Foundational Nutrition: Building Blocks For Your Best Body!

There are three synergistic components that must be present in any result oriented fitness or body transformation program and the one that is perhaps the most confusing is what I refer to as Foundational Nutrition (the other two, as you will soon learn, are moderate aerobic exercise and resistance training).  You're about to develop some clarity in preparing and eating "foundational meals."

By "foundational”, I'm referring to meals that are supportive of metabolism, meals that help maintain stable blood sugar levels, meals that provide optimal energy, and meals that provide material from which you'll build new healthy cells.

In order to get optimal nutrition, nutrition that supports your exercise efforts and boosts your metabolism, you'll want to get meals frequently throughout the day.  When you come to understand that metabolism simply refers to "the speed with which your body burns through food," you'll also understand that if you want to boost metabolism, you have to ask the body to process food often.

I encourage clients to seek a foundational meal every 3 hours.  A foundational meal would be made up of the most natural food choices possible.  It would be free from hydrogenated fat, low in or free from saturated fat, and free from simple sugar and refined flour.  A foundational meal would contain each of the following three elements in visually equal serving sizes:

	Lean Protein
	Starchy Carbohydrate
	Fibrous Carbohydrate

Want some samples?  OK . . . 

Lean Proteins include (but not limited to):

	Chicken Breast
	Turkey Breast
	Egg Whites
	Tuna Fish
	Shellfish
	Most Fresh Fish Filets

Starchy Carbohydrates include (but not limited to):

	Sweet Potato
	Brown Rice
	Oatmeal
	Whole Grains

Fibrous Carbohydrates include (but not limited to):

	Broccoli
	Cauliflower
	Mushrooms
	Peppers
	Onions
	Asparagus

Sample Foundatinal Meals (but not limited to):

	Chicken Breast, Baked Sweet Potato, Broccoli
	A Piece of Fish, Brown Rice, a Green Salad
	Egg White Omelet with Spinach and Mushrooms, Oatmeal
	Sliced Turkey Breast on Whole Grain Pita w/Tomato, Onion, Sprouts

It takes some getting used to, especially if you were raised on the idea of a small breakfast, a moderate lunch and a large dinner.  After a week or two of foundational eating, appetite usually becomes very supportive and an innate intelligence for portion sizes and meal frequency takes over.  The change is sometimes challenging, but it soon becomes simple to adhere to and the benefits speak for themselves.