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Everything you need to know about nutrition to get you started on your fitness journey.
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Everything you need to know about nutrition to get you started on your fitness journey.
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Everything you need to know about nutrition to get you started on your fitness journey.
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In this episode of the Dayfall Fitness Podcast, the host expresses gratitude for the support received so far. They announce a launch date for a recipe book and discuss the importance of nutrition in achieving fitness goals. The host explains macronutrients (protein, carbs, fats) and micronutrients, emphasizing the significance of understanding their role in the body. They delve into carbohydrates, discussing the differences between simple and complex carbs and the importance of fiber. They debunk the myth of cutting out carbohydrates for fat loss and emphasize the importance of overall calorie intake. They then move on to protein, highlighting its role in cell, tissue, and organ health and explaining its necessity in the diet. The host briefly touches on muscle protein synthesis and recommends aiming for 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per ideal body weight. Hello and welcome to episode number 3 of the Dayfall Fitness Podcast. Just want to start this episode by saying thanks again for all the support so far. It's been great to hear and see and all your feedback and it honestly means the world to me. So thanks very much, keep sharing, keep listening and yeah that'd be awesome. So yeah, quick updates for you and apologies that it's been 2 weeks since my last release so hopefully we'll be back up to weekly uploads from this episode onwards. I've actually had a few messages from people saying, you know, I've got a long drive, when's the next podcast out? So stuff like that, little messages really keep me going and help me get my ass into gear to get these podcasts out. But little updates, we now have a launch date for the recipe book coming up and that's at the end of this year, start of next year and things are really getting in motion for that which I'm absolutely buzzing about. So I released a full list of like 70 of my recipes on my social media the other day and the response has been insane for that, just you guys all wanting that and sending me videos, pictures of all your recipes that you've been made, absolutely legends. So yeah, so in today's episode I'm going to be covering nutrition for beginners and this could potentially be one of the most important episodes that you hear or listen to. It's really key and obviously as the old saying goes, you know, you've heard abs are made in the kitchen and you can't out train a bad diet and there is actually a great reason for that because in terms of achieving your, wherever you want to be on your fitness journey, nutrition is going to be the most important aspect for getting you there and it really is the key and the building blocks to everything that's going on with the human anatomy and everything like that. So nutrition is absolutely essential and getting this right and just having a bit more of an understanding about what mechanisms are at play is going to be so essential for helping you make progress and hopefully you just find it interesting because obviously with everything that you're putting in your body having a bit more of a basic understanding will really help you. So yeah, as I say, it's super important and hopefully you've taken some really key lessons from this podcast episode. So as you know from Fat Loss 101, if you listened to that episode, so in terms, if you want to lose weight, calorie deficit and, you know, I've said it before, I've said it a million times in my lifetime I'm sure, if you want to lose fat you have to be in a calorie deficit but in this episode I'm going to, like there's many mechanisms that are in play in the body and although calories are the most important thing, there's so many other factors that can affect that and in terms of your overall health, which is obviously everybody wants to, you know, be as healthy as they can, then there's so much more than just calories but yeah, if you want to lose fat, calorie deficit, if you want to build muscle, being in a calorie surplus is going to be super important for that. So starting from the very top, bottom, however you like to look at things, so we're going to start with macros and micros. So this stands for macronutrients and micronutrients and I'm sure you will have heard the term flying about everywhere and yeah, people getting, oh yeah, what are your macros bro, what's your macro split and to be honest, you don't need to go that in depth for it but just having a bit more of a basic understanding is going to be really helpful for you on your journey. So we'll start with macronutrients and basically what this means is when we talk about macronutrients, we're talking about basically these are nutrients that your body needs in large amounts, macro meaning big, so yeah, these are nutrients that your body needs in pretty large amounts and micronutrients your body essentially needs but in smaller amounts. So really, really key, both are really important for your overall health and depending on how you like to look at things, there are, well so there are three primary macros which is