The Nick Bare Podcast - 063: The Fuel Guide to Lift Heavy and Run Far

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

In this week’s episode, I am breaking down the nutrition you need to lift heavy and run far. We are constantly inundated with information on social media and the internet about new studies and diets, and it’s easy to be pulled into a particular way of thinking without being diligent in doing the research ourselves. The methods are many, but the concepts are few. The perfect diet is the one you can adhere to. I will be taking you on a deep dive into what I consume as a hybrid athlete and how it works to fuel my performance. 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 0:36 Welcome 1:58 Run thoughts 11:25 There isn’t a perfect diet 13:28 Information overload 19:17 Healthy relationships with food 26:24 Food to fuel running and lifting 32:07 Establish your goals 40:52 Eating for recovery 45:37 Holding the standard 47:52 Does running make you lose bulk? 50:54 How I prioritize what I consume 54:26 What my diet looks like 1:12:01 Don’t skip the research and learning 1:15:53 Keep a big picture perspective

In today's episode of the podcast, we are talking about the perfect diet to lift heavy and run far. And believe it or not, it is not a very exact and pinpointed diet. Because the reality is there is no perfect diet. But there are a few concepts that we know work that you can apply to your unique and specific dietary needs to achieve the outcomes that you want. and desire. So today's podcast topic is all about the perfect diet to lift heavy and run far. The perfect diet for the hybrid athlete. I want to dive into the way that I approach diet, some recommendations, things that I have learned over the years as I've incorporated more running and strength training into my routine. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've learned

a lot along the way. I've experimented with different foods, ingredients, diets as a whole. And I've really come back to where I started, which is honestly in one word, simplicity. I've used this acronym many times before that I learned in the military and it's kiss. Keep it simple, stupid. When I have overcomplicated anything in my life, I've gone to extremes. I've come back to kind of center mass, that being simplicity. If there's any key takeaway in any podcast that I do that is around or revolving nutrition, food, diet, simplicity is the one word to take away.

Now, I have some morning run thoughts that I want to share with you guys before we dive into literally the meat and potatoes of this episode. And it's morning run thoughts that I had this past week as I was running. And it was about my diet. It was about my training. And the way that I view my obligations, my responsibilities to maintain my health, my performance, my shape, my body. And I view it as part of my job.

And a lot of people will say, well, yeah, Nick, it is part of your job. You know, you're in the health and fitness industry and space. You own and operate a sports nutrition, dietary supplement company. You create a lot of content around training, nutrition, health in general. And yes, that is true. But if I sold my company tomorrow, if I stopped creating content tomorrow, If I stopped doing the job that I do right now, tomorrow, I would still wake up and eat the same way

and train the same way tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day and so on and so forth. Because the way that I view my responsibility to eat the way that I eat, train the way I train, it is my job outside of a way that I get paid. It is my job as a leader. It is my job as a husband.

It's my job as a father, a friend, a contributing member of the world and society. My diet, my training is a personal responsibility and obligation to show up. So when I'm prepping my meals, when I'm waking up extra early to go run, when I'm hitting a workout in the gym, I'm doing it because I view it as my job, my job to get better and to show up as my, the best version of myself. It's more than just a hobby. It's more than just a lifestyle.

It is my job. And kind of like Lyle Phillips, Pastor Lyle Phillips said in the podcast I recorded with him a few months ago, he asked the question, can you do your job? You know your job. Can you do it? Well, I view part of my job in life as an individual as a person to maintain a certain level of health, fitness, and performance. And as I was wrapping up this run earlier this week, I was thinking about the lack of

motivation that I require to do my job. It doesn't matter what the weather looks like or feels like. It doesn't matter what I have going on in that week. This stress that I've accumulated that I'm experiencing. The move from Tennessee back to Texas, moving back into the CEO role, my wife being pregnant right now with our second child on the way, there's always going to be life stressors. there's always going to be things that are happening and evolving and changing,

but it's our personal responsibility to maintain our obligations and responsibilities. So I said that I lack the need or requirement of motivation. That's the way I feel. You know, I was wrapping up a run earlier this week. And now that speed project's over, I don't really have a race that I'm training for in the most. moment. I'm training because I love to train and again, I feel like it's my personal responsibility to maintain a certain level of fitness in my life. So I'm running anywhere between 8 and 10 miles

six days a week right now. In the morning, my alarm goes off at 4.40 a.m. I'm out the door by 520, 530, every single morning, or least six days a week to go for my morning run. And like I said, it doesn't matter what's going on my life. I'm still going to do that. And I don't need motivation to get up and run. I don't need motivation to get up, walk outside, open the garage door, see rain coming down.

I don't need motivation to take one step into that rain and start my run. It is now just a standard in which I've set for myself. And one of the things we say at BPN all the time is set the standard and hold the standard. Don't allow yourself to accept anything other than the standard you set for yourself

and don't allow yourself to negotiate with the standard that you've set for yourself. And a lot of times we'll set this standard. and then when it's time to execute, we come up alongside that standard and it gets hard and we make the conscious decision to lower that standard

so we can jump over the obstacle and make it the other side. But I would encourage you, set a standard for yourself, for your responsibilities, for your health, your fitness, your training, your diet, anything in your life. Set a standard, hold that standard.

As hard as it is to hold that standard when there's stressors and obstacles and resistance of life, just hold it. Just hold it. That's the only thing you have to do. Don't worry about how you're going to get up for that morning run, even though you had a late night. Don't worry about how you're going to make it to that second work

Don't worry about how you're going to get all the meals in for that next day. Just worry about holding the standard. If you just worry about holding the standard, you will do whatever it is you're required to do to exceed your expectations, meet the standard, and move forward and improve. That's what was going through my head this past week on my morning run. I was coming back from his eight-miler, and I'm running down 12 south. And in the midst of the chaos that I'm experiencing life right now, as I mentioned, we're packing up our house. We're moving back to Texas.

I'm back in the CEO role. I've been in the role now for about three months at this point back in the role after being out of the role for about a year. Steph is four and a half months pregnant. She's due middle of August. and there's just a lot of moving pieces in life. And it's really easy for all of the moving pieces in life that are always moving, always evolving, always shifting and changing.

