Nutrition #10 - Ten things I've learned over the years

So I am sitting here reflecting on some of the most recent knowledge I've acquired over the past couple years. It has been a wild and productive journey in terms of health and fitness for me, and over the past one to two years have really been revolutionary in terms of things I've learned, research I've read, and various tools and techniques I've added to my arsenal to improve performance.

The biggest thing I've learned is obviously the diet impacts EVERYTHING. And I mean EVERYTHING - every aspect of your life can be improved by optimizing your diet. Period. You are what you eat. You also have one body - so start feeding your body the necessary nutrients to build a fortress meant to stand strong against ailments, disease, and the hardships of life.

Anyways - read on for my top ten most recent tips on nutrition, in no particular order.

#1 - Insulin manipulation is the key to fat loss.
What I mean by that - timing of carbohydrates is important for body composition. Studies show that working out while insulin is high will prevent fatty acid breakdown and mobilization. If your goal is to lose fat, exercise in a fasted state, or at least a very low insulin state. Consume your carbohydrates post workout or in the evening. No, they will not be stored as fat if you eat them at night, provided you are not consuming an excess of calories daily. They are more likely to be shunted towards your depleted muscle cells.

#2 - Fat is the best source of energy.
Consuming a diet with moderate to high fat content will keep your very energized, alert, and satiated through the day. Healthy fats like avocados, medium chain triglycerides such as coconut oil, omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA and DHA found in wild seafood, saturated fats in red meat and butter (NOT margarine!) will provide with long burning energy and keep you going all day long. Fat as fuel is the most 'metabolically benign' substance to burn in the body. It has 9 calories per gram, making it more energy dense than the 4 calories per gram of protein or carbohydrates, and can be readily use for energy without going through multiple pathways. I recommend a diet of around 50% calories by fat.

#3 - Plant based foods should make up the bulk of your diet.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are literally detoxifying agents by themselves, and are comparatively some of the most nutritionally dense substances on the planets. The vitamin, mineral, phytonutrient, and antioxidant capabilities of these sources make them a no brainer to include in your diet. Many studies have shown how they can lower all variety of stress related diseases, inflammatory diseases, anti-aging benefits, and other major benefits. They will keep you energized, keep your skin clear, your body functions operating smoothly, your digestion optimal, and the immune system ramped up. I recommend a green smoothie per day, and also some sort of vegetable with every meal. In terms of starch, if you are active, you should be eating sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, beets, yucca, tarro, and other starchy root vegetables as these are the best sources of glucose for your diet. Try to limit your fruit consumption to one or two servings a day, simply because of the higher sugar content in most fruit, and consume glucose based fruits.

#4 - Fasting as very effective for fat loss,
Especially when combined with fasted training. A very effective means to strip fat off your body, try to condense your 'feeding window' to a 6 to 8 hour period, and fast for the other 16 to 18 hours of the day. My favorite schedule was to eat from 1 PM to 7 PM, and doing some form of exercise at 7 or 8 AM, after 12 hours of fasting. Research has shown that lipolysis (fat breakdown) is ramped up around this mark and peaks somewhere around 16 hours. This also makes it much easier to follow a reduced calorie diet, since it will be more difficult to cram your daily allotment of food into such a small window.

#5 - The gut health and microbiome influence everything
Optimize your digestion, and you will feel 1000% better. We literally have more bacteria cells in our body than human cells - it is not an exaggeration to say that they control much of how we feel, look, and act. So many studies have shown how gut bacteria influence things like insulin and hormone levels which are major players in how you feel and perform. Having a dis-regulated gut can mean you are lacking absorption of key nutrients, producing and releasing low levels of neurotransmitters or hormones, simply not breaking down food properly, or experiencing fatigue, bloating, depression, mood swings, or other ailments. Again - optimize your digestion, and you will drastically improve your quality of life. I suggest reducing or completely eliminating food that wrecks your digestive health, such as alcohol, sugar, some artificial sugars, conventionally raised meat, vegetable seed oils, and refined grains (especially wheat). At the same time, ramp up your consumption of food to feed your 'good' gut bacteria. They feed on soluble fiber, and you want plenty of that from plant food such as sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and some fruit. Include fermented foods to increase the count of beneficial bacteria; high quality plain yogurt (no sugar added!), sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, and kefir should be consumed as often as you enjoy. You will also benefit from the inclusion of some insoluble fiber from things like leafy green vegetables, which is essentially the cellulose in these plants - this cannot be broken down the body since we do not possess the enzyme cellulase. This will act as bulk to move stuff through the digestive tract and draw water to the intestines. Finally, a form of third fiber known as resistant starch is excellent food for the good bacteria and many report great improvements by including this in their diet - try including stuff such as green bananas (slice them and freeze them while still as green as possible then use them in smoothies), cooked then cooled potatoes, or cooked then cooled rice. This is a long tip but I believe this is the key to overall health, and we will find more and more emerging research on the influence of the gut microbiome on human epigenetics and other key factors to human health. 

