Healthy Habits

As we begin January, it is often a time when people make resolutions for the coming year. Many people resolve to eat more healthily or to lose weight, but it is worth noting that a lot of these New Years resolutions fail.
As a club, we encourage people to create healthy habits that last a lifetime rather than starting a crash diet which lasts a few weeks. Hopefully, as an instructor, I lead by example and if you are looking to improve your eating habits there are some general guidelines to having a healthy lifestyle that I would recommend. Making small changes over a period of time should enable you to sustain healthier eating habits rather than making a lot of big changes all at once.
Try to have at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. An easy win is to swop out an unhealthy snack such as a packet of crisps for a piece of fruit like an apple. Try to vary the fruits and vegetables that you eat. This can be a good time to try new things. Have you ever eaten a papaya? Or okra?
Protein is an important nutrient to help you to build muscles. It also helps you to feel full for longer, avoiding the temptation to snack. It is generally recommended to get 0.75g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day. This can come from animal sources or from plant sources such as nuts, beans or pulses.
Sugar is something that it is very easy to eat too much of. Try to cut down on sugar as much as possible. This can be cutting down on the sugar that you have in your tea or coffee or having a piece of fruit instead of a dessert. Energy drinks have a great deal of sugar in them as do fizzy drinks. It is much better for your health and your teeth to drink water. As a club we do not recommend sports drinks as they don’t really have a benefit unless you are partaking in endurance training.
This advice on creating healthy habits carries over to your dojo training. It is better and more sustainable to do a few press ups every day than to overdo it in the gym one day and never go back. In this way you will make more gains and be able to keep them.
Having healthy eating habits will ensure that you are getting the best from your training, helping your body to grow muscle and repair any injuries. It also helps you to prevent cramp.
If you want to take it further, I recommend getting qualified nutritional advice.