This is my Lemon Pepper Chicken Dusted with Garlic and Caramelized Onion 

served with broccoli

THIS MAY SEEM LIKE A LOT OF INFORMATION, BUT THIS IS INFORMATION THAT I HAVE LEARNED AND ADAPTED OVER A FEW YEARS.  DON’T GET OVERWHELMED, MAKE SOME INCREMENTAL CHANGES AND BUILD ON IT.  THIS IS NOT A QUICK FIX, BUT A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE CHANGE FOR LONG TERM SUCCESS AND SATISFACTION.  REMEMBER, THIS IS A MARATHON, IT IS NOT A SPRINT!

As I said before, this is not rocket surgery, really just about knowing some stuff and doing it consistently. To do this successfully on a long term basis, you have to plan.  The nuances of what I do have been adapted over time and some things are personal preferences.  This is not a diet, just some guidelines for making good decisions.  I do not think of food as good or bad, but as a tool to achieve an end.  One or two servings of anything is not going to make a big difference in the big picture, but consistent bad choices will, so that is why I use the guidelines.  Now I want to emphasize that this is all about planning and not about policing.  These are guidelines to keep you in the right direction, this is not about counting points or beating yourself up for having dessert.

I track everything using the MyFitnessPal app and website.  It is easy to use and updates are easy, so I have updated it almost everyday for the last two years.  They have a huge database of just about everything you find at the market and most restaurants.  The barcode scanners also works great for adding foods while cooking or hanging out in your kitchen.  I also use it to record my workouts and build my list of common exercises and lifts.

Choosing food is a lot like dating, no food is perfect and you will have to choose your poison.  Sometimes I will take on more calories to get more protein or you may have to go high fat for lower sodium.  You can’t have chicken breasts and salad for every meal, so you will have to decide what you need at the time.  Overall, tracking sugar, sodium and protein is higher priority than fat and calories.

Strategy:  Optimize my metabolism so that my burn rate is high and my net calories result in a daily loss.  Doing this in conjunction with more nutritious food results in weight loss and muscle gain.  This is not a low carb approach, but whenever possible, I try and drink my carbs instead of eating them such as milk, tea, and yes an occasional beer.

Eating Schedule

My goals is to eat 3 meals per day and 3 snacks per day.  I do not have set eating times and typically just eat when I am hungry.  I determine if I am hungry by drinking water.  If water doesn’t remove the hunger, then I eat.  I do not adhere to any time rules such as don’t eat after 6PM.  I don’t do this for two reasons: 1) If my metabolism is high, it doesn’t matter when I eat as I still burn when I sleep and 2) I am not eating things that are high in sugar that convert to fat.  If you have high sugar foods, it is better to do it right before you workout so it is available as energy. If you have sugar before sleep, it will convert to fat while you sleep.  So a practical change I made was Starbucks. I would always go to Starbucks after working out…not good.  So now, if I go, I go before I workout, then I get some sugar and caffeine as added stimulants to my workout.  Since I drink a lot of water during my workouts, it counters the dehydration that comes from caffeine.

Food Content per Day

100 – 120 grams of protein

25 grams of fiber

2,000 grams of sodium or less

44 grams of sugar or less

60 grams of fat or less

Protein – 100 to 120 grams per day.  Most people should go about 80-100 grams per day, but I have a 20% allowance because I have a big frame and do weight training.  Protein helps curb hunger and builds muscle and animal protein is the best type of protein if you have a choice, so meat and dairy.  Chicken breasts, steak, sushi, turkey breast, eggs, tuna and other fish.  I avoid ground beef because of sodium unless I can get the 93% lean or I use ground turkey.  Since I do 20% more than the average, I make sure to drink an extra four (8oz) glasses of water per day (20 glasses total).  Too much protein can cause kidney damage, so make sure you drink plenty of water.

Fiber – 25 grams per day.  Sources such as oatmeal, grits, brown rice, beans, squash, and lots of other veggies. Also try the Orowheat Double Fiber bread, fiber one bars, Total Cereal, Fiber One cereal and Cheerios.  Honestly, this is one area that I come up short several times a week, but trying to work on it without adding a fiber supplement.

Sodium – my goal is to be under 2,000 grams per day, but I can go up to 2,500.  Most processed foods are filled with sodium, even those marketed as healthy such as many of Lean Cuisine meals.  As a rule, if it has more than 500grams per serving, I don’t buy it.  You may have heard that you should shop the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid or limit the middle aisles because it is all processed.  That is true and most of your sodium lives in those middle aisles.  Processed meats such as pork, ham and ground beef can have lots of sodium.  Also, turkey bacon has a lot of sodium, so I’d rather take the bullet on real bacon and compensate for that when I work out, plus real bacon is a good source of protein, so it’s a trade off.  The Costco (Kirkland) Low Sodium Bacon is really good, lower sodium than turkey bacon and more protein than Turkey bacon. 

Sugar – 44 grams per day and try and stay under 15 grams per meal. Read the labels and number of servings.  Also look for sugars disguised as other ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, sucrose and molasses.  I also find sugar in unlikely sources such as ketchup, marinara sauce and anything with a glaze such as baked beans.  Non-fat milk also has 12 grams of sugar, so be prepared for that bullet even though milk bring a lot of other value.