protein, carbs and fats which I'm sure you've all heard of and then some people count water as a fourth macro which I'll talk a little bit about and then there's a fifth macronutrient as well which is alcohol but this has no nutritional benefit but obviously it still contains calories so depending on how you like to look at things, then yeah, you can count alcohol in that but I'm going to be talking mainly about protein, carbs and fats today. So we'll start with carbs which do really get a bad rap and have been kind of demonised on social media and in the media over the years but carbohydrates, they're your body's primary source of energy particularly for your brain and your muscles so these are basically a long chain of glucose or sugar and this can be many different ways, there's many different types like obviously glucose is the main one you've probably heard of, fructose as well which is the primary one found in sugars, sucrose and a load of other things. So yeah, so these long chains of sugars, these carbohydrates, they are broken down essentially into glucose which then is your body's main fuel source. So there are kind of two main types which are simple carbohydrates and these are really easy for your body to break down, they're one to two sugar molecules in length and these are things from like, you know, your table sugar, your fruits, your honey, things like that. These are really simple sugars for your body to break down and then you've got complex carbohydrates as well. So these are longer strands of sugars and then these are typically found in starches and grains so it takes a lot more effort for your body to break down these chains of carbohydrates and then utilise them as fuel. So this is like your bread, your pasta, your rices and everything like that. And then you've got the kind of the next main one I guess which is, it goes off on a bit of a tangent, so this is fibre as well. So fibre is essentially, your body cannot break this down in your GI tract. So it gives no energy but it's really key for keeping intestinal health and obviously in your digestive system because your body can't break it down, it helps push things along in the intestines and get things moving so it's really important for healthy and regular bowel movements. So when people refer to fibre, that's the bit that essentially cannot be broken down the body. So these are the things you'll find in grains and the difference between white and brown carbohydrates are that your bread, your pastas and everything like this. So in the white versions of these foods, the brown which is kind of like the outer area of the grains that are being used has been removed during processing. So essentially there's less fibre in these things and that just means your body can more readily available break these down. So I've talked about the simple and complex carbs, so your body will have an easier job breaking these things down. So that's why with things like white breads and pastas, you'll particularly get more of a quicker energy hit from these in terms of your body can break these down more easily so the energy becomes more readily available. Whereas in the likes of your whole grain, pastas, breads, rice, etc. it takes more time for your body to break these down because they contain more fibre and also you'll find that fibre, as I've discussed, is really key for digestional health and everything like that. So that's carbohydrates in a nutshell. And again, just as I've alluded to previously, anybody who tells you you need to cut out carbohydrates is not speaking sense because as I say, it's your body's main fuel. And when people talk about the fat burning zone and utilising fat as fuel instead of carbohydrates, as long as calories are acquainted across the day, then it doesn't actually matter what is being utilised as a primary food source. And to address the kind of age old question of, you know, what is better, white or brown bread, carbs, whatever it is. And again, it's difficult to say when you look at these things in isolation because as part of a balanced diet, you can absolutely include either of these. However, if you are particularly lacking in fibre, then all these wholemeal carbohydrates might be a better option to you just to boost that fibre content and make sure that you're getting enough of that in. But as part of a balanced diet, you can absolutely use either. And again, in terms of fat loss, calories is the main thing to focus on. Okay, so that's carbohydrates in a nutshell. So then we move on to protein and obviously everybody and their dog talks about protein, but actually for a very good reason. So protein is part of every cell tissue and organ in the body and it's constantly being broken down and replaced. And unlike carbohydrates and fats, protein cannot be stored. So all the protein that you need on a day-to-day basis has to be consumed from food. So if you eat excess carbohydrates, that can be stored as glycogen in the muscles and then fats obviously, as we all very well know, excess fat can be stored in the body as well for energy at a later date. So protein cannot be stored and it constantly needs to be ingested in the diet. And it's made up from 20 types of amino acids, which the body uses to grow, build and repair tissue. So and then just to very briefly go over, so during resistance training, so what you're doing is you are causing micro tears within the muscle and then so when your body uses these proteins