Nutrition for DediKate48
Amy helps us to prepare our nutrition for DediKate48!
Nutrition for DediKate48
Correct nutrition is vital to get the most out of your active lifestyle. You want to support yourself from the inside out to perform well and feel great doing it! Read more to find out how we can be the best versions of ourselves through nutrition and get the most out of DediKate48!
Stay Hydrated!
Hydration is so important for our health! If you are dehydrated you may feel fatigued, experience reduced cognition, have issues with temperature regulation and decreased exercise sustainability, just to name a few.
To help support yourself throughout this DediKate48 challenge, please make sure you are drinking at least 1.5 - 2 litres of fluid a day, and even more in hot weather. The best way to monitor hydration is to check your urine colour and aim for pale yellow to clear urine most of the time.
All fluids, except alcoholic beverages, count towards hydration levels but do try to prioritise water to avoid negative impacts of too much sugar or caffeine in certain drinks.
Nutrition is fuel!
Pre-Exercise Snacking
Fueling appropriately for exercise has a huge impact on the way you feel during your workout. If you haven’t eaten for a few hours or are feeling hungry or tired before a workout, you may want to try using pre-exercise snacks. They might be the energy boost you need to keep you going!
Pre-exercise snacks should be easy to digest and carbohydrate based for a quick energy release without any stomach upset during exercise. These could include fresh fruit such as bananas, dried fruit such as pineapple, toast with honey, fruity oat bars etc.
Support Recovery
To make an active lifestyle sustainable you will need to ensure you are recovering from the exercise you are doing. The most important thing here would be to make sure you are eating enough food overall to provide the extra energy you need to thrive. This will mean no fad diets, no skipping meals and no starvation, just an abundance of nutrient dense foods in each healthy, balanced meal.
The macronutrient protein will also become super important for repair and maintenance of muscle and other tissues, especially if you are just getting started. Try to include protein rich foods in each meal and even as part of your snacks such as, meat, fish, eggs, dairy, lentils and legumes.
Keeping up your energy!
Carbohydrate rich foods are where we predominantly get our energy from for exercise, especially high intensity exercise. Therefore, it is important not to cut out carbohydrate rich foods but include nutrient dense, fibrous carbohydrate options in each of your meals to make your active lifestyle more sustainable.
Prioritise foods such as kumara, potato, pumpkin, brown rice, beans, oats and whole grain breads over heavily processed carbohydrates such as white pasta, white bread, muffins, cakes and biscuits.
Let's Sum It Up!
Nutrition is so important to support an active lifestyle! During the DediKate48 challenge remember to:
- Stay hydrated!
- Use pre-exercise snacks when necessary!
- Support recovery by eating enough overall food, especially protein!
- Keep nutrient dense carbohydrates in the diet to support sustainable energy!
