Men's health month is celebrated every month of June. It's a good way to remind men with some nutrition tips. However, you should note that maintaining a good nutrition the whole year round is vital, and not just remember it during men's health month.
Stick to the having the right nutrition as part of your lifestyle because it is the fundamental for achieving optimum health, and of course, your sexual health, as well.
These tips are based on the recently released nutrition tips by ChooseMyPlate.Gov. If you want, you can download the PDF by clicking here.
1. Don't Look For Magic Foods; They Don't Exist
There is nothing magical to consuming right nutrition, and there are no magical ways, or shortcuts, either.
In your typical diet, you should include fruits, vegetables, protein-rich foods like lean meats, beans, and eggs, as well as whole grains. Eat these foods regularly.
These foods are rich in nutrients the body needs everyday like potassium, magnesium, Vitamin D, protein, and calcium.
And, speaking of magnesium mineral, it's one of the most neglected nutrients and many men including women have no idea they lack this wonderful nutrient.
Also, don't forget zinc as this nutrient plays an important role in sperm and semen production, or male fertility.
In fact, check out the list of aphrodisiac foods, as well as other nutrients for a better man's health.
2. Stock Healthy Foods In Your Kitchen
Stacking healthy foods in the kitchen will leave you no choice but to eat healthy and clean. If you keep junk and unhealthy foods, you'll be eating them anyway.
To avoid ruining your nutrition plan, pile up on healthy foods including healthy snacks like nuts. You can stock vegetables and fruits, low-fat yogurt, and eggs inside your refrigerator instead of sweets.
Add to it your meats, or fish like salmon or tuna that you can just pull out and cook it when it's time for a meal. There are many ways to stock healthy foods at the kitchen and inside your refrigerator.
Spend some time planning, and you'll be able to eat healthy and clean, and not just you because if you have kids, you'll be nurturing them in a healthy way of eating.
3. Get Full And Satisfied With Whole Grains
When it comes to whole grains, the majority think of whole wheat. Most of the time, it's whole wheat bread. It's fine, it's a great source of simple carbohydrates, rich in fiber that can make you full without eating a lot.
If you're like me, organic brown rice is my choice when it comes to whole grains. It tastes delicious specially if you cook it with a little bit of coconut oil.
4. Avoid or Eliminate Foods That Can Induce Weight Gain
When it comes to weight gain, it's the calorie intake that matters. Reduce calorie intake on highly processed foods, and sugary foods like cakes, candies, cookies, and even ice cream.
It's been a few years now that I haven't been munching on sweets. Initially, I feel I've deprived myself of those foods, but later I realized the pounds I'm gaining are not really healthy after all.
So, I decided to eliminate those and I'm able to maintain a good health, as well as ideal weight. It's not worth cheating yourself on highly processed foods that are packed with high-calorie contents, plus a high amount of preservatives.
It's not worth it, even if you exercise a lot, the results you'll be getting is not ideal.
Nutrition is the primary driving force if you want to stay healthy, and I'm not saying exercise is not important, it is. However, if you exercise a little and only burn a little on the calories you take in, you won't be getting the ideal results.
Eventually, you'll give up and say you can't do anything because you think it maybe your genes that control your health. You have full control on your health but you must avoid these highly processed foods, and instead opt for real foods, or whole foods that have no preservatives.
If you can, go for organic foods. And, if you're eating fruits, sure you get sugar, but you will also be getting lots of beneficial nutrients from the fruit.
5. Stay Hydrated At All Times
When it comes to hydration, water should be prioritized. When I was young, I thought it was cool to drink beverages like sodas and bottled juices.
I did that until college, and I realized I was beginning to pack on belly fat, and it was not only ugly, it was very hard to move, as well.
I get tired easily. It was a horrible specially that I drink everyday and a few times a day on soda and bottled juices. If you check the labels on these beverages, you'll find it has lots of added sugar adding more calories into your daily diet.
