When it comes to reaching peak performance, eating well often gets neglected. A nutritious diet provides your body with all of the fuel it needs for performance and recovery while protecting against chronic diseases or conditions.
Attaining optimal nutrition can be challenging. Between time constraints, misinformation and hectic lifestyles, making sure your body receives everything it needs can often become challenging.
No matter your sport of choice or fitness goals, these nutritional hacks will help improve your diet.
1. Drink more water. Water is a fantastic beverage to stay hydrated and provide essential nutrients needed for performance enhancement, but plain water may become monotonous after prolonged consumption. To add some spice to it without increasing calories or spending money, try flavoring your water with cucumber slices, lime wedges, frozen berries or lemon juice to add flair without additional sugar or calories being consumed.
2. Include fruits and vegetables in your daily diet. Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins and minerals for muscle, immune system and overall well-being health benefits. To get maximum value from this healthy food group, select various colors of produce; aim to consume at least five servings each day (roughly the size of a baseball).
3. Eat lean proteins and whole grains.
Proteins are an integral component of muscle-building and recovery from intense training sessions, as well as helping maintain optimal body composition. They can be found in various foods including fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, seeds and legumes – when selecting lean proteins over red meat where possible (chicken, turkey, pork and fish tend to contain lower fat content). For energy and recovery support during each workout session include whole grain carbohydrates in daily meal planning as a pillar.
4. Get enough rest.
Sleep deprivation can have serious repercussions for both physical and mental wellbeing; lack of quality rest may result in low energy, reduced concentration and weight gain – so be sure you’re getting enough quality rest each night.
5. Include nutritious fats into your meals. Fat is an integral component of a balanced diet and should be seen as essential in aiding performance, energy absorption and vitamin absorption (such as A,D &E absorption). Unfortunately, some may think avoiding fat will help them shed excess pounds but this couldn’t be further from the truth!
Implementing simple nutrition hacks into your everyday routine can have a dramatic impact on both fitness and performance. For expert nutrition advice, contact us and arrange for a free 10-minute exploratory call with our nutrition coach – they’ll help develop a tailored plan suited specifically to your lifestyle, goals and preferences.