Nutritional guidance and information

Nutrition for Your Workout

Proper nutrition product & Tampa Safety Harbor Fitness is vital for the body's health and plays a major role to keep the body fit for strenuous workouts.

Your Workout, Your Nutrition

The time of day for your workout decides what you should eat to keep you going for an hour. Whatever your goal, muscle gain or weight loss, you should eat enough to avoid getting dizzy, hungry, or fatigued during your workout and to avoid a tempting detour to the nearest hamburger joint after your work out.

If you workout everyday, what you eat before or after your workout makes a great positive difference in your overall physical well-being. With the right food and enough liquids, the body can immediately replace what it lost during the strenuous exercise routine whether it was strength training, circuit training or cardiovascular training.

When the body is subjected to rigorous exercises it uses up the stored energy and as the exercises intensify, stored fats are oxidized to soluble sugars which feeds the muscles to keep them performing. If you had a good pre-workout meal the body will not use up the stored sugar through the glycolysis process that can sap the body's energy. This is something you cannot afford if you are into massive muscle building exercises.

The Micronutrients

To this end, you need the three essential micronutrients in your diet, whether you are losing weight or building muscles or plainly adding meat to your bones. These micronutrients are essential for the proper functioning of the body especially when working out - carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

Carbohydrates have 3 main functions:

1. Supply Energy to the Body
   
2. Improve Brain Function
   
3. Improve Nervous System Function

Watch how many carbs you consume because if you eat too many you can risk storing them and then they will turn into fat. Every carbohydrate turns into glycogen and then stored in your body as glucose (AKA Sugar). Your body can only process so much insulin at a time so if it is not used as energy then it will turn to fat. Once it turns into fat it will never go back to a carb. If you do not burn that sugar by expending energy through movement or excercise then you will gain weight. There are two types of this micronutrient, the simple and complex carbohydrate. The simple carbohydrates give you the energy you need before your workout while compound carbs provide the energy for your day-to-day activities.

Starchy carbs such as oatmeal, potatoes and sweet potatoes, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and peas, spinach, zucchini, roamain lettuce, broccoli, and green beans should be part of your daily diet. The same goes for simple carbs you can get from bananas, grapefruit, grapes, pineapple, pears, and oranges. Eat small amounts to maintain all 3 functions throughout the day. Do not eat carbs 3 hours prior to bedtime or you will not be able to have a good night of sleep because you just fed your brain food.

Your body might be physically exhausted from your day; however, your brain is now fed and you will have several negative effects happen:

1. You might stay up way late thinking about everything you didn't do today and everything you need to do tomorrow, which often causes stress before bedtime. HINT: Write your to-do list and prioritize the 5 most important things to accomplish for your next day. Included in the top 5 is planning for your 6 meals for the following day.
2. Stay up late watching TV and/or staying on the computer too late playing or surfing the internet.
3. Sleep restlessly, tossing and turning in bed throughout the night.

Proteins are needed by the body to burn fat and build or repair muscles efficiently as well as increase the body's metabolism. For those who are aiming to build muscles, they will do best eating eggs, lean red meats, tuna, and chicken breast, or a ratio of 1 to 1.5 protein grams for a pound of body mass.

Fats are still important in the diet because it helps aid the body's metabolism and hormonal production and without fats the body cannot perform efficiently. Fats can definitely make you fit. There are two types of fats - the good and the bad. For good health and workouts, stick to monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These two types of fats are good for the heart. The best sources of mono unsaturated fats are fats from vegetables and tuna. Polyunsaturated fats from avocados, canola, olive, peanut oil, and peanuts are safe fats.

As a cue for your nutrition needs, your nutrition should consist of 40 per cent carbohydrates, 40 per cent protein, and 20 per cent fats. With the proper nutrition for weight loss or muscle building, you get better results and stay healthy.

Tanya can teach you all the little known facts about healthy eating. Healthy weight is shaped not only by the foods we eat, but the combination of foods we eat, the times of day we eat them, water consumption, vitamin absorbtion, etc.

Tanya will create a personalized food program for you that takes into account your own goals and lifestyle. Whether your goals are weight loss, strength building, or just feeling good, you can learn to eat for OPTIMAL HEALTH for the rest of your life.

Contact Tanya by email or call her at (813) 495-8138