What to take?
Healthy Meats:
Tuna
Salmon
Orange ruffy
Truit
Tilapia
Skinless chicken breast
Lean turkey (preferably breast meat)
Extra lean beef (5% or less fat)
Liver (better to make it yourself)
Buffalo
Ostrich
Venison or elk
Protein powder (Whey, Casein, or egg protein powder)
Non-fat cottage cheese
Cheese (white cheese is better than orange cheese)
Eggs (not meat but great source of protein)
Note: try to buy Omega 3 eggs. Omega 3 eggs are much better for you than regular eggs
Healthy Carbs:
Oatmeal (the less processed the better. Stay away from instant oatmeal. Try to find steel cut oatmeal or whole oats)
Rice (white or brown defendant upon time in day)
Pasta (get marinara sauce and stay away from the Alfredo and that. best time to consume post workout)
Vegetables (spinach, broccoli, green beans, or any other dark green leafy plant)
Note: the darker the vegetable, the better. Hence, iceberg lettuce offers very little nutritional value because it is so light in color)
Other healthy carbs: Ezekiel bread, yams, potatoes (preferably sweet potatoes or yams),
Fruit (apples, bananas, oranges, kiwi, grapefruit, grapes, frozen mixed fruit, etc.)
Beans (pinto beans, black beans, gonzo beans, etc.)
Healthy fats:
Coconut oil
Olive oil
Fish oil
Borage oil
Nuts:
Walnuts
Almonds
Macadamias
Pistachios
Here is a sample meal plan (to give you an idea):
Breakfast (shake because it is quick):
1.5 cup raw oatmeal (blend for 2 minutes)
7 raw organic eggs (sounds gross, but it’s not)
Cup strawberries
Meal 2 (pretty much keep this for all my meals):
6-7oz meat
120g brown rice
3oz vegetables
15g healthy oil or handful nuts
2 fish oil caps
Meal 3 (same as meal 2)
Meal 4 (same as meal 2)
Meal 5 (preworkout shake, very important)
Fast absorbing protein (1,3 ratio protein to carbs)
Dextrose Carb source
BCAA’s
During training: carbs/BCAA’s
Post training:
Fast absorbing protein (1,3 ratio protein to carbs)
Dextrose Carb source
BCAA’s
Meal 6 (same as meal 2)
Meal 7 (same as meal 2 but no carbs)
Meal 8 (before bed shake)
scoop Whey casin (slow digesting)
scoop Whey isolate
big scoop natural (make sure it is natural) peanut butter, or oil
Meal 9 (middle of night shake)
Nocturnal meal
whey isolate
big scoop natural (make sure it is natural) peanut butter, or oil
Try to shoot for 6-10 meals/day. When your eating healthy food such as what is listed above, it is pretty damn difficult to get “too” fat. As for meals, make it easy on yourself. Make all your meals (measured out) for the week one day a week and freeze them. This way, it is real easy to keep track of how many calories you are getting. All you need to do is leave your frozen food out before you go to bed, and it is thawed in the morning.
As with supplements remember one very important thing. You can take every possible supplement in the book, but if you are not getting enough calories, you will not gain muscle mass. Food is key. Sure supplements can help, but they won’t do much without proper calories.
Remember too, with following any diet, it boils down to how consistent you are. If you are consistent 3-4 days then slack off for a day or two, you are probably not going to progress the way you want to. To be real honest, most people don’t have what it takes and they just give up. Remember, anything worth having requires a great deal of effort. Either commit to it or don’t because you will waste your time and money if you screw around (i found out this the hard way).
With regard to exercises, don’t get caught up with the 5 billion different options. People tend to over analyze the shit out of training. Truth be told, you only need about 10 or so exercises to get big and strong as hell, literally. These exercises have been proven to work for decades upon decades. Thing is, most of the best exercises are difficult. This steers people away because everyone wants to take the easy way out. If you do these movements, bust your ass by making progressive improvements on these exercises, and keep things simple, I guarantee you will get the results you seek.
Here are the exercises:
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Good mornings (to 45 degrees)
- Vertical hanging pull exercise (pullups or chinups var. NOT lat pull down)
- Horizontal pull exercise (start off with body weight rows for a few months and then progress to barbell or DB rows)
- Shrugs, vertical & horizontal (get full range of motion, or ROM)
- Bench movement (if you can’t do your body weight, stick to push ups for a few months)
- Standing shoulder press
- Dips (not machine)
- Bent over dumbbell exercise for rear shoulders
- Standing curls
- Core movement (ab/oblique)
Don’t feel you need to jump right into barbell bench training right away, esp. at your level. Pushups and Body weight rows will go a very long way for you in terms of foundation.
Hope this helps.