powerDOJO

Category: Nutrition

  • MONSTER Burger (had to share)

    Up here in Southern Ontario, we’ve FINALLY gotten a bit of summer heat, and it feels great. I made dinner last night and had to do up a BBQ to celebrate, and I made the best burger of my life.

    I had to take a pic and share it, I imagine it rating up there with seeing my first child born.

    It was super tasty – and absolutely HUGE. Here’s what it looked like:

    monster-burger

    Here’s what was on the burger:

    1. Grass-fed, organic ground beef (I only eat grass-fed beef from a local farm to avoid pesticides, hormones, & toxins)
    2. Bacon (kinda counteracts the healthy beef but I rarely eat it LOL)
    3. Lettuce
    4. Tomato
    5. Brick cheese
    6. Roasted red peppers
    7. Pickles
    8. Dijon mustard
    9. Diana’s BBQ sauce
    10. Sauteed mushrooms w/touch of Tamari (gives mushrooms amazing flavour)
    11. BBQ’d white onions
    12. Spices in the beef: montreal steak, oregano, thyme, fresh ground black pepper, touch of cayenne

    This was a 2 patty behemoth – so I couldn’t really fit the whole thing in my mouth. Oh and there were some fresh cut baked potato chips on the side.

    Do you have any ridiculous meals that you’ve put together? If so, share with us by leaving a comment.

     

  • Kinda Weird Breakfast Combo (and post)

    Step 1 – Take a look at this breakfast combo (I’m actually in the middle of eating as I write this):

    breakfast

    Step 2 – Now, take a look at a pic of my abs (again, taken in the middle of eating the food above and writing this post):

    (more…)

  • Master the Art of Breathing

    If you read a lot of the articles and advice talking about how much you should eat, different experts have different opinions.

    With respect to calories, the bottom line is that it can’t be determined by anyone other than you. You’ve got to notice the effects of how you’re eating on your body.

    If you’re gaining fat week after week or have crazy energy level changes right after a meal, you’ve got to notice what you’ve been doing and make changes and notice what happens to you when you make those changes consistent.

    egg-mcmuffin-fruitHere’s a pic of a recent breakfast of mine:

    Now, if you compare this to the typical advice given by top sports nutritionists, you’d think that I was undereating calorie-wise, I didn’t eat enough protein and I’m probably losing muscle mass.

    They often say you need to eat 2 eggs and 6 egg whites in the morning and a couple pieces of fruit, and eat like that 6 times a day.

    Well, the bottom line for my body is that I’ve been eating like this for years now, and the facts are:

    • Maintain body fat ~ 6-7%, weight ~ 170 lbs @ 6′ tall
    • Gained strength and improved my fitness year-over-year
    • Never get sick

    You’ll often hear WHAT to eat, but you’ll almost never, ever hear HOW to eat to get the best results.

    Well here’s a HOW that is so important to you from a performance, health, and MONEY-SAVING point of view:

    Nutrition-itsu Principle #4 – Master the Art of Breathing

    This is a simple principle I teach in my Nutrition-itsu program (you get this when you order my Ultimate MMA Strength & Conditioning Program or MMA Ripped).

    What it’s all about is taking the time to breathe when you’re eating. When you take the time to breathe as opposed to ‘choke’ food down, a few things happen:

    fireYou give your body time to tell you it’s full, limiting over-eating and improving digestion because your system doesn’t have to handle a huge load of food, backing the system up.

    Think about it – when you’re driving on the highway when there’s too many cars on the road, what happens? Exactly – traffic, gridlock, and stress. Same thing when you cause too much ‘traffic’ in your digestive system.

    You give your body oxygen, which is needed in every chemical reaction to break food down to produce energy. Think of your metabolism as a fire. How do you get a fire burning hot? That’s right – you fan it, blow on it, or find some other way to give it more oxygen. Same thing goes for your metabolic fire.

    So what this all means to you is that you’ll digest more effectively so you don’t need to eat as much to get more out of the food you are eating.

    I’ve had clients get rid of problems like heartburn, gas, bloating, and indigestion simply using this one principle.

    Plus, your metabolism will be fired up, helping to provide you with lots of energy and helping you stay lean.

    This tip is FREE for you to implement right away and will give you these benefits and more. Focus on the HOW, and you’ll get more out of whatever the WHAT is.

    Let me know your thoughts, results if you use this, or if you have another TIP to share with us.

  • Power Oatmeal!

