I get asked on a regular basis what I eat.  I post up various foods I like, recipes too but what people find most helpful is to be able to 'look over my shoulder' so to speak to see what and when I eat on a daily basis. And I agree that can be very helpful.

However, before I jump in with the 'what and when' let me take a step back.  If you are looking to lose weight while you add muscle, you should eat about 10 calories for every 1 pound of body weight if you are a woman.  If you are a man you can make that calculation 11 or 12 calories per pound depending on your existing muscle mass.  As you shape up, you can increase that rate.  Of course you'll also be losing weight so your calories, in total, may not change that much. If you are trying to build muscle (highly recommended) try to eat at least .8 grams of protein for every pound of body weight.  If you are a man, eat between 1.0 and 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

So for me now, if I consume 11x my body weight, (11 x 136 = 1500 approximate calories) I can still lose about 1/2 pounds per week unless I've gone hog wild on my cheat day.  I am eating 1500 - 1650 calories a day Monday - Saturday and eating whatever I want on Sundays.  I am eating between .9 and 1.0 grams of protein per lb right now and I'm really shaping up.

I tend to eat the most carbs and calories for lunch.  I buy organic dairy products, and almost all of my fresh veggies and fruits organic also.  I buy cage free high Omega eggs (but not organic) and some meats are purchased organic.  If you are a woman with a lot of belly fat, I encourage you to eat as much organic foods as you can find and your budget can afford.

Here are two days of eating at a macro nutrient level (protein, carbs, fiber, fats & calories)

My pre-workout shake is 1/2 a Shakeology shake (I like Green Berry).  This is a fantastic meal replacement shake from Beachbody which I use to help make sure that what I may miss in fruit and veggie servings I can make up with the phyto nutrients in this shake.  I tend to take the other half as one of my optional snacks and I may add a few peanuts or walnuts or almonds (just a few).  Post workout I'm drinking a chocolate Myofusion shake with a cup of skim (fat free) organic milk.   I also drink a half serving of this as my pre bedtime shake.

Sample Lunch 1:

Nancy's Berry Shake

2 spicy black bean veggie burgers

1 serving steemed corn.

1 cup organic 2% fat milk

Sample Lunch 2:

3/4 baked beans with sauce drained off.

2 Hebrew National Low Fat Beef Franks

1/2 organic apple

1 cup organic 2% fat milk

Sample Dinner 1:

Meatloaf no gravy

1 1/2 cups steamed brocoli

Sample Dinner 2:

Broiled Samon with cajun spices

1 1/2 cups vegtable medely

Sample Dinner 3:

Chicken Lentil Vegtable Soup (homemade)

Salad (organic lettuce & tomatoes) with diet organic Caesar dressing

Thought I'd catch up here with what I'm eating now on my more Primal diet:

Early morning pre-workout:  1/2 Shakeology shake

Post workout:  Chocolate Protein shake

Mid Morning Snack: Homemade Coconut Bars

Lunch: Tuna fish salad over lettuce; 1/2 banana, 1/3 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup strawberries in cream (yes you read that right - cream)

Afternoon Snack: 1/2 Grapefruit

Dinner: Roast Chicken (thigh & 2 legs); Mixed steamed veggies (carrots, brocoli, cauliflower), Dessert: 5 walnut halves; 6 almonds; 1 piece Dove Dark Chocolate

Pre Bedtime Shake: Chocolate Protein Shake

Nevermind, found it!

Nancy,

How much of a difference do you think organic foods is making, in regards to burning/shedding belly fat?  I'm trying to get rid of quite a bit of belly fat and it seems it doesn't want to come off.

Thanks,

Coach Toni

Hi Toni,

I'm a huge advocate of at least making sure any dairy you eat is organic.  Dairy, even the lower fat milk options is still probably the overall highest fat food group you'll eat and you don't want to be consuming fat with hormones in it. Additional hormones can influence your body's tendency to absorb and retain fat.

I'm buying all my fresh fruit and veggies organic now.  I started with the big offenders like berries and salad greens and kept expanding.  I do it more from a general health perspective because I don't want pesticides.  But that's not something I'd say is a fat absorbtion or retention issue.

I'm going to guess that any belly fat issue you are struggling with is due to one of these common culprits:

1. Eating too many of your daily calories as carb and not enough lean protein.  Even if you have the ratio right, make sure you are not eating more than 1 serving of starch/grain products a day and make sure that any bread products are full of fiber.  You want to be sure that your blood sugar doesn't spike up.
2. Not exercising intensely enough.
3. Exercising too much.

Now knowing you, I'm guessing that #2 is not your problem but I wonder if #3 is.  If you are doing doubles, don't do that constantly because it's going to put too much stress on your body which will increase your cortisol levels and that is often an issue with belly fat.

