To Pie or Not to Pie?

I get asked a lot about nutrition by both men and women, and many people comment on how they find this aspect the most challenging part of their life. It’s not surprising, maintaining good nutrition can be tricky for a number of reasons.

There are a number of factors to consider and although there are general guidelines, people are different and the bodies respond in different ways to different foods and macronutrients. This is where a tailored approach comes in.

Putting this to one side there are some fundamental elements that contribute to managing good nutrition fir the long term which are essentially related to your relationship with food, behaviour and time management. Also, the age old say saying “knowledge is power” couldn’t be truer with nutrition.

If you are aware of the food you eat, understand the concept of overall nutritional targets and are conscious that you are responsible for the food you eat it will go a long way to laying a solid foundation to get your eating habits on point.

Just to quickly demonstrate, the other night my son was having these tasty little party pies. Who wouldn’t want to smack a few of these delicious titbits! For me I could easily eat in excess of 20+ pies and still be looking around to see what’s next. On quick inspection reading the packet each pie contains 3.8grm protein, 11grm carbs and 4.9grm fat. For their given size each pie is very calorie dense.

Again I’m a big believer in that in life your approach should be based on the individual, but for ease let us use the recommended daily energy intake for adults being 8,700kJ (2,000cal). And knowing that:

⁃ 1grm protein = 16.7kJ
⁃ 1grm carb = 16.7kJ
⁃ 1grm fat = 37.7kJ

Now with some quick math (or simply reading the back of the packet) each pie is 430kJ. So, if I had eaten my desired 20+ in one meal I would have destroyed this! Yet I wanted to taste these tasty treats (dieting atm you can imagine how good they looked)

So what did I do…. well, I had 2. And by doing so I made sure I adjusted my food intake to allow for this. This behaviour/thought process is integral to maintaining good nutrition in life.

It’s all about balance and moderation but still being able to enjoy the things we like. To get this right does take some practice, but with help of a good professional who actually understands the differences in individuals it is very achievable and sustainable in the long term.
Balanced with a solid resistance training program makes for a very successful approach to weight loss, maintenance, hypertrophy (building muscle) and general health and well-being. It’s a lifestyle change that is required not done fad diet or detox