Happy Tasty Tuesday, GymGeeks!
I thought this would be a good day of the week to formally start talking about nutrition. On Tuesdays, we’ll be talking about a fat burning or muscle building food that you may (or may not) know about, as well as a recipe for the week. I’m currently in talks with a few guest bloggers who know how to cook way better than I do (although I’m getting much better as I go) and also have a vast database to choose from. Until then, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I’ll share.
Mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-day snack all ready to go!
I also wanted to take this “Letter from the Editor” moment to bring up a very important rule of fitness and health: WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU EAT! This is something that goes neglected more often than not. Sure, you can read a nutrition label on a box of something, but it doesn’t really sink in when you don’t step back and see how much of your daily intake that serving actually makes up. A food journal is a great thing that I discovered a few years ago and it’s helped me on the journey to weight loss, as well as my current journey to put on 10 lbs. of muscle. In fact, I’ll share with you my current meals during the day (I never go longer than 3 hours between meals) and the TOTAL intake of the important building blocks (calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates) I take in during the day:
Breakfast (4:00 AM)
- 1 whole extra large egg
- 4 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons of salsa
- 1 medium navel orange
- 1/2 cup of oatmeal
- 2 cups of coffee (black)
Post-Workout (6:30 AM)
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex
Mid-Morning Snack (9:15 AM)
- 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese
- 1/2 cup diced pineapple
Lunch (12:00 PM)
- 2 slices 7-grain Ezekiel Bread (no flour, all sprouts & grains)
- 3 oz. Boars Head Low Sodium Chicken Breast
- 1/3 cup Alfalfa Sprouts
- 1/2 cup spinach
- Handful (about 14-16) of almonds
- 4 oz. baby carrots
- 1 medium golden delicious apple
Mid-Afternoon Snack (2:30 PM)
- 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
- 1 scoop Dymatize Elite Gourmet Protein Blend
- 1 large red delicious apple
Dinner (5:00 PM)
- 1/2 cup of salad
- 1 tilapia filet (roughly 4-5 oz.)
- 1 medium pear
1 hour before Bedtime (8:00 PM)
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 2 scoops GNC Beyond Raw “Re-Feed” Protein (Casein)
- 1 medium banana
Total Intake: 2050 calories, 31g Fat, 182g Protein, 257g Carbohydrates
A couple things to note about those numbers:
- I always try to shoot for around 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight (which should be 240g for me), so I see that I need to up the intake in that department. It allows me to re-adjust for next week (maybe use 2% milk with my protein shakes) to ensure gains!
- I keep my starchy carbohydrate intake down after lunch. Since the ones I use are slow-acting (oatmeal, Ezekiel bread), the body absorbs them slow enough to use as a source of energy throughout my day. The rest come from fruits (in the form of fructose, a sugar) and vegetables. Avoid sugars like high fructose corn syrup (and even chemically enhanced calorie-free sweeteners)! Both have been linked to crashes in insulin levels and cancer. Scary enough, right?
- The fats in my diet come from my protein sources and nuts. This means they are either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, which are necessary for healthy cardiovascular health. These are the OK types of fat!
So on that note, what are you guys eating today? Make sure to write it down! You’ll learn a lot and have piece of mind knowing what’s going into your body.
Jonathan.
