The most important part of any diet plan? Your ability to stick with it for a long period of time.
No matter how “ideal” a meal plan might be for reaching your fitness goals, if you can’t actually do it, day in and day out – it won’t work for ‘ya!
I thought I’d share with you this week how I eat every day as an example of a solid, healthy and do-able diet plan … this diet keeps me relatively lean year-round (around 12% body fat – if I’m trying to get really lean, I’ll tighten things up a bit – but that’s for another post) … and, most importantly, I can stick to it for the long term.
NOTE: If you’re going to use this as a model for your own eating plan, keep in mind that I’m a pretty big guy (I weigh about 245 pounds) … so you’ll need to SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the portion sizes (the average person would have to cut these portions roughly in half):
Breakfast
2 whole eggs OR 1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 cup steel cut oats
1/4 cup blueberries or strawberries
1 scoop whey protein
15 almonds
AM Snack
Home-made protein bar + 1 small apple OR 2 scoops whey mixed w/ 2 tbsp peanut butter and 1 banana
Lunch
4 oz tuna OR 3 oz turkey + 1 oz cheese
1 tbsp light mayo
2 pieces Ezekial bread
1/2 cup baby carrots
PM Snack
Home-made protein bar + 1 small apple OR 2 scoops whey mixed w/ 2 tbsp peanut butter and 1 banana
Dinner
5 oz lean chicken/fish/steak etc.
15 tbsp brown rice OR 1 large yam
Lots of green veggies (min 2 cups) like broccoli, spinach, etc. OR a big salad
I also take the following nutritional supplements every day:
Multi-vitamin (Optimum Opti-Men)
Fish Oil (Cheap Supplements Fish Oil Caps)
Whey Protein (Optimum Whey)
Pre-workout creatine product (I like Jack3d + Green Bulge) (I’ll cycle this on for about six weeks and off for two or three)
Additional Notes:
- I follow the ’90/10′ eating rule (I follow this plan exactly 90% of the time and eat what I want, within reason, 10% of the time. This means out of the 35 meals that I eat each week, I eat whatever I want for 3-4 of those meals).
- I try to drink 1/2 of my body weight in ounces of water each day … for me, that equals about a gallon
- Three or four nights a week, I’ll have a glass of red wine with dinner
- I also typically have a cup of coffee (black) with breakfast
This diet keeps me in good shape year round and I love it. I think it’s so important to select and design a meal plan that’s not only healthy, but one that you can actually stick with for the long term as well. I hope it gives you some good ideas for your own meal planning … keep training hard and train smart!!
Forest Vance
Master of Science, Human Movement
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach
PS - We’re currently looking at different dietary supplements for our pro shop … if there are any you’re specifically interested in, please let me know! And don’t forget – EVERYTHING in the shop – Ts, kettlebells, continuously looped bands, books & DVDs – is on sale through the end of the month.
PPS - We have a REALLY cool new 12 week group workout “specialty” program in the works … if your fitness goals include getting in awesome physical shape and testing your mental toughness in the process, you won’t want to miss it … keep an eye on your email inbox for details coming very soon.
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