If you’ve looked around, you’ll notice that I’ve already written about nutrition as part of my Health Goth Guide. I have no problem reiterating what I’ve already written, but for your sake, let’s just hit some basic topics. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them.
Quick & Clean Way To Eat Healthy
These are a list of items you will want to consider when eating healthy. If you can’t have something on the list, no problem. Just ignore that line item. This isn’t any particular style of healthy eating; it’s just a very general guide.
Produce - Fruits and Vegetables (fresh or frozen primarily, canned sometimes) *Avoid anything canned in syrup
Lean Meats - Poultry, Fish, Seafood, Lean Beef, Game Meat, Eggs
Healthy Oils - Coconut Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, MCT Oil
Nuts & Seeds - Almonds, Walnuts, Cashews, Pecans, Chia Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, nut milks
Legumes - Beans, Peanuts, Lentils
Whole Grains - Whole Wheat, Brown Rice, Oats, Barley, Quinoa, Buckwheat. *Avoid corn, white grains, processed grains (like white enriched flour). TIP: When looking at bread, opt for something with 5g or more fiber and make sure it has the whole grain stamp.
Full Fat Dairy - Cream, Plain Greek Yogurt, Cream Cheese, Butter, Cheese. *Avoid all milk, flavored yogurt (full of sugar), low-fat dairy, ice cream
Sweet Things - Stevia, Raw Honey, Dark Chocolate. TIP: Use as little as you can. When choosing a dark chocolate, I recommend Lindt’s A Touch of Salt Dark Chocolate Bar.
For the most part, you are sticking to the outer edges of the grocery store. It makes shopping pretty fast. You might step into those inner aisles for tuna, nuts, coffee, tea, or something like that. Aim to limit what you get from those center aisles. Grocery stores have the majority of their processed foods, artificial foods, sugar, and other garbage in that inner section of the store.
Avoid These Foods
This is easier said than done, but you can do it. Did you make it? Yes (eat it); No (what is in it?) Assess ingredients, if no.
Sugar (all sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, soda, candy, etc)
Processed/Refined Food (pre-made food like cereal, cookies, crackers, cake mix, twinkies, chips, corn oil, corn syrup, energy drinks, etc)
Artificial Food (avoid artificial flavoring and coloring)
White Grains (white flour and white rice primarily, boxed mixes, most pasta, mochi, sushi, etc)
Bad Fats (vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, soy oil, safflower oil, etc)
Soy (soy hides in so much stuff - read those ingredient labels)
Increase Water In-Take
Water is essential for humans. Everything in the body requires water. Your healthy lifestyle journey needs to include an increase of water. This is going to improve brain function, flushing the body of toxins and waste, improve the skin, and help hydrate you. The general rule of thumb with water is 0.5 oz to 1.0 oz per pound. If you weigh 200 lbs, then 200 x 0.5 = 100 and 200 x 1.0 = 200. Your water intake needs to be 100 - 200 oz a day.
Does anything else count towards your water in-take? Sure. You can count unsweetened green tea (hot or cold), unsweetened seltzer water (1-3 per day, that CO2 can mess you up), and unsweetened herbal tea (hot or cold).
You can totally have black coffee, but you can’t count it towards your water in-take. If you want a cafe latte or cafe mocha, limit it to one a week. The milk in those drinks should be avoided. It will pack on the weight fast.
Learn To Cook
You may already know how to cook. If you don’t, you need to learn. That’s part of eating healthier - making your own food. I will have some easy recipes for you to try out soon. I will also go over basic meal prepping.
As someone who can cook and is constantly working towards bodybuilding goals, I have found that I now cook minimally (okay, I’m single too, so I don’t have to cook for anyone). I know a few recipes that really work for me and I have those in rotation. I also get a little lazy in the kitchen because I don’t want to spend a ton of time cooking for myself when I can meal prep or batch cook and basically just re-heat and eat. I know other bodybuilders who feel the same way. Life seems to be mostly juggling the gym and work (and/or school), so make eating easy.
A few basics you should know or you should learn.