I just saw this post on Joe DeFranco's blog and I had to put it up here for those who don't check out his blog regularly. This goes hand-in hand with my earlier comments about alcohol. I suggest more people take this advice to heart:
Q: Joe,
I just turned 21 and i play division iii football in pa. I grew up in philly and have been partyin with my friends there since i was 13. Problem now is, I take my training and health very seriously. But all my friends want to do on the weekend is go out and get drunk or high, then stumble into a diner at 4AM and eat crap. Alcohol and drugs really mess with my training and the late nights on the weekends throw off my sleep cycle. What should i do boss? I don't wanna be a social outcast but at the same time i'm inhibiting my progress by going out like that. any response, even if its not on the site would be helpful. thank you
dave
A: Dave,
After reading your question, there was no way in hell I WASN'T going to post it on this site!
I'm going to give you a wake-up call brotha - YOU'RE A BULLSHITTER! That's right, I'M CALLING YOU OUT, SON! Do you really expect me to believe that you're "taking your training and your health very seriously" when you're telling me that you're drinking and getting high??? Now I'm not going to turn this into a "Don't Do Drugs" lecture because I'm sure you heard it all before. But, what I will tell you is that anyone worth a shit to me is NOT a follower. Call me cocky, but I was raised to be a LEADER, not a follower. I won't associate with followers or haters anymore - I only surround myself with other leaders and self-motivated people. And guess what? NONE of the people I associate with are losers, nerds or "social outcasts" (as you say)!
Here's a quick story for you...
I have a client that I've been training since high school. He's always been his "own person" and he's always been in the "cool" crowd - even though he doesn't drink and party a lot. You see, this kid never wanted to be "ordinary"...he always wanted to be "EXTRA-ORDINARY". Now don't get me wrong, he still goes out and he's very social, but unlike YOU, he doesn't abuse his body because he really "takes his training and his health" seriously. In fact, before this kid left town a couple months ago, I went to dinner with him and his girlfriend. After dinner, we hung out at the bar for 2 hours. While everyone else was drinking, he drank water. About an hour into the drinking he even excused himself, went out to his car, drank a protein shake, then came back in the bar and continued to have a great time with the rest of us. Not one person busted his balls because everyone knows this kid has a desire to be the BEST. He doesn't give a shit what YOU (or anyone else) thinks...and he doesn't give a shit if he doesn't "blend" with the crowd, either. Instead of following in other people's footsteps, he blazes his own trail. In fact, the morning after the night I'm referring to, he blazed his own trail to Houston, Texas.
Yes, the individual that I'm referring to is Brian Cushing. I'm going to assume that you and your friends think Brian Cushing is pretty cool. But guess what? He wouldn't be half as cool if he "blended" with your crowd. Because if he did blend with your crowd, he wouldn't be "Brian Cushing". He would be "just one of the guys"...and he sure as hell wouldn't be where he is today!
Now I'm not trying to say that if you stop drinking, you're going to make it to the NFL. But my point is that every person that I know that is successful in their field has been a LEADER. Leaders (regardless of their age or their profession) don't give a shit what other people say about them. In fact, when people start talking shit about you - that's when you know you've made it!
The choice is yours, Dave. If you truly want to start "taking your health and training seriously", you already know what you have to do. Drinking, doing drugs and staying up until 4AM obviously isn't going to help you accomplish your training and health goals. This doesn't mean that you can't hang with your boys or you're never alloud to have a drink. But if drinking and doing drugs continues to be a regular occurance for you, I will continue to call you a bullshitter.
Are you a follower...or are you a LEADER?
The choice is yours, Dave...
-Joe D.
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This should be a call to arms for a lot of athletes out there. Decide what you want to achieve for yourself in this life. Recognize the price that you have to pay to achieve greatness and then get busy paying that price.
Train hard.
- T
About 70% of Swiss ball exercises are worthless. It's just one of those things where people are taking an idea too far. There's some value to it, but it's not a cure-all.
Most personal trainers and strength coaches just don't know how to get people strong. I remember talking to this one trainer who uses all these stability gizmos. I asked him why he used all that shit and he said, "I'm not good, so I have to do these weird things so people will come to see me."
I call it "entertainment training," not strength training. And any time I see that horseshit, I want to kick the personal trainer in the head with a pair of steel-toe construction boots.
