​Dr. Cate is a board-certified physician who worked as a family physician all over the United States for over 20 years. She also worked with the Los Angeles Lakers to create a nutrition plan that helped players be less susceptible to injuries and allowed them to recover faster. Currently, she works as a consultant for a company in Florida (ABC Fine Wines & Spirits), helping to improve the health of their 1500 employees through one-on-one consultations.
 
Dr. Cate has written multiple books but her most well-known is Deep Nutrition. She covers many different topics in this book but the most prominent are:

1. Why vegetable oils are “Public Enemy #1.”
2. What she calls the four Pillars of World Cuisine: meat on the bone, organ meats, fermented and sprouted foods, and fresh foods.

 
“Meat on the bone” means that when we consume meat, we should be including everything that comes along with it. Most of the meat you find in the grocery store is stripped of the skin, fat, cartilage, and bones even though all of those things give us nutrients that our bodies need. Dr. Cate warns that the more you cook meat, the less nutrients remain, especially when it comes to steak - she advises trying to work your way down to eating steak medium-rare or even rare.1 She also states that the bones can be used to create something she calls “a missing food group,” bone stock.2
 
The other groups are more self-explanatory. She suggests eating organ meats 1-3 times per week,3 eating probiotic-rich foods like kimchi and sauerkraut once a day,4 and having a salad with four cups of fresh vegetables of four different colors, four days a week.5
 
Dr. Cate’s other books include Food Rules and The Fatburn Fix and she also shares articles on her website, DrCate.com. Through her job, her books and website, and the work she does to spread the word through interviews and health documentaries, she is doing all she can to help as many people as possible with improving their overall health.

1. Deep Nutrition, p. 244
2. Deep Nutrition, p. 303
3. Deep Nutrition, p. 405
4. Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast: "4 Ways To Eat Yourself Beautiful: Meat On The Bone, Fermented & Sprouted Foods, Organ Meats, Deep Nutrition & More With Dr. Cate Shanahan"
5. Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast: "4 Ways To Eat Yourself Beautiful: Meat On The Bone, Fermented & Sprouted Foods, Organ Meats, Deep Nutrition & More With Dr. Cate Shanahan"
6. The Fatburn Fix, p. 333
7. Deep Nutrition, p. 21
8. Deep Nutrition, p. 118
9. Deep Nutrition, p. 298
​10. The Fatburn Fix, p. 216

​Mike Matthews is a virtual fitness coach and bestselling author of several books. His flagship books and programs are Bigger Leaner Stronger (or ’BLS’) for men and Thinner Leaner Stronger (or ‘TLS’) for women. To explain the purpose of these books and his mission as a coach, he states, “I’m Mike and I believe that every person can achieve the body of their dreams. My mission is to give everyone that opportunity by providing time-proven, evidence-based advice on how to build muscle, lose fat, and get and stay healthy.”1 He also has a popular podcast, Muscle for Life, and is the founder and CEO of his supplement company, Legion Athletics.
 
Mike works to give the coaching advice that he wished he had when he started working towards his health and fitness goals. He also backs up all of his advice with scientific reasoning. For instance, in BLS and TLS, he cites over 500 different resources that are mainly scientific articles.
 
For Mike’s advice on weightlifting, he mainly focuses on progressive overload. This term is used to express that you are loading your muscles enough when you work out that you consistently see progress in reps and weight you’re adding to the bar. He also focuses on “The Big Three” lifts: the barbell squat, barbell deadlift, and barbell bench press and working in the 4-6 rep range (with 1-2 left in the tank) for those lifts and in the 8-12 rep range for most other exercises.
 
For his advice on nutrition, his main focus is on your caloric intake: making sure you are in a caloric surplus when you are trying to bulk up and in a caloric deficit when you are trying to cut weight. He also states that you cannot ignore the quality of food you eat and suggests eating 1-2 servings of fruit and 2-3 servings (cups) of fibrous vegetables each day.2
 
Mike does a great job at breaking everything down so that anyone could get started on one of his programs. His programs vary between 3-5 workout sessions each week to accommodate those who cannot find time to go to the gym every day. He also has workbooks that go along with the BLS and TLS programs, more advanced books to follow, and even a cookbook, The Shredded Chef. Last but definitely not least, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation is a book that he wrote to give advice on motivation and success to assist you further in making goals for yourself and crushing them. As you can see, Mike has been creating great content for a while and he continues to do so.

