If you exercise regularly can you eat what you want?

This question has cropped up three times in workshops in the past week so I thought it would be worth addressing it here.

Regular exercise is the ideal way to lift your mood, boost your energy levels, manage your weight and help you sleep better.  But does this mean that if you exercise well, you won't need to worry about your food routine?

Here are 3 things to consider
1. Exercise can keep you looking healthy but external appearances do not constitute the full picture and say nothing about how healthy you are on the inside.  Everything you eat and drink can have a positive or negative effect on the optimum operating environment within your body and although exercise can mitigate the impact of some negative food choices it cannot completely offset any damage done.

2. Exercise boosts energy but if you're not fueling yourself well there's a glass ceiling on how good your energy levels will ever be.  If you find that you're more focused and more productive when you exercise, just imagine how effective you could be when you combine an active lifestyle with a regular, quality food routine.

3. If you're a regular exerciser, chances are that you enjoy getting active.  It's also likely that you feel some improvement in your fitness levels by maintaining exercise in your schedule but no athlete would rely on exercise alone to achieve their optimal results and neither should you.  

The bottom line

With a regular exercise routine you'll be fit but not necessarily as healthy as you could be.  And even your hard-earned fitness could be compromised if not supported by eating healthily so check your food routine for anything that you think is detracting from your ability to exercise well and recover promptly, and put a plan together to replace some of the suspect items with choices that will maximise your energy to work out and allow your body to recover and repair more quickly.  This approach will bring quicker and more dramatic results which will in turn boost your motivation to stay on track with healthy choices in every area of your routine. 

Here are some snack ideas to get you started:

5 Quick and Easy Snack Ideas for Boosting Energy

Image by Cookie M Flickr