Your physical body is predominantly what eat and drink. Here is the thing, many people eat and drink anyhow thinking they will deal with it via workouts. It is a given that it might work but mostly that is not the case. It is said that roughly 80 per cent of your physical body is so because of what you eat and drink. Working out or other interventions, good and necessary as they might be, contribute a much smaller chunk. What you eat and drink is important. They both have direct effects, positive or negative, on your performance levels.To boost your performance levels, here are the necessary dietary considerations:

Water Intake

It probably seems illogical but your body is around 70 percent water. This means for the body to function optimally its processes require lots of water. The less hydrated you are the lesser you can perform. Yet so many people are so insincere about drinking enough water daily. I know most of you struggle with this but it takes discipline.

Many only drink water when they feel thirsty. Have you ever stopped to consider that feeling thirsty is a caution sign that you are dehydrated?. (Side note: experts say when you are dehydrated; your brain tissue shrinks, scary huh?) I always tell people this; you do not have to drink water only when you are thirsty. Rather you must ensure you drink enough water to never get thirsty. Your daily water intake depends on your weight – very important! For example, here is a guide:

Weight (KG)Water (L)
  
451.9
502.1
552.3
602.5
652.7
702.9
753.2
803.5
853.7
903.9
954.1
1004.3
1054.5
1104.7
1154.9
1205.1

Another funny thing I always point out: thirst is fully quenched by water (not a coke or some other drink). When you are thirsty and you take drinks that are not water, you will actually be increasing your thirst. I will not go into the biology behind that but there is a rational explanation for why that happens. When someone says they are thirsty, the best thing to do is to get them or buy them water!

Recommended Sources Of Carbohydrates And Proteins

There are lots of foods out there that contain carbohydrates. Regardless, you must pay attention to where you get them from. Not all foods that contain them have ones that are good for your health. Healthy foods you must eat for your carbohydrates needs are whole grains, fruits and vegetables, milk, and yoghurts. It is usually advised that whenever you have a meal it must have proteins. That is how important proteins are. The foods you must consider as healthy food sources of proteins are dairy foods, poultry, eggs, nuts, lean meat, fish and peanut butter.

Keep Fats In Check

Fats do get a bad rep overall but they are essential to a balanced diet. The only issue is that there are certain types of fats that you need which are healthy for you. These are what we call unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are fats or oils, found from either vegetable or animal sources, containing a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids. They are typically liquid at room temperature. Ensuring your diet is high in unsaturated fats has been shown to lower cholesterol levels in your blood. Thus you should aim to exclude saturated fats from your diet. I am tempted to get into the biology of it all, anyways some of the best foods for unsaturated fats are avocados, seeds, olive oil, and nuts. It is highly advised that you should use olive oil for all your cooking (rather than cooking oil).

Pay Attention To Bodily Reactions To Foods

It pays to be attentive and take note of how you react when you eat different foods. When performance is of the essence you have to avoid foods that make you drowsy. For example, most snacks and starchy foods (e.g. sadza, pasta, and cereals) are full of energy of course. However, you quickly get a surge of energy which after a short while plummets. That results in you feeling sleepy and all – most of you have experienced this. So, you have to be strategic about when to eat them.

Limit Your Starch Intake

This subject is pertinent to the Zimbabwean context in so many ways. The staple food in Zimbabwe is maize which is why sadza is a common meal feature. However, there is a serious problem most Zimbabweans are oblivious of. They are taking in too much starch daily. The diet is mostly starch which is not a good thing.

Someone eats maize meal porridge in the morning, tea and bread, later on, sadza or rice for lunch, and sadza for supper. That is way too much starch for a day. This is especially so when you are typically not physically active every day. There was once a study done in Zimbabwe that showed that most diabetes cases can be linked to eating too much sadza. The biological explanation is quite interesting.

Did you know that when having a meal, starch should only constitute the size of your fist? This means for a meal, your sadza should be that quantity – I am probably speaking to myself now because I know what is out there. All the same, it is wise to limit your starch intake.

The information I have shared with you is of great importance. Some studies have shown that at least 40 percent of how you feel in your physical body is related to the previous meal you had. Apparently, any meal you have is paramount. Bear in mind that eating is not just about eating what tastes good. Most of the tastiest foods are the ones bad for you e.g. fast foods. The idea is to go for foods that contribute positively to your health. As a business person or entrepreneur, you want to ensure your performance levels are always on point. What you eat is central to all that and as such it pays to heed what we discussed in this article.