1. Bigger Leaner Stronger, p. 31
​2. Bigger Leaner Stronger, p. 206
​3. Bigger Leaner Stronger, p. 38
​4. Bigger Leaner Stronger, p. 102
5. Bigger Leaner Stronger, p. 163
6. Bigger Leaner Stronger, p. 70
7. Bigger Leaner Stronger, p. 216
8. Muscle For Life - "Ru Anderson on How to Master Your Habits"

​Ben has so many titles, both current and former, that if I tried to list them out, I know I would miss a few. Today, mainly he is a coach to high-performing CEOs and athletes, CEO of his own supplement company, Kion, a top-rated blogger and podcaster through Ben Greenfield Fitness, and a world-renowned speaker on health, fitness, and productivity. To explain some of his past work, he has written over a dozen books on all different subjects from his experiences of being a personal trainer, bodybuilder, and top-performing triathlete.
 
During a live conference he spoke at for Mindvalley Talks, Ben stated that his main goal through his work is to, “empower people to live a more adventurous, joyful, and fulfilling life.”1  He strives to give people quality advice on performing their best, whether it is in the gym or in the office, while maintaining a full and happy life. Many know Ben as a “biohacker” because he talks of improvements you can get by means of things like saunas, cold thermogenesis, and stem cells.
 
Ben has also been a strong advocate of being on a high-fat diet, or at least saving the most of your carbohydrates for the end of the day. Outside of an increase in performance and just anecdotally feeling better, Ben states that a high-fat diets also improve metabolic efficiency and flexibility2 as well as recovery3 and reduced risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes and even cancer.4
 
Some of Ben’s highest-praised and most recent books include Beyond Training and Boundless. His past books speak more to specific topics like bodybuilding or triathlete training while these books speak more to a general audience who wants to improve their lives and increase longevity.

1. Mindvalley Talks: "Can You Hack Your Biological Age? - Ben Greenfield" 
2. Beyond Training: p. 318-319
3. BenGreenfieldFitness.com Article: "Rewriting the Fat Burning Textbook - Part 1: Why You've Been Lied to About Carbs And How To Turn Yourself Into A Fat Burning Machine"
4. BenGreenfieldFitness.com Article: "10 Ways To Do A Low Carbohydrate Diet The Right Way"
5. Beyond Training: p. 207
6. The Mindbodygreen Podcast : "Ben Greenfield, Professional Biohacker, On Daily Hacks Everyone Can Try"
7. Beyond Training: p. 115
8. Beyond Training: p. 127

Dr. Steven Gundry has an incredible story of how he made the switch from being a talented heart surgeon to becoming a best-selling author and one of today’s well-known nutrition experts. Gundry graduated cum laude at Yale University in the early 1970s and has been heavily involved in medicine (mainly in the fields of cardiology and immunology) ever since.  As a cardiac surgeon, he patented multiple tools still used in heart surgery and was known for keeping hearts beating for extensive periods outside the body.
 
In the early 2000s, Dr. Gundry had a patient who he calls “Big Ed” that threw a curveball in his career path. Big Ed was a special case who had seen multiple doctors about his clogged arteries and had been continuously told that nothing can be done to help him. After Dr. Gundry had said the same thing, Big Ed explained that he lost forty-five pounds in the past six months and had been taking a number of supplements. Gundry congratulated him on the weight loss and said something along the lines of, “Good for you, but that isn’t going to help your heart.” Big Ed insisted that a new video be taken of his heart and Dr. Gundry was astounded to find that half of Ed’s artery troubles had been wiped away!
 
Thanks to this moment, Dr. Gundry started helping people that he would perform surgeries on to then adjust their diets and start taking supplements so they never had to have the same operation again. He also stated that he had performed multiple surgeries on the same patient several times. In one instance, he operated on someone NINE times. About a year after meeting Big Ed and when Dr. Gundry realized his methods were working, he decided he should be helping people before they ever need surgery so he started his own restorative medicine practice at the International Heart and Lung Institute in Palm Springs, California.1
 
From there, Gundry started to study his own patients more enough to write multiple books. His first book, Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution, was published in 2009. It focuses on weight loss and shows his root principles. His following book is what really sparked his popularity – The Plant Paradox. In both of these books, Dr. Gundry shows his interest in longevity by helping us achieve “dying young at a ripe old age” through adopting a healthy, sustainable diet that eliminates processed foods and strengthens our guts.
 
