So you’ve got your training routine sorted and are regularly increasing your heart rate, working your muscles and having fun! You’re exercising your heart, which we know has huge benefits, and really developing a solid weekly workout schedule. So what’s next?
We want our body to continue to function at this new intensity, so the next step is to shine a spotlight on our nutrition.
The right foods will make sure your body and mind are ready for each session, and will also regulate your mood and fatigue levels. If you’re any way like me, regular new meal ideas are needed to keep your diet fresh and interesting.
Talking about macros, nutrients and antioxidants can quickly glaze eyes over, and can end up being confusing.
Let’s aim to focus on two questions to start. We want to know, “Why?” and “How?”. After answering these questions, you can always dive deeper into the specifics of fueling your body for optimal performance.
At the start, try not to complicate things. Over exerting ourselves and landing too far outside our comfort zone, with the changes we are making, can quickly have us packing up and returning to the familiarity we had before. Going back is easy. Going forward takes courage.
Just like training, start with baby steps and begin to make gradual changes to your diet. This is not a six week crash course! We are altering our eating patterns for life and are looking to cement this habit by committing, learning and getting results.
The Two Questions
Why?
If we have a big enough Why, change comes so much easier. Your initial Why to start eating better may be short term, like to look good for your wedding or to dazzle some old friends at a school reunion. You certainly want these quick whys, but know that these little wins lead to something much greater.
The best Whys are long term. Having the energy to keep up with your children, living long enough to achieve all you dreamed of, and having clearer everyday sharpness and focus can spark a bonfire of desire inside you. Grab hold of your Why and don’t let it go.
How?
This is our GPS system to get us to where we need to be. Fast, Simple, Tasty, and Nutritious.
These are the big four words for consistent healthy eating.
To be successful, we need all four to be present in our meals the majority of the time. Taking just one away, can compromise the benefit and continued adherence to our new way of eating.
A juicy fast food burger is fast, simple and tasty but lacks nutrition. Three out of four doesn’t cut it! A chicken, rice and broccoli meal is fast, simple and nutritious, but not at all tasty! How long do you think you could eat a meal like that? It’s missing one of the four so the answer is probably not long at all.
Our aim with our nutrition is to mesh all four together in each meal and to get used to asking the question, “Do this meal have the big four?”.
To kick start your healthy meal library I’m delighted to give you a snapshot of my daily nutrition.
Here I share four fast, simple, tasty, and nutritious meals to help you begin your nutrition transformation today! (All food was eaten and photographs taken on Monday 7th of November 2016).
1. Poached Egg with Olive Oil and Spinach on Wholegrain Bread
This is by far my favourite breakfast for many reasons! It ticks all the boxes from our four big words and gives you the shot of protein you need to kill mid-morning cravings.
Spinach gives you the B vitamins you need to produce energy, and the wholegrain bread boosts us with some complex carbohydrates after our nighttime fast.
Finally, the olive oil drizzled on the bread instead of butter, rounds a great meal off with some excellent nutritious fats. This is the staple of my morning and how I start each day. I threw in the blueberries for some precious antioxidants.
Ditch the sugary mess that cereal is, and give it a go! Your body will thank you by making you feel so much better.
2. Hot Open Chicken Breast Sandwich
This is the full-on chicken burgers cousin! We’re changing the white bap for one slice of wholegrain toast, but other than that it’s pretty darn similar!
Are you mad? How does a chicken burger tick the nutritious box? With a few twists, this tasty meal really gives us what we want and need.
The chicken is a full breast that’s unprocessed and baked in the oven without the skin. The onions used are raw and therefore have not been destroyed by frying them to smithereens! Yes, they are more intense but the flavour is complemented by the cherry tomatoes. I couldn’t help but add a bed of spinach as this really is a super food.
Finally, to add a little naughtiness, I spread some mayonnaise on the toast and sprinkled (not smothered!) some grated cheese on top. Simple, delicious and very satisfying.
3. Chicken Wholegrain Pesto Pasta with Asparagus
After planning to showcase a salmon recipe I changed my mind for two reasons: 1. Salmon is extremely expensive at the moment! Compared to this time last year the price has gone way up. 2. A lot of people do not really like eating fish. This is a shame as fish is bursting with lots of great and healthy nutrition (feel free to substitute fish for the chicken).
I went with chicken again as I had one raw chicken breast left over from my lunch recipe, so I guess that’s as good a reason as any!
Anyone that knows me really well will tell you of my love affair with pesto. It’s my number one sauce if I need to pep things up. Compared to a lot of sauces on the market, it’s pretty healthy with basil, oil and cheese. Obviously portion control is needed, but i think it adds great flavour, especially to pasta dishes.
Asparagus is somewhat a king among vegetables. It’s loaded with nutrients like vitamins A, C, E and K and is a great source of fibre too. For someone that wants a fast, tremendously healthy dose of vegetables, asparagus is your guy.
Lastly, it’s also very easy to cook. I like mine crunchy so I only boil it for a few short minutes but if you like it more flavourful, you can always bake it alongside the chicken.
In four short steps you:
- Bake the chicken in the oven and, a little later, put in the asparagus
- Boil the wholegrain pasta
- Mix in the pesto to the pasta
- Put the chicken, pasta and asparagus side by side, and pepper to taste!
4. Frozen Pizza Vegetable Supreme
Yes it’s pizza, yes it’s frozen, but no it isn’t a bad meal if you want to give yourself something that feels kind of forbidden. It still packs a nutritional punch, and pyschologically it’s always nice to be eating pizza!
You simply buy a plain frozen cheese pizza and add as many vegetables to it as possible. I decided to chop up some onions, peppers, cherry tomatoes and spinach.
The onions and the peppers go on first. With about five minutes to go until the pizza is fully done, pop on the tomatoes and spinach so that they don’t get overcooked. Once out of the oven, crack a bit of black pepper over it and enjoy the juiciness of all that good stuff. It may just be the freshest pizza you’ve ever tasted!
All four meals are fast, simple, tasty and nutritious. With a little bit of planning and time management, everyone can eat well. By fueling properly throughout your day, the chances of cravings making you stuff a bar of chocolate into your mouth are greatly reduced. Meals don’t have to be complicated and the simpler ones can quite often be the most nutritious.
When good nutrition is paired with great workouts, lots of wonderful things start to happen. Your body begins to respond to the new stimuli and rewards you with better health, less aches and a clearer vision of where you’re going.
Try exercise and nutrition for one week and see how you feel. You can always go back to where you were before, but where’s the fun in that? I’m not sure anything moves a human being quite like progress.
Want to share a fast healthy recipe? Go for it in the comments below!