Setting your Baseline Diet

Disclaimer: I am not a certified nutritionist; please take the following as advice. If you have any concerns about disordered eating or if any of the advice does not apply to you, please consult specialized help. However, I have studied nutrition, so I am qualified to give advice.

When it comes to your nutrition, it's important to establish a good baseline diet and mindset before introducing calorie counting or any other dietary methods. In terms of mindset, here are some points to make sure you are working on first:

• Changing your thought process around nutrition: food is fuel and meant to be enjoyed! There's no morality surrounding nutrition; i.e., there are no "bad" or "good" foods.
• Being mindful and present when we eat.
• Understanding your feelings and emotions around food

It may require working alongside a nutritionist or psychologist to help build a healthy mindset around nutrition initially.

Alongside working on your mindset, I have devised three requirements for your nutrition to be successful and serve you:

1. It has to meet your health needs/requirements, both physical and mental health.
2. It has to be sustainable, therefore enjoyable and fit around your lifestyle.
3. It has to meet your health and fitness goals.

Based on these three points and the fact that everyone leads different lives and has different goals and health requirements, nutrition is not going to look the same from person to person! That's why it's so important not to copy your favorite influencer's diet!

So, based on these requirements, what does the base diet look like?

First of all, to meet health requirements, we need to consider food quality. That means a diet largely (around 80%) consisting of whole foods (one ingredient on the label). The foods you select need to digest well, and you should be able to assimilate them efficiently to utilise your food effectively and ensure proper GI function. I wouldn't abstain completely from processed foods (unless this approach allows you to meet all three requirements) as this may not meet requirement 2. 

Some other important points to consider when it comes to nutrition and health requirements are listed below:

• Adequate protein intake, a rule of thumb of 1g per lb of lean body weight to support recovery and muscle building.
• A balance of carbohydrates and fats for energy and to meet basic health requirements, again, largely from varied whole sources.
• Adequate hydration, which will vary depending on your body weight but a minimum of 2L and potentially much more if you are active.
• Fiber intake; I strongly believe in 5 fruits and veggies a day as not only will fiber aid in digestion but also with your health needs. Diets high in fiber have been shown to decrease risks for heart disease, obesity, and help lower cholesterol. Foods high in fiber include green vegetables, certain fruits, and whole grain products.

If you are not sure about your health requirements, I would suggest getting a nutritional blood test to find out how your nutrition is affecting your health markers and to identify any potential food allergies.

Once we have established the above, it's important to note that your nutrition needs to be enjoyable and sustainable! For me, this means eating simple meals that can be made quickly for the majority of my week. For others, they may want to get more creative with their food, and this is what helps them stick to their diet and enjoy it. Again, everyone is different, but you need to figure out the approach that works for you.

The final point is ensuring your nutrition meets your health and fitness goals. Again, everyone will have different goals, but when it comes to meeting certain requirements for a given sport or even just for health and maintaining a healthy body weight, it's important to consider energy balance. This will be discussed in the next blog.

If you found this blog useful and need some help getting started on your nutrition, please drop me a message.