In Part 1, I summed up what my Food Rules are and my eating “schedule” (if you even want to call it that).
Today, I want to talk about the diet that I use to be able to stay lean year round.
Before 2007, I was obsessed (as were a lot people who could be classified as “fitness freaks”) about what I ate. I read book after book on how to properly eat, the best times to eat, how much protein I should be eating, what to eat and what not to eat, what supplements to buy, which fruit caused the greatest increase in blood sugar, etc, etc.
Because of my obsession, I suffered from paralysis through analysis and, for the most part of 5 years, my body looked the same day in and day out – great with clothes on but a little too mushy for my liking when the shirt came off. This was despite all the so-called “latest findings” that I would read about in every book, magazine and journal that I could get my hands on and tried to implement on a regular basis.
It wasn’t until November 2007 when I met my now good friend Brad Pilon.
Brad, a fellow Canuck, had recently wrote a book called Eat-Stop-Eat. It was an eBook on Intermittent Fasting – a nutrition concept that I had heard of, but had never given much consideration, mainly because of the bodybuilder and fitness dogma that I was a believer in that said that you would go into a mythical “starvation mode” and would become a fat slob if you didn’t eat every 2 to 3 hours.
Brad’s idea of Intermittent Fasting involved not eating anything at all for a full 24 hour period.
I thought he was insane – at the time.
Brad has done extensive years of research on Intermittent Fasting and is one of my most trusted advisors or both training and nutrition. If you’re at all curious if Intermittent Fasting will work for you, I strongly suggest you take a look at Eat-Stop-Eat. It will open your eyes to something incredible…
Carb Cycling
Carb Cycling was a pretty new concept to me as well. Simply put, you “cycle” the amount of carbs you eat based on your activity level for that particular day.
So, if I’m training hard on one particular day, I will focus on eating a good/high amount of carbohydrates mainly coming from sources like potatoes, sweet potatoes & rice (and some pasta if my stomach can tolerate it). On high carb days I’ll also indulge in some dessert. This day, for lack of a better term, is considered a FREE EATING or REWARD Day. Some people would call it a “cheat day”, but I don’t like the word “cheat”.
If I am really focusing on getting lean, I will only have ONE high carb day per week and as I said above, it will be on the day of my HARDEST WORKOUT.
MODERATE CARB days are my “usual” eating days. On these days, I will NOT eat any starchy carbohydrates – potatoes, pasta, rice, etc – or have any treat-like dessert. These days, however, I can eat as much vegetables and fruit that I want with the focus of eating mainly fat & protein.
I have MODERATE CARB days 4-5 times per week.
Finally, the LOW CARB days are when I fast which happens once or twice per week.
I’ll wake up in the morning, go through my routine, still drink my water, green tea and later on, my espresso, BUT I won’t consume anything containing any calories for the remainder of the day until dinner. Just water, green tea and/or espresso – any non-calorie containing drinks are fine.
My fasts are usually from dinner of the previous night to dinner of the following night – a full 24-hour period.
When I do break my fast, I will make sure that I eat things that are easy on my stomach and that are ALWAYS home made – very little starch (usually rice), lots of vegetables and lots of protein & healthy fats.
Notes & Frequently Asked Questions
-As tempting as it is, you SHOULD NEVER BREAK YOUR FAST WITH JUNK FOOD. Trust me, when you haven’t eaten anything for 24-hours, the last thing you want to do is reintroduce your body to food with a chili dog and a side of cheesy fries.
-Fasting, for me at least, is best done on a busy day – at least when you first start out. You will think about food less. You’d be surprised how many decisions throughout the day you make based on food.
-Do I count grams of carbohydrates when I’m carb cycling? Nope. I don’t have the time or energy and I’d rather not worry about such things and neither should you.
-Why do I fast dinner to dinner? Because it’s sacred time to have dinner with my wife and kids and it’s the best fit for my schedule.
-A question I get a lot is, do you workout or train on a fasting day? And the answer is ABSOLUTELY. In fact, some of my best and strongest performances in the weight room have been on a fast.
-And so the follow-up question to the one above is “What about blood sugar levels? Don’t you feel like you’re going to pass out?”. The short answer is NO. The long answer to that question, in truth, I cannot do any justice to, so I strongly suggest you read Eat-Stop-Eat.
-Are there other benefits to Intermittent Fasting? Yep. The mental and psychological benefits are amazing and it really forces you to focus on your relationship with food and why you eat what you do and when. In addition to that, and probably the biggest “selling point” for me were the hormonal benefits. I’ve posted this video before, but this is Brad talking about growth hormone and it’s relationship to being in a fasted state….
And so that is how I can eat whatever I want.
To be completely transparent, I don’t stick to those rules or that schedule everyday, but I try to adhere to 90% compliance and if I’ve got a big goal coming up – like if I really want to look good on vacation on the beach or something, then I can stay on the above regimen for 21-28 days straight and look really great.
The best part is that it is a very unstressful way to eat and to live.
And, as a parent to 4 daughters especially, I don’t want my kids to see me stressed out over what or how I eat.
Chris Lopez
