I did not know where to start at first, with the basics? Explaining what macronutrients are or intermittent fasting?
So I was thinking about what was the most important for me during my active days?
Getting better at the game, increasing my focus, feeling and looking better. Having a better and easier life in general.
Eating “clean” and healthy foods definitely helps with feeling and looking better, but how do you increase your focus?
You start with eliminating all kinds of distractions!
Turn your phone of during a grinding session. Instagram, facebook, twitter and any kind of ping or potential message you can receive takes you out of your zone.
Thinking about your diet or food all the time on the other hand is huge distraction aswell, but you cannot really cut out food entirely (well maybe you can?)
Whoever had a binge eating session at a local all you can eat restaurant or eat a bag of cookies knows how bad certain foods can make you feel.
Food should not make you feel bad or be a distraction, it should provide you with energy and make you feel awesome!
Buying, preparing and cooking food takes time, so does digesting a huge meal! Digestion drains your energy stores, before they are filled up again. Your brain has to focus on the digestion.
This is also the reason most 9-5 people have the so called afternoon slump, after digesting their lunch.
We don`t want less brain power and focus during the game.
We need easy and fast meals that don`t take us hours to prepare, eat and digest. Simple, but effective with the current budget in mind!
How can you do that on intense grinding for hours? How can you fit in a proper diet regimen, while barely having any time to think about your diet or cook? Find out!
The first Step
You find the foods that make you feel great and also help you with your current goals
I prepared a list for you. You can add the foods you like or delete the ones that make you feel bad, hate or are allergic to.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UiLDwohV9gxrisB3bUZpPfQgFeegWLViZBIBhosMb1Q/edit?usp=sharing
It has this weird color because I`m using f.lux to have less blue light in the evening/night! Definitely worth a try, if you are always working late or have trouble sleeping!There are also certain superfoods that give you more bang for your buck! We all know vegetables are healthy, but there are certain vegetables that provide you with more micronutrients than others. (I never eat salad, it just does not have enough micronutrients compared to other vegetables and I hate it)
It is a very basic list, but should be a good starting point for you to remove or add foods depending on your preferences, location, season and budget!
Less food sources equals less decision making.
-> Try this nice little hack for long grinding session: Make a smoothie out of some superfoods you like and that go well with each other!
A smoothie that you can sip on during the grind. The fastest and easiest snack to prepare that can help with getting in enough vitamins, fiber and minerals!
All you need is a decent blender and space to fill your smoothie in.
You do not have to leave the table during the session!
Sample Smoothie Recipe 1: (low carb)
- Cook frozen spinach and carrots (you can eat them raw too)
- add a handful of mixed frozen berries
- add an avocado or any good fat source to better absorb the fat soluble nutrients like nuts, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds or coconut milk
- if you need protein you can add collagen protein or some whey protein (30-50g)
- add ginger or red beets, if you feel a cold is coming, or just for the extra nutrients
- squeeze in one lemon
Sample Smoothie Recipe 2: (for colds)
- a few celery sticks
- some carrots
- 1 avocado
- squeezed lemon juice
- ginger
- red beetroot
There are so many options for smoothies. I tend to pick multiple superfoods from the list, which I think go well together and try them out.
Carrots and Berries always work. Spinach is very neutral tasting. Ginger gives the spicy component and avocado makes every smoothie creamy and tasty!
Step 2:
After you have prepared that list you are going to create a template of meals you enjoy eating, but also contribute towards your goals
Example templates could be:
1. Long grinding sessions
This template requires prolonged focus, so sugar and huge meals to digest are your worst enemy.
- Smaller meals
- easy to digest
- can be prepared very fast
- can be eaten in front of the computer
- gives your brain energy
- reduces cravings
How could an example day look like?
You would start the day with intermittent fasting. That means no food for several hours after waking up. During this time you start with your grinding session or any task that distracts you from thinking about food.
Your first meal of the day could be: Eggs (because of Choline, fats and protein) with slices of bacon (stearic acid, taste, fats and protein) in a little bit of coconut oil.
If you are still grinding you would take a short break to either get the previously prepared smoothie or just make a one very fast. This provides you with a lot of micronutrients and keeps you concentrated on the game.
In the evening or after you finished the session for the day. You can pretty much eat whatever you want. I recommend a good steak with some potatoes and vegetables, but that is all up to you!
