Food is more than just fuel; it is jam packed with information sending messages to your body to kickoff chemical reactions throughout the body to help enhance kickboxing performance. Eating food provides energy and delivers messages to the body. Not all food is created equal so what is good nutrition? Well in short good nutrition controls energy balance and improves your relationship with your health.

1. Pay attention to what you eat for kickboxing performance

Good nutrition asks you to care about your food and eating it. Practicing mindfulness with your food allows you to pay attention and tune into what you’re eating. It minimizes distractions to appreciate your food more. When you sit down and savor your meal you create a better relationship with food allowing your senses to smell, taste and feel the texture of what you’re eating. Over-eating can result in your body feeling sluggish and under-conditioned for kickboxing. Tune into your body’s signals when you’re hungry and stopping at a comfortable level of fullness.  

2. Quality of food is important to improve health

Food is not created equal. Nutrient-depleted pseudo food or most processed food is something to avoid as much possible at all cost. Processed food such as microwavable food, sugary cereals, white bread, deli meats and much more have added sugar and sodium and other chemicals to help preserve food. These chemicals negatively affect our health. Eating whole foods, minimally processed nutrient-rich food will give you a better longstanding relationship with your food and health. Eating better quality food will improve most people’s health significantly especially paired with a favorite exercise like kickboxing!

3. Help eliminate nutrient deficiencies                           

By choosing the best quality food, gives us access to lots of valuable nutrients such as vitamins and minerals the body needs to function and improve your kickboxing experience. For example, without vitamin C the body’s immune system would be compromised. Imagine being sick every time someone sneezes . Giving your body the right amount of nutrients allows it to recover faster from exercise. With good nutrition comes a better overall feeling of heightened positive emotions.  Giving what your body what it needs helps improve your relationship with yourself.  

4. Controlling appetite helps with kickboxing performance         

Good nutrition allows us to be aware of what we are eating by choosing a variety of more satisfying, higher-quality foods that do not leave the body starving for nutrients. We eliminate nutrient deficiencies and overall, we eat less food allowing us to control our appetite and control our food intake. Feeling satisfied from the healthy nutrients we intake into our bodies allows us to lose fat, gain muscle, and perform better. 

5. Exercise Regularly for a healthy lifestyle

Good nutrition and exercise go hand in hand. Thinking about improving the way you eat will usually cause you to think about improving your physical activity or vice versa. If you have an activity you love like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or Muay Thai/ Kickboxing, you may be curious if you improve your nutrition, if it would help improve your performance. Exercise and good nutrition is a the key and lock for healthier living mentally and physically.  Eat better, train more!