This is my first post on my new blog. My previous blogs were dedicated more to training and although I have been training for 2+ years now consistently, my knowledge of nutrition has changed dramatically. I'm much more consistent now with my nutrition and I believe that this is what really makes the difference. You can train all you want, but if you don't have the proper fuel, you will not optimize your potential. Dieting and "clean eating" is difficult. If it were super easy, everyone would be walking around with a tiny waist, rippling abs, and bulging muscles. I mean, think about how many people you see at the gym working out "hard" and yet, week after week, year after year, they remain the same. I truly believe that our bodies are resistant to change. You have to eat a shit ton to get really fat and morbidly obese. If you have ever watched any of those morbidly obese shows, notice how much a morbidly obese person eats. They eat every single hour, and it ain't pretty. Another small issue I would like to talk about is, eating for performance and body composition, and eating to be healthy. Many people consider these, one and the same, and that is simply false. While they can definitely be thrown together, many people mix them up. You can eat a lot of healthy fruit and nuts, and yet be a fat slob. Fruit=sugar, with some vitamins thrown in. Think about vitamin water. Its mainly sugar with some vitamins thrown in. You would be much better off eating more vegetables and less fruit. That's much more healthier for you.
Anyhow, the purpose of this blog will be to document my journey, as I attempt to eat healthier, while improving my body composition. I want to be able to have some treats as well, so they will be thrown in. Healthy treats and not so healthy treats. Now, this does not mean I'm going to be a IIFYM kind of guy. For those who don't know what IIFYM means. Its essentially people that follow, If it fits in your macros. This refers to people who eat whatever they want, so long as they meet their protein, carbohydrates, and fat requirements. I'm not hating on the movement, but I think I get more full by eating whole nutritiously dense food, then trying to fit cheese cake into my macros. If you want to learn more about this, you can read about it here (http://www.iifym.com/). My main issue with IIFYM, is that it can lead a lot of people to eating gummy bears over some other carbohydrate source that may have more nutrients (aka fiber-stool softener). However, it definitely has its place and is useful.
For the most part, my diet is going to be fairly balanced. It will have a good amount of protein, a moderate amount of carbohydrates (this will fluctuate depending on my activity for the day), and a moderate to low amount of fat. I'll try and make my fat come mainly from healthy sources (plenty of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat)
I will adjust my diet, week to week depending on how I feel, look, and how my performance in the gym is. I've come to realize that muscle gain after the first year of training is slow. People talk about packing on 40lb of muscle, but the reality is, even if you get stronger, a lot of that will be fat. Now, you may still have abs, but you can store fat everywhere (lower back, chest, legs, lower abs). For most, that is fine. Its a lot easier to burn fat then build pure muscle, so some fat gain is expected, but that should never get out of hand. Once you get fat, your body will create more fat cells that may become smaller, but will NEVER go away. That's right, NEVER. Get fat, and you will be more likely to get fatter again. So, don't go crazy if your abs disappear, but never do something like GOMAD.
I'm not sure who started this GOMAD trend (essentially, drink a gallon of milk a day), but don't do it. A lot of teenagers have this misconception that to get big you have to "BULK". Doing something like this just gets you fat. Believe it or not, you don't even need that much of a caloric surplus to gain muscle. Obviously, this depends on your metabolism, but you rarely need to consume an extra 1000 calories. Anyhow, I promise I will spare you any more images of failed attempts bulking and really focus on giving you awesome recipes.
Stay tuned!
