I’ll cut straight to the punch. 1. Quality 2. Timing
I should know a thing or two about this. I spend the first half of my life as a massively overweight kid. I tried all sorts of tricks and different diets. It took me a long time to realize that are just two simple things you need to get a handle on to get complete control of your diet.
Understanding these two simple concepts gives you the intellectual ammo you need to start being aware of the quality of your food choices and the timing around when you eat them.
It’s heck of a lot easier to just focus on these simple guidelines than some other elaborate diet. In fact, if you are following any other diet, just add in these concepts and you’ll be sure to get better results.
1. Quality is all about the nutrient quality of the food you eat. Is it unprocessed? Is it organic? Is it fresh? Is it ripe? There is a lot to be said for quality. You can consume an apple as a mashed up apple that has been sitting in a del monte can on a shelf for years in some warehouse until it makes it to your supermarket and finally to your mouth…..or you can enjoy a fresh, ripe and crisp apple plucked straight from a tree.
There is a difference in the quality of nutrition you get from different food choices. Eating 500 calories worth of pizza is not the same as eating 500 calories worth of fresh greens, avacado and tofu or beans. Even if the “labels” look the same, use your common sense and think about what your body will have to do to digest that food.
In accounting, you look at assets and liabilities, revenue and expenses to measure the health of a business. When you look at food, just don’t think about what it puts into you, think about what your body will have to do (“spend”) to make those nutrients available to every cell in your being.
Focus on quality nutrition. There is no price too high to pay to feed yourself the highest quality food. I hear lots of people complain that organic food costs too much, and in the next breath blow $50 on an overpriced bottle of wine with a dinner. You body deserves the best and most high quality food around.
2. Timing is critical. Eating 500 calories after cycling a century is not the same as eating 500 calories when you are awake at 2am wasting time using the computing instead of going asleep. Your body has a rhythm and digestive fires need a break.
Eating a burger and fries in the middle of a sedentary workday is not the same as eating a high calorie smoothie before a big day of snowboarding.
It is time for common sense.
People get fixed into eating the same things and the same amounts (often too much) regardless of their situation or time. Feed your body what it needs, when it needs it. Don’t feed it what YOU want.
Perhaps the single biggest change people can make to their regarding timing is to limit the size of their final meal in the evening. In many cultures, the evening meal is small, consisting of a few fruits, breads, salads, etc. The midday meals were also lighter unless the daytime was busy with physical activity.
Today, we eat for convenience, which means a skipped breakfast (coffee is the most popular breakfast in the USA…how sad), a quick fast food lunch of pizza or a burger and an oversized dinner to feed a body that has been so starved of real nutrition during the day.
Today I started my day with a large glass of water mixed with dried greens. I ate 1/4 of a large pineapple midmorning and a vegan sandwich with lots of veggies for lunch. I had another 1/4 pineapple for afternoon snack.
After work I did a very intense 90 minute yoga practice, and am now enjoying a smoothie made with 3 celery stalks (great for replenishing electrolytes) and more powedered greens blended in my vita-mix. My dinner will probably be a soup of some sort. Something light. If I don’t wake up in the morning and feel a little hungry, I know I overate at dinner. I burned a lot of calories in my yoga practice but I still am getting more than what I need because I have timed my nutrition appropriately and am getting high quality and unprocessed nutrients in my body.
This is typical of my average day. Some days I fall off the bandwagon and have a large plate of Chinese food for lunch, in general I try to keep my meals as high quality as possible, and timed appropriately.
Try focusing on quality and timing a bit more during your day and your bound to make better choices. Remember that the goal is not to get it perfect. The goal is to simply make 1-2 changes that stick and move you in a more positive direction. Even a 1% shift in course over the long term will translate to massive positive change over the long term.
Namaste.
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Don’t forget the endurance crowd. 1. Quality 2. Timing and 3. QUANTITY!!!
ah yes…..quantity…. I’ve found that quality matters more, you can get by on far less if you have high quality nutrition. This was a philosophy Lance used…..if it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me
yes but I’m sure Lance would admit a day in the Tour equates to more than a few freshly plucked apples.
something like 47 (assuming they are large)
how you like them apples?
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/armstrong.html
Hi Ravi, it’s 12:30am as I read your blog. I had to laugh(at myself) when I read about timing. As I’m reading I’m eating a bowel of cereal, I’m not even hungry. For sure I should be sleeping. Reading your blog is 100% better than playing the video game I usually would be playing at this time though.