— Charles Poliquin
If you don't know who Charles Poliquin is, and question the validity of this statement, maybe it's you who needs a kick in the head with a pair of steel-toe construction boots.
I'll leave you with one final thought: Let's take two twins and put one of them on a strait-line mission to take his squat from 225 lbs up to 405 lbs. Let's give the other one a steady dose of squats with 45 lbs standing on a BOSU ball. At the end of the year, which twin do you think will be jumping higher? Running faster? Looking better naked? The answer should be obvious.
And when the hell does the ground move under your feet in the real world anyway?
I will make an exception to this rule, however, and say that if the instability is above the waist, then the movement is fine. This means unstable pushups and things of that nature are fine, and can actually be very productive movements. Eric Cressey goes into detail on this topic in his product The Truth About Unstable Surface Training.
Until next time, stay off the damn BOSU ball and train hard!
- T
I've seen tons of athletes who train extremely hard in the gym, only to fuck up their results in the kitchen. They skip meals, under or overeat, and generally just eat crap. I also know a lot of guys who go for hours after their workouts without food. This is a huge mistake. To optimize your results in the gym, a proper meal within the post workout window is a necessity.
The post-workout window is a period of time where your body will partition nutrients more favorably. This period of time lasts for roughly one hour. This means that whatever nutrients you put in your body will be more likely to be stored as muscle than fat. In addition, the carbohydrate requirements of your peri-workout meals are higher. As a rule, one should consume a shake or solid food meal that is higher in carbohydrates as soon as possible after heavy exercise. The carbohydrate content for the post – workout meal should generally be one portion of carbohydrate larger than the requirements for your metabolic type.
For example, a protein type who would usually consume 30% carbohydrate, 50% protein and 20% fats might have 30 grams of carbs, 50 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat in a meal (fats contain roughly twice the amount of calories per gram than protein or carbohydrates). For the post workout meal, this individual would consume twice the amount of carbohydrate with the same amount of protein and fat. Therefore, the post workout meal would contain 60 grams of carbohydrate, 50 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat.
The best sources of carbohydrate during the post workout meal are healthy options for higher glycemic carbohydrates. Specific foods recommended include bananas, potatoes of all varieties, dates, figs, rice, and oats. The sources of protein and fats in the post workout meal are of little long-term importance (no matter what the supplement companies try to tell you!).
A word on fats in the post – workout meal: There is some controversy over whether or not fats belong in the post workout meal at all. This is due to several factors. First of all, insulin sensitivity is higher after exercise; meaning that whatever nutrients are consumed post-workout will be shuttled into the tissue at a much higher rate of absorption. This is a good thing when considering protein and carbohydrates because glycogen stores need to be rapidly replenished post-workout. However, shuttling fat strait into the tissue will not replenish glycogen, and will (in theory) have a negative effect on body composition. Also, fats tend to slow down the insulin response of a meal, meaning that when fats are consumed in the post-workout meal the overall absorption rate of the meal will be slower. Since the post workout window is roughly one hour (depending on the individual’s hormonal makeup), consuming fats in the post-workout meal will slow the absorption of the meal and potentially miss this one-hour window.
Having said that, it is my opinion that in the real world, consuming some healthy fats in the post workout meal will not affect your progress in the least. The meal will be healthier as a result if you do choose to consume some healthy fats in this meal due to the fact that the insulin response will be lower and you won’t experience such a dramatic blood sugar crash. You also shouldn’t have a problem replenishing glycogen stores due to the fact that most trainees will only burn roughly 60 grams of carbohydrate in a workout. I personally consume 10-15 grams of fat in my post workout meal, usually from flax, coconut butter, or avocado.
Here is a simple post workout shake you can make to greatly accelerate your progress in the gym:
30-60 grams protein from powder
Mixed brozen berries
2 bananas
2 – 3 dates
1 Tbsp Nut butter or Coconut butter, or ½ avocado, or 2 Tbsp Ground Flax
Several handfuls of spinach (sounds gross, but you can’t taste it at all)
Try it out after your next workout. You can tweak it to fit your needs and metabolic type as well. Also, if you are going to cheat and eat junk food, try to do it around the post – workout window, as insulin sensitivity will allow for a better partitioning of nutrients and therefore less body fat gain from the junk food.
Train Hard.
