Health is everything: to understand the nutritional needs of your body and develop eating habits that provide your body with what it needs is absolutely essential to having the energy to be productive on a daily basis—especially when you are thinking of entering the world of bodybuilding competitions. This is why you need to be extra, extra EXTRA ‘ware of your diet and what you’re putting in your body.

After all, you don’t want your months—or years—of strength training to be counter productive or negatively affected by losing the gains you’ve made because of eating the wrong foods.

Your body is your own

More than anything listen to your body and know what you process well—or don’t. It’s easy to think that a supplement or special diet will work for you because it worked for someone else but that person’s body isn’t yours! Sure, try things out but don’t force yourself into a diet that ends up doing you harm. Particularly listen to your body when it comes to things like allergies—and if you know you have one don’t put your body, and life, at risk by eating anything you might react to.

High vibratory foods

High vibratory foods are the way to go: we are looking for foods to put in our bodies that are packed full of nutrition. Research shows that people who live the longest eat fewer foods than their counterparts–and what we’ve done is look for foods that are highly nutritious…  so we don’t have to eat as much food as we used to get the same amount of nutrition. This will cause your digestive system to work less. Typically, you will hear bodybuilders tell you to eat more and more, however I want to have a lot of muscle AND live a long life—and with nutrition technology nowadays it is possible to accomplish just that.

Protein, protein, protein!

That being said, most bodybuilding experts–like myself—know through years of experience that protein is the way to repair your muscles after breaking them down. It is absolutely essential if you want to maintain tonality and muscle composition. Egg whites are a great source, as is chicken and turkey. Fish is always great and can also provide you with essential oils and healthy fats. Beans (or any kind of legume) is a great addition for vegans and vegetarians—and a great source of fiber. Red meat is fine but try to hold yourself to the lean cuts.

A rule of thumb to remember as it relates to protein is that in every meal a man should have 40 grams of protein, with carbs or healthy fats, and greens. A woman should have 20 grams of protein, with healthy fats or carbs and greens.

Water, water, water!

When talking about water, alkalized, ionized, purified water is the way to go. Since water is the one thing you put the most of in your body everyday, it is absolutely essential that it is high quality. Many of the pros have turned to water purification systems that provide all of these components—and one that I would highly recommend is the Vesta or Melody from Alkiviva. Water purification technology has evolved to the point where you can achieve the highest supplement absorption when combining your supplements with highly purified water. Up to 70% of your body is pure water, so make sure you stay hydrated.

 

 

Whey Protein

There are three main kinds of protein: whey protein, whey-isolate, and casine. Whey protein is medium digesting. Whey isolate is fast digesting—and casine takes the longest to digest. The digestion rates all have to do with the length of peptides. This is just a brief description of the kinds of protein available—nowadays there are all kinds of new protein products entering the market: everything from vegetable protein to hemp protein to various combinations. We’ll go further into the science of proteins and conversions rates, ounces to grams of protein later—but for now you can use as a general guide.

Again, you know your body better than anyone — so listen to it! But also listen to experts like myself who have years of experience in fitness and bodybuilding. The bottom line is that you are working to be in the best shape you can be: so exercise, be disciplined, eat well, and keep reading!