Whatever your goals for your body are, diet is a huge part of getting you there. If you want to be efficient in reaching your goals, you’ll have to eat accordingly. Think about it as if you’re eating to manipulate your body. Currently, I’m focused on losing weight for a photo shoot—it’s a short term goal, so what I eat a month from now will probably be different. At this point, I’ve had to lose and put on weight enough times that I know what I need to eat and how much I need to eat in order to change my body in a given amount of time.
Here is what I eat in a day (when I’m trying to lose weight):
I wake up around 4am and have a coffee (black) with some MCT oil while I’m walking my dog.
When I get back, I have 3 egg whites and some broccolini sautéed with little bit of oil, vinegar, and pepper with no salt! Salt has a tendency to retain water (and it’s not good for your blood pressure either), so I try to keep salt to a minimum, especially when I’m cutting weight.
At around 8:30-9am I’ll have a handful of almonds to keep me full and to get a little bit of healthy fat in my system and then at 11am will be my pre-workout meal, which is half a cup of white rice with 4 oz. of chicken.
After my workout I’ll have twice the amount of food as the pre-workout meal (so 1 cup of rice and 8 oz. of chicken), but instead of white rice, I’ll have brown. White rice is a simple carb so it digests faster than the brown rice, which is a complex carb and takes longer for your body to digest and thus provides you with longer-lasting energy. Something everyone should know: Less processed foods are healthier for you than processed. They just might not taste as good.
Dinner around 5:45-6:15 will be either meat + vegetables or egg whites + avocadoes. If I’m eating meat, it’ll be lean (like turkey) to keep the fat content low. And I’ll usually eat a vegetable that’s high in fiber like broccoli, which helps with digestion and in my experience, has been really effective in burning belly fat.
Think about what you eat in a day. Are your goals long term or short term goals? Keep a journal if you think it’ll help, or use an app that tracks your calories. It’ll at least make you more aware of what you’re consuming. Obviously, what works for me won’t necessarily work for you. I change my diet for different purposes too; i.e., for a fight, to bulk, etc., and I lead an active life, which means I burn more calories on average. If you’re the type to really struggle with diet, feel free to email me with any questions. Diet has everything to do with health and fitness; it’s an important part of your sport, body, and mind!
