Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 26

on what the hotels offer and/or nearby
restaurants, but knowing a bit more helps
choosing responsibly from a menu. If you
can cook at home, there's no excuse of
course, and you can buy and eat what you
need to achieve your goal.
Food wise, I reduced my carbohydrates
intake drastically initially,too many
sandwiches etc were substituted by more
fruits and veg, added more proteins to my
diet (more eggs, and other low fat dairy
products), and had more fish and lean
meats (chicken instead of pork chops,
salmon instead of sausages etc), avoid
deep fried and battered foods and limit the
take away.
The trouble is that with restaurant food, it is
often quite rich, but I found that most
restaurants are willing to make some
changes for you. I asked the chef in one
particular place to substitute the rich bits of
cheese in a ceasar salad, for warm strips
of chicken and throw in a few more bit's of
tomato and a bit of olive oil etc, and hey
presto, I had a tasty and healty salad,
usually filling enough not to need a main
course anymore.
WHAT IF HUNGER STRIKES?
What if you're hungry at 'random' parts of
the day? Drink a pint of water first, often
the hunger feeling is actually thirst. If the
hunger still nags after 15 minutes, have
some fruit like an Apple or similar. With
food in general the advice is to eat little
and often. The reason why this is good for
you is that it keeps your metabolism going.
52 - Totally Tae Kwon Do
Www.pioneertkd.com
If you don't then your body goes into food
storage mode to preserve energy, and it
stores this as fat. That was the part I
wanted to get rid off.... Now for some this
is easier done than others, depending on
where and how you work. In my case I
pack my work bag with a few small bottles
of water, some apples as they can handle
a few knocks during transport, and one or
two low calorie breakfast bars. About
midway between breakfast and lunch, I'd
eat and apple and drink some water, the
same for the afternoon, however if I didn't
fancy an apple, I'd choose the breakfast
bar, but make sure you drink water.
I now feel better, I am getting a bit stronger,
I've lost fat (not weight), and my flexibility is
better too. I still want to get further, and so
I keep going to a gym when I can, or find
workout routines to do, that require no
equipment.
Of course, practicing TKD will further help
getting me in shape. I will report back from
time to time how I fare.
Pictures:
The pictures in this article are for display
only. They are unrelated to the author and
the article itself.
They are of -
• Ms. Joanna Fazzino, USA - Courtesy of
NPTA
• Sylvio Cruz, 5 Dan TaeKwondo/Kong Soo
Do, Brazil - Courtesy of Adriano Gomes
• Andy Maguire, USA - Courtesy of
KickPics.com