EXERCISE: ENERGY AND DIET

Once you start doing more exercise, it is important to continue with the Optimum Diet. You can refuel your body's stores of readily available carbohydrate (glycogen) after your exercise period by eating a meal that is rich in unrefined carbodydrate. If you feel shaky and a bit wobbly during exercise, it is likely that your sugar level has dropped too low. Eating a snack that contains unrefined starchy food two hours before exercise can help to prevent this: avoid caffeine and sugar, even fruit sugar, especially if this is taken as juice. If the problem persists, carry a banana or apple in your pocket for emergency use.


When people of normal weight start an exercise programme, they may find they can maintain a higher calorie intake without gaining weight, and therefore maintain an adequate intake of minerals and vitamins more easily. Overweight people do not usually increase the amount of food that they eat when they start exercising. Hopefully, the extra energy they are using will come from their fat stores, and they should continue to eat a diet that is rich in unrefined carbohydrates and low in fat.

Water and Sweat
As you exercise, your muscles warm up and you will start to sweat; this is the body's way of controlling its temperature. Loss of fluid through perspiration is best replaced by drinking water, before, during and after exercise. Caffeine and alcohol should be avoided because they increase fluid loss by increasing the amount of urine produced. Minerals, including sodium, potassium, magnesium an chromium, are lost in perspiration, but the Optimum Diet is rich in all of them.



Walking is a very beneficial form of exercise, it is good for reducing stress and doesn't cost anything.