Most recently, he released a new book, The Longevity Paradox. Other than reading his books, you can also visit his website at gundrymd.com, watch videos from him on his YouTube channel, or listen to him on The Doctor Gundry Podcast or on one of his dozens of podcast interviews.

Here are some of the tips and quotes from Dr. Gundry that I’ve found most valuable:
​

• “I love cardiac surgery. But giving people the tools to heal themselves transcends just about anything I can do with a knife, needle, and thread.”2

 

• “Calories merely tell us how much energy is contained in a food, not how much energy your body can derive from it.”3  Dr. Gundry explains that for longevity purposes, it is more about the quality of the food you eat than the quantity.

 

• “Research has shown that it takes at least six weeks of continuous practice to instill a new habit.”4

 

• “My research has shown that if you can work your way up to consuming the equivalent of one bag of dark green leaves (lettuce, spinach, or other greens) daily, your life will change dramatically for the better.”5

  ​

• More than 80% of Dr. Gundry’s patients are deficient in Vitamin D3 and “anyone in my practice with leaky gut or an autoimmune disease has low levels.” Dr. Gundry states that this essential vitamin prevents leaky gut as well as bone degeneration. He also relates a lack of Vitamin D to prostate cancer and obesity.6 Take at least 5,000 IUs per day and if you have an autoimmune disease, take 10,000 IUs per day.7

1. Muscle Intelligence Podcast: Dr. Steven Gundry, Rethinking Everything You Knew About a "Healthy Diet."
2. Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution - p. 131
3. Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution - p. 24
​4. Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution - p. 47
​5. Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution - p. 132
6. The Plant Paradox - p. 113-114
7. The Plant Paradox - p. 275

Shawn Stevenson is a general fitness and nutrition expert who has influenced hundreds of thousands over the past 10+ years through his book, Sleep Smarter, his fitness program, The Fat Loss Code, as well as his insanely popular podcast, The Model Health Show.

​It all started when Shawn was in high school. Shawn was on-track to be a star athlete but this came to a quick halt when he broke his hip while simply running a 200m time trial in practice. He dealt with constant pain and four years later was diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease and degenerative disc disease. When he got this diagnosis, he recalls asking his doctor, “Does this have anything to do with what I am eating.” His doctor looked at him like he was crazy and replied, “This has nothing to do with what you’re eating. Just carry on as you are because this is something that just happens. I’m sorry that this happened to you but it’s just something you’re going to have to deal with; this is incurable.” 
 
For the following two years, he followed the doctor’s orders of remaining inactive and using medications for his pain. This, along with what he called his “TUF” (Typical University Food) diet, he gained over 40 pounds and wasn’t seeing his situation getting any better. Eventually, Shawn said, “Enough is enough,” and decided to take matters into his own hands. He started small: working out on the exercise bike, changing his eating habits, and sleeping better. After six weeks, he lost 20 pounds and within nine months, he reversed the damage done to his bones, healed his ruptured discs, and amazed his doctors that weren’t able to make progress by consultations, medications, and surgeries.1
 
After taking these steps to get his health on track, Shawn kept on improving what he calls, “the three pillars of health that changed everything for me: right nutrition, right exercise, and right sleep.”2 He changed his college courses to learn as much on health as he could, got certified as a strength and conditioning coach, and started assisting students and professors at his university.3

Soon enough, Shawn started to realize his passion for helping others through podcasting, writing, and speaking at events. He also realized after years working with clients one-on-one, how many people needed help with their sleep more than anything so he put his best efforts into his book, Sleep Smarter​, which was published in 2016.

Nowadays, the heart of Shawn's content is found at www.TheModelHealthShow.com, where you will find blog posts, upcoming speaking events, podcast episode information, as well as information on Sleep Smarter, The Fat Loss Code, and his upcoming book, Eat Smarter scheduled for release at the very end of 2020. Shawn's content has a strong focus on how our hormones are influenced by our fitness, nutrition, and sleep habits and how they effect our overall health.

