- Hello, I'm Dr. Mikhail Varshavski,
but most know me better as Dr. Mike.
Here's everything I eat in a day.
(pages flutter) (upbeat music)
The first thing I do when I wake up,
is I grab a warm glass of water.
Now, it doesn't have to be warm.
It ideally has to be room temperature.
If something is too cold,
I feel like it aggravates my throat somewhat,
decreases the circulation.
You want to have all your blood flow
in your throat to protect you.
I don't always eat first thing in the morning.
I'm a big fan of intermittent fasting.
I like doing to 16/8 window,
so you're only eating throughout eight hours of the day.
But I'm flexible with it.
So if a certain day, I wanna go 14 hours without eating
or I wanna skip intermittent fasting for a single week,
that's fine.
I think when you set up such rigorous demands on yourself,
you're almost setting yourself up for failure.
So, I'm flexible with it.
And lately, I've fallen in love with my Vitamix blender.
And I've been putting all sorts of fruits and vegetables
in it to make a morning smoothie.
And I feel like that gives me the vitamin-mineral boost
that I need to get throughout the day.
You know, I've never been one
who needed or enjoyed caffeine beverages.
I went through all of medical school without needing coffee.
Which is crazy, 'cause I've pulled all-nighters,
there was 24-hour clinical shifts
that I needed to be up for, and I was fine.
But now, with all these demands being placed on my time,
hospital work, YouTube, TV,
research that I need to be doing,
I start my day with an espresso.
I throw the pot in.
I get my espresso in a little cup
or espresso little mini-mug.
I love it, 'cause it's thermally layered,
and it doesn't allow me to burn myself.
I sip on it, I get ready for the day,
I look at the beautiful New York City skyline,
and I get inspired.
That's my little strategy.
Normally, my lunch is around 1:00 p.m.
That's when I get a break during my hospital time.
I like to run out and get myself some Chipotle.
I think I can really control what goes into my portions.
I love the ingredients that they use.
I'll tell you what my go-to meal there is.
It's a salad bowl, because there's a little bit less
calories and carbs in that.
I get brown rice,
I think that's the healthier option of the two.
A lot of greens.
I get, usually, double the meat.
I usually get chicken or steak, or maybe a mix of two.
But double the meat, 'cause I need that protein.
I get the mild salsa, a little sprinkling of cheese.
And you know guac is extra, but it's well worth it.
So, I definitely get a lot of guac in there.
And I try and chow it down slowly.
Because I like it so much,
I could finish a bowl in 30 seconds
and it's not good to eat that fast.
So, I actively have to calm myself down and say,
"Okay, eat slowly, eat slowly."
And the way that I manage to do that,
is by having a water bottle with me,
and I just sip on that water bottle in between my bites.
Therefore, kinda calms me down.
I actually take my eating during my travels
very seriously.
So when I go to a fast food restaurant,
I still am able to figure out, like a detective,
what can be healthy.
So, I look for things that have
a lot of vegetables in them,
green leafy vegetables, tomatoes.
Then I get a protein source in there,
whether that's chicken, beef or even a vegan option.
That's also great for me.
And then, if I'm gonna have a carb,
I make sure it's a complex carb.
Brown rice, whole wheat bread, all those are better options
'cause your body takes longer to digest them.
Therefore, it actually burns some calories
and doesn't absorb all those simple sugars as rapidly.
So, it doesn't spike your insulin.
That's always beneficial.
There's a few snacks that I like
to chew on throughout the day.
First and foremost, are nuts.
Now, I know a lot of people have specific favorites
that they enjoy.
For me, my go-to are almonds.
They're high in healthy fats,
they keep me full throughout the day,
they even have some protein content
so I'm all about it.
If I don't have nuts available,
I also can bring a Perfect Bar with me.
I don't know if you've heard of these,
but it's basically a bar that is made only with superfoods.
Some of them are even peanut or almond-based.
Now, you clearly know I'm nuts about nuts.
And if you haven't seen my YouTube video,
because my storage space
in my New York City apartment's so limited,
do you know where I store my nuts?
In the dishwasher.
I'm not someone who gets hangry.
