Diet Building Blocks.

Now that we know a little more about fats and why they are good, let's look at another diet component.

Before we begin we have to understand a basic fact about our body.  Most people will tell you that the body is an engine and needs fuel.  Yes, but that is only half.  You need to think of the body as a self-repairing battery.  What I mean is this:  every activity you do, breaks the body down.  The body will then repair itself in anticipation of the activity again.

So not only do we eat to fuel the body, we need to eat to repair and rebuild.  Protein is the body's building block.  It comes from many sources, meats, eggs, diary, nuts, grains, and beans to name a few.  You choose based on your beliefs or potential allergies.

I was raised on elk and deer meat.  It does not get better than that.  Living in the city, I tend to use eggs and turkey.  But how much protein?  Current diet recommends 0.4 grams per kilogram of weight.  That is not a lot, not at all.

Figure one gram of protein per pound you way.  Using our 150lb model, they would be ingesting 150 grams of protein or 600 calories.  You can tweak this up or down depending.  At most, you may range as high as 2 gram per pound of body weight.

Adjusting protein intake is a little more critical than adjusting fat intake.  If you are deficient you will not know until you workout.  You have had those days where doing 10 pushups is nothing, you could do 11 if you wanted to.  Then then next day you can barely do 7.  WHAT THE HELL?!

What the hell is that you did not ingest enough protein to repair the muscle.  You are working out at reduced capacity.  When the muscles are fully repaired then the body is ready for those 11 pushups.

Now ingesting too much protein could be another problem all together.  High protein intake is a major strain on the kidneys.  Be sure to drink plenty of water to help out with the passing of waste.  When your kidneys become overworked, this weakens the body.

And I also need to mention, especially for the ladies that are prone to bladder infections, you should add a glass of cranberry juice into the mix.

When is the best time to eat protein?  All through the day.  Divy out the protein in small doses and larger doses for after the workouts and before bed time.  When we sleep at night, this is when the body does most of its repair and really needs major amounts of protein.  And we all know what happens when we get a large dose of protein, we tend to slip into a food coma.  Digesting protein is a major energy drain, but it is necessary for recuperation.

Now that you have your protein goal, be ready to tweak it.  That 150 grams is an average throughout your cycle.  If you run 12 miles on day, you may not need as much protein as playing rugby all day with a 20 lb ball.  There is no way your body is going to be happy with just a burger.  You are going to need the whole cow.