nutrition-information.net

While you are growing, you will have weight & strength fluctuations. This can be distracting, but it is always temporary!

Fresh, unprocessed foods are the only foods worth eating! Is that bad news? That does not mean you can not have a piece of pizza on the weekend like when you are with friends, but daily, you need some good lean proteins, (soft cooked eggs, meats, chicken, fish, tofu if you like it –) fresh vegetables, fruits & salads, at least fifty percent raw. You can get into making some yummy dips, from lemon juice & olive oil, grated cheese or sour cream, & add some ranch flavoring, or flavor it as you like with other herbs.

Nuts, celery, fruit & yogurt are great snacks. If you have strong sweet cravings, you will have to avoid sweets for a couple of weeks altogether to make that go away. You may have headaches & energy highs & lows during that time, but it is kind of like drug withdrawal. Sugar acts like a drug in our bodies. Our system has to get used to running on real food again, with minimal sugar.

Packaged diet foods & artificial sweeteners are not good. They are full of unhealthy chemicals. Do you know that when medical researchers want to quickly fatten mice up for an experiment they give them artificial sweeteners? The same kind of food chemicals that are in diet foods. There is more. Those additives make you crave carbs!

A great book that explains youthful metabolism & how to build strong muscles is “Slow Burn” by Frederick Hahn. It is really for older people, but the information in it is vital if you are seriously training.

You should never be hungry or feel deprived - but what you select to snack on makes all the difference in the world. Any carbs like chips, crackers, & breads are almost useless calories. There is more. They do not build your bones & muscles, or brain cells. Most commercial sodas leach calcium from your bones.

“Protein Power” by the doctors Eades & Eades explains how the body metabolizes efficiently - that is, creates energy for you… The body can do this without any sugar at all! In fact, meats & vegetables have carb content, & that is enough for us.

Oils & fats are very important to eat - choosing the healthy ones is what counts. Flax seed oil & olive oil are the most common oils to make salad dressings from. Most store bought salad dressings have heavier oils in them, & nearly always sugar. (And chemicals). Butter is good for you, & so is the fat in eggs, but keep the yolks soft. Not eating any fat is BAD for you… How much is too much, is relative to how often & how hard you exercise.

This is just the overview. Read about health & diet & explore what will work for you.

Dianne M. Buxton is a graduate of the National Ballet School of Canada. She taught at, & choreographed for The National Ballet School, York University, & George Brown College, in Canada, & taught at Harvard University in the U.S. Click here for ballet shoes, pointe shoes, strengthening exercises, dance news, dance books, diet & health for dancers,DVD’s & more.