Diet, Nutrition and SupplementationPost here for supplement reviews or nutritional advice. If you're trying to get "ripped abz" THIS is where you should be.
We've talked a lot, lately, about the perfect diet regimens and the best practices for workout nutrition. After reading so many different takes on the subjects, it occurred to me that there's a big difference between the perfect regimen and the perfect regimen for you.
I'm not talking about the diet that illicits the best physical response either. I'm sure we can agree that some dietary practices are close to perfect, but totally horrible to stick to for some.
"The best diet is the one that you will stick with." -- Who knows who first said this? (a genius, I'm sure)
I don't think anybody can take a stock diet program or book and follow it to the letter. You'll stick to the spirit of the diet, of course. But, if you just do it, as is, you'll only last so long. You'll move on to another or just plain give up. Everyone has got to take a diet and make it their own.
Over the past few years, I've found little ways to make my life easier and stay fit and trim. I'm not the perfect eater...
I rely on a lot of protein powder and eggs, often at the expense of other sources of protein. I've Velocity Dieted before (that's a lot of protein powder). Two weeks ago, I had over 48 eggs in one week... But, it's working for me, as it helps me to eat enough, but not too much. Could I do better on a wider variety? Very likely.
I make foods that are edible, but not too tasty. A strange strategy that ensures that I don't prematurely raid my own ice chest in the back of my car.
While working, I eat the exact same foods, every day, five days a week. Not too tasty, but edible (I can cook, by the way, I just choose to save that for breakfast, dinner, and weekends, when I can take the time to enjoy the meals). If I'm going to make non-tasty food, why not just make one huge batch and dole it out?
I plan trips to the movies right after a big workout, so I can ensure that my box of Red Vines and pair of protein bars are actually serving a useful purpose in building muscle, rather than making me fat. I still get to enjoy my movies like I love to and not feel guilty.
That's my top 3 or 4 things that I do to make a diet my own. Curious what you all do make your diet your own.
You are insightful as usual, my friend.
I do a few things:
* I just listen. I used to think my body can't tell me what it wants, because how could it possibly know...But if you eat clean for long enough, you start hearing what it really wants. Want an orange, buddy? No problem
* I have protein, no matter what, every time I eat. I make sure it's something that sounds good to me. I don't care if it's chicken day on someone's diet.
* I have colorful stuff at every meal, I want it to look pretty.
* I either measure or eyeball stuff, but make sure I eat a tad less than I want, just so I can have a small second helping of veggies, nuts, whatever.
* I cook something different every time I cook and I never put the same stuff in the recipe. I like trying different tastes.
* I use a lot of green spices, like mint, sage, thyme. I like to experiment with intense green spices on raw veggies.
* I cook alternatives to fun foods. I make homemade chocolate, healthy cheesecake, protein bars.
* I eat frozen fruit when I feel like something sweet.
* I drink my coffee with a lot of water. I know they say dehydration is a myth, but I feel like I stay better hydrated that way.
* I only use protein powder when I cook or when I don't have access to solid food. Hot chocolate protein is good comfort food
* I don't worry about food. I track when I am trying to change things up, but I do it because I love to, not because I have to.
* I have one free meal every 4 weeks, always after a workout. If I must have a cheat (like my father in law tried to lure me for some chicago style pizza tonight) I wait till a workout day, and do it then. If there is no way out of it, I eat a large salad before the bad meal, drink plenty of water and eat less than the regular portion.
I haven't had a craving since November. Maybe my craving meter broke or something. I feel highly successful and happy. I think at this point I need to focus on postworkout nutrition and just eat more in general.
I try to not pay too much attention to how much I am eating. If my fav 501s start getting tight then I do. I love eggs and meat, almost all veggies, also nuts. And red wine, a glass a day more than recommended not too often two more. Quantity usually is not my problem. I have to get a lot of sensory satisfaction out of my food or I keep eating. Kind of the opposite of what you have to do. Odd, huh?
Much like Lost Dog my meals are usually relatively bland by most standards, mainly because its easier to make and store. I've found that having a chicken salad ready on hand is the only cure for a pizza craving that requires a twenty minute walk. God bless my constructive laziness.
For me I find that I do better when I have no restrictions on fruit intake and do a triple shake during workout days (pre/post/postpost). I know that I would be leaner if I did limit my banana consumption and scaled the workout carbs down a bit (honestly I dont bust my ass enough lately to deserve three shakes) but when compared to the f^ck-up meals* I have otherwise its still a good tradeoff. I need to at least percieve freedom in my diet or my sugar cravings will stage a coup.
