A lot of you are wondering what foods you should be eating, amounts, how many times a day, etc.
It’s been a long journey for me to have a good relationship with food and fitness. When I first started my fitness journey I thought I had to measure everything, I was obsessed with calories, portions, with being thin, with taking all the supplements and amino acids that could ensure my health while keeping me fit. I wasn’t enjoying food, which was very annoying because I really love food. I even banned carbohydrates on the assumption that they were only fat. I was only eating protein and vegetables. This went on for about a year.
Later I realized this wasn’t healthy eating at all and that some adjustments had to be made. As I wasn’t eating carbs, I wasn’t giving my body enough energy to function (carbohydrates are literally energy, fuel to our body machine) so I felt really tired after my training and was more propense to injuries (lots of fatigue), that’s why I turned to aminos and supplements. I thought I could fix everything with proper supplementation but it didn’t and I was hungry ALL THE TIME. Instead of eating the amount and type of food I needed to function and train properly and safely, I was depriving myself from food, I was making me unhealthy and putting chemicals and artificial food in my body. It made more sense to start eating properly and understand what healthy eating really is. It made more sense to eat and give my body what it asks of me.
Fortunately, I decided to stop taking supplements, amino acids and putting pills or chemicals into my body because it didn’t make sense to me anymore, it wasn’t really healthy for me.
I stopped measuring portions and counting calories. I stopped obsessing with not eating too much so I wouldn’t get fat. I stopped obsessing with being thin. It’s not easy to see women on social media that show you really thin bodies because you obsess with that image, you compare yourself to that image instead of understanding that everyone’s body is different and that we’re all different for a reason, everyone’s unique and that’s the point. You can’t really compare to others, you can only compare and compete with yourself, make sure today YOU’RE better than yesterday and that you’re consistently working on being who you want to be, that’s all it really matters. Also Instagram is really fake so don’t believe everything you see…
It took me a while to get this but I think it’s crucial we understand these things:
1. Being fit does not mean being thin: on social media we see that most fit women are super thin, but actually most of those pictures are just photoshop. That isn’t real. I realized that most fit women are not thin, actually they have lots of muscles, which makes the body look bigger (not thinner). The more you work out, the more your muscles grow, and the bigger you become. It took me a while to understand that being big is not opposed to being thin, and that having muscles that make you look big does not mean you’re fat, it means you’re strong. In fitness, being thin isn’t the goal, but being strong and feeling strong.
2. Body fat is good: body fat is very important, it keeps the body lubricated to move correctly preventing injuries or malfunctions. I’m not saying you should have 50% body fat, but 0% isn’t viable either. When I was taking aminos and supplements back in 2015 to 2016, I had 6% body fat, I felt super light for training, but also in lack of energy, weak, more susceptible to injuries, and hungry. From 2017 (the year I started to understand what eating healthy really is) to 2018, my body fat was at 24% and I felt a little heavy, I ended my meals pretty full, I was definitely eating too much, but, I was strong. From 2018 until now (2019) I feel like I finally found the perfect combination of feeling light and strong while energetic and properly fed. I finally discovered the amount of food I need during the day to keep me healthy, to not feel weak but strong, to don’t be hungry nor full, to have balance. It takes a while to get to the point where you can actually now the exact amount of food YOU need, but the more you search for it, try different options and adjust what needs to be adjusted, the sooner you’ll find it.
According to Heath & Carter Somatotype (1990) in 2018 I was 4,4% mesomorph, 2,8 endomorph and 2,3 ectomorph. I was at 52 kg with 24% body fat and 49% muscle which is pretty awesome. Now (2019), I’m at 50 kg with less body fat and more muscle, which is even more awesome. It’s good to do these tests because you can learn from your body, how it works, what you’re made of, and what adjustments you need.
3. All bodies are perfect: I know it’s not easy but we must stop obsessing with “the perfect body image”, because it doesn’t really exist, everyone’s different, everyone has different bodies and they’re all perfect, there’s no such thing as just one perfect body. The world wants us to buy this idea but as smart consumers we must understand that beauty is a personal thing and not something to be determined by others. If you want to look good (whatever your beauty concept is) you must focus on feeling good and loving yourself the way you are, you must focus on accepting yourself and do the best you can every day. So instead of obsessing with looking at determined way, obsess with loving yourself and others, being a good person, laughing, eating properly, resting, training, and living. Instead of obsessing with the superficial things, obsess with the deeper ones. It’s not about how you look but how you feel.
