What is the Most Important Meal of the Day? Every meal!

Since we were kids, people always ask the pertinent question "What is the most important meal of the day?" and more often than not, people say breakfast. Now a days some other people say you're post-workout meal, or even your pre-workout meal, which is all good and dandy, but why can't we just say EVERY MEAL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL.

Everyone knows by now that diet is just as, if not more, important to a person's body than daily exercise is, but why have we always been told one meal is more important than another? You are what you eat, so why are we told to be important in the morning, but not at night? Proper nutrition throughout the day is important to everyone, no matter what their goals are in the gym.

To break it down a little more, breakfast is a very important meal, it jump-starts your day and keeps you going until the late hours of the evening. Breakfast can be your most abundant meal, because you have all day to burn off whatever it is you ate.

Pending on when you workout, let's say your next meal is your "pre-workout" meal, about an hour and a half before you hit the gym, late morning, early afternoon. Your car needs gas to run, and so do you. What you put in your body before you hit the weights or go running is the fuel that you need to maintain your workout and get the necessary energy to complete that last rep.

The next meal, fate would have it, is the "post-workout" meal, and I believe most "guys" shoot right back to their room and chug down a protein-shake, which is great, but you should also add some carbohydrates to that meal, because getting half of your daily amount of protein in one drink that goes down in 2 minutes isn't necessarily what is recommended.

Pending on your schedule, once again, let's say it's late afternoon now and you're going in for dinner. I believe dinner should not be a huge meal because, you're probably, or should be, going to bed in a few hours or so, and having all the food in your stomach over night just kind of stores itself, and no one wants that. But you should absolutely be getting your vegetables and some complex carbohydrates in this meal so you don't reach for that late night pizza run at 11 at night.

I'm a believer that it's not too too bad to eat a small amount late at night, maybe have some peanuts, or trail mix, something light, not too over the top to maintain your body and repair your muscles over night. If the "guys" want to break up their massive protein shake into two parts, this is a great time to have part two, because when you sleep you repair the most muscle.

Now I am certainly no nutrition expert, nor do I claim to be, but I totally believe that every meal is just as important as the other. Include a multi-vitamin, maybe some extra Omega-3 in the form of a Fish Oil capsule, if you don't get as much as you could have, and you're all set to go.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bodybuilders_most_important_meal.htm

Everyone Needs to Start Somewhere

Coming back from class today, I felt inspired to speak my mind on the topic at hand, nutrition, and fitness. We talked about Organic Foods and eating only the right foods all the time, making sure there are no processed foods, preservatives, added sugar, pretend sugar, and all these other "unhealthy" choices. Now, for sure, I am a strong advocate of eating right and making the right choices, but many people are turned away, or turned off, by a "JUST DO IT" attitude. So I'm here to tell you, that it's okay to start off slow, because everyone has to start somewhere.

I'm one who reacts strongly to a "JUST DO IT" attitude (not just talking about going to the gym, actually going and doing it/not just saying I'm going to skip out on dessert, actually saying 'no' to that piece of cake) but many people don't respond well to this. So for these types of people, it's best to start off slow, by making daily choices that you can build on down the road.

Say no to Burger King for lunch and make a turkey sandwich at home instead.
Or maybe get a single cheeseburger with apple fries instead of the double cheeseburger with french fries.

Take the stairs to Fourth Floor Wilson instead of the elevator.
Walk to Woodward during the day instead of taking the shuttle.

Instead of munching on that bag of Doritos during the basketball game, grab the Wheat Thins and have some of those instead.

Grab a whole grain muffin in the morning at Dunkin Donuts instead of that Boston Creme Donut.

Everytime you want a soda to drink during your meal, start off getting diet soda, and then work your way down to just having water instead.

Subway may be "bad" in the words of lovely Dr. Pantuosco-Hensch, but trust me, she won't be on your case for choosing a six-inch sub loaded with veggies over a Big Mac at McDonalds.

