What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today I'm going to answer a question that's been asked of me at least 10,000 times.
That is, "Jeff, what is it that you eat?
Show us what you eat in a day.
Everything you eat in a day.
I want to know."
I have to say, there's been some hesitation to make the video.
The reason why is because I understand that the topic of nutrition is something that leads
to a lot of dogmatic beliefs in nutrition.
When you think about it, people can become very emphatic about what they recommend for
eating.
I empathize with that because I understand where the root of it is.
The root of it is that a lot of times people will struggle with nutrition.
They will have huge emotional struggles with nutrition.
So, when they finally figure out an approach that works for them, they want others to know
about it.
Sometimes, a little too strongly.
But I believe if you can find an approach that works for you, that you can stay consistent
with, that won't sacrifice your health in the process; I'm all on board for it.
With that being said, I'm going to share my approach with you, with the understanding
– and giving you fair warning – that there might be some triggers in this video.
Triggers in the case of the use of a microwave.
I understand that some people are against the use of microwaves.
I use it as a tool of convenience.
As a matter of fact, I lost a mother at the age of 53 to a rare abdominal cancer.
She happened to sit in close proximity in the kitchen to a microwave oven.
I'm not saying there was a connection there, but I have that in the back in my mind.
But I still use a microwave.
There's also going to be the inclusion of carbohydrates.
I do not avoid carbohydrates.
There are some that do.
I'm just showing and sharing with you what I eat.
There is also the use of animal proteins here.
Again, I understand the ethical belief behind avoiding animal proteins in a diet.
I am not one of them that does that, but I can certainly empathize with the belief system.
I understand where it comes from.
I also use sugar substitutes.
I know a lot of people are very much against sugar substitutes.
I am not necessarily one of them, but I'm not relying on them.
It's just a tool of convenience.
One that allows me to get to where I want to be when used sparingly.
Lastly, even the cinnamon I use has been questioned in the past and I'm glad to tell you guys
that's I've switched from the cassia cinnamon to Ceylon cinnamon.
If you want to look that up yourself you can find out why, but apparently Ceylon cinnamon
is much healthier for the liver than cassia cinnamon.
That being said, with all those triggers out of the way, I want to break down my meals.
This is what it looks like for me.
My breakfast.
I've covered this in the past.
I have oatmeal, egg whites, and skim milk.
Before you say "Oh my god.
It's a boring as I thought it was going to be", I wouldn't be able to eat just plain
oatmeal for as long as I have and still enjoy it.
The key for me is, you'd better enjoy the food that you're eating, or you're not going
to be able to stay consistent.
If you can't stay consistent it's going to turn into what I hate.
Which is a short-term diet plan that you won't be able to stick to.
I have to make these foods taste better.
What I do is create something called pumpkin walnut oatmeal.
I’m going to show you guys all the brands here, too.
I'm not going to announce them, but I'm going to point them out so you can see exactly what
I'm using.
In this case, I'm showing you that I have a cup of oatmeal.
That's about 300 calories of dry oats.
I will give you some estimates at the bottom of each of these foods here, so you have an
estimate of the caloric consumption here.
I include some Ceylon cinnamon, as I've talked about.
Some pumpkin pie spices.
I add in a little bit of maple syrup, add in one round trip around the container, and
then I add in some skim milk to cover the oats.
Probably about 4oz.
Then I put it in the microwave for three minutes.
While that's going, I go back and start to prepare my egg whites.
Again, I do not have anything against the yolk in an egg.
It's just a matter of convenience.
I buy these egg whites in these cartons and I'm able to just use these egg whites as a
tool of convenience.
I have about 7 to 10 of them in one morning.
I fill up this fairly large microwave safe bowl and I put it in the microwave itself
for 2:20.
There's the use of the microwave.
Now, when the oatmeal comes out, here's the secret.
I put in my favorite ingredient which is pumpkin.
Before you guys run and buy the wrong kind, make sure you're buying canned pumpkin.
Not canned pumpkin pie mix, which is loaded with sugar.
It tastes really good, but it's loaded with sugar.
Instead, I have plain canned pumpkin, one of the healthiest things you can put in your
body.
