Beginning Nutrition

Straight from the expert himself:

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=460048

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460051

These two articles are great for getting to know your nutrition jargon, so that you know why you’re eating something instead of simply following a plan outlined by someone else.

Chinese New Year Goodies!

I like CNY goodies. In fact, I especially like:

• Peanut Puffs
• Egg Rolls
• Bak Qua

However, eating too much of these will, as Coach Jon puts it, “make you go jiggly jiggly jiggly”. Here’s some of the stuff I do to prevent myself from eating too many of these during the holiday season:

• Place the goodies in a location that’s as far or as inconvenient for you to access as possible. If you spend most of your time in the room, place those goodies in the kitchen. Never ever place them in the area where you spend most of your time – the first thing you will do is to reach out for them and grab a few bites.
• Have other snacks nearby. My snack of choice is the almond – roasted or baked, it doesn’t matter, as long as no other stuff like sugar is added to it. NTUC sells a large pack of almonds for around $9, which is quite a bargain because the pack usually lasts me a week or so. If your mouth gets itchy often, (like mine ) reaching for an almond or a fruit is always better than reaching for a piece of bak gua. (Remember to keep track of your calorie intake and don’t pig out, even on the healthier snacks!)
• Eat often. I currently eat 5 meals a day, each consisting of around 400-450 calories each. (On average) Not only do more meals keep your metabolism up throughout the day, (More energy burning!) they also prevent you from binge eating because you won’t go hungry as easily. A nice side effect is that because you won’t be hungry, the allure of snacks gets lesser.

I’ll post more thoughts on these “energy-dense, nutrient-sparse” (Paraphrased from Dr. John Berardi) foods another time as well, so keep reading!