In my last post, the discussion was merely an opener. In this post, it’s time to discuss diet. It’s more important what you put in your body than what energy you exert to burn the input. Calories are the hot topic but those are only half of the battle. I’d rather you take in too many calories than fail to take in the important things that will help improve your body’s ability to burn fat and help in repairing your body when you work out. Calories are just units of heat:
The large calorie, kilogram calorie, dietary calorie or food calorie (symbol: Cal)[2] approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 °C. This is exactly 1,000 small calories or about 4.2 kilojoules.
Sitting in an ice bath will burn just as many calories as jogging but it’s a different kind of burn. Your body uses calories to power your body (in basic terms). This can be made more advance but just remember, you have to burn more than you put in. You get calories from food so, if you can get the nutrients you need from supplements, powders and mixes that are calorie free, do it. However, it’s still very important that you eat food each day. Two scoops of powdered barley greens are calorie free but won’t offset the HUGE benefits you get by eating a completely raw salad. However, when you eat that salad, make your own salad dressing. Trust me. Oh and don’t add cheese. Let’s talk about my daily diet. There are variations to this but a lot of people have asked what I’ve been following.
Breakfast: (7-8AM)
Wake up and down a glass of cold water. It kick starts your system and burns calories.
If you drink ice cold water, your body needs to heat it up and thereby uses energy. Imagine you drink 4°C/39F cold water, your body has to heat it up 33°C/91 F. In calories, that makes roughly 33 cal per liter/0,26 gal.
Breakfast Option One:
Six Eggs (no yolks). Ground Pepper, One Tomato, one slice of cheep american cheese, whole wheat Indian flatbread
Scramble the eggs, add everything in and then place that on one or two flatbreads. Don’t buy enriched bleach flour tortillas. Get whole wheat or spinach wraps. Feel free to douse this in hot sauce.
Breakfast Option Two:
Two Cups of Oatmeal (plain) and add half a scoop of protein powder Add boiling water and stir. Throw in some raisins or half a banana
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Now, grab your water bottle and fill it up. Throw in a lemon slice if you want a little flavoring. Start sipping the water. Do this religiously all day. You should be drinking 8-15 glasses a day. Do what you want but this is my diet. Remember, I weighed 280 pounds when I started and am taking supplements that require more water like Creatine and Nitrogen Oxide so my water intake is higher than most.
At 10:30AM you should have a snack. This can be blueberries, a banana, some raspberries or unsweetened granola. Avoid fruits that are high in sugars and avoid sweet and salty snacks and empty carbs. Just google empty carbs if you want some examples
Lunch: (12-1:30PM)
I bring my own lunch from home and always do a Pellegrino sparkling water with lunch. Sparkling water will fill you up faster and it contains a little spice to the very bland water you’ve been drinking all day. It has a few minerals but nothing meaningful. Subway is NOT your friend. Their breads and shitty veggies that have been sitting frozen for months in freezers is going to screw up your diet. Most sandwich shops use bread as a filler. DON’T get deli sandwiches for lunch.
Lunch Option One:
A salad with chicken. You can pick these up from most delis or grocery stores if you’re lazy about lunch. Do not add salad dressing that isn’t clear. Italian is about the lightest store bought dressing you can get. If you’re serious, keep olive oil and vinegar at your office and pour it on Avoid lettuce. Go for spinach, onions, walnuts, cranberries. The salads at McDonalds have sugar and food coloring added and the dressing has high fructose corn syrup so don’t get fast food salads either. I’m serious when I say that dressing is the devil.
Lunch option Two:
A bread-less sandwich from home with a steamed vegetable that you made the night before. This is a PERFECT lunch. I also eat the vegetable raw. I’ll bring in a whole carrot, celery or squash and just eat it raw.
Lunch Option Three:
I drive across town to a juice bar and order the following:
Kale, spinach, celery, tomato, parsley, carrot, lemon, ginger and cucumber and enough of it to fill a 24 ounce bottle. It costs about $9 but I actually end up having one of these about 3 days a week. It’s an amazing meal and you can add a bit of whey protein to it to help the taste.
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You should have completed your 4th or 5th glass of water by now and that includes the Pellegrino. At 3-4:30, have another snack. This time, a protein bar or supplement bar is fine. Be careful about calories and sugars in these things but most are generally fine to eat. Some bars are “weight gainer” bars for body builders. Don’t get those. Also PowerBar and CliffBars are all carbs for guys that are climbing mountains. Don’t eat those either.
