One of the most common questions I receive on a weekly basis is, “What and HOW do you eat?”
In my last blog post, if you missed it, I shared with you what I rarely eat as I took you through what I ate for my 30th B-Day weekend then shared how I recover from eating like that.
Now, when I’m not eating like crap, I eat Paleo and have been now for well over 3 years…
I’ve not been 100% “strict” Paleo, but I’d say 85-90% of the time it’s Paleo.
I’ve not lost any muscle, I’ve stayed and have gotten leaner, and have increased in strength and overall performance.
When it comes down to nutrition, I wanted to to talk about a few different things that are absolutely critical in regards to you seeing better results.
To get my clients and myself results, I’ve focused in on these 3 critical things…
#1 – Eating a Paleo Based Diet
This shouldn’t be new to you if you’ve been following me for a while now. Like I mentioned, I’ve been following Paleo for well over 3 years now and have seen and felt amazing results.
If you’re not sure what Paleo is, in a nut shell it’s eating like a caveman.
Now, it never fails that there’s always some major complaints / concersn that come up when people see Paleo for the first time…
Here’s the most common one’s…
***There’s not enough carbs – Yes there is! Now, as I mentioned, I’m not “strict” Paleo eater as I’ll eat sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and I’ll fit in some quinoa here and there if I have to, but trust me, you can still get in enough carbs while eating Paleo. If muscle gain is a major concern, your calorie intake should be a main focus and that focus should be to increase your smart starch carbs so foods like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and quinoa would be excellent choices to do so.
***Meals are too hard to prepare – Bull Sh*t! What you need to do is get your priorities straight! I can spend 5 mins fixing healthy dinner or choose to spend 40 mins cooking a full fledged dinner. Either of these meals would work fine. It’s not that hard. Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to spend a ton of time doing it.
***Paleo is too Boring – Another BS complaint. There’s a million and one different meal ideas and choices out there… If you want more then 300+, check out my favorite Paleo recipe book – The Paleo Recipe Guide
-A few of my favorite meals include – The Meatza, “Spagehetti” and Meat Balls, and my new favorite, Bun-Less Sloppy Joes.
Damn good!
If you’re afraid to go Paleo, you’re missing out.
***Eating Paleo Is Too Hard – Com’ on now. How hard can it be? Again, it’s about your Priorities! If you have strong goals, you’ll set some strong PRIORITIES and stick to them.
For me, I want to be healthy, have a ton of energy, and to be able to perform at a high level so nutrition is high on my list. If you’re someone with similar goals or if you want to get lean, gain muscle and increasing performance is important to you, you’ll want the same goals as well.
To add to it, you don’t have to go “All In”. I still have my fun. Just think – 80/20 Rule…
#2 Improve Your Digestive System – Digestive Health Is EVERYTHING
Now this point here is very important and is often overlooked. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter how you eat if you’re not digesting your foods.
The sad truth is, most people have sh*tty digestive systems.
So, how do you know if your digestive health is good…
1) You have consistent bowel movements. I know this is nasty to think about, but you should be “regular” everyday.
2) You feel energized after meals VS. run down and sleepy.
3) You have low to no symptoms of heart burn or food like allergies like sneezing, sniffles, or having a runny nose after meals.
Another way to see how well your digesting your food is to take the “beet test”. I haven’t personally done this yet, but I’m gonna test it out soon.
What you do is eat some beets and see what your urine looks like in a few hours. If it’s pink, you have a weak digestive tract. If it’s regular color, you’ve got a stronger digestive tract. It’s not 100% accurate, but it’s a great test to see where you’re at.
Now, if you do have a bad digestive system, here’s some quick tips on helping you improve your digestive system:
-take some high quality probiotics before your meals
-have a bit of lemon juice or apple cider vinger before your meals, especially with your larger meals
-eat more raw foods (endless amounts of veggies especially)
-take HCL (hydrocloric acid) tabs regularly
-use Intermittent Fasting at least 1-3 days a week if not more
#3 – Rotate Your Proteins.
I’ve written in the past about how I used to eat the same thing over and over.
Every meal was Chicken and Broccoli or some other combo of Chicken and something else…
Chicken Salad, Chicken Sandwich, Chicken, and more Chicken…
The truth about this is you can’t do this forever. Your body, especially your digestive tract will begin to hate you.
In short, when you eat the same foods, especially the same proteins over and over, you use up all of your special enzymes for that particular protein. Certain proteins require certain types of enzymes in order to digest it fully so f you use up all of these special enzymes by eating too much of that particular protein, you won’t be able to digest it properly nor absorb it. This will eventually lead to food allergies as well.
Instead, you need to add variety, especially with your proteins. It will help aid in digestion and improve your results.
Trust me, you’ll start feeling a whole lot better.
Bottom Line – It all comes down to your digestive health.
If you want gains in muscle, your body will need to be able to absorb the foods you’re eating. You can’t always just say “eat more”. That won’t work too well if you’re not digesting your foods.
Something else to really think about is all the money you’re wasting if you a big supplement freak. If you’re spending loads of $$$ on supp’s and you have a bad gut, you’re throwing money away because you’re more then likely NOT absorbing the supplements your taking!
You may want to think about that next time you gulp down your pre-workout, peri-workout, and post-workout shakes and supplements.
Improve your digestion, improve your overall health and RESULTS.
Go ahead and post up any questions or comments you have below on this.
Live, Eat, and Train Aggressive!
PS – What I’ve gone over within this post are just a few of the critical components needed for better health through solid nutrition that I share within my system.
Over many years of learning through trial and error and taking the best of everything I’ve learned, I’ve finally produced my own eating system for performance and health which is The Lean. Mean. Strong. Simple Nutrition System for SERIOUS Results.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON LEAN. MEAN. STRONG.