- T
A brute. A behemoth. A human forklift."
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- T
This will be the final installment of the series - I decided to post the workout nutrition and "how to eat" blogs separate. This post will attempt to combine everything we have learned so far into a step - by - step plan to construct your full diet.
Step 1: Timing Your Meals
The human body operates best on four to six feedings per day, consumed every 3-4 hours. Always establish a rhythm of eating, where you sit down to each meal or snack at the same time daily. One should not feel too full nor too hungry at any point in time over the course of the day.
Step 2: Determining What Foods to Eat
The human body digests and absorbs specific foods better at specific times of the day. One must eat according to these natural rhythms. Simply base the emphasized foods around your individual nutrition type, at the proper ratios. The general body clock is as follows:
AM: Emphasis on fruits, more carbs and less fats.
Mid-Day: Emphasis on either grains/starches, or a mix of fruits and vegetables.
PM: Emphasis on vegetables, less carbs and more fats
Note that all of these recommendations need to be tweaked according to the individual’s metabolic type, and vary from person to person.
Another way of looking at the nutritional rhythms of the body is this:
AM PM
Fruits -> Vegetables
Carbs -> Fats
I should say that I still recommend vegetables with every meal, while minimizing or cutting out most fruit later on in the day.
A general template for your main meals could look like this:
Breakfast: Fruits, as well as some type of protein and a smaller amount of healthy fats. A whole foods smoothie is a great option – but not if you are having a smoothie for a snack later in the day.
Lunch: Grains/starches, or a mix of fruits and vegetables. A salad of mixed fruits and vegetables is a very good option, along with perhaps some sort of grain/starch if these apply to your nutritional type. Remember to consume some type of protein and some healthy fats as well. A great option for fats could be some high-quality oil of your choice over your salad.
Dinner: Consume a large greens salad as well as some protein and healthy fats.
When choosing snacks for in between these meals, try to choose raw options. Great choices include nuts, seeds, raw fruits, raw vegetables, goji berries, and hummus. When eating your morning snack, lean towards raw fruits with some nuts or seeds. A trail mix of goji berries and hemp seeds is a great option. Another option could be an apple with some almond butter. For your afternoon snack, lean towards raw veggies with hummus, or some more nuts and/or seeds with vegetables (think celery sticks with almond butter). If you are a high level athlete in heavy training, you can make one or two of your “snacks” whole food smoothies to get some extra calories. Try not to exceed one or two smoothies per day, though.
Step 3: Determining Portion Size
Portion size depends largely on an individual’s bodyweight goals, among other things. A good rule is to eat until you are 80% full. If you wish to lose weight, you need to consume less energy (calories) than you expend. If you wish to gain weight, eat until you are satisfied, but gradually teach your body to metabolize food in a rapid fashion so that you can consume a higher quantity of food while still absorbing all of the nutrients. Remember – you aren’t necessarily what you eat, but what you absorb and assimilate.
Many coaches recommend force - feeding yourself during a mass gaining phase, and while I have some experience with this (during my very skinny days I would consume up to 7000 calories per day) I don’t particularly recommend it for most people. Yes, you need to bust your ass at the dinner table just like you do in the gym. However, eating more food than you can assimilate and being stuffed and constipated all the time is not going to benefit you in the long run. A healthy organism will grow faster than an unhealthy organism. Gradually increase your tolerance for food and strive to eat in a sustainable way.
I will also say that it is of benefit to oscillate your mass building efforts. What I meant by this is, go all out in the kitchen and in the gym trying to push your training weights and calories through the roof. Follow this with a brief back off period where you deload in the gym, and eat less food, less often, allowing your body time to rest and recover as well as detoxify and enzyme load. A good plan would be to go hard in the gym and in the kitchen for three weeks followed by a back off period of one week. You could also do a five days on – two days off schedule, or a 6 weeks on, two weeks off schedule. Only you can decide what works for you. During the heavy phase you might eat six meals per day for 4000 calories, and bump that down to four meals per day for 3000 calories during the lighter phase. Again, experiment and see what works for you. Personally, I like the three weeks on, one weeks off plan the best.
In order to successfully plan a day of eating, consider the natural rhythms of the body, what food it is likely to absorb the best at that time of day, and gear those foods to your nutrition type. Create portion sizes specific to your goals. Experiment and find what works best for you.
