EATING TO GET LEAN

 WITH STEPHEN BAKER

I am currently getting myself back into shape (what I consider good shape: IE sub 6% body fat) and would like to take a moment to share my meal plan, which operates on a couple of concepts I will discuss in this article.

FOOD COMBINATIONS

   Personally, I don't combine foods anymore when I eat them. What? Yes, I'll reiterate. I don't combine foods when I eat them. What? Ok, fine I will explain. Let's start with an example. Steak, potatoes, veggies. Yes, these foods all give us some nutrients that we need, but our bodies don't work on the ALL IN principle. We produce different enzymes, require vastly different times to digest and regulate hormones in response to foods uniquely. The steak is going to spike our growth hormone and endocrine system hormones as well as require complex enzymes and long digestion times. The potato is going to spike insulin and require less time. The vegetables are going to require the briefest time to digest (depending on the specific veggies we're talking about anyway) and need a clean an empty passage for the nutrients that they carry to be absorbed. The first issue our little meal melee causes is the varying of digestion times. Whatever the longest digestive time required is (in this case the steak), is going to be the rate the body processing all incoming food at. This means that the vegetables are going to ferment while waiting to be processed and often times producing gas from being digested by bacteria too late in the digestive tract.

   Imagine yourself working on packaging line. Your job is to pull things off the line and box them into little containers individual to different things coming off the line. Now what is going to be easier to pack? The same item coming off, allowing you to focus and use only one box, or variety of items, forcing you to keep identifying what you are packing and choosing the appropriate box? An odd example, but I think you get the point (I like making things weird) So why do we put such a stressful load on our own production line when it comes to food?

   We do need a variety of nutrients to survive. What we don't need is everything all the time, at every meal! This is why I encourage people to decide what they need to eat for the day, and make an effort to space the foods out into their own meals that compliment their own digestion periods. Try seperating your foods, and I guarantee you will notice less if not a cessation of digestive upset. This will also have you eating more frequently, which will also reduce hunger by reducing the period between which you eat (with the nifty bonus of not increasing your caloric intake because you are splitting the foods up instead of adding meals).

What would this look like? Well, let's use my current meal plan to assess. (And by the way YES, EATING TO GET SHREDDED IS THIS FREAKIN' SIMPLE!)

meal 1

8 egg whites(raw)

2 whole eggs(raw)

1 tbsp honey

probiotics + b vitamins

The honey isn't totally necessary but it does facilitate a mask for the less than appealing taste of drinking raw eggs. This meal starts me off with some good proteins, and a modest amount of fat, with a little bit of natural sugar that will kickstart my system. I don't usually recommend combining proteins carbs and fats, but breakfast is unique in that you can get away with a little bit. Also, if you are ever craving something at night, waiting to eat it in the morning (even if its a chocolate bar, ice cream etc) will allow you to burn it off easier as opposed to storing it.

meal 2

1 tomato

1 cup broccoli

1 bell pepper

B complex vitamin

When I say don't combine foods, I mean more so a food group than literally eating one thing (having said that, there would be nothing wrong with eating a bit more of one of these veggies by itself). This meal is going to flood the body with some nutrients that will aid me in energy and processing of more complex foods that I plan to eat later. I take the vitamin with the veggies because this is where your body naturally absorbs them, so adding some extras in is probably a good time to do so (I haven't researched this, but I rely on my keen sense of the obvious for things like this). I also find it helps improve my hunger response for the next meal (which is a bonus when you start eating more frequently).

meal 3

1 oz sunflower seeds

I eat this after the veggies (maybe an hour or so) beacuse it has the Essential Fatty Acids I am looking for at this point, as well as a healthy dose of Vitamin E (which is incidentally one of the vitamins quite often lacking in any diet).

meal 4

250g ground meat

Yup, I eat meat by itself and it's amazing. If you do this, you will have zero upset with meats, even if they normally don't sit well. Indegestion is more often times caused by consuming multiple foods, as opposed to one specific food being the issue. This meal is going to keep me full for a while, and provide the hormone response I'm after and by itself. Testosterone and GH. It is also going to feed my muscles (which I just love to death by the way).

meal 5

250g ground meat

Yup, I eat meat by itself "encore un fois". My body just processed some (and actually is still processing it in later parts of my digestive tract). This means that I produced enzymes to break down that protein which are still kicking around and easier to make a second time since it has done so once already. The important thing here that I should mention (because I just said ground "meat") is that I will consume the SAME exact meat twice in a row. You lose the benefit of ease of digestion if you throw a different animal into the mix (just like dating 3 girls at once instead of 2).

meal 6

1 cup chick peas

1 cup beets

Now that I've loaded up my body with some heavy slow meats, a few hours have passed. This is a good time to throw in something with complex carbs and fibers to help keep you regular. I chose beets because I am obsessed with eating things that stain my clothes (I also love to cook with turmeric!)

meal 7

1 cup cottage cheese

probiotics

Holy s**t I ate 7 "meals" today. Well actually I have just seperated what would traditionally be considered 3-4 meals (which most of us are used to). I choose cottage cheese as the last meal because the proteins break down slowly, meaning I'm not likely to get hungry again before bed. I also throw in more probiotics because the cottage cheese already has some, and I just love beefing things up. As a rule of thumb, I never eat 2-3 hours before bed, and I try not to make meat my last meal. The cottage cheese is also packed with calcium which is just buttons.

   This type of meal patterning means that I usually go no more than 3 hours without eating, and a couple of times I am eating again in an hour or two. MUCH easier to get through the day if you have trouble going for very long without eating. Also, my stomach has such an easy time digesting things that even the eggs and egg whites don't give me any gas or stomach upset. (your friends will appreciate this). Now I don't eat the same things every day, and I mean that in two capacities.

• I cut meat out a couple times a week and replace them with either a tuber (like yams or potatos), or take a day to load up on fruits and veggies. Gives the digestive tract a break.
• I cycle back and forth between fruits and veggies for meal 2. This allows for more variety, as I also don't eat the same fruits and/or veggies every day.
• I consume a variety of meats (usually in the ground form, fresh from the butcher). What I don't do is consume different meats in the same day. This is another variation of the non combining foods principle (a term I just made up right now).
• Meal 6 I usually choose a bean of some form, but not always chick peas. The beets can easily be subsituted for any veggie.
• Cottage cheese can easily be had as some hard cheese or other dairy product.
• I also eat some form of liver once every 1-2 weeks (for the vitamin A and mineral load up)

   What you will notice is that my meal plan is not lacking in ANYTHING (cause I'm just thorough like that). I am getting 100% of what the governement recommendsI should be taken in. I have plenty of fiber to keep the digestive system healthy along with the probiotics. I have about 150-160 grams of protein which is more than enough to actually build a bit of muscle while I shed fat. Note that my current goal is to get myself back into shape (meaning sub 6% body fat for me).

   In the coming weeks after I accomplish this (yes it is possible to drop 5-6% body fat in a month), I will post my muscle gaining meal plan. It will be of a similar structure and lay out, easily adaptable to any lifestyle, but suited towards muscle gain. It will not be some retarded "bulking" diet which is just poppycock anyway. You don't need to get fat to gain muscle, but anyway, that is for the next article, so for now I am off...

Stephen Baker