Dieting and a Healthy Diet

First things first, understand that even if you workout in a gym, no matter how hard you train, you simply cannot out-train a lousy diet. Many times I have seen people finish a grueling training session, only to start talking about the creamy pasta dinner they are cooking later. It seems as though the notion of health and fitness can sometimes be left at the gym. Losing fat and weight is as easy as thinking of it as if you want to lose weight then the amount of calories that go into your diet must be less then the amount of calories that you burn throughout the day. If you think about it one unhealthy meal can consist of 1000 calories and you only burn about 400 calories running for 30 minutes (these are all relative numbers). Point is it would take an insane amount of exercise to burn all of the excess calories of an unhealthy diet. It then would make more sense to limit the amount of calories in your diet and this used in conjunction with exercising will give you the best results when trying to lose weight. This is not to be confused with starving yourself. I will talk about why this does not work later in this essay. In addition if you are trying to lose weight at the same time trying to build muscle or gain strength starving yourself will force your body to break down its muscle for energy instead of burning fat because muscle is easier for your body to break down.

            One of the things that needs to be done to start off a good diet is to eliminate excess fats, salt and sugar from your diet. This means no more fast food, processed foods, sodas, cookies, chips and deep fried foods. These items have no nutritional value and are what many people call empty calories. This means that they hold no nutritional value for your body and have no benefit in them. A very important habit to pick up is to gain a understanding on nutrition and also to learn to read food labels and always do so. (I will post another essay detailing nutrition facts) If you are starting off then this will be pretty hard at first especially when people around you are eating these kinds of food and offering it to you. You should replace these unhealthy food with vegetables and fruits. Try to balance what kinds of vegetables and fruits you eat to maximize the amount of nutrients and vitamins you get. Also your body needs fat and you should get these fat from sources such as a handful of nuts or flaxseed (also take supplements of fish oil-will talk about the benefits of this in my Nutrients post). Another things that people sometimes start doing when starting a new diet is to start a food journal to help keep track of what they eat during the day and also find a calorie counter (will find a link a few counters when I have time).

Another healthy way to maintain a good diet is to eat five-six small meals per day instead of eating three or four large meals a day. Really I try to eat every 3 hours. This also requires some planning. Eating every three hours keeps the blood sugar/insulin levels stable throughout the day, controls cravings, prevents binging, reduces fat storage and keeps the metabolism burning hot. 
Since you hear the word "metabolism" quite frequently in conjunction with nutrition, let's take a quick look at what it means. Basically, "metabolism" is the rate at which your body burns through food. When you hear that someone has a "fast metabolism," this simply means that the person's body is efficiently using the calories derived from food whether active or at rest. 
Here is the thing; eating frequently makes you burn more calories. On the contrary, missing meals immediately slows the metabolism, triggers the body's starvation response and thus sounds the death knell for fat burning. In addition to me the most important meal of the six is my breakfast. Because my body has more or less been starving for about eight hours it need to be replenished. Breakfast should include complex carbohydrates and clean protein. Essentially, complex carbohydrates provide energy and the proteins ensures that the body has material readily available for rebuilding tissues. On of the first things I do every morning is to either drink a protein shake or drink one or two eggs. In addition I will either mix my protein in milk or if not eat a few spoonful of cottage cheese. Lastly I make a wrap that consists of a whole wheat tortilla, spinach, avocado, and a few slices of thinly sliced turkey breast.  Also another thing people misunderstand is that your body does metabolize and require energy even when you sleep (about 50 calories per hour). Because of this I would eat 45 to 60 minutes before bed. Usually eating 1-1.5 cups of cottage cheese (2% fat or less) or casein powder protein to fight late night hunger cravings and give my body some slow digesting casein protein to breakdown and use during the night; it's void of sugar, low carb (lactose) and high protein, plus it's got calcium which can help you sleep. No, it won't get stored as fat! 
Your body does not just turn off your digestive system at night people! If calories are controlled during the day and exercise is intense enough, you will process and use foods like this even at night.

            Another important factor in maintaining or losing weight is to know the importance of carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are those found in refined sugar, honey and fruit juice. This type of sugar will provide quick energy but will also let you down just as quickly. 
Sugars significantly disrupts proper insulin metabolism ultimately causing fatigue and promoting fat storage. This cycle is certainly not something that you want to encourage. The bulk of your carbohydrate consumption should come from slowly digesting complex carbohydrates. This means eating whole grain foods when you need to and food such as oats, brown rice, and legumes. Eliminate “white” foods such as white flour and bread form your body. Also one of the best ways to lose fat is to reduce the amount of carbs from ones diet. This does not mean that you should completely eliminate carbs from your diet and especially if you are starting off and your body is used to a high amount of carbs. If you're not eating enough carbohydrates, your body will start breaking down precious muscle tissue for glucose. Unfortunately, your body cannot use fats for glucose.

-As of right now I think this post/essay is incomplete and will revise, change and add a few more things as I have time. I will also add a section that shows my daily diet and suggestions on meals throughout the day.