It's really easy to allow those things to lower the standard in which you set. It's really easy to neglect and consciously choose to not do the things you know you're supposed to do because of the chaos that's in your life. But just focus on that one thing. That one thing is to hold the standard. As I'm coming back from that morning run,

coming down 12 South, I was thinking about how good it felt to knock out that eight-mile run that morning. And when I got back to the house, when I get back to the house, I can worry about the other things that I have to do for that day to consider that day a win and a success. But in that moment, my job and questioning myself, can I do my job, is to finish that

eight mile run. Those are a morning thoughts, and I want to use that message to move into talking about the perfect diet for lifting heavy and running far. a hybrid athlete diet because I believe and I've trust me I've been here before it's really easy to

over complicate nutrition diet and training and the reality it's it's pretty simple concepts that we have to apply to reach our goals and make progress and just because those concepts

are simple don't mean that they're easy they're still hard achieve for a lot of people because there is discipline, there is consistency, there is preparation, there is strategy that is required to make that happen, but the concepts are pretty simple. Here's the first thing I want to talk about in regards to the perfect diet for lifting heavy and running far. There is no such thing as the perfect diet. There's not. The perfect diet, now diet is very specific to an individual.

you, what do you like to eat? How do you like to eat? When do you like to eat? It's very specific to you and your goals. Are you trying to build muscle? Do you want to get as big as possible? Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to run really far? Are you trying to run really fast? Are you just trying to feel better? Are your concerns all about longevity? and living a full, happy, healthy life? Like, what is it that you want to achieve in your life and how will this diet that you're creating fulfill that want, need, and purpose? There's no such thing as a perfect diet. The best diet is one that you can adhere to. That might be vegan, that might be carnivore,

that might be low fat, that might be paleo, it could be everything and anything. But it's what do you, what do you want to achieve? And how do you want to get there? And I wanted to kick off, you know, literally the meat and potatoes of this episode with that because it really sets the foundation of what I'm going to talk about

moving into the rest of this episode. Again, there's concepts that are simple and while the concepts are few, the methods are many. I've mentioned that quote, that tagline before because it's extremely powerful. Now, if you spend any time on social media, you know that there's social media influencer trend diets that pop up almost daily at this point. and there might be one person online that's telling you that meat is the answer and that vegetables are killing you and then there's someone else on the internet that's telling you that meat is killing you and vegetables are the answer and there's someone else that's telling

you that carbs are making you fat and that fat dietary fat is the solution to everything And then another person is telling you that carbs are the solution and that dietary fat is raising your cholesterol and it's promoting heart disease and diabetes and all these things. And you're like, holy shit, what do I do? Where do I start? Like, what is the approach? And I think we're in this, I think we're in this period of the world. And in history right now where, you know, when I first started getting into the fitness space, there's always been trends, dieting trends, always and there always will be.

But when I first got introduced into the fitness space, and I started caring about just getting more fit, more healthy, stronger. To be honest, I wanted a stronger bench press, and I wanted to pack abs. and that's really all I cared about. And my diet, my training reflected those goals. And because my goals were so specific and my diet was so simple, my diet was literally focused on calories and protein. That's it. I achieved the fitness goals that I set because my concepts were few,

and I also used very few methods to get there, and it was a pretty streamlined approach. And I think we're in this period of time right now where, like I said, when I first got started in the fitness space, it was a pretty simple approach. And then as you learn more and you do more research and you're exposed to a larger audience, especially as social media has evolved over the years, you become bombarded with all this different information. And it's extremely overwhelming. And you're like, holy crap, the things that I used to do and think we're really. right aren't right anymore because all these scientists and social media influencers and gurus are telling me I'm supposed to eat this and that and avoid those things and seed oils are bad and

just all of this info that's thrown at you which is overwhelming and it's a lot but then things kind of course correct and come back to where you started and you apply a simple approach again So what I'm trying to explain here is I think what we're all experiencing in the moment is that there is just all this information out there right now and everyone is trying to create a different narrative to promote a different product or lifestyle in which they can monetize and build a legacy out of.

But what's going to end up happening in the next couple years, I believe is that we're going to course correct and it's going to come back to center mass where a balanced whole food focused approach in terms of diet is going to be the answer again. And that's the way that I approach nutrition. That's the way I approach my diet. And I'll literally tell you what I eat on a daily basis here in a little bit and what I focus on. There's no such thing as a perfect diet.

Again, it's the one that you can adhere to, but I believe there's too much information being distributed and shared right now to create a narrative in which people can monetize. And it's not the right thing. The truth is,

you'll see someone pushing information and then they'll follow up with a study. And you just assume, well, if there's a study that supports this study, narrative, it's got to be true. It's got to be right. But the reality also is that you can find a study to support just about anything. And you can cherry pick information from a study or from research to justify, prove, and support literally anything. Anything. There could be a meta-analysis

of 50 studies that show this correlation. between A and B. And maybe two studies out of those 50 don't agree with the same outcomes of that correlation. So you would assume that they are outliers. But then again, somebody could just pull those two studies from that meta-analysis

and prove the opposite what the other 48 studies are showing and supporting and proving. You can cherry-pick any information you want. you truly can. You know, I was listening to a really good podcast earlier this week. I was the Ben Greenfield podcast. And every so often I'll dive into a Ben Greenfield podcast.