Fat – 60 grams per day. Read the labels and number of grams per serving.  Most people cook with fats, so I would recommend olive oil or canola oil over corn oil or vegetable oil.  You can get Land o Lakes butter with Canola oil, but it is hard to replace the taste of sweet cream butter.  I also do not like to compromise real mayonnaise for the bad tasting lite mayo.  It is not worth it, so I take the bullet and compensate for that when workout.

Calories – I am currently at 2,000 per day.  I don’t distinguish between calories and fat calories, my nutritionist says it doesn’t matter.  The main thing is to keep your burn rate up.  Calories are not banked, use them or lose them.  For a man my size at 6′-1″ with a muscle mass of 203lbs, I can go up to 2,200, but I give myself a 10% cushion since portions can vary and I don’t walk around with a food scale though I do use one at home.

Supplements: I do take supplements for a variety of reasons such as fat burning, metabolic enhancers, carb blockers, etc.  Whenever possible, I take them in liquid form for quicker absorption.  You will find experts on both sides that debate the validity of supplements.  They largely fall along lines of medical professionals who make their living treating sick people and nutrition experts who make their living teaching healthy lifestyle or selling supplements.  I have had success and supplements have been a part from the start, so I am sticking with it. I budget $150 a month for vitamins and supplements.  In alphabetical order, this is what I use:

African Mango – helps breakdown fat during digestion and reduces overall fat and cholesterol.  It also lowers appetite and improves digestion of sugar.

Vitamin B-12 Complex for metabolic enhancement and energy production. Also helps create choline which is a fat emulsifier aiding in making stored fat available to be burned as well as moving cholesterol through your system rather than settling into your arteries.  I put B-12 liquid in my Muscle Milk every morning for quicker absorption.

Vitamin C – for immune system

Chromium Picolinate – 800mc per day

Vitamin D3

Glucosamine HCI – for rebuilding cartilage.  I have a tear and am trying this in hopes of avoiding surgery.  It feels like it’s working.  Costco brand is good; you can also take Shark Cartilage

Green Coffee Bean – metabolic enhancer

Liquid L-Carnitine – I put it in my morning shake and then do a shot before I leave work

Raspberry Keytone – metabolic enhancer and fat metabolizer

Relecore – for cortisol reduction; helps with anxiety which results in belly fat.  I don’t think of myself as someone who worries a lot, but I do have a gut. It’s getting smaller, so continuing with Relecore for now.  Best price is at Target.

White Kidney Bean Extract – carb neutralizer

 

Other Things I do:

Protein Shakes: I use Muscle Milk Lite and make a 16oz protein shake every morning.  Sometimes I add bananas or frozen strawberries.

Soda: I do not drink soda.  This was hard at first because I drank a lot of diet Coke and diet Dr. Pepper, but it did not take long to convince myself to drop it.  I lost 11 pounds in two weeks and the only change I made was replacing soda with water, so I have had soda twice in the last two years and don’t miss it much.  Okay, I had a Coke Slurpee, but it was really hot this summer.

White Flour: I try and avoid white flour, though it is not always easy, plus I love warm bread.  If I get fast food and cannot get low carb style, then I will discard half the bun which is about 120 calories and made of white flour which turns to belly fat.  Avoid white flour and enriched flour and stay with wheat flour when possible.

Milk: I drink a glass of milk before bed.  Milk help keep your burn rate up while you sleep and the protein is satisfying.  If I am hungry, I will have a cup of cereal with two glasses of milk. Cereals I eat include Special K, Cheerios, Total, Wheaties, Fiber One Squares and Corn Flakes.  Sometimes I will have a sugary cereal like Cocoa Puffs or Frosted Flakes, but it depends on how much sugar I have had that day.  I try not to go over my sugar goal whenever possible.

Caffeine:  Caffeine dehydrates you, so I try and drink a corresponding amount of water with each caffeinated beverage.  I like Arizona Diet Green Tea, Iced Tea and several Starbucks drinks.

Reading Food Labels:  When I read food labels, I am primary looking for three things: 1) Hidden sugars such as high fructose corn syrup, fructose or molasses; 2) number of servings her package, especially the individual serving sizes which usually have multiple servings; and 3) just about every food has a compromise, so I will sometimes take a hit in one area to get grams in another area.  The one I see the most is taking in more sodium than I would like to get the extra protein, this is common in processed foods.

Starbucks: If I am going to go to Starbucks and spend $5 on a drink, then I am going to enjoy it.  I don’t see any point in paying extra to have it reduced to something basic and non-enjoyable.  So I don’t do “skinny”, I don’t do “no cream”, I don’t do “no caramel” and I usually go medium or large.  If I am going, then I just account for it on MyFitness Pal app and account  for it when I go to the gym that day.  I do not go to Starbucks everyday, but with the holiday drinks coming like Pumpkin Spice Latte and Peppermint Mocha, I will probably ramp up my visits to Starbucks and the gym.  The Chick-fil-A Peppermint Shake is also coming, so I probably need to start sandbagging calories for Christmas season.  By sandbagging, I actually mean plan on spending more time on the elliptical.

Well that’s it, that’s what I eat.  I did not learn this overnight, but through planning, practice and learning the thresholds of my own body, I have now incorporated these disciplines into my lifestyle successfully.  I don’t avoid restaurants or demonize fast food, I can go into those environments and make good choices and an occasional bad choice without a detrimental impact on my health.  I hope this was helpful for those who requested this post and for others who find it.