We’ve been talking about balance a lot here, and the many ways it affects our day to day lives. We don’t just want to provide you with a quick fix solution, here at MOSS, we want to provide you with information that empowers you to really know your body.
This week, we’re talking about balance in a less literal sense, and a more metaphorical one.
Nutritional balance. What is it? How do you find it? How do you maintain it?
First question: What is it?
Nutritional balance is referring to what kind of fuel you’re providing your body with and how much of it is really being used to your body’s advantage. In the nutritional world we assign value to food based on calories but also on macros. Macros are all the things you read on nutrition labels. Mainly we focus on whether a food has more protein, fat, or carbohydrates. Sugar and fiber are also important to pay attention to.
Finding a balance in what you consume means learning about how much of each of these things your body needs to function in tip top shape.
Let’s break down the three main macro groups that I mentioned, starting with protein.
Protein is not only the greatest contributor to muscle growth and maintenance, but it is one of the most integral factors in making sure your body is full of energy and properly moving oxygen through the bloodstream. Protein also helps make antibodies that fight off infections and helps keep cells healthy.
So how much protein should I be eating?
Typically it’s recommended to eat one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. It may seem like a lot but you’d be surprised at how much more energy you have! Some great, easy sources of protein are lean meats (chicken, turkey, most fish), greek yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, and eggs.
Moving on to fats.
Most people have a very negative association with fats, they mainly think of butter, oil and, well, weight gain. While butter and oil are fats in the food world, we actually need healthy fats to fuel and regulate our body! Foods like avocados, peanut butter, and nuts help our bodies to absorb the good vitamins in the other foods we eat. Vitamins A, D, E and K are all very important to the way we function and these healthy fats ensure that we are getting those out of the foods that contain them!
Now this doesn’t mean that we should be loading up on guac and PB&Js all day. Fats are turned into body fat a lot easier than protein and carbohydrates and typically aren’t as filling, just like most things, moderation is key!
How much fat do I need?
That depends, in most cases, fats are recommended to make up anywhere from 20-35% of your daily caloric intake.
Next up, carbs!
My achilles heel, my hill to die on, the love of my foodie heart’s life: bread. And sweets. Sweet, sweet brownie sundaes. Okay, that’s not really what carbohydrates are but they do make up most of those things. Carbohydrates, just like the other two groups I mentioned, are super important to your body’s functionality! Carbs are actually your body’s main source of energy and are essential to the function of many of your vital organs.
Carbs are found in foods such as rice, pasta and more fruits and veggies than you might think! Potatoes, corn, beets (schrute farms, anyone?), mangoes, bananas and apples are all full of good energy sustaining carbs!
Carbohydrates are typically supposed to occupy 45-60% of your daily caloric intake.
Many low-carb diets look shiny and effortless when marketed by the media but can actually do more harm than good! Energy levels drop, sleep worsens and you feel hungry all the time! Do yourself a favor and don’t ignore your body’s need for energy-giving, organ-sustaining carbo-heroes!
Now that we’ve covered the three main macro groups, I encourage you to check out our other blogs on nutrition and learn more about what you can be doing to help your body thrive! I’ll link some of them below!
Here at MOSS, we love helping you overcome physical challenges, we also love informing you of ways to prevent injury, and have a happy, healthy, prolonged life. That’s where nutritional balance comes in.
And as far as physical balance is concerned, I hope you haven’t forgotten about our IN-PERSON Balance Workshop happening Saturday June 11th!
This event is great for anyone concerned about their balance or the balance and safety of a loved one. Come, learn and take the next step that’s right for YOU.
Again, This is an in-person event taking place
10AM Saturday, June 11th
407 Old Springtown Rd
Call our office 817-220-MOSS (6677) to register, or click HERE
What else? ___________________________________________________________
We try our best to provide resources and information that help you to better understand your body. Many of our previous blogs do just that.
Here are the blogs I mentioned about nutrition:
To learn about the importance of sleep and how to get more of it click HERE
To read about the possible benefits of time restricted eating, click HERE
To find out what foods and supplements can help to reduce inflammation, click HERE
And if you would like to read our most recent post about a fun way to better your balance click HERE
Now, if you need something more, we can help with that too.
It starts with our simple 3 Step Process.
- Schedule a FREE Discovery Visit with one of our experts.
- Receive a Customized (Individualized) Treatment Plan
- Get Your Life Back and Do What You Love
It really is that simple!
The first step is the hardest and I can’t take it for you but I can make it as simple and easy as possible.
“A healthy man has thousands of wishes, a sick man has only one”. –Agnes Karll Schwest Krankenpfleger
You will work with one of our experts to design a customized plan specific to your needs and conditions.
Next Action:
I have talked about this for years. I call it The 3 D’s. You can learn more about it HERE. Follow The 3-D’s to handle your issue and you can’t go wrong.
- Don’t ignore the problem—A problem could be pain, weakness, frequent falls or trouble recovering from an injury or illness. It is a signal from the body that something is wrong. Hoping and wishing will not make it better. Try to ignore it and hope it goes away –almost never works and usually makes everything worse.
- Don’t mask it—getting injections, taking pills, wearing a brace or using a walker only masks the problem and doesn’t fix the underlying cause. I have several examples in my personal life where this did not work out. Trying to mask it and not truly addressing the underlying issue makes the problem cost more (time, money and stress) to fix in the long run.
- Do something about it-–If addressed properly most problems can heal conservatively, naturally without injections or surgical intervention. Doing something about it – addressing the issue head on, while it may be tough at first it will get a better result in the long run.
Pro tip: Get it looked at by the experts at MOSS Rehabilitation Center.
Follow The 3-D’s to handle your issue and you can’t go wrong.
Remember the KEY is to start so small that it is impossible to fail. -Kaizen
At MOSS Rehabilitation Center we make it easy for you to get started. We even have a simple 3 step process.
1. Schedule a FREE NO Obligation, Discovery Visit with one of our experts. During this visit, you will talk with one of our friendly experts about your issues. This is a safe and confidential visit, you can trust that your safety and privacy is important to us. We are taking extra measures to ensure that you remain safe during this pandemic.
2. Receive a Customized (Individualized) Treatment Plan. Based on your free discovery visit, we will put together a custom, unique to you plan that will address all of your nagging pains and issues. The goal is to get you back to your healthy self as soon as possible while also addressing your issues for the long term.
3. Get Your Life Back and Do What You Love. The best result for us is a patient who tells us they can finally do what they love without the constant pain, stress, or issue they were facing. Together we can get you back to living life without worry.
So what do the most successful people do when they have health concerns? They address their problem.
NEXT ACTION: If you are really serious about showing your body who’s in control, call our office at 817-220-6677 today to schedule your FREE NO OBLIGATION Discovery Visit.
To your health,
Dr. Robert Moss PT, ScD, OCS, FAAOMPT
