Eat

Information on food: prep tips, cycling, recipes and more.

Bulk Prep: The Efficient Way to Eat Healthy

One problem with eating healthy is the time required to prepare healthy meals. However, I’ve got a solution for that problem. Give me one hour of your day and I’ll give you three days of success.  I’m serious.
You want transformation?  It’s all about the food you put into your body.  Exercise is awesome, and will greatly accelerate your progress, but nutrition is ALWAYS the base.

Whatcha gonna do?

Success just doesn’t happen; you must prepare for it. Our body needs to eat whole, nutritious food every three hours. When that time is up, we’ve got three options:

• You can eat nothing and crash your metabolism;
• You can eat the wrong foods, packed with empty calories and triggering stronger cravings;
• Or you can eat a perfectly portioned combination of foods to get you one meal closer to success.
• People who are truly serious about their new lifestyle and transformation will choose the third option…

Here’s the catch:  Three hours go by pretty darn fast. We don’t have the time or energy to cook and prepare food every three hours. We’ve gotta be ready for it.

Solution: Prepare our food in bulk.

This is how it works:

• We pick two days of the week to prep our food in advance.  I prefer my Sundays and Wednesdays, but choose whatever days work best for you.
• All of the bulk recipes can be prepared in less than an hour – and the recipes are completely scalable so you can prep as little as one meal or as much as three days of food.  Food prep tools make it so much easier, too!
• We store the food in the fridge and pack your STAX at the beginning of each day… and now we’ve created a solid nutrition lifestyle for success.

Fat: A Lot of Energy in a Little Package

Fats are some of the most AMAZING foods we eat.  No other nutrients can affect a meal so much.  One or two tablespoons of fat before a meal will keep the food in your stomach (keeping you full) twice as long as a meal without fat!  Fats play an incredible role in the body too, lubricating joints, skin, and regulating hormone balance. 

Be careful about fats though.  They are VERY dense in energy, meaning they have a LOT of calories.  Remember, when it comes to fat, less is more; just a little fat goes a long way.

Understanding Your (Power) Plants - Veggies

Remember when I mentioned in the last post that veggies are carbohydrates?  Yup, they sure are!  But I wanted to make it easier for you.  I actually like to separate the starchy carbohydrates from our fibrous, veggie carbohydrates.  I do this for a couple reasons:

1. Fibrous veggies are loaded with vitamins and minerals and fiber, but have very little carbohydrate content;
2. Because of their minimal carbohydrate content, we can have as much veggies as we like, whenever we want!

So feel free to indulge in as many leafy green and cruciferous veggies as you like - anywhere, anytime, anyday - load ‘em up!

Bonus Chris Powell Secret: We use veggies to expand our stomach on the Low Days.  They trick our body into thinking we’re full and prevent a metabolic slowdown, so as we say in the transformation industry… eat them ‘til you’re green in the face!


 

Carbohydrates – The (Power) Plants

Ahhh carbohydrates. Remember when everyone was scared of carbohydrates? I’m sure some of you still are! Believe it or not, carbs are going to be your best friend on this weight loss journey (besides me and David, of course). The carbs we eat are broken down into sugar in our blood, and that sugar plays a number of vital roles in our metabolism.

We will use carbohydrates to keep your metabolism revved up, and anchor you in for permanent weight loss results.

So, what are carbohydrates? Basically, carbohydrates come from plants. They range from vegetables, to root vegetables, to grains, to fruits, to legumes. And how do we know what carbohydrates to eat?  Don’t worry… I’ve got a list for you.

Food 101: Understanding the food we eat

Without further hesitation, I’d like to introduce you to your partners on our weight loss journey. You will spend quality time together every three hours… when it’s time to eat!

Every meal we eat can be broken down into three very simple nutrients:

1. Proteins
2. Carbohydrates
3. Fats

For the sake of education,  I like to separate carbohydrates into two categories:

1. Starchy/Sugary carbohydrates
2. Fibrous veggie carbohydrates

As we consume any meal, from pancakes and syrup to steak and potatoes, beneath our skin, three macronutrients begin an incredible symphony of chemical reactions in our bodies and play the single most important role in our weight loss journey.

Protein: Your Natural Building Blocks

What is protein? We hear all about it these days, but what is it? In a simple metaphor, protein is the building blocks of the human body. Look at yourself in the mirror, or simply look down at your hands, your legs, and your feet. Everything you see is made of protein. Now let’s dive under your skin and explore your incredible body. As we move deeper into the body we will first encounter a layer of fat. This is not made of protein - sorry. But as we explore deeper, we move into the beautiful muscles of your body, all made of protein. And this is the protein we want to focus on…

At Reshape the Nation, dietary protein (the kind we eat) is a very important part of our lifestyle. Our body uses the protein we eat to maintain and build our beautiful muscles. And the muscle, being the most metabolically active tissue in our body, boosts our metabolic rate through the roof! Now can you see why protein is so important for us? You betcha!

As for how our bodies get protein, if we want to have fun with it, simply put, proteins come from anything that has eyes.  It’s a funny saying, but it’s true! Think about it…

However, nowadays we can get protein from some other incredible sources. We can get proteins from plants like soy, hemp, rice, and almonds; from milk products like cottage cheese and whey; and from eggs.

So how do we know what proteins to eat? You guessed it… I’ve got a list for you

If you don’t want to look like these guys, stop “Sumo Dieting!”

Does anyone reading this skip breakfast? Don’t worry, most of us do. In fact most Americans skipped breakfast and won’t eat till late lunch.  Then we overeat at dinner. In the fitness industry, we call this “sumo dieting” because it’s the exact lifestyle pattern that sumo wrestlers follow to gain their massive size! When we don’t eat we slow our metabolic rate and hormonally trigger our bodies to store the majority of our food as fat. Hmmm…

I’ve got a suggestions for you: Stop sumo dieting; eat breakfast!