The importance of a good diet
Along with a solid exercise program (and following that program with due dedication), all the exercise in the world will do you little good if you have a bad diet. Remember the old saying "Garbage in,Garbage out"? Well, the same axiom holds true for your body.
A bad diet can be really hard to change, and this is not just because the person is used to eating that sort of a diet. A huge reason why a lot of people (that do exercise regularly) do not change their diet to any great degree is because sometimes a bad diet doesn't show on you "externally". For instance, the average 20 year old could probably get away with a bad diet and still end up looking good. Look at him five years down the line though, and the chances are excellent that (assuming he doesn't clean his diet up), he's going to have a much harder time looking as good as he did back then.
I know how true this is from personal experience, because I've had a bad diet before and still made gains (and this at the age of 25 when most folks begin to go downhill). And the gains mde me think that I could persist with my bad diet, and still keep improving. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. As I said, a bad diet will eventually catch up with you - and it did catch up with me as well eventually. And once I did put a tab on what my caloric intake, my gains started to rocket again. So believe me now and you'll thank me later - a bad diet WILL eventually catch up with you.
Changing your diet is not as hard as you might think, and it doesn't necessarily involving denying yourself everything. I actually advocate eating some of the unhealthy stuff once in a while - emphasis on once in a while as it will actually help you maintain a clean diet the rest of the time, and will also give you an added incentive to do so. It certainly doesn't involve starving yourself, and it doesn't have to involve counting calories with everything you eat - provided you eat the right things.
Put in a nutshell, the optimal diet should follow the guidelines beneath: -
- Foods as close to what nature provides (as far as possible). Avoid processed stuff, and the stuff that comes in tins and cans.
- Optimal protein (of utmost importance).
- Limited, or minimal fat content in one's food
- Limited, or no sugar
- No greasy or fried food; instead, grill, bake, roast or broil your foods
- NO sodas/Coke/Pepsi - they are bad for you!
- Alcoholic beverages in moderation,if at all
And thats really it - it's really not that hard to implement once you set your mind to it.
In Fast and Furious Fitness, I detail the kind of diet you should be following in order to amplifiy the gains you make through your training.