Are you looking to improve your health and fitness?

Today, I uncover 5 proven nutrition tips to get you started!

1. Eat more vegetables.

We start all of our Phase 1 Nutrition Coaching members with a very simple habit. 

That habit is to eat more vegetables. In fact, eat them at every meal or snack. 

No matter what your nutrition goal is -- weight loss, performance, muscle gain or a combination, simply eating more vegetables will have a profound impact on your health.

To start, they are low in calories but packed with nutrients. 

For a general rule, when you make your plate, have more than half of your plate filled with vegetables, one third of your plate protein and one fourth a healthy fat source. 

The amount of vegetables you are eating will make you feel full but the amount of calories you eat will be far less than other more traditional salty and fatty carbohydrate sources. This will help keep your total calories lower. 

Eating more vegetables has also been shown to:

• Boost your immune system
• Protect against numerous diseases
• Improve hydration levels
• Improve body composition and fat loss

Here are a few quick tips to eat more vegetables in your diet:

1. Add spinach or kale to smoothies
2. Have pre-chopped vegetables available in fridge at all times
3. Incorporate raw vegetables as snacks 

2. Plan.

Ever get to a point where you're so hungry you'll eat just about anything?

In this situation it becomes extremely easy to grab something you probably wouldn't if you weren't so hungry. 

We have all been there.

This is why a big part of our Nutrition Coaching Program is to get our members planning ahead. 

Traveling and wont have much time? Pack a healthy meal or snack to keep you on track.

Headed to a party where there won't be much healthy choices? Bring your own dish you and others can enjoy. 

I personally like to get much of my prep done on Sundays as I cook in bulk for the week. 

You can both cook large meals to take for lunch or have for breakfast. 

You can also make it easier on yourself by getting foods ready to be cooked later in the week, such as pre-whisking eggs for morning omelettes or pre-chopping vegetables for salads or wraps. 

Here are a few quick tips to help you plan better:

1. Create a menu for week and then hit the grocery store
2. Cook in bulk on a day off and use leftovers during the week
3. Bring healthy dishes to parties 
4. Have readily available ingredients making them easier to cook
5. Have healthy snacks such as nuts and greek yogurt available
   
   

3. Be mindful.

To put it simply, we eat for two reasons. 

The first is to keep our body nourished and balanced. The second reason is to control our emotions.

Both of which are controlled by our brains. 

The exciting thing about understanding this is that we have control and can shift our mindset leading to better eating. 

Here are a few tips on mindful eating:

1. Eat slow - This gives your body time to recognize you're full leading to not overeating.
2. Eat until 80% full - If you eat until stuffed, it's too late. When you eat, check in with yourself and see how you're feeling. Leaving a little room in the tank allows you to not only eat less but will leave you feeling better when you're done eating. 
3. Know why you're eating - Are you eating because you're truly hungry? Or are you eating and most likely overeating because you're bored, tired, stressed and or dehydrated? Keep checking in with yourself.
4. Portion and plate size - In America, the sizes of portions and plates continue to grow. This tricks us into thinking these bigger and bigger portion sizes are the normal and we need to clean our plate leading to excess calories. If you're eating at home use smaller plates and if you're eating out, bring home leftovers.

4. Fuel and recover. 

One of the quickest ways to improve your health is to improve what and when you eat around your workout. 

Eating the right foods before you workout will help you:

• Improve performance
• Decrease fatigue
• Increase strength and stability and endurance
• Lose fat 
• Increase energy
• Keep you mentally focused

If you are further out from a workout (1-2 hours) stick to a meal consisting of a 50/50 blend of carbohydrates and protein. 

If you are under 1 hour from your workout you will want a smaller, easily digested small meal or snack. Stick to a 50/50 blend of carbohydrates and protein. 

Wash either down with a large water.

Click HERE to learn more about pre-workout nutrition. 

Eating the right foods after your workout will help you:

• Improve recovery
• Decrease muscle soreness 
• Replenish energy stores
• Decrease your risk of injury

The key is to eat the right foods within what is known at the anabolic window. This is the window of time when your muscles and glycogen stores are most ready to receive the proper nutrients to rebuild and repair --- leaving you stronger, healthier and ready for your next workout. 

Here focus on a ratio of 4:1 of carbohydrates to protein for maximum recovery. 

Click HERE to learn more about post-workout nutrition. 

5. Accountability is key.

We asked our Nutrition Coaching members the #1 reason they thought they had success in our program. 

Their answer?

The accountability the group and coaches provided. 

You see, some of our members join our program with very little nutritional education while some come in with plenty of knowledge but lack that most important factor....accountability. 

All the nutritional knowledge and practice is useless unless you are able to put it to use. 

In our program, our coaches are constantly checking in with our members. 

We provide them with weekly homework and specific due dates on those assignments. 

We also use our private Facebook group to help the members interact and intern support, motivate and hold each other accountable leading to great results

What we have learned is that self motivation can only take you so far and has good and bad days.

In other words, without accountability your ability to be consistent drastically reduces. 

And, when it comes to improving your nutrition and health, consistency is key!

Add a coach, group or friend to the mix and see your results improve dramatically.