and amino acids to repair this muscle, it basically repairs them bigger, better and stronger. But in order to do that, your body needs to be in a positive muscle protein synthesis state and you do that by eating more protein that your body is utilizing and in terms of what you should be aiming for, it's roughly 1.5 to 2 grams of ideal body weight. So if you're particularly overweight, have a think about what your ideal body weight is and do it from there. And if you are kind of a regular weight, you can just do it times your normal body weight from there. So then looking at these amino acids and as I've said previously, there's 20 and these are split in two essential and non-essential amino acids. So essential amino acids are ones that your body cannot produce and there are nine of these. So these need to be solely ingested for your diet and as you probably are aware, meat and animal products are a great source of these but also things like lentils, grains, beans, legumes, things like that are really good non-animal sources of protein as well as protein powder being a great one as well. So yeah, these essential amino acids, they're essential because your body cannot produce them and you must get these through your diet and that leaves 11 non-essential amino acids which your body can make itself through the process. So and the reason why protein is so essential, so one as we've discussed already, so it's really key in repairing muscle and lean body mass and again, so all the cells and everything in your body, they're constantly being replaced and regenerated and gotten rid of and amino acids are the building blocks for these cells. So it's really key that you're consuming enough protein and particularly if you want to follow a resistance training program and build muscle, being in a positive muscle protein synthesis status is key for making sure that your muscles are repairing, bigger, better, stronger and then when you're in a period of calorie restriction, it's important that you keep your protein high so it's actually fat that you're losing instead of muscle mass and obviously the more muscle we have and the less fat, the better for body composition and in terms of our metabolism, in terms of being functionally strong and fit and active and all the rest of it. So that's obviously a really key one for you there. And then kind of another great point of protein is it's the most satiating macronutrient of all. So that means when you actually eat it, it's really going to make you feel full. So when you are going through a period of calorie restriction, obviously the fuller you feel, the less likely you are to binge on snacks, on other sweet treats and stuff that you're craving because if your body is giving you signals that you're full and your hunger hormones are all in check, then obviously you are less likely to binge on snack and over consume on calories. So it's really key. And just by kind of basing your meals around a really key protein source, you'll find that your diet will dramatically improve once you start making that change. And then finally, it has the highest thermic effect of all the foods, roughly 20 to 30% compared to 5 to 10% of carbohydrates and 0 to 3% of fat. So that means when your body actually ingests protein, it burns the most amount of calories through digestion. So you actually burn up to 20 to 30% of the protein that you eat, which increases the amount of calories that you're burning and will obviously be beneficial in terms of the calories in calories out equation when you are considering a fat loss diet. Okay, and then we move on to fats, which again, demonize just the very word fat kind of turns people off a bit. But so it's absolutely really key and it allows your body to store extra energy, which I'm sure a lot of us already know. But it's also crucial for hormone production. It protects our vital organs, which is obviously a really key thing for it to happen. And then it helps cells absorb fat soluble vitamins, which I'll come to in just a moment. So fats have been demonized kind of for a while. And I think during the 90s it was that the media went for a real price of like bantam fats and all this. But fats are actually really essential. Obviously, you want to try and avoid the saturated and trans fats side of things. So that's things that are deep fried or like lots of your margarine, your lard, things like that. And try to go for the unsaturated kind, which has been found from things like olives, seeds, avocados and things like that. But basically the main takeaway from this is don't drop your fats below 20% of your total calories in per day as it is essential for hormone production, cell function, protecting your organs and loads of other bodily functions. And in terms of macrosplits, so this really is person dependent and this can vary a lot during your training. But as a basic rule, I like to stick to the 50-30-20 split. So it's 50% of your calories coming from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and 20% from fats. And as I said, do not allow those fats to drop below 20% of your overall calorie intake. Okay, so those are the three main macronutrients. And obviously while I'm here, I will cover water. Depending on how you like to look at things, you might count this one or you might not. But obviously water, this is the most essential kind of, well, we'll call it macronutrient that the body can take and obviously contains no calories but your