Have you spent your life yo-yo dieting? You hear about the next best thing only to be bitterly disappointed by the results or that way of eating is just not sustainable. It’s a hard way to live! Being in the nutrition and fitness industry for so long I am saddened by the fact that people are being mislead. They are not being taught the simple principles of a healthy lifestyle and the impact of the unhealthy choices. NUTRIENT TIMING Determining when to eat is just as importance as deciding what to eat for both weight loss and athletic performance. If you owned a Ferrari you’d want to put in the best fuel so it stayed in mint condition and so it performed at at its best. You’d never run it on an almost empty tank! You need to think of your body the same. Fuel to keep your body in mint condition and operate with gusto and vitality. Empty calories or simply food with little or no nutritional value mean your body is not being provided with the nutrients it needs to do its job properly, or for you to have energy to get through your day. The process is simple! Eat regularly, consume high quality nutrient dense food and don’t make your body work unnecessarily having to process high acidic, sugary foods on a daily basis. PROTEIN PACING Even if you do not exercise regularly you may still benefit from regular intake of protein every 3 - 4 hours. This strategy has been found to help in keeping you feel full longer, aid in fat loss and assist in the maintenance of lean muscle mass, which has an impact on metabolism. So alongside your carbohydrates and fat … because they are all important, consume around 20 - 40 grams of protein in every meal and around 10 grams in your mid morning and afternoon snack. There have been a number of studies completed around protein pacing and the benefits to changing body composition and energy, so it should be the foundations for everyone’s nutrition plan regardless of whether your goal is weight loss or muscle gain. DITCH THE SCALES Scales will never be your friend and can almost send you crazy! They don’t tell you when you are holding more fluid, when it’s that time of the month, if you have put on muscle or even if you just need a poo! That’s right the scales will change from day to day, that’s normal. When your body starts to lose dangerous fat and all the hard work at the gym starts to show in great lean muscle, your scales will never congratulate you and tell you are on the right track. In fact muscle can show up as an increase on the scales. Use a tape measure, photos, clothes or even a look in the mirror as a more accurate guide of whether what you are doing its working. So it’s time to Ditch the Diet and Throw away the scales! A more sustainable plan of eating to fuel rather than to starve, will have you seeing results you never thought possible.