Nutrition, Revisited!

 

Throughout this blog series I’ve covered most of the basic topics at a very high level. This has been a great starting point to get beginners up and running with the basic knowledge to start making progress on their physical fitness. Starting from now on, these blog posts will begin to get more specific and, in a certain sense practical, since it may provide more concrete guidelines for day-to-day activity.

            The first topic that I want to revisit is nutrition. As I’ve mentioned, this is likely the most important aspect of fitness, because you can’t compensate for a bad diet through exercise. In the first post I shared about how many calories you should consume, and in what portion. This post I’ll share the specific foods the specific foods you should eat.

 

I’ll start by sharing what I eat and why, as it should make this a bit more concrete.

 

5:00 AM

Preworkout meal –

-       20 grams of peanut butter over a slice of whole grain bread, topped with 15 grams of honey

-       One scoop of whey protein

The purpose of this meal is to get some calories in before I go to work out, ideally, you’d eat more before your workout but since it’s early and I don’t want to wake my roommates, this is my best option.

 

The honey and bread is primarily for energy during my workout, the peanut butter is primarily for extra calories, and secondarily for protein. Finally, the protein powder is to get me closer to my macronutrient goals.

7:00 AM

Breakfast –

-       two whole eggs

-       Two slices of whole grain bread

-       One slice of pepper jack cheese

This is my meal after I workout and before class, the goal here is to continue to get macronutrient goals taken care of.

11:00 AM

Lunch -

-       One cup (dry) jasmine rice

-       Eight ounces of 93 lean ground beef

-       One bell pepper

-       One whole carrot

-       One green onion

 

This is a go to meal for me, it allows me to get lots of protein and carbs in a tasty cost-effective meal. The addition of the vegetables provides much needed vitamins for bodily health.  Specifically Vitamin C from the bell pepper, and vitamin A from the carrot.

 

3:00 PM

Linner? –

-       This meal is the same as the previous, just with half a cup of rice instead of a whole one

You absolutely don’t have to have the same meal twice a day, it’s just easy for me and I enjoy it enough that I don’t get very tired of it.

 

7:00 PM

Dinner – (As a shake)

-       One cup zero fat milk

-       40 grams of peanut butter

-       40g honey

-       1 scoop protein powder

-       55 grams of oats

This meal is something that I can make and consume extremely quickly before bed. If you have a bigger appetite, I’d recommend sticking to whole foods to keep you satiated for longer.