Background: I originally was very interested in joining a BJJ class as a hobby. Just getting information on these forums as opened my eyes up to a lot of things and I have read most of the FAQ's for any information I can find. I wanted my BJJ to not only act as a hobby, but get me in pretty decent shape. I am currently 6'2 160 pounds, half asian very tall and lanky. My goal is to have long term gains in strength, conditioning, and overall health. I have no intentions of fighting, I just want to have a better physical appearance. Situation: I am going to start a lifting program, starting with squats n' milk, then to a 5x5 program. The lifting section was all jibberish to me, but I feel like I have a good enough grasp of it to start the program and get lifting after lots of taking in information! Conditioning is probably the easiest for me (To understand how to condition!) so it should be easy to couple it with the rest of my workout. Now my problem, honestly I avoided this part of the forum, mostly going through recipes just to see what everyone was eating. After reviewing the squats n' milk program it appears diet is a fundamental to any part of getting healthy and I can't simply avoid it (Darn! :icon_chee) I had in my mind I was just going to cut out pretty much junk food or fast food and that would significantly help. If that's not the case, I am looking for some advice on how to best handle this situation. I am getting married in July, and will be moving into an apartment and living with my new wife! We will obviously have to stock a brand new kitchen and it looks like dieting is going to be soo expensive just to eat healthy. I probably could manage this to a degree if I was on my own, however the wife will not be into these kinds of habits quite yet and we share a budget. I definitely plan on steering both of us in this direction, however it all comes back to long term gain without being extreme. I cannot imagine keeping the kitchen stocked, preparing every meal and ensuring we're getting the appropriate intake. Pizza or something like this would have to be inevitable at some point, but it sounds like it's just not possible to see positive gains if you don't strictly enforce every part of your diet. Summarization (Let me try to make some sense of all this lol) -- I got interested in lifting after realizing how easy it could be to stick with a program that is laid out. 3 times a week with alternating lifts I can make sense of it. Is there a diet that could work for me, and possibly my wife that is easy to follow and is not soo strict on everything you eat? I am not looking to avoid the diet. Something easy to follow that's not very demanding and can start creating a good habit and I can start changing my diet for the better in the future. Will an easier diet noticeably affect my lifting or anything? Funds are very important at this stage. Very picky eater, after reviewing the recipes my diet would look something like; Breakfast: Eggs, Toast, and oats. All snacks would consist of: Nuts, Granola Bars, maybe a fruit. Lunch: Tuna, or chicken, peanut butter sandwiches, fruits and veggies Dinner: Steak or lean beef (hehe I actually don't know what that means :redface, Chicken, fruits and veggies. The only saving grace I can find, I absolutely looooove hot stuff. My tolerance is through the roof. I see myself basically having buffalo chicken every damn night and switch it up when I get tired of it. I do like tuna which is also very good. I know this post has little structure, but I would really appreciate any advice you guys can offer. Everyone is very intelligent here and I hope I can start the training soon!
If you truly want to maximize your performance you can spend a lot of money on supplements and eat a strict diet, but I don't think its necessary. For a little on me, I am a competitive submission wrestler, have boxing as a hobby, and have been in the U.S. military for over 10 years. I have little to no aspiration to fight professionally, and all that I supplement with is protein and a multi-vitamin. I am 5'11" and walk at roughly 170 lbs. and hover around 8 percent bodyfat. The important thing to look at when picking your diet is getting the most bang for your buck. Eat quality carbs like whole grains and beans rather than getting those carbs from sugar or starches like potatos. Eat lower fat meats like chicken, turkey, tuna, or well cut beef rather than chewing the fat off of a well marbalized rib eye steak. Get your fats from the healthier sources like nuts, try to use olive oil as an oil of choice...eat at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight every day, up to two grams if you're trying to build. The occassional day of ice cream, pizza, fast food, etc. won't destroy your diet, but you may find that after eating "clean" for a while that throwing excessively greasy or sweet foods into your diet make you feel slow and sluggish and may hamper day of and next days performance. And remember...the only way to gain mass is to ingest more calories...people always make the mistake of calorie restriction while trying to "get fit"...if your muscles can't feed, your muscles can't grow. Best of luck!
Chicken is cheap, beef can be cheap (Don't have to buy the expensive cuts all the time). Vegetables are cheap. Olive oil is pretty cheap. Oats are cheap. Meats you can buy in big packs, making it even cheaper. Just do mostly chicken meals one week, mostly beef meals the next week, etc. and you can do the value packs while maintaining some variety. I'm not exactly rolling in money but I get it done. No matter how I cut it, it's cheaper than pizza and eating out... Assuming you're Korean from your name... so how bout some bulgogi? Some flank steak and spices, toss some kimchi on the side and BAM, delicious. And I'm thinking cheap. Bulgogi rules. As a matter of fact now I'm making some for dinner, thanks for the inspiration.