And he brings on some really good guests, but also to some good solo episodes as well. And he had a doctor on there. Her name was Lauren Lacks. And this whole episode was primarily focused around gut health. I think the title was something along the lines of of leaky gut, fixing leaky gut about gut health and eating disorders. And I resonated with this podcast so much because if you didn't know, I've shared this before, but when I was 14 years old, I had a pretty severe eating disorder that was on the trajectory of potentially and probably killing me,

extremely severe eating disorder where my body was literally shutting down because I was starving myself to extreme levels. I was in and out of the hospital for months, got to the point where I literally had zero energy to get out of bed because I just robbed myself of calories and nutrients, vitamins, minerals, everything. I was killing myself by starving myself. And over the years have rebuilt a healthy relationship with food,

but I would be lying to you and myself if I said that those unhealthy relationships with food are never resurfaced or re-triggered based off of periods of life or what I'm training for, what I'm doing, stressors in my life, certain stressors. will re-trigger unhealthy relationships with food because food is one of those things I have found is one thing while as chaotic as the world of my life can become, it's one thing that I can always control for better or worse. I can really dial in nutrition and get hyper-focused and disciplined and controlled with food and food consumption and choices. But this was a really really interesting podcast,

really just talking all about how the world and society and social pressures and the mass amount of information and oftentimes wrong information can lead us to building and establishing unhealthy relationships with food. Certain headlines that appear and pop up and are shared or distributed can scare you,

scare you from eating certain foods or ingredients or going out to dinner or being social and eating without tracking and all of these things. And one of the things that took away from this podcast with Dr. Lauren Lacks that I could really relate to is that sometimes we will actually experience symptoms, health symptoms and illnesses and actually feel ill

or have stomach gut issues not necessarily because of the foods that we're consuming but because of the stress around the foods that we're consuming and I don't know about you guys and if anyone listening to this episode has ever had an eating disorder or unhealthy relationships with food it's really easy to over-stress and overthink about the foods that you're consuming

consuming. How are they cooked? How were they prepared? Were they grilled or sauteed in oils or butters? Was it a seed oil? Was this like a grass-fed piece of meat? Where to come from, all these things can create more stress than the actual food will create on the body. so we create all the stress around the food that we're consuming. By the time we consume it and eat it, it's actually caused us to feel sick and ill and our stomach hurts. And it's not always because of the actual food, but because of the stress we create around it.

So I guess, you know, the first point I wanted to share moving in this episode was there's no such thing as a perfect diet. The best one is one that we can adhere to and is focused on simplicity, we're also moving towards, I believe we should be moving towards a nutrition focus of well-balanced, whole-food-focused ingredients and meals.

And also, the next thing I want to caveat or add to that list is it's important to build healthy relationships with food. And so one once told me, on a previous video I recorded and posted talking about my experience with the eating disorder. I said, Nick, you don't have relationships with food. You have relationships with people. And that one made me think.

Like, you know what? You might be right. However, try telling that to someone who has had or has an eating disorder. And I promise you, they have had or have a. real relationship, good or bad, with food. I've been there. I still am there. I still struggle with healthy relationships with food occasionally. But I would encourage you to focus on, I should more so say, prioritize establishing and building healthy relationships with food, over obsessing and overwhelming yourself with the foods you're consuming,

how many calories they have, the impact on the body from a health or physique perspective, you will do more good as opposed to harm by just having healthy relationships with food. Now that's not an excuse for you to say, well, for me to have a healthy relationship with food, that means I go in and out three days a week. And I have to consume a leader of cola every morning before I go into work.

That's not necessarily an excuse for that. So take that with a grain of salt and apply it to your life, the way you eat, the foods you choose. Okay, so now really diving into food to support hybrid athlete training, nutrition to support lifting heavy and running far, but also I want to caveat after that, running far and running fast. And I want to add running fast because we'll get into some higher fat, lower carb diet trends for endurance athletes. Now, establishing your goals to fuel your performance.

I love the word fuel when it comes to supplements and food. And one of the things we've been saying at BPN this last six or so months, because I've really focused on refining our message and our mission, not just for the consumer and the customers, you guys, but also our internal team too. Hey, at BPN, what do we do? What is our mission? our mission is to fuel performance for the committed individual.

That's what we've come up with. Our goal, our mission, is to fuel performance for the committed individual. And I like the word fuel because that's what food should do. Now, I remember back in my bodybuilding days, someone told me once, and I I think this is when I was bulking, so I was sitting a little heavier. And they said, Nick, you shouldn't live to eat. You should eat to live. And I remember hearing this and at first loving it and then hating it.

You see, I have a very interesting relationship and perspective on food and nutrition. One side of me is like the high performer athlete, entrepreneur, where what I'm putting in my body, the food, the supplements, the nutrients, that is pure fuel. That is to fuel my day, my mind, my body, my workouts, everything. And I look at it objectively, black and white. Food is fuel. You don't need all the condiments.

You don't need to make it taste anything special. You don't need variety. Give me some rice. Give me some meat. Give me some pickled beets. I'm good to go. I can eat that meal every single day for every meal. I promise you, I won't get sick of it.

I had it like two hours ago and it was delicious. Objectively, that's one way I look at fuel and food. The other side of me, though, which is just as passionate about food is that I'm a foodie at heart. I love food, I love the experience, I love trying different food cultures and ingredients and flavor profiles and everything about just the environment,

ecosystem environment of the food industry and hospitality businesses and restaurants and traveling and trying the cuisine of different countries and cultures and people. I love that. I have a lot of respect for that. So as much as I view fuel or food as fuel in one side, on the other side, I also view food subjectively, not as fuel, but as an experience, as a huge part of life that connects people and communities and brings people together.

A while back, I had Dennis Prescott on the podcast, who is one of my favorite chefs. He travels the world, making food, trying different cuisines of different cultures. He has some cooking shows, one on Netflix. And during our conversation, Dennis Prescott was talking about how food is so unique in a way that you can put strangers at a table, put food on a table, and people will break bread literally and have deep, meaningful conversations over a meal. Good food, a meal, it connects people, it brings people together. So I view food and fuel from that lens as well. So I have a great respect from the fueling perspective and also just its ability to

bring people together and the experience as a whole. So I don't want you to think that I'm this robot trying to tell you that food should be bland and you don't need salt and flavor and sauce and variety. I'm not saying that by any means. But I think there's a time and place to introduce some of those foods. and the majority of your diet should be these staples that facilitate your goals, your performance, your workouts, your recovery, everything. So the first thing we need to do when we are perfecting our personal diet to lift heavy,

run far and fast, is establish our goals. Like I talked about the beginning, what are we fueling for? What do we need this food that we're going to put in our body to do? Is it to train for and run a marathon? Because that's going to require a different fueling strategy. Is it to build as much muscle mass as possible? Because that's also going to require a different fueling strategy. Is it as lean as possible in preparation to step on a bodybuilding stage

or go to the beach for a summer vacation, whatever it is, that is going to require a different fueling strategy. It's going to require different caloric intake, potentially different food items themselves, unique and specific timing of food and meals, different ratios of macronutrients, all of those things are going to be set and established

based off of your goals. And the thing is, your goals can change throughout a year based off the season depending on what you're interested in, curious about, or want to pursue and accomplish. So when I'm training for a marathon, my fueling strategy, my diet looks a little bit different.

