The Nick Bare Podcast - 050: How to Be More Consistent with Your Diet

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

In today’s solo episode, I’m breaking down what has helped me stay consistent with my nutrition and giving tips on how it can work for you. When it comes to food and fueling your body well, you are planning to fail when you fail to plan. From responsible grocery shopping to learning how to cook to meet your nutritional needs to packing a gallon bag of chicken and rice that you can break out while waiting for a flight. I hope this helps make a consistent and nourishing diet seem more attainable. Enjoy! Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 0:00 Intro 1:04 Welcome 3:23 Travel stories 12:03 Forward thinking, backwards planning 15:45 Travel hacks 29:52 Learn how to cook 33:34 Being a responsible grocery shopper 36:42 Meal prep 41:33 Prioritizing protein 49:20 Addition opposed to elimination 53:11 My diet approach 1:00:07 Going out to dinner

In today's episode of the podcast, we're talking about how to be more consistent with your diet. After talking and working with many people over the years, I have found that a lot of people struggle with maintaining a healthy diet. Training is also not the hard part for most people, but it's diet. It's the things that we are putting in our body because the inputs equal the outputs. the food that we consume, all of that food will result in the way that we feel, perform, and look. So in this episode, I want to share some tips, some hacks with you guys on what I do to maintain a consistent diet and nutrition strategy to make it easier for you and give you insight into my diet approach and what has worked for me for many, many years. Today's episode is titled How to Be More Consistent with Your Diet. My subtitle for this episode is if you fail to plan, you should plan to fail.

I'm sure many people have heard that saying before, but it is so accurate. It is so true. I am a firm believer in it. So I'm going to dive into this episode. I have some notes I want to share with you guys on how I. have become very consistent with my diet and some things I want to share with you that you can implement into your day, your week, your routine to be more successful in being healthier, performing at a higher level, and just feeling better overall, physically, mentally,

emotionally, spiritually, all of those things. I just got finished consuming my midday mock tail. that's what I'm going to call it. It's one scoop of in-focus and one scoop of our electrolytes. And that has me so dialed in right now. That is like my drink that I consume middle of the day that I highly recommend. In focus, we sell in a powder and in a capsule through BPN. That is our energy and no tropic supplement. It is perfect for a morning wake-up, place of a coffee. It is great midday in preparation for a meeting or to dial in. And as parents, especially new parents or parents with younger kids, my daughter just turned 18 months old,

in focus for my wife and I, is a lifesaver. And I do one scoop of in focus, one scoop of our electrolytes, which has 500 milligrams of sodium per serving. And it hits so well. And it lifts me up. I have energy. I'm dialed in. That is what I'm calling my midday mocktail. Maybe in the evening you throw a little bit of tequila in there. It turns into a cocktail, completely different vibe and experience. But yet where I'm going with that.

That is what carries me through the midday. Now, I want to share some stories with you guys. And the reason that I wanted to do a podcast episode on this, is because I was in the Nashville airport a few weeks ago. And whenever I go to the airport, I've been doing this for years now. Whenever I go to the airport, I bring at least two meals with me.

That first meal I bring with me is either rice and chicken or rice and beef or beef and potatoes or potatoes and chicken, a combination of those things, some sort of whole, meat, protein source, and then a healthy carb source. And what I do is before we leave the house, I normally put this meal in a gallons of block bag. And I'll add some sauces in there.

I'll do like some coconut aminos and some primal kitchen's buffalo sauce. And I'll shake it all up. And then I will fold it to get all the air out and I will throw it in my backpack. So that's my first meal that I have with me. My second meal that I always travel with is protein powder, some fruit like a banana or an apple, and a field bar, a go bar, dried mango, something like that. Because I like to prepare for the travel day. And I don't want to find myself in a situation where I don't have accessibility to some quality nutrition.

And I also just don't want to become reliant on what's optioned at the airport, which is typically not really good stuff. So I was sitting in the Nashville airport, and I already know that this is not normal, but I'm going through security, and I get this question often, does security stop you and pull your food out? Very rarely.

Very rarely do they ever ask me about the food that I'm traveling with. So I get through security, and I have some time before my flight, and I go over and I find a table, I go past the Starbucks and I pick up some of their handy dandy throwaway utensils. So I grab some of the utensils. I go sit down in a chair and I pull out my Ziploc bag.

I shake it up a little bit to get some of those condiments covering every inch and piece of the rice and chicken. And I consume my meal out of the Ziploc bag in the middle of the Nashville airport with my plastic fork and spoon. And I felt fulfilled. I felt happy. I felt nourished and energized. And as I'm looking around, I realize there's people eating pizza at like 10 a.m. And hamburgers and drinking beers and because it's Nashville, Nashville fried hot chicken sandwiches. Nothing wrong with that.

I am not shaming anyone for consuming those great delicious foods. but if you do this very regularly and routinely and it becomes a habit, that's going to have negative consequences on your performance, on your health, on your energy, on your sleep, on your body composition, everything. You are going to feel the effects of that unhealthy food over an extended period of time. So there's a time in place to consume those great, high fat, those deemed unhealthy foods, but I don't like to make it a regular and consistent thing.