#6 - Control you eating habits. 
By having scheduled meal times and preparing consistent meals, you are much less likely to snack. You will also become great at preparing certain meals and enjoy them more! This is an easy tip to follow that many people forget about or fail to utilize. Often times the snacking is what throws us over our maintenance calories for the day, leading to unwanted fat gain, lethargy, or blood sugar spikes. Avoid that by forcing yourself to eat at specific times throughout the day. This also has a huge benefit to regulate your circadian rhythm, making it easier to wake and sleep with the natural rhythm of the sun. You will see an increase in productivity, more stable energy, less hunger pangs and random cravings, and better sleep by following routine eating patterns. Start out by having three square meals a day at specific times, with roughly the same calorie content and macronutrient breakdown, and include at most one healthy snack if necessary.

#7 - Gluten should be avoided. 
The more we learn about the way gluten is broken down (or not broken down!) in the body, the more we should opt to avoid it. The fact of the matter is - gluten is a protein found in wheat and other agriculture crops such as barley, rye, and millet which contains what are known as lectins. Lectins are not broken down in the digestive tract and pass through the intestines binding to receptors in the intestinal wall to 'fool' the body into allowing them into the blood. All of a sudden we have a a permeable gut with 'foreign invaders' floating in our bloodstream, and we produce anti-bodies to eliminate them, causing a cascade of autoimmune responses. It is no wonder that celiac patients have a directly correlated increase in autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or MS. It is theorized that these lectins play a role is plant survival in order to improve chances of germination, especially after being consumed by predators. In this way, the germ of the grain can survive intact through the digestion process and be eliminated somewhere else in the world. Mother nature is smart... and scary! Anyways, to make a long tip short - because of these various properties on gluten and of how it interacts in the body, we tend to feel better when we avoid it. Less inflammation, better digestion, better mood, and a variety of other benefits have been reported by people who consume zero gluten.

#8 - A food journal is the best way to determine what works for you and what doesn't work for you. 
Logging how you feel after eating X, Y, or Z and comparing that to A, B, or C will do wonders if how you build your own personalized diet. This is why I do not write 'meal plans' for people - each personal has very individual differences. Based on how your genes express themselves, we may respond differently to different food sources. The standard chicken, broccoli, rice cutting diet is unconventional, lacks adequate vitamins and minerals, and is sub-optimal. You can also determine what I call the 'minimum effective dose' of carbohydrate intake for muscle gains and fat loss. For active individuals, there is such thing as too many carbohydrates, and there is such thing as too few carbohydrates. You must find your 'minimum effective dose' to make the BEST gains. I recommend tracking food intake in a journal such as sparkpeople.com for calorie content, as well as the ability to put in notes, or one such as cronometer.com which enables you to break macro and micronutrient contents of foods. Be sure to log things such as energy, mood, sleep, digestion, gas, bloating, cramps, strength, stamina.... Anything you can think of, since bad or reactive foods are likely to affect all of these!

#9 - Breakfast may or may not be important
A high protein, high fat breakfast will keep you strong, healthy, and happy all day. Skipping breakfast will keep your mind sharp, burn fat, and make you more productive. Having carbs with breakfast will slow you down, make you tired mid-day, and make you fat and weak. A bit of an exaggeration on the last part in terms of making you fat and weak, but carbs should be entirely avoiding in the beginning of the day. This ties back to the insulin manipulation point number one. Skip your bowl of oatmeal and have four whole eggs with sliced avocado and a bit of salsa or hot sauce instead. And please don't have toast with that!

#10 - Maximize your sleep quality
By reducing consumption hours before bed. I personally fast after 4:30 PM so it is at least 5 hours between my last meal and bedtime. Having low blood sugar and digestion activity promotes a very restful and deep sleep, as well as an easy rise out of bed. Experiment for a couple nights with no food several hours before sleep, and then throw in one night of a decent sized meal within an hour of bed. Gauge how you feel. Another slack hack I have used which can be included in this tip, is having 2-3 tsp of raw honey immediately before sleep. This will help level of liver glycogen and blood sugar. Many people awake in the middle of the night because of these dropping, so the honey will prevent that from happening. Sleep is the most critical component of recovery. Get it right and you will feel 1000% better.


Hopefully these tips provide some insight to your current state, and enable you to make some changes to improve your health. You control the ability to empower yourself and your life. Your health is your utmost priority. Once you perform optimally, you won't want to perform any other way. I encourage you - at some point, stick to a period of time where you are doing everything right. Record how you feel. Then go back to the lifestyle you had beforehand, and record any changes. You won't want to revert to old ways. Good luck to you and your journey.