I don't want to say dramatically different. It looks a little bit different from when I'm just training in a hybrid athlete lifestyle approach and it looks different from when I'm say training for a bodybuilding competition to step on stage. My diet from when I'm training for a marathon

compared to when I'm getting ready to step on a bodybuilding stage is very, very different because it requires different fueling strategies because the energy demands on my body are different. So first we establish our goals. What is the goal that we want to and need to, desire to accomplish? And then step two is how do we fuel that performance? How do we fuel the workouts, the demands on the body, the recovery, and then the competition, the race, or the event itself? So things we need to consider,

what is the volume of training? If you're training for a 5K, compared to you. to a half marathon, compared to a full marathon, compared to an ultra, well, those fueling requirements are different. You're going to need more nutrition, more calories, more carbohydrates to train for an ultra compared to a 5K, not just for the race itself, but during trainup and preparation. What is the intensity level? So are we, you know, training for an ultra, for example, When I was training for Rocky Raccoon, the 100-mile that I did, I believe my time was like 19 and a half hours. Rocky Raccoons in Texas, it's 5.20-mile loops, 100-mile total. And that training was super low intensity.

And I was working with Zach Bitter. He was my coach at the time. and Zach is an ultra runner has set world records, extremely, extremely impressive. That training was very unique in a way that we really had no speed workouts built in. No lactate threshold, no tempo, no anaerobic work. It was all very low heart rate, and we weren't even training based on. off of effort or paces, but it was time on feet.

Like when Zach would give me my training program for the week, it wasn't miles. It was minutes or hours. Hey, go for a 90 minute run. It didn't say go run 11 to 12 miles. It said go run 90 minutes. On Saturday, go run three hours. And the intent for it was to be really low and slow. low intensity, slow pace, low heart rate.

On the flip side, when I'm training for a marathon with Jeff, for example, Jeff would give me some my Wednesday speed workouts, and it would be 800 meter repeats, thousand meter repeats, one mile repeats. There'd be some tempo workouts where there was two to three mile segments at really fast paces, followed up with some cool-down mile or two-second. and they were heavily structured workouts at higher intensity,

higher heart rate, faster paces, leaning more towards an anaerobic workload or capacity. Those two levels of intensity, while completely different extremes, require different fueling needs. And if you follow Zach Bitter on social media, Zach is a fat-adapted athlete. He's keto. So his diet is higher fat, low-carb, I believe moderate protein.

But when you are training low and slow, now Zach still runs really fast, but he's just like an absolute stud of an athlete. But for a lot of people training for an ultra marathon, when I was training for my ultra for Rocky Raccoon, like I said, it was low intensity, low heart rate, slow paces for long periods of time. At that level of intensity, a low level intensity, your body can utilize fat stores as energy. It can tap into fat stores to utilize as energy.

So you'll see a handful of ultra-distance endurance athletes. following more of a keto diet. And that can work for that type of intensity of training. Now, is it superior or better than a higher carb diet? It's really hard to say. And based all the studies and the research, it's honest, it's really hard to say. But for an athlete who is training at higher intensities, say a marathon, someone who is sprinting,

who is in the gym with high intensity max effort work. These marathon workouts where it's fast paces, 800 meter repeats, thousand meter repeats, mile repeats,

you will operate and perform at a higher level, a more effective and efficient level with carbohydrates. So a higher carb diet will ensure that your muscle glycogen is topped off. You have carbohydrate stores circulating in the body to use for that workout, for that effort.

So intensity is a huge driving factor based off of a goal and outcome in the way that you fuel that performance. So we have volume, intensity, specification of what you're training for. Are you training to get stronger as a power lifter? Are you training to build muscle? Are you training for an ultra? Are you training for a marathon? Do you training for a one mile race? That specification will require different fueling requirements that you have to build into your plan.

And then recovery. So what does your body require for recovery? and the way I view recovery is total chloric intake, fueling around the workouts themselves, and then protein, intake, amino acids, and muscle protein synthesis. So let's take a step back there and revisit recovery. First off, total chloric intake. If you are under-eating,

during a big training block, or just in general, if you're under-eating, maybe the goal is to lose fat, to lose body weight. Well, then you will achieve that outcome. But if you are under-eating, you're not eating enough calories to support your training and your recovery and what your body needs to sustain, you will dig yourself a hole. You will dig yourself into a ground where it might work for a period of time, but it is not sustainable. So you require a certain amount of calories to optimize recovery. That's why you'll see when someone is dieting for a bodybuilding competition, for example, and they're in a

chloric deficit, they look like they're getting weaker and weaker and weaker as they get closer to stepping on stage. Even though they're getting leaner and leaner and leaner, they're actually becoming weaker because they're not recovering or providing their body with enough nutrition, enough calories to perform at a high level and feel healthy, to feel strong. But it's for a very specified and specific purpose, goal, and outcome. Fueling around workouts themselves will enhance and optimize recovery. This is one of the biggest mistakes I made earlier. on when I first started training, especially when I started moving more into the endurance space. So as a lot of you guys know, when I first started training, it was really focused on bodybuilding,

powerlifting, strength, hypertrophy. I just wanted to get as big and strong as possible. And I would actually argue that when training for strength and size, you have a little bit more flexibility around your diet. As long as you're eating enough calories and as long as your protein intake is great enough, you will build muscle, you will put on size, and you can perform your workouts pretty strongly. But what I have personally found as I started to incorporate more endurance training into my routine, specifically running, is that you, you know, you, you don't have as much flexibility with your diet because certain foods will directly impact and affect your workouts and your recovery and the way that you perform.