I may seem like I exercise like a 'crazy' person and do hours of workout each day - but I don't.  I do break up exercise into multiple segments  So my routine right now is that M, W, F Chris and I do a P90X resistance training workout.  We are in the Phase 2 segment right now so Monday it's been Back & Biceps, Wednesday it's Chest, Shoulder, Triceps, and Fridays it's been Legs & Back.  Tuesdays and Thursdays we do Ab sessions where it's Ab Ripper X plus something.  Sometimes the 'something' is Brazil Butt Lift's Tummy Tuck and sometimes it's a series of rounds with the ab wheel and ab straps and maybe some kettlebell moves thrown in.  We put in 30 - 35 minutes for ab days.  Then in the afternoons 4 out of the 5 days I'll pick one of the following:

1. 2.25 mile walk (takes me 35 - 40 minutes; I'm not the fastest walker)
2. 2.5 - 3.0 mile run (20 - 30 minutes; I'm not the fastest runner)
3. Brazil Butt Lift Bum Bum routing (25 mins long)
4. Kettlebell or other High Intensity Interval Training workout (20 mins max)

When I do a run, I run fast and slow in intervals so 2 of my 4 choices are really HIIT routines; 1 is a moderate level intensity (Bum Bum) and 1 is low intensity but longer duration.

Weekends are recovery days.  Once in awhile I go for a run on Saturday if I've not run during the week (just because I like running) but I really try to limit my 'cardio' (actually HIIT isn't cardio but people tend to categorize it that way) to 4 sessions a week.  I go all out on my strength training because that's where the body changes really come from.

Does this make sense?

Nancy

Nancy,

Great response!  You always over deliver

Ok, so based on your response, I obviously have 2 issues:

• Workout to much - I actually did Insanity yesterday morning and did p90x last night!  And then did Insanity again this morning:)  I'm trying to get an unbelievable transformation.  But I may be trying to hard.  I can easily correct this.
• Eating to many daily calories and carbs - Now, I know I'm getting enough protein in, but I may be getting to many carbs.  For instance, this morning I had Shakeology for breakfast, which already has 19g of carbs.  And since I added 1/4 cup of orange juice, as well as a scoop of Isopure whey protein, I may be over doing it with the carbs.  And for lunch, I have a turkey breast sandwich, with whole grain bread, plus a light salad dressing.  So this alone may be to many carbs.

So, I think I need to make a few adjustments and see how that works.

Lastly, during your strength training, do you try to max out at 8-10 reps, or do you keep going to 12-15 reps?  Just wondering if I need to increase my weight, while doing p90x.

Thanks,

-Coach Toni

Hi Toni,

I go through cycles each month.  Right now I'm on a 'lift heavy' cycle where I try to set my weights to it's hard to hit 8 reps.  Then I may back off or at least not increase my weights next month and go for a break point at 12 reps.  Except for very small muscles, I'm no fan of the low weight - very high rep logic.

Here's my thinking.  You need to go heavy to build muscle.  Muscle is muscle.  There is no such thing as lean muscle and bulky muscle because you lift light weights a lot more reps.  (I believe Tony actually believes that too but he tones it down just so women will actually do the workouts.)  The heavy lifting does more than build muscle, it will produce a bigger hormone response - the kind you want!  You'll get better increases in HgH (human growth hormone) which will help your body burn fat - especially around the abs.  Also, as you build muscle in any part of your body there is a synergistic effect that will influence your body to build muscle in all parts of your body.  I have to continually keep on Chris to work his leg muscles harder than he's naturally inclined to because that will help grow his chest and arms faster.  So when you work your arms and chest harder, your legs, glutes, and back will grow more and more muscle burns more calories.

And there is never an OMG moment where you wake up one morning suddenly looking like the incredible hulk.  You are always in control so if you feel you are getting too defined in one area then cycle at 12 reps for awhile at a slightly lower weight.

On your current workout schedule, don't do Insanity more than 3x per week and only do the phase 1 workouts which are shorter.  Non resistance training sessions should be generally short if high intensity.   Now I admit that Insanity can be oddly addicting but it's not a very good workout at least not when judged as a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout.  In fact, it's not a real HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout because it's all wrong on the cycling.  Doing longer periods of ultra high intensity with only a 30 second down period is backwards.  It's not supported by any research.   Long periods of ultra high intensity is harmful in that it will cause your body to produce too much cortisol (a stress response hormone which will tend to harm your muscle development).   I'm looking forward to getting the TurboFire workouts when they are available because from what I see Chalean has it right or at least closer on the cycling of high, medium and low intensity.

Nancy

P.S. on my prior schedule I inadvertantly left off Insanity.  I will do the Pure Cardio or the Plyo Interval workouts from time to time (never more than 1x per week these days).  What surprised me the last time I did one was how much better I had gotten at it even though I had been away from Insanity for about 6 weeks.  I kept up and kept my heart rate in check.  So you can get uber fit even without doing Insanity much.

Hi Toni,

I thought I'd update my daily diet.  I'm now in a range of 1450 - 1500 calories a day (excluding cheat days):

Notes:

The carbs you see in the pre-workout row only occur if I take SuperPump250.  Jack3d and Xtend don't have any calories.

* Xtend is a blend of amino acids.  I get more branched chain amino acids and about the same amount of glutamine as I would if I took a serving of quality whey protein.  Although the whey protein serving comes in typically at 25 grams of protein, because I'm only taking selected amino acids, I notch down the impact of them as if they were converted into grams of protein.  Also both Jack3d and SuperPump have the amino acid Arginine and SuperPump has other amino acids in it as well.

If you are exercising intensely, I cannot recommend Xtend enough.  (Read my full review at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/?p=1820) It will take you out of a catabolic state in minutes.  That's why I take it first thing in the morning because when you get up, your body is in a catabolic state.  Then my afternoon snack I tend to eat the 1/2 protein bar and take a half serving of Xtend before I do any afternoon exercise and then take the other half of Xtend after I exercise.