Maintaining a Healthy Relationship With Food as a Fitness Buff
If you’re into fitness you should know how important a role food plays in maintaining fitness and body composition. This is why it’s important to maintain a healthy relationship with food, especially if you’re regularly hitting the gym. Here are tips for looking at food as a friend rather than an adversary.
Assess Your Goals
First and foremost, it’s important to assess your goals. Are you a fitness professional or are you hitting the gym as a hobby? Are you aiming to lose weight, build muscle or lean out this year?
Answering these questions can help you determine what you should and shouldn’t be eating. If you’re a professional and trying to get to a certain weight or body composition for a competition, your goals are going to be different than a recreational fitness enthusiast. No matter what, it’s important to go about getting to your goals in a healthy way.
It’s Okay to Take a Break
On that same note, remember that it’s okay to take a break and cut yourself some slack. Especially over the holidays or on vacation, you’re outside your regular routine and it can be hard to stick to your typical meal plan. That’s okay though! Take a break and enjoy the time, food and company. If you’re sunning in the Caribbean, enjoy a high-calorie rum punch. If you’re skiing in Utah, find cookies in Provo for a delicious treat to warm you up after a day on the slopes.
On the same note, there are times when your body needs a diet break. If you’ve been eating at a deficit for lengthy periods of time, give yourself a break where you eat at a surplus or at maintenance. This will help keep your metabolism high and make it easier for you to cut fat the next time you start a fat loss cycle. Holidays and vacations are a great time to start a maintenance cycle, since it’s tough to maintain fat loss at these times anyway.
How Carefully Are You Counting Macros?
Whether you’re maintaining weight, cutting fat or bulking, odds are you’re counting macros or following a structured diet plan. Counting macros and prepping food takes a lot of time. It’s easy to get burnt out over time. Instead of planning to count macros or calories long term, pay attention when you’re in a structured diet and learn portion sizes and the macronutrient makeup of foods you eat regularly. Once you learn enough, you should be able to gauge what you should eat in a day without having to log every bite you put in your mouth.
Take a Honest Look at What You’re Eating Every Day
On the same note, if you’re struggling to lose weight while in a fat loss cycle, it may be time to reassess what you’re eating. You may be thinking you need to cut more calories, but that may not be the case. Instead, look at what you’re putting in your body every day. There may be some hidden ingredients that you’re missing. Or, if you’ve been subbing out junk food for high quality foods, your body may not be processing these items well and not operating as efficiently.
Again, remember that you need to eat enough, even in fat loss. It can be easy to think that the solution is cutting more calories if you’re not losing weight. But that’s not the case. Food is fuel for your body. Eating enough of it will help you maintain muscle and lose fat in a healthy way.
Be Honest with Yourself
Finally, you can’t maintain a healthy relationship with food unless you’re honest with yourself. Check-in with yourself and assess how you’re feeling. Does the thought of eating a piece of cake for dessert make you squirm? Do you worry that a party means you’ll have to eat dishes that don’t fit in your macros?
Conclusion
If your answer to either of these questions is yes, you need to reassess your relationship with food. Yes, fitness is important. But there’s more to enjoying life than the gym. Every now and then it’s okay to drink the extra glass of wine and have a plate of dessert. Retraining your brain to have a healthy relationship with food takes time, but you can get there!
