Let’s say you spend 1 hour in the gym 4-5 times per week. That’s 4-5 hours a week working hard to achieve your weight loss or muscle gain goals. Of course, what you do at the gym is a big part of looking and feeling better, but it is NOT the deciding factor when it comes to losing weight and feeling great.
You spend another 23 hours outside of the gym each day and what you do during those hours will play a much bigger role in your success than what you are doing for that 1 hour 4 or 5x a week.
At Duke City CrossFit, we put nutrition first. This is because 80% of the time, that’s what will get you to your goals. Nutrition is the base to all that we do in the gym, and I would also add to our everyday life. Nutrition is not just about how you look, it is also about how you feel. If you feel sluggish and tired, it is directly related to what you ate. If you feel energetic and productive, it is also directly related to what you ate!
Three Ways to Start Putting Nutrition First
Because of how important nutrition is to your health, fitness and for disease prevention, I’ve come up with 3 ways that you can start to put nutrition first, now;
1) Remove sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juices from your diet-Sugar may be the single worst ingredient in today’s diet, but consuming it in a liquid form is even worse. Drink more water.
2) Replace sugar, and refined carbs with other healthier foods-Sugar and refined carbs are some of the most damaging aspects of today’s diet. It’s time to get rid of them and eat complex carbs, vegetables and fruit instead.
3) Meat and fish and plenty of vegetables for dinner-Start eating a healthy dinner based on meat or fish, with plenty of vegetables.
By putting nutrition first, you will get to your goals much faster. Whether you want to lose weight, improve your athletic performance or lower your A1C or cholesterol lab result numbers. It all can be achieved through eating more whole, nutrient dense foods.