2. Low budget
We all can have bad days or weeks and sometimes we need save some money
This template chooses meals based on the foods that make you feel good, but are not expensive. This includes:
- Rice, Carrots, Oats, Eggs, Butter, Ground Beef, Tuna / canned fish (Mackerel, sardines) and more.
There are many many ways to structure templates. You can create lifestyle templates, holiday templates, party templates and many more that help you to decide what and when to eat.
A use case for this particular approach with templates is “Raise your Edge”- JWPapi`s Transformation.
Julian didn`t want to think about his diet anymore and just eat a few different meals per day to keep it simple and easy! The text below is from his testimonial.
Julian (25)
Julian used a customized Carbbackloading and Carbnite approach and we were experimenting a lot with it.
Nutrition and training can become quiet a nuisance. You have to prepare your meals in advance. People used to eat 6-8 meals per day, so the whole meal preparation process became like a second job. Everyday you prepared your seven meals for the next day. Small, tiny and unsatisfying meals, because we didn`t know any better at the time.
If we didn`t eat 30g of protein every 2-3 hours we would become catabolic and lose muscle. The body constantly switches between an anabolic and a catabolic state, but it isn`t essentially muscle you are losing in a catabolic state!
What if you don`t want to spend this insane amount of time every day to just prepare your meals? What if you would rather work on your business or have a good time with your family and friends? This steals hours of your day! If you ask me I would rather do something else!
Is there a benefit of eating more than 2-3 times per day? Can you really only absorb 30g of protein per meal, or is it a myth? It is known in order to maximize your muscle protein synthesis (MPS) you need 30g of an animal protein source (whey protein, chicken, steak, fish…), because of the leucine content, so there can be a small benefit in eating smaller meals more often. If a meal has 100g of protein, you will still be able to absorb all of the protein, it just takes longer to digest.
Is this “can” or “maybe” worth it, to sacrifice so many hours of your life?
If you want to be the best bodybuilder or athlete in the world, you might do as much as you can, but this does not apply for people with other goals in life, or who just want to be healthy and look good.
How can we maximize our results in the gym and in our diet, while simultaneously minimize the time and effort we have to invest?
Julian wanted exactly this. Don`t think about food. Don`t think about tracking your macronutrients of different foods every day. Saving money. Be as productive as possible.
I set Julian up with a customized Carbbackloading and Carbnite plan. Take out the thinking and brooding. He only wanted to execute. This can work great, if you trust your coach!
We looked for food sources he enjoyed and were also cheap and easy to prepare. He basically ate only a few food sources he liked and were perfect for his goal, 2-3 times per day.
For some people this sounds bland and boring, but it kept Julian focussed on his other projects in life. That is why individual plans are very important. It is not a bad thing if you find the foods you love, that are also healthy and cheap. Malnourishment can be an issue, if you don`t get enough micronutrients, but in this case we had plenty of them in the diet.
There is no 1 diet for everyone.
He didn`t eat breakfast! Only fats and protein before working out and a lot of carbs and barely any fats post workout. No Carbohydrates on rest days.
A vegetable/berry mix and a multivitamin to get enough micronutrients. This is probably the cheapest source of micronutrients you can get.
It is a carrot, broccoli and cauliflower mix for vegetables and raspberries, strawberries, sour cherries, blueberries and more as a fruit source.
Julian started with a Carbbackloading plan to build some muscle and lose a little bit of fat at the same time. For his cut (fat loss phase), he did a carbnite routine, which consists of fat, protein and vegetables only with one “carbohydrate day” per week. On this carbohydrate day he ate as much as he wanted for an duration of eight hours, but it should be high in carbohydrates.
Training wise he did a full body split routine three days per week. Squat, Benchpress and some assistance exercices was workout A. Deadlift, Militarypress and some assistance exercices was workout B.
Later he decided to experiment with other training approaches and used some of Jeff Seid`s workout principles.
Julian was able to lose more than 15lbs (7kg) of fat, since he build muscle as well, and got a lot stronger.
Height: 1,88 (6’1″)
Before: 90kg (198lbs)
After: 83kg (183lbs)
Time frame: ~16 months
Bench Press: 120kg x 1
Squat: 140kg x 1
Deadlift: 200kg x 1
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