Be honest, how many times have you been lured into the latest superfood trend, chugging green juice, or painstakingly cut out carbs because a reel on social media told you to? Instead of punishing your body with whatever crazy diet comes along next, why not consider complete nutrition instead…
It sounds like a bit of a buzzword, doesn’t it? In reality, it’s far more simple and exciting than a generic diet, as it’s the art of giving our body every single tool that it needs to build, repair and energise itself. If we think of our body like a high-performance sports car, we can have the best tires in the world and the most sparkling paint finish, but if there’s no oil in the engine we’re not going anywhere fast! Our body needs fuel, so let’s listen to it.
What Is Complete Nutrition?
In short, complete nutrition is all about balance. It’s the golden trio of macronutrients from proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbs, teaming up with micronutrients of vitamins and minerals that we love, along with hydration.
Achieving complete nutrition isn’t about being perfect at every meal time or denying ourselves the food that we love, but including variety. It’s all about eating the rainbow on our plate, not just the green bits! When we hit that sweet spot of complete nutrition, we’re not just fuelling our muscles to look and feel more strong, but we’re also feeding our hormones, our brain chemistry and our cellular repair which is vital for our overall health and wellbeing.
Why Fit Doesn’t Always Mean Fuelled
Just because someone appears to be fit, or spends two hours at the gym each day, doesn’t automatically mean that they have complete nutrition. In fact, many active people are actually under-nourished without realising, because of simple lifestyle habits that can be corrected.
As creatures of habit, we tend to eat the same 5 or 10 meals on repeat. While this is convenient, it also means we miss out on the specific nutrients found in all of the foods that we don’t eat. Being vegan, gluten-free with a dairy intolerance, i understand how limited my diet is and how important the role of supplementation is in my daily life to not become deficient.
Busy lifestyles and high stress jobs actually burn through our nutrients such as vitamin C and magnesium much faster than a relaxing day would. And even if we’re proudly eating our veggies, which is basically 100% of my diet, modern soil depletion and longer shipping times mean that an apple today might not have the same mineral punch that it did in our grandparents’ day. Nutrient quality is king!
Tell Tale Signs That You’re Missing Out
Poor nutrition doesn’t always show up as a major illness right away. Instead, our body sends us little reminders that it’s lacking and it’s down to us to keep an eye out and recognise the symtpoms so that we can act on them.
If you find yourself reaching for sugar or caffeine every afternoon, your blood sugar and nutrients are likely out of whack. Feeling moody, irritable or on edge can often be traced back to a lack of healthy fats or B-vitamins. And if little bruises or scratches seem to take forever to disappear now, it’s a sign that your body may be struggling to find the building blocks to fix itself.
Struggling to drift off to sleep, despite being exhausted, is a classic sign of mineral imbalances which can easily be corrected through our nutrition. So don’t worry, there’s hope!
Nutrition Is For Everyone!
When we prioritise complete nutrition, the helth benefits start today but last a lifetime. In the short term, we can notice more stable moods, glowing skin and unstoppable energy levels, as the real magic happens long term, like a retirement fund for our health.
Maintaining complete nutrition helps to protect our brain as we get older, keeps our bones sturdy and our joints moving smoothly, and supports our heart so that it stays strong for all of those future adventures and beautiful memories to be made.
We certainly don’t need to be marathon runners or yoga gurus to care about our health and nutrition. Whether you’re working a desk job, a busy parent, or someone who prefers curling up with a good book instead of hitting the treadmill, our body is still doing millions of complex jobs every second.
HUEL Complete Nutrition Bar: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
So when I tell you that my afternoon chocolate chip cookie dough bar is fuelling my body like a fine sports car, you can be forgiven for thinking that I’ve lost the plot, as HUEL have the most delicious nutritionally complete treats that feel more like a reward than a health-chore.
My childhood love for cookie dough and chocolate chips is beautifully packed into this high-protein snack bar which contains 210 kcal, up to 14g of protein, 20g of carbohydrates, 8g of fat and 7g of fibre. Expertly enriched with 26 essential vitamins and minerals, it’s not also a convenient, nutritious treat on the go, but quite frankly the highlight of my morning.
Available in a range of mouth-watering flavours from Peanut Caramel, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Dark Chocolate & Raspberry and Chocolate Caramel, each bar boasts over 165 science-backed health benefits with each nutrient-dense bite.
By making sure that our nutrition is complete, we’re giving ourselves the very best possible chance to feel vibrant, clear-headed and resilient. It’s not about the restriction of a diet, but the abundance of fuel, adding in the good stuff that we often overlook, until we’re glowing from the inside out!