    Getting up early in the morning and making a quality breakfast can be a difficult thing to do. With the change in the daylight savings time this past weekend, the mornings just got a lot darker. Getting ready for the day in total darkness is like doing an interview after being KO’d by A.Silva.

    The spring sun will soon come, but for now, it’s back to the primitive days of waking up in total darkness in the cave!

    When it’s dark and cold, it’s even tougher to want to do up a good breakfast. But you’ve gotta persevere, because your first meal of the day really does set the tone for the rest of the day. Boxed cereals simply do not cut it – they just spike your blood sugar, setting up a nice big crash later on.

    So if you want something that’s pretty quick and has all the components to fuel your body up to perform like a porsche instead of a ford, try my Power Oatmeal:

    1. Soak 2/3 cup of steel cut oats in a pot overnight
    2. Fire up the burner to max to get it bubbling, then lower it down to around 4
    3. Add a pinch of sea salt
    4. Add some fruit (blueberries, strawbs, apple are my favourite choices)
    5. Add some all-natural nut butter (almond, cashew, and peanut work well)
    6. After it’s all cooked, add some protein powder (hemp or whey)
    7. Top off with some cinnamon, mix it around, and enjoy!

    Also feel free to add some plain (organic) yogurt, some milk, or I’ve been liking coconut milk lately. I also like having a single fried egg on the side.

    When you soak the oats, they cook up a lot faster, saving you time.

  • Often Missing Key Fat Loss Factor

    I was at the grocery store the other day and I usually spend 2 or 3 minutes browsing the latest fitness mags.

    If you’re interested in seeing what I typically buy at the grocery store, check out my blog:

    => http://ericwongmma.com/groceries-for-getting-ripped/

    Anyway, when I saw the cover of Men’s Health, I thought to myself, “There’s one important factor they NEVER talk about when it comes to losing fat.”

    So what is that factor?

    SLEEP!

    If you’re having trouble dropping fat (or building muscle for that matter), consider your sleep.

    If you’re underslept, then your body’s hormonal rhythms will be out of whack. You’ll have more cortisol running
    through your system throughout the day.

    What does cortisol do? Contributes to fat accumulation around the midsection and muscle atrophy! Important things
    to avoid for anyone interested in getting ripped.

    Here are 7 keys to great sleep:

    1) Sleep 7-8 hours/night
    2) Follow a regular sleep cycle (eg. sleep at 11pm, get up at 7 am)
    3) In bed no later than midnight (on a regular basis), preferably by 10:30pm
    4) Avoid sleeping when too hungry or over full
    5) Do things to avoid waking up in the middle of the night, for example, don’t down a litre of water right before bed
    6) Wind down before bed, preferably by reading or doing something else relaxing
    7) Get TVs, cellphones, and computers out of your bedroom

    It’s not that you have to do everything perfectly or you won’t achieve your goals, but if you’re having trouble and you’re already doing everything right with respect to food
    and exercise, then consider your sleep.

    And just like food, you’re going to slip up, but no big deal. As long as it’s just a slip up, and not a regular occurrence.

    For myself, #3 is the toughest one, as I’m a big of a night-owl, because it’s the time I can spend to myself chilling out.

    If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to leave a comment on this article.

    Sleep tight,

    Eric Wong, BSc, CSCS
    Creator, MMA Ripped Fat Loss Program

  • Groceries for Getting Ripped

    As we all know, nutrition plays a huge role in getting a lean, muscular body, or having peak levels of energy for training and competition. In terms of body composition, it probably plays the biggest role of any of the factors involved in getting ripped.

    There’s so much info out there on nutrition it can be really, really confusing to the average person who doesn’t study the topic for a living. The magazines tell you about new ‘power foods’ every month, while the newspapers and radio always has something to say about a new study from some university teaching us why a certain vitamin or mineral is crucial to our health.

    There’s so many experts and so much conflicting information it often paralyzes people so that they just do what they’ve always done, and go nowhere.

    So where do you start?

    It’s simple – the grocery store. That’s where it all starts.

    Whatever food you buy will get eaten – it’s that simple.

    So what do you buy at the store? Here’s a pic from my recent trip:

    groceries

    Here’s exactly what I bought:

    MEATS

    • 1 pkg of pork back ribs
    • 1 pkg of boneless, skinless salmon fillets
    • 1 pkg of sausages (no nitrates/nitrites, which are preservatives)
    • 1 pkg of marinating beef steaks
    • 1 dozen free range omega-3 eggs

    FRUITS / VEGGIES

    • 5 bananas
    • 2 pkgs of blackberries
    • 1 cucumber
    • 1 celery
    • 1 pkg mushrooms

    I’ll probably eat everything on this list over the next 5-6 days. Some of the staples that I’ll eat that I didn’t have to buy include steel cut oats, organic whole plain yogurt, natural peanut butter, and brown rice pasta.

