To attain your full fitness potential you must develop a disciplined approach to living right. That means eating, exercise, and getting enough rest. Lets find out just how disciplined are you in the area of nutrition?
Do you...
-Consume 25% or more of your daily caloric needs at breakfast?
-Eat three or more meals a day?
-Have nutritious snacks between meals?
-Consume calories from all food groups?
-Consume 60% of your calories from complex carbohydrates?
-Restrict your intake of fat calories to 25%?
-Eat five servings of fruit per day?
-Eat at least one serving of vegetables per day?
-Cosume at least 25 grams of fiber/day?
-Drink at least eight glasses of water (8 ounces) per day in addition to replacing the water lost through sweat?
-Have a goal of body composition instead of bodyweight?
Hopefully the answer to all these questions was yes but I know it probably wasn't. That is ok. It is time to make a change. One thing you will notice if someone were to say yes to all of these questions it would be very apparent that the individual is not on one of the popular fad diets out there. They would simple be following a sound nutrition plan. Someone that would follow my advice or the advice of a Registered Dietitian would be saying yes to all these questions.
Supplements
Nutritional supplements ARE NOT MONITORED OR REGULATED by the FDA. For this reason I have never recommended nutritional supplements to my clients.
With supplement use you can not be sure of any of the following:
-Does it contain harmful substances?
-Does it contain the ingredients on the label?
-Does it do what it is claimed to do?
-Is it harmful to your health?
You will often see supplement advertisements with expert testimony based on facts, research, or scientific study. Don't fall in love with the expert testimonies that you read about a supplement in magazines. Testimony is an OPINION regarding the effectiveness of a product. Positive effects of supplement found in a "study" are easily explained with the placebo effect. The placebo effect has been demonstrated time and time again. I remember reading of a study when I was a student. A group was given a strong sedative but were informed by scientists that they were taking a stimulant. When the group was analyzed their body functions showed a response to a stimulant even though they had taken a sedative.
If you take nutritional supplements you do so at your own risk.