AlcineXtreme Fitness Blog

Personal Diet Modification Plan So since I have had my son, I noticed what I used to to lose weight isn't working for me. I recently did a nutritional analysis on myself and I saw that I'm deficient in iron, I'm not drinking nearly enough water and I was ingesting way too many carbohydrates. I highly suggest that people track what they eat, you'd be surprised how you though a little was actually a lot and vice versa.  So to help myself remember to drink my water, I have purchased the Hydrate Spark water bottle. This water bottle not only tracks how much water I consume but also syncs to my Fitbit and it sends me reminders of when I need to drink water. You can order yours at www.hydratespark.com  http://touchyourclientsheart.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/HidrateSpark.gif To monitor my carbs, I have researched different lower carb option meal preps on Pinterest! I absolutely love Pinterest and I get a lot of my ideas for meals from there.  ...

Nutritional Requirements Across the Lifespan Nutrition is very important at every stage of life. From the developing fetus  to the adult, what you put in your body will either help or harm its development and progression.  Pregnancy During my pregnancy, I did my best to gain the suggested amount of weigh and to not go over. This was my first pregnancy and I wanted to make sure I did everything right. I stayed active, I only increased my caloric intake by 300 calories and I'm proud to say I only gained 26 pounds. I was pretty happy, I felt good throughout my pregnancy and I didn't have any complications during. I heard from other pregnant women that they had gained sometimes 30+,40+ even 60+ pounds during the pregnancy! I couldn't quite understand why and I really think it has to do with the mindset of "eating for two".  First off, when you first find out your pregnant, most women find out during their first trimester and the baby is about an o...

Digestion, Absorption and Metabolism There three major steps in the digestion process. This includes the ingestion when the food enters the body, digestion where the food is broken down by digestive enzymes and then the body absorbs the nutrients needed from the food. Digestion is important because this is how the body get's its fuel from the food. The digestive system includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines. The accessory organs include the teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, pancreas and gallbladder. https://media3.giphy.com/media/xTHwE730tN25W/giphy.gif Carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth when the food enters, the teeth begin chewing and saliva is released. In the saliva there are digestive enzymes called amylase that begin to breakdown carbohydrates. Amylase is an enzyme present in the saliva that helps break down starches and help convert it to glucose. Glucose is the body's main fuel source.   “That’s why the more yo...

Nutrition and Disease http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/heart_friendly_foods.jpg “You are what you eat,” we hear this saying all the time. This is saying relates how you eat to how you look and feel. If you eat badly, your face make break out, you will feel sluggish, possibly have gastrointestinal problems, increase your risk for cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and more. When you eat healthy, you have more energy, you tend to be at a healthier body weight or at least working towards one, and you’re able to function throughout the day.  How we eat also affects how our body uses what we eat for energy. Your body is just like a vehicle. If you don’t put enough fuel or the right fuel, you’re in for a lot of trouble down the road. Your body uses everything you consume for good and bad. For example, The chronic diseases—heart disease, diabetes, some kinds of cancer, dental disease, and adult bone loss—all have a connection to poor di...

Social, psychological, philosophical, and physical factors that drive our food choices I grew up in Germany but my family is from the South. Although I was exposed to foods like Schnitzel, Bratwurst, and Onion Cake (don’t knock it until you try it), I do love ribs, baked macaroni and cheese, collard greens, potato salad, corn bread, etc. My parents, no matter how much I protested, always encouraged me to try different things outside of my culture. Naturally some things I liked, and somethings I didn’t. For example, when my dad got stationed in Okinawa, I got to try sushi for the first time. I loved it. However, when we went to France, I tried escargot (snails) and I’ll be honest, it didn’t taste bad, I just didn’t’ like the texture. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSxagDP31hOFXc5zLU5HJzEH_3WOMEzQlAUsTKUu8oX-0L2ZKQc   There are many factors that will determine our food choices. These factors include the cost of the food, how available certain foods a...

Macro- and Micronutrients All around the nutrition world people talk about eating toward your macros. I’m sure you heard of the “If it fits your Macros (IIFYM)” but what exactly are Macros? Macronutrients are simply fats, protein, and carbohydrates. Each of these macronutrients have a specific job in the body. Macros can be found in all of our foods; the only difference is how much of each is in each food. For example, peanut butter has per tablespoon 16 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbohydrates and 8 grams of protein. So roughly 20% of the total calories is coming from carbohydrates, 26% is coming from protein and 54% is coming from fat. For each gram of protein and carbs is 4 calories and 9 calories for fat. Fat   https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/images/2015/full-macro-pictures-reskin-fat.jpg “Fat provides the majority of the energy needed to perform much of the body’s muscular work.” (Sizer and Whitney, 2017, pg. 161) As I mentioned previously 1 gram of fat is 9 ca...