The more I learn about all the complexities of nutrition and the human body, the more I realize it’s imperative to keep it super simple.
There is NO other way.
There’s just too much out there today to bog you down. I see it every day; clients confused about what to eat and when to eat it because one thing they read says low carbs are good and the next thing says too much fat is bad.
What the hell are you supposed to do?
I’m not going to sugar coat it, it’s not easy. Eating healthy is hard but really the hardest part is making it a lifestyle and not a diet.
Cutting out this and that until you’re at the point where you find yourself eating boring chicken and vegetables every night, that sucks.
I am a huge fan of creating the lifestyle that allows you to enjoy delicious foods, look and feel awesome and actually have a life, aka going out with friends and enjoying a glass of wine if you want.
On a side note, I want you to check out this post about how to own your change. This will help you to understand why it’s not weird if you’re trying to eat healthy when going out with friends. Click here to check it out.
So, back to keeping it simple.
Everyone is busy and who has time to prepare and eat 6-7 times per day?
I’m not down with that. I mean, I love to eat but I just don’t have time to stop what I’m doing to eat every 2 hours.
Here’s what I do and what I prescribe for people to keep it super simple:
1. Eat 3-4 meals per day
2. Skip breakfast (see why skipping breakfast is good)
3. Have a post workout shake if you train in the morning (about an hour after)
4. Make your first meal really light, consisting of eggs and veggies or a protein and veggies
5. Your next two meals will be bigger. Meal #2 will consist of protein and veggies and some healthy fats (think avocado or coconut oil)
6. Meal #3, dinner, will be the biggest meal. This will vary depending on if you trained that day or not.
If you didn’t train or you just had a conditioning day then you want to keep it lower on the carb side. You want to grab protein, tons of veggies and some more healthy fats. You can also add some berries as something sweet toward the end of dinner.
If you did train that day you want to have protein, tons of veggies and a starch. The best starches are sweet potatoes, quinoa, rice or bananas/plantains. They digest quickly and that’s what you need when we’re talking post workout nutrition.
Here’s the thing to remember, you don’t need to make every training day a higher carb day. I like to pick my two heaviest days and go higher carbs. On the other days that I train I keep my carbs simply from fruit and veggies.
If you’re nervous about the “carbs at night” myth that’s sadly still hanging around. Check this out. It’s a great post from Jason Ferruggia and Nate Miyaki. Plus it’s pretty funny because he’s quoting Regulators multiple times.
In addition to this plan above you want to make sure you’re getting at least 80 ounces of water each day and absolutely, 100% commit yourself to 8 hours of sleep each night. I’ll be writing another post next week about the importance of sleep. It’s SO underrated but if you’re not sleeping well (or enough) your hormones are going to be out of whack in a serious way and that will cause you to struggle with fat loss.
So how are you going to actually enjoy really good foods and not get sick of the same old thing?
I was finding myself making the same stuff over and over. I don’t mind for a while, I am not too picky but every once and a while I like to mix it up. This is an awesome fat burning cook book that I’ve been using. The recipes are broken down into 10 categories so you get all your beef, chicken, poultry, breakfast, desserts, snacks and more.
Tons of great stuff from some of the top Paleo cooks and chefs in the business. That means no processed ingredients and this stuff is going to give you super charged energy and help to support some awesome fat loss.
—>Check out the Fat Burning Chef right here