This is not a diet. I am not qualified to write diet; no personal trainer is. Nutritionists go through great length of study to build this skill. With that said, what I have written here is a guideline that may answer FAQ’s. I have comprised this from my personal experience. After almost 7 years competitive body building, I have learned a few things about Crush dieting, Carb depletion, Fasting, Calorie counting, Macro tracking, Sodium loading and many other techniques. I have summarized what have worked best for me. Please read till the end before starting with this.

Meal plan
Breakfast suggestions

1. 3 eggs (2 egg whites 1 whole egg) + 2 low GI toast
2. Protein pan cake’s
3. Oats with blue berries and protein
4. Protein shake and apple
5. Fruit salad with yogurt
6. 3 eggs with grapefruit and apple

Lunch suggestions

1. Chicken, Rice and potatoes
2. Mince, lettuce, tomatoes, cottage cheese in a wrap
3. Tuna and pasta salad
4. Chicken mayo sandwich (low GI bread)
5. Chicken salad
6. Fruit salad with yogurt and nuts

Dinner ideas

1. Chicken, Veg and sweet potatoes
2. Fish with salad
3. Mince, tomatoes, lettuce and cottage cheese in wrap
4. Steak with veg and baby potatoes
5. Tuna salad

Snacks

1. Nuts (keep to 30g max) and biltong
2. Protein shake and banana
3. Apple and Nuts
4. Banana and yogurt
5. Rice cake (keep to 3) with tuna (keep to 75g) and peppers
6. Protein bar (not every day)

The Emotional Aspect of Food

I suffered from depression for many stages of my life. I used different techniques to combat this illness. I constantly food myself overeating and making it worse by feeling guilty about for being weak. It took me many years of soul searching to understand this cycle of DOOM. What we put in our bodies daily is linked to how we feel. Most foods can alter our emotions instantly. Have you ever wondered why you want to have a chocolate when you are sad, it might be a salty treat for some (sour worms is my weakness) but we all have that comfort food. I suggest you always keep some of your comfort food stocked away somewhere, out of eyesight (monkey see monkey want). We are very emotional beings is, but we cannot allow our emotion to control our life and especially not our eating habits. You must find a hobby that get you heart rushing to replace emotional eating. For me, its training and rewarding myself with a healthy meal afterwards.  You must take control, do not go with it.

Nutritional timing

When you eat what is of utmost importance for our body can only digest certain amount of food at a time. After digesting the body can now use the nutrients to perform a variety of task. Our muscle is made up of mostly protein and collagen. So, it only makes sense that it would use protein to repair muscle tissue torn by training or injuries. Most athletes will swear by their protein intake. The fear for carbs does not make sense, yes I agree too much at the wrong time can have you feeling bloated. If you are feeling tired and moody most of the time. Your suffering a deficiency of carbs. Carb should be your main source of energy. Planning your meals is unavoidable, not planning is planning to fail. A food dairy works very well for planning and taking control of your eating habits. Most people will be fine with just planning for the next day for their situation allows it. Some of use must plan a week in advance. The best excuses for eating unhealthily; I cannot effort it or I do not have time to prepare food every day. Here is an easy solution for both of these. Do your meal planning on your off day. Cook, pack and refrigerate your meals ready to grip before you leave. Because you are preparing all your meals at once, it creates the opportunity to buy everything in bulk and qualify for bulk prices. Do your best to keep you mealtimes the same every day, for your body can track when it getting nutrition in and plan accordingly.

Portion control

This is the most important aspect to look at when we talk about food. Too much of the best thing is also bad for you. There are many ways to measure food. You get foods scales, measurement cups we even have app now a days. The Question remains. How much is enough? I found what works best for me is listening to my body. In winter I am Draw to denser for and for good reason. In winter we want to put an extra layer of warmth on. Do not deny you body of this. Rather stay in control of your portion size and frequency when it comes to the heavy starch foods.

Salad

Lettuce is incredibly low in calorie; we do not even add it up most of the time. Same goes for most mushrooms therefore these two are great for salads. Try get as many different colors as possible. A few slices of pineapple works will, just be careful of bright fruit and veg they tend to have high sugar levels and pineapple is remarkably high in sugar. Tomatoes and cucumber are over 90% water and extremely low in calories. A tiny bit of feta never hurt anyone 😉

Vegetables

Let start by saying potatoes is not in this group for its so dense in calories.

Green beans, Pea’s, Broccoli, Spinach, Asparagus are some of the greens you cannot go wrong with. Pumpkin and Carrots is high in sugar therefore be taken in smaller portions. We should try and get as much fresh Veg in as possible. But most of use will say we do not have the time to stand and chop. I have found with frozen veg I do not have this excuse.

Fruit

Most fruit have food digestive enzymes that will speed up your metabolism and ultimately make you loss weigh. This is not the only benefit you get, because of the Fructose (natural sugar found in fruit) will help with the craving for sugar.  Both Vegetables and fruit have especially important vitamins and minerals that our bodies need on a daily basis to perform bodily functions like digesting food and repairing scared tissue.  

Notes

• Getting enough water in is one of the most important aspects. Your body is 80 % water has many different functional jobs in your body that is why we can go up to 7x longer with food then water.  3 to 4 L of water a day is good for the average person.
• Space meals at least 3 hours a part
• Add lemon juice to water this helps with fat los and give the water some flavor.
• 3- 6 cups of green tea will decrease belly fat by 10%
• Treat yourself once a week to a cheat meal. Be careful that a cheat meal does not become a cheat week. Keep it to one meal.
• Jump start your metabolism with this every morning for 4 weeks (5 g ginger, 5ml lemon juice,10 ml apple cider vinegar, 2g cayenne pepper, 5g cinnamon)
• Have at least 2 fruits a day
• No Take-Aways
• No soft drinks
• No alcohol