And that's why I travel with meals so that I have the nourishment that I want and require on these travel days. So I share that story first off to say that's one of the things you can do when you're traveling is be prepared with a few meals or a few options, make some chicken and rice, throw it in a Ziploc bag, throw in your backpack, pull it out at the airport. I've pulled it out on the plane before. I once consumed a rib-eye steak on a plane. Another side story that I'm going to share with you before we dive into some of these tips

on how to be more consistent with your diet. But I think this context will describe the way that I approach and that I plan for my food and my meals to set me up for success. So one night I'm at the house and the next day we were traveling to San Francisco, California for a BPN work trip

and as I'm looking in the fridge and I'm packing up all my stuff I realized there were two ribbi steaks that were thawed out in the fridge and I was going to be gone for like a week and a half and I didn't want to leave these ribbyes in the fridge because I knew Steph wasn't going to make them on her own so I decided to make these steaks

and pack them for my travel trip. So I make this rib-eye steak. It was like 9 p.m. at night on the Trigger, a great reverse sear, beautifully, medium rare. And I throw them in some Ziploc bags. I place them in the fridge. And the next day when I wake up to go to the airport, I pull those stakes out and I put them in my backpack.

And as I'm on the flight, midway from, at the time I was in Austin, Austin to San Fran I reached into my bag I pull out my gallon Ziploc bag which if you're going to get gallons Ziploc bags

make sure you get the heavy duty ones you do not want your chicken and rice exploding in your backpack mid-travel en route to somewhere else it's just that's not a good day so I grab in

I pull out my hefty zip block bag and I start just chowling down on my my rabbi steak. I mean, just delicious. I actually love cold steak. If you cook a steak well and it's cold, it's good stuff. You can't complain about it.

But the guy next to me, he looks over as I'm just, I'm eating this, this ribby steak, like an actual animal in the middle of a flight. And this guy was in, the middle seat. So obviously my rib eye was just, you know, the smells were, were everywhere, which I felt bad for, but I had to do it. And he goes, dude, is that a ribeye?

I said, yes, it is. Yes, it is. So I've consumed all my different meal prepped meals all over the place. When I was in the army and we go to the field for a day, to the range, I would throw my chicken and rice in my rucksack, take it out of the range and eat my chicken and rice so that I won't have to eat an MRE for the day. I've always been a huge fan and advocate of the phrase, like I said in the beginning, if you fail to plan, you should plan to fail.

And planning is what allows you to be consistent. And that is so applicable to your diet. You know, right now I'm, I'm prepared. for a podcast with Craig Grischel, the pastor of Life Church. And I'm reading his new book called Think Ahead. And in the book, he talks about the concept of pre-deciding, which is, you will decide now what you will do later. And it made me think of this concept and topic I talk about frequently, which is forward thinking and backwards planning. And that's the way we need to approach our diet.

That's the way we need to approach our health. That's the way I approach my workouts and meal prep and planning. I think ahead of what I have coming up that day, the next couple days, the next couple weeks. And I backwards plan accordingly in terms of what food do I need to have at the house at the grocery store? So I make a list. What foods do I have to have prepped in preparation for the next couple days of meals? What food do I need to have accessible in the fridge and the pantry for tonight's dinner for the family and I? And I might need to go to the grocery store.

So always thinking ahead, forward thinking, and backwards planning to set yourself up for success. It is this pre-decision so you can decide now what you will do later. as elementary as that sounds, a lot of people make that mistake and don't actually do it. A lot of people make decisions more so in a reactive environment and state where it's, oh crap, I didn't think about my food for the day or I didn't think about what I was going to eat for lunch. So let me just leave the office really quick because I have 30 minutes.

I'm going to go grab some McDonald's downstairs or I'm going to grab whatever is accessible because you didn't have a plan and you didn't forward thinking backwards plan. So that pre-decision is so important to be more consistent with your diet. And we also have to recognize that nutrition consistency and healthy nutrition choices, yes, we are limited and held back by our. personal finances and resources, potentially accessibility and time. But we can blame a lot of things, a lot of people, a lot of companies, the industry, the food supply, on a lot of things.

But at the end of the day, it is a personal responsibility that we have to own and hold ourselves accountable for, that it is on us to make responsible food choices. Whatever that means for your financial situation or your accessibility or your personal resources. But eating healthier is more accessible than ever before, but we also have more options than ever before. So I would argue that it's not necessarily that it's harder to eat healthy. But I would reinforce the thought that it is harder for a lot of people to fight the

temptation to eat something or choose foods that are unhealthy, very convenient, on the go, extremely tasty, and possibly addictive. So the resources, or not the resources, but the accessibility is there, but it might be harder to make the actual choices. But before we dive any deeper, I think we need to have this moment, this moment of silence where we say, the few choices that I make, the things that I decide to consume and put into my body, that is a personal responsibility. I have to own that. I am responsible for those decisions.

and if I'm not willing to take that ownership, well, that doesn't fall on anyone else but me. So the only way you can be consistent, the only way you can be consistent is by choice. And you have to choose the right things on a frequent basis, consistency, consistently for a long period of time. Because consistency compounds. consistency compounds in all areas and aspects of life. So the first thing I want to talk about is traveling and travel hacks because I believe this is where most people struggle with their diet and nutrition consistency. It is a lot easier for me included.