And when I first started introducing more running and endurance training into my routine, I wasn't fueling around the workouts themselves. So, for example, I'd go for a run early in the morning and I wouldn't eat anything before that run. And the last thing I ate before that run was probably dinner the night before at 6 or 7 p.m. So I had fast throughout the night,

obviously, wake up, maybe have a cup of coffee, go for a run. The run would be a struggle fast because I was low on calories, nutrition, and fuel, but I'd make it through it. Wasn't as strong as I could be,

but strong enough. But where I would really feel that lack of fuel in nutrition around my workout was later in the day. I'd be dead. I mean, I'd be dragon ass bonking trying to make it through the second part of the day and especially into the night. And where I saw this literal switch happen was when I actually started incorporating fuel being carbohydrates and electrolytes around my early morning training session,

my early morning run and going into those workouts fueled, I not only performed at a greater level, but I also recovered so much better. We're in the back half of the day and at night, I wasn't dragging. I wasn't sucking. I wasn't as tired because I was optimizing recovery. So that's how a few things will significantly impact

and really determine your fueling. requirements, volume, intensity, specification of training, and recovery. I posted a picture on my watch after this morning's run, actually, which I always deal. After I finish my early morning run, I take a photo on my watch of just distance, pace, time. I posted on my Instagram story. I've been doing this for years. I probably started doing it in 2018, 2019.

So I've been doing that for five, six years now, consistently after every run that I do. And the reason I do it is my hope is that there's someone on the other side of that Instagram story who wakes up one morning and they say, you know what, today I'm not going to hold that standard. I'm not going to go for this front. I'm not feeling like it. I'm just going to chill. I'll go for a run tomorrow. And my hope, and I think this does happen.

So they open up their phone, they go on Instagram, they start scrolling, they see a photo of that watch. And it's a reminder that when you set a standard, you hold it. Setting a standard is sometimes just a wish. It's a want, it's a desire. Holding that standard is the action. It is the courage. It is the commitment. to the things that you want to do.

So my goal when I take a photo of that, that watch every morning and share it is that it hopefully inspires and encourages people to hold the standard that they set for themselves and get out there and get after it. But this morning, I did that same thing, got back from my run.

It was an eight-mileer. And, let's see, it was, 8 miles 8.01, 59 minutes, 19 seconds, at a 725 minute per mile pace. At the time of this recording, it is a Friday. I have 40 miles logged so far, so I'll probably do anywhere between 48 and 50 miles for this week. And I posted that photo on Instagram, and I had a response, a few responses, but one response caught my eye that I wanted to share and said, how are you not skinny from all of this running? Now, I would consider myself lean, but not skinny.

But why are you not skinny? How are you not skinny from as much running as you do? I want to answer that question here, because I think it's a very valid question. A lot of people think that, and I used to think this too, This is why I avoided running for so long. When I got out of the military, I just wanted to get big and strong, and that's all I cared about.

And I fear that doing too much cardio would ruin those goals and that ability. And my mindset completely shifted because that didn't happen. I became leaner. I became more fit, but I didn't just burn up muscle. How are you not skinny from all of that running? It's fuel. It's food, it's nutrition. It's the supplementary training that I do alongside I'm running.

I'm not just running. I'm lifting five to six days a week as well. I'm strength training five to six days a week with intentions and volume and intensity, a split between a bodybuilding style of hypertrophy and strength or powerlifting. So how are you not skinny? How do you not burn up all your muscle? One, I'm still strength training alongside of running, truly in a hybrid athlete training model and approach.

The blend of two lifestyles of sport, running and lifting. Two, the food that I'm consuming. And I consume a lot of food. And I truly believe that anyone who has started running and, lost a lot of weight unintentionally and not on purpose and says, oh, when I run, I just burn up all my muscle. I just get too small. It's because you're not eating enough.

You're not eating enough, but you're not eating enough of the right stuff. You're not consuming enough calories, probably not enough protein, enough carbohydrates, healthy fats, a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, fiber, micronutrients. vitamins, minerals, all these things that help you perform and build the body that you want. So I do believe and I know that if you are saying you just shrink when you start running, it's because you're not eating enough. The way I like to prioritize or think about prioritizing my diet as a whole, first it's calories. Am I consuming enough calories?

If you're losing weight, very simple concept, consume more calories. Keep consuming more calories until you stop losing weight. If that's your goal, if you want to keep running and lifting but you don't want to lose weight or size, keep increasing your calories until you stop losing weight and size. The second to prioritize is protein. Consuming enough protein is going to maintain your muscle. it's going to help you build muscle because you need essential amino acids in your body to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. There's nine essential amino acids that we need to get from either

supplements or food on a regular basis that our body can't make outside of the food to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. There's nine of those amino acids that are essential. Lucine, I would say, is the most important amino acid. Way protein, for example, is very high in lucine. Lucine is known as the anabolic trigger, and of all the amino acids, has the greatest impact and ability to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So as we're breaking down our muscle during training, whether that's running or lifting, or muscles just being broken down on a regular basis.

It's being rebuilt by the protein we're consuming, the amino acids that make up these proteins, and specifically the leucine that stimulates the muscle protein synthesis to rebuild. So it's calories, proteins. I would then say carbs. Some people are going to argue that that probably follow a lower carb,

carb higher fat diet, but I'm a big fan of carbs, especially for the training that I do. And if you follow a hybrid athlete training model where you want to lift heavy, you want to run far and you want to run fast, you're going to want carbs and probably a lot of carbs in your diet. That's just the honest truth. Again, there's many methods, but the concepts are pretty simple. I would encourage you to adhere to the concept that carbs are. good. And carbs will fuel your performance, especially if you want to perform at an elite level.

