Eat Your Way To Fit 

What would happen if you a) filled your car with the wrong fuel or b) continuously left the fuel running low? It would not run properly! Most likely it would not break down straight away and you might assume everything was fine, but sooner or later you’d notice problems arising. This is what happens to our bodies when we don’t feed them enough or we feed them the wrong foods.

In this guide you will learn how to:

Eat the foods that your body LOVES

Understand macronutrients and why they’re important for fat-loss

Make positive changes to your diet that you can keep up FOREVER

EAT DELICIOUS, HEALTHY FOOD AND GET FIT DOING IT!

This 21 day healthy eating guide will provide you with tools to create a healthier lifestyle.

The food in this plan will NOT bring you fast and hard results that disappear as soon as you go back to a normal lifestyle. You will NOT be eating plain chicken and broccoli and calling it a meal. You will NOT feel hungry every night with the false hope that it brings you quick progress. Crash dieting and meal plans consisting of plain meats and salads will not sustain your body or provide you with long term knowledge. We aim to show you how to get results over time (that will last) and allow you to exercise and eat healthier while enjoying LIFE.

Top 5 Tips For A Healthy Diet

Before delving into the world of macronutrients and nutrient density there are much more simple rules to live by that will help your body find more energy, adapt and recover from new fitness plans, and feel it’s absolute best.

These are the top FIVE:

1. Drink More Water

This is THE most simple and effective way to increase your metabolism and detox your body. Forget juice cleanses - most of us do not drink enough water and no amount of dieting will fix that! Set yourself a goal to hit between 2-3L EVERY DAY for the next 21 days and see how you feel...

2. Eat Colourfully

No, I don’t mean skittles. This one comes down to FRUIT and VEGETABLES. It is near impossible to gain weight while eating vegetables and if fruit was the only sugar in your diet you’d be well off. Protein comes in the form of meat, beans and legumes, however your carbohydrates and fat should mostly come from vegetables and fruit such as pumpkin, zucchini, spinach, tomatoes, capsicum, bananas and avocado. How many different colours would be on that plate?

3. Eat Often

When our bodies spend long periods of time burning energy and not receiving nutrients, it starts to predict that there is a lack of food available. The result is a lowered metabolism, a feeling of having less energy, the storage of fat in your cells and an INCREASE in hunger. While eating every 2 hours isn’t necessary, making sure that your meals are spaced out evenly over the day is very important and will allow your body to get into a routine.

4. 12:12

There is ONE time when having a longer break between meals will actually help your body burn more fat! This is called intermittent fasting and recommends that you spend 12 HOURS between dinner and breakfast the following morning without food (excluding water and tea). That would be the equivalent of eating dinner at 7pm and then eating breakfast at 7am the next day. If this sounds challenging you can start by eating a full meal after the 12 hours, but having a piece of fruit or a coffee before that time hits. This allows your body to lower blood sugar levels, balance hormones and increase immune response.

5. Take a Good Quality Probiotic

Finally, this one is for those who struggle with bloating and digestive trouble. Stress on your body, including psychological stress such as work or physiological stress such as exercise and dieting, will directly affect your intestines and digestive system and this can impact greatly on the results you see in the gym! A dairy-free probiotic found at most pharmacies will help your gut repair and make sure that your efforts can translate to results!

Macronutrients

Have you heard that people are ‘counting macros’? Maybe you’ve heard of ‘fitting food into your macros’ or seen #IIFYM on Instagram posts. Macronutrients are the three essential nutrients that your body requires and every food you eat is made of macronutrients.

1. Protein

the building blocks of muscle. Protein is essential for muscle repair and muscle growth and does not provide much energy for use during exercise. Protein stimulates metabolism (i.e the calories your body burns during the day) and should be eaten during most meals of the day, especially at breakfast and before/after working out.

2. Carbohydrates

Your body’s main energy source. Carbohydrates are used by the body for all activities whether it be simply breathing or finishing an intense HIIT session! There are two main types: complex and simple. Complex carbohydrates take longer for the body to break down and contain less sugar, therefore reducing blood sugar spike (e.g. sweet potato). Simple carbohydrates are a quick source of energy and may cause blood sugar spike and crash (e.g bread).

3. Fat

Not as bad as you might think! Fat is the body’s other source of energy, and the ‘good’ kind of fat is necessary for the body to absorb vitamins and regulate hormones! Healthy fats usually come in the form of ‘unsaturated’ fats like avocado, olive oil (unheated) and nuts. Omega 3 fats are also fantastic for a healthy diet and are found in eggs, fish and walnuts. The fats to stay away from include heated oils, ‘saturated’ fat (usually from animal products such as cheese and beef) and any trans fats.

The recommended balance of macros depends on the individual’s goals and can be tailored to specific training plans such as fat-loss or muscle gain.

For this plan we will focus on finding a healthy balance of the three that allows you to eat a well-rounded diet. This will ensure that your body recovers from exercise, has the energy to work out and begins to burn fat!

Macro Balance

You will notice that each recipe in the following cookbook contains “MACRO” information, meaning macronutrients. It is there to show you how much protein, carbohydrates and fat is in a serving of the meal you have prepared. While many use these numbers as an indication of whether they are allowed to eat it or not, we are using this information as a learning tool. If you were to see a meal with macronutrient content of P1/C80/F23, it would indicate that there is only 1g of protein, 80g of carbohydrates and 23g of fat. Does this sound like a balanced meal?