Boot-campers,
Many of you have been asking about
nutrition guidelines, what and how you should eat, etc. Hopefully this email
will serve to answer some questions you have. If reading the email brings up
some more questions, please email me and I'll put them in a FAQ format and
email the answers to the group (because you probably aren't the only one with a
particular question). One thing to note, if you eat junk, you WILL still
continue to make strength gains and SOME progress at boot camp. But if you give
your body amazingly healthy delicious food, you will lose fat, gain muscle (not
enough to be bulky girls), and your boot camp performance and strength gains
will be amazing! I can help coach how hard you work for 1 hour at the gym three
times per week, but if you aren't taking care of what you put into your body
the other 23 hours a day, then you'll never get the results you want.
First, what to eat:
Regardless of your body composition
and performance goals, (weight loss for some, weight gain for others (mostly
the guys), performance for boot camp, sport, strength gains, life, marathons
(you crazy T-Mobile people), or just to look better naked, there are some
guidelines that will go across all goals for eating "healthy."..
1) Eat high quality, non-processed
food. Try to eat high quality meats (especially free range/ grass fed), veggies
(especially local and organic), cheeses, milk (organic or raw), nuts, good fats
(olive, avocado, coconut), etc. Foods that come packaged, processed, in a box
or bag, or even worse, in a drive-through are junk. All of them, without
exception. Look at the ingredients in the things you buy. If there are more
than 3 or 4 ingredients (and you don't know what ANY of them are, it isn't worth
eating. Period.
2) Eat protein at every meal.
EVERYONE should be eating a minimum of 4-5 meals with protein per day. Good
protein includes chicken (both white and dark), turkey, tuna, fish, shrimp,
shellfish, beef (my personal favorite), pork, eggs, whey protein, and to lesser
degree cottage cheese and low sugar Greek yogurt. Soy is NOT a good protein
girls. Its estrogen laced with roundup (The weed killer) - Seriously, I can't
make this up. Look it up. I wouldn't touch soy/tofu ANYTHING with a ten foot
pole, and you shouldn't either.
How much protein should you eat? A
good rule of thumb is a portion about the size of your fist, but more is fine -
just not less.
3) Stop eating/ drinking sugar!
Period. Sugar is toxic to everyone is the single greatest cause of heart
disease, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes in our country. Sugar
doesn't mean just table sugar, but ALL sugar in your diet, the most prevalent
of which is most likely high fructose corn syrup. However, all processed carbohydrates
break down to essentially sugar in your body and cause an enormous insulin
response, so things like breads, pastas, cereal, pop tarts, crackers, cookies,
donuts, candy, soda/sweet tea/Gatorade/koolade/fruit juice are all LOADED with
sugar. Stay away from them at all cost (with the exception of your cheat meal
per week). With the exception of a little milk for some of you (whole milk -
skim milk is horrible - ask later - the fat in milk is good), ALL of your
drinks should be calorie free. (Coffee and tea are perfectly fine and can be
drunk with a little cream or half and half and some calorie-free sweetener if
needed. Don't use coffee mate - that's estrogen laced vegetable solids. Why
would you drink this over cream anyway? It’s disgusting.) :-)
4) Stop being scared of fat. Fat
doesn't make you fat. Period. Sugar makes you fat. Now, there are some pretty
crappy types of fat (trans-fat) out there that are loaded with free radicals
and other junk that you don't want. These are things like vegetable oil (not trans-fat
at room temp, but turns into trans-fat when heated), Crisco (does anyone use
this anymore?), margarine and all fake butter, and corn/canola oil. (Ever
wondered why you can't press corn and get oil, yet we have corn oil? It’s
because it has to be chemically extracted and is junk.) Healthy fats, again,
are things like animal fat, olive oil, real butter (surprise! It’s fine to
eat!), avocados, coconut oil. Fish oil (the best oil ever), flax seed oil, hemp
oil, and nuts and nut butter (just get the natural or organic kind, not the
regular Jiff or Peter Pan). Trust me on this, fat won't make you fat.
5) Eat the vast majority of your
carbs around training (unless you are trying to gain weight, guys, and then eat
them at every meal). You need carbohydrates in the three hour window around
your training (especially weights/ boot camp training) because anaerobic
training utilizes carbs as energy is a process known as glycolysis, where your body
converts glycogen (carbs in the muscle and liver) into energy. After training
more carbs are needed to refill carb (glycogen) storage in the muscle, which
means it will NOT store them as fat (just don't go eat a dozen KrispyKremes as
your post workout carbs - lol).
Great sources of carbs would include
fruit, oatmeal w/o sugar (use stevia/Truvia instead), sweet potatoes, red
potatoes, and brown rice. These are things that can be eaten in the three hour
window around training (90 min before training to 90 min after training), but
if you are trying to LOSE fat, then they really should not be eaten at other
times during the day or night.
So putting it all together....
1) Eat high quality whole foods, not
processed junk.
2) Eat protein at every meal.
3) Stop eating any and all sugar.
4) Drink lots and lots of no calorie
drinks (mostly water)
5) Don't be scared of fat!
6) If trying to lose fat, eat daily
carbs in the 3 hour window around boot camp.) - Non boot camp days, keep carbs
to a minimum.
7) Always eat something before boot
camp.
8) Always eat protein and carbs
immediately after boot camp.
9) Once per week have a cheat meal
and eat literally anything you want for that one meal: carbs, beer, whatever.
But make sure you eat it all at one sitting. This meal is best if it’s after
training (or for those of you running half marathons every weekend) eat your
cheat meal Friday night before your big race on Saturday morning.
10) Don't skip meals. Skipping meals
(or eating meals with no protein) shuts your metabolism down and eats your
muscle for food. This is the worst possible thing you could ever do.
Under-eating NEVER leads to a healthy or attractive body. It leads to a body
who's metabolism has shut down, stores fat every chance it gets because its
being starved, and ends with a body with to muscle tone (and often an early
grave). Don't do this to yourself.
For those trying to gain weight:
11) Eat high quality carbs (see
number 5) throughout day with your protein, AND add an additional 1/2-1 whole
gallon of whole milk every single day.
It’s really that simple. If you
think about it, it’s not that hard. And if you crave some junk, just hold off
till your cheat meal, and then go crazy. :-)
If you want to read/watch more: here
are some good links:
Toxic Sugar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9MH_tks_wE
The best diet book ever written
(I've sadly read them all because I'm a loser.) :-) is called "Why We Get
Fat" by Dr Gary Taubes. http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339728959&sr=8-1&keywords=why+we+get+fat
Absolutely fantastic food
documentaries (there are more, but don't want to bore you - if you want more,
just ask):
"Food Inc.": On Netflix
instant stream, or can rent vary cheap from YouTube or amazon.
"Fat Head": Also on
Netflix or Hulu here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/196879
Hope that answers some questions!
I'm always happy to ask ANY question you have regarding training or nutrition.
There is an important reason we do everything we do. If you are interested WHY
we do things, just ask. I'm more than happy to educate my trainees all they
want - I just don't go to go overboard and give you more information than you
want.
Your over-zealous trainer,
Matt