Calories, protein, carbs, then fat, dietary fat. Dietary fat is still very important for a lot of processes in the body, especially in the endocrine system or the hormone systems. And then fiber, consuming a fiber, extremely beneficial. thinking about and learning more about the source of your food, and then micronutrients and minerals, and that includes electrolytes. So that's the way that I think about the prioritization. You might think about it differently,

but it's calories, protein, carbs, fats, fiber, the source of food, and then micronutrient and mineral makeup that we're including in our foods, but also in supplements as well. So what does my diet look like? I'll just give you a quick overview of what a day in my diet looks like. So like I said, I wake up and I run every morning.

Before I go run, the first thing I do is I wake up and I make a cup of coffee. So right now my alarm is going off at 4.40 a.m. That will probably change when baby 2 is born. I might have to back that up to 4 a.m. Or when baby Charlie is going through some sort of sleep regression, which she was in a few days ago. So alarm goes off 4.40 a.m. I go out in the kitchen, I make a cup of coffee.

I throw that coffee back quick. And as I've talked about my morning routine many times, that cup of coffee has one specific goal and purpose, and that is to stimulate a bowel movement. A beautiful bowel movement. And then I move into my fueling strategy for the morning, and that really depends on the workout that I'm doing. Now, like I said, right now I'm not in a big training block.

If I was in a marathon training block, my fueling nutrition strategy would probably change a little bit based off the workout. It was a Wednesday morning speed workout. I'd be consuming more electrolytes, more carbohydrates prior to the right. running and then during the run, I'd be carrying some fuel as well. If it's summer as opposed to winter, I'm loading up more electrolytes before the run. But right now, in this given time and space, I told you that my average morning run at the moment is 8 to 10 miles. So after that cup of coffee, at this point, it's probably 505 a.m., something around there. I'll have a few options. I'll have a few

options of what I choose for fuel. And I always train fueled and never trained fasted. One of the things that I've learned over time, and I think that many other people have learned and adopted as well is, once you trained fueled, you will never again train fasted. I'll say it again, once you train fueled, you will never again train fasted. It makes that big of impact on not only performance, but also. Also, recovery.

It is a game changer, truly. So my fueling options right now, I'll either do two scoops of G1M Sport. So G1M Sport is our carbohydrate and electrolyte powder. And in two scoops of G1M Sport, that provides me 40 grams of carbohydrates and 700 milligrams of sodium with a full electrolyte profile.

So that is 160 calories total. What I love about G1M sport is that the carbohydrate source that we selected and chose for that supplement is called Cluster Dextrin. Now, Cluster Dextrin is a very fast gastro-emptying carb source, meaning that quickly after consumption, you mix up in water, you drink it, quickly after you drink the G1M sport, it moves through the stomach very quickly and digest at a fast rate. and the reason this is important, one, you want those carbs in the body as fast as possible

to be able to be used for fuel. And two, the faster it leaves the stomach, the less distress it has on your gut. So it minimizes and eliminates gastrointestinal distress, gas, bloating, any sort of just stomach discomfort overall. A very effective, efficient, one of my favorite products we offer, G1M Sport. So I'll either do two scoops of G1M Sport before my run,

about 20 minutes prior to starting. I'll do a go bar. Some days I'll do go bar. Our go bar is an oat-based, lightweight, lightly sweetened, oat-based nutrition bar, 200 calories per bar, 36 grams of carbs per bar.

And then sometimes I'll do two go gels in the morning. So two go gels. Each go gel is 100 calories, 24 grams of carbs, 110 milligrams of sodium. The go gel is our endurance gel. It's whole food,

simple ingredient, formulated, manufactured, and produced. So two go gels will provide me 48 grams of carbs total. So sometimes I'll take two GoGels before I go run. So it's either G. Onem Sport, Go Bar, or GoGels.

And then if it's a bigger workout, I'll carry Go gels with me. I'll throw my back pocket and my shorts or I'll carry them in my hand. They just come in these very easy to carry convenient pouches. And then based off the season of the year, if it's very hot, I'll add additional electrolytes, our BPN electrolytes, and I'll consume a scoop of two, a scoop or two of that prior to starting the run. Each scoop is 500 milligrams of sodium per scoop. So if it's really hot, super humid, it's a longer run, I'll do two scoops of electrolytes

for a thousand milligrams of sodium total. Or if it's a little bit lighter, I'm not going to sweat as much, one scoop of electrolytes, which is 500 milligrams of sodium per scoop. So that's my pre-run nutrition. And that'll carry me through the workout. When I get back from the run, I actually already have part of my breakfast prep. So part of my morning routine is I lay out my supplements and I lay out some of my nutrition that I'm going to need to make my eggs.

So I'll weigh out my oats. I'll put out my banana. I will get all my soft shells and get. capsules out and I'll mix up my strong greens and strong reds, getting a shaker bottle, put it in the fridge, so it's ready to go as soon as I'm back. And the reason I do this is because usually as soon as they get back from my run, my dog sees me, she starts barking. Charlie wakes up. So I'm trying to manage making breakfast, getting Charlie up all of those things. I'm always forward thinking and backwards planning. So I try to prep as much as possible before stepping off for that

morning run. So when I get back from that run, my breakfast is one cup of egg whites, two whole eggs, between half and a cup and a whole cup of oats, depending on the performance needs for that day. One banana, I do a scoop of strong greens, which is our greens superfood powerhouse. One scoop of strong reds, which is our reds superfood powerhouse supplement. Both of these powders are very dense in vitamins, minerals, nutrients, adaptogens, and prebiotic fibers, as well as digestive enzymes. So optimizing natural energy, mental clarity, helping you manage and navigate the daily stressors of your day and your life with adaptogens such as ashwaganda and very beneficial and powerful for your gut. Great digestive support.

and then I wash down a serving of our multivitamin, strong multi, strong joints, and then our fish oil, which is strong omega. And that's my breakfast. And I consume that meal around 6.45, 7 a.m. My next meal after that, which I usually consume between 10 and 10.30 a.m., is ground beef, ground chicken. I guess not ground chicken. Ground beef, chicken, or a combination of both.