Here are just some of the tips and quotes from Shawn Stevenson that I've found most valuable:
​

• ​Many people say that eight hours is the perfect amount. Shawn does not agree with this for multiple reasons. Mainly, everyone is a bit different: some people may be fine with eight but others might need up to ten hours each night. You also have many lifestyle factors that affect your sleep and certain times are also more valuable than others. According to Shawn, “It’s been shown that human beings get the most beneficial hormonal secretions and recovery by sleeping during the hours of 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. This is what I call money time.”4

​

• “Sleep cycles typically last for 90 minutes each and repeat four to six times per night. So, six normal 90-minute sleep cycles would equal 9 total hours of sleep… To make your mornings better and more energetic, start setting your alarm so that it goes off in accordance with these sleep cycles instead of the standard “8 hours of sleep.” For example, if you go to sleep at 10:00 p.m., set your alarm for 5:30 a.m. (for a total of 7 ½ hours of sleep), and you’ll likely find that you feel more refreshed when you wake up than if you set the alarm for 6:00 a.m. and interrupted another sleep cycle.”5 A couple suggestions Shawn has to optimize your sleep are that we should schedule our sleep around our ideal number of hours and to aim for a minimum of bare minimum of four sleep cycles (or about six hours) each night.6,7 

​

• ​Two things that can seriously impair your sleep are caffeine and alcohol. According to Shawn, you should set a caffeine curfew of around 2:00 p.m. the latest and avoid alcohol three hours before bedtime.8,9 Caffeine is harmful to your sleep because it causes your body to create adrenaline and cortisol and the half-life is between five and eight hours. To show how detrimental this is, he states that consuming caffeine six hours before bed causes one hour of lost sleep.10 When it comes to alcohol, Shawn explains how it is harmful because of how it and disrupts your REM sleep so your body and brain cannot recover properly and your memory also suffers.11

​

• Shawn explains that daily exercise is not an option. “If you’re really serious about being the healthiest person you can be, you’ll set your personal exercise appointment and sleep time first, then schedule everything else around them.”12 Many people believe running is the best way to burn fat but Shawn states that running is not the best because it can burn away your muscle if you run too much. Rather, on an interview with The Ultimate Health Podcast, he states that his suggested exercise plan is to lift heavy 2-3 times per week and to walk for 20-30 minutes each day, minimum.13

 

• “Strive to eat organic, locally grown, unprocessed foods for the bulk of your diet.”14 According to Shawn, this is the best way to get the nutrients your body needs. He always suggests natural forms of vitamins and minerals over supplements.

 

• “If you were to ask me… your relationships are the biggest governing force over all of it because that is the most influential thing on the decisions you make with your sleep, the decisions you make with the food that you eat, the decisions you make on whether or not you’re exercising or when or how you do it.”15

This weeks' post is a quick one but I hope you find it valuable. Through my research, I always hear recommendations of other books, websites, etc. to check out and there are a couple websites I feel everyone should know...

One of the keys to living healthy is eating fresh foods. By buying our food locally, we are not only benefitting our health but our community as well. LocalHarvest.org is a fantastic resource for finding local farms, CSAs, farmers markets, and stands near you and seeing what they offer if you live anywhere in the United States. I live in a relatively remote area but it's amazing how many local resources there are around me that I would have never known about without this website. 

Whether you're looking for fresh eggs, meat, vegetables, honey, meat, maple syrup, you name it - you should be able to find a local resource if not multiple options through this site. If you are looking for a farm/CSA to get food from regularly, many farms provide information on when you can tour their land so you really know where the food is coming from and how the animals there are treated.

I highly suggest checking it out. You'd be doing your community service by supporting local farmers and yourself a service by getting fresh, organic foods. You can also easily find grass-fed beef, pasture-raised pork, free range chicken and eggs, and other high quality foods through this resource.

Thank you, Ben Greenfield, for showing me this website. I believe I first discovered it in his book, Beyond Training. 

Another key to having good health is obviously water. According to Shawn Stevenson, here are the best sources of water in order:

1. Natural spring water
2. Well water
3. Spring or well water bottled in glass
4. Reverse osmosis ("structured") water

FindASpring.com is a resource that can be used all around the world (especially in North America or Europe) to find a natural spring near you. I just discovered this resource recently - I've used it near where I live and when I've traveled but have not a had a spring near me yet. But when I do, I will report back.

Thank you, Shawn Stevenson, for letting me know about this website and I look forward to using it.

Check out those resources and let me know what you think in the comments. If you end up using one of them to get fresh food or water, definitely share your experience!

This is an unusual post - normally I cover specific topics on nutrition, fitness, or inspiration to help others on their self-improvement journeys. If this is the first post you read, I encourage you to look at one of my other recent posts:
​

• How to Deal With Stress in 2020: 7 Stress Management Tips with April Shwe-Paul
• The Carbohydrate Conundrum
• New Addition: Free Nutrition & Fitness Guide for Subscribers!

