GOLDEN RULE - MAKE FOOD YOUR BITCH - Not the other way around.
1. Determine a caloric window to hit and do your best to stay in that window every day
2. Do not under or over eat
3. Alway shoot to get 10g protein for every 100 calories you eat
4. Do not get hungry - snacking is the key
5. Keep a protein bar with you always
6. When eating out at a nice place, eat fish and veggies (I love sea bass)
7. DO NOT GO TO Fast Food - I have not been in a McDonalds in over 90 days
8. Write down everything you eat and track the calories
9. Take your protein shake right after your workout
10. Look for protein with a 20g to 100 cal or higher ratio for your shake
11. Do not limit your veggies - steamers are great!
12. Take time to cook big batches of chilli, chicken breasts, etc, so you have left overs.
13. If you are going to drink, drink martinis and stop at 2 max. Once you have stopped drinking regularly and are lighter, you will definitely feel it and martinis are only 100 calories per drink.
14. Enjoy big dinners like Thanksgiving by going big on the turkey and veggies. Skip the potatoes, corn, dressing and bread. 15 minutes after the meal, you will feel great and not all sluggish.
15. Life saver snacks (Keep these with you):
A. 100 calorie popcorn
B: 3oz tuna fish with mustard
C: Almonds (I like wasabi)
D: Yogurt 80 Calorie
E: 50 cal white cheese
F: Progresso Soup
G: Protein Bar
G: Protein Bar
16. Have fun with shakes and get a good blender. Use this as your time to get fruits (bananas and berries) early in the day so you have time to burn off the carbs. Use yogurt and almond milk. The Kitchen Aid has a liquify option that fluffs up the shake and makes if more filling. This is my favorite meal of the day now.
17. Egg Beaters are good, but I have pretty much moved to shakes
18. Chili is key. It is my favorite way to get beans in. Beans are probably the best thing you can eat on P90X. I use chicken or turkey and tons of veggies and 4 different kinds of beans. SO GOOD!
19. Tilapia with stewed tomatoes is stellar and easy.
20. Turkey meat taco salad is good.
21. Sirloin once a week is a nice break from turkey and chicken. Just keep it under 6 oz.
22. Do not eat within 3 hours of bed time. This burns up the residual sugar in the blood stream and lets you burn fat all night long.
23. Do not eat before morning workout, but if you feel weak or tired, down a GU as soon as you know you can't keep up the intensity. A 100 cal GU and an intense workout is much better than no cal and bonking.
24. If you have a business dinner or something later in the day, plan ahead and leave yourself 700-800 calories so you can enjoy the meal.
25. Only eat until you are not hungry - not till you are full.
26. If you need GU or bananas to get through the workout, do not count them against your day. You ripped right through them in 15 minutes during the workout and should not be penalized for bringing it. Never be afraid to add sugar and carbs during a hard workout.
27. To get lean, do not eat - Bread, Pasta, Rice, Beer, Chips, Crackers, or Cookies. Get your carbs from Veggies and beans. Make veggies your friend. It takes about 2 weeks for your taste to change, but once you have gone that long without breads, veggies start to taste sweet and fruit is like candy.
28. Be willing to throw bad foods away, even if they are a gift.
29. When you are putting something in your mouth, alway think - How is this going to help me? What will this do to my sugar levels? Is there enough protein here? If not, how can I balance in some protein?
30. Fat Free is totally bullshit - Just ignore fat content for the most part. Focus on calories and protein and everything else will work out. That said, if you can choose fish over ribeye, do it!
31. When you eat, especially after a hard resistance workout, listen to your body and see if you can feel the carbs and protein in the shake doing their thing. For me, I can feel it in about 20 minutes for about an hour. The more you listen to your muscles and energy level, the better you will get at eating efficiently. I am still not as good at this as I want to be. I think it is a learned skill that takes time. The key is you have to keep your body right on the fueled side of the balance between fueled and empty.
32. Up your protein on big resistance days. You want to get 80% of the protein synthesis done in 3-4 hours. I do 50-60g of protein after the big resistance workouts.
33. Try not to have a bad day, but if you do, move on. I shoot for 1300 calories per day. Some days I hit 2000 or more. My total daily caloric burn is 3500. So, even on bad days, I am way under my caloric burn. I have not exceeded 3500 calories in 90 days.
A lot of people tell me I am not eating enough, but I seldom get hungry and I am seeing big time results, so I plan to keep going until I get under 10% BF and then will level out to around 2000 calories on workout days and 1500 on rest days.
Yes, you should be running closer to 1800 to 2000 calories a day with how you are working out. Calorie restriction retards muscle growth. We want muscle as it burns fat. I agree fat free is BS as people overindulge and eat the wrong things. But even though weight loss is calories in versus burn there is no nutritional/body value to the fat calories unlike proteins, fibers, etc... which is why we don't want 1800 calories of fat does not equal 1800 of protein, fiber and carbs.
ReplyDeleteOverall - You are amazing. Great work.