*I use this term instead of cheat meal. I think of a 'cheat' as breaking the rules to accomplish a desirable goal, which would be a tough justification to make with some of the stuff in my diet history.
__________________ "do what you can where you are with what you have"-Teddy Roosevelt
-I make staple meals with macros in mind. Breakfast\lunch\Supper, the same every day. These are my "macro meals". If I'm trying to lose weight I'll go for the majority of my calories ahead of time and then just fill in the blanks for snacks. For the growth I eat "at least" this much. It keeps me honest on getting the minimum levels of protein\fat.
I've noticed that I no longer want to be constrained by food laws,
- neither the ones telling me that I cannot have more than 100g of carbs or I go fat: I want my fruit and at times, even my junkfood. Just not all the time.
- nor that I can't have yummy fats and if I have them, they must be from fatty fish or nuts. I want my fatty yolks (just calculated and I'm averaging about 40-50 whole eggs/week ! ), my fatty meats as well as an occasional ice cream
- or even that I'm torn between the people that tell me that 2g P/kg of LBM is already too much and 15% protein of total calories is adequate and those that tell me that you absolutely must eat 40% of all your calories as protein since you're a sinner if you don't.
Been trying to abide to that rule for a long time. And it didn't bring me anywhere as.. I also tried to eat 6meals/day.
I'm someone who only gets hungry when she eats. So.. my diet is:
- on restdays: eat whatever I fancy in just 2 or 3 meals plus a couple of pcs of fruit, but do try to eat around 1200-1400 kcals and get in approx. 25% cals as protein and <100g as carbs.
- on training days: eat whatever I fancy in around 4-6 meals, but do try to eat about 2300-2800 kcals (sometimes I eat more on my cheat day) and get in a LOT more protein, a LOT more carbs and also more fats.
I've been a much happier person since then as it's not that much of an effort to only be dieting one day at the time.
And even am getting results re fat loss this way I didn't see before.
One thing that I'll add, particularly for those who might be reading who are starting out on a diet --
You have to know the rules and what they mean before you can break them and still succeed.
Diet in check? Know why you are succeeding.
Make changes slowly to notice and track the ramifications
Ramifications can be positive or negative or both at the same time. You make trade offs, sometimes. But, know and live the rule, first. Then, decide if it's worth it to change it up.
By the way, it's a relief to see someone else eat so many eggs...
One thing that I'll add, particularly for those who might be reading who are starting out on a diet --
You have to know the rules and what they mean before you can break them and still succeed.
Diet in check? Know why you are succeeding.
Make changes slowly to notice and track the ramifications
Ramifications can be positive or negative or both at the same time. You make trade offs, sometimes. But, know and live the rule, first. Then, decide if it's worth it to change it up.
By the way, it's a relief to see someone else eat so many eggs...
This is huge. Most people have no idea what they eat each day, or even at each meal -- calories, macronutrients, even serving sizes -- because they've never taken the time to analyze it. Once you know what you're eating, you can figure out how you want to change it. I think the biggest success factor in most diets is that a planned diet forces someone to think about what he eats. After you've done that for a while, it becomes second nature.
I rarely do strict dieting, but I am right now because I'm trying to drop a weight class for a weightlifting meet. One thing that helps me: Know what you need to do to achieve your goals, and be only as strict as you need to be. For example, last night I had a craving for a patty melt. I know how many calories I need to consume to remain in caloric deficit and drop weight; I ate my big greasy patty melt (on high fiber, reduced carb bread) and cut out my pre-bed snack to make up for the excess dinner calories. It's a cheat meal of sorts -- the trick is to keep the overall goals and methods of the diet in mind. I wouldn't do this every day, but this type of flexibility helps me stay sane while dropping weight.
I thought I ate a lot of eggs, but I only average 28 per week.
As for eggs, I'm not exactly sure what it is, but when I tried to reduce the amt of yolks ans mostly ate egg whites for a couple of months, I felt very depressed quickly. I thought it was the lacking fats and since I hate wasting food and love the yolks, added them back first: depression went away.
I've been told that the secret wasn't the fat but the sulphur in eggs, just like the sulphur in onions and garlic can help here.
You can also take it as a supplement, viz. by means of SAM-e
I eat a clean X amount of cals per day (keep track in my head most days.. maybe once every month or so ill actually map it out) and I make sure I get lots of protien.
Right now im up around 5500cals/day. If I cant meat my total calories then I add calorie dense foods (oils, peanuts etc). I dont worry about eating x amount of meals per day or eating carbs at certain times either. This system really works for me.