It does two things.
Number one: it adds some real nice texture and flavor, but at the same time it helps
to cool off that really hot oatmeal when it comes out of the microwave, so it makes it
edible at a faster pace.
Something that's very convenient for me.
Now I add in my sweetener.
In this case, it's Splenda brown sugar.
I realize, if you're not into the sweetener, I take a pinch of Splenda brown sugar, sprinkle
it on top, add in a few handfuls of walnuts – my healthy fats – and then I add a little
bit of dried oats for texture.
Then I'm almost done.
One thing that catches people by surprise is that I also include a bit of whipped cream
here.
I love whipped cream.
Guys, calorically it's adding minimally to the overall impact of the meal.
It adds a little more enjoyment to the meal itself.
This is a great tasting oatmeal.
I promise, if you try it, you're going to love it.
Now you can see when the egg whites come out, I add something I've talked about before.
I add pickled ginger.
I put it on top of them.
Believe me, it's not gross.
It's actually really, really good.
Some pickled ginger on top of the egg whites and then I put some salsa on top of that.
As I mentioned earlier, my glass of skim milk and I'm ready to go.
That's my breakfast, I'm ready to go.
If you total this up with these estimates, you're going to get to about 850 calories.
Now we move on – I'm going to cover the major meals and I'll get back to what happens
in between.
Next up is lunch.
When it comes to lunch, one of my favorite things to eat is a grilled chicken wrap.
But on this grilled chicken wrap, I'm not just getting a lot of chicken.
I'm also getting a lot of grilled vegetables.
In this case it was zucchini and eggplant and a little bit of onion.
That's all grilled up in olive oil and I add hot sauce in here for some moisture and I
also have some pesto.
That is my grilled chicken wrap, contributing about 575 calories.
Again, depending upon what you put on these things and how big they are – this is a
big one – they can vary pretty greatly.
The fact is, this one is about 575 calories.
Then as you'll see here, I have a whole-fat yogurt with whipped cream.
That comes out to be about 755 calories.
We move on.
For dinner I start out with a soup.
In this case it was a tomato orzo soup.
Just an orzo and it has some chicken in this as well.
I put some of these crackers here on top and we're looking at about 225 calories.
This is how I like to start my meal.
Pretty much a variation of a soup or stew to start my meal.
Then for the dinner itself, you're probably pretty familiar with the meal.
I've shown it to you.
If you haven't already seen it, the video where I break down how I divide my plate because
there's a rationale behind the division of the plate.
I think you should watch that video so you can understand the concept.
It's plated out in fourths here on this plate.
This is my grilled chicken occupying a large portion of my plate.
Not quite done yet.
I'm going to make it taste a little bit better.
I could eat plain grilled chicken.
Again, consistency.
You have to like what you're eating.
Then I have two sources of my starchy carbohydrates.
I have some pasta and I have my mashed sweet potatoes with a little bit of cinnamon and
butter in it as well.
Then as my main vegetable I have my fiber vegetable for the night.
I have corn.
A lot of times this could be broccoli, this could be brussel sprouts, this could be asparagus,
this could be anything.
I have a large portion of the plate covered by this other fibrous vegetable.
As I mentioned, I'm not quite done.
I'll take something and put it on top of my chicken.
Tonight, it happens to be a mango ginger salsa that I put on top.
Again, ginger making its way into my meal plan, as I've recommended to you strongly
in a video in the past for all the benefits it provides.
Of course, I have this meal with some seltzer water.
I love seltzer.
It's more interesting than regular water for me.
It allows me to be a bit more consistent with the intake and consumption of my liquids and
keeping hydrated throughout the day.
So, even though I didn't show it at my other meals, I have it there as well.
Now, that meal there totals 975 calories.
But I'm not quite done.
I know the running joke is that I have my carrot cake once a year, but I have dessert
every, single night.
I have it in the form of yogurt.
Frozen yogurt.
In this case, a fat-free vanilla ice cream.
Again, I'm not hung up on the fat free nature of it.
I'm just trying to pick something a little slimmer, in terms of, I'm not looking for
a rocky road-marshmallow sundae.
