Nutrition For The Corporate Athlete
March 29, 2018
As a corporate athlete, you put your body through just as much physical and mental stress every day as some pro athletes may experience. Even worse, your sport's season doesn't end. For corporate athletes, it's pedal to the metal year-round. So why do so many entrepreneurs and executives think that it's possible to eat whatever they want without consequences? This mindset could set you up for failure before you ever get started.
We are what we eat, or more accurately, we are what we burn. When we consume a healthy, balanced diet, we are at the top of our game. However, succumbing to poor dietary choices can leave us falling behind. Consider a Ferrari. Like a high-powered executive or entrepreneur, a slick, high-performance sports car is fast, powerful, agile, and at the top of its field. When you treat it right, purchasing only high-octane, quality fuel, it stays this way. If you start filling it up with cheap, low-quality fuel, on the other hand, it will quickly start to perform progressively less efficiently, not to mention lose its edge. The same thing happens to you. When you fill your body with a low-grade fuel, a.k.a. junky, processed, preservative filled food, you can't keep up with the demands of the job. You lose your edge, and before long, you simply aren't the top performer you used to be. Proper nutrition matters because it is the core source of our energy. When we do not get the right nutrients, the body simply cannot function normally, which puts you at a major competitive disadvantage.
Luckily, this disastrous scenario doesn't have to happen to you. No matter how long you have been abusing your body through a poor diet, you can always turn it around.
Here are five tips to help fuel your body.
1 - Choose lean protein sources to ensure that you are able to recover from setbacks and perform at your peak level for longer periods of time.
2- Eat organic foods. If you purchase a product that has more than 5 to 6 ingredients, chances are, there's a lot of preservatives and artificial chemicals added to your food that serves no benefit to you. In actuality, these preservatives or artificial chemicals aren't even food.
3 - It's not just what you put in your body, it's how you process it. Simply chewing your food long enough can make the difference between a fairly healthy lunch on the go and a waste of meal. The more you chew your food, the better the nutrients of a meal are absorbed.
4 - Stick with water. There's an endless variety of beverages options on the market today. The list of violators are processed juices, iced tea's with a lot of sugar, and worse diet sodas. Diet sodas often contain aspartame, which causes many negative health effects including headaches, difficulty focusing, and surprisingly, weight gain.
5 - Increasing the number of times you eat may seem counter-intuitive, but it is actually much better to eat 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day then to eat three large meals. By minimizing the time between meals, you raise your basal metabolic rate.
Being a corporate athlete isn't easy, but with the right nutrition, your body is better prepared to take the wear and tear of the executive lifestyle. Consider changing your diet as a simple training technique for better performance and more wins in the future. When your body feels better, it can do more, allowing you to conquer whatever daily challenges you face in your high-powered life. Stop neglecting this key training step today and make the nutritional adjustments. You need the bigger wins in the boardroom and in life.