body for life style diet as a way of life

[J.Brown]

so i have been following this for quite some time now and it seems to work really well.

here is the basics. (or at least my modified version of it)

drink a gallon of water a day

6 small meals a day or eat every 3 to 4 hours if up for an extended period of time

once a week a cheat day, which i use as a cheat meal generally or maybe dessert and a couple of beers or something, maybe an extra big steak or two helpings of somewhat clean food, but not usually total gluttony for an entire day, just enough to get me through a week of clean eating

meals have a portion of clean protein with a clean carb portion and low gi veggie if wanted

usually 2 protein shakes, 2 snack type meals, 2 more traditonal meals per day is my norm

here is yesterdays meals as an example

10 am
egg beaters (4 egg equivalent)
1 piece whole wheat toast with low sugar jam

1 pm
protein shake (bio complete)

4 pm
chicken breast, brown rice, broccoli

8pm (post work out)
protein shake w/oats (bio pro)

11pm
apple, scoop natural p.butter, low fat string cheese

1am
protein pudding

3am bedtime

now this is far from an totally ideal diet plan, but for maitenance and ease of use it has been good for me and i have basically been on it for about 6 years or so.

i have red meat 5 or so times a week and fish usually twice or so. i never really get hungry if i am prepared and have clean food with me, so that is the biggest positive for me.

i have a bit of trouble on this when i travel, but other than that it has been very good for me in terms of healthy eating and weight management, along with getting adequate protein in my diet.

any ideas on how to make it better?
i could post daily diet logs if needed.

any thoughts on body for lifes eating plan in general?
does this seem like it would be doable in general for the masses or have i become more disciplined than i think?

thoughts, questions, concerns?

thremp you can shred this if you want, i have decided like you and try to learn from you what i can!! /images/graemlins/blush.gif

later. J.

[cbloom]

That looks like a pretty healthy diet, but it looks like a helluva lot of work and most people with normal jobs won't be able to do. Also your calories look pretty low for a man getting sufficient exercise, maybe you're in a cutting phase.

Personally I don't like all the artificial products you've got in there but there's no scientific basis for my belief that real foods >>> artificial/processed powders & extracts.

[J.Brown]

funny you would mention that about artificial foods.

do you mean too many protein shakes a day? or what exactly?
sometimes if feel like i don't eat enough "real" food.

i am not really cutting and i am very very active in my w/o's, but i don't think i have a real fast metabolism either. i weigh from low 160's up to 170, so i am not a very big guy.

cbloom, how would you change this diet to make it more ideal? time/money/effort not really a factor at all, but i do have to put a meal or two a day into tupperware and transport it fwtw. tia, J.

[cbloom]

[ QUOTE ]
funny you would mention that about artificial foods.

do you mean too many protein shakes a day? or what exactly?
sometimes if feel like i don't eat enough "real" food.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah you have a lot of shakes and stuff like that. This is just like personal philosophy stuff, you can probably eat "extracts" like that (as long as you take the right vitamins too) and be totally healthy. I don't like to do it. Part of the reason is they keep discovering all these new helpful things in real food, and they find that various compounds can really only be absorbed right in the body in their natural forms, then they start incorporating that into the extracts, but are you really getting things in the right form, and are you really getting the right balance? I personally would cut the shakes & the egg beaters and such. Switch to some real eggs + lean ham, for protein snacks you can have some deli meat, some left over dinners, cottage cheese, tuna, etc. etc. I would also try to eat a lot more vegetables, fish, olive oil, nuts, etc. I haven't counted your calories but your diet might actually be too low in fat.

[ QUOTE ]

i am not really cutting and i am very very active in my w/o's, but i don't think i have a real fast metabolism either. i weigh from low 160's up to 170, so i am not a very big guy.


[/ QUOTE ]

So what's your goal? It's helpful to always be thinking in a category - either bulking (muscle) or cutting or maintenance. Have you counted your calories consumed on typical days? (also % of calories from fat/protein/carbs) ?

[J.Brown]

cbloom,

first off thank you.

i am pretty much maintaining, but trying to get a bit more cut for the summer and trying to get more fit (as always)

i have recently been adding more fat to my diet, mostly through almonds and oil/vinegar on salad.

i don't really count calories because i feel that is part of the beauty of this plan, you don't really have to. if i had to bust out the food scale and look up everything i consumed it wouldn't work for me at all, not practical or needed for me or my goals.

i take a bunch of supplements. multi, c, b, fruit and veggie pills (juice plus), cla, ala, omega 3/6/9.

i am going to try and eat more real food. more veggies, more fruits, one shake a day, more nuts. see if it makes me feel even better. thanks again. J.

[cbloom]

[ QUOTE ]

i don't really count calories because i feel that is part of the beauty of this plan, you don't really have to. if i had to bust out the food scale and look up everything i consumed it wouldn't work for me at all, not practical or needed for me or my goals.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I'm not suggesting counting calories every day. I'm saying when you are evaluating a new diet or want to check on the way you're eating, you should pick a few representative days and count the calories on those days to see what's going on. Sometimes it's surprising, you might be eating too little fat, too much protein, who knows. It's good to do it for more than 1 day because if you just do it on 1 day you might not eat a true typical diet on that day (observation changes the experiment kind of thing).

Anyhoo, the whole lots of little meals thing is very good, as is eating your big meals earlier in the day, eating a good mix of stuff, in general it looks good.