Nutrition: Getting Started
How to get started with nutrition….
There is endless amounts of information all over the internet about eating for you body type, allergies, macros or only eating things created 15000 years ago. It can get confusing. And leaves us wondering…where do you even begin?
Awareness: You have to figure out what you are consuming and how it makes you feel. You can’t know what to change if you don’t know what you are currently consuming. However you would like to track and get a good idea of the food you are consuming is up to you. Taking pictures, writing it down, or best case would be using technology. There are many apps out there that can give you a solid approximation. Myfitnesspal, RP Diet app, or Macrofactor are a few good ones to get your started.
Goal: Whether you are trying to lose weight for an event, gain muscle to have self confidence, feel great on a daily basis or optimize performance you can give your nutrition some direction by creating goals. They don’t have to be something that appears to be spectacular they just have to be important to you. That way, you can build a plan around something that is personal & meaningful.
Plan: Once you have established awareness and some goals, you will now have a couple ingredients that can help you build a plan! If you discovered you are eating 30 grams of protein a day and 1200 calories per day as a 150 pound male and you want to put on muscle…then your plan is probably going to start with having you eating more food. A caloric surplus would be ideal, but if you have been in a deficit for so (too) long it might just be good enough to eat to maintain the weight that you have. Once you are comfortable with an established plan, you can get better. The best idea with a plan is to do just a little better - 1% per day max. Once the starting point feels easy, do a little bit more. Keep going until you have done a lot better over time (months/years)
Optimize: You have this plan and you are doing better with it. Potentially your goals have changed or maybe you haven’t been tracking for a while. You can optimize the process by checking in with awareness and making sure everything is on track. You will want to make sure that your goals are still your currently goals and that your plan is going smoothly. Have things that are important to you as check ins that can easily help you optimize. If you really care about what you look like then make sure to have pictures. If you want to lift heavier weights, then track some important lifts. Adjust and optimize with check ins and measurable metrics.
Nutrition can be an overwhelming thing but using these principles can help you keep it simple. You might look at the person with the six pack or toned muscles and think it’s always been easy for them. But listen to their story sometime - there will always be some kind awareness, goals, plans & practice behind it all. They have most definitely implemented some (if not all) of these things and maybe one more ingredient. Time!
Coach Logan & Abby discuss some foundations of nutrition. Watch to learn more!