Hopefully this series has provided you with the information needed to construct a full diet plan for yourself.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at taylorallantraining@gmail.com, and we can set up a consultation.
- T
Protien
Protein should be eaten with every meal. Intake is individual, but in general, 20-50% of the total calories in one’s diet should come from protein.
Below are the best sources of protein. Levels are not given because choosing the best source is highly individual. Consider your metabolic type: Protien types do better on fattier, darker cuts of meat while carb types do better on lighter cuts.
- Free ranging, organic meats
- Wild seafood
- Free ranging, organic eggs: NOT omega-3 enriched.
- Legumes (Remember that these are also high in carbohydrate)
- Organic dairy products, preferably unpasteurized.
- Legumes
- Powders: Hemp*, Rice*, Gemma*, and Organic, Grass-Fed Whey proteins are best. Look for minimal ingredients, and zero chemicals. Only use whey if you are 100% certain that you can tolerate dairy – most people can’t.
* Taste much different from regular protein powders and definitely need some getting used to.
Fats should be eaten with every meal, but not in extremely high quantities. Too much fat intake can make one feel sluggish, due to the high level of energy fats require for digestion. Again, intake is highly individual, but generally 15-25% of the total calories in one’s diet should come from healthy fats. This usually comes out to around 5-15g total of fat per meal. Snacks will likely include more fats than main meals, due to the nature of the foods being eaten (often raw nuts and seeds).
Also, avoid heating all sources of fat, besides organic butter and coconut oil.
Below are the best sources of fat:
Tier 1
Avocado and young thai coconut. – In my opinion, these two fruits are far and away the best sources of fat on the planet. Eat the whole fruit, however - don't fall for weak impressions like store-bought shredded coconut (which often contains a whole other list of harmful ingredients) and guacamole (you can easily make your own). Coconut meat should be soft and easy to spoon out of the shell. Look for the white coconuts, not the hairy ones you often see in grocery stores.
Tier 2
Raw and soaked seeds: Pumpkin, Sunflower (can and should be sprouted), Hemp, Sesame, Chia, and Flax are all good choices, as are seed butters like Tahini.
Flax does not need to be soaked, but should always be organic and obtained from a very high quality source. Also, flax should be ground, and never eaten whole.
Also, Pumpkin and Hemp seeds are exceptional choices for snacks. Because of their higher protein content.
Tier 3
Raw and soaked nuts: Almonds and Walnuts are good higher-protein nuts, and therefore make better snacking nuts. Macadamia nuts and Pecans are all good higher-fat nuts, and are not ideal for snacking.
Peanuts are not a nut, but a legume, and are often a food sensitivity for many people. They should generally be avoided by most, although some people do very well with peanuts.
Tier 4
Healthy oils: Olive, Avocado, Coconut, and Hemp oil are all very good. Always look for extra-virgin, cold pressed, organic oils. Avoid heating any oils besides the coconut oil.
Organic Butter also falls into this category. Raw and unpasteurized butter is always better. Look for Bio-available Organic butter.
Remember: Saturated fat and cholesterol are NOT DANGEROUS. We evolved for thousands of years on saturated fats, and without them we wouldn't be on the planet today. WE NEED SATURATED FAT IN OUR DIET. The misconceptions surrounding cholesterol and saturated fats in our diet are clearly a HUGE pet peeve of mine, and will be discussed in future blog posts. For now though, don't shy away from healthy saturated fats like coconut, coconut oil and organic butter. These are all extremely healthy for you.
Carbohydrates
This section could very well be the most important, because it is most often the area that most people screw up. Let me get one thing out in the open right now: BREAD AND PASTA ARE NOT HEALTH FOODS. WHOLE WHEAT IS NOT A HEALTH FOOD. In fact, these are horrible foods for your body. It doesn't matter if the bread is "whole wheat" or "whole grain" or any other bullshit label that makes consumers think that it is good for their body. A huge percentage of the population is intolerant to gluten, and a large majority of grains contain gluten. Stick to the list below and you will be well on your way to optimal health.
In addition, we evolved on fruits and vegetables as our sources of carbohydrate. Grains are not manditory for optimal health. 99 times out of 100, the healthiest diet is one that is free of grains.