It's these small subtle changes that you can start making TODAY that will make a difference down the line. It may take a month, it may take a year, but soon enough you'll be divying up the organic foods between you and your friends on SuperBowl Sunday and making healthy meals for your whole family. The list of examples could go on and on, but you know what you can do to make the best out of your choices, so make the right ones, and build your life to it's fullest.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/hardy8.htm

Water: The Most Important Drink Of All

"It is a fact that 95% of all Americans are dehydrated."

Does that statement shock you? It shocked me too, but then I began to think about it. Barely anyone drinks as much water as they should, and water constitutes 65-70% of the human body (85% of your brain, 80% of your blood, and about 70% of your lean muscle.) That's kind of a big deal.

Do you get enough water? On average, college students should have about a gallon of water per day. And that's if they do not exercise. If you do exercise, that amount needs to be increased, by about 6-8 oz. for every 15 minutes of working out whether it be running, lifting weights, etc. In the gym, water maintains muscle tone by aiding in their ability to contract, and water is practically an instant "pick me up". A great indicator for hydration is urine color. A light yellow, maybe even white, color of urine is a great indicator of hydration. A darker yellow, or amber color, of urine is a bad sign of mild, possibly even severe dehydration.

Another statistic that shocked me when reading this was "A person could eliminate about 50% of all diseases just by being hydrated and drinking enough water throughout the day." So grab the water bottle, fill it up a few times throughout the day, and ward of illness and disease for a lifetime. Many other health benefits can be seen by adequately supplying your body with enough water, and all of these can be read about in depth in this article.

http://bodybuilding.com/fun/kosloff2.htm

Overcoming Your Fear of the Gym

As a kid, we were all frightened by the show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", but now as we age, and are in our prime years for peak physical fitness, I ask you, "Are You Afraid of the Gym?" This article sparked tons of interest in me because many of my fellow classmates, back in high school, and still in college, do not go to the gym simply because they are "scared" of what goes on in there. They don't know what to do in the gym, or are too intimidated by the people who are already in the gym. Well this article goes over 9 Amazing Tips to Overcome Your Fear of the Gym. Since you're probably not going to spend 20 minutes reading the link I will post at the end of this, I'll highlight the main aspects of the article from Bodybuilding.com that I loved...

1. The first tip was to exercise outside of the gym, and I could not agree with this more. Often times beginners go into a gym, see these huge "muscle heads" throwing around ridiculous amounts of weight, and get down on themselves for not being as strong as others. A great way to get these sideshows out of your environment, is to exercise outside of the gym! You don't need any weights or spectators to do push ups or sit ups outside on the track or on a nice patch of grass. You could even do them in the privacy of your own room. Go for a run out on the street or in the woods. Who needs a gym?

2. Avoiding peak hours is one of my personal favorite things to do. I love exercising in the morning when 80% of the college population is still sleeping, so you can try this too. You could even wait until the late hours of the evening to go, when most people are done for the day. The hours of 3:00pm to about 6:00pm are probably the most crowded with people, not that there's anything wrong with working out at these times, its just usually crowded and hard to get your work done. Plus socializing is a huge pet peeve of mine, you go to the gym to workout, not chit-chat; and you can avoid this by going when no one else is there.

3. The third, and possibly fourth, final tips that I want to highlight is, if you skip over tip number one about working out outside of the gym, and you are in fact, IN the gym try not to compare yourself to others who are working out at the same time. Yes, that is easier to say than it is to do but, don't worry about what other people can do or what they look like. "IF YOU WANT TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR BODY BY COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS, GO TO MCDONALD'S." Their gains will be much different than yours, so don't fret about other people's development, worry about your own. Also, I liked the piece they had about trying new machines and new work out styles, that just tied in with not being intimated by others and what they do, do your own thing.

Anyways, hopefully this article isn't too long for people, and maybe it'll even help some of you who are on the fence about going to the gym. It's a must for everyone now a days so don't let your fears of the gym change your lifestyle. Once you get in the routine and lose that fear, you'll be a regular in no time. It's never too late to start.


http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/9_tips_to_overcome_gym_fear.htm