body can't actually go for more than a few days of water. It could go potentially for weeks without food but it cannot go for a few days without water. We are made up of roughly 70% water and, you know, I mean, I'm sure everyone listening to this will have experienced some level of dehydration before. And you know, you get your headaches, you get reduced physical and mental capacity when you are dehydrated. So it's so, so key to make sure that you're staying hydrated. And as I said in the previous podcast, one rule that I love to live by is clear pee by 11 and you're in heaven. And water is going to be really key in making sure that you're transporting nutrients around the body, obviously hydration, lubrication of all the joints, tendons and everything like that, really key in your bowel movements and flushing toxins out of your body. So obviously I won't talk too much about water as you probably should know how essential it is. But yeah, just make sure that you are getting your water in, making sure basically if your piss is yellow, go drink some water and all the rest of it. Just a very briefly go of how much, how potentially much you should be having. Obviously, this depends on how big you are as a person, but I like to give the general recommendations of at least two litres of water every day and maybe aiming up to three litres if you can. And I like to include teas and coffees within that. And also, as I said previously, one tool that I use to really help with my hydration is sugar-free squash, mango and orange, chef's kiss, absolutely love that stuff. And that just makes me sure that I can drink it in loads of volume, making sure my pee is clear by 11. Okay, so that's macronutrients covered in a very whistle-stop talk there. Okay, so moving on to micronutrients. So as I said very briefly before, so this just means your body needs less of these, but obviously they're still absolutely essential. And basically there are two main types, which are the vitamins and minerals. And both of these you must get from your food and your diet. Your body cannot produce either of these. So yeah, you must ingest it from your diet. So vitamins, these are organic compounds made by plants and animals. So when we consume plants and animals, we take on board their vitamins and minerals when we digest them. And minerals are inorganic, so they exist in soil and water. And these can't be broken down by the body, but they are essential, as essential. And both are absolutely key for growth, immunity, brain development and many other things. And you know, you've heard obviously the scurvy tale of the sailors going on and having vitamin C deficiencies, developing scurvy and obviously not living too much longer after that. You know, the skin's flaking away and all the rest of it. So it becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly if you are suffering in any kind of vitamin and mineral deficiency, as your body's function will start shutting down. So it's really, really key that you are getting this. And as I've said, it's all from food. And basically the best way to make sure that you're getting a big variety other than supplementation is to make sure that you have a big variety of food, fruits and vegetables and all the rest of it in your diet. And whilst we're here, there's just a couple of deficiencies that I wanted to highlight. So particularly like vitamin D. So if you are European, probably British or live in a temperate climate and you get like seasonal winters and summers, pretty much most of the population will be vitamin D deficient during the winter months. So during this time when it's not in summer and when you're not out in the sun all the time, it is recommended that you supplement vitamin D. If you're a vegan or vegetarian, you may suffer in a lack of vitamin B12. So this is something that you also might want to consider supplementing. And vegans again, or just if you don't particularly eat too much red meat, you might suffer an iron deficiency. I know my mum was anemic at one point, so she supplemented iron alongside of that. And that's going to be really key as well. Just kind of while we're on supplements and on that. So supplements are what they say in the tin. So very briefly, as long as you're consuming a wide variety of whole nutritious foods, you don't particularly need to supplement. But the only really ones that you need to worry about, and I will cover this in more in depth in a later episode, is potentially protein powder. And again, I see some people in my comments on videos demonising things, but whey protein, it's just one of the things during the cheese making process, and whey is just an animal protein. