Nutrition is essential to accomplishing any fitness goal that you set for yourself. You can workout as much as you want, but if you don't give your body the proper fuel, you will have very little success. In this part of my Keys to a Sexy Booty, Hips, and Thighs series, I am going to give you some tips on what you need to put into your body to tone your ass up... pun intended.
Second tip has to do with carb intake. YOU NEED TO EAT CARBS! Carbohydrates are your body's primary source of energy. If you don't eat carbs, you're muscles will not have the proper fuel to work which means the quality of your workouts will suffe, which means you wont burn as many calories. Carbs are not fattening. What you cook carbs in and what you put on carbs is what make them fattening. Use olive oil instead of butter on your bread and use tomato sauce instead of alfredo sauce on your spaghetti. Also, make sure your getting high quality carbs from sources like whole wheat bread as opposed to white bread or brown rice as opposed to white rice. And the best source of carbs if you're trying to lose weight: vegetables! Stay away from excessive amounts of fruit though if you want to cut down on fats. Fruits are high in sugar so despite they're high vitamin concentrations, your body will turn that sugar into fat just as easy as it would the powdered sugar on top of a funnel cake.
Eat lean meats for protein sources. Fish is a great source of a low fat protein. So is chicken in most cases. When buying steak make sure to get lean cuts. And try out turkey burgers as opposed to hamburgers. Other great sources of protein include yogurt, milk, egg whites, beans, nuts, and peanut butter sandwiches. You're going to want to eat 0.7g of protein per pound of bodyweight. So for a 120lb woman, this is 84g of protein daily. Watch my YouTube video for even more information on protein!
Meal timing is also going to be crucial for toning up your ass, hips and thighs. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. I'll write a whole post on this topic in the near future, but let me repeat that thought... breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Do not skip this meal! Oatmeal with fruit mixed in, yogurt with granola, whole wheat cereal (especially FiberOne or Frosted Mini-Wheats), or a whole grain bagel with peanut butter are great, healthy, satiating choices. For lunch break it into two meals, preferably at 10am (more accurately referred to as a mid-morning snack) and 2pm. To give you an idea of the size of these lunches, a peanut butter sandwich and a banana counts as as a meal. Dinner, then should be eaten around 6 or 7pm with a small snack in between to prevent you from over indulging in this late evening meal when you don't have much time fterwards to burn off any of the calories that you take in. For those visual folks out there, your meal schedule should look like this:
6am: Breakfast
10am: First Lunch/mid-morning snack
2pm: Second Lunch
4pm: Healthy Snack
6pm: Dinner
*Note: If you're hungry before bed, grab yourself a bowl of whole wheat cereal or some yogurt. You'll sleep better!
