Written by Georgia Smith
The CFB Summer Nutrition Challenge began this week, so let’s talk food!
I want you to consider one of the most underrated aspects of nutrition.
It has nothing to do with what, when and how much you should eat. It’s more important than calories and macronutrients, or whether you’re paleo, vegan or ketogenic.
I’m talking about your relationship with food. Today, specifically, I want you to think about how you understand the connection between diet and exercise.
We have all heard the expression ‘food is fuel’. We need to eat enough to support our activity levels for performance, while not eating in excess of our caloric requirements, in order to prevent from gaining body fat. ‘Calories in vs. calories out’ has merit, but there is a real danger in creating too close a relationship between diet and exercise.
Food and exercise support each other, but they are not a transaction. We have all had the thoughts of ‘I’d better do an extra 20 minutes of cardio to burn off last night’s dessert’ or ‘it’s a rest day so I don’t deserve those carbs.’ The ideas that you can work off a treat meal or that you must earn your food are both unhealthy and misguided. These thoughts can lead to disordered eating habits and an unhealthy relationship with both food and exercise.
Exercise can help you lose weight, but it is a very inefficient way to do so. In the scheme of things, the calories we burn during an hour of exercise are insignificant compared to what we burn during the other 23 hours of the day. There are other very important physical benefits of exercise – increased muscle mass and strength, cardiovascular endurance, stamina, balance, flexibility, coordination, power, speed, accuracy and agility. Exercise helps us feel strong, capable and confident, and encourages us to eat the foods that we know will help us thrive. But exercise is not a punishment or a way to ‘burn off’ food. Treating it as such will set you up for misery and failure.
Food is more than just fuel. It supports our performance and provides us with energy, but it also makes up every cell in our body. As well as being essential for survival, eating can and should be a pleasurable experience. Food is family, culture and tradition, and it is impossible to divorce emotion and ritual from our eating habits. Meals should be enjoyed, eaten mindfully without distraction, and should leave you feeling full of energy. If fat loss is your goal, respecting your body with quality nutrition in appropriate quantities – and not punishing yourself with hours on the treadmill – will get you there.
Food and exercise complement each other, but you must avoid falling into the trap of treating them as a transaction. Enjoy healthy and tasty food because it makes you feel great, and exercise because you enjoy physical activity. The occasional treat will not cause you to gain 5lb, nor will missing a workout. Indulgences and time off are an inevitable and wonderful part of life, so create room for them by focusing on long-term consistency and sustainable habits.