The foundation of what I preach lies in whole-food nutrition. I don’t mean that processed foods are never allowed or that I don't ever partake in a treat. But the foundation lies in nutrient-dense foods.
“What do you mean by whole food nutrition?” you ask.
In short, I’m not going to hand you ‘macros’. At the bare minimum, it looks like this- a single gram of carbohydrate from Skittles is not the same as a single gram of carbohydrate from an orange, or even orange juice. Whole foods include all of the macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fats; but are represented in recognizable foods. Great examples of carbohydrates include sweet potatoes, beans, grains, fruits, and vegetables. Fats include avocados, oils, butter, ghee, nuts and seeds, nut butter, cheese, and olives. Proteins include lean meats, lean seafood, low-fat dairy, tofu, and even supplements like powders. If most of your day looks like these kinds of foods, we can talk about macronutrient breakdown, or “counting macros”.
Breaking Down the Food We Eat
Whether your goals center around body composition, athletic performance, or optimizing general health, what you eat matters as much as how much of it and when.
Every food presents its own glycemic index and load. If you’re not familiar with those terms, the glycemic index is the value correlated with how high your blood glucose rises upon consumption of specific foods. For example, low-index foods include fattier sources like cheese, and high-index foods include refined pastries and sugar-sweetened beverages (soda).
My favorite example when working with athletes is the pre-workout snack. Before your CrossFit workout, I may ask you to have a portion of quickly-absorbing carbohydrates and a portion of fats. While a pop-tart may satisfy these portions and ‘macros’, I’d prefer that you chose a banana with a tablespoon of nut butter. See what I’m getting at?
Make it Happen-
While it’s a simple example, nutrition built on a foundation of whole foods benefits almost everyone as a starting point. Most specifically- if you’re active, let's think more about that pre-workout snack that I peeped earlier. Before exercise training, your body needs fuel- specifically from carbohydrates and fats. Give it a try- What does this look like?
Banana + nut butter
Trail mix
Avocado + toast
Cheese stick + apple slices
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