There are many roads to the goal of healthier living. Mental health, weight loss, and of course, nutrition. If you’re a man over 25, you’re probably doing everything you can to keep your youthful energy and health. Nutrition is the best route to focus on for this purpose, as it covers everything from exercise to a proper diet. But where to begin, is the obvious question. Most people don’t know, and the basics sound so obvious to them that they assume they’re already doing them, when they aren’t. So, if you want to lead a more nutritious lifestyle to help you get more active in your life, here are the top general nutrition tips that best suit an “on the go” lifestyle.
Portion control
If you love activities like hiking or running, then you know what it’s like to finish up a good session of either, and feeling worn out, as well as hungry. You’ve probably felt like you could eat a horse. Well stop yourself right in your tracks there, and take a deep breath. You may feel like you’re starving, and you may very well be if you skipped breakfast, but you need to get a handle on your appetite before you undo all the hard work you’ve been doing by taking that run or hiking all those hours. Portion control is essential to making sure you get three square meals a day without undoing all your exercise’s efforts. If you tend to have big meals 3 times a day, try splitting that down to 6-8 moderate or small portions a day, like bringing a small lunch with you when you go running or hiking for you to eat along the way. Smaller portions like that are a great way to stay nutritious.
Constant exercise
Good eating habits are vital to a healthy lifestyle, but exercise is important as well. If exercise is more of a hobby for you, you’re on the right track, but you should still try to at least stop by the gym every single day for a little bit. The key to nutrition is keeping your body free of toxins and constantly energized, and exercise is the fastest way to do just that. It not only trains the body and helps expel toxins that have built up in your body, it energizes the metabolism of your body’s nutrients, meaning that now your body can better maximize the impact of any nutrients you introduce into its system. But remember, this is “constant” exercise, meaning there is no end point. There can certainly be a goal for how much weight you lose, for instance, but you shouldn’t ever stop once you reach that point. Instead, work on maintaining the nutritional level you’ve attained, because slacking off will quickly undo all the hard work you’ve put in to get this far.
Consume more unsaturated fats
While weight gain is more the fault of sugar than fat, that doesn’t mean that saturated fats aren’t unhealthy for you, quite the opposite in fact. This is why unsaturated fats are your best option here, because fat is important for our bodies. We need some type of fat so our bodies can work at optimal energy and efficiency, and unsaturated fats like omega-3 or omega-6 also aid our bodies on top of that by improving our heart health and lubricating our joints. However, remember, all fat contains calories, so be sure to limit yourself o single servings to avoid that extra weight gain.
Find a workout buddy
It’s hard to stay motivated or focused on a task when you’re working on your own. Your mind searches for any excuse, distraction, anything to get you out of a situation that your mind now finds tedious. This is why, when you work out, it’s important to have a workout buddy. This is the mindset people take on when they go to the gym and hire a personal trainer. Someone to stand by you as you work, or work alongside you, and encourage you to keep at it. Encourage is the important thing here, you need to find someone who is regularly available to help you work out, and will encourage and inspire you to keep at it no matter how tired you are, and will engage with you often enough to ensure you don’t get too bored and then distracted. This can be your best friend, significant other, or even one of your parents or siblings.
Choose the right ingredients
When you decide to lead a more nutritious life, you are inevitably going to have to change what ingredients you have in your pantry. There are many choices available to you, ones that you may already have, however there are a few ingredients that stand out. Yogurt, usually plain (to be given flavor by adding in fruits and nuts) is a great source of protein and the perfect quick breakfast for a man on the go. If you want to eat salads but get rid of that fatty salad dressing, balsamic vinegar is your best bet for an alternative. Finally, for a healthy dose of fiber, you can’t go wrong with some delicious in-shell nuts.
Take baths
After a long workout session, not only are you probably hungry, you likely ache and hurt all over, from your joints, to your feet, to your thighs. This, as you can imagine, puts you in no mood for anything else for the rest of the day, let alone exercising some more later. The solution to this is simple; take a bath. Not a shower, a nice cold bath. Submerging yourself in a tub of water around 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit (you may need some ice cubes) for around 15 minutes is a good way to relieve the aching in your muscles and joints. And if you’re training for a big event, it’s highly recommended you also get a good massage once or twice a month to help keep your body from becoming too stiff.