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, and I would encourage you. But it doesn't have to be whey, it could be any type. And obviously there are loads of vegan protein powders out there as well. And again, not essential if you're consuming enough protein in your diet. But I personally use them for my breakfast, because I try to get protein with every meal. It's a great option for getting that in. Creatine. So this is basically, essentially, energy, direct energy that your muscles can use. And that's something that you can look at. Creatine is one of the most studied supplements in the world. It's been proven many, many times to be safe. And there's actually some recent studies coming out that it might actually help prove brain and cognitive function. So really good. No adverse effects on creatine in there. And then depending on how many fruits and vegetables you eat, you might just want to have a look at supplementing multivitamins. But again, if you are feeling pretty good, and you know you're in good health, then, as I said before, these are supplements and not essential for the diet. And then finally, if you are vegan or vegetarian, you might want to consider supplementing an amino acid called leucine. So this is mostly, predominantly found in animal products. And this actually helps with the absorption of protein. So if you are not getting enough of these, and if you've been vegan or vegetarian for a long time, you might just want to consider leucine. But those four are the only ones that you really need to worry about, alongside vitamin D in winter, iron if you don't particularly eat a lot of red meat, and vitamin B12 if you're veggie and vegetarian. But as I say, I'll cover this more in depth in another episode. So that's micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, which are the two types there, covered in a very brief overview. Okay, so the next thing I wanted to cover is diets. And obviously this is a word that's thrown about so much within the fitness industry. I want to make this very clear. A diet is just a tool for fat loss. It can be many types of things, but basically all it is, is a way of reducing calories. And obviously there's loads of different ways to do this, like keto, low carb, Atkins. I'm sure you've heard of many, many ways to do this. And obviously if you go around, like the ketogenic diet for example, if you cut out carbs, first of all, you're going to see a lot of weight loss in the initial stage. But that is just water weight, because when your body stores carbs and converts it into glycogen, it stores it with three to four grams of water. So for every one gram of carbs stored, you store three to four grams of water. So when you don't eat any carbohydrates and your glycogen levels are depleted, then a lot of this weight that's lost in the initial stage is water weight. So if people are doing keto, oh I've lost X amount in two weeks, feeling great, going to keep it up forever. But obviously who can keep it up forever? Because it's all the amazing things, pasta, rice, chips. I don't know why I said chips as the main one, but anyway, here we are. So all these diets have in common is just a tool for reducing the amount of calories that you're doing. And again, with low carb, if you reduce the amount of delicious carbs that you're having, your pasta, the bread, ice cream, everything like this, obviously you are going to reduce, your calories are going to reduce as a result of that, which will then put you in a calorie deficit. But is that particular diet being the be all and end all? No, it's just a way of ensuring that you are restricting those calories, putting you in a calorie deficit, bingo bango, you're losing fat. And again, calorie tracking is just another tool to doing this. But yeah, it's not essential. And basically what I want you to get out of this is a diet, it shouldn't be seen as a diet. What I want you to think about this is a lifestyle change. You don't have to cut out any food groups in order to achieve your fitness journey. So if anybody tells you, there's people these days telling you you shouldn't eat fruit, you shouldn't eat carbs, you shouldn't eat this, that or the other. If anybody tells you, as a general rule of thumb, to cut out any food groups, cut them out of your life. You do not need that kind of negativity bringing you down, because you can eat absolutely anything as long as it's part of a balanced, whole, nutritious diet. And I'm going to teach you a method now that has been so crucial for me, in terms of being able to manage my diet long term, for times when I don't have to track calories anymore, and when I just want to be at maintenance, live a healthy life, not be deficient in anything, making sure I'm getting my macros, my protein, my carbs, my fats, and all my micronutrients, my essential vitamins and minerals, and this is the way I do it. And it's called the 1-2-3 method. And basically, so what I want you to get from this is you don't need to do any particular diet in order to achieve the body that you want, or your fitness goal, or you get stronger, fitter. You don't need to do any kind of drastic diet, nothing keto, nothing low-carb, Atkins, cannibal, you can shove it all in the bin. And if you start to use this method, you will find that your meals and everything around it will become so much more balanced and nutritious, that you don't need to do any kind of this extreme form of dieting anymore. Just be a bit more mindful, manage your portions, make sure you're in a calorie deficit if that's your goal, and all the rest of it. So 1-2-3 method, what this means, so with every meal, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and you know if you're, well I mean I do as well, I have a fourth meal, well however many meals you're having throughout the day, use the 1-2-3 method and stick to this framework. So that is one portion of carbohydrates. Number two, one or more fruits or vegetables. Number three, one or more source of protein. So 1-2-3, one portion of carbs, one or more fruits or vegetables, one portion of protein. And just by doing this, you're going to make sure that your plate is so much more balanced. So just to give you an example of how this might work, so when you