not only helps to keep performance as high as possible but also helps to enable that nutrients arrive at working cells, increases the efficiency of removing metabolic waste products from those cells, sustains your sweat rate, and helps to keep your heart stroke at a steady volume. If this doesn’t make you fill your bottle up, I don’t know what will!
3. The Scales Don’t Always Tell The Whole Story
The main reason why the scales can’t always be trusted 100% of the time is down to the fact that it doesn’t consider all of your body’s components, it’s not about how much you weigh but what makes up that weight. A number on a scale can’t determine what is muscle, water, or anything else. (Unless you have a really fancy one!) So even if the number is still the same on the scale but you’ve been working hard and eating right, then it’s guaranteed that you’re looking better, performing better, and becoming healthier. It’s just a matter of time before that number does start to drop.
4. Eating For Energy & Performance
Let’s put it this way, you wouldn’t be able to drive a car if it had no fuel inside it. If you’re someone who post-loads their carbs after any form of exercise, you should consider what consequences you might be suffering from doing so as potential performance and health factors can be affected.
Another factor that can kill your progress and effort is eating at infrequent times day to day. Meal skipping and eating in patterns that don’t contribute to your energy requirements at the right times in the day can lead to an increase in body fat levels, lower your lean body mass and increase the risk of cardiometabolic problems.
5. Building Muscle Is More Than Just Working Out
There are numerous factors that come into play when you’re trying to build some serious muscle. These include, getting adequate amounts of protein at the right amounts and times, keeping a good energy balanced state, adding more resistance to work your muscles, and recovering correctly.
Make sure you keep all of these things in mind as you move forward with your fitness journey, to get maximum results requires dedication and discipline. And remember that taking care of your body is one of, if not the, smartest investments you can make.
