6 Straight!  As in 6 straight strength workouts.  I'm just gonna keep my head down and keep going.  

Today, as I ate the lunch I packed, I realized I didn't follow 1 of my own standards.  That standard is to make sure to eat 5 things @ most meals.  These 5 things aren't absolutes or rules, but they're super effective for bringing about health, body composition and performance changes.  Practice them at 90% of your meals and you'll be pretty successful if not super successful with making changes happen.  You'll feel more content and satiated (without hunger) between meals.  You'll have more stabile blood sugar.  More consistent energy.  More consistent moods.  More consistent if not better performance.  And it'll help your body composition change in the direction you want to go.  It'll also support your athletic performance goals, though if you're in the true athlete performance progression, then you might need to modify these 5 things and/or eat parts of them or all of them more frequently in the day than only at 3 meals.  

2.  Green Vegetables

3.  Health Fats

4.  Carbohydrate Dense Food

5.  Water and/or it's derivatives

What is a lean protein?  

Traditionally it's an animal based protein (e.g. chicken, beef and fish), but there are whole food, non-processed options if you're a plant eater (legumes, nuts, grains).  

Why eat a lean protein?  

1.  Lean proteins are the building blocks of muscle.  When you break your muscles down in training, you need lean proteins to help build them back up.  If you don't eat lean proteins or foods that have sufficient proteins in them, you could use muscle for fuel and lose muscle mass when training instead of using stored glycogen or stored body fat for fuel.

2.  Lean proteins have a thermogenic effect, which means they increase your metabolism, helping you to burn more calories at rest.

3.  Lean proteins help to hold off hunger.  First you have to cut it, then chew it, then digest it.  If we're talking about a chicken breast, that's a pretty dense food when compared to liquid calories like a protein shake or milk.  It makes sense that eating a lean protein in a solid form would digest slower.  This slower digestion will help to hold off hunger longer, helping you to feel more full longer.

4.  Lean proteins help to stabilize your blood sugar.  If they digest slowly, then you're less likely to have spikes in your blood sugar compared to liquid calories.

When I say green vegetables, I mean vegetables that are green, however you can eat any vegetable, even one's that aren't green.  There is however, something special about eating green vegetables, that helps to accelerate body composition changes.  Especially when you substitute greens for grains.

spinach, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green peppers, asparagus, green beans, ...

Summer squash, onions, garlic, cauliflower, red peppers, carrots, ...

1.  Greens for grains flushes water.  If you feel bloated and/or are retaining fluids, eating sufficient greens can help you flush water.

2.  Greens have phytonutrients.  They're good for you.  I don't know much more about them, so we'll leave it at that.

3.  Green veggies help you to feel good.  Look, I know I'm the coach, with a fitness business, so I'm supposed to live and be a certain way, but I'm also the kid that grew up eating pop tarts, drinking Sunny D and eating Frosted Flakes with 2 spoonfuls of sugar mom saw and 2 spoonfuls of sugar, mom didn't see.  I didn't like sitting down for meals, skipped meals often and graduated high school at 5'11", 147 lbs.  I'm sure I ate some green vegetables, but I sure didn't seek them out, especially if I had the option of an Elio's Pizza.  

What do I know now.  Those fun foods, make me feel good in the moment, but shortly after I don't feel so good.  It's hard to be your best self when you don't feel good, so not only do I limit my exposure to foods that don't feel good, I actually seek out greens to help me feel good.  

1.  Whole foods are better than liquid foods.  It takes a lot more effort to digest a whole vegetable than it does a liquid vegetable.  The whole food has the fiber which helps to slow digestion.  It needs to be cut, chewed and broken down.  The liquid vegetable gets drunk and then you move on with your life.  It's a lot easier to overeat with liquid calories.  They also can spike your blood sugar.

2.  Vegetables are nutrient dense, but not calorically dense.  You can eat a lot of them and almost not overeat and almost not get full.  This is pretty helpful, when you're trying to change your body composition.

3.  The fiber helps to slow digestion for some people and to have more frequent and regular bathroom trips.  

There are good fats and there are bad fats.  The bad fats are hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated oils and trans fats.  Avoid these as often as possible.  They help to lengthen the shelf life of products so they don't go bad, but they also can mess with your health.  

1.  Healthy fats, can help to hold off hunger longer.  This helps to stabilize your blood sugar, helping you to have more consistent energy and moods.

2.  They add more flavor to foods.

3.  They tend to have some protein in them if we're talking nuts and seeds, so it's another protein source.  

4.  They can help to reduce inflammation.

5.  They're a great source of energy, since they have twice as many calories as protein and carbs (9kcal/gram vs. 4kcal/gram).

*This means you don't have to eat as much portion wise to get a lot of calories.

**This also means if you eat too much healthy fats, you could gain weight.

We're going to call this category our legumes, starches, grains and fruits.  

What's an example of carbohydrate dense foods?

Legumes:  black beans, pinto beans, chick peas, lentils....

Starches / grains:  sweet potatoes, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa...

Fruits:  oranges, apples, berries...

1.  These foods help to replenish your muscle glycogen stores, the main source of energy when you exercise up to 60min.

2.  These foods are high in fiber and help to slow digestion if eaten as whole foods.

3.  These foods can have protein, so it's a bonus for the meat eaters and a staple for the plant eaters.

4.  They give you more flavor and variety in your meals.

5.  Most of the foods in this category, that I recommend to my clients looking to lose weight and/or decrease they're body fat, are slow burning, low glycemic load foods, which means not a lot of calories per serving.  

6.  The fiber helps to have more regular bathroom trips which helps when you're looking to make change happen.

7.  I'm partial to legumes because I feel like they have something special about them in accelerating body composition changes, and I'm not talking about the potential for toots.  

75% of your body is made up of water.  If you were in the desert, you wouldn't be craving 

a cheesesteak, pie, coffee with cream & sugar, or donuts.  You'd be craving, good 'ol H2O!

Tap water, bottled water, aqua con gas (mineral water, seltzer, club soda, sparkling water), caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and teas.

1.  reduce injury risk from dehydration and cramping.

2.  reduce performance deficits from dehydration and cramping like lethargy, brain fog and irritability.

3.  move better.  All our cells have water.  Our joints have synovial fluid that's made up of water.  If you're dehydrated, things ache more.  You get more stiff.  When you're hydrated, you're lubed up.

4.  water can help you feel more full, holding off hunger longer.

5.  it's the fountain of youth.  Want to reverse age, whatever that means?  Make sure water is a part of your life and daily beverage consumption.  

These 5 things are standards to aim for at most every meal, but not every meal.  Why not every meal?  Well sometimes its too hard logistically to have them at every meal.  Sometimes you want to enjoy something different.  Sometimes your a guest or someone else prepared the meal for you.  Some times you don't have access to 1 or more of the components of the 5 meals.  There's always a reason and that's why this is a standard to have a most meals.  

Look, if you're serious about making change happen this year, not next year and you want to jump start your change this month, this week, today, consider these 5 foods @ most every meal.  If there was something that was sustainably better that checked the boxes of health, body transformation and performance, I'd be doing and teaching that instead.  

Making change happen, 1 meal at a time,

Coach Mike

p.s.  the next nutrition discussion is Sat, Jan 27.

p.p.s.  is nutrition the missing piece for your results?  reply and let me know how I can help.

p.p.p.s.  need daily accountability with your nutrition?  I've partnered with Precision Nutrition's Pro Coach to deliver men and women daily check ins, lessons and assignments.  Check it out.