I'm looking for something a little more 'bare bones' because I enjoy it.
If it's not something you enjoy, I'd recommend not having this.
But this is something I enjoy.
Once again, some whipped cream on top and we're looking at about 280 calories for this.
And yes, it is every, single night.
Now, if you were to total all that up, you're looking at a total caloric intake of 2860
calories.
This is a very rough estimate, but it gives you a guideline.
I'm not eating 1400 calories a day.
I'm not eating 1800 calories a day.
I'm also not eating 5000 or 6000 calories a day.
I'm eating right about the range I should for my body type.
Again, I carry a lot of lean mass so I'm able to support this.
The fact is, I'm also pretty damn active, as you can imagine, from my job.
I do active things for a living.
So, this particular calorie amount is what allows me to stay right about where I need
to be.
It could be different for you.
So, going and copying this entire meal plan, meal by meal, may not be the secret to your
success.
But it at least gives you an idea of what it is that I'm taking in and how I break it
down.
Not shown in this video is what happens in between these meals.
Do I snack?
Do I have anything?
I do.
As a matter of fact, I left out the details here because I didn’t want to make it into
a supplement commercial.
I don’t want to force you guys to feel that you need to use my supplements.
It's what I use.
I believe that I have the best supplements out there and I know what's going into every,
single bottle.
So, I trust them.
But if you want to know, full disclosure, what I use on a given day, I have my protein
shake, my RX-2 every, single day.
Whether I train or not.
At the end of the day I always have my RX-3 muscle recovery.
Again, it's not highly caloric, it's 20 calories.
It's just there to help support my hard efforts earlier in the day in the gym to help me complete
the picture.
But that would make up the entire consumption for me in a day.
My recommendation to you is, number one: the concept of 'you versus me' is incredibly important.
If you were to look at this and say, "I don’t like any of that", or "Those triggers do set
me off, I don’t really agree with something in that meal plan", then don’t eat it.
Don’t force yourself to eat it because I guarantee you one thing.
You will not be able to stay consistent with this.
Consistency is the key, when it comes to nutrition.
You have to be able to like what you eat, so you can consistently eat what you eat,
to get where you want to be.
Second point.
This is one represented day.
I do not eat the same, exact thing every, single day.
The principles around each of these meals are applied across the board, but I don’t
eat the same, exact thing every, single day.
There are a lot of similarities, but I vary where I can vary, and I suggest you guys do
the same thing as well.
Don’t lock yourself in.
Don’t allow yourself to become dogmatic about nutrition.
Allow yourself to become a little more varied and I promise you'll have better success in
doing it.
There was a time in my life where I avoided every plan with fat in the day because I was
told to believe that was not good for me.
Thank god I was able to release that dogma to become more accepting of it because my
result improved tremendously when I did it.
Guys, I'll leave you with this last note.
When you're looking at this meal plan, looking at the viability for you, you have to ask
yourself what is most important to you.
I think there are three variables we can choose from.
Only two of which can we actually have.
Fast, good, and cheap.
I've covered this in a video before.
If you want fast and good, you're probably going to have to go out and buy your food.
It ain't going to be cheap, but you can go to a catering department of any of the local
super markets, which they have – if you're not aware – a bar lined with food in bulk,
which is going to speed up the process of preparing this for the week ahead.
If you want good and cheap, that means you're probably going to have to sacrifice fast.
It means you're going to have to buy these and make them yourself, which is going to
take a lot more time.
You can't really have all three unless you're lucky enough to have somebody who's going
to prepare all these meals for you and take that burden off your back, so you can get
all of them.
Fast, good, and cheap.
The fact is, you have to determine what is most important to you.
When you do, you'll unlock an empowerment of your own nutrition that's going to allow
this whole process to become so much easier than it may have been until now.
Again, forget if it looks like this or not.
It may look completely different to you.
All that matters to me is that you find a system that works for you.
Find a nutrition plan and style and approach that works for you, that you can consistently
stay with and enjoy; I'm on board with you.
I promise.
If you're looking for my meal plans in a step by step, day by day fashion; they're all available
over at ATHLEANX.com in all our programs.
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All right, guys.
See you soon.