INTRODUCTION

Eat Right – Play Right

Your nutritional needs are important to note if you intend to embark on an exercise program. It’s easy to say, but a little more tricky to put into practice. Needless to say, no exercise routine in the world can be of real help and be as beneficial as it could be if you continue to indulge in a high-fat diet without a second thought.

Take the time to look at your eating habits. Take a week or ten days to note everything you eat, even when you snack; be truthful, this is for your benefit after all. If you do it right, in the end, you’ll have a pretty good peek into your eating habits, what you eat, and when you eat. Personally, I’m a breakfast skipper. I’ve been doing that for longer than I care to remember; it became a norm for me. Taking a brutal look at what I do, opened my eyes! It became a very routine thing and I began to tell myself I didn’t need breakfast. Perhaps it was laziness, or perhaps bad time management – my guess; it was both!

The time you take to do this will be time well spent, because from here you can really start to build a worthwhile and effective plan for yourself. One major problem I had, and I certainly didn’t think of it as such, was that I prepared meals that were far too big for me. A large plate piled high with anything and everything I fancied, and I was fooling myself that this was satisfying me. Nope, not at all. It was partially greed, and partially poor management which in turn was making my body cry out for help. Missing breakfast on a regular basis was the onset of that.

Most of us could do with making a few changes in our lives, and I think it’s always good to try. Having said that, I’m a believer in doing things in a sensible and moderate way that suits you – we are all different. Make your changes a realistic and gradual one, this will give your mind and body a chance to adapt and acclimatise. That way, it’s easier to stick to your regime.

Eating right is one of the first things to pay attention to, which in turn will make a difference in the way you feel – alongside your exercising. High-performance engines need high-quality fuel, the cleaner and purer the fuel, the higher the power output. We are no different in that respect.

I don’t hold much for supplements, except maybe the odd nutrition bar when you’re peckish, or shortly before exercising. If it works for you, then go ahead. For the rest, well, anything that has to be unnaturally fed into your system, is more likely something you can naturally do without. You already have everything you need, if you pay attention to yourself and do things sensibly.

So as I said, make your changes realistic and gradual – across exercising and nutrition alike. Keep them manageable. Keep your food intake as balanced as you can, you don’t want too much of any one thing or another, and exercise often. Don’t be taken in by the concept of working out till you drop either. Start out with brief spells, 5 or 10 minutes a day is fine. It’s a common mistake that many make – exercising too hard or for too long. That has the potential to do you more harm than good to begin with.

All in all, when you do things right, (and by right, I mean in a way that suits you), you will quickly find that you’re more alert, energetic, and you’ll even sleep better. Now we could all do with better sleep, right?

So set yourself some sensible goals when you start your exercise regime. A goal you can achieve. Make it simple, this will be your base state, and everything else can be built on from there. Don’t, as I used to, (and still do at times), miss out on breakfast; it’s more important than you think.

See you in Part 2.