More and more people have been coming to me lately for advice on what to eat to help them reach their goals, so I decided to share the basics of what I currently believe is optimal for health and performance.
These guidelines have been created from personal experience, research, and have been tweaked over the years to reflect new information and knowledge. I reserve the right to change my views if new information comes to light about any subject, however those changes will likely be small tweaks. I have seen many people have great success by sticking to these basic recommendations.
Everyone's situation is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all plan, these guidelines are just what I see as a good starting point for most people. I hope this is of help to you.
Basic Guidelines for Health and Performance
EAT
As much as you want:
- Quality Meat/Fish/Eggs (grass-fed, pastured, free-range, wild caught, organic, etc.)
- Non-starchy vegetables of all colors (broccoli, spinach, kale, bell peppers, carrots, eggplant, etc.)
Some:
- Nuts and seeds (limit to a handful per day or 3 Tbsp of nut butter)
- Fruit (berries are best; limit to 1 cup per day if weight loss is the goal.)
- Starchy vegetables (sweet potatoes, yams, beets, squash, onions, etc; 100-250g/day carbs depending on activity level)
- Good non-processed added fats (olive, coconut, macadamia nut, and avocado oils; pastured/grassfed butter; limit to less than 5 tablespoons or 60g added fats per day if weight loss is the goal)
- Fermented vegetable foods like kimchee, sauerkraut, etc.
AVOID
- All grains (cereal, pasta, bread, chips, baked goods, flour, rice, corn, wheat, oats…)
- All legumes (beans, lentils, peas, peanuts)
- All pseudograins (amaranth, quinoa, etc.)
- All refined vegetable oils (soybean, canola/rapeseed, cottonseed, etc.)
- All added sugar, natural or not (including honey, maple syrup, agave syrup/nectar, cane sugar, etc.)
*Most sugar substitutes (including sucralose, aspartame,
saccharin, etc) *Stevia is okay occasionally.
**Most dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream,
etc.) **Pastured/grassfed butter is okay.
TIPS
- Try to eat about every 3-4 hours, and only until comfortably full. Don’t stuff yourself and don’t starve yourself.
- Try to eat around 0.8-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day(for a 180lb person, this would be 144-180g/day)
- Drink 1oz of water for every 2lbs of bodyweight per day. (If you weigh 180lbs, drink 90oz/day)
- Get 8-9 hours of quality sleep in a pitch black room every night. It’s difficult to overstate how important this is. Turning off lights and electronics an hour before bed will help you sleep better.
- Stick with as unprocessed foods as possible. For example: steak is better than salami, and raw fruit is better than fruit juice, etc.
- If the meat is good quality (grass-fed) eat all the fatty meat you want, it’s great for you. If it’s conventionally raised (most meat is), go for the leaner cuts of meat.
- One day a week, eat much more than you would usually eat, try to keep it quality food, but just eat more calories than you would usually eat.
- For breakfast, include 50-75g of carbs from yam, sweet potato or fruit(preferably berries or melon)
- Eat a post-workout meal IMMEDIATELY after your workout containing 4-8oz of lean protein (meat/fish/eggs/etc) plus 75-100g of carbs from yams or sweet potatoes.
*The longer and harder the training session, the more
carbohydrate you will need to optimize recovery.
