Fitness Starts in the Kitchen

It might not be what you want to hear, but it’s true—fitness starts in the kitchen. If you want to have a good workout, look beyond what you’re doing at the gym and take a look at the habits you’ve developed outside of the gym. Check in with yourself. Are you eating enough? Are you eating too much? Are you eating the right things?

Even if you’re trying to shed pounds you don’t want to starve yourself. Focus on bulky, low calorie, natural foods without added sugar. Fruits and leafy greens are both great places to start. 

Find Balance

In fact, the more balance you have in your diet, the better you’ll feel as you lose weight. This means eating protein with every meal and centering carb intake around your workout. It’s also important to get the right balance of vitamins and minerals.

If you’re struggling to get all the vitamins you need in a nutritious diet, a supplement might be beneficial to fill in the gaps. USANA Health Sciences offers minerals, probiotics and vitamins, all in support of a holistically healthy lifestyle. These products were made to go hand-in-hand with a fitness and mindfulness routine, which means they fit the lifestyles of those striving for good health and will help fuel your workout.

Pay Attention to What You Drink

Yes, the food, vitamins and minerals you consume are important to your workout. But, so are the liquids you put into your body. Drinking enough water is important to having a good workout. As you sweat, your body loses fluid. This needs to be replaced to avoid heat stress, maintain body function and keep you performing at your peak. 

How much water you need depends on how much you sweat. Understanding your sweat can be a huge benefit while you’re working out as well. Some people sweat out more minerals than others. You can tell if you sweat minerals, if your sweat tastes salty or you notice salt on your eyebrows or eyelashes. Those who sweat more minerals should consider replacing minerals as well as water, especially after long workouts. 

Limit Alcohol Intake

Just like replacing minerals and rehydrating your body after a workout can be beneficial to performance and overall health, limiting alcohol can have a positive effect on your workout. Alcohol dehydrates you. This means your body is less able to perform at top levels while working out. 

Likewise, drinking post workout can actua limit your body’s ability to recover and can render your workout obsolete. This is not just because it dehydrates you. Studies have shown that alcohol can impair protein synthesis, which is a process important in building muscle. When you drink, your body has to synthesize the protein first, meaning it’s not breaking down fat and essentially fueling your body instead of healthy fats and carbs. 

Sleep Well

Another reason alcohol can have an effect on your workout is because of how it interacts with your sleep cycles. When you drink, you’re less likely to spend time in restorative sleep cycles. These cycles are the times when your body is working to repair the tears and damage you did to it while working out. This means if you’re not getting quality sleep, you’re not going to feel recovered. 

Other things affect your sleep as well. Going to bed at the same time every night and avoiding blue light before bed can both be beneficial to sleeping well and consistently. The better you sleep, the better you feel, and the better you’ll perform at the gym.

There’s so much more to your workout than the time you spend at the gym. Whether it’s sleep or nutritional habits, there are so many ways that you can get more out of your workout. 

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