WHAT I EAT



What's My Diet?

I don't have a fixed diet - but I try to follow John Berardi's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutrition Program's advice quoted below:

" 1. Eat every 2-3 hours, no matter what. You should eat between 5-8 meals per day.
2. Eat complete (containing all the essential amino acids), lean protein with each meal.
3. Eat fruits and/or vegetables with each food meal.
4. Ensure that your carbohydrate intake comes from fruits and vegetables. Exception: workout and post-workout drinks and meals.
5. Ensure that 25-35% of your energy intake comes from fat, with your fat intake split equally between saturates (e.g. animal fat), monounsaturates (e.g., olive oil), and polyunsaturates (e.g. flax oil, salmon oil).
6. Drink only non-calorie containing beverages, the best choices being water and green tea.
7. Eat mostly whole foods (except workout and post-workout drinks).
So what about calories, or macronutrient ratios, or any number of other things that I’ve covered in other articles? The short answer is that if you aren’t already practicing the above-mentioned habits, and by practicing them I mean putting them to use over 90% of the time (i.e., no more than 4 meals out of an average 42 meals per week violate any of those rules), everything else is pretty pointless. "

What Foods Do I Eat?

Foods I often eat (at least once per week on average)

Protein sources:

- Whey Protein (pound for pound this is the cheapest source of protein and has a very high bioavailability)
- Whole Eggs (classic breakfast food, great boiled for a snack and part of many recipes)
- Chicken (a staple western meat - organic is preferable)
- Fish (I normally normally Bassa and canned tuna because I'm poor ATM! But occasionally treat myself to salmon, snapper and cod - fresh, wild fish - particularly oily/fatty fishes like salmon, trout, tuna, cod and mackeral - are perhaps the best source of protein you can consume)
- Beef (lean ground and fillet steaks - grass fed is preferable - I normally buy in bulk from butchers, cut into steaks and freeze)
- Plain yoghurt (full fat by Mundella - great source of friendly bacteria) and Hi-Lo (2%) milk (I've reduced my consumption down to about 1 glass per day max - I did find full fat milk very beneficial when trying to gain weight when I was a skinny bastard)

Carbohydrate sources:

- Vegetables (Broccoli, Mixed Lettuce, Spinach, Carrots, Capsicum, Tomatoes, Red Onions, White Onions, Pumpkin, Green beans, Potatoes, Olives)
- Fruits (Apples, Bananas, Frozen Blueberries, Frozen Raspberries, Oranges, Pineapples, Kiwis, Grapes, Dried Goji Berries)
- Fungi (Button Mushrooms, Field Mushrooms)
- Rice (Basmati - ideal for Indian and fusion dishes - and Jasmine - ideal for South-East Asian dishes)
- Beans/Lentils (Mung Beans, Chana Dal, Red Kidney Beans)
- Steel Cut Oatmeal (solid breakfast food and useful in many recipes)
- Pasta/Spaghetti (whole grain or fresh - I'm trying to cut back by consumption)
- Gatorade Sports Drink Powder (I only use for long or back to back training sessions mixed with vanilla or flavourless protein - my favourite flavours are orange and lemon and lime)

Fat sources I normally consume:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Walnuts
Almonds
Cashews


Spices and Herbs:

- Coriander
- Thyme
- Italian Parsley
- Rosemary
- Cumin (ground and whole)
- Ground Tumeric
- Garam Masala
- Red and Green Chillies
- Garlic
- Ginger

Drinks I normally consume

- Reverse Osmosis Filtered Water
- Green tea (Jasmine/Gunpowder)
- White Tea
- Oolong Tea
- Nescafe GOLD Coffee


What Nutritional Supplements Do I Take?


My staples are (all for general health benefits):


NOW ADAM Multi-Vitamin (but I think Animal Pak is the best if you can afford it!)
NOW Vitamin D
Carlson Fish Oil
NOW ZMA

How Much Do I Eat?

It varies depending on my goals, current weight/body composition and activity levels.

I normally eat 5-6 meals per day (Breakfast, Mid Morning Meal, Lunch, Mid Afternoon Meal, Dinner + on training days post workout meal)

For bulking/putting on weight (muscle mass) I generally aim to get in 300-500 calories above maintenance level.

For cutting/losing weight (fat) I generally aim to get in 300-500 calories below maintenance level.

FreeDieting have a handy online calculator to roughly find out your maintenance caloric consumption level: