Tuesday 16 June 2015

Dear diary, am I shredded yet?

Okay, I get a lot of questions about my diet and nutrition; as I've stated before I've always been fairly liberal with my eating, I have a huge daily energy expenditure and utilise a few little tricks to stay lean. I fast from around 9pm at night to 1pm in the afternoon, at which point I'll have a large portion of protein (usually 400-500g of chicken or beef) and a small portion of carbohydrates (a punnet of grapes or strawberries). After work, I'll let the chips fall where they may (which I ironic as I don't usually eat chips). I'll eat some refined carbs before I workout, then shovel as much in as possible afterwards, until my 9pm cut off (unless I've finished work a lot later in which case I'll give myself some leeway). 

This has always served me well (although I will count my calories and macros precisely if I'm seriously looking to shift a few pounds), but this year I wanted to go for absolute broke, get in the best shape I can despite the obstacles in my path. I see a lot of people talking about 'maintaining' or 'doing the best they can' when they're travelling or working away, well that's pretty much my lifestyle 6-7 days a week. But The Nomad Way is all about not being deterred by obstacles and thriving in any environment, so I'm going to really go hammer and tongs and hopefully share with you some useful, applicable tips as we journey on. 

In the interest of getting an objective eye, I enlisted the services of Milestone Strength and Conditioning to write my meal plan, yes I'm more than qualified to do it myself, but I didn't want to take the easy route, I wanted a third party to tell me exactly what they'd recommend to anyone with the same goals, regardless of their lifestyle. Milestone plans are available over on their website, and I highly recommend that you take a look if you're serious about getting the best results out of your diet. So with no further adieu, here we go...

5am on day 1, I pick up my cool bag (which along with a huge eastpak duffle make up my dietary requirments for the week) to head out on the road... And it drips defrosted broccoli juices all over my foot. Off to a good start ha.

Here's the exact meal plan I'm going to be following, I may shift around the timings of some of the foods or substitute some items for others, but the macro content and types of food (ie simple vs complex carbs, macronutrient ratio) will remain the same until advised otherwise by Layne over at Milestone. I'll keep you in the loop if I make any switch up's, don't fret.

At around 5 am, I'll have a coffee, some thermogenics and some creatine, zero calories as I'm still fasted.


10am- 20g of casein protein and 10g fish oils 

1pm- 100-150g steak, 250g brown rice, spinach. 

I'd usually nix this amount of carbs at lunch so this has actually been quite cool and kept me going strong. Bear in mind my job is extremely physical and I'm never stood still (I'll get a pedometer to be accurate with you), carrying heavy loads, running and pulling ropes. If you're a desk jockey, your carb requirements might be a bit (very) different.



6-7pm- 2 wholewheat bagels (preworkout medium to low glycemic load carbs and about 20g of protein. Bagels FTW.)


During my workout I'll ingest around 70g of simple carbs and 20g of whey protein.
On day one I ate jelly beans, to be honest, I'm used to training on an empty stomach so I'll probably switch to a liquid carb source as the food was a bit distracting. Albeit delicious.


Post workout- 20g Whey and two bananas. I'm not usually a huge fan of supplements, so this is actually quite a refreshing change for me.

Dinner- A tin of Tuna in spring water, 250g brown rice (or rice cake equivalent) and fibrous vegetables.

Before bed- 20g casein and 5 fish oils caps.

This is pretty much the plan, but I'll auto-regulate as I go (in accordance to Milestone's guidance, of course), to adapt to wherever I am. I was fortunate enough to have this Sunday off to prep the rice and steak. Had I not, I'd boil the rice in the hotel kettle and buy cooked, lean beef from the deli counter. 

The key is remembering that there is ALWAYS a solution or alternative, don't make your circumstances your excuses.

So that's the basics of it. No messing around, straight old school cutting diet, tailored to my specific nutritional needs.
I'll be checking in with updates and progress pictures, so keep your eyes peeled.

Peace out

AT

2 comments:

  1. Do you reheat the rice or just have it cold?

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    Replies
    1. Cold mate, I work outside so reheating isn't an option

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