I keep it simple as well. I eat what I want, when I want, in the quantities that I want. However I do try to eat mostly whole foods. Some days I eat a ton of fruit, others it a pound of carrots or grains, and sometimes its a lot of meat and nuts. However, on the weeks I've logged my food, it ends up a pretty healthy mix over the week. The individual days may look disastrous but it averages out.
Like Gayla said, listen to what your body wants and it'll tell you what it needs. Thats not to say I don't have ice cream, pizza and beer on occasion but it isn't that frequent.
The other "philosophy" I keep in focus is that it is fine to want to better yourself but it shouldn't control your life. You've got to be happy for any of this other stuff to be worth a damn.
I eat clean(fruits, veggies,meat, nuts) and don't really worry about cals/protein/ect. If I am bulking, I will eat a lot after I workout--basically anything I want. It works. If I am cutting, I just have a banana and a protein shake. That's pretty much it.
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"Focus on making the 5 lifts stronger and getting enough food. There will be plenty of time to worry about glycemic indexes, PERs, and Bulgarian Split squats later. Much later."-Mark Rippetoe
You are insightful as usual, my friend.
I do a few things:
* I just listen. I used to think my body can't tell me what it wants, because how could it possibly know...But if you eat clean for long enough, you start hearing what it really wants. Want an orange, buddy? No problem
* I have protein, no matter what, every time I eat. I make sure it's something that sounds good to me. I don't care if it's chicken day on someone's diet.
* I have colorful stuff at every meal, I want it to look pretty.
* I cook something different every time I cook and I never put the same stuff in the recipe. I like trying different tastes.
* I eat frozen fruit when I feel like something sweet.
* I drink my coffee with a lot of water. I know they say dehydration is a myth, but I feel like I stay better hydrated that way.
* I only use protein powder when I cook or when I don't have access to solid food. Hot chocolate protein is good comfort food
I do all these things that gayla does. works good. i'm decently lean, and getting stronger. it works.
__________________ True Protein 5% off discount code: ZHS099 www.trueprotein.com
warning - long winded response ahead -
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I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit. Reading the responses, most people who responded replied with some variation of “I just eat clean / nutrition is easy for me/ I keep it simple” – but they don’t really address the process – which is what intrigued me about the question and why I’ve been pondering it now for a day and a half.
So – I see this as a move from I-eat-what-I-like-and-that’s-junk--àI-eat-what-I-like-and-that’s-clean
The change, the process, the “making it my own” is how “what I like” morphs from junk to clean.
For me, it comes to a few things: internalizing the science, knowing me and how I do things, and planning until it is 2nd nature.
For science, this is how I’m wired. I want to know all the ins and outs and whys and wherefores. I have a BS in biology - I LIKE the science - I’ll read the studies – I’ll look for contrarian opinions. So I read (and listened) – Eades, Phinney, Colpo, Cordain, www.nutritionandmetabolism.com (many others). Evalulating the evidence: Cholestrol & heart disease – valid hypothesis or myth?; Good fats, saturated fat & heart disease; omega-3s; dietary requirements (if any) for carbohydrates; fruits & veg as vit & min sources; grains good or evil and so forth.
Once I had a picture of “clean” for me that I could mentally defend and promote, using the science I knew up to that point – I had to look at me and my habits of XX years as an adult. I don’t cook breakfast at home before work. I want something easy for lunch and don’t care if is the same every day. I like to cook and experiment but not on week nights – again, something easy and quick so I can finish earlier rather than later. I like a small snack before bed – either before or after I walk the dogs the last time.
So I eat protein shakes with berries for breakfast (at home) before leaving for work, 5 days a week. I have leftover meat with raw veggies of some kind every day for lunch (take it with me). I’ll put together tomorrow’s lunch when I make my evening snack so that I don’t have to do it in the morning. If I leave it until the morning, I’ll be buying lunch that day. I know myself. Week night dinners are meat (usually something from the grill), raw veg (usually salad) and a cooked veg. If I’m really tired/ bored/ pressed for time, I know how to get that equivalent from several take out places – even Pollo Loco. Evening snack is usually yogurt or cottage cheese – sometimes a sharp cheese with a little fruit. Weekends – I’ll experiment with marinades, oven cooked meals, baking, etc.
Basically I found a way to take the habits and customs that I already had – and modify them to include the way I wanted to eat – “clean”. I knew that I was not going to find success if I had to change my eating content and my eating habits at the same time - 6 small meals a day – not gonna happen. Big cooked breakfast at home before leaving – not gonna happen.
So that’s been my process so far. Thanks for asking.
Making A Diet Your Own
But, it's working for me, as it helps me to eat enough, but not too much. Could I do better on a wider variety? Very likely.
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