..But I'm more convinced than ever that diet plays a key role in physical transformations in particular and overall great health in general. Strength, conditioning, and flexibility fill out the rest of the cast. But without a proper, balanced, clean diet, not only can the results of weeks and months of hard work in the gym or in front of the TV with Tony not be seen, but we have less time to enjoy the fruits of these labors through shortened lifespans. Not to mention greater risk of disease and a crappy emotional state from inflammation and frustration at not being able to see those abs we all know are in there. Finally, we get mediocre results from using crap fuel.
A typical saying I hear all the time is that "hey, a person can eat whatever they want if they are working out," or its cousin, "I work out so I can eat whatever I want." In my experience, it's even more crucial to eat clean and balanced when in a strength and conditioning program because those workouts require the right kind of fuel. And the belly fat will never go away until the diet is cleaned up.
Never ever.
So unless you're Michael Phelps and you train 8 hours a day, every day, working out for an hour every other day or even every day isn't enough to justify eating "whatever you want." Just isn't.
Those of you, myself included at one time or another, who think you can conquer the workouts and just wing it on the diet are going to fail at your goals. There really is no other reason most people do P90X other than to get ripped. A few might do it for real athletic conditioning, but it's obviously targeted towards people who want to see their abs. Winging it on the diet will not achieve these results.
Even when I didn't make the connection at the time, this has been my experience.
For me, there's just no other way around it. I can eat fries, drink beer, and eat pizza and ice cream all I want to one day every week or two. But my daily grind must be clean, fresh, whole food.
My current diet is as follows:
Breakfast:
4 whole egg omelet with fresh white onions, fresh baby spinach, fresh mushrooms, and about a half a cup of regular cheese
1/2 cup of fresh blueberries just rinsed and snacked on while I make my omelet
Banana
5g creatine in about a cupful of Knudsen's Just Blueberry juice (very expensive but so damn good)
Water
Snack:
Small handful of walnuts and an apple or banana
Water
Lunch:
Grilled chicken, pork, ribeye, top sirloin, filet, tuna steak, or canned tuna (I cook a double portion of the grilled stuff the night before so I have some for dinner and then save the rest for lunch)
Double handful of fresh baby spinach (I'm eating a shitload of spinach)
As much fresh broccoli as I can stomach
About a half a cup to a cup of quinoa sometimes - other times a banana
Water
Snacko Numero Dos:
Apple and maybe some more nuts
Dinner:
Grilled meat (see above and also notice that I didn't say "lean")
Broccoli
Spinach
Yam/sweet potato or quinoa
Water
Not really a late night snack kinda guy. If I find myself with my head in the fridge then it's probably past my bedtime.
Extremely Delicious Post Workout Shake Made in a Shaker:
1 cup of Knudsen's Just Blueberry Juice
1 cup water
5g Creatine
50g GNC Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60 Chocolate Protein Powder (seriously?)
Two ice cubes
The difference between this diet and what I was doing about 30 days ago is that I have cut out most grains (except quinoa, which I don't eat all the time) including wheat, oats, and yes, rice. I won't go into the details of the caveman diet because a simple google search will turn up more than a person would ever want to know about it. But my diet, quinoa and dairy notwithstanding, is rather close to the paleo diet with the exception of the Zone concepts of eating as much fat as possible and not eating any carbs, which I happen to think is dumb. I eat a lot of sugar in the form of fresh fruit and have lost about 6 pounds in the last 30 days doing this. Sugar is carbs.
Am I a freak about diet? Not really. I absolutely realize that tasty food is one of the great pleasures of living in an advanced civilization where we don't have to toil all day to capture or grow our own food. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: the purpose of food isn't to make our taste buds happy, it's to fuel the body. Period. And, again, I know that a prescribed diet plan with non-tasty, bland food is a diet that won't be followed. Which is why everything I eat is something I always look forward to eating. These days, I enjoy eating blueberries and broccoli more than I ever enjoyed eating a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese (not sure I can say the same for delicious Egg McMuffin). I ordered two large pizzas for myself and some friends last weekend and even though it didn't taste nearly as good as I thought it would - as good as I remembered pizza tasting - I still ate five pieces that night and four the next day for lunch.
Meh.
Yes, I'm still a pig when it's in front of me. I simply can't not eat
junk food if it's around. So I just don't have it around.
I think it's important to note that I haven't done a single second of a traditional cardio workout other than my 3-5 minute warmup since last summer.
As in 2009 last summer.
Do 6 sets of deadlifts and tell me your heart isn't racing, you aren't breathing heavy, and you aren't in a flop sweat. I think there's a cardio workout built right in to my resistance workout.
Current weight 175
Recent Comments