Challenge: Add Protein to each meal for a week
This weeks challenge is about adding foods – specificaly complete lean proteins and making sure that you have these proteins on your plate along with the other superfoods. Our bodies rely on proteins and amino acids to produce important molecules – without enough protein in our diet our bodies can’t function well at all. Making sure you are getting lean protein with each of your 4 to 5 meals per day can also help to control body fat.
The Power of Protein
The moment it leaves your fork, protein starts working on your waistline. High protein foods take more work to digest, metabolise, and use, which means you burn more calories processing them. They also take longer to leave your stomach, so you feel full sooner and for a longer amount of time. The cumulative effect has obvious benefits for anyone who is watching their weight.
Protein in doubly essential making sure you lose fat, not muscle. Your body uses the amino acids in protein to build lean muscle, which not only makes you stronger and more toned but also burns calories even when you're not active.
Examples of lean protein:
-Eggs
-Cottage Cheese
-Greek Yoghurt
-Black Beans
-Kidney Beans
-Almonds
-Almonds Milk
-Nuts and Seeds
Meats:
-Salmon
-Turkey Breasts
-Chicken Breasts
-Pork
-Lean Red Meat
Ways of implementing protein into your diet:
Breakfast:
Eggs- scrambled, boiled, poached
Porridge with almond milk
Snacks:
Greek yoghurt and blueberries, Almonds
Lunch:
Baked Potato with Chicken/Tuna, Tuna wholemeal sandwich, Chicken cous cous salad
Dinner:
Salmon with green veg, Crustless Quiche, Chicken and bean salad.
Taking on this challenge is a small step towards a diet that supports your fitness goals. I know it can be tough to hit the rules of these challenges 100% of the time.The best and most realistic approach is to just do the best you can. The better you do with your diet the more results you can expect from your training.
