Nobody out there that has been working their butts of for the past couple years, months or weeks wants to see all their results get diminished by what’s going on right now. Quite frankly, you don’t have to. You’re still in control of what’s happening to your body. You might not be able to go to your gym to get a 2 hour workout in but you can do your bodyweight workouts at home. If you think that bodyweight workouts are a joke, you’re either not going hard enough or you haven’t experienced the right workouts yet. However the most important aspect of our fitness that we still have control over is our food intake.

What are you eating, why are you eating it and at what times? those are some of the questions we should ask ourselves regardless of anything if we’re trying to reach fitness goals. It’s more important now than ever to keep your nutrition under your control, simply for the fact that you’re probably not as active as you were before all of this started happening. With a lot of people going crazy in the supermarkets I understand that it’s hard to buy the right things for yourself, but in the end it’s still your decision to make about what you put in your basket and eventually in your belly.

Like I’ve always said, there’s no one size fits all method but this my take on it and I am convinced this can help a lot of people.

My tips and advice

• stay in a routine

Just because other people are losing their minds doesn’t mean that you have to. Just because we’re in a tough situation doesn’t mean we should fly of the handle and let go of everything that got us to the point where we’re at now. You’re in charge of how you handle this situation, you might not be able to buy exactly the same foods as you’re used but you don’t need to. You can create a new norm for yourself by adjusting to the situation that you’re in and looking at what your lifestyle needs right now. Adjustment to the new situation and letting go of an old routine is key to maintaining your results, accomplishments and health.

• Eat around your lifestyle, not the other way around

The chance of us being less active now a days is pretty high when we compare it to just a couple weeks/ days ago. Like I’ve mentioned in some of my previous blog, when your body is in a less active state its energy source comes mainly from the fat that is stored within our bodies. Knowing and realizing that it would be ideal for the majority of us to start eating more fat than carbs. Still consume carbs on a daily basis to stimulate things like recovery and muscle maintenance, we just have to be smart with the timing. When we’re looking at our protein intake we shouldn’t think about eating more necessarily but stay at the level that we were at before. The amount of muscle mass you created and are holding currently are still screaming for protein every day. We need protein on a daily basis just to maintain our muscle mass and assuming that you’re still working out to some extent, we still need the protein to recover and grow.

Eat your veggies and fruit

It sounds so easy but it’s so easy to overlook the benefits and importance of it. If you’re getting your carbohydrates from one source, I would recommend getting it from vegetables and fruit. Vegetables and fruits are whole foods which is reason enough on it’s own but they give you loads of micronutrients as an added bonus (we all need that right now). Fruits are amazing post workout foods because it’s so easy for your body to absorb all the nutrients and sugars that we need to recover properly.

Spread your meals out

For a lot of us there are no more excuses when it comes to being in charge and control of our food intake. I know that for a lot of people it’s usually pretty hard to eat every couple hours because of their work schedule. Now that a lot of us are working from home it’s the the perfect time to give ourselves the opportunity to spread the meals out more. Instead of eating all of your food in one or two meals try and spread it out to 4,5 or 6, this will help with digestion and it will give your body a better chance of absorbing all the micronutrients.

Give yourself time to digest your food

Now that we have that time to spread out our meals we have to be conscious of the fact that our bodies need time to digest our meals properly. For most people dinner is the biggest meal of the day and we should treat it as such. Plan your dinner a little bit earlier now that you have the opportunity to do so, again this will help with absorbing all the micronutrients, your recovery and the ability to fall asleep at night.

Make the best out of the situation that you’re in right now, experiment with new foods, recipes, etc.. If we put in the effort now we can enjoy the rewards after this is all over instead of regretting the decisions we made.

Stay positive and keep it moving.