We all know good food is not only the key to a healthier lifestyle but is a vital component to adding to your results in the gym. But, with all the information out there on nutrition and so many opinions to the best way to eat, its easy to become overwhelmed and confused to which one is the right one for you. 

So we’ve cleared the mud and put together 4 simple ways to start a healthier way to eat.

1. First, start a food diary – You would be surprised what you write down and you need to be completely honest when you do this. By first noting what you eat we can quickly see our habits and foods which we may be able to improve our choices with. 

• Reduce the not so good – Now you can see what you’re eating, we can start to make some small changes, we’re not looking to change your diet to chicken and broccoli, just make some small alterations to your currently eating.

Remember don’t be too hard on yourself here, its ok to have the things we like to eat still, just in moderation. You need to remember your setting up long term sustainable habits here. If you make your choices too limited you won’t be able to maintain them.

Where you can, doing simple things like reducing packed foods or adding in as much colour as you can to your salads and vege’s is a great start. 

• Tracking our food – Some people find this a great way to understand and measure how much they are consuming, as we know we can’t track what we don’t measure. Having an understanding of how many calories, proteins, carbs and fats we are consuming is a great resource to understanding the foods we eat and being consistent with the numbers. There are some great apps out there to make this easy like MyFitnessPal and Easy Diet Diary.

But don’t stress, this isn’t for everyone and by no means a must. By just following steps 1 & 2 can be enough to get help you on the path to healthier choices.    

• Get a food coach – We can find ourselves happily sitting with the above steps and find that’s all we need, but you may want to really hone in on the nutrition and get some expert advice. 

No different to why we may seek a coach for our training, we can do this with our food also. By finding a good nutrition coach this person can help you work towards your goals and complement your training. They can also help to give you direction, accountability and most of all their knowledge.