If you enjoyed it enough to subscribe so that you get notified of new posts or news about the blog, head over to my Contact Page! Thank you for reading!

​The main reason that nutrition is so confusing nowadays is the variety of diets based on opposing ideas. The biggest argument of all – carbohydrates. There are many different forms of diets based around the idea that carbohydrates should be as low as humanly possible if you want to lose weight. And then there are those that focus on a lower-fat, calorie-counting approach?
 
So, which is right? What is the key to weight loss? Low-carbohydrate, low-fat, or calorie counting? 

​Before proceeding, please know that I am no expert. I feel that I can have an open discussion about this topic because I have experimented with both diets enough to have a good understanding of what works for me and have researched multiple experts on both sides of the coin.

​The experts that mainly focus on longevity like Dr. Cate Shanahan, Dr. Steven Gundry, and Ben Greenfield state that low-carbohydrate diets are what matters. The statements they make against carbohydrates are along the lines of, “Carbohydrates are just complex sugars and end up being equivalent to simple sugars after being broken down as glucose in the body.” They explain how crucial healthy fats are in your diet and that cholesterol is wrongly accused of heart problems and instead label processed foods, vegetable oils, and sugars as the culprits.
​
The experts that mainly focus on muscle-building like Mike Matthews and Greg Nuckols state that calories are what matters when it comes to weight loss/gain. They do not disagree with the importance of eating natural foods and state that if you go to the gym, it is even more important to eat natural foods. Outside of your total calorie count, they explain the importance of eating enough protein and prescribe a more balanced diet between carbohydrates, fats, and protein. For instance, Mike Matthews prescribes 45%, 25%, and 30% respectively (this specifically is for maintaining muscle), while also suggesting 80% of your diet comes from fresh, natural foods at a minimum.

​Personally, I enjoy using a low-carbohydrate diet when I need to cut weight. I aim to eat less than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day and 90% of the time can hit that goal. I do not think there’s any solid proof that this is any better than a low-fat diet but for me, I like it because it essentially forces me to mainly eat natural foods and fat is much more satiating so I really never feel hungry, even if I decide to fast for most of the day.
 
When I need to build muscle, I eat more carbohydrates and I don’t worry about it. As long as I hit my goals for calories and protein and am still eating natural foods for the most part, I feel I am on the right track. I’m progressing in my workouts, adding weight, and feel great overall.

​At the end of the day, you need to find the diet that works best for you. Find a diet you’re interested in and buy a couple cookbooks to make sure it is something you will enjoy. The best diet (and exercise program) is the one that you will adhere to and implement consistently.

​If a diet (or exercise program) has worked for hundreds of thousands of people, it obviously works for some. Ultimately, you should never take a diet or exercise program as gospel. Experiment and make tweaks so that you enjoy it but are still making progress.
​
Side Note: I do not mean to discount any experts. I respect all experts I have done deep research on; they've done great work to influence hundreds of thousands of people, have taught me a ton, and have made an enormous positive impact on my life.
 
You are more than welcome to add to the discussion or ask questions in the comments below!

​How many times have you heard or said to yourself something along the lines of, “I don’t have the money to eat healthy.” This is such a common excuse and, to be honest, I’ve said it myself in the past. We assume that “eating healthy” means buying tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and needing to go to the grocery store multiple times per week in order to keep our salads fresh. The only time that this might be the case is if you are deciding to be 100% vegetarian, and even then, it is probably better to ease yourself into it until it is practical and simple to make the switch. 

I've learned it's much better to focus on the smaller habits you can do that add up. If you do that, you’ll find it truly is not any more costly and it can also be an easy and enjoyable change to make. In this post, I will share tips given by nutrition experts as well as small habit changes to make it easy for you to follow their advice.

​Shawn Stevenson, nutritionist and general health expert, suggests drinking half your bodyweight each day in water, switching pounds for ounces. For example, if you weight 150lbs, he states that you should drink 75oz (about 9 glasses) of water each day. He says that there is no reason to exceed 100oz unless you have a heavy workout that day. This is similar to other respected health experts’ recommendations like Dr. Cate Shanahan and Ben Greenfield.

