Nutrition, what you eat and when you eat it, is a major factor in "how you look and feel". Typically people have gym memberships to work on various goals like, weight loss, toning and tightening, pure muscle gain, becoming stronger, or, increasing their stamina. For the purposes of this discussion, we'll focus on adding muscle and weight loss. Most fitness goals require either or both of those actions.

Adding Muscle: Creating and maintaining healthy muscles requires, among other things, proper nutrition. For the purpose of this discussion, we'll broaden the term "nutrition" to include other things we ingest.

The average person with a sedentary lifestyle requires 4 tenths (.4) of a gram of protein for every pound they weigh, just to keep the muscles they have healthy. For example, a 200# man would require 80 grams of protein a day. A very active person, like an 200# athlete, would require 7 tenths of a gram per pound or 140 grams a day. Professional body builders require 1 gram per pound, 200 grams a day. One chicken breast has about 20 grams in it. Beans, poultry, fish and egg whites are other excellent sources of protein.

Often jobs and other daily duties make it difficult to eat the protein you need for muscle growth. Nutritional supplements like "protein shakes" and "power bars" are an excellent source of protein and easy to consume during the day. Most protein shakes and power bars have between 30-50 grams of protein.

Add a multi-vitamin to your nutrition. It can help provide the balance of vitamins and minerals required to keep your enzymes and hormones in balance. Yes, muscle growth requires hormones and enzymes that you're probably not getting from "The Burger Doodle" or microwave oven.

Drink lots of water! Drink up to a gallon a day! Much of muscle mass is water. Your muscles require it, and, if you're not fully hydrated each tiny muscle cell will shrink to some extent and the entire muscle will be smaller. Water also helps prevent cramping during a work out. Caution: By the time you realize you're thirsty, you've waited to late to hydrate properly! Drink water all day, every day.

Avoid caffeine. It's a diuretic and consequently will try to dehydrate you.

Losing Weight: At Rhodes, we avoid using the term "diet". A diet often implies a temporary, short-term change in lifestyle. Although many goals can be achieved by short-term change, they usually aren't long lasting. They are set up for long term failure. Why? Because by being temporary, they are behaviors that seem like punishment, and we look forward to being rewarded by a "return to the old habits, like, "NOW, I can go have all the chocolate cake and fried fish I want". Diets create a Yo-Yo effect.

Also, many diets can be terribly destructive to our overall health because they are totally focused on weight loss! Unfortunately, they generally don't target only the loss of fatty tissue, and we lose muscle at the same time.

The average person leading a reasonably active lifestyle needs 15 calories per pound they weigh to maintain their weight. For example, a 120# woman would require 1800 calories a day.

To lose one pound of weight, a person must burn 3500 calories more than they consume. If our 120# woman wants to lose 10 pounds in 5 weeks, she could reduce her caloric intake by 600 calories a day and burn off 400 calories per day with her workout program. The one thousand calorie swing per day should result in a 2 pound weight loss per week (2 pounds = 7000 calories), a 500 calorie swing should produce a 1 pound loss per week, etc.

CAUTION! Calorie reduction can result in the loss of muscle tissue instead of fat. Your reduced intake must assure you have enough carbs and protein to maintain healthy muscle tissue plus adequate vitamins and minerals. If not, a 20 pound weight loss may become a 12 pound loss of fatty tissue and an 8 pound loss of muscle. Without a modest amount of the right carbs and a generous amount of proteins, your body suffers. Certain proteins are essential to transport oxygen, maintain body structure, facilitate movement, metabolism, a healthy immune system and hormone production.

Sure, you can lose weight with a fad diet, but you'll likely lose muscle and harm your general health as well. And, after the diet is over, over time the fatty tissue will return easily, while the muscle doesn't come back, resulting in more fat and less shape than before the diet.

Finally, there are the popular "diet pills" seen in magazines and on TV with glowing testimonials that seem to promise wonderful results with no effort. Read them closely when they appear on TV or in a magazine. Stacker2*, Zenadrine 40+* and the "new" Lipotrol* all have small print that states something like, "when used with a proper exercise and nutrition plan".

( * Brand Names are the property of their respective manufacturers)

In other words, you need to exercise and eat right, even with the "magic pill". So, we're left with three choices for slimming down:

(1) Take the pills while ignoring the fine print, risk the negative side effects like irritability, poor sleep, diarrhea, etc., and not reach our goals.

(2) Take pills with the risk of irritability, poor sleep, diarrhea, etc., and, still start an organized exercise and nutrition program to reach our goals.

(3) We can rely on an organized, supervised exercise and nutrition plan that works without risky side effects, avoids the cost of the pills, and, has dozens of positive physical and social benefits.

Lifestyle changes become permanent. Explore the world of foods. There's a whole buffet of wonderful tasting foods that avoid the battle of the bulge and others that facilitate muscle growth. Discover healthy foods that you like; incorporate them daily and relate them to your "new look" until they become "habit". Once they're habit, they last for a lifetime and won't seem like work or sacrifice. They become normal.

Ask your Rhodes Trainer for specific nutritional help. He/she'll be happy to suggest nutritional changes that'll specifically address your goals, whether they be "losing 25 pounds", gaining 2 inches in your biceps, or, simply improving your stamina and energy level.

• Eat your carbs at breakfast and lunch, avoid them after 5 PM.
• Eat 4-6 small meals a day so that you never "feel hungry". Never skip meals.
• Avoid white foods……sugar, flour, salt, refined rice, potatoes.
• Choose the right carbs… whole grains, high fiber (like bran), sweet potatoes.
• Explore a food's "real taste". Most pre-packaged foods are full of salt or sugar
• Focus on how your clothes fit instead of pounds. It's how we look, right?
• Record what you consume for a week, every tidbit and glass of water.
• Remember, orange juice is healthy but 1/2 gallon a day will load you with sugar.
• Bake, broil, grill or saute/pan fry foods (with butter substitutes) instead of frying
• Try protein shakes, if you consume less than 1/2 gram protein per # you weigh.
• Protein intake is most beneficial within 1/2 hour of a workout.
• Take a multi-vitamin daily.
• Drink a gallon of water a daily.

Breakfast –

1 slice of whole wheat toast

½ carton of egg beaters(about 4 eggs)

1 cup of fruit

½ cup of cottage cheese or ½ cup of cheese in an omlet

Sides - spray butter, ¼ teaspoon of jelly or teaspoon of salsa

Coffee, tea or water(sugar substitutes only, no cream)

Lunch –

7 oz chicken without skin and not fried

1 cup broccoli, rice and cheese combo

1 cup apples

Supper –

4 oz fish(not fried)

2 med. New potatoes(5.5oz)

1 cup baby carrots

Snacks for the day

Sugar free jello

Protein Bars or shakes

Pork skins