Nutrition Coach: Dan Garner 1. Eat every 2-4 hours. Eating every 2-4 hours keeps your blood sugar levels stable which in turn, keep your appetite stable and kills cravings. Eating every 2-4 hours also keeps mental and physical energy levels balance. I find my athletes are much more cognitively aware and mentally sharper eating in this manner then prolonged periods between meals. Your brain consumes 20% of the glucose (carbohydrates) that your body has circulating around. If you re left hungry, your brain is too. Eating whole, not packaged or boxed foods is optimal but if there is a busy time in the day where you feel you need to make a shake or have a protein bar it is better to have that then to not eat for an extended period of time. 2. Eat lean protein with every meal. When you consume protein your metabolism has to work much harder in order to break it down and absorb it then any carbohydrate or fat, resulting in a much increased metabolic rate and increased amount of calories burned just simply through digestion. So when we eat protein with every meal we are naturally increasing our thermic effect of feeding 20-30% after each serving. Example, if you eat 100calories of protein, 20-30 of those calories are burned off simply through digestion. Protein also balances blood sugar, improves detoxification, builds muscle and offers a much greater satiety than other forms of food.
3. Eat vegetables with every meal. Yes this includes breakfast. The majority of the population s acid / base balance is way off in the acidity department simply because we do not eat enough base-load nutrients. Vegetables provide a fantastic base effect on the body allowing you to balance out your ph level. When the ph level is balanced you digest food more efficiently, have higher energy levels, fight off colds/sickness s more efficiently and also are able to make physique changes at a quicker rate whether it be muscle building or fat loss. In addition, the added vegetables bring much more fiber to your diet and result in greater digestion of protein, improved gut bacteria and improved bowel movements. Aim for 5+ fist size servings a day. 4. Only eat carbohydrates when you deserve them. There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. By that I mean our bodies do not have a required daily amount of carbohydrates in order to sustain function. We absolutely need fats and proteins, but not carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are best used after physical activity when you have expended energy and have earned the right to have them. Post-exercise is when the body is most insulin sensitive, this means it is much more efficient at delivering carbohydrates to the muscle cell and storing them as fuel as opposed to storing them in the fat cells. If you re going to have carbohydrates, make sure you have exercised and eat them within the two hour window after your workout. It is smart to time your carbohydrates in the post-workout area because your body will better digest and absorb them with a smaller susceptibility of them being stored as fat but they will also help drive amino acids across the cell walls to aid in muscle building.
5. Eat healthy fats every day. Contrary to popular belief, fats are not nearly as fattening as carbohydrates, not even close. Fats play a major role in many important functions in the body and should be eaten every day and with every meal with only one exception; the meal you have after your workout should only comprise of protein / carbohydrates, whereas the rest of your day should comprise of protein / healthy fats. Provided you choose healthy fats, like those suggested in the preferred foods list, this will help increase testosterone, lubricate your joints and keeps energy levels balanced. 6. Drink water, Vegetable concentrates, Organic Coffee and Green Tea. To put it short, never drink your calories. No soda s, alcohol, milk, juice, latte s, etc. The majority of these drinks are filled with sugars and artificial ingredients that have been shown to not only add fat to the body (yes even the calorie-free diet pops add weight to the body) but also play a role in the formation of many serious illness s. All incoming calories should be coming from nutrient dense foods outside of your carbohydrate / protein performance drinks. 7. Eat Nutrient Dense Foods. By nutrient dense I mean the amount of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients you can receive per serving size. So for example, a serving of the vegetable concentrate Wellness greens drink in a 8oz glass will provide me with the phytonutrients and antioxidant capacity of 20+ servings of fruits and vegetables, crazy right? Whereas an 8oz
serving of orange juice will give me nothing but 35g of table sugar (9 teaspoons!) and only 60mg of Vitamin C. Worthless and counter intuitive to health. Eating nutrient dense foods provides a much higher satiety and overall benefit to the body, there is no sense in putting something in your system if it serves no purpose. See my preferred food list for good examples of these. 8. Plan to break the rules. It s ok not to be perfect. I m not perfect either, nor is anybody. So plan ahead of time when you want to break one of these rules. Let s say you ate 5 meals a day, times that by 7 and we have 35 meals in a week. So if you were good 90% of the time it would allow you to break the rules 10% of the time, that would be 3 meals per week you can break the rules. Whether it be that you forgot to have protein, or you felt like having carbs with breakfast, or you had some alcohol or whatever it may be. Just be sure to be strict when you are on the plan and the better you are, the better the results will be. Following these habits can have a huge positive impact on your health and physique goals. I should also mention that it SUCKS when you break a rule by accident when you don t prepare your meals ahead of time and are forced to break a rule simply because you weren t prepared. Because it still counts, if you break a rule by accident that is still a rule you broke and you have to hold yourself accountable for it. Personally if I was going to break a rule I would want it to be something I want! As opposed to just not having any chicken cooked to eat or whatever it may be. Which leads me to the next habit.
9. Prepare meals in advance. Being in the nutrition industry, I can tell you this derails more people than anything else, and it shouldn t because it is very easy and not time consuming to do. I personally cook a large batch of food for the next few days on Sunday s and Wednesday s. I eat anywhere from 7-10 meals a day depending on my goal at the time and I always have food prepared. It is very doable even with a busy schedule, it takes me less than an hour each day to cook and package food for the week then you have it and you are ready to go. This leads to following the other habits a lot more easily. You already have protein cooked, you have healthy fats prepared, it s already cooked so you can eat every 2-4 hrs, buying food in bulk also saves you money then eating out and being on the go, and on top of all that it is so easy and stress-free to just grab prepared food and walk out the door. The work has already been done, all you have to do is eat it. 10. Eat a variety of healthy foods. Studies have shown that the average North American only chooses from 11 different foods each week on average. If we only stick to 11 different foods, we are allowing ourselves to become subject to only a select group of nutrients. Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables of all the different colours, eat a variety of animal products and try to always switch things up. The healthiest people are the people that eat the widest variety of plant and animal products.
11. Supplement smart. 100 years ago when the soil quality was rich and the plants and animals were organic, supplementation was not necessary. From the decades of factory farming and genetic modification of our food the food quality we have today is a fraction of what it used to be. Many vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients get destroyed in the process of genetic modification, chemicals, preservatives and pesticides trying to make foods larger, juicier, have a longer shelf life, look fresher and even smell better. This is not food as nature intended it to be and to have optimal energy levels, blood work and fitness results I recommend all clientele to supplement with a high quality multivitamin, additional vitamin d3, magnesium, probiotic and a fish oil just as a start and depending on their lifestyle, current state of health and goals the list can grow larger. But start with these basics and you will be doing your body a huge favour. For more on supplements check out the supplement guide PDF. 12. If fat loss is the goal, only eat until you are 80% full. Neurotransmitter connections between the GI tract and the brain take an average of 20 minutes to tell the brain that you are full. Lot s of times people eat more than their necessary share during this 20 minute window and it leads to over eating and a slowed process of weight loss. Eat until you are 80% full and you will find that 20 minutes after your meal you will feel your satiety.