    If it’s in your fridge or cupboards, it’s going to get eaten. So clear out the junk and fill it with good stuff like on this list, then you’ll be forced to eat it, which will give you high levels of energy for training, keep you healthy, and help you shed unwanted fat.

    Eric Wong

  • How Much Protein to Build Muscle?

    “How much protein do I need to build muscle?” is one of the most common nutrition questions that any personal trainer or strength and conditioning coach hears in their careers.

    It’s one that I’ve heard numerous times, and what I always recommended was to eat some form of protein every time you eat, with a complete protein source (meat, eggs) at the major meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), and a complete or incomplete source (nuts) in between. This is from the principle “Eat Complete Meals” in my Nutrition-itsu book.

    But I’ve never recommended trying to get a specific amount, because it changes depending on the person’s makeup, activity level, and goals. If I was really pressed, I’d say to aim for about 1 gram/pound of body weight, because it’s definitely better from a body composition point of view to have more protein vs. carbs. Plus there are no problems with your kidneys from consuming too much protein – that’s a myth.

    Honestly though, I haven’t seen conclusive evidence supporting this number, as there are various sources recommending different amounts, I just looked at the data from my clients and myself, and what other nutrition experts whom I trust recommended, and based my recommendation on that.

    So when nutrition researcher and author Brad Pilon, who’s also a friend of mine, sent me a copy of his new book called “How Much Protein” to review, I was really intrigued.

    Brad’s first book called Eat Stop Eat is a nutrition book for fat loss based on what he calls ‘flexible intermittent fasting’.

    => http://ericwongmma.com/bradpilon/

    I’ve read the book and have tried the protocol and can tell you that for me, it really showed how trained my body is to want food every 3 hours. This is after years of making sure I was eating frequently.

    When I fasted, I’d get hungry about every 3 hours, but as I kept fasting, the hunger soon dissipated and I didn’t feel any drop in energy. I’ll tell you, it was kind of weird, but it was good to regain control over my food choices.

    It’s not something that I follow all the time, but it is a good exercise to train your ‘appetite control muscle’, especially if yours is weak and out of shape!

    Now, his second book, “How Much Protein” is a review of a ton of recent scientific studies that will provide you with the guidelines to optimizing your protein intake for gaining muscle.

    After reading the book, I had a few more questions for Brad, so I sent them over and I’m sharing his responses with you here.

    Eric: First of all, give us a little background about yourself and how you came up with Eat Stop Eat.

    Brad: I’m a Nutrition Professional out of Canada. I started my career working in Research and Development for the sports supplement industry. After 7 years in the industry where I helped design supplements and clinical trials I decided it was time to go back to school to do graduate studies.

    When I went back to school my plan was to study nutrition and weight loss. My original goal was to study fasting simply to get a ‘base line’ expecting to find out about all of the horrible things that happened to your body when you fast, and then move from there to study all the reasons why you need to ‘eat to lose weight’

    But the research was surprisingly clear that during short periods of fasting (12-72 hours) all of the supposed bad things (metabolism slowing down, fat burning enzymes being turned off, muscle loss, actually gaining fat) didn’t happen, so I swallowed a bit of crow, and decided to study the metabolic effects of short periods of fasting for my graduate studies.

    Eric: What are the most common objections to fasting for fat loss, and what did your research tell us?

    Brad: Most people are afraid that they will somehow ‘destroy’ their metabolism, or that they will actually get fat because of fasting..this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Eat Stop Eat is a review of the available research on short term fasting that clearly shows that your body burns body fat while you are fasting and that your metabolism does not slow down.

    The great part about fasting is that it has an AMAZING track record. Through human history, dozens of cultures and religions have followed variations of short term fasting, we can obviously have a great track record of handling the minor stress of a short term fast.

    Eric: So then who is Eat Stop Eat for?

    Brad: Basically, Eat Stop Eat is for anyone who is sick of traditional diets and obsessive compulsive eating. Someone who wants an extremely simple fat loss program, and is open to the idea that nutrient timing, weighing food and obsessing about ‘good foods’ and ‘bad foods’ isn’t the only way to lose weight and be healthy.