look at breakfast, so it might be scrambled egg with a bit of tomato on bread. So you've got your one, your carbohydrate, which is your bread there, you've got two, which is your source of protein, and that's your eggs, and then the three, fruits or vegetables, well at least one portion, tomatoes. So boom, setting up, great start to the day. For lunch you might have a chicken salad sandwich, so again, one, the source of carbohydrates is bread. Again, please don't demonize bread, bread is life. Two, portion of protein is your chicken, and then some mixed salad, get that in there, and that's your three. And then for dinner, you know, you might be having like a beef stir-fry or something, so noodles as a carb, protein is the beef, and then fruits and vegetables, well, not fruits probably, but the vegetables, your bok choy, your onions, why am I going blank on stir-fry? Anyway, you get my point. So as soon as you start basing your meals around this framework, you'll find that your diet will become so much more balanced just by doing a simple thing. A post that I'm going to put out is going to have a list of all of these. If you are listening to this that late, drop me a DM, say 123 method, and I'll be sure to send, because I have a list of loads of carbohydrates, loads of fruits and vegetables, and loads of protein sources, and I've put them together in a sheet for my clients, but I'll also send to you guys, basically. And what you can do is you can look at this sheet and pick one source of carbohydrate, one or more fruits and vegetables, and then one source of protein. And it doesn't have to be just animal protein, like one of my personal favorites for a morning breakfast right now is protein oats, so obviously the carbohydrates is the oats, my protein source is protein powder, which could make veg or vegan, well, vegan because it's all vegetarian. And then three, I'll chop up a banana and have it in that. So again, 123 method. Start using this as your framework for your meals, and I promise you your health will start to increase, and you'll just start making better food choices just by default, basically. So yeah, just before I move on, if you just take one thing from this podcast, make sure it's the 123 method. Start structuring your meals and your food around that, and I promise you, you will start to feel the benefits. Okay, so next thing I want to cover is meal timings, which unless you're a pro bodybuilder, I don't want you to worry too much about. But in saying that, it can really help with things like hunger levels, and obviously as part of your routine of that. Now, I've discussed previously, like, your body will get used to these meal timings. I was a regular breakfast eater. I would swear by it, 7, 7.30 a.m. every morning, and then my body was like, it knew that food was coming at that time. So it would send the hunger cues to me, and sometimes I would be lying in bed, and I'd think, oh my God, I'm so hungry, I need to go and eat. But then when I started to do intermittent fasting, and I changed my first feeding until 12, I could basically control my hunger cues up until this point, and my body knew, and it became adjusted to that new feeding time, and that really helped me with my hunger levels in the morning, just by cutting out two feedings that I'd have, one at 7 a.m. and one at about half ten. I could save about 700 calories a day, which I could then use basically to go out on a piss on a weekend, and still be in my deficit. Again, not optimal for health, but optimal for life enjoyment, and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. So regular meal timings can be a really helpful tool for you to use. Again, if you have a regular break at work, just try and work it in around then. When I was taking things a bit more seriously, in terms of weight training and stuff, I'd have it religiously 12.30 and then half three every day. Around 3 p.m., my body would know a feeding was coming, it would start to send the hunger cues through, and then I would know when to feed. Try and regulate your meal timings as close to the same times every day, including on the weekends, but again, unless you're nailing everything else, in terms of your calories, your protein, your steps, your sleep, and your exercise, this is just an extra thing. Just alongside that as well, I want you to start seeing food as fuel, because again, food can be so demonized, and people can get really nervous and anxious around food, but food is amazing, for one, but also should be seen as fuel, which it is. So around your workouts, and just speaking anecdotally, I used to be the one that would have that protein shaker with a little protein thing that you can unscrew at the bottom, making sure as soon as I finished my workout, I would smash some protein in and be like, oh my God, if I don't have protein within 20 minutes of my workout, I'm going to lose all my gains. Since I've become a bit more knowledgeable and clued up on the subject, I know that this is not the case. So I want you to see your workout, so basically either side of your workout, with your workout in the middle, you have a five-hour window. So before your workout, essential, carbs, protein, alongside everything else, obviously sticking to the 1-2-3 method, making sure that you're getting your micronutrients, your vitamins and minerals alongside that, and you're getting your portions of fruits and vegetables in that. But before, so about 60 to 90 minutes