So, when it comes to maintaining proper hydration, water is the best. During hot summer days, don't go out without water in your bag. In fact, drink water as often as you can when you're out even if you don't feel thirsty.
Avoid drinking sugary drinks that include energy and sports drinks. These are packed with sugar that can substantially increase your calorie intake without you knowing it. If you're after of the caffeine in sports and energy drinks, drink coffee instead and drink it pure black, sugar-free.
If you can, cold brew your coffee, but of course, you should limit your coffee intake between 2 and 3 cups per day as over consumption of caffeine can lead to unwanted consequences.
6. Men's Energy Need Differ From Women
Men's dietary needs are different from women's needs. Personally, I don't take any professional advice when it comes to my healthy eating habits. What I do is observe and record my eating habits including the amount of foods I eat, and how I feel when eating that much, or less.
In personal experience as an office working guy, eating just enough without feeling full works well for me. I don't feel sleepy, and I can work with better focus without feeling hungry until the next mealtime.
When it comes to snacks, I snack mostly with unsalted cashew nuts, which is nutrient rich. Sometimes, a piece of medium-size banana is more than enough.
In the morning, I always have my black, sugar-free, and cold brewed coffee blended with coconut oil, unsalted butter, and a sprinkle of cinnamon powder.
I do this every morning and I drink 2 to 3 cups of it, at most 2 cups, but I can go up to 3 cups specially when I'm doing intermittent fasting.
Also, several recent studies found the coffee has some benefits on improving and maintaining erection quality.
For a more professionally guided eating and exercise plan, checkout SuperTracker.USDA.Gov
7. Make Cooking As A Habit
Cooking is fun, but when I was just get started cooking, it's kind of awkward specially if it's your first time. If you don't have any idea how your finished dish would taste.
But, these are just when you're getting started. You don't have to be a professional cook to cook delicious dishes.
If you don't have any idea how to cook, get yourself a cookbook from a bookstore near you, visit Amazon.com and shop for a cookbook, or better get free recipes online.
Good news, most of the people sharing recipes online also have a HOW-TO instructional video that you can follow along.
Once you get into cooking, you'll love it for sure even how busy you are in your work, or even get home late, you'll be able to find ways to cook your own meal.
One important thing about preparing your meal, you have full control about what you put when it comes to ingredients and seasoning.
8. Make Reading Food Labels A Habit
If cooking is a great habit, so does reading food labels. If you're not familiar about food labeling, you can refer SuperTracker's Food-A-Pedia that compares over 8,000 foods when it comes to nutrient contents.
Packaged foods have two labels, one is for nutrition facts, and one for ingredients. When it comes to ingredients, avoid those with trans fats, or if you can't see that try looking for hydrogenated fats as both are the same.
9. Get Moving and Be Active Regularly
Recent studies found that sedentary particularly excessive long hours of sitting can lead to various health risks. Hence, don't be lazy and don't be afraid sweating.
Exercise regularly alternating long cardio and high-intensity interval training every other day.
For instance, do long endurance cardio on Monday, Wednesday, Friday; and do HIIT(high-intensity interval training) on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Give yourself a break on Sunday.
In addition, when you're at home or work, make it a habit to stand up and leave your office chair every hour going to the toilet or just drinking water.
Instead of bringing a big mug of water on your table, just get up and go to the water dispenser to drink water.
This way you're getting yourself active and even if it looks nothing simply by doing this light and simple efforts, your body is continuously burning calories.
10. Eat A Wide Variety Of Healthy Foods
The USDA has certain dietary guidelines as presented at ChooseMyPlate.Gov. The food inside your plate should constitute a well-balanced amount of nutrients from a wide variety of sources while avoiding highly processed foods. This is one simple way of saying, you have to avoid fast foods.
Of course, you can eat from time to time, perhaps once or twice a month fast food chains, but don't make it an everyday meal because it's full of trans fats, high in calorie that can accelerate your weight gain.
As a matter of fact, if you're get used to eating healthy foods, you don't feel good after eating ready-cooked meals from fast foods.