Supplementation

Supplementation is always debated and thought to be unnecessary with a healthy, balanced diet, what's your opinion on supplementation?

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Too much fruit?

Fruits are full of essential nutrients like most whole foods are, but is it possible to eat too much fruit?
Yes, you can eat too much fruit and have unwanted weight gains, but its pretty hard to over-eat with unprocessed fruits, its when you start discarding the skin and drinking fruit juices, that's when you will notice your clothes aren't as baggy as before.

Some people say fruits have "natural sugars" and that you cant gain weight from these sugars, but the truth is these sugars would be even worse than eating candy if it wasn't for the quality of the vitamins and minerals fruits, when fruits are juiced or peeled you lose all these great nutrients and are left with a sweet tasting sugar called fructose, which is released quickly and if it isn't used, it is then converted to fat, when you eat fruit whole the fiber and nutrients keep you feeling fuller for longer and help to slowly release the sugars, meaning you wont have a sugar high, then weight gain, you will have a steadier release and be able to use the energy.

Fruit has too many great nutrients to ignore, I would recommend eating fruit whole as a snack or an hour or two before a workout, complex carbohydrates are also important in a healthy diet.

A lot of foods can be overeaten, .just remember to take everything in moderation.

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Super Foods

There are many claims that certain "Super Foods" can make you lose ridiculous amounts of weight in a short amount of time, but the truth is that no food can do that, but they can aid in weight loss slightly and every bit counts because a lot of small things make a big difference over time.

Some of my favourite "Super Foods" are Cinnamon, Curry or Turmeric, Tea and Cruciferous Vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower. There are many real benefits of these spices and foods and the best thing is they can be found easily in a supermarket unlike other "Super Food" scams where the product has to be imported from some remote area where the food is grown, making it less accessible and much more costly, something from your spice rack could be much more beneficial to your health.

The Benefits of these foods are:
Cinnamon: Lowers LDL cholesterol, anti-inflammatory, increases metabolism, regulates blood sugar and insulin which reduces blood sugar spikes and reduces weight gain.

Curry/Turmeric: Helps in prevention of cancer, anti-inflammatory, aids in fat metabolism, naturally detoxifies the liver and is used in Chinese medicine as an anti-depressant.

Tea's: Increases metabolic rate, boosts mental alertness, boosts immune system, reduces stress, aids in weight loss, the list is almost endless for the benefits of drinking tea.

Cruciferous Vegetables: Lowers risk of cancer, protects the body against harmful molecules which can increase weight gain, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and they contain alot of vitamins and minerals.

Remember that spending money on expensive foods that claim make you lose weight is a waste of time and money, one food wont make very much difference, the best way to lose weight and stay healthy is to add up all the small things on top of a descent amount of exercise and you will be on your way to a long, healthy life.

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Counting Calories

Have you ever noticed on the back of packaged foods that there is a "nutritional information" section where there is a lot of sometimes confusing information about the food you are about to eat, it usually has a kJ/Calorie count for how much energy is in the food, then a list of which nutrients the calories come from, such as Proteins and the different types of Carbohydrates and Fats. A lot of the time people don't realise what they are eating and producers usually don't want them to.

It can be difficult to understand this information ,but once learned it can be very useful when you can apply it to a personal goal. The average adult Total Daily Intake is 8700kJ or 2078 Calories(1 Calorie = 4.184kJ), but this is only a vague outline for the majority of adults, it doesn't take into consideration, your body composition, activity levels or anything that expends above average energy, just add up the kJ's or Calories for how many servings you have and for the meals you have during the day, check the labels before you start cooking, but don't go over board you only need a rough estimation, the body works in mysterious ways and you will never get it completely right or you will go mad trying to, there are some sites I can direct you to where you can get an estimation of your Total Daily Intake, comment if wanted. This is another case of quality not quantity, you can add up the calories, but if you aren't getting the right ratio of nutrients and you are just eating junk food, you will find that you aren't going to be very healthy. Good luck with your goals.

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The right diet

There is no such thing as a perfect diet, our body and lifestyles are constantly changing so that means our diet has to change with it or else we get deficiencies or unwanted weight gain, what we eat has to be constantly tweaked to suit our activity levels, if you have any questions on whether you are eating right for your activity level and lifestyle feel free to ask away.

Fueling your body

"You only get out what you put in" is a great phrase that relates to dieting and the benefits your body gets out of what you "put into" it. Your body is like a car, if you take care of it and pump it full of high end fuel and keep it well oiled and serviced regularly your vehicle will perform much more efficiently and you will get more mileage from it, ill stop with the metaphor now, but what I'm trying to say is that if you don't "fuel" your body well, you are not going to perform to the best of your ability and improve as fast as if you were optimally nourished.