before a workout, that's when I want you to get a big feeding of carbs, protein, and alongside sticking to the 1-2-3 method, and then it's about the same for after that as well. So if you think about the five-hour window and your workout's bang in the middle of that, try to get a big feeding of protein and carbs before, 60 to 90 minutes before, and within 60 to 90 minutes after. But again, unless you're a pro-level bodybuilder and you want to start competing at stage, if you can't physically get any more food in after 90 minutes after a workout, it's going to make a negligible difference, as long as you're hitting your calorie and protein goals over time. So again, think of this five-hour window period if you want to come to what was being a bit more optimal and just make sure that you're fueling your workout. Also, I guess a side note on that is, personally, when I work out in the morning, I don't like to have a heavy meal before that, so I just have a protein iced coffee or maybe a banana just to give me a little something to get something in my stomach. But again, this is not essential. And just while we're kind of on the subject in terms of fasted and non-fasted cardio, so I used to be... I've got stravas from years ago where I'd be like, oh, fasted, run today to burn extra fuel. But now I know that that is not the case. As long as calories and protein are equated throughout the day, it does not matter whether you do your exercise fasted or non-fasted as long as you are sticking to the same calories. Yes, it utilises different fuel sources at the time, but again, that will just change later in the day what is used as a primary fuel source. So again, do not worry. I know doing fasted cardio is not going to help you burn fat quicker. And if you're still over-consuming on your calories, you can do as much fasted cardio as you like and then unless you're on a calorie deficit, you won't lose weight. So final closing notes. So the key is in the prep with a lot of your nutrition, making sure that you actually have a shopping list, which again, if you want any help with that, DM me, shopping list, and I'll be happy to send you it, something that I've put together for my clients. So yeah, making sure that you're prepped, making sure that you know what meals you're going to have throughout the week is going to be really key for that, because obviously if you know what meals you're going to have, then you know what to buy for that. And just being a bit more prepped and putting that time to the back end of the week on the Sunday, Monday, is really going to help you and set you up. And one thing that I do, it's a bit different for me because I just buy food for myself. I know it's different if you have a family or whatever, but just don't buy things that you don't need because it's like anything. If I know that there's chocolate in the cupboard, like I will be thinking about it and I will be thinking about chowing down on it. So that's why I just try and remove the temptation from the house. And if you are someone that lives in a family and you like to have sweet treats for your kids, could you maybe ask your partner, could you maybe ask someone else, can you put it in a place that you generally don't know about? And then again, if you don't know it's there, that will remove the temptation. So yeah, so again, making sure that you're prepped, making sure you know what meals you're going to have for the week and then not buying absolutely loads of junk. Having it in the house because again, that's just temptation that you don't need. Willpower is, we only have a finite amount on it and it's not good to continuously press that. So next one, and again, when I'm meal prepping, and again, I have a little rule, make nice, make for twice. So if you're cooking a dinner for you and your partner or you and a friend or whatever it is, if you're making like a spaghetti bolognese, why would you make just like two portions for the night? Because you're already going to the effort of chopping all the vegetables and everything like that. So add an extra onion, add a few more carrots, get a bigger pack of beef. If it's nice, make it for twice. So what I mean by that, so instead of making two portions to have right then, make four portions, refrigerate or freeze the next day to have at a later date. And then again, so you're just making these healthy meals but you're also making sure that you're not going into work. If you make something on an evening and you make an extra portion, you can have that for lunch the next day and you're going to be absolutely fine. You're not going to be tempted to go and buy KFC or Subway or whatever it is because you know you've cooked something nice, something nutritious, something that's going to keep you full. So again, make nice, make for twice. And again, something that I've been getting a lot of shit on recently on social media is about using processed foods. Now again, don't worry too much about this. Note, I mean, that if you really wanted to optimise and be really angry about your health, yes, using less processed foods and basically you want to get as close to one ingredient food as you can. So that's like an apple, like a carrot, like as close as nature made it as possible. But in saying that, if you are using these convenient foods as part of your diet to lose weight, to improve your health markers, that is going to have an overall benefit on your health rather than if you were to