Timing your meals around workouts is ideal to prevent feeling nauseous, getting side aches, and lacking energy. Most people can consume a decent meal 1.5-2 hours before a workout, this gap in time will allow for food to fully digest and provide substantial energy for the workout. Considering that most of us work full time and do not have the luxury to take breaks when we need to consume food before a workout. Learning to eat heavier and lighter meals in regards to how your body feels will become ideal for those looking to get the most out of their nutrition and workouts. The meal size, discussed previously, will aide in regards to performance.

Eating an entire pizza before a workout will be tough to get through a workout without feeling adverse affects. This is not necessarily due to the composition of the meal but due to the size of the meal. Eating 2 pounds of food before you go lift weights or run a 5k will be extremely difficult. Some professional athletes recommend a light meal such as a piece of fruit and some nut butter before a workout. Many athletes will agree that eating a large meal before a workout is never a good idea unless they have ample time to digest, which we discussed timing in the previous paragraph. When interviewed personal trainers suggested eating smaller meals that consist of light easy to digest carbohydrates and a protein. Now you are probably asking for specific examples, luckily we have compiled a group list of everyone’s pre-workout go to.

Now that we have discussed adequate timing and size of the meal, we are down to the final key piece to proper nutrition to benefit your performance and workouts. The composition of the meal can make or break your workouts and performance. Certain foods such as easily digestible carbohydrates(Greek yogurt, banana, oats) can allow for access to quick energy where as fats and proteins will digest at a much slower pace. Personally pairing plain Greek yogurt, half a banana, and 2 tbsp. of rolled oats is a favorite in the morning. Everyone will react differently according to the nutrients they ingest, finding your perfect personal pre-workout meal will help

With a healthy grasp on the needed knowledge in regards to nutrition in order to perform well it is important to pay attention to what you are consuming in order to get the most out of your training. Remember your body is a racecar, fuel it with unleaded gas and it is likely not to perform adequately.

Pre-Workout Recommended Combinations:

Oatmeal with fresh fruit and nuts

Egg white with vegetables omelet

Smoothie

Apple with almond butter

Chicken breast with light vegetables(broccoli, zucchini)

Protein shake

The best resource for recovering from stress and workouts is to sleep 7-9 hours depending on your exhaustion level and schedule. Unfortunately more than 35% of adults suffer from lack of sleep, which pushes them into a high risk of chronic health problems. Below are some useful tips to help you improve your sleep:

*Be Consistent: stick to a regular bed time and wake up time. Get on a good schedule for you and your work schedule.

*Dark & Quiet Room: Lights and noises can interrupt your sleep causing you to have a restless night of sleep.

*Be Active During the Day: Get up and move, exhaust yourself, you will sleep much sounder.

*Watch What You Drink: Drinking caffeine and alcohol late at night can also disrupt your sleep patterns.

 *Unplug: leave your phone in the kitchen and set an actual alarm clock, turn the TV off and allow yourself to unwind with a book.

For more information visit the Mayo Clinics website:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-blog/tips-for-better-sleep/bgp-20094773

Over 100 million Americans work a desk job which can entail sitting 6-9 hours a day hunched over a computer screen. The position we naturally slouch to is extremely hard on our vertebrae as well, sitting puts more pressure on the disks than standing does. No wonder so many people have back pain, often times we forget to engage our core while we do medial tasks throughout our long days. Our core allows us to bend, rotate, twist, and stand upright.  Our core is more than just our six pack, it consists of your gluteus, abdominals, spinal erectors, and many more of the deeper muscles. When our back begins to ache this can be the result of poor posture or lack of abdominals. The best thing we can do is to strengthen our core and learn to engage the muscles during daily activities such as picking up an object or when we put an item over head. If we tighten our core there is likely to be more stability and we can provide an increase in protection to our low back.

To strengthen our core is quiet easy, it can be done while doing overhead squatting, overhead lunges, overhead press, dead bug, flutter kick, hollow hold, superman, back extensions, and many more here a is quick efficient routine that can be done daily. Increase the time when the routine has become to easy.

30s on: 10s rest       2 full rounds of exercises

*Dead Bug

*Flutter Kick

*Star Crunch

*Scissor Kick

*Lemon Squeezers

*V-Ups

*Oblique Crunch

*Heel Taps

Eat, Sleep, Train….the proper balance of each one so that we can ensure we are in the most ideal shape possible? Maybe being in the best shape you could ever be in is not your goal, but what about just being in shape? For your kids, your significant other, or for yourself. If you do not take the time to care about your health who will? So I know we all have to work and families to think about, but what about even just one aspect of an athletes life?

Nutrition could be an easy one to slowly ease into the daily routine. Meal prepping to help with healthy snacking and lunches ready for the entire family for the week, doing this on Sunday is a great routine to fall into. Even if each week you can slowly implement healthier food options to help your diet improve you will be taking a step closer towards an athletes lifestyle.

Athletes also train regularly whether it be accessory work, cardio, or strength, you should as well. It is important to go to the gym routinely to help with lowering stress, increasing endorphins, and improving self-confidence. While increasing endorphins may not sound like the greatest reason to go to the gym, improving self-confidence should be reason enough. The more confidant you can become the more likely you are to take bigger risks and believe that you can do much more inside and outside of the gym.

Sleep, is one of the single things that allows our body to repair and reset every day. If we are getting less than 6 hours of sleep we are already putting our body at a huge disadvantage. The average human needs 7-9 hours to fully recover and to allow their body to reset. If we are getting less than that number we are losing the optimum time to recover from the daily stressors of life. 

Take the time for yourself, to be a better parent, to enjoy a healthier life, or even if its just to look good naked! Learn to move better and use the inner athlete everyone has buried inside of themselves.

“I don’t care, you pick,” responded Thing Two.

“I don’t care either, let’s just go out for dinner,” finalized Thing One.

I am sure everyone has heard this between couples, friends, or parents. I am sure you have even said I don’t care what we have to eat at one point, leaving the others to make an executive decision. Fortunately we have a tool that will help you plan so that you can end up eating home cooked and nutritious  meals. If you adhere to the following steps you will be much more prepared for the week of eating in with friends, family, and significant others.

1. To begin sit down with Pinterest, be sure to set a timer or you could be here ALL day. Go to our Pinterest account, Integrated Health CA and click on the board Clean Eating. Here you can scroll through numerous recipes, most have been tested and approved delicious! Make a list of meals, pin them to your own page, and list the ingredients you will need to get from the grocery store.
2. Next visit the grocery store, pick up everything on the list that you made so easily by searching through the recipes on through our collection.
3. Bring groceries home and if you have time immediately begin prepping: cut up veggies/fruits, marinate proteins, and even cooking foods that you would like your lunches to be composed of. 
4. Fill food storage containers with desired amounts and foods to create a healthy balanced meal, that is easy to consume while on the go.

Now that you have food prepped the weekly dinner hassle becomes much more pleasant and manageable. If you want to be extremely organized you can use a calendar to help you organize and preplan what meals you will have on desired days of the week.