Shawn suggests starting your day off with 20-30oz of water to both get a head start on this goal and to wash your body of toxins first thing in the morning. He then suggests keeping a water bottle with you throughout the day. These two habits paired together make drinking a healthy amount of water each day easily attainable.1

​Another tip by Shawn Stevenson is to eat at least two servings of green leafy vegetables and one cup of berries each day. He warns not to overdo the berries because they are loaded with sugars and states that avocados are also a great option to add in at breakfast time. Dr. Steven Gundry, nutrition expert and former cardiologist, also suggests the same amount of daily green leafy vegetables.

​Shawn suggests starting your day with a green smoothie or a shake with vegetables and/or berries that you don’t think you’ll get throughout the day. Personally, I try to get these amounts of fruits and vegetables each day but if I am unable to reach them, I use pre-made smoothies from the grocery store and/or supergreen supplement powders at the end of the day to make up for what I’ve missed.
 
Another simple habit to help this is by, rather than keeping your fruit hidden in your fridge, leave it in a bowl on the counter so you walk by and see it every day. This is a tip I’ve heard from multiple experts, including James Clear, an expert on motivation and success through improving your habits.2-4

​Dr. Cate Shanahan, physician and nutrition expert, states that one soda each day can increase your risk of heart attack by 30% and increase calcium buildup in your arteries by 70%. She also states, “I don’t recommend diet soda unless you are using it as a bridge to kick the regular soda habit.”

​In order to kick this habit, you need to find an alternative you enjoy. Dr. Cate suggests the following alternatives: ice-cold sparkling water with a lemon wedge, herbal tea, or 6-10oz of kombucha with the lowest amount of sugar you can find.
 
Although Dr. Cate does not advocate for any sweeteners, Shawn Stevenson and Ben Greenfield both believe Stevia is a good and safe alternative to sugar. Personally, the alternatives I use are iced tea, lemonade (made with water and lemon juice), or an iced tea/lemonade mixture sweetened with stevia.5

​I’m sure these habits sound like a lot but they have been very helpful for me and if you fall short some days, don’t stress – it’s better to make some effort than not try at all. Dr. Cate recommends trying to make one new change each time you go to the market rather than making a whole list of changes at once. You can also start small and work your way up by limiting soda rather than going cold turkey or trying to work in just 1 serving of vegetables each day and don’t worry about the type of vegetable, just pick something you enjoy eating.6
 
Next time you go to the market, try one of these habit changes. Small changes each day turn into enormous improvements over time. Thank you for reading and I hope this helps you. If you find one habit is successful and you enjoy it, try the next one. Let me know how it goes in the comments below! Also, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below or ask me via email @ [email protected].
 
If you enjoyed this post, take a minute and subscribe to the blog by going to my Contact Page and entering your email. Also, share the post with friends by doing a simple copy & paste.

​I see this question all the time and it’s really the main purposes of this blog site: to help you find resources for nutrition and fitness, whether you are a beginner or looking to learn more on top of what you already know. If you’ve asked this question that means you’ve already started. Something sparked the thought that you want to find a plan that works for you - for nutrition, exercise, or both. Maybe this was a motivational speaker you heard or your weight hit a number that you never want to see again or you had your first kid and realize you want to be around for as long as possible. No matter the reason, you need to find the resources to get you headed in the right direction.

​I suggest taking the following 4 steps...

​First off, what are you trying to achieve? Nutrition and fitness are far too complex to try and understand everything at once. Are you trying to build muscle? Do you want to work on your form during certain lifts? Find new exercises?

Are you trying to lose weight? This is a bit more complicated because of how many diets there are out there. My advice is to research which diet sounds most practical for you. Personally, I find Paleo to be a great introduction to avoiding sugary and starchy junk foods. By simply avoiding processed foods, you’ll find that your daily carbohydrate and sugar count will go down and it will be easier not to overeat. If diet isn’t your issue, find an exercise plan that sounds most practical depending on what you enjoy doing and what you realistically have time for.

If you aren’t sure and would like to do a further assessment to figure out your goals, check out a popular post of mine - Setting Goals (Warren Buffet, Jordan Pederson).

​If you look at my Recommended Books Page or my About Page, you will find a number of experts with all different backgrounds and areas of expertise. Whether you want to build muscle, lose weight, or work on improving specific aspects of your current programming, there should be someone you can respect and would like to learn more from more. Check out their website, books they've written, interviews they've done, etc. to find out if you want to learn more of what they have to say.

