Vital Steps Wellness Program:
Healthy Eating

A healthy diet consists of foods and drinks that primarily enable your body to perform essential functions, like digesting food, thinking, speaking, and even breathing. Secondary to these, we need food to perform movement – whether it's getting out of bed, doing fifty push-ups, or running a marathon, your body needs extra energy that comes from foods and drinks.

The energy that is used comes in the form of calories, and calories come in many guises. Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, Vitamins, Minerals, Water and more, need to be taken in a careful balance to ensure we can fulfil our body's potential.

How Does It Affect Me?

If you take on more calories than is required on a daily basis, regardless of what form they come in, the excess will either be stored or be excreted. Depending on the type of food, storage is the first option the body takes. If you consume too many carbohydrates the body breaks the food down into a form that it can use for energy. If your body doesn't need it for energy, the carbohydrate will be broken down into a storable form named glycogen, which is stored in the liver and muscles. If you take on too much fat, the body will find it difficult to break it down and use it for energy. Ideally, our body would like a constant intake of good calories throughout the day, as and when it needs it. But this would require nibbling all day. So, with regular, small balanced meals, you are maximizing your body's chance of using what you intake, and minimizing the chances of storing too much of what it cannot use.

What Effect Will Exercise Have On It?

The more exercise and activity you do, the more calories your body burns up to produce energy to use for your workouts. Simply, the amount of food you take on should reflect the amount of energy you expend. If you don't have enough readily available glycogen to use, or if you are still exercising and have almost run out of this source, your body will turn to another. Usually this is stores of fat that is not easily broken down and you will find that your mental and physical performance is reduced dramatically if your carbohydrate stores are depleted severely.

The key to healthy eating revolves around the Energy Balance, the amount that goes in versus the amount that goes out. Many people assume that "I'll just eat less and I'll lose weight." The body tends to hang on to fat and other stores if you simply don't give it enough to function. This is a safety mechanism as your body goes into self-preservation mode. A drastic imbalance will lead to the self-preservation mode at one end of the spectrum, to dramatic weight gain at the other end. So simply put, An equal balance will be the best for weight maintenance, an imbalance slightly in favour of energy "out" will favour safe weight loss, and an imbalance (of the right kinds of foods) in favour of energy "in" will favour safe weight gain.

If weight gain is your goal, it is probably because you want to gain muscle mass. Healthy eating plays a key role, as muscles will need proteins to build stronger & bigger. When you perform any type of vigorous exercise, you are actually breaking down the muscle tissue. What determines the success of the workout is what you give the muscle to help rebuild it after you have finished your workout. A combination of carbohydrates with a safe amount of protein, as soon as possible, will enable the tissue to grow back stronger & more efficient. Take in moderation "Protein Shakes," as the excess protein that the body does not need is excreted and can actually damage the kidneys over a period of time.