How to eat for an athletic body, my favourite core exercises and an inspirational transformation.
Eating for a lean, athletic body whilst fuelling performance: a five step plan.
We know that our diet (as in the food that we consume, often we read diet and think weight loss), needs to contain lots of different nutrients, whilst helping fuel our activities, provide enjoyment whilst also ensure we’re not over eating.
To do this, here are some key principles which will help you keep your diet effective and healthy. If it’s started slipping, just try and return to this. Treats are important, but should be conscious and enjoyed, and also remember we can often tweak meals into much healthier versions, which will be the topic of the next blog.
So here are the main things to focus on for an athletic body and great performance.
Consume 20-30g Protein every 3-4 hours.
Protein is the most satiating nutrient and helps maintain and grow muscle mass, which supports recovery. This goal will force you to eat more nutritious meals, and makes it easier to stay away from snacking. Expect better muscle definition and more consistent energy levels by doing this.
Here are some example of foods containing this amount of protein, which can obviously be mixed and matched.
Keep sugar for fuelling, fruit or treats.
Sugar can be very useful for pre and post exercise, to fill and refill glycogen (energy) stores. It also is in a lot of tasty things, however I’d really suggest saving your treats for when it’s conscious and fully enjoyed. Cut out the mid afternoon office snack, the service station grab and the in front of TV mindless ones.
Don’t worry too much about fruit sugars, as the health benefits will outweigh the sugar calories, but perhaps aim for no more than 3 portions per day. Alcohol wise that would very much come under a treat, and is much harder for our bodies to process than normal sugar.
How often should you have treats depends on how important it is for you to be lean, and this is personal and also may change depending on your goals. However to take care of our health we need to strike a balance with sugar.
Make sure to drink 2-4L water per day
We know our bodies run much better when hydrated, and performance can fall off a cliff with just 2% loss of Bodyweight from dehydration. It helps keeps us full, energised and prepared to exercise to our full capacity.
My tip here if you’re not at that quantity yet, is to buy a 2L bottle of water and drink exclusively from that for the day, so you can track your progress and ensure you get it in. When exercising we also need to replace those fluids on top, especially in hot / humid conditions.
Track calories or set yourself a weekly menu.
If looking to get really lean, or to work on prioritising tracking calories up until your goal is achieved. For this MyFitnessPal is my personal favourite, however we do need to be careful to focus on prioritising healthy food over the numbers. Also remember it’s pretty much impossible to be completely accurate, so give yourself a small amount wiggle room and listen to your body too. Tracking is great for troubleshooting where our diets aren’t falling down, and also recognising when we’ve had enough food and by being more conscious.
However it is time consuming, and I understand for some people it’s a real turn off, and sometimes can become stressful.
The other thing I recommend is setting yourself a weekly menu, where you choose your meal options for the week, and then just choose on the day. This is great for becoming more conscious, planning in advance and makes life easier in regards to food shopping and meal prep. You can relax in the knowledge that if you’re keeping to your plan then you’re on the right track.
For the plan, set 3-4 breakfasts, 3-4 lunches and 5-6 dinners, plus 3-5 snack or light meal options.
Every time you eat, consume fruit and / or vegetables
Like water, we know it’s fundamental, so we just need to plan to do it. Here are some tips to achieve this, but the main one is to where possible make your own food, but when eating out keep to this principle.
Breakfast - Add fruit to porridge or toast, tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms are east to add to eggs and cooked breakfasts.
Snacks - Fruit is always super convenient due to it coming in it’s own protective case. Carrot sticks and peppers are tasty raw, and it’s easy to add lettuce to a sandwich. Avocado on toast is a favourite, as are soups, plus smoothies post exercise.
Lunch - I love frozen vegetables for making quick east lunches, and will always keep some mixed veg, stir fry and soffrito in the freezer. Consider a side salad or soup too. Also pomegranate, strawberries and orange can all liven up a salad.
Dinner - The easiest one to get the vegetables in, but try some new ones too. The more colours we can get in our diet the better, so try and add multiple and test some new recipes.
Keep focusing on these five things and you’ll be in a great place physically, and I’d expect improvements mentally too. It’s all very simple, it’s just about doing it consistently, which does take some time and commitment, but when it’s for our health and mood, it’s well worth it.
My Top three core exercises
Spoiler: Hanging leg raises, Dish and Side Plank Raises.
At the moment these are my top three, especially as the compliment each other well.
Hanging Leg Raises - great for hip flexors and using the core drawing knees to chest
Dish - Great for stomach muscles whilst holding an extended position, and can be made harder by adding a rock.
Side Plank Raises - Great for the side Abs, especially through controlled movement.
Try adding these into most sessions, whether it’s a warm up, as part of a circuit or as a finisher.
The good news corner.
I used to do this is lockdown, and feel with it being winter perhaps it should come back in?
I often go back to this, to feel grateful what I have and to be inspired as a coach. It just shows what can be achieved with the right determination, patience and support.
Thanks, please do share the blog with friends and questions are always welcome! Will