Recently, what I've been doing is four ounces of ground beef and then four ounces of chicken. So it's always eight ounces of meat. And then a cup and a half of rice, some primal kitchens, buffalo sauce, hummus, and pickled beets. A bunch of just pickled beats. I go through probably three jars of pickled beets a week. It's not an exaggeration.

I love pickled beets. And a lot of people ask, why? I just like the flavor. Now, beats have a lot of beneficial properties, especially for endurance training, actually. Beat root has been extensively studied and shown beneficial and powerful for endurance training. So I'll take the added benefit, but to be honest, I just love the taste of pickled

beets, especially on that meal. So I'll have that between 10 and 10.30 a.m. If I'm on a call, I will actually eat that meal when I'm on a call, especially a lot of Zoom calls. I'll just hide my camera, meet my microphone, and just throw down my meal because by 10 a.m. I am starving for that next meal. And then my third meal, which is normally my pre-workout meal for my second workout being my strength workout of the day, is protein powder. So I'd normally do one scoop of weight protein and then one scoop of our plant-based vegan protein.

The reason I do this, honestly, one, I just love the flavor, the thickness and the, the texture of our plant-based vegan protein. It's a combination of pea protein, watermelon seed, and pumpkin seed. I don't want to say it's grittier, but it is thicker. It makes more of a, I'll make it into a sludge, so it's more pastier. Whereas the whey protein is creamier. Our weight protein is a combination of weight protein and a little bit of casein protein. so it gets very creamy, thick, and very smooth.

And that plant-based vegan protein that I add to it just kind of balks it up a little bit. And for some reason, I've always just loved the combination of those two together. So I'll do a sludge being a scoop away protein, scoop of our vegan plant-based protein. I'll do some fruit. So some raspberries, pomegranate seeds, blueberries, blueberries. maybe banana, just a bunch of fruit in that meal, and then some more carbs, which could be either like an Ezekiel,

cinnamon raisin English muffin with some honey on top, or I'll do a bowl of oatmeal with some peanut butter and some honey in there. I just want to get a decent amount of carbohydrates in that third meal to load me up for that second workout of the day. And I'm not sure. super hungry for that meal typically.

So I like to choose food options that are more calorically dense but not very high in volume. And I would encourage you that if you're having trouble getting the calories that you need in a day because you're just feeling full, try to find and identify food options and choices that are more calorically dense but don't have a lot of volume.

don't fill you up a lot. The opposite would be a salad. A salad is it's not chlorically dense at all. I mean, it can be if you add seeds and oils and dressings and cheese and all these things. But lettuce itself is very high volume but low chloric density. So that's what I'll do for my pre-training meal. And I'll take my pre-workout, flight endopump, five grams of creatine monohydrate. and then after that meal, it's typically dinner time.

Dinner is where we have a lot of variety in our diet. So we might do chicken thighs and sweet potatoes and a salad or some steamed or baked veggies. We do broccoli a lot. We do roasted carrots a lot. We do a lot of rice, a lot of potatoes. Maybe we'll do spaghetti and meat pie. homemade pizza. Dinner is just where we add a lot of variation.

And this is typically where I get most of the vegetables in my day at this meal. Like right now, my favorite dinner to make, which I'm obsessed with. I'm a big fan just making big bowls where I throw everything in the bowl. And I'll take just a massive bowl and I'll do a base layer of, of either arugula or like a spring mix or baby spinach and on top of that

I'll do either a cup and a half of rice just a white jasmine rice or 12 ounces of potato so I'll just microwave some like gold Yukon potatoes and then slice them up and throw them in a pan

and roast them get them a little crispy so you know this base is your greens carb protein in there. I'll add either like eight ounces of ground beef, steak, or chicken. We usually do chicken thighs.

We very rarely do chicken breasts. And then I'll load it up with olives. I love olives. More pickled beets. Either goat cheese or feta cheese. I'll do some pumpkin seeds in there. Pickled onion, cucumber, tomato. and then I might throw like a primal kitchen's dressing on top.

One of their vinegarets or their honey mustard dressings. And then I'll mix all of that up and maybe some hummus too, some more hummus. And just those flavors are out of this world. I just love those bowls. Love that bowl. I get that bowl every night, every meal. Steph likes having more variety in the diet. I could eat that for every meal, but we're married, so there's compromises there.

And then based off of how hunger I am at night or thinking ahead, what my workout is for the next day, if I know I have a really big workout in the next morning and the next day, it's going to be very demanding. I'll ensure I have a meal before going to bed. So that might be cottage cheese with some purely Elizabeth granola and some more berries or some honey. Or some bone brawl. Sometimes I'll do like a big cup of bone broth, which is very dense. And you can get 25 or 30 grams of protein and a big cup of bone broth and some fruits on the side. But that's what a typical diet looks like or day in my diet looks like at the moment.

And my calories, I would estimate probably 3,500, maybe 4,000 calories. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know if I mentioned my breakfast. I think I just skipped over a lot of my breakfast, but my breakfast, I talked about the supplements I take. Strong greens, strong reds, strong multivitamins, strong joins, strong omega. I have a banana and then I make between a half cup and a full cup of oats. I mentioned that I believe

but with that I add in one cup of egg whites and two whole eggs. I can't remember I've mentioned that but I want to make sure I do. What I do actually is in one big skillet

I add the one cup of egg whites two whole eggs and then I actually throw in the old fashioned oats in there, mix it all up, and I make all of it together. And I add sea salt on top and some hot sauce. And I love that combination, mixing my oats and my eggs together. If you haven't tried it, try it. It's super tasty, super delicious. Get a bunch of calories in there with not being overly full. You don't have to make your oatmeal on the side. It's just all in one thing. But that's

my go-to diet as of right now. So as you're thinking about building out, you know, the perfect diet for yourself, especially for those who want to lift heavy, run far, run fast. I heard of this three-step approach a few weeks ago. We had Donald Miller, who's one of my favorite authors,

entrepreneurs, speakers, come in and talk to the BPN team. And he talked about this three-step approach to telling a story, but also marketing a product. And I think it's very applicable to all areas and all aspects of life, actually. And the three steps are one curiosity, two, enlightenment, and three commitment. And I was thinking about this and how it applies to a lot of areas of life, but really how it applies to your health and fitness goals.

