Tips to start playing sports

One of the most frequent resolutions when the year begins is to perform physical activity, so in this post I am going to give some Tips to start playing sports both general and nutritional). We are talking about regular and moderate physical activity, very important to maintain and improve your health (it helps to lower cholesterol, improves anxiety and depression, regulates blood pressure and glucose, helps to fix calcium well in our bones, etc.).

Clear objectives and realistic purposes. It is very common to say, “I am going to go for a walk every day”, do it for a week and then do nothing else.
Constancy is very important. The benefit is to do some physical activity at least three days a week; it is very interesting to do a couple of days of aerobics (walking, cycling, etc.) and combine it with a couple of days of strength exercises.
One of the most important things is to be well hydrated. Don’t miss the water!
As a general guideline, ultra-processed foods, refined cereals, refried foods, white sugar and unhealthy fats must be banished from the diet, since they do not provide quality nutrients.
Main meals should be made with complex or whole carbohydrates (brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, quinoa, fruit…). As well as fiber from fruits and vegetables (tip: at the beginning of both the diet change and the exercise, start little by little with the increase in fiber intake, since it can cause a sensation of abdominal swelling, etc., being very annoying when doing sports). Finally, legumes as proteins of high biological value, eggs, fish (better oily fish) and white meat (always better than red).
If you are going to do sports in the hour after breakfast, it has to be light: some fruit, natural yogurt, toast with a little avocado.
At the end of the physical activity (or the next hour), you can have some fruit (banana, dried fruit…), a gel (they are very comfortable), and an energy bar (be careful with them, they usually contain a lot of sugar), some nuts, or whole-wheat toast with avocado and a bit of tuna, mackerel or egg…
Two hours after physical activity, you can have a main meal that can be as recommended in the aforementioned general guidelines ((with carbohydrates and proteins such as oily fish, which also provide us with healthy unsaturated fats).

As always, you have to have common sense when eating! Also, keep in mind that these are just a few Tips to start playing sports on a regular and moderate basis. If you exercise intensely and/or for many hours (training for a marathon, for example), an individualized nutritional study will be necessary, which must be carried out by specialized health professionals.

Dra. Arantza López-Ocaña