Now lets look at how eating habits can wreck havoc with body transformation success.   Getting nutrition right for most people is the most difficult part to change, training is the easy part, going to the gym or turning up for a personal training appointment and going through the motions for 45-60 minutes and then shutting the door on exercise until the next time is just about doable for even the most unmotivated of people.   But when it comes to food choices it is a different matter and takes the biggest willpower to change, the daily ritual of what goes in your mouth is often down to convenience rather than for function and health.   But there is more to getting the results you want than just cleaning up the diet for changes to happen, an awareness of food groups and ratios of those foods at each meal time is required if a difference into the way you look and feel is to be obtained.    

I have spent many years with different eating guidelines before I discovered how to balance meals out accordingly to control blood sugar responses to each and every meal.   This sounds like rocket science but I can assure you it is not, all it takes is sticking to key guidelines with modifications to suit your body.

The benefits of stable blood sugar levels

A stable blood sugar level is the key to health and well-being.   If you are overweight, suffer pains, lack energy, have poor sleep, stressed or stopped getting results then you can be certain that your eating habits aren't correct for the body you are feeding.   Everything we eat has a blood sugar response and depending on the foods and combinations we eat will determine the stimulation of the amount of hormones we release for either a fat storing mode or fat burning activity within the body.        

Listen to your body

Within minutes and over a few hours after eating a meal your body sends signals to tell you how that meal responded to your body chemistry.   The healthier you are the faster you get the information.   Responses can range from headaches, anxiety, not feeling satisfied, lethargic, feeling full but hungry and craving sweets.   If this happens then a change in foods or combinations needs to be addressed the next time you eat the same meal.  

You look like what & when you eat

I'm going to share with you the difference between eating smart and eating for convenience and how they compare to different body types.   The following examples are from some of my past client's; I am keeping identities secret for professional reasons.  

This first example is a typical days eating from an 8 stone 6lb female with low body fat levels.

Breakfast: Gluten free muesli with raspberries and natural yoghurt

Snack: Poached egg on ½ a slice of toast

Lunch: Home made butternut squash & sweet potato soup    

Snack: Celery and cottage cheese

Dinner: Chicken, root vegetable mash with green vegetables

Fluids: Water throughout the day

Now lets compare that typical day with another female that weighs over 19 stone and has a history of yo-yo dieting.  

Breakfast: Nothing    

Snack: Cereal bar/coffee  

Lunch: Cup a soup    

Snack: Energy drink

Dinner: Lasagne   

Fluids: Coffee or Energy drinks, little or no water

As you compare the two you will see the difference in variety and quality with the 8 stone 6lb woman's diet over the diet of the yo-yo dieter.  

The major mistakes of the yo-yo dieter:

Not drinking enough water

Skipping breakfast

Eating processed foods laden with additives and sugar

Not eating enough protein

Not eating enough daily calories

Not getting variety and essential nutrients  

The list goes on and on, the only way to get the metabolism going in order to lose weight is to eat enough calories but not just any calories.   A frequent balanced approach needs to be adopted from quality sources that will speed up the metabolism and stop the body storing food when it gets it.  

The 8 stone 6lb woman's diet on the other hand is from natural sources with frequent eating habits throughout the day with most of the days consumption of calories eaten at the first half of her day.  

I could give you hundreds of examples like this to show you where people are going wrong with their eating habits.   No matter how much exercise is performed, if you don't get your nutrition right you won't see the results you want!

In this second example you will see the difference between two males that are training for aesthetic reasons, the first example diet is from someone with a body fat percentage below 10% and weighing 158 pounds.   The second example is from a bodybuilder with a 20% body fat percentage reading weighing 180 pounds.   The latter is someone who has trained for many years with very little knowledge of the importance of nutrition before he sought my help, he had also fallen into the more is better trap by doing more sets and exercises per workout in the hope of getting leaner.

The typical days diet of the lean male:

Breakfast: Millet flakes cooked in a little water mixed with natural yoghurt/scoop of whey and grated pear     

Snack: Mixed nuts and apple

Lunch: Chicken legs and steamed vegetables    

Snack: Boiled eggs, spinach, tomatoes, toasted rye bread

Dinner: Chicken liver, onions, mushrooms, sweet potato mash, broccoli

Fluids: Green tea and loads of water  

Now compare that to the bodybuilder with the less than perfect diet with a 20% body fat reading.

