What is a ‘balanced diet’? – the basics

The subject of nutrition can be a confusing one, how do we know what a healthy balanced diet is? What amount of each nutrient should we be eating? How much of this depends on our sex, genetic make-up or lifestyle?

We are told that we should have a ‘healthy balanced diet’, in simple terms this means eating the right quantities of the different food groups, and not forgetting this includes drinking the right amount of water – we are meant drink between six and eight glasses a day.

There are five different food groups, these are carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals.

Here is an overview from our top personal trainers of why and how they make up a ‘healthy balanced diet’.

Incorporating regular exercise into your daily routine is one of the most important parts of the day, as it relieves stress, releases the endorphins (the feel good factor) and helps to keep you in shape. However, some people underestimate the importance of re-fuelling with the right nutrients after working out. Re-fuelling your body plays the largest role in supplying your body with everything that it will need to repair, rebuild, recover and adapt to the strain you just placed on your muscles.

The initial feeling post exercise will be fantastic; you will feel full of energy and motivated in whatever tasks you may have at hand. However, directly after exercise your appetite could be lacking for a half an hour or so. Once this window has passed, ensure to feed your body with the nutrients it needs to build and repair your muscles. If you neglect your body from the fuel it requires to function efficiently the euphoric feeling will quickly diminish, as there will be nothing left in the tank, which will make you feel extremely lethargic. Think of it like a car running on no petrol – it cannot function!

The end of January is upon us and some of our optimistic New Years resolutions may have already tailed off slightly, predominately from the last few weeks of bitter cold mornings and evenings. January is already one of the hardest months, let alone when trying to maintain a strict, structured work out and diet plan, so to anyone that has fallen off the bandwagon slightly, do not beat yourself up!!

The problem is that many of us try to go for it from the get go after Christmas which can result in maintenance being almost impossible. Depriving yourself completely from many of your favourite foods is definitely not the answer to ensuring that you keep up with your plans throughout the year. So if you have broken some of your resolutions that were going so well, and feel that you’ve failed, you are wrong, just ensure that you change your regime slightly! If you feel that you need the extra push and motivation to get you back on track, then our Chelsea personal trainers can certainly help you to achieve your goals.

I like to think that I have a sense of humour. Unfortunately, this sense seems to escape me when I need it the most. I wish for any jokes to come to mind when I try to be influential in persuading others to engage in more exercise, eat well, keep a healthy mental attitude and drink more water. The reason is because I know a sense of humour is one of the best ways to relay a key message. Let’s see if what I fail to do in person, I can convey and maintain in this blog about the importance of drinking enough water throughout the day, every day, everyday. This blog will identify some of the facts, myths and benefits of drinking water and give some practical recommendations to ease water into your everyday lives. It has the potential to get personal and lack a sense of humour too!

London personal trainer Agi, lifts the unfortunate myth that the macronutrient carbohydrate causes weight gain and advises why never to cut them out of your diet.

Chelsea Personal Training's Agi, provides an opinion on one of the most misinterpreted words in our on-going efforts to lose weight; diet.