Acceptance is everything once you have it, you don’t need anything else and you can focus on living your life at peace and enjoying every second of it without doubting yourself. Stop picking on you and love yourself, speak to yourself and let you know how much you love yourself, that you are amazing just the way you are. If you do this, you won’t feel the need to look a determined way because you would already love the way you look, and that’s because you love who you are and feel good about yourself (physically and mentally). I know this isn’t easy, it’s a long journey, but if you focus on doing all the right things (training, eating healthy, speaking with love to yourself and others, loving yourself and others, etc.) the best you can, you will get there.
So, What Is Eating Healthy?
For me, healthy eating is eating anything I want or need while keeping a balanced diet. I just make sure to ingest on a daily basis a good amount of vegetables, fruits, carbohydrates, and proteins, with those things in mind, I eat anything I want.
As an athlete that only relies on food energy (no supplements, protein shakes, amino acids, etc.), I EAT A LOT, I eat until I feel good.
I used to focus on having 5 meals per day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner) thinking it was better to eat this way, but as research shows you can eat many or few times a day, it doesn’t really matter, the important thing is the amount of food you eat per day regardless of how often you do it. So, you can eat 5 times a day or just 2 times per day, it doesn’t really matter as long as you get the proper amount of calories you need.
Also, I used to be a carnivore, but changed my diet to plant based for many reasons. First of all it’s better for your own health, but most importantly it’s better for the planet and for all the living species in it. I did a lot of research to understand vegan diets, pros and cons, and I realized it was the best thing to do. Some documental you can watch that helped me make the decision and understand the importance of this are Cowspiracy, The Game Changers, Before the Flood and What the Health. I always thought (while being a carnivore), that it was pretty strange to eat animals, like, we love dogs but we eat cows? It never made sense to me but I chose to be a hypocrite, and do it anyways for a long time. I changed, I decided to stop being a hypocrite and start living consciously with all the species in this planet and it made me feel so much better from square one. Eating whole plants makes so much sense, it’s delicious, its available everywhere, its super nutritious, it fuels you with energy, vitamins, proteins, and makes you lean (you get rid of animal fat), and most importantly, you don’t hurt anyone in the process.
Meals I have on a daily basis. What I Eat
Smoothie bowls (banana, papaya, mango, strawberry, any fruit I want), banana pancakes, coconut or almond or soy milk or yoghurt, oats, bread, avocado, super foods like goji, pumpkin seeds, wonder seeds, poppy seeds, sesame, dates, deciduous peaches, many different fruits like bananas, strawberries, oranges, kiwi, grapes, etc., many carbs like potatoes, quinoa, rice, cus cus, pasta, beans, chickpeas, lentils, tofu, soy, vegetables like broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, paprika, etc, almonds and nuts.
Of course I eat pizza and fries and all of the “unhealthy” things that I want when I want because they’re not really unhealthy if you just eat them once in a while or in small amounts instead of every day all day long (they will be if you only rely on this kind of food but not if you have a balanced diet), and also because it’s important to make yourself happy and enjoy food and have a good relationship with it, one that is not based on restrictions but choices. It’s not about eating fast food all of the time nor only veggies all of the time but a good combination of healthy and delicious meals that provide you the energy, proteins, carbs and vitamins you need while fulfilling all cravings without guilt but pleasure. The most healthy thing to eat is raw (plants and fruits) so try to rely as much as you can on this type of food because they have all you need to be healthy and strong.
There’s no diet to follow. Just make sure to eat all the food your body is asking for and to eat as healthy as possible, to eat as much organic food as you can and eat the least processed foods as possible. You are the only one that knows your body and can tell how many meals a day are good for you, how much food you need, which meals you need, etc.
If you exercise and eat properly it’s ok to eat whatever you want and as much as you need, but always in a conscious way, take care of yourself.
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