My goal is to live a long and healthy life, both physically and mentally. I want to wake up every morning feeling AWESOME. It’s obvious that diet alone won’t achieve that. Exercise is an important part here but this article is about nutrition only.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I don’t pretend to be one on the internet. If you want to drastically change your diet or if you have any medical condition, please consult a professional before doing so. I am not affiliated with any books, podcasts or products I may recommend.
Facts:
- I started adjusting my way of eating about 3 years ago.
- I read over 20 books, listened to over 100 podcasts and read many online articles. I implemented things that made sense to me and self-evaluated the results.
- In those 3 years, I gradually lost 15KG of fat (22% of my body weight).
- I’m currently at 56KG (1m70 tall).
- I plan to gain more muscle and end up around 62KG with 10% body fat.
- I don’t recommend blindly following rules, you have to try things out and evaluate them for yourself.
- Crash diets or drastic changes don’t work.
- I have the luxury of preparing food and eating at home almost every day at whatever time I want. I also don’t have to compromise on quality food from a financial point of view. If you’re not in that position you’ll have to be creative.
What my typical day of eating looks like:
8.00am
500ml of mineral water + 1000mg of vitamin C + 5000 IU vitamin D
9.00am
Coffee (no milk/sugar)
10.00am
Workout time on workout days (I take BCAAs before and after workout)
11.30am
More coffee (except on workout days)
1.00pm
First meal of the day: 200g of spinach/broccoli/beetroot + eggs/salmon/sardines + macadamia/brazil nuts + chocolate (at least 90% dark, I get the 99% one from Lindt, about 10g/day)
Supplements: Multi vitamins (I get Multi Thera) and 1350mg fish/krill oil (I get Nordic Naturals)
1.30pm
Cut-off for coffee/caffeine (usually after meal coffee)
4.00pm
Green juice (Kale, Spinach, Broccoli, Ginger, Cayenne, Water) or spice shot (Ginger, Turmeric, Lime, Cayenne)
5.00pm
Some nuts and/or chocolate if hungry
6.30pm
Last meal of the day: 200g zucchini/eggplant/tomato, 150g pasta/rice/potatoes, 200g steak
(This entire meal takes me 15 minutes to prepare with the pasta version)
Supplements: Multi vitamins, 1000mg magnesium, 1350mg fish/krill oil
7.00pm
Cut-off for any food or other calorie intake
11.00pm
Bed (I try to reduce water/tea after dinner so I don’t have to wake up during the night)
Comments:
- If you want to change 1 thing in your diet, choose from the following:
- Some form of fasting
- Lots of green vegetables
- Fish/krill oil supplements (quality is super important here)
- Cut sugar and restrict carb intake
- As you can see I only have a 6-hour feeding window and 18 hours of fasting every day. I’m convinced that every diet should have some form of fasting. I don’t have the balls to do a 72-hour fast, but it looks like this is a more effective way of fasting. I’m used to fasting on a daily basis, I don’t get hungry and it is hugely convenient. I work out 15 hours into my fast which I’m totally cool with (no dizziness or loss of strength).
- I consume around 3L of water/day
- Everybody is different in their needs of food. I tend to perform best when I don’t have carbs during the day. Also depends on your physical requirements. If you work in construction you will need more food.
- I don’t consume any alcohol. If you do, stick to red wine. No beer.
- Pasta is my weakness. If I would leave it out I wouldn’t last.
- I don’t have any rules but I try to stick to my fasting. I have an occasional pizza or kebab without any feelings of guilt.
- I know the diet largely resembles Paleo and Ketogenic diets, I try to take good stuff from everywhere while not restricting myself in any way to maximise long term sustainability.
Books that mostly impacted my diet:
Mark Sisson – The Primal Blueprint
Mark Hyman – The Ultra Mind Solution
Anything from Tim Ferriss on nutrition (Tools of Titans is good starting point)
Podcasts:
FoundMyFitness by Rhonda Patrick
Tim Ferriss show (find interesting ones in Tools of Titans, then listen to those episodes of the podcast)
This is awesome, really balanced and I love how you haven’t been dogmatic in sticking to one “school” of dieting, or self-flagellating for falling off the wagon with a burger every now and again!
One thing I’ve experimented with recently – focusing on cutting out toxins by buying everything organic as much as possible (from food to toothpaste to household cleaners), drinking mineral water from glass bottles and reducing consumption of meat in favour of fish. Meat is great and still have the occasional steak but does take a lot of energy to digest, and fish seems to keep me more productive and in good energy balance.
I also agree personally I have found I need some carbs to feel healthy and I don’t enjoy going full keto. I have found food combining helps here – eating protein-greens-fats at lunch, eating carbs-greens-fats at dinner. Seems to work really well since you avoid afternoon carb slump and just take the slump when you are ready for bed anyway. I couldn’t do pasta because gluten is my kryptonite but I have been dabbling with gnocchi and plantains recently.
Also love your stuff about fasting – just got off a 36 hour fast and feel like a new man!!
You have inspired me to get back on the wagon with the magnesium and krill oil – I had totally forgotten about taking that stuff. I do ginger shots too – recent discovery – do you think adding cayenne makes a big difference? Might try that.
Great post dude thanks
Thanks for the reply man! Really appreciate you opening my eyes in terms of fasting and diet back in 2016.
I do try to go organic as much as possible. In Belgium it’s relatively easy and cheap. If not organic, I try to be aware of the origins of the food (Alaskan/Scottish salmon or wild/farmed). Also found some grass fed Kerrygold butter in my Belgian supermarket 😉
For some foods I wouldn’t eat non-organic (eggs for example).
In terms of meat I replaced ham by smoked salmon and I barely eat chicken. I have meat (steak usually) every other day, the other days I’m pretty much vegetarian or fish-only. Back in the days I would have ham sandwich for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and chicken for dinner. Limiting meat consumption to once a day is a good step.
A couple of weeks ago I tried the slow carb diet from Ferriss. But I was getting in too much fat and my liver didn’t approve. I also tried cheat days with donuts etc. but I no longer like the taste of sugar. I do try to eat more calories one day/week because I’m often below 1500 and don’t want to slow down my metabolism too much.
I need to look further into organic toothpaste and shampoo. Currently using ‘ZERO %’ from Sanex and I use this deodorant: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000ZMAR6K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
My flat in Belgium now is pitch-dark at night and it’s so silent I need to keep my watch in a different room because I hear it ticking. Keeping my phone in the other room as well. Need to learn to sleep on my side or back though because my neck is twisted all night long now.
It’s an on-going process man. I’m curious what we will be eating in 5-10-20 years. And what the mainstream diet will look like..