It is a lot easier when I'm home. I'm not traveling much, whether that's for vacation. or work and business stuff. But when I'm home, now I have my kitchen and I have all my groceries that I need. I have the grocery store that I go to on a weekly basis right down the road.

Yeah, Instacart, for example, it's easier to be consistent, but where a lot of people fall off track is when they travel. And there's a lot of people who travel a lot for work, for work. I don't travel that much for work anymore. but when I do, here's some hacks that I've learned to implement.

Then I want to share with you that you guys can take and run with, but I found them very, very helpful. Again, when you're traveling, it's very important to think ahead. Forward thinking, backwards planning. There is a level of planning that is required to be successful while you're traveling. and a lot of what I'm going to talk about is that. So, as I already mentioned, healthy food is more accessible than ever before. When I'm traveling, I have some go-toes that I will look for that are quick, convenient,

and healthy options. And these are all over the place. You can pretty much go to any restaurant and order something healthy, but you might need to ask for substitutions or modifications to those food items and meals. but if I'm traveling, my instant go-toes, because I'm typically, if I'm traveling for work, I'm bouncing around from meetings and different offices,

and I'm all over the place, so it's busy. And like I said, I will travel with two meals at all times. But I'll look for a kava. I'll look for something like a Chipotle. Greenery Co. Is a bowl place here in Nashville that I might go to tonight. It's like my favorite right now.

Sweet green, really good. Even Chick-fil-A. There's all these places that you can go to. Like, I love the whole concept of custom-made bowls. You can go to any city now and find a place that makes these custom-made bowls, like a Kava or a Tripoli, or a sweet green, for example. And you can get healthy food options and choices, but you still have to be responsible with what you're ordering.

So, like, you can go to... any of these places. You can eat something that is deemed unhealthy because of the macronutrient profile that it is made up of. So like if I go to a kava or a Chipotle, for example, I'm going to focus on the protein, I'm going to focus on the carb and then some veggies. And I'm going to try not to add a bunch of creams, sauces, condiments, oils,

because that just adds an unnecessary amount of fat. You can go to a restaurant and order a salad, and that salad might have more calories than the burger and fries do because of all the extra chicken and bacon and eggs and olives and ranch dressing and oils that are in that salad. It could be so calorically dense and full of fat that while you think you're eating something that is light,

and healthier and lower in calories, it's actually a complete opposite. So when you go to these places and you're traveling, you're on the road, you still have to make the right choices. And that's why I always say, choose a protein. And if you can, double the protein.

If I go to Ocava, I'm either double or tripling the protein. Sweet green, I'm always tripling the protein because they jip you on protein. The one serving of protein there is probably like two ounces of meat. Tripoli, that's a go-to, double protein, double meat. I always double the meat all these places. And I'll get a good carb source, whether that's like rice or if they have sweet potatoes,

I'll get sweet potatoes. And then based off of where I'm going, I like to add olives and pickled onions and beets, maybe they have butternut squash and some greens, like an arugula or all. butter lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers. I'll just load it up with all these veggies and if they have fermented foods, they'll add some fermented foods because it adds bulk to that meal. So it'll fill you up. You will feel full without adding a lot of calories and getting your carbs, your proteins,

some healthy fats. So you can find healthy, accessible food options pretty much wherever you are traveling, but you still have to be smart in the way that you come. customize that order. Or you can go to a restaurant and you can get, you know, a chicken breast and potato or chicken breast and rice or a lean steak and carb pretty much anywhere you go. But it's accessible. It's just making the right choices while you're out there. Another thing that I'll do while traveling, and this depends on two things. How long am I going to be in a certain place? And then where am I staying? So I'm staying somewhere that has,

a mini fridge, which is almost all Airbnb's and most hotels. And I'm staying there for a few days, I will find a local grocery store and I'll get some my go-toes. I'll get some oatmeal packs that can just add some water to and throw in the microwave. I'll get some blueberries, some raspberries, some bananas. I'll get some like the VT or Uncle Ben's ready rice. A lot of grocery stores now have pre-made meats like whole foods. You can go to and get salmon, chicken, steak that's prepared.

So I'll go to a grocery store locally, stock up on all these foods. So I have them readily accessible. And I'll just stack my fridge and I'll place these foods all over my room. so I have options and I don't have to go out to dinner or lunch or breakfast for every meal. So I'm able to control what I'm consuming more easily as opposed to becoming reliant on where I'm at, what I'm doing in a given time and having to grab something that is just quick and convenient. But in order to do that, you have to forward think and backwards plan. And my last travel tip for you guys is as you go into a new day, whether you're in a new city or a new state or a new country, I like to have a plan.

I like to have a plan for what I'm going to do for breakfast, what I'm going to do for lunch, what I'm going to do for dinner potentially. And I'll prioritize my protein throughout the day, some good carbs, and I'll try to allocate. a lot of my fats for the evening. So here's an example of how I might approach a travel day. Say I am in Los Angeles, California on a business trip. And I'm going to be there for a few days. And I know, because this is a business trip, we'll be working throughout the day. And then at night, we're probably going to do business dinners with some of our manufacturing

partners or people that we work with. We'll celebrate with some good days. dinners. And I know that if we're going for dinner, wherever we go, it's probably going to be a meal that's higher in fat. Even if I lean heavy into ordering something that is mainly protein, restaurants make things taste really good. And the way they make things taste really good is by added butter, oils, creams, sauces. So I typically know when I'm traveling and we're going out for dinner with partners or employees, I'm going to have a meal that's higher in fat. So I will bring some protein from home with me.

So I have protein powder. I will go to a grocery store once we land and stock up on some of my favorite things so that when I wake up the next day, I might have a protein shake and then go downstairs in the hotel to the continental breakfast and get maybe a banana. and some oatmeal at the oatmeal bar and add a little bit of honey in there. So I have high protein, good carbs, nutrients. I'm feeling full. I have my strong greens, my strong reds, go packs.

So I have my green superfoods, my red superfoods. I'll take my multivitamin, my fish oil, my strong joint capsules. So I have all my supplements in the morning. And then, say for lunch, we're out and about. And I didn't bring a meal with me. well, I will look to see where the location is that we're going to be working during that day. And I'll check my phone to see what's in the area. Is there a sweet green?

Is there a kava? Is there a Chipotle? Is there a local bowl place that we can go to and make a custom bowl that has some greens, some grains, some proteins, some protein, some good veggies in there. And maybe we'll go there for lunch. And then, you know, coming back for. for dinner, I know that I've saved a lot of my fat for that day for that dinner option. I'll still modify a little bit to stay in range, but there's more lead way to eat good food with good people and enjoy company.

But the way that you do that consistently without feeling like garbage and gaining a bunch of extra body weight and your performance going out the window, so you have to set yourself up for success leading into that day. And that only happens by forward thinking and backwards planning. Everything around travel in order to maintain a consistent diet is all about planning and preparation and being very intentional and deliberate with your choices. It's so easy to wake up, not have a plan, go downstairs to the content. breakfast, make the waffle, get the bacon, the eggs, which probably aren't actual eggs.

They might be just like powdered eggs. Maybe you get a little croissant on the sides, some chocolate milk and a coffee. Boom. High fat, high carb, probably low protein. That's easy. What's also easy is then you go on this business meeting and instead of doing any sort of planning your preparation and trying to find what's in the area to eat, you just go downstairs in the cafeteria of that building and you grab whatever's available, like a turkey sandwich, which has like

two ounces of meat in it and not good meat. So you have low protein again, maybe some high fat, high carb meal. And then you go to dinner and you just blow it all on whatever you want. So you end the day with high fat, high carb, low protein, probably low fiber. and like no micronutrients. That's what happens when you're lazy and there's lack of intentionality behind the choices that you're making going into that day.

And this might seem like a lot. It's like, wow, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. I got to do the research. I have to go to the grocery store. I have to prep these meals to throw my backpack. Eat chicken and rice out of a gallon.

and Ziploc bag in the airport. Trust me, I know it sounds like a lot and it probably sounds crazy. But I do it because it makes me feel really good. Really good. I perform well. My energy is better. My positivity is great. I sleep good.

And I care about the way that I look and feel. And I know that the foods that I put in my body are going to directly impact the way that I look and feel. And once you do that, more frequently and you have more repetitions of doing it, it becomes a habit. And that habit does not become burdensome. It becomes routine.

And you just do it like it's nothing. Like for me, traveling, I know now that when I land somewhere, I'm going to be there for a few days, okay, let's find a grocery store. Okay, let's find out we're like, we're going to be working tomorrow so we know what food options we have.

around us and that are available. Let's make sure that we have protein powder with us for each day so we can make sure we're eating the proper amount of protein and hitting our protein goals for the days that we're traveling. This seems like a lot of work, but I promise you it's not that much. It will feel like a lot when you first get started. But the longer you do it, the more natural it feels and becomes. Now, the next thing I want to talk about in terms of how to be more consistent with your diet is all about meal prep and grocery shopping.

I think one of the best things you can do is learn how to cook. Because if you learn how to cook, you understand food and you understand how to make food taste good. Now, when I was in college, I studied nutrition. And I had this one course, it was called experimental foods. one of the best courses that I ever had in college in my life. And because I was in the nutrition and dietetics route in school, a lot of our area of focus was around nutrition intervention in preventing and treating disease.

And the two diseases we were focused on were diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So a lot of our courses, a lot of things that we were learning about was all about how to modify diets and food and nutrition intervention to improve health consequences and considerations. And I had this one course, experimental foods. And what we would do is we would take recipes and we would break them down. We would dissect them. And we'd have to find out ways to make them healthier by either reducing calories or

reducing the fat content or the carbohydrate content or moving the carbohydrate content from more of a complex, slower digesting burning carb and away from a higher glycemic, faster digesting burning carbs. So we're making all these modifications to recipes and meals to make them healthier for people who had diabetes and cardiovascular disease. and it taught me a lot. But the main thing I took away from this course was you can make foods taste really, really good,

even when you remove the sauces and the creams and the butter and the oils. And it's just the way that you prepare it. It's the ingredients that you select. And there's modifications that you can make and substitutions that you can switch things out with to make them taste just as good, if not better. So my first tip would be learn how to cook.

And you can do this by just following accounts on social media, YouTube. One of the things I do because I love learning how to do new things and I especially love learning about food. I'm a foodie myself is I have a master class account and I will take different master classes learning how to cook. So that one of the most recent ones I took was on how to make sourdough bread in different types of bread. I took a master class on how to make street tacos and marinate certain meats. I took a master class on how to season and use spices the right way on all your meals and recipes. And it just taught me a lot that I didn't know.

So learning how to cook, I would say is like one of the first things that you should try to do because it makes meal prep. and grocery shopping more fun, more interesting, but you get to learn what goes into your food and how that affects not only the taste, but the nutritional makeup in the things you're eating on a regular basis. My next thing I want to talk about is being a responsible grocery shopper.

I heard this tip a long time ago, and it works out very well. Don't shop hungry. If you go to the grocery store when you're very hungry, you're going to be tempted by everything you walk by. You know what a lot of these grocery stores do a really good job at? Sampleing. Demos.

You ever go to a Sam's Club or a Costco? He does this too. You're walking around. You turn a corner and you can just get this scent of deliciousness. And there's this nice older woman on the corner, end cap, making some little smokies wrapped in bacon, cooked in brown sugar and maple syrup, handing him out. You're like, oh, my gosh, that smells good.

And the lady goes, oh, well, you can make this too. Here's the kit. Buy it all. And some people do. Great sales tactic. Horrible for your grocery cart. Horrible for potentially your health. your grocery bill, and it's all accessible in your home now for whenever you want to snack

and make it. So don't go to the grocery store hungry. That's the first step. Be a responsible grocery shopper. And make a list. Make a list before you go to the store so you know exactly what you need to buy. And that also comes back to forward thinking, backwards planning, thinking ahead of what you're going to make for the next week or so, and then buying ingredients and foods based off of what you need for your meals to stay on track, for all of your meal prep, for what you're going to make you and your family. And if you make responsible food choices at the grocery store,

it's not going to be in your home ready for you to consume whenever you get a craving or want it. If you are extremely tempted by Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and you love Ben and Jerry's ice cream. And one of your goals is to lose weight. Well, the thing that you probably shouldn't do is stock your freezer with Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Because if it's there, you're probably going to eat it. You know, walking by the freezer late at night.

Oh, I'm just going to take a bite. You go grab a spoon, take one bite of Ben and Jerry's. And we all know Ben and Jerry's is like the dentist ice cream ever. Each pint is well over a thousand calories. Before you know it, you only consumed a quarter of the pint, which doesn't look like much. But that's like 250 plus calories that you just consumed in like four or five bites. So if in the house, it is potentially dangerous, be a responsible grocery shopper and make a list. And if you know you're tempted by one thing, do not keep it in the home.

Now, meal prep is a completely other thing to talk about. I love meal prepping. And I don't meal prep everything. You know, back in the day, what I used to do is I'd prep like three meals a day for the next five, six, seven days. So my fridge would be full of Tupperware. on Sundays I would prep potatoes and rice and chicken and steak and broccoli and green beans, butternut squash, all this stuff. And I have my little, my Tupperware, and I have my food scale, I weigh everything out, I prep my meals.

You know, I do like seven to eight ounces of protein. I would do like 300 grams or 12 ounces of potatoes or rice. I had some green beans or some broccoli in there, maybe a little sea salt on top, close it up, put it in the fridge. And I have all my meals prep for the week, like 18 to 21 meals, something like that. I don't do that anymore because I like variety. And I've just realized that I've identified and discovered systems that are much more effective and efficient for me. So the way that I approach meal prep is I keep a lot of my meals, probably 80% of my meals, very consistent.

My breakfast is always the same. My lunch is pretty much always the same. My third meal that I'm about to have after this podcast is pretty much always the same. Dinner is where there's a lot of variation based off of what me and my family are hungry for or making. if we're eating at the house or going out for an evening, that's where there's variation. So what allows me to be pretty consistent with my diet is literally the consistency from meal to meal

for the remainder or majority of a week. Like I said, meal one, two, and three are pretty consistent. So I'll always have those food items that I need to make those meals in the house. Now the meals that I will meal prep in preparation are the meals that I need when I'm out and about, say I'm working at the office. I will typically just prep my second meal, which is my lunch. So every couple of days or once a week, I will prep a bunch of rice in a rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker, go on Amazon and buy a rice cooker right now. Game changing.

I'll prep rice, maybe some diced up sweet potatoes or just russet potatoes, and then I will prep ground beef, chicken, steak, all my proteins for the week. And then sometimes what I'll do is while we're making dinner, I will make extra carb and protein so I can save that then for a few days after that. So if we're doing, say, ground beef tacos for dinner one night, I will make extra carb. extra ground beef and I will season it with whatever we're seasoning it for the tacos. And then I will save whatever is left over that we didn't consume at dinner. And I will prep a few meals.

I'll also make some rice and maybe some potatoes to add to that meat for the next couple days. So now I don't have a few hours that I spend every Sunday prepping meals. But if you go in my fridge at any time, anywhere, You will find some sort of prepped protein. Like I said, beef, steak, chicken, and some type of carb, rice, or potatoes. I always have those things accessible so that if I need to prep a meal, I have it. If I'm moving fast, I'm on the go, I'm in between meetings, I can run into the fridge,

and it's there ready for me to eat. So that's a way that I approach meal prep and grocery shopping. but if you want to be more consistent with your diet and your nutrition, I would try to make a few of your meals day to day very similar or consistent. Whether like you do the same breakfast every day, the same lunch with small variations of toppings, maybe even dinner, that helps you maintain consistency.

And then having foods prepped that you can grow, grab and make into a meal when time is of the essence. That will set you up for success. Now, the next thing I want to talk about is prioritizing protein. I actually heard Mark Bell talk about this a few days ago, and it really just stuck with me. He said, if you aren't hungry enough to eat protein or meat, you probably aren't really hungry. Maybe you're eating or hungry because you're actually bored. You ever just like walk around the house?

You know, some days I'm in between meetings. And there's days where it's like Zoom call to Zoom call to Zoom call to Zoom call. And it's a busy day. And I'm in between Zoom calls and I'm walking around the kitchen. I'm like, man, like I could just go for something right now. I'm not necessarily hungry, but I could go for a little taste of something. then you ask yourself, well, am I hungry enough to eat some chicken

or some steak or some eggs or a protein shake right now? And if not, you're probably not hungry. You're probably just bored. So that's one thing to ask ourselves as we're mosing around the house or we're traveling, we're out and about, you're just hungry for a little something.

Are you actually hungry or are you just bored? And if you're not hungry enough to eat protein, for a lot of people that being meat, you might not actually be hungry. Now, I like to build each meal around protein because I aim to consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Right now, I'm anywhere between 195 and 200 pounds in the morning. So I shoot for at least 200 grams of protein each day. And I consume four meals throughout the day. So I try to get at least 50 grams of protein in each meal. If I consume more than 200 grams of protein, I'm okay with that.

But I want to hit that bare minimum of one gram per pound of body weight. And to be honest, a lot of people struggle with this. because what happens is if you don't plan, you can fall behind. Say you wake up and you decide not to eat breakfast. You want to fast for a morning. And then you decide to have your first meal at 12 p.m. And that first meal is maybe some ground beef and rice. So you get maybe 50 grams of protein in with that meal.

And then you're bouncing around throughout the day. you're not really thinking about getting more protein in. So for a snack, you have like some fruit, maybe a banana and some blueberries and a granola bar. Maybe that granola bar, that protein bar has like 15, 20 grams of protein in a total. So now you're at, say, 70 grams of protein for the day. And then you come to dinner. Dinner is, say, salmon and potatoes and some broccoli.

that you and your family made, and you get another 40 grams of protein. So you're at 110 grams of protein for the day. When your goal was 200 grams of protein, you're 90 grams off, which is significant. So in order to prioritize protein, it is extremely beneficial to plan going into a day.

And that's one thing that I will track. I don't actively and currently track my nutrition, but I will track in my head how much protein I'm consuming. Loosely, I'm going to try to get four meals in. I'm going to prioritize protein. And I want each one of those meals to have at least 50 grams of protein so I can hit 200 grams for the day. But I have to be intentional with that because if I'm not, it's very easy to fall short

or fall behind on your protein intake. And it's important to choose lean sources of protein for a majority of these protein sources. Now, I'm not saying avoid salmon. I'm not saying to avoid a ribeye steak. I'm not saying to avoid whole eggs. But if you have a bunch of whole eggs for breakfast and you have a bunch of ground beef that is 80, 20 ground beef for lunch, which might be like 34 grams of fat just in that protein. And then for dinner you have a ribby steak.

Well, that's a lot of fat that's adding up. And fat is the most chlorically dense macronutrient. Fat is nine calories per gram. Protein and carbs are four calories per gram. So I would encourage you to choose majority of your protein sources as leaner options. I will do eggs in the morning, but I'll do two eggs, and I'll do egg whites alongside to get the protein without the additional extra fat. And then for lunch, I might do a split between chicken and beef, or I might do beef and Greek yogurt. And then for dinner, I might do something that is a higher fat option, like a steak or salmon.

But it's really easy for your dietary fat to be out of control. I've worked with a lot of people. I've mentored a lot of people around their diet. And often what I find is they overestimate how much protein they're actually consuming. They might think they're consuming 200 grams a day, when in reality they're only consuming 100 grams a day, and they will underestimate how much fat they're consuming. Or it's like, yeah, maybe I consumed 80 grams of fat today,

but in reality, they consumed 200 grams of fat. because they didn't take into consideration the ground beef, the ribeye steak, the avocado, the olive oil they added, the creams and sauces that were on top or below the foods they ordered while going out. So fat is typically higher than you would expect and protein is typically lower than you would expect. But I would encourage you prioritize protein with each meal, build your meal around the protein source and then ensuring you have at least one gram

per pound of body weight at the end of each day. And for a lot of people, it's hard to do this with just whole natural food sources, eggs, egg whites, fish, meat, chicken, and that's why a good high quality protein powder is super beneficial. I have at least one protein shake every single day. and we offer a way protein powder and a plant-based protein powder.

So you have two options there. If you can't handle milk or milk products, I would encourage you to try the plant-based protein powder, which is a combination of pea protein, watermelon seed, and pumpkin seed. But a protein powder, a high-quality protein powder, makes it very easy and convenient to hit your protein goals. if you're struggling to get all of your food in throughout a day.

Because if you're not used to eating 200 grams of protein, for example, it's going to feel like a lot. But you can get a quick, easy 50 grams in a shake like it's nothing. Here's one of my favorite tips on how to be more consistent with your diet. A lot of people think of a diet or healthy nutrition in terms of elimination and subtraction. what do I need to remove in order to be healthier? What do I need to remove in order to build the body and achieve the body composition that I want and desire? But I would encourage you to think of it as addition

as opposed to subtraction, addition as opposed to elimination. And here's how. think of the things that you can eat, the things that you can consume that are going to make you feel better and reach your goals. We already talked about prioritizing protein

and especially lean protein sources. Healthy carbs to fuel your training to fuel your day. Oatmeal, fruits, wild rice, sweet potatoes, vegetables, like adding these to your diet. And when I think of adding all these nutrient dense food options, it's really hard to fit in the things that aren't healthy.

Like for me in the morning, I want to consume oatmeal, bananas, eggs, egg whites, I'll throw some flaky sea salt and some hot sauce on top of that. And it's just, it's good. forward to that meal. But after I eat it, I'm full. So I've added all this nutrient dense food into my diet, into my body. And I'm not hungry for a donut. I'm not hungry for a croissant after that because I'm full.

That meal filled me up. And then going into my lunch, for example, I mean, my lunch is, it's high volume. Because what I do right now is I'll do rice and I'll do like chicken or beef. And I'll add some pickled beets in there. I'll add some sauerkraut. Sometimes I'll add some kimchi. I like adding fermented foods to my diet. I'll add some if we have butternut squash,

I'll add some butternut squash in there or some greens, some arugula, some butter lettuce. So like this lunch that I'm eating, this massive bowl is very high volume. It's extremely filling. But it's actually in consideration of how much volume it is. it is fairly low in calories, and it's packed with micronutrients. So I think of adding all these good things in my diet because I want to get the micronutrients and the quality macronutrients out of it because I know how it's going to make

me feel. So I don't have a room. I don't have space for all this other stuff. I'm full after that meal. I can't think of having a candy bar. I can't think of having anything else that's going to weigh me down because I've added so much good stuff that I don't have to even think about subtracting or eliminating anything bad because I'm just trying to add more of the good stuff in.

So I like to think of diet in terms of what can I add that's going to fuel me? What can I add that's going to make me feel better? And when you do that, you actually don't have room. Like literally, you don't have room in your stomach to add any of the bad stuff in. So it naturally becomes eliminated because you've added more of the good stuff. So think of diet in terms of what can I add to fuel me as opposed to what can I eliminate because the elimination is naturally going to happen. Now my diet approach, I've talked about some of these things so far, but I will probably

retouch on a few of them to reinforce the way I approach my diet. I like to simplify it as much as possible. And I have these go-to meals like I've talked about. 80% of my meals are the same from day to day. And as I've already mentioned, dinner is where I add variation. Whether it's at the house or we go on to dinner. And I love experimenting with new recipes that I find online and that I will modify to make healthier. And I love cooking.

I love cooking. is one of my favorite hobbies outside of working out and training and spending time with family and building BPN. I love cooking. And in the future, at another time and chapter of my life, I want to own a restaurant. I don't want to operate a restaurant, but I want to own a restaurant and sink my time and money and energy into creating this environment and atmosphere that is full of energy and positivity and good food and good cocktails and great flavors that are sourced sustainably

and from local farms and ranches. That's like my dream and it's a vibe inside. So I love going out to dinner. I love having a good meal. And that's where I enjoy myself. Like I try all these different flavors and foods. But from the day to day, 80% of my meals are the same. Exact same.

It takes a lot of the thought. process out of it. I enjoy them. They make me feel good and they fuel me. Now, I don't, like I mentioned, I don't track my food right now, but I do weigh my food. So the reason I don't track is because I've tracked my food before in like a My Fitness Pal app where I'm very strict with like how many carbs and how many proteins and how many fats and how much fiber I'm consuming every day. If you enjoy to do that, you should do it. But if you don't want to do it, you don't necessarily have to.