​Personally, the only form of media I trust for full nutrition or fitness plans are books. Most programs are simply too complex to explain in an article and you want to make sure it is a plan that you trust will work, especially if you are a beginner. Also, don’t just pick up one book. I find that self-help, fitness, nutrition, and cookbooks all go together. At a minimum, pick up or download 2-3 books from a mixture of those categories. For example, if you want to work on your diet, pick up 1 book from the expert you chose to learn from and then pick up 1 or 2 cookbooks related to the diet you would like to try. Many nutrition books introduce their own meal plans and provide recipes but I can tell you that cookbooks will give you a much better idea of all the options and should make you realize the diet won’t be too difficult to follow.

Take this step seriously. Keep a highlighter with you and really get to know the diet/training program they’re prescribing. When looking at cookbooks, cut out or mark the pages of recipes you want to try.

​In the end, it is all on you. You can read all the self-help, fitness, and diet books you want, but if you don’t act on it, nothing will change and you will just waste your time and money. All while researching and reading, you should be doing something to get started. Pick up dumbbells or a kettlebell, or find a gym or a club that you like, or make an effort to limit sugars/carbohydrates. Find what you like best – you make tweaks to their program or combine aspects of different programs. Whatever you enjoy doing and can see yourself doing consistently for a long time is the program for you.

I hope this helps you. This is the method that I took once I had the motivation to get started. I had been working out consistently but wasn’t seeing any improvements so I decided to take it seriously and attempted to improve my nutrition and find a workout plan that works for me – and I did. There are experts out there who want nothing more than to assist you in reaching your goals who have huge followings raving about how well their programs work.

If you want advice on which expert to follow, comment below with what you are looking to accomplish and I’ll do my best to help. You can also email me at [email protected].

Lastly, if you enjoyed this post please share it on (simply copy the link into your social media feed) and subscribe to the blog on my Contact Page. I will not spam your email but only notify you of new blog posts or important news related to the blog. Thank you for reading!

As promised, here is Part 2 of 2 of "Simplifying Protein." Part 1 can be found here - Simplifying Protein (Part 1 of 2). Part of me really debated if I wanted to even do a Part 2 because this is such a stereotypical article from health and fitness bloggers but, after thinking about it, I do believe I have practical tips for you to take away. Part 1 was created to give a background of what experts suggest on how much protein you should be consuming each day, whether you are on a diet or bulking up. Part 2 is more to share what I use to help reach my protein goals.

A routine for your diet? What?! ... Yes, I think this is the easiest way (at least that I've found) to keep track of things when counting macros and calories.

I, for one, progressively eat more calorie-heavy as the day progresses. I like starting my day with a light meal, eating an average (anywhere from 600-1,000 calories, depending on if I am cutting or bulking) lunch, and eating a large (800-1,000+ calories, depending) dinner. I find this helps my energy levels throughout the day.

For breakfast, I start with light protein and once I start snacking towards lunch time, my protein intake increases quite a bit. I also try to make sure my lunch and dinner each includes about 8oz of some sort of meat, which gives me at least 50g of protein each meal right there.

Whether I am cutting or bulking, I rely a bit on snacks just to ensure that I hit my protein goal. When I'm cutting, I'll have very small snacks that are very low in carbohydrates but when I am bulking, I'll have a larger variety of snacks with a good mix of carbohydrates and protein.

People are so worried about not reaching their protein goal but it's actually really easy if you follow these tips, at least in my opinion. I think you should be more worried about overdoing it. If you're eating foods that contain protein throughout the day, it can be easier than you think to overshoot your goal. You may want to check if you need that extra protein shake your drinking every day.

For tracking, I like using www.calorieking.com. I suggest tracking for about a 30-day period, once a year. If you want to check out my experience doing this, here is an older post of mine - Counting My Macros. 

Whether you are bulking or cutting, protein is the macro that experts seem to stress the most. Below, I'll share what foods I typically eat in order to ensure I hit my protein goals.

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For breakfast, I usually start with about 2 cups of yogurt (14g of protein).

For snacks, I usually have 4-6oz of mixed nuts and a Clif Bar or something similar (34-46g of protein total).
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For lunch and dinner, I usually have 8oz of one of the proteins listed above along with vegetables/starches to go along with it (~50g of protein for each).

This brings my total protein to around 150g of protein per day.  Since I am currently bulking at 170lb, I'm not worried as long as I hit somewhere around 0.8g/lb, or 135g per day. Some days I run out of certain snacks to eat or my meals change a bit but because my average day hits above that 0.8g/lb per day, I'm not worried.