gearpatrolJan 30, 2024, 10:01 AM

Chapter 2: Your Diet Shouldn't Be Hardcore 🤘

Why making small, sustainable changes in your diet is the path to lasting success View in Browser Don't get too into the weeds with diet and nutrition out of the gate. If counting calories

View in Browser

Don’t get too into the weeds with diet and nutrition out of the gate. If counting calories intimidates you, don’t bother. Not sure which supplements to buy? Save your cash. Instead, take inventory of what’s typically being stuffed into your maw to see if it aligns with your fitness goals.

For example, if you typically booze hard four days per week, cut it down to three this week. Then maybe two the following week. Usually, dump a fistful of sugar into your a.m. and afternoon coffee? Use two sugar packets, and then scale back to one the following week. Take baby steps if you’re not ready to make the big changes that need to be made.

When it comes to making changes to your diet, “sometimes it’s not [as] simple,” as going all in on whole foods, says coach Don Saladino. Saladino has more than two decades worth of experience as a fitness coach and works with and trains high-profile clients such as Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, and Anne Hathaway. “Yes, you ideally want to consume more whole foods, but let’s not pretend people don’t struggle to consume them,” “Maybe it’s an issue with money or they’re just busy — doesn’t matter.”

Ultimately, says Saladino, “the emphasis at the start needs to be put into eliminating the crap like cheat meals and alcohol.”

For meals, focus on eating more organic whole foods and varying your plate to include “clean” protein, fats, and carbohydrates:

Proteins build and repair tissue and fight infection.
Carbs provide energy.
Fats provide energy as well as aid the absorption of vital vitamins. (If possible, reduce your intake of saturated fat to less than 10% of your overall caloric intake, suggests the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services.)

If you’re looking to build muscle, aim for roughly 1 gram per pound of protein per pound of bodyweight. But you can also find your recommended daily allowance for protein by multiplying your body weight in pounds by .36.

Keep a food diary for the next week. Use an app if you prefer, but be diligent and as accurate as possible. One study featuring 1,700 subjects found that people who kept a daily food journal lost twice as much weight as folks who didn’t keep tabs on their eating habits. Keep it simple: what you eat, how much, and what time.

After a week, sift back through the journal and categorize the foods you’ve consumed. An easy system is the strategy used by Take-Two Interactive Software CEO Strauss Zelnick, who at age 64 logs up to 10 workouts per week. “Eat three meals a day and put foods and beverages into three categories: unlimited, limited, and highly restricted,” Zelnick says. “This way, you’re eating a lot of the low-calories foods that are good for you, eating some of the higher-calorie foods that are good for you, and staying away from the ones that you know are bad for you.

Here is how Zelnick categorizes his lists of food and drinks:

Unlimited: Water, coffee, tea.
Limited: Alcohol
Highly Restricted: soda (regular and diet), fruit and vegetable juice.

Unlimited: Lean protein (eggs, chicken breast, fish); steamed veggies; salad (easy on the dressing).
Limited: Fruit, dried fruit, cheese, rice and potatoes.
Highly Restricted: Breakfast cereal, pizza, cake, pastry, pasta, deep fried foods (i.e. french fries).

Further Reading

• A great way to keep consistent with your meals? Doing meal prep. Here's everything you need to make it work.

• Interested in supplements? We get it — just don't get duped and read this first.

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