    Eric: So what exactly is the new book you’re launching called “How Much Protein” all about?

    Brad: It is another investigation, very similar to Eat Stop Eat, trying to answer one of the most confusing questions in all of nutrition. Really, after ‘how do I lose weight’ the second most common question is “how much protein do I need to eat to build muscle’.

    Eric: Why did you write this book?

    Brad: “How much protein?” I is a question that has been bugging me for years. Even when I worked in the supplement industry designing protein products and clinical trials studying protein, I still wasn’t sure of exactly how much protein was best. I experimented with as high as 500 grams a day, with little effect on muscle mass…so when I finally
    finished Eat Stop Eat..I thought, OK what’s next? And protein immediately sprung to mind. Two years later.. “how much protein” was finally finished.

    Eric: OK, so I’m around 172 pounds, and I want to stay where I am. I workout 3-4 days a week – how much protein do I need to maintain my muscle mass?

    Brad: Whether maintaining or building, at your height and weight and activity level you’d be find at around 100 grams. Nothing bad would happen if you pumped it up to 150 or even 200, but I don’t believe you wouldn’t see any noticeable difference between 200 or 100.

    Eric: Who will benefit from reading this book, people looking to build muscle, or lose fat?

    Brad: This book is really written for anyone who simply wants an answer. AND, the kind of person who really wants to understand the logical reasoning BEHIND the answer. With the combination of How Much Protein and Eat Stop Eat I do my best to answer both questions “how do I lose fat” and “how do I build muscle’

    ——————END OF INTERVIEW—————

    If you enjoyed this interview, you can read more about the Eat Stop Eat method for fat loss at:

    => http://ericwongmma.com/bradpilon/

    Plus, Brad just released his new book “How Much Protein” yesterday and I highly recommend it if you want to learn the truth about protein, and have all the data to back it up so you don’t get misled by the various experts or companies telling you have to consume massive amounts or you’ll lose all your muscle! I’ll never do the extensive research that Brad has done, so I highly recommend it if you think it’s valuable to understand the “why” behind the “what”.

    Eric Wong, BSc, CSCS
    Author, MMA Ripped Fat Loss Program
    Co-founder, Master-MMA.com

  • My 3 Favourite Snacks

    Eating every 3 hours or so is a great way to maximize your energy levels and achieve fat loss (or avoid storing more fat). But what do you eat in between the major meals or at night?

    Here are my 3 favourite snacks to grab when I’m a little hungry but it’s not time for a  full on meal:

    1) Cottage cheese + natural peanut butter + a little jam

    This one is great because you only need a little bit of jam and it tastes amazing, you might not think the combo is good but I dare you to try it. I like this one at night because it’s really low in carbs before bed.

    2) Organic yogurt + homemade granola + blueberries

    I like to make big batches of granola every few weeks or so and it’s super handy to have because you can throw it in yogurt like this snack or just take it on the go. For those of you who have my Nutrition-itsu manual, the recipe’s in there.

    3) Handful of almonds and an Apple

    Can’t beat this one because it’s a tasty snack that takes absolutely no time to prepare.

    Now even though these are my favourites and I’ll probably be eating them until I die, I like trying new things, so tell me some good ones by leaving a comment.

  • Solutions for Low Testosterone

    This is a reply I wrote to someone who has low testosterone and was wondering where it came from. Symptoms of low T include depression, irritability, decreased strength, unexplained fat gain, loss of muscle mass, trouble gaining mass, and more.

    —————

    Any time you have a hormone imbalance (in your case low-T), you usually have other hormones that are out of whack.

    The first one to think about is cortisol, as cortisol is basically a testosterone antagonist – so you’re very correct in thinking that your work stress levels are affecting your T. Answer this question before moving on:

    What stresses me out?

    Answering that question will give you an idea of all of the psychological stressors in your life that could be elevating your cortisol and decreasing your T.

    Now, psychological stress is not the be all, end all. Perhaps these questions will help lead you to some more ideas.

    Do you have an environmental/toxic stresses?

    Is your work environment polluted? eg. Lots of dust?

    Many environmental pollutants are not the old carbon monoxide and smoke from factories – some are as simple as fibers from rugs, which are essentially plastic, which are xenoestrogens and act as estrogen, which would drop your T.

    I would avoid plastic water bottles, storing foods in tupperware (especially fats/oils, as they absorb the xenoestrogens particularly well), and any other food-related plastics. Switch to glass, stainless steel, porcelain etc.

