LETS TALK NUTRITION....

Nutrition is one of the things that I have always struggled with, I just love food too much! As an athlete I really should have some sort of loose nutritional diet but I just can't stick to one no matter how hard I try! I want to talk about my experiences with diets and nutrition professionals and why it's a load of rubbish- to me anyway!

I am a firm believer in 'everything in moderation'. This means that if you want to pig out on some chocolate every now and again - do it. Problems only start arising when pigging out on chocolate becomes a regular occurrence and doing so without balancing it out with some sort of exercise. In my opinion I do eat quite healthily, I have home cooked meals near enough every night (thanks Mam) and try to have three healthy meals a day. My problem is snacking - it kills me. If I had the option between a banana or a chocolate biscuit, I would choose the chocolate biscuit every time.

I know this may sound shocking coming from a so called 'athlete' but if I'm having three healthy meals a day, I NEED a treat! If it was the other way round and I was having three unhealthy meals a day and choosing the banana as a treat, then I think there would be an issue.

I hate hate hate seeing on Instagram and Facebook all the adverts for these stupid diets- slimming coffee, slimming sweets, generic diets. RUBBISH! Everyone's different - that is a fact. In order for a diet to work it NEEDS to be specific to you as an individual and your daily activities. Everyone has a different daily calorie intake and output along with metabolism speed. So why would a diet made for the 'normal' person work for you? You know yourself better than anyone. You know what you like to eat, your preferred workout, and what time of day to exercise works best for you. You will not stick to a diet if you do not like and enjoy the food you’re eating.

I have been to a number of different nutritional professionals who all try and tell you what you should and shouldn't eat and how much you should eat per day. I tried to stick to one of the diets they prescribed me for one day and I felt awful. I'm not just saying this to back my point or to pose a negative image on nutritionists, it just wasn't the right thing for me. I was constantly hungry throughout the day as the portion sizes were half of what I would normally have, which lead to me snacking more!!

As I am a relatively active individual I have come to the conclusion that I can eat what I want, in moderation, because I burn most of it off whilst training. I know most people aren't as fortunate as I am but I want to stress the point of, if you want to eat more than your calorie input per day, you must be burning off them extra calories! Obviously this isn't expected every day, as I know people have treat weekends and days where they just need to pig out. But if this is a regular occurrence, and you don't want to change your diet to substitute for not exercising then an issue may arise.

If you are unsure about how many calories you should be consuming per day, here is a really helpful website which works out your calorie input based on your age, weight, height and activity level - https://jcdfitness.com/calorie-intake-calculator/