Be Your Own Trainer – Water and Food
Water sucks, Gatorade is better
You. Must. Remember. To. Hydrate.
I have had clients pass out on me before (well, not on me, that’d be a different kind of post all together) from heat exhaustion or lack of food intake. Please, don’t pass out. That would be all sorts of bad news.
Two tips for this post:
1) Drink water.
For women, it’s recommended to drink around 3 liters of water a day. I hear people bitching all the time about ‘œwater weight.’ Lades, you have hormones that flux your weight each month. Deal with it. If you’re not used to it now, then you’ll have to work on that. Men, it’s recommended that you drink five to six liters per day. So get yourselves a jug of water or a water bottle (Don’t but the 16oz throw away water bottles at the gym, they’re bad for the environment and cost you however much each time you go. Seriously, accessorize! Get a cute water bottle and refill it however many times to equal your suggested intake, did I really just say ‘œaccessorize’? ugh)
You can go for Gatorade and vitamin water but just remember how much sugar is actually in those drinks. Sometimes they do more harm than anything else.
2) Eat healthy.
Now I’m going to throw some stereotypes at you, these aren’t total judgments on the greater American population as I see it, but it’s just from the work that I’ve done in the past. Women want to lose weight, men want to gain weight. Its just hormones taking effect there.
Image provided by The Okinawa Program
Everybody remember this from elementary school? Good.
To Lose Weight: Obviously eat fruits and vegetables like they’re going out of style. Stay away from carbs/sugars/fat as best you can and do a lot of cardio. You’ll get there. Have a cereal bar for breakfast instead of a bagel, a salad with lean meant for lunch and a well balance meal for dinner. It’s also important to have some kind of low-cal protein shake (not like ‘œmaaa, where’s my protein’ but something lean with a recovery stimulant in it) in there as a snack. I personally suggest MuscleMilk, Myoplex or good old fashioned 1% milk.
To Gain Weight: Have healthy balanced meals and maybe think about adding a weight gainer shake or a supplement to your routine. Protein shakes are a great additive; just make sure you’re not overdoing it on the fake kind, that’ll make your stomach hurt all sorts of different ways. Supplements can be found at your local GNC, APEX, or Vitamin Shoppe are great resources for information and accessibility. By the dubs, don’t always trust the teenager working behind the counter, they work for minimum wage and are told to push certain supplements over others just because of their cost. Do your research first.
Cheap Substitutes for a Real Life Trainer
My Food Diary – This is a really great web-based program (accessable so long as you have a wifi) to keep track of your food intake, and automatically count calories. You can also track your workouts and join the online community to get that extra boost for your self confidence.
Peace
Experienced Lifters ‘“ Check out my newest workout plan, ‘œThe Suicide Workout’
Any suggestions for a low-cal protein shake that’s not milk based?
Awesome question!
Check out SportPharma
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/sport/sport.htm
Their product description is as follows:
“SportPharma weight gainer formula is power packed with calories and protein for the promotion of weight gain. SportPharma proprietary blend of whey protein is manufactured using an advanced low temperature microfiltration, ultrafiltration and diafiltration process. In the microfiltration process, fat is removed from the whey by the use of special membranes that allow the proteins and other soluble components to pass through while retaining the fat globules. The lactose and soluble minerals are then removed by ultrafiltration and diafiltration. Microfiltration allows whey proteins to be recovered in their natural proportions in the final product. SportPharma whey proteins are superior in quality, containing the amino acids in the correct proportions required by the human body. Protein utilization, digestibility and nitrogen retention is essential for muscle recovery and building lean muscle mass. SportPharma whey protein is the product of choice for people leading active lifestyles or athletes in heavy training. Great for Young and Old. 5,000,000 high school athletes. 80.9% of coaches advise on nutrition. Older adults need high calorie foods. Safe nutritional food. No caffeine or stimulants.”
Then again, you could always use a more popular protein, like Myoplex, and use soy milk… or water.
Hope this helps!
Hey Lucy,
Nice post, but I’m a little intrigued by the recommendation to drink 5-6L of water a day. The most common statistic I’ve heard is 2L of water a day, and recently a “Medical Myths” report suggested that that figure isn’t based on solid research either. I’m just wondering where that figure comes from?
Thanks, Lucy, but I actually meant a product that doesn’t contain milk products. Both Myoplex and SportPharma contain whey, which is a milk derivative.
Well, it’s recommended that you drink 2 liters of water a day because the figure also takes into effect that you’ll drink coffee, orange juice, soda, and whatever else during the day.
It’s amazing what water actually does to your body (flushes out toxins, speeds up metabolism, etc) so I, in general, never drink anything other than water.
Ok, rare occurrences that I actually do go out to a party/bar/karaoke, yes, I’ll have a few beers/shots. But water is what I always come back to.
Try it. The only draw back is how many trips you’ll have to take to the bathroom.
🙂
Opps -Sorry Amy J, I misunderstood.
There’s a great soy protien made by ProLab. I haven’t really tried any other kind of soy protien (apart from the ProLab) so that’s the only “it doesn’t taste horrible” suggestion I’ve got for you right now.
Check it out here:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/pl/soy.html
However, I’ll go to the health store this weekend and test some stuff out for you!
Lucy: I’m impressed that water is your drink of choice. I’ve tried to wean myself from coffee. The longest I’ve gone without it over the last ten years is probably 3 or 4 days. One time I made the switch to tea for about 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I love my caffeine and always find my way back to that morning cup(s) of Joe. I try to drink 1.5 liters (a big bottle – I know, shame on me for buying bottled water but it’s an easy way to keep track of my intake) of water the rest of the day to make up for my coffee crutch.
If I drank 3 liters of water a day I would live in the bathroom! There must be a better way! 😉
On the question about high protein drinks- get soy protein powder. you can mix it with orange juice,bananas, any fruit or fruit juice really, and/or yogurt if that is ok for you.