    I’d also avoid teflon just to be safe – get cast-iron or stainless pots and pans. Plus – you’ll develop good wrist strength working with cast iron.

    Pesticides are also xenoestrogens, so that is another route – think about organic fruits/veggies. If you can’t buy all organic now, go to http://foodnews.org/walletguide.php and check their list of the fruits/veg with the highest pesticide load and make sure you at least buy those in organic form.

    Do you get enough cholesterol in your diet?

    Might sound counterintuitive, but cholesterol is a precursor for all sex hormones, and if you’re low in cholesterol, your body can’t make T. So don’t go out of your way to over consume egg yolks and red meat, but definitely eat them weekly.

    How much are you sleeping? Is it at a regular time?

    If you’re not getting good sleep at regular times then your circadian rhythms get thrown off and you will tend to have higher levels of cortisol throughout the day.

    Do you deload your workouts properly?

    Can’t push all the time – need deloads. You may need more deloads now than before – so decrease volume but keep your intensity the same – you’ll be able to maintain strength without overtaxing your nervous/muscular system. I mean, you’re in a healing phase right now, not growth, so don’t worry about hitting a PR until your T comes back to normal.

    Where you sleep, do you have lots of electronic devices plugged in?

    This is one that I’ve never experienced but follow anyway, but guys like Charles Poliquin and Paul Chek talk about. Electromagnetic stresses interfere with your sleep patterns, which will screw up your sleeping rhythms, and result in the same thing as not sleeping enough or at the same times. So try unplugging as much as you can – I only have my wristwatch by my bed to wake me up – no cellphone, no tv, computer, etc. Also make the room as dark as possible – once light hits the skin, it activates melatonin, which tells your body it’s time to finish sleeping.

    I also try to wind down at night before bed by reading, instead of moving from the TV or computer straight to bed, for the same reasons above.

    From my perspective, I would think about those points. Don’t worry that you have to fix everything all at once (more mental stress), just think about what things could be affecting you the most, work on those, then keep going down the list.

  • WARNING: Be Aware of Bad Advice

    The Joslin’s Canadian Open grappling tourney is coming up this weekend, and I’m getting ready for it along with a bunch of others.

    I was talking with a buddy of mine at the dojo yesterday and he was asking me about carb loading. Carb loading is a method of altering your carbohydrate intake to maximize how much glycogen (stored form of carbohydrate in the muscle for energy) your body can store in the muscle for a specific competition date.

    In effect, you can trick your muscles into storing more glycogen through proper application of the principles carb loading. Having more glycogen in the muscles is highly beneficial to a competition like a BJJ tournament because the anaerobic lactic energy system is heavily relied upon, especially if you’re winning and fighting 4, 5, or 6 matches in one day.

    He mentioned to me that a personal trainer at the gym he goes to told him that to carb load, you don’t eat any carbs the 2 days prior to an event, while loading up on carbs the 3 or 4 days previous to your 2 non-carb days.

    I just shook my head and basically said to follow the exact opposite of what the trainer said to carb load properly.

    Without even going into the science of the topic, just think about it logically.

    If you follow Joe Dumbass’ carb loading scheme, you take in excessive carbs for 2-3 days. The body, wanting to keep at a certain normal level, then increases the rate at which you burn the carbs, normalizing the level in your body. You’ll also put on a little fat doing this, because once the muscles are full, the carbs have to go somewhere, which is towards energy use and fat storage.

    Now, because your body is used to processing carbs faster, if you suddenly go low carb for the 2 days right before your competition, your glycogen levels will go below their normal, due to the upregulation in carb utilization. This is exactly what you DON’T WANT. Makes logical sense, right?

    Instead, what you want to do is go low carb for 2-3 days, on top of exercise, thus depleting your muscles stores of glycogen. Then, the 2 days prior to your competition, load up on the carbs, while keeping exercise intensity low to moderate.

    Because your muscles are depleted, they’ll be starving for carbs, and when you eat them, they’ll soak them up, and more. So for competition day, your muscles (and liver) will have more glycogen than normal.

    So anyway, before following anyone’s advice, even if it comes from a supposed expert, the first thing to do is to think logically about it. If something doesn’t seem to make sense, then ask someone you trust or do your own research before coming to a decision on what to do.

    I just hope Joe Dumbass is grappling this weekend so he can gas out in after 3 or 4 minutes and someone can choke him out and put him out of his misery.