The "Fit Foodie" Protocol
Thursday Thrive #26 - How to stay lean and enjoy great food
Happy Thursday!
Welcome to the 26th edition of the Thrive Protocol Letter.
Today at a glance:
Outlining my 5-step protocol on how to be a full-blown foodie with a 6-pack
And also -
New prep vlog for those interested:
I’m enjoying the process of learning and improving at video skills.
Here’s to becoming less awkward in front of the camera!
I see fitness accounts sometimes, and I think to myself:
“This person just doesn’t care about food.”
Some people are all about training, and for them, food is a tool.
A means to an end.
That’s certainly not me — I’m a full-blown foodie.
This obviously creates a bit of tension between my goal of maintaining a lean body fat percentage (whilst occasionally getting severely lean - IE contest prep) and my goal of enjoying as much amazing food as I can.
I talk a lot about the importance of sustainability for a fitness plan.
Contest prep is 100% not sustainable, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’m going to deal with the post-prep phase and get back to a healthy (sustainable) spot.
I won’t lie to you — I’ve rebounded from diets before.
It is deceivingly hard to control the primal drive to eat after you’ve been in a calorie deficit for a while.
I’m determined not to rebound after the physique show I’m participating in.
But I’m also determined to enjoy some deliciousness.
I’ve been formulating my Fit Foodie Protocol: a set of guidelines designed to help me stay lean while enjoying incredible food with my wife.
And I’d like to share it with you:
No 2 “Cheat Meals” in a Row
Enjoying a cheat meal is fun sometimes.
More than fun — it’s cathartic. It’s necessary.
It just can’t happen too frequently because if it does, you’ll get fat.
There’s a lot of hooblah over the term “cheat meal.”
Personally, I don’t think it matters how you refer to these meals all that much.
Some people hate the term “cheat meal” and think it’s damaging because no food needs to be completely off-limits.
I agree with that, but the reality is that some foods are “everyday” foods, and some foods are not.
There is no way I can structure my meal plan to afford Korean Fried Chicken or Cheesecake every day.
My simple qualification for a “cheat meal” is whether it is an everyday food or not.
If it’s something I can’t afford (in my energy budget) to eat daily, I consider it a “cheat meal” (I could just as easily call it a treat meal).
My favorites are Korean Fried Chicken, big sushi feasts, Indian food, Cheeseburgers, and ice cream sandwiches.
I do not have 2 cheat meals in a row.
This is the most important rule.
One day won’t hurt you.
But if that slippery slope thinking starts happening and it becomes two, three, one whole week of cheat meals…
All of a sudden you realize you’ve undone your progress for the past few weeks.
Whatever you call them — cheat meal, bust out, “large untracked meal—” don’t let them stack up.
No Snacking
I consider “snacking” mindless eating out of boredom, convenience, obligation (feeling awkward at the gathering), or just out of habit (you wander into the kitchen and eat because, why not?).
There is no place for snacking.
Food is something I intentionally enjoy.
I eat with an awareness that I’m fuelling my body, and there are repercussions for that.
I don’t have an unlimited energy budget to work with.
I may eat a small meal that I refer to as a “snack,” but there is no room in my life for the mindless act of snacking.
I’ll save my calories for my meals.
Balance the week
The best way to create a flexible meal plan is to look at your week as a unit of time instead of each day.
Each day gets extremely limiting, especially if you’re dieting.
But if you step back and see your energy budget throughout the week, you can arrange things so you have 1 or 2 higher days to enjoy some of your “non-everyday foods” (IE, “cheat meals”).
Quick example.
Say you’re eating 2,000 calories per day.
That’s 14,000 per week.
You can simply eat 2,000 calories every day to achieve your goal.
Or, you could eat 1,600 calories for 5 days of the week and have 2 days where you eat 3,000 calories.
With a 3,000-calorie daily budget, fitting in pasta, a burger, or even a whole pizza is very doable.
And that’s on a relatively low 2,000-calorie diet.
I always make sure that my week is balanced according to my goals.
Yeah, I may have some Korean fried chicken and go over on a particular day.
But I always balance the week.
Earn it First
The previous concept is essentially earning your higher days.
You earn higher days by compensating with lower days (since we’re all working with our energy budgets).
It’s ideal to get in the habit of earning days preemptively instead of compensating after.
If I want Korean Fried Chicken on Saturday, it’s better for me to earn that from Wednesday to Friday instead of saying, “I’ll eat less on Sunday and Monday.”
That’s a slippery slope in the making.
Don’t fall for outsourcing the discipline to your future self — earn it first.
Plus the meal will always be more satisfying this way ( nothing like a little hunger to ramp up the taste buds).
Eat slowly and mindfully
Eat with respect for the act of eating.
When you eat, you’re fuelling your body.
You’re providing the nutrients your DNA will use to literally build your cells.
There are serious repercussions to overfuelling.
Don’t take it for granted and stuff your face. Appreciate food as the limited resource that it is, and create a habit of enjoying it deeply.
Have at least one meal per day where you enjoy and savour every bite.
There it is — the Fit Foodie Protocol:
No back-to-back cheat meals
No (mindless) snacking
Balance the week
Earn it first
Eat slowly and mindfully
Adhere to those 5 practices, and you can have your cake (or donuts, ice cream sandwiches, Korean Fried Chicken, pizza, cheeseburgers, calamari) and eat it too.
Hope you find that useful!
Enjoy some great food this weekend
-Colin “Fit Foodie” Matson
