She half-jokingly reasoned that since she was going to burn of some calories that day, it would be okay to eat something high in calories.

We make these trade-offs all the time, and it makes us feel better about both the exercising and the snacking.

And if your approach to health and being healthy is about calories and weight loss – or keeping the weight where it is – than this kind of thinking makes sense.

But weight loss and health don’t necessarily go together. I’ve written about that misconception here.

The same goes for fitness and health. Just getting fitter does not necessarily mean you’re getting healthier.

So why is that?

Firstly, let me make it clear that I absolutely believe we all need to move more. Our bodies are built for standing, walking and running. Not for sitting! Sitting is often referred to now as the new smoking. This article by the Victorian government explains the impact of sitting: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/the-dangers-of-sitting

So if you’ve decided to get fit, perhaps by walking more, going for regular swims, working out in the gym, doing dance classes, playing tennis, whatever you chose, fantastic!!

But if that’s all you’re doing towards better health you may actually go backwards.

Yes, backwards!

You see, when you up your physical activity levels, your nutrition needs change.  To help your body deal with the increased demands, it needs more of the good stuff.

More plant-based food (fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, wholegrains), better quality protein (meat, chicken, fish, dairy, pulses, legumes), and fats (olive oil, nuts, seeds, oily fish) to support:

• the muscle strengthening,
• the increased work your heart and lungs need to do,
• as well as your increased metabolism.

Not more food! Just better food! Non-processed, home-cooked, natural whole food.

So how are you going to support your hard working body in it’s attempts to get fitter?