The Sunday News
Simon Gama
INEXPERIENCED bodybuilders may tell you that the most difficult aspect of bodybuilding is either training legs or shedding body fat. With experience, though, bodybuilders learn that their greatest challenges are maintaining consistency and moderation, particularly regarding diet. Simon has advocated eating five or six whole-food meals a day. That might be challenging, but it’s also crucial to bodybuilding success.
A constant supply of nutrients in the form of whole food ensure that your body has the tools it needs for growth at all times. This creates many real-world challenges, particularly for bodybuilders who have to integrate work or school into their schedules.
The key to success in this area is implementing a nutrition plan that you can reasonably adhere to. Often, inexperienced bodybuilders run into trouble because they place huge expectations upon themselves each day. If you expect to prepare and eat six food meals a day, you’ll soon realise that cooking and eating will- yes, you guessed it-consume your life. You will barely have time to train, let alone hold a job, go to school or have a family life.
If there is one rule that guides all professional bodybuilders, it is that whole food is the holy grail of nutrition. Supplements can vary as can training philosophy, but nutrition is essentially the same for all pro bodybuilders. A diet based primarily on whole food is essential. Why?
The best answer is that if eating any other way were more effective, pro bodybuilders would be doing it. But they don’t, so planning and cooking in advance is critical if you are going to optimise your training efforts and maintain your sanity.
The good news is that following a high-protein diet is much easier now than it was just five years ago. High-protein bars and shakes can “fill-in” when a meal isn’t possible. However, living out of a shaker or existing on supplements is definitely not the way to get bigger and leaner.
Too often, inexperienced bodybuilders replace the effectiveness of the whole foods with the perceived convenience of supplements aren’t good – they’re great for when a whole-food meal isn’t an option. It’s just a bad idea to substitute supplements when you can be eating a whole food meal. With that in mind, Simon wants to help you become a consistent 24 hour-a day bodybuilder by incorporating as many as whole-food meals as possible into your busy schedule. We explain how to buy, store and prepare all the meals you need to make gains you want.
Reduce “foraging” as much as possible. Each month, set aside an allotment of time to buy the bulk of your food and supplements. Prepare your list throughout the month, based on the food you reasonably expect to consume. When you go on this monthly shopping spree, you should have two goals: to buy food in quantities large enough to last until the next month and to spend less money by buying in larger quantities. Use the following tips when shopping .
*Buy meat in bulk. Find stores that sells quality inexpensive meat. Buy large packs of fish fillets, lean beef and boned chicken breasts. Your local supermarkets may or may not be the best bet. Compare prices at butcher shops, supermarkets and discounts stores, and settle on the place that offers the best quality at the most reasonable rates.
*buy fresh vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli.
*Buy frozen and canned vegetables. Many bodybuilders shy away from packaged vegetables, believing that fresh is better. That may be true, but it’s only marginally so.
Frozen vegetables are nutritious as their fresh counterparts, plus they will easily keep for a month or more. Canned vegetables also offer most of the same nutritional benefits as their fresh counterparts but some are packed in salt, which many bodybuilders try to avoid. Read labels to make certain you know what you’re getting. Eat canned and frozen foods later in the month as your fresh food supply diminishes.
*buy grains and complex carbs in bulk. Make certain you have brown rice, white rice, yams , potatoes and oatmeal well stocked. Most grains will keep over a month without spoilage. * buy fresh fruit. Keep in mind that oranges and apples will stay fresh longer than grapes, peaches and bananas. Also, buy frozen and canned fruit (with no sugar added) so you have some on hand through out the month. Additional information from Online sources.
The writer, Simon Gama is a fitness trainer at Bodyworks Gym in Bulawayo.
