Food Fuels High Performance

by Kenny Florian

Food is most certainly fuel and we often make that analogy. However why don’t we make that same analogy to our bodies comparing them to a high performance sports car? Our bodies are infinitely more complex than one, yet we are at satisfied “filling” it with the lowest grades of fuel.

I remember how ignorant I was about food back on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter”. I was literally putting cookies into my protein shakes to gain weight. I was trying to put on fat in my attempt to get close to 180lbs while I was fighting muscular 205lbers cutting down to the 185lbs weight class. Not good!

Since then I have done my best to slowly educate myself about how to gain the right weight and how to lose weight properly as well. More importantly, I have educated myself on the importance of eating real whole foods that are healthy, will aid in my performance and will make me look and feel good. I stopped thinking about what was just convenient and what tasted good and really started thinking about what foods were going to help me achieve my goals.

Anything that brought me further away from achieving my goals was deleted. Cookies taste great, but they weren’t going to get me to train better or longer. Instead, I traded that in for healthy fruits and vegetables that were gonna help me recover better, feel better and look better. I traded in the occasional soda with only drinking water or juicing actual fruits. I increased my consumption of water and just that alone gave me more energy for my two to three sessions of training per day. I started looking in to not only the foods that were going to help me but the timing of foods and how that will aid in my recovery and performance for the rigors of MMA training.

Like most things in life, you can’t cut corners with your nutrition if you want the good results. It comes down to consistency and getting a good balance of fats, proteins and high complex carbohydrates. Supplements and “diet bars” are not going cut it. You need real food as it is grown in nature to get the results you want. Don’t get caught up in fads, quick diets or taking medication to lose weight.

Everything you need to feel better and look better is offered to you in nature. Commit to it and you will not only feel and look better but it will have dramatic effects on your overall well being and life. Here on my blog I will offer recipes, nutrition tips and specific information on foods that have helped me tremendously.

Posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2012 in Kenny's Blog.