Breakfast: Chocolate chip cereals with milk, 2 slices of toast, coffee   

Snack: Pork pie, can of pop

Lunch: Tuna sandwich   

Snack: Mars bar

Dinner: Chicken roast and boiled vegetables

Supper: Cereals or toast

Fluids: Little water and a few glasses of milk

It's very similar to the first examples where the leaner peoples typical days diet is clean of processed foods and more variety is present.

The last diet is dominated with bad carbohydrates with little protein for muscle repair and growth, the 20% body fat reading is down to the quality of the food in the diet causing blood sugar fluctuations due to the lack of protein and quality fat at each meal.   Having no awareness of quality and going with processed food choices makes the liver work overtime by having to filter all the junk out of the system. This puts the body in negative calorie syndrome and robs the body of vital nutrients leaving very little left over to build and repair the body.   With a diet full of balanced natural foods you get more usable expenditure out of what goes in leaving less for the fat cells.         

Food Myths

Following are just some of the food myths that have become ingrained in peoples minds, the politically correct nutrition advice which is normally out of date and blown out of proportion has prevented many people from getting a proper balanced diet and staying within their healthy body weight for years.   Below is a very brief explanation why some of the foods are good for you and others not so good for you.      

Saturated fats are bad for you

The truth: Good for you

•  Make up at least 50% of cell membranes, they give cells stiffness and integrity

•  Needed for calcium to be effectively incorporated into skeletal system  

•  They enhance the immune system

•  They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins

•  Needed for proper utilisation of essential fatty acids

Eggs yolks are bad for you

The truth: Good for you

•  Great source of protein and dietary fats

•  The yolk provides most of the nutrients

•  The yolk makes the whole egg a healthy well balanced food

•  Contains the right kind of fat which provides many health benefits  

Pasteurised milk is good for you

The truth: Not so good for you

•  The pasteurisation process kills the important enzymes as well as destroying vitamins and amino acids

•  Commercial milk contains antibiotics and growth hormones

•  Lactose intolerance which is a common food intolerance prevents the body from digesting milk sugars

•  Milk causes an estimated 50% of the adult population's bloating, gas, cramping and diarrhoea

•  What about getting calcium in the diet?

•  It is possible to obtain all your calcium from dark green vegetables (where do you think the cow get theirs from?) and other calcium rich foods

Low fat dairy is healthier

The truth: Not so good for you

•  Dairy is a full fat whole food and that's what your digestive system recognises it as.   When a food is tampered with it slows digestion and other metabolic functions contributing to weight gain in the long term.   Plus the fact that most low fat dairy products have loads of sugars added which also contributes to a bigger waist.        

Fats and oils should be avoided for weight loss

The truth: Good for you

•  The right fats and oils are essential for optimal health and your body needs them even if you need to lose weight

•  Avoid trans-fatty acids found in processed foods and margarine

•  Essential fatty acids are fats that our bodies cannot produce; this falls into two groups; omega-3 and omega-6.   Omega-6 essential fatty acids are commonly available in grain products and meats.   It is the omega-3's that typically need to be increased in people's diets, as most don't eat enough omega-3 essential fatty acids.   The ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 is 1:4

•  Taking a small amount of quality fat with each meal reduces the insulin response

Transform your eating habits    

Nutrition is the key to reaching optimal results ranging from everything to weight loss, performance, reshaping, toning, bodybuilding, good health and well-being.   This makes nutrition king, nutrition rules over any exercise ever invented, you are what you eat and you are when you eat.   Quality with natural food choices preferably from organic sources is also important, so is variety, so is thinking about what you are going to eat.   Planning goes a long way in creating a repetitive routine on how to stay on track.   Healthy eating doesn't have to be a prison sentence; it should give you a new lease of life by giving your body the nutritional ammunition that it needs to survive its many stresses of daily life.  

Three square meals a day doesn't work for the majority of the population, you can either teach your body to become an efficient fuel saver by storing food into the fat cells through haphazard eating practises, or you can teach the body to become an energy guzzler by eating frequent healthy proportionate meals within your calorie expenditure.   On the other hand you can either pollute your system with processed foods so it doesn't run as good as it should giving it reasons to break down, or you can feed your body with clean natural fuel and reap the benefits of feeling and looking your best.   The choice is yours, bon appétit !  

In part 3 read about how to transform the workout.