The ads are everywhere: ‘Get fit without exercise’, ‘Lose 40 pounds in a week without working out’, ‘the miracle pill works!’. We see and hear nothing but, ‘Here is a way to get stronger’. Most of the ads only include ideas on how one can just lift or not lift at all and see results. Weight-lifting is key, however, not the only thing that helps, weightlifting is only one-half of the equation.

With a nutrition based mindset, the weightlifting comes easy. Lifting weights without the right nutrition, is a waste of time. Drinking soda, and eating unhealthy foods makes that workout counter-productive. Weightlifting involves rebuilding the body and its muscles after working them hard. Rebuilding them with the right nutrition, is how muscles come back faster and stronger.

Eating schedules are very important as well. With nutrition, finding the right time to eat can impact a person’s workout and the results they see. If they replace the foods that hurt the body with food items like vegetables and other small healthy foods, they will have more energy. Energy is crucial to a work-out.

Students depend on pushing their bodies to the max in the weight room to give them the results they want. They emphasize the breaking down and not enough about the building up. Eating the right food takes more thought and more dedication, which drives many students away from going the extra mile in their workouts.

They just want to look the biggest, because everyone can see it. But when it comes down to it, no one sees the nutrition that the biggest people put or don’t put into their workout.

Some alternatives to Twinkies and soda would be trying more veggies and fruits. If it takes time to plan meals, so be it. Make an effort to fill that other half of getting stronger.

As teenagers lose track of what they eat and just look at the end result before they even start, they skip over the middle part. That middle part is the process, which takes nothing but hard work.