We all know just how important our diet is when it comes to getting fit and building muscle. Getting plenty of protein is the key to growing our strength, but it’s also important to balance our nutrition to ensure we’re getting everything that our body needs to grow stronger.

However, getting certain nutrients can be a little tough, especially if you’re restricting yourself to a specific diet. For instance, vegans might find that getting enough vitamin B12 is hard because it mainly comes from animal products. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to make up for these nutritional deficits, and the most popular method these days tends to be the use of superfood powders.

What are superfood powders?

Superfood powders are essentially just dehydrated foods that are finely ground into powders. They’re not all made this way, but the idea is that you’re taking some kind of nutrient and grinding it down into a very fine powder. It can be taken as it is or even mixed with water, but there are lots of creative ways to use these superfood powders.

Using it as a supplement for food

If you’re following a diet that is fairly strict then it can be difficult to take in extra calories to get different kinds of nutrients. Thankfully, superfood powders can help you get those nutrients without all of the extra calories. Superfood powders tend to isolate just the nutrients, meaning they can be safely mixed into different kinds of smoothies and meals to supercharge your foods.

Using it in drinks

As mentioned, superfood powders are incredibly easy to use in drinks. Simply throw a spoonful into your blender when you make a drink and your smoothie will be packed with vitamins and minerals.

You’ll find lots of unique recipes on the internet that call for specific kinds of superfood powders. However, you’ll want to experiment on your own to ensure that your supercharged smoothies contain all of the nutrients that you’re looking for.

Using it with existing powders

Many people use protein powder as a way to supplement their diet. Instead of having to eat lots of chicken and other animal sources of protein, people can now take their protein in powder form instead. This means it can be mixed into drinks, used in baking, or even stirred into sauces. This is a fantastic way to get different kinds of nutrients in your diet and it goes well with any existing supplements and powders you use.

Using it for taste or texture

Some powders have a very unique texture or taste, especially when mixed with different kinds of foods. For example, you can buy powdered eggs which can be used to make scrambled eggs and omelettes. However, they can also be mixed with different kinds of sauces and even used as a replacement for whole eggs in different baking recipes. It’s extremely convenient, it’s economical, and you can buy loads of it to keep in storage for when you need it.

Combining with a balanced diet…

Doing a mixture of the above combined with a varied diet is going to do wonders for your physical health. Whether you want to build muscle, or lose body fat (or both). It’s important to use ‘real food’ alongside powders and supplements. No supplement can replace ‘real food’ so make sure that most of your diet is made up of natural foods such as fruit and vegetables.

Combining with exercise…

Doing exercise along with the ‘superfood powders’ and ‘balanced diet’ is going to really compliment your progress. If you want to lose body fat, you can do a mixture of cardio workouts (running, walking, bike, fitness classes, etc), and resistance training (I like to use resistance bands and do this 8 week resistance band program). Or if you are trying to build muscle you will need to lift weights, I recommend using a mixture of DB’s, barbells and a bench. If you’re struggling for exercises and want a custom workout plan please feel free to get in touch with me.

Combining with rest and recovery…

The final area I’d like to add is ‘rest and recovery’ – this is where you body heals. Nutrition plays a key role, and superfood powders can really help BUT you also need to look at things such as:

• Digestion – making sure to chew your foods properly and plenty of water
• Sleep – aiming to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night
• Mental/Emotional Health – meditating, relaxing, journalling, etc
• Recovery – things you can do to speed up your recovery are taking hot baths/showers, naps, stretching, foam rolling, and working on your mobility drills.

Thanks for reading,

Nick