(Fitness) Things I've Fallen In Love With, Part 2

Alright, time for part 2 of things I've fallen in love with the last several months, this time it'll be all nutritional/food stuff.

1) Avocados - Avocados are seriously the best food ever. Avocados really are a true superfood, packed with all kinds of nutritional goodness. They are easily one of the best ways to add healthy fats to your diet, and they've been part of my favorite staple meal for the last few months (Eggs/Egg Whites/Salsa/Avocado/Hot Sauce).

Tips: Not much to say other than eat avocados. If you've never tried them on eggs, you're missing out!

2) (Natural) Almond Butter - The other staple fat in my diet right now is homemade, natural Almond Butter. At the beginning of Month 1, I decided to give Almond Butter a shot, as an alternative to Peanut Butter. Ever since, Almond Butter has been a staple of my diet and I only eat Peanut Butter on cheat days and times when I'm out of Almond Butter. Competely natural Almond Butter tastes quite a but nuttier and not as sweet and rich as the Peanut Butter most people are used to, but I very quickly fell in love with it. Having a spoonful of peanut butter makes me crave more peanut butter, while almond butter leaves me very satiated, which is nice.

I've been eating Almond Butter mostly as part of my evening cottage cheese meals. Almond Butter goes great with cottage cheese, and maybe a little cinnamon and/or sugar free chocolate syrup. Try it!


Tips: Almond Butter tends to be really expensive in stores, so it makes sense to make your own. It's relatively easy to make, and there's plenty of "recipes" on the Internet. Here's a few hints from my experiences:


- Do yourself a favor and avoid the urge to add sweetener. which some recipes call for. I played around with both of these for awhile and ended up preferring completely natural almond butter with only a salt added (Lite Salt, in fact, which I highly recommend over regular salt to help counteract the potassium deficiency in most diets).
- Also, resist the urge to add oil to the mixture as you're making it. While it seems to help the almond butter turn into a creamy "butter", you just have to be really patient and it will get there on it's own. It seems to take forever but eventually the really dry Almond dust will suddenly turn into a very oily mixture.
- Buy pre-sliced Almonds instead of whole almonds, if you can. You would think it shouldn't make hardly any difference, but for some reason I get a lot better results (quicker mixing/creamier texture) with pre-sliced almonds over whole almonds. Shrug.


3) Intermittent Fasting -  I talked about this a bit when I mentioned my month 1 program, and I'd be lying if I said this is new as of the last few months, as it's something I've been experimenting with for awhile now. But, I can safely say that after the last few months (where I have practiced IF daily), that it's unlikely that I will ever go back to any kind of "normal" eating pattern. I am a complete believer in IF and all of it's purported benefits.

I can still remember my first true "fasted' training session, which was one of my best sessions ever, driving to the gym with an incredible amount of energy and focus. It is freaky. One of the interesting and most noticeable things is how good my vision is when I'm fasting.

In addition, since I have been adding cheat days for the last month and a half, I have been following them up with a complete fast day! Yes, that's right, I go an entire day without eating anything, and then follow it up with 6+ hours of fasting after I wake up the following day. So, I routinely go 38-40 hours without eating, and train during it. It is amazing how much energy and how great you can feel doing a hardcore session of sprints, having not eaten in 36 hours. I can say that the best I ever feel is the morning after my fast day; I almost always sleep great. It's surreal and I strongly urge everybody to give it a shot at least once. On top of my own experiences, the science behind it is pretty compelling.

Tips:


- Google Intermittent Fasting and have at it! A few of the better links off the top of my head: 


http://www.romanfitnesssystems.com/blog/intermittent-fasting-101/
http://www.leangains.com

- You may have some weird experiences at first, especially if your body is completely unaccustomed to it, so take it as easy as you need to, and give it an honest shot for a couple of weeks before making up your mind. I had very little trouble adjusting but I know people who have.
- Definitely give fasted training a try. A LOT of people find that they have their best workouts ever when training fasted, and I am no exception.


4) Blueberries - Blueberries are another food that gets called a "Superfood" and if you look at their health properties it's obvious why. And I love eating them. A cup of blueberries with a protein shake has become my standard breakfast on non-training days, and my post-workout meal on training days (though I sometimes op for Strawberries). They're so good!

Tips: Try not to eat the entire package.


5) Cinnamon - My diet during month 1 was very much tailored to try and improve my insulin sensitivity, which is probably somewhat wrecked from years of eating a lot of carbs. So, I was eating extremely low carb for awhile (which sucked). In doing research on insulin sensitivity, I discovered that regular supplementation of cinnamon has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. And, I've always loved how it tastes. So, cinnamon has been a regular staple of my diet since, most notably as an addition to my normal cottage cheese meals. Cottage Cheese + Almond Butter + Cinnamon is a really, really great, and healthy evening snack. Oh, and I've even gone so far as to add Cinnamon directly to my almond butter mix, which actually tastes really good.

Tips: It takes a couple of teaspoons of Cinnamon daily to reap the benefits, so feel free to pile it on!


6) Cheat Days - I hope this doesn't take too much explanation. Cheat days rock. Being able to stuff my face once a week or once every other week makes it very easy to stick to my diet (although honestly, I don't have much trouble with that anyway). But, it's still a lot of fun!

Tips: Make sure your cheat days are truly a "cheat". A lot of people barely cheat, and it's almost a waste of time. Making sure your cheat days are "cheaty enough" is very important especially if you want to follow my other tip:
- Follow your cheat day with a fast day. I do this regularly now and I find it to be a great idea. As long as your cheat day involves enough shoveling of food, hunger/fatigue problems on the fast day are almost non-existent. It's a great way to take advantage of the hormonal benefits of the cheat day.