By: Jerry Trubman, Owner and Founder
This is not a re-post! You keep asking, so periodically Marie and I rewrite posts detailing what a typical day of eating looks like for us. We started doing this around 6 or 7 years ago and, I’ll be honest, not too much has changed… but a few things have.
I’d like to remind everyone that this is not nutrition advice. This is simply what we’ve discovered, through years of trial and error, that happens to work for us. Your results may vary.
So, here we go… ladies first…
What Marie Eats…
I have changed the way I eat many times in the last 12 years: I’ve tried 5 meals a day, 2 meals a day, cheat days, intermittent fasting once a week etc. etc… Things changed because I felt they were not working any longer, or I didn’t feel as good anymore. Currently I eat 3 times a day. My intake is fairly balanced between each meal. Whether it is a consequence of getting older, or something else, I find I cannot eat crazy large amounts of food at one sitting anymore.
Wake up: 4:30-5:00am
Breakfast 7-8am: First, I drink a glass of water. Next is 1 Serving of protein: usually fish, eggs and egg whites twice a week, sometimes a protein drink… followed by beets, soaked chia seeds, small amounts of sauerkraut or kimchee, one square of dark chocolate, and one 8oz cup of coffee.
“Marie, how can you eat fish in the morning?!?” I have the ability to eat pretty much anything at any time. The reason I started doing it was because it was easier than attempting to eat fish at lunch in my car. Although the eating-in-my-car days are over, it’s a habit that just stuck around.
Lunch between 1130am-1pm
Protein (chicken, turkey, or beef), 3-4 servings of vegetables, serving of fruit, and a fat source (typically avocado).
Dinner between 5-6pm
Protein (same choices as above but different from lunch), 3 servings of vegetables, a fat source (typically almond butter), and 1 square of dark chocolate (really dark, like homemade dark, with 100% cacao).
Bedtime: 8:30pm
Other notes:
Weekend dinners I eat whatever I want. 1-2 alcoholic beverages a week.
What is a serving? Depends on your size and nutrition goals. For me it’s ½ cup.
How much protein? Again, it depends on your size and age. The older we get, (especially women) the more important it is to maintain adequate protein along with lifting heavy objects, to slow muscle loss. Personally, I eat at least 30 grams at each meal.
I try to eat the rainbow in my fruit and vegetable sources every day. Examples include broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beets, squash, oranges, apples, berries.
The only change I make for training is to eat a small amount of rice, quinoa, or potatoes on days that are more cardio based.
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What Jerry Eats…
Wake up time: 4:45am
5 am: Breakfast on a non-training day:
One cup of coffee.
Like seriously… one 8oz cup. I limit caffeine to one serving early in the morning (my sleep thanks me for this). If it’s a really heavy-duty training session, I may take a partial scoop of pre-workout (like a ¼ of a serving), but that only happens about once or twice per month.
Since we’re talking about caffeine, I also do a caffeine detox for two weeks at least once per year.
“No way Jerry! I could never go two weeks without caffeine!”
That’s the same thing crackheads say about crack. Moving along…
5am: Breakfast on a training day:
One cup of coffee, followed by “Jerry’s Cereal”
There’s a YouTube Video of this coming soon, but for now, here’s a photo…
Here’s the recipe:
In a Blendtec blender, combine the following…
4oz of low-fat plain kefir
¼ of a frozen banana
1/3 cup of frozen wild blueberries
Splash of cinnamon (I use a lot and don’t use a measuring device)
One tablespoon of PB powder
One scoop of Legion grass-fed whey protein powder (flavor varies)
Fist-full of greens (about a quarter of a bag. Usually Trader Joe’s ‘Power To The Greens’ mix or spinach)
A small splash of water to help it blend to the right consistency
Once this is blended, I pour it into a bowl and add a serving or Trader Joe’s high fiber cereal or Marie’s homemade granola. Lately, I’ve been into dehydrated fruit (usually strawberries or bananas), so some days I’ll throw a little bit of that in there. It adds a negligible amount of calories but a lot of flavor.
10am: Training session
See this blog post for more info on that.
12pm: Post workout ‘meal’
20oz of water with a packet of Emergen-C and a half scoop of Post-Jym. Yes, this is virtually a zero calorie ‘meal’.
1pm: Nap
2-3pm: Lunch
This is my only real meal of the day, so it’s fairly sizeable. I eat this meal around 2-3pm after I wake up from a daily (1 hour) nap. It varies slightly from week to week, but the template stays the same…
8-10oz of protein (this can be red meat, fish, or chicken)
Large Salad – Again, this varies from week to week, but it generally consists of a spring mix, shredded carrots, beets, a sliced tomato, shredded goat cheese, red onion, edamame, salt, and pepper. I try to use as little dressing as possible.
Bedtime: 8:30pm
30 minutes of reading. Sleeping by 9pm.
Additional notes:
“Real Breakfast”
Once or twice per week, I eat what most would call a ‘real breakfast’ consisting of a three egg omelet filled with a wide variety of veggies and goat cheese (we keep goat cheese instead of cow in the house because I’ve noticed it to be friendlier to my gut).
HOWEVER… once per week…
Once (sometimes twice) per week, I eat whatever the hell I want. I usually save these for special occasions (date night with my wife, dinner with friends, etc). It’s always fun when people invite us over for dinner and instantly panic over what they should fix their ‘strength coach’ friends. Marie and I enjoy seeing their reaction when we say, “Just make whatever. We eat everything!”
This is, of course, partially true. We eat ‘whatever’, just not all the time.
Alcohol
I strictly limit my alcohol consumption to two per week, and never more than one in a 24-hour period. Often times I’ll do even less. If you’ve read previous versions of this post, you may remember that it used to be higher (4 per week and no more than 2 in a 24-hour period). I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older that my body simply cannot handle alcohol as well. I still love my whiskey and dark beer, but now I just enjoy less of it.
My Dirty Dieting Secret
I eat a small amount of dark chocolate every day… and I don’t care who knows it. It keeps me sane and allows me to stay on top of my normal eating plan without feeling deprived in any way. I buy three bars at Trader Joe’s every week, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. No more chocolate until next week’s shopping trip.
Hey! Wait a minute…
I can hear the peanut gallery all the way from where I’m sitting…
“Dude! There is no way you can eat that little and still function!”
“Your protein intake is too low! There’s no way you can train that hard on less than 100 grams of protein per day!”
These things are all simply untrue. Most Americans are completely fascinated with various diets, but the reality is that most Americans simply eat too much, and struggle with their weight as a result of it.
If this entire post was too long and you just wanted the short answer to how I maintain single-digit body fat, despite my age, the answer is right here…
I eat very little.
Crazy, I know. But it works.n
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Need Help?
Marie is the brains behind our operation and she’s the one who I rely on to make tweaks to my eating plan. She also does this with other students in our system. Although we do not consider ourselves to be a place that specializes in weight loss, we do understand that nutrition is a critical component to achieving body composition and performance goals, so Marie is always available to talk to you!
Until next time…
Jerry Trubman is a coach, clinician, author, blogger, and powerlifting state champion. With over two decades of lifting experience, he has devoted himself to seeking out better answers, and distilling them into practical programs that produce great results. Jerry has coached “Team Protocol” to 4 National Powerlifting Championships in the 100% Raw federation. He writes the internationally-read blog, “The Healthy Addiction” and lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife, Marie, and dog, Asher.
