Lifestyle Fitness Club

6 Pages 1406 Words

HEALTH AND FITNESS

How to Be a Weekend Warrior

"The weekend warrior: You lead a sedentary life all week, sitting behind a desk, stuffing your body with junk food and poorly balanced meals... But the weekend arrives and you're all dressed up and ready to go. You eat pancakes for breakfast and pack a banana in your gear bag. You crank serves and play for hours. Come Monday, all you have to show for it are sore muscles, little energy and bad memories of too many missed overheads” (Anthony 89).

Sound familiar? Although this quote is directed at people playing tennis, it really applies to all types of athletic events. When the weekend arrives, you become an instant athlete - eating right, exercising more than usual - and by Monday morning you pay for it: you are tired, sluggish, and sore. Good nutritional habits and a regular fitness routine throughout the week will make you a true weekend warrior.

A Balanced Diet

Dietary advice for all types of athletes is the same as for the general public. That is, eat a well-balanced diet from a wide variety of foods in sufficient amounts to meet energy needs. Nutrition experts like the American Dietetic Association recommend that we eat a diet low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates . Generally, nutritionists suggest that we consume no more than 30 to 35 percent of our calories as fat, at least 55 percent as carbohydrates , and the remainder as protein.

Understanding how our bodies process the foods we eat explains why this balanced diet is important. Our bodies use the food we consume by converting the chemical energy stored in food into free energy that can be used by our cells, muscles, organs and all other tissues. But since the body cannot use all the food it takes in at once, some of it is stored away for later use. Although all three nutrients, carbohydrates, protein, and fat supply energy, carbohydrates are the major source of energy. Complex carbohydrates are...