Because when you're a resident, during my training,
my three years of family medicine training,
there was times when you just couldn't eat.
You had to keep working,
you had to keep saving patients' lives
or dealing with difficult circumstances.
So, I'm so used to going without food
that it's not really a big deal.
That's why I think intermittent fasting
works so well for me.
I actually have friends who get hangry,
and I don't quite understand them.
If I'm having a cheat meal lunch on the weekend
with, let's say, my buddies,
I like to get a food that is social,
for example, pizza.
I love pizza.
Getting an extra-large pie with extra cheese,
pepperoni, some veggies thrown in there.
It's definitely not healthy,
but that's why it's a cheat meal.
And you need to have a cheat meal.
You need to reward yourself every now and then.
If you're constantly holding yourself to rigorous standards
that aren't realistic and you're never allowing
yourself to have a slice of pizza,
what kinda life are you living?
Dinner can get quite chaotic.
I generally recommend not eating too close to bedtime.
But sometimes, I just don't have a choice,
'cause I'm just so hungry but I still wanna get
seven to nine hours of sleep.
When I do eat dinner, I generally don't cook it myself.
When I do, though, I do a pretty bang up job,
not gonna lie.
I'm a master grillsmith.
So if I'm making steak, I'm making pork, I'm making chicken,
I do a pretty good job.
But I'm not gonna lie,
I'm not cooking the majority of the time.
When I'm ordering out, I usually get sushi.
There's something about raw fish that I love, it's weird.
I don't even get fancy rolls.
I just get the sushi, traditional.
The little bed of rice, I usually get brown rice
with the little fish on top.
Maybe a tiny bit of soy sauce,
'cause I don't wanna consume too much sodium.
And my go-to?
Salmon, tuna.
I love a medium toro, which a medium fatty tuna.
Yellowtail is great, mackerel.
And then, sometimes baby shrimp.
Mmm, it's just absolutely delicious.
As far as wasabi goes,
I don't like to put too much of it on.
But the places that I order,
they put just a little bit of the wasabi on the sushi
that gives it the perfect amount of kick.
My beverage of choice at dinner
is a sparkling water that has no calories or sugar in it.
For some reason, ever since I was eight years-old
and I came to the United States,
I've been obsessed with sparkling water.
I don't know what it is.
I remember when I was a kid,
drinking those cheap seltzers that you can get
for 50 cents in the grocery store.
And ever since then, I've been addicted.
If I'm gonna be snacking late at night,
I tend to go for a lower calorie snack.
For example, sunflower seeds,
my go-to from my Brooklyn days.
I do get the jumbo-size version, so they're bigger.
I feel like they're easier to eat.
And I go for the low-sodium option.
But a little hack, make sure you measure out
the amount that you're eating beforehand.
'Cause it's really easy to go through a full bag.
And that's a lot of sodium.
I have to be biased here.
New York City is the best food city.
Obviously, I'm from here, so I'm biased.
You have every type of ethnicity, every time of cooking,
you have amazing seafood, the best sushi from Japan.
There's nothing your heart can desire,
or maybe in this case, your stomach can desire,
that you cannot get here in New York City.
Whether you're talking about halal food, sushi,
bodego chips, just everything.
You could run the gamut in New York City.
I love the food here.
I love the people and I love the food,
that's what makes New York City special.
Something that I stay away from
that everyone seems to love, and I could already feel
(chuckles) the hate building up,
I don't like ice cream.
I love ice cream milkshakes.
And I know everyone's like, "Are you crazy?"
There's something about eating ice cream.
Maybe it's too cold and I have sensitive teeth,
but I just can't ice cream.
But cookies and cream milkshakes?
Man!
There is nothing more satisfying on this planet
than cookies and cream milkshakes.
In fact, I'm gonna tell you something interesting right now.
Scientifically, there aren't any foods in nature
that exist that are high in sugar and high in fat
at the same time, except breast milk
and cookies and cream milkshakes.
But cookies and cream milkshakes don't exist in nature,
so those are man-made.
There you have it, that's what I eat in a day.
Obviously, not every day, but my advice still holds.
Stay happy and healthy.
(hip, upbeat music)