Ditch the fad diet

After the fireworks have died down usually the only thing we have left of our New Year celebrations is a bunch of resolutions, the most popular of which is generally to make a change in lifestyle.

When making the plan to achieve this resolution you need to make sure you touch on three different areas; nutrition, exercise and, my personal favourite, rest. They are all crucial to your well being and just making changes in one and ignoring the others is often not enough.

You will notice the first item I mentioned was nutrition. The reason why this is first, and most important, is because it forms the building blocks for all your other lifestyle changes. While everyone’s favourite trick is to stop eating or give up all of one type of food, like carbs, it is not something you can maintain.

There is little point in cutting everything out of your diet only to find you are too weak to exercise or tackle your day. The key to a diet that you can stick to is planning ahead and making sure it is balanced.

Sit down with a calorie book and look at how much you are currently eating and how much you should be eating to reach your goal. Then determine how much you need to consume of each type of food each day so your diet is still balanced.

Carbohydrates break down in the digestive process creating glucose, which provide our bodies with energy. There can range from your leafy greens right through to grains.

Protein is the building blocks for our body and is important for growth and hormone production. This can include your lean red meats and chicken, dairy, eggs and fish.

Good fats are an essential nutrient which the body cannot produce. They support several of our systems such as cardiovascular, immune, reproductive and nervous systems.

As a general rule if you find you are getting sluggish straight after your meal means too much protein and if you find you are sleepy an hour or so after your meal you are having too many carbs.

info: Paul Peroy is a member of the Lifestlye Fitness team. For more visit
www.lifestylefit.com.au