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How much? When?What? Instagram? Carnivore? Fasting? Banting? Dr Who? 28 Days?
Let's just get down to the BASICS....Before information overload causes us to eventually do nothing, instead of moving the needle forward.
If we can for a moment peel away all of the noise and in depth options available to achieve optimal nutritional efficiency, if you don't have the time or money yet to have your DNA annalized by Russian alchemists, or if you simply have no idea where to start, this approach could come close:
CrossFit's best summary and guideline to Nutrition:
"Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
These two sentences capture a nutritional approach that, when applied with our workouts, yields incredible health and fitness.
You will notice that it also helps us find a balance with regards to our macro and micro nutrients. Protein, Good carbs, Essential fats, with PROTEIN being our very first choice when picking our menu. If anything, then PROTEIN!
When we say NO SUGAR, don't get all up in arms about the natural sugars found in certain fruits and vegetables. We have these in moderation, to avoid glucose spikes. Here, we are rather reffering to articifial sugars found mostly in our modern american diets. More of that later.
By combining the incredible training of constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity with proper diet of whole, unprocessed foods eaten in the proper amounts, could result in nothing short of life changing.
Now, assuming you live in a town such as Standerton, where you have little or no access to an organic food producing farm or a food lovers market, and your go-to super booster pre workout meal is a King Streer double decker etc.. where should we start?
Let's use an example of how you can build some solid meals, via using the above basic guidelines given by CrossFit:
Example 1:
Breakfast:
2/3 eggs + cheese sprinkles(sprinkle, not a plate full!) , 2 slices of bacon
1/2 Avo
= "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
Lunch/ Dinner:
2 Palm size steak (choose your weapon..)
Palm size sweet potato
1/2 Palm size broccoli or carrot
= "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
Example 2:
Breakfast:
2/3 eggs + thumb size feta, 2 slices of bacon
Palm size fruit salad
= "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
Lunch/Dinner:
2 Chicken breasts
Palm size beetroot
Palm size pumpkin/butternut
1/2 Avo
Or....mash it all up into a stir fry!
= "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
What about those in between meal snacks you might crave?
Smoothies
Nuts and seeds/a fruit
Left overs(from yesterdays healthy dinner etc)
Biltong ( go hard sports fans!)
Steady smoothy options:
-1 scoop of protein powder (for some flavor)
-1 teaspoon of peanut/almond butter
-1 banana
-palm rolled oats
= "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
-1 scoop of protein powder
-1/2 palm raw almonds
-1/2 avo
-palm rolled oats
= "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat."
This list below could help you choose , or rather, eliminate what we have been conditioned to think, are viable options, but are in essence better left alone:
Breakfasts to avoid:
Basically any form of cereals: Future life, all bran, fruit loops, wheet-bix. All of which are refined and cause spikes in blood sugar levels and elicit high pancreatic responses. Also low in protein, high in carbs & barely any nutritional value.
Toast: You know why....bread=dead. Huge calorie count, excessive carbs, refined and your gut can't stand it.
Flavoured yoghurt : High in sugar.
Lunch/Dinner to avoid:
Fast foods: Well, let's not go there...
Garage pies & sandwiches: Refined, low nutritional value, high in saturated fats, carb machines..
Potatoes/Mash: Could spike glucose levels if not taking in moderation. In SA, we tend to overdue potato intake when we have the chance. High in carbs.
Pasta: Probably ok in moderation, much better if whole-wheat, but, high in refined carbohydrates. Excess carbs are almost never welcome.
Drinks to avoid:
Most fizzy drinks: Huge sugar contents
Energy drinks (including powerade, energy etc) : Huge sugar contents
Fruit juice: Huge sugar content. DO NOT be fooled by labbeling. Most fruit juices are just as/ even worse than your favorite cream soda...
Now if you must, here are some alternatives to traditional food and drinks that might need replacing, IN MODERATION, IF YOU MUST....every now and then.
Sweets=: Try 70-100% Dark chocolate
Fizzy drinks= Try Sparkling water and lemon , or Zero drinks (don't go balls to the wall here)
Breads= Try Gluten free bases (Pastas, Pizzas, etc)
Alchole= Castle light (perhaps the best we can do..)
Finally, what about weight loss?
Perhaps a topic best discussed in another blog post. What is however crucially important to understand is the difference between fat loss( burning fat)/ and weight loss(losing lean muscle).
The scale is your enemy! It is also a lier.
Muscle weighs more than fat. It is also required to burn fat. Muscle is also crucial to longevity and health. If we use crash diets to drop kg's, we are essentially depriving our bodies of essential nutrients, losing muscle (hence the reason for the weight loss) and decreasing our chances of sustaining those results.
If however you are in the position where you drastically need to shed weight, you could consider lowering portion sizes (calorie intake), or commit to a more strenous high protein program such as Keto or Intermitted fasting. As mentioned, there is no silver bullet approach here. Consulting a dietician can also go a long way if your looking for a more detailed approach.
There you go team!
Train, eat, sleep and recover like a machine, in order to become one!
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