not kind of be chronically overweight and not do anything about it. So don't worry too much about processed food. As long as you are sticking to mostly whole nutritious foods throughout your diet, you'll be absolutely fine. And finally, 80-20 rules. You might have heard of this. So in order to achieve a long-term sustainable lifestyle change, and just to note, I said lifestyle change, not diet because it's not a temporary thing. You should be looking at this as a long-term thing because you're always going to need food, you're always going to need fuel, and you need to make this second nature and part of your life. So 80-20 rules. So what that means is 80% of the time you're eating whole nutritious foods. So really good for you. Making sure that you're sticking to the 1-2-3 method, getting your carbs, your fats, your protein, and your vitamins and minerals. And then 20% of the time you're having the foods that you love. So that's like your ice cream, your pizzas, eating out, everything like that. Because if you feel like your diet is... Sorry, I almost cut myself out. Your lifestyle change is too restrictive that you can't enjoy these things. Who the hell is going to stick to that long-term? Next time you come to a barbecue, next time it comes to Christmas, you're going to feel way too restrictive and go there. So when you come up to things like Christmas and stuff, just know that it's absolutely fine to have that. Just get back on it the next day and stick to the 80-20 rule. And again, when you're going eating out, I just want to go through a strategy that I covered very briefly in my last podcast. Bank up those extra calories. Think about your calories for the week. So if you've got 2,000 every day, maybe reduce 1,700 throughout the week. Bank up those 300 per day and then you can still go out, eat the foods that you love, and be in your death step. So hopefully you've taken some value from this podcast. There's just some of the tips and tricks that I use and hopefully you found real value and learnt a thing or two along the way. Okay, so now it is time in story time. So as you know, I'm finishing every one of my podcasts with an embarrassing story because if I don't expose myself, my friends are more than happy to do it for me and I'm sure they will. So we come on to story number three and this is a story of my friend's graduation party. So again, little bit of context is helpful here. So as I've said before, I have a note for absolutely everything on my phone so I really like to, like whenever we go for weekends away, whatever it is like that, I love to take photos. Again, not to post on social media, just to like have in my bank and what I do is I make notes on my phone so like if we've been away for the weekend, I'll do a little write up. Here's what we did Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Little itinerary for the weekend. Put all the photos that I've taken. Again, not for social media, just for me. And basically, I'm really sad. When I get to my 40th birthday, I'm going to send out all the notes to all my friends so we can basically just reminisce about all the sick times we've had. But obviously, with documenting that, one, it's a lot of work. Two, I need to get a lot of photos for that and sometimes it lands me in the shit. Okay, so now we're back on the story. So my friend Alex had just graduated from university and we're all having a party and we were playing a game called Flippy Cup, a great game, and I was helping the host move some tables around and basically there was this big table. Alex's partner is so good at basically hosting. She does all the balloons, makes everything nice and fancy. She's got this really nice spread drinks table and these are like portable tables so they're pretty flimsy. So we're all playing Flippy Cup and basically we rearranged these tables in kind of like a triangle formation and the drinks table was behind where I was standing and we basically moved some things around and there was a tray going on this table. So I, in my drunken state, I turn and go, oh, everybody, look, I'm going to get a photo. So I'm literally, so I've grabbed everybody's attention, everybody's watching. I'm standing up with my phone so you can imagine just like doing the dad thing, double hand on the phone, going back to try and get everyone in the frame and literally as I'm taking a step back, I trip on the tray of drinks that is beneath my feet and I literally, it's like I'm falling in slow motion. I remember it so clearly. I just go back. I literally land in the middle of this table, this whole drink set up. It collapses immediately. Drinks absolutely flying all over me. I get absolutely soaked. As you can imagine, everyone is in absolute hysterics because I've literally gone, everybody photo time and I've literally decked it through this table. Alex's parents are there. Yeah, that was a particularly bad one but if you ask any of my friends about it, I mean it's a pretty amusing one for them but sadly not for me and not for Alex's parents either. So there you have it. There's another one done and another podcast and again, thank you so much, guys, for you for listening. I really appreciate it. As always, if you give me a five-star review, I will send you many kisses through the phone, share it onto your story, tag someone who might want to listen to this and I will see you in the next episode. Thanks, legends.
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