I do think that when you're starting your fitness journey and you want to be more consistent with your diet, it can be beneficial to track your food and your nutrition in the beginning because it gives you a sense of awareness and it educates you on how much you should or can be consuming of each macronutrient to fuel your body and reach and achieve a certain body competition. So I don't track my food right now, but I do weigh a lot of my food. And that's just for portion control. So I'll weigh my carbs, not all the time, but sometimes.

I'll always weigh my protein. But I've also gotten pretty good at eyeballing, so I don't always weigh my protein. but if I'm making a lunch, today's lunch, for example, I weighed my rice, 250 grams of rice, I weighed my chicken, eight ounces of chicken. I'll do that for my carbs and for my proteins, just for portion control. I'll do the same thing like in the morning when I'm making eggs. I'll use a measuring cup to make sure I'm getting one cup of egg whites with the additional eggs that I'm adding.

I'll use a measuring cup or I'll weigh my oats to make sure I'm getting a half cup or a full cup of oats. So there's certain things that I will weigh for portion control, but I'm not inputting that food into a My Fitness pal or a nutrition tracker.

That's just the way that I approach it and I thoroughly enjoy it. I just use like a food scale that I've gotten off of Amazon. And that's like my best friend. I pull it out, I use it like it's nothing, it becomes second nature, a habit. Now, the way that I approach my diet, like I said, prioritize protein.

I always prioritize protein, 200 grams each day, because I'm about 200 pounds. Then I ask myself the question, how much fuel do I need for the day based off of how I'm training and what I'll be doing? If I run 10 miles in the morning and I'm strength training in the afternoon, I know that I'm going to need more calories. I'm going to need more carbs in my workouts, and I'm going to consume some more fat to get some more calories in. But if I'm not running and I'm just strength training, I won't consume as many carbs or as many calories. If I'm just running and not strength training, well, I will keep a lot of the carbs around that run in the morning and not as much in the back

half of the day. So I will consciously evaluate how much energy I'm going to be expecting. going into that day, once again, forward thinking, backwards planning, thinking ahead, and then I will make nutrition choices based off of the amount of energy that I am expending, and that will guide how much energy or calories I need to consume. So it's, what's my training like for the day? What energy requirements do I have? Making sure I hit my protein goals, 200 grams a day. then I'm staying on top of water and electrolyte consumption.

I'm looking to add quality carbs to each of my meals to fuel my performance. And as that performance requires more energy, I'll add more carbs in. I'm monitoring my fat intake throughout the day, especially if I'm going to have a higher fat meal at night. So I'll limit some of that fat intake earlier in the day. I'm going to eliminate and avoid excess oils, fats, sauces, creams, butters, et cetera. I still add those into my diet, but I will minimize an excessive amount of them. And then I will add on top of that for nutrient density fruits, vegetables.

I love fermented foods. Like I always have fermented foods in the house. Great for gut health. And add some nice crunch, some nice flavor to your meals. sourcrow, pickled beets, pickled onions, kimchi. I throw all of that in my meals. So it adds a lot of bulk, adds a lot of volume, adds a lot of flavor, and it's great for the gut, natural probiotics.

So that's the way that I approach my diet is kind of going down through that list of what I'm focused on in order of priority in setting up my diet for success to make maintain consistency. And the last thing I'm going to talk about in regards to maintaining a consistent diet. We got to obviously touch on going out to dinner. Living life. Like I said, I love food. I love trying new restaurants.

I love trying different meals and foods and asking the chef or the server, what do you guys recommend? What do I have to try here? What are you known for? I don't ask about modifying that. I don't ask about what the macronutrients or calories are on it. When I'm going out to dinner, I'm enjoying myself. I'm enjoying the company.

I'm enjoying the food in the process that is involved in taking those items, those ingredients, in creating this masterpiece that I'm about to consume. Now, am I doing that every night? No. Am I doing it every week? Not really. But when I go to dinner, I'm enjoying myself. I'm living life. And I encourage you guys. If you want to be consistent with your diet, you got to live life. Go out and have the burger every once in a while. Get the fries. Go for pizza with the family. Get a beer. Get a cocktail. Whatever you want to do. Make it so that it is, sustainable. So there's longevity in your consistency. And food not only fuels the body, fuels the mind, but it also fuels the soul. And the best diet, there's no perfect diet, but the best diet is one that you can stick to. Enjoy the food. Like the rock says, don't cheat yourself. Treat yourself. Treat yourself. Treat yourself. So that's how I wanted

to wrap up this episode of it's really important to instill habit and routine and think ahead by forward thinking backwards planning and making a plan so you can maintain consistency with your diet but don't make it so rigid that you don't allow yourself to live and enjoy the food and company and experience that's out there because that is just as in important. It's so important. And it especially helps with maintaining the consistency. So that's where I wanted to leave off with this episode. Those are some of the things that I wanted to share of how I'm consistent with my diet, how you can be more consistent with your diet. But remember, if you fail to plan, you should plan to fail. Thanks for tuning in,

guys. And we'll see you in the next episode.