Dinner: (7-9PM)
I alternate my dinner choices. I do two nights salads and one night meats. Sometimes I combine the two and do stir fry. It’s been a good system and I’m not tired of it yet after 3 weeks. Every Wednesday or Thursday, I go to a local farmer’s market and buy all of my food for the week. I get everything that was picked that day and ask about the cattle and livestock that was killed and how it was killed. I have made relationships now with farmers so I go to the same people each week. My single weekly budget for food is $100. $100 x 4 weeks x 4 family members and you’re looking at $1600 a month for a family to eat organic food. It’s not cheap but, for this exercise, I’m living the healthiest I’ve ever lived.
Dinner Option One:
- 8 Leaves of Kale (tear leaves off stem)
- 2 Whole Carrots (shredded)
- One Cucumber (sliced)
- Two Tomatoes (or many small tomatoes) (diced)
- Quarter of an Onion (diced)
- One Garlic Clove (chopped)
- One Green or Red Pepper (diced)
- Homemade dressing (1 tablespoon of light olive oil, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinaigrette)
- Once ounce of 4-year aged Parmesan cheese. For quality and less salt content, buy it whole and grate yourself.
- A scoop of Alfalfa Grass
- Two whole hard-boiled eggs
I take all of this and put it in a large mixing bowl. Believe it or not, I eat all of it as one meal. It leaves me feeling almost sick from being so stuffed but the amount of fiber and nutrients (especially since I eat this right after my evening workouts) will get put to use immediately. All of the calories go right into overdrive and the rest is shot into my blood stream. You’re going to think I’m crazy but I actually feel a little high after eating this. My brain gets lightheaded. Read that again. It’s almost 2 pounds of vegetables shooting into my body. It’s the perfect salad for someone trying to lose an immense amount of weight. Feel free to cut these all in half though if you’re smaller than me.
Dinner Option Two:
- Same ingredients as above salad except the portions are all cut in half
- One Pound of ground Grass-Fed Beef
- Put all into a pan with olive oil and stir fry it. Yes, even the kale leaves.
- I actually marinate my beef first and pre-cook it for a few minutes before adding all veggies. It makes the veggies crisper when it’s done since you’re not cooking it all as long. I eat half of it and then eat the other half for lunch the next day.
Dinner Option Three:
- One Whole Chicken / Cornish Hen
- Marinate, remove skin and throw in the oven for an hour covered in aluminum foil
- Add grilled asparagus or something steamed
Dinner Option Four:
- Burgers, no bread, I infuse my burgers with red wine, bleu cheese crumbles and salt & pepper and lots of hot sauce
- Side can be any veggie you have in the fridge or a small salad
There are quiet a few options here. The rule is to avoid carbs, worthless calories and, if you must have calories, make it meaningful like grass fed beef or chicken meat. DO NOT get your protein from processed foods. Fish sticks are an example of the far worse that you can have for dinner. Get as much local and farm raised as possible. Grass fed beef is eaten by athletes as it’s 10x better for you than regular beef. Most grocers won’t have it so you’ll have to order it online or find a local farmer.
Three days a week, you are allowed one glass of wine. At that rate, you’ll only be drinking one bottle of wine a week which is also good for your budget. In fact, if you are used to drinking a lot, cutting these out will help fund your increased food budget. Red wine in moderation is very good for you and the small drunk you’ll feel from the one glass is a nice reward to yourself for working so hard that day. Anyway you can, always find a small way to make yourself feel better like adding strawberries to your lunch salad once every 2-3 weeks. It’s the little things. My little thank you is having a peanut butter & jelly sandwich once a week before a workout. Not only is the meal burned off immediately but it’s also nice and makes me happy.
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On days you worked out, you can have one scoop of protein powder 30 minutes before bed. This is good for rebuilding muscles while you sleep. If you didn’t have a salad that night, I’d add in a scoop of Barley Greens. This will help you as well. Don’t forget your water! Do a glass before bed. You’ll have to pee at 1AM but you’ll thank me later. This is SUPER important.
Also notice here that you WILL NOT go out to eat. Going out to eat will slow you down, break the diet, make you fall back into your own ways and make you sick to your stomach if you’ve been eating healthy for a few weeks. Just DON’T do it. Eating out or fast food is bad and let’s remember that only eat meals at home until you’re at your target weight then you can start eating out once a week.
In review:
Seven days a week, you are taking in enough calories to burn off in your fitness routine and you’re taking in a very balanced diet or protein, fruits, vegetables and fiber needed to reduce your weight but also power your workouts. You’re flushing out toxins and replenishing your muscles with water and you’re eating 5 meals a day to continue your metabolism going.
This is a PERFECT diet for most of us that are doing diet AND exercise. Next time, I’ll discuss supplements and a fitness routine. Thanks for reading!