What I Actually Eat

In my more than 15 years as a trainer there is one question that keeps coming up: What should I eat? I’ve worked my way through every major diet fad since the early 2000s. Atkins, Zone, Paleo, Paleo-Zone, DASH, Mediterranean, Food Pyramid, Low Fat, Keto, Intermittent Fasting. What should you eat?

It really depends. What are your nutritional goals? Are you eating for fat loss, muscle building, fueling a marathon, jiu jitsu training, a day of working on your feet or eating to improve your blood work.

This is what I actually eat in a day.

Context: This is a recent day of eating where I performed strength training midday for an hour.

My nutritional goals at the moment:

• Keep my body fat under 10% while maintaining muscle

• Fuel my workouts and recover from them

• Maintain healthy cholesterol levels and a healthy gut

1- I wake up around 5AM and have my first calories around 10AM. I start with a low carb protein shake and a banana which gives me 30 grams of protein and 28g of carbs with a negligible amount of fat.

2- Right after training I have a Post Workout Smoothie. It takes 5 minutes to whip up and contains 45 grams of protein, 40 grams of carbs and 29 grams of fat. I’ve shared the recipe in a previous article.

3- My first solid meal is roughly 2 hours after my smoothie. I have 2 whole eggs and enough egg whites to get me to 30 grams of protein. I mix in a cup of spinach.

4- Lunch is always a salad and leftover meat, usually boneless skinless chicken breast. I again aim for 40 grams of protein while keeping carbs low and fats moderate. I drink a bottle of kombucha with this meal.

5- Dinner on this particular day was lean grass fed top sirloin, baked yam and steamed broccoli. For dinner I shoot for roughly 40 grams of protein, 50 grams of carbs and low fat.

At the end of the day I’ve eaten 185 grams of protein, 140 grams of carbs, and less than 30 grams of fat. These numbers are tweaked as needed depending on the day and the objective. Most of my carbs are around my workout and the rest come at dinner.

Feel free to reach out with comments or questions.