Day 5

Although I didn't immerse myself completely into this nutritional adjustment on Saturday, I still consider it the beginning. Baby steps had been taken in the week prior by removing calorie-laden beverages from the menu and replacing them with water and green tea (sometimes flavored with Splenda, which has its own issues...Interestingly, it was discovered by scientists developing pesticides), and now I have completely given myself to this new way of eating.

Probably one of the greatest tips I've received in the first 5 days is the art of "sneaking" calories in and out of your diet. Although many people are in the diet game to lose weight, there are still plenty looking to put on muscle. Sneaking is effective at both. The basis behind it is that you are not technically going to be consuming less food, but you will be consuming fewer calories.

For example, you can take replace the sugar in your coffee for a no-calorie sweetener like Splenda or stevia, switch up your yogurt for low-fat yogurt (or vice versa if you're looking to put weight on), or you could just switch from high fat ground beef to a lean grass-fed variety. All of these are great ways of tricking your body, and will be put to good use in my current set up.

Cooking and Preparation

Even though there really isn't any format to this particular post, I really thought these pieces of the nutritional puzzle needed to be emphasized. Cooking and preparation are really the most important part to being successful. I'm realizing this more and more as we move forward. I mean, we've heard it hundreds of times... "
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." I've been lucky enough to have spent some time in the kitchen already, so chopping veggies, pre-cooking meats for the week, and putting together a meal on the fly hasn't been quite the struggle I've seen in others. The idea is that you need to set aside some time each week or even day to preparing for the next few meals. This is easily done!

Cooking more versatile foods during this time can help keep anyone from dietary boredom. My favorite choice is a package of chicken thighs (although now I've completed the "sneak" and I've moved to breasts). 8 chicen thighs are easily roasted in the oven in about 25-30 minutes. That's 8 meals I can use. Chicken can be chopped up for salads, eaten plain, mixed with curry sauce, added to soups, or really anything you can think of. So, as I look forward to the rest of the week, I know I've got a load of pre-cooked breasts just sitting in the fridge waiting to be consumed. All I have to do now is decide the arrangement....

So that's just a little insight as to what I'm going to be doing/changing over the next few months. Keep in mind that this includes 4 days a week of resistance training and another couple days of cardio work.