In a very general sense, some people do well with higher levels of carbohydrate, and some do very poorly. Always refer to your metabolic type, and recognize how specific foods make you feel. A good indication of how well carbohydrate is tolerated is how sleepy one feels between meals after consuming a high level of carbohydrate. Only you can decide how much, and what sources are best for you. As a general rule, carbohydrates should occupy 30-70% of the total calories in one’s diet, and the bulk of one’s daily intake should be eaten earlier in the day rather than later. Tier 3 and 4 sources in particular should usually be eliminated at night.
Below are the best sources of carbohydrates:
Tier 1
Vegetables: Green vegetables should be especially emphasized. Look for local, organically grown vegetables with deep colors.
Tier 2
Fruits: Lower glycemic and/or enzyme-rich fruits should be emphasized: Berries, papaya, pineapple, kiwi and apples are all very good general choices, and there are others that are good to consume at specific times and situations: Bananas, dates and figs for example are good choices in the morning and around exercise, but are too high in sugar for most people at other times of the day.
Tier 3
Yams/Sweet potatoes (NOT WHITE POTATOES), Amaranth, Buckwheat, Quinoa, Millet, and Wild Rice.
Tier 4
Brown Rice, and rolled or steel-cut oats. The only good brand of oats I have seen is Bob’s Red Mill, but I am sure there are others. Check to see if under ingredients, the oats are labeled “may contain wheat.” This means that the oats have been cross-contaminated, and are likely to contain gluten.
NOTE: Tier 1 and Tier 2 carbohydrates are the only mandatory sources that must be consumed daily for optimal health.
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Now that you have a solid list of the foods you should be eating, consider your metabolic type as well as your food intolerances. Cross the foods off of the list that conflict with your individual body. You now have a master list of foods that are available to you. Each of these foods, when eaten in the right proportions, will allow you to achieve an extremely high level of health and performance.
This series has become a bit longer than I expected, so hopefully I can wrap in up within the next few installments. We still need to cover peri-workout nutrition as well as how to prepare food and how to eat (seriously - most people physically eat wrong). These are hugely important topics that can make or break your progress, so stay tuned!
- T
Food Intolerance
Some symptoms of food intolerance include:
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
- Acid Reflux
- Brain fog
- Weight problems
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic fatigue
- Skin eruptions
- Migrane headaches
- Many other lingering health problems
- Gluten Grains
- Dairy (especially milk and cheese)
- Sugar
- Corn
- Chocolate
- Soy
- Citrus Fruits
Some specific foods that many people may also have intolerance to include Cow's Milk, Gluten, Yeast, Eggs, Cashews, Brazil nuts, Almonds, Corn, Oats, Chili Peppers, Lentils, Kiwi Fruit and Peanuts. If you think you might be suffering from food intolerance and haven’t yet been tested, start by cutting out all of the above foods, as well as the food groups above.
Food intolerance can be due to a number of factors and is often based on race and genetics. However, a main cause of food sensitivity is also a repetitive consumption of particular foods. Eating the same food daily can often cause sensitivity to that food in an individual. To combat this problem, make sure you are eating as wide a variety of foods as possible and avoid consuming the same foods day in, day out.
Without removing reactive foods from one’s diet, a high level of health can never be achieved. Many health care practitioners and naturopaths offer special blood tests to determine the reactivity of specific foods to an individual. Self-observation can also help one to determine if they are sensitive to a specific food or not. When in doubt, eliminate all of the listed suspect foods and wait one month. Re-introduce each suspect food one by one, at two week intervals. If symptoms appear upon re-introduction, simply eliminate that particular food entirely.
I personally had a blood test done by Rocky Mountain Laboratories this spring to identify food intolerances in my body. This is a screenshot of part of my results:
As you can see, it is easy to be severely intolerant to foods that would otherwise be considered "healthy." For me, Eggs were very reactive to my body. I used to eat eggs daily and I have now eliminated them completely from my diet. This particular screenshot only reports on the "meat" section. There are other sections in the report such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and others. There are 90 foods in total that are examined. Another interesting food that I was reactive to was Pineapple. The "report summary" screenshot explains all the foods that I tested moderately and severely reactive to.
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Imagine knowing that every single food you put into your body was perfect for you as an individual. Combining metabolic typing with food intolerance testing makes this possible.
The next installment in this series will cover the best foods from each macronutrient bracket (proteins, fats and carbohydrates). Stay tuned!
- T
