Basic eating principles for a healthy body, with less fat and more energy.

Basic eating principles for a healthy body, with less fat and more energy.

Let's dive straight into the principles!

Eating is an art!

Water:

1. Drink 0.5-1 litre water first thing in the morning. In winter preferably tea-warm.

2. Drink 0.5 litre 20-30 minutes before your meals. Never drink water with or immediately after meals as it impairs digestion. Hydrate yourself prior to the meal, so you don’t feel thirsty afterwards.

3. Don’t gulp down your water. Drink it slowly. Let it stay in your mouth for some seconds.

Fruit:

1. Eat your fruit only before each meal, never after a meal. Fruit is digested very quickly, and needs to pass to your intestines. Don’t block it with food.

2. If you snack on fruit, eat fruit 3 hours after a meal, and only if you are on the go, moving, training, etc. Fruit’s sugar is mainly metabolised in the liver, and if you don’t use that energy to move, workout, etc., it becomes liver fat.

3. Eat one kind of fruit every time. Don’t mix it.

Juices:

1. Avoid fruit juices at all cost! Fruit juices might contain vitamins but are full of sugar. This sugar goes immediately in your blood, elevating glucose levels and make you feel hungry. It is also stored in your liver and makes you fat. One small cup of orange juice contains 21 gr of sugar!

2. Best option is whole fruits as the fibre control the sugar to be released slowly in your blood stream.

3. Another great option is vegetable juices! Try carrots, celery, ginger, and half an apple. Packed with vitamins, and delicious!

Salt:

1. Use salt. Don’t be afraid of it, but use it in moderation. Especially, during warm days and days of medium to high activity you need it.

2. Always make sure you use whole sea salt (iodised if possible).

Nuts and seeds:

1. Choose nuts and seeds without salt. Preferably raw, and warm them a bit either in a pan or in the oven.

2. More pumpkin seeds for men, more almonds for women. But we should have both.

3. Peanut is not a nut! It is a legume, like lentils. So, eat in moderation!

4. Never eat nuts and seeds after 17:00-18:00. They digest very slowly as they provide lots of energy and they might keep you awake or disturb sleep.

Meals:

1. Don’t eat immediately after you wake up. Drink your water and give it an hour at least.

2. Eat 2 or 3 complete meals a day. Try to not snack.

3. Eat your meals in punctual hours every day. E.g. 9am, 1pm, 7pm. Don’t eat irregular hours.

4. Eat protein rich foods for first meal, e.g., eggs or tofu with avocado, whole bread or rice or quinoa. Avoid sugars, cereals, honey, etc. Honey is better later in the day if you really like it.

Theofanis, BodyALign