What I'd like to do is outline 6 basic nutritional habits that I teach my clients to adopt on a daily basis. If you can manage to do these too, it will lead to a healthier mind and leaner body. You'll already be aware of some of them, they're that simple. But if there is one thing that I have learned working in the health and fitness industry for over 10 years, its this -

There is a big difference between knowing what to do and implementing that knowledge on a daily basis in order to get yourself some significant and sustainable results.

So here they are.

Habit 1: Eat slowly and stop when you're 80% full.

The majority of us eat far too quickly, this presents a problem when it comes to fat loss because we tend to consume more calories than we actually need come meal time. The reason? Slow communication between our gut and our brain! You see, it takes around 20 minutes for our gut to acknowledge the amount of food we've taken in and send a signal to our brain saying "OK, I'm full".

With that being the case, if you're prone to guzzling down your food like a vulture (which was definitely me) you can easily eat more calories than your body actually needs. This will obviously contribute to weight gain, no matter what type of food that you're eating - not something that we want when fat loss is our goal!

You'll also notice that this habit has nothing to do with what you eat, but rather HOW you eat; which is why it may be the most important rule of all. You see, its irrelevant whether you have a McDonald's in front of you or chicken and broccoli - if you take in more calories than you're burning off, you're going to put on weight. If you burn more calories than you take in, you'll lose weight - its a simple as that.

You can prevent this by slowing your eating down - a good time to aim for is around 20 minutes per meal. If that's not realistic for you because you're a food guzzler, start slow and build up your meal time! You can use a stop watch to time yourself which acts as a good visual reminder. Just try and add another minute onto your meal time until you hit the magic number.

In terms of stopping when you're 80% full, we can define that further as eating until you're no longer hungry, rather than eating until you're full up and bloated! It involves tuning into your hunger and satiety cues and learning to listen to your body more. It takes a little time to master (2 weeks to a month if you're paying attention to it everyday) but trust me, it works.

Habit 2: Eat protein dense food with every meal.

Protein is one of the most important nutrients that we consume. It makes our structure, our hormones, immune system, enzymes and more. Without an adequate amount of protein, we cease to exist! Protein is also responsible for building and maintaining our muscle mass.

With that being the case, its not only important that we're eating enough protein on the daily to support the bodily functions above - but to go above and beyond that to support the growth of lean muscle tissue also. You wan to be lean? Then eat lean protein! The minimum amount that most should be consuming is around 0.8 grams of protein per KG of body weight. If you're training frequently, go with around 1.0/1.2 grams per KG of body weight.

Good sources of protein include red and white meat, fish, eggs, lentils, legumes and whey protein powder.

Habit 3: Eat vegetables with every meal.

I won't patronise you by telling you how important veggies are to your diet. I'm sure your grandparents harped on about them enough when you were a child. What I will do, however, is tell you how they can aid in your quest for fat loss.

You see, for all of the vitamins and minerals that veggies contain, they're actually very low in calories so they contribute towards your overall food intake significantly without raising your daily calorie intake much - this makes them a very nutrient dense food. Veggies are also high in fibre, which will help you to feel fuller for longer and will therefore stop you from snacking and consuming more calories.

Veggies also contain Phytonutrients, which help to protect you against diseases such as cancer. Not fat loss related, but arguably more important? Yea, I think so.

Habit 4: Eat healthy fats daily.

Yes, its true that fat contains the most calories but no, its not true that all fats are equal. The only fats that you should be limiting from your diet are Trans fats and you can do this by staying clear of any foods that are processed and packaged, foods that contain long ingredient lists and long shelf life's.

Other types of fat (saturated, Mono-unsaturated and Poly-unsaturated fats) are healthy for you! They help balance our hormones, forms the membranes of our cells, brain and nervous system along with much more. With all that taken into account, you should be consuming these healthy fats daily and in a ratio of around a third each.

You can easily achieve this by snacking on a variety of nuts and seeds throughout the day, cooking in healthy oils such as olive and coconut oil and eating a variety of lean meats and diary.

For more on healthy fats, see my other article ' Some Facts about Fats '

Habit 5: Eat your starchy carbohydrates after exercise

Do you enjoy eating foods like pasta, rice and bread? Well you can continue enjoying them - but if fat loss is your primary goal, you must focus on eating them after exercise and also try to stick to unrefined carbs as much as you can. I wont bore you with all of the science jargon as to why, just know that your body prefers to use carbs as its main source of fuel for high demand activity (such as a demanding gym session or physically active job)

With that being the case, it makes sense to consume your carbs after such activities have been completed to refuel your muscles with energy. Furthermore, your body becomes a lot more nutrient sensitive after exercise and its best to eat them in this 2/3 hour window.

The general rule of thumb is to increase your healthy fats and lower your carbohydrate intake before exercise, while increasing your carbs and dropping your healthy fat intake after exercise.

Catch my drift?

Habit 6: Drink more water

I said that I wasn't going to patronise you, didn't I? My apologies, but far too many people go about their day not drinking enough and are not even aware of the fact either. It'll have a significant impact on your fitness goals but most importantly, your health!

Our cells are what make up our metabolism and our metabolic rate - each and every single one of those cells (trillions) needs water in order to do its job efficiently so if we don't drink enough, our metabolism slows down. You know who else slows down? You. Not drinking enough water makes us lethargic, demotivated, tired and effects our performance in the gym.

Oh, its also roughly 60% of your body weight - which should really tell you something. Have I convinced you to get drinking yet? I hope so - aim for around 2 litres a day and you're golden.

So there you go, I've reinvented the health and fitness wheel! Well, not really, but I have given you some simple habits that will indeed change you body over time. Take your time with them, focus on building all of them into you lifestyle daily and most importantly, please be patient! These things take time. Remember my statement from my previous post -

'Lasting changes to your body are the result of healthy habit and behaviour changes that are built up over time'.

Thanks for reading,

Coach Daz.