Many of us cringe when it comes to following our trainers’ guidance on workout sessions and strict diet plans. At the same time, we are easily influenced by some wrong information due to commercials by food companies that promote food with “healthy” tags. In reality, these food are harmful and not recommended by personal trainers. Get insight into trainers’ diet and eating philosophy as we list down some of the valuable healthy food habits for you.
Packaged bars
Personal trainers avoid processed and packaged energy bars as they are commonly packed with a high amount of sugar and a long list of unfamiliar ingredients. Based on their experience, the packaged bar always leave them feeling unsatisfied and craving for more due to processed ingredients.
Avoid packaged foods with ingredients that you don’t recognise
If a food item has ingredients you don’t recognise or can’t pronounce, you probably shouldn’t eat it.
Everyone has to understand that bread, crackers, croutons, things like that, that’s sugar. As soon as it’s in your system, it processes straight to sugar then straight to fat. Always steer clear of processed food because they create inflammation in the body and increase the risk of disease.
If you can’t pronounce it that probably means the material has been part of the human diet for a minute period of time in terms of the human evolutionary or developmental process. Using many of these substances is a grand experiment that many people would prefer not subjecting themselves or their children to. Sometimes eating food that is free of chemicals is impossible. Many common elements that are vital to good health and continued living have some of the hardest-to-pronounce names.
Tongue-twisters like menatetrenone, ergocalciferol, and cyanocobalamin are all the chemical names of vitamins. Multi-syllabic monsters like dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, docosatetraenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid all sound like killers but are really unsaturated fatty acids that are essential to good health. Science and chemistry are rarely as cut and dried as ‘if you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it.
Alcohol
If you want your body to operate optimally and look fantastic and younger, avoid alcohol as advised by personal trainers.
With so many choices of drinks available, we tend to sway over to non-healthy drinks. Your body would be perfectly content if you drank nothing but water. You would get all the fluid you need, and you would get all of your nutrients from food. As guidance, here is a pitcher filled with a recommendation from the Beverage Guidance Panel. The exact number of ounces isn’t what’s important these are given for a typical person taking in 2,200 calories a day. What matters are the proportions? Here’s one way the Panel suggests getting less than 10 percent of daily calories from beverages:
- At least half of your daily fluid should come from water. For a person who needs 12 cups of fluid a day, that would mean six cups of water. More is fine up to 100% of your daily beverage needs.
- About one-third (or about three to four cups) can come from unsweetened coffee or tea. If you flavor your coffee or tea with a lot of sugar, cream, or whole milk, then drinking less would help manage weight. If you take a pass on coffee or tea, choose water instead.
- Low-fat milk can make up another 20 percent, or about two 8-ounce glasses. Less is fine, just make sure you get your calcium from another source.
- A small glass (4 ounces) of 100% fruit juice, and no more than 1 to 2 alcoholic drinks for men or no more than 1 for women.
- Ideally, no “diet” drinks made with artificial sweeteners, but up to 1 to 2 glasses (8 to 16 ounces) a day (this is adapted from the Beverage Guidance Panel’s original recommendation of up to 32 ounces per day).
- NO drinks sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, but up to a maximum of 8 ounces.
Personal trainers have a busy daily routine where they work with about 10 people or more a day, with short breaks between clients. It would be easy for them to step outside the gym and grab a slice of pizza or some fast food. But they don’t. Many prepare their snacks the night before and they never include the items on the above list. Just like our 60-Day Metabolic Health Programme, it is all about planning!
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Photo Credits: EAMart, Harvard and LabelCalc.com
Melissa Fann