You know, you need curiosity. Can I, can I lose weight? Can I achieve single digit body fat percentage? Can I run a marathon? Can I run a marathon in under four hours? Can I run a marathon in under three hours? Can I run a marathon in under two hours, 45 minutes? Can I be a good runner while still lifting and being

big and strong. Anything that we do or strive to pursue oftentimes and will be sparked by curiosity. So that's step one.

What has made you curious? Step two is enlightenment. This is the learning aspect. This is where you go and do your research and you ask questions and you study and you learn and you become enlightened by the things that you are curious about.

And the third step is commitment. This is where you test. You learn. You retest. You adopt. You share with other people. What I want to talk about in regards to these three steps is where I believe most people skip. And that is they skip the enlightenment part.

So a lot of times people become curious about something. And they're lazy in the pursuit of that thing or the answer. or the solution. So they skip the enlightening part. They don't go do their research or find a mentor, or find a guide or study or learn or complete the due diligence

that is required to achieve success through an outcome. They jump right to commitment. So maybe you become curious about a certain diet because you heard someone on social media

say, hey, do you know what? Did you know that carbs are bad and high fat is good? Or did you know that carnivore is superior and that vegetables will kill you? And that sparks a curiosity. Like, huh, you serious? I didn't know that. And instead of skipping the enlightenment part of actually going out and researching and verifying if that's true or if it has validity or how credible those words or that headline is,

they jump right to the commitment and they do. And when you go from curiosity to commitment and skip the enlightenment part, you will oftentimes fail or be let down. Because you skip the most important part. You skip where you learned how to do the commitment. you skip the part where you learn how to succeed. You skip the part where you learned what success could and should look like. So I would encourage you as you start building out your diet and your training to achieve

all those goals of lifting heavy, running far, and running fast, your curiosity is probably going to be sparked by something, whether it's watching someone else achieve. an incredible physical feat and achievement or a new diet that's being marketed and promoted online. And before you jump to the commitment part, make sure you learn and study and research and become enlightened. So you set yourself up for success in the short term and the long term. And the last thing I want to talk about in regards to all things diet is to keep a big picture perspective as opposed to these micro level incremental changes. I have a few analogies I want to share. My hope is that you don't, because I have, get lost in the weeds of all the complexities and overwhelming information of diet and nutrition.

and just stay high level. I've always loved this analogy coming from a military background. Imagine there's a battle happening overseas. Like when the war was very kinetic in Iraq and Afghanistan and our troops,

our military was going into some of these cities and fighting these pretty intense fights with terrorists and people in Iraq and Afghanistan there's so much just chaos on the ground and you're in the weeds

you're in it, you're in the fight there's explosions there's a gunfire right next to you there's loud noises there's people screaming and yelling and walls falling down and all these things and it's like holy crap we're in it right now

or in it. You don't know if you go left or right. You don't know who's behind you or who's ahead of you. You can move into the next building, but moving into that next building could be filled with insurgents. You just don't know. So what do you do in this instance? You call for air support. You call for a helicopter to come in that is well up off the ground, that is safe, secure, and can look at where you're at on the ground from a bird's eye view with a big picture perspective. They can see who's in the building to your 12 o'clock, what's to your 3 o'clock, what's to your 9 o'clock, where the enemy is at, who's fighting who, and they can help navigate you and position you to where you want to and need to be to succeed. Don't be, because you have the opportunity, don't put yourself in the position of being

the soldier on the ground in the fight because you lose the big picture perspective. You're making these short-term decisions, but neglecting the long-term outcomes and consequences. It happens with diet all the time. People go for the quick, easy win, but it's not sustainable for a long period of time, and you're not going to achieve the actual outcomes

that you want for months and years and decades. after that. Be the bird in the sky. Be the helicopter that has big picture perspective and is focusing on these bigger decisions and significant impacts and changes that actually have sustainable outcomes. Now I was listening to this podcast. It was Elaine Norton and Rich Roll podcast. And they were actually talking all about diet. nutrition. I love this analogy that Lane Norton used. I'm a big Lane Norton fan and all of his content information he shares. But he was explaining, you know, think of a mutual fund. A mutual fund is made up of a bunch of individual stocks within a mutual fund. And for example, if one of those

stocks is underperforming. Someone might focus on that one stock and say, holy crap, we got to sell this mutual fund. This stock is tanking exponentially right now. And it's about to crumble. And the finance guy goes, oh yeah, that one stock is crumbling. It's falling apart. It's, it's has horrible performance. But the mutual fund as a whole is 30% up.

it's doing great. We're not going to sell or get rid of this mutual fund just based off the one underperforming stock within this portfolio. And I love that analogy because he used that analogy

in the way that a lot of people look at food and these diet trends have become very popular. A lot of people who are promoting one type of narrative around food and diet will hyper focus on the mechanism

of one food. Maybe that's meat, or maybe that's plants, or maybe that's seed oils, or maybe that's saturated fat. And they'll say, there's this one mechanism of this one food that has negative outcomes and consequences. And it's doing all this harm on the body. But if you pull yourself away and look big picture perspective, well, that one food and ingredient, yes, it has this one mechanism that is not good, but look at the dozen other positive mechanisms that that food or ingredient does have.

So the net outcome of that ingredient is positive, it's beneficial, even though there there's one small negative mechanism that it can or will do. Same thing with a great performing mutual fund that has an underperforming stock within it. Be that person.

person that looks at your diet and makes choices that are big picture perspective, not getting caught up in the weeds or the small mechanisms that might not be significant or even meaningful. Because oftentimes the people who are focusing on the small mechanisms are the ones who are promoting a certain narrative or selling a certain product and telling a specific story. So that is my episode on the perfect diet to lift heavy and run far. Keep it simple. Stay big picture perspective. Now wrap it up with asking the question, can you do your job?

Your job is responsible for your training, your diet, the way you feel, The way you perform, the way you show up.