SIMPLE NUTRITION

What are your top 5 rules for your diet?

Nutrition is a very personal journey, and finding your perfect diet requires personal experimentation and life long adjustments as your body changes.

Having said that, there are a few basic rules that I personally believe apply to almost everyone:

1. Eat when you’re hungry and stop before you’re full: learn to listen to your body’s hunger cues and avoid doing anything other than eating at meal times. Focus on enjoying your food and notice how the foods you choose make you feel.

2. Focus on nutrient rich foods that are high in vitamins: a burger might have the same number of calories and grams of protein as an equivalent portion of lentils or beans... but they look very different when you look at the vitamin and mineral content. No harm in taking a multivitamin, but don’t rely on it to fix a low quality diet.

3. Choose whole ingredients: wherever possible, choose foods that don’t have an ingredient label. Preparing your meals yourself reduces additives and chemicals you don’t want in your food.

4. Don’t be drastic - unless you have a medical reason, don’t leave out carbs or proteins or fats. All three play vital roles in the body and none of them are “bad”. The proportions will depend on your preferences and metabolism, but all are important.

   1. Protein: the building block for your muscles, immune system and much more, aim for 2g per kilo of lean body weight every day (E.g. 140g per day if you way 70kg)

   2. Carbs: your energy source and the main resource for your movement practice. They fuel and fill your muscles and make you feel good. Choose slow carbs (potatoes and whole grain) over fast carbs (pasta and bread) where possible.

   3. Fats: many vitamins are fat soluble, so you need fats to digest them and to keep your gut working properly.

5. Make meals you enjoy: there’s no point following a diet that makes you miserable because it won’t be sustainable in the long run. Take the time to learn to cook meals you love out of healthy ingredients: get creative and take the time to do your research and learn how to do it well: we eat thousands of times a year, a hundred thousand times in a lifetime: it’s pretty important to find a way to enjoy those meals.