Jiu Jitsu as a lifestyle, not a sport: Nutrition?

This isn't an article, it's basically a question.

Nutrition has always been on the back of my mind when it comes to Jiu Jitsu. I love junk food, a lot of people do. When I don't eat this junk food, or drink the junk drinks, my athleticism increases virtually instantly, I feel less tired.

I've been really interested in dieting recently, but I've never really seen a set diet for the average guy with a job, a student, etc. The Gracie Diet is very vague, just basically tells you to eat Acai ;), and expects you to be able to afford all these foods. No thanks guys.

I've had a look around and the Popovitch diet is a lot easier to understand:
http://www.bjjcenter.com/multimedia/...hp?ArticleID=4

I just wanted input from any guys in here how they sort their diet out?

My goals:

- No bad drinks. Coke, Pepsi, anything sugary like that.
- No chocolate, fatty foods, desserts.
- A balanced diet that will let me eat decent food, but still enjoy the food I am eating.
- Use correct supplements for pre/post-training. I'm using a recovery drink at the moment with plenty of BCAA's after training.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and as I find stuff out I'll post it here too :)

Scott Epstein is the man you need to talk to. Id msg him.

After you make your own food and chill out on the sugar, you realize how weird junk food tastes. I mean I like a Big Mac and all but by the end of the meal my tongue is tingling from all of the sodium. I can't even eat a whole bag of Doritos anymore. After 1 or 2 handfuls they just taste like flavorless salt chips.

Personally, I would rather have a nice fat cut of Toro over any junk food any day of the week. Good food is good.

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Originally Posted by NelsonLucca

Scott Epstein is the man you need to talk to. Id msg him.

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I was hoping this would be more of a thread for help for a lot of guys. But thanks, :)

AJ, I haven't got a clue what Toro is!

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Originally Posted by Jay JC Chow

This isn't an article, it's basically a question.

Nutrition has always been on the back of my mind when it comes to Jiu Jitsu. I love junk food, a lot of people do. When I don't eat this junk food, or drink the junk drinks, my athleticism increases virtually instantly, I feel less tired.

I've been really interested in dieting recently, but I've never really seen a set diet for the average guy with a job, a student, etc. The Gracie Diet is very vague, just basically tells you to eat Acai ;), and expects you to be able to afford all these foods. No thanks guys.

I've had a look around and the Popovitch diet is a lot easier to understand:
http://www.bjjcenter.com/multimedia/...hp?ArticleID=4

I just wanted input from any guys in here how they sort their diet out?

My goals:

- No bad drinks. Coke, Pepsi, anything sugary like that.
- No chocolate, fatty foods, desserts.
- A balanced diet that will let me eat decent food, but still enjoy the food I am eating.
- Use correct supplements for pre/post-training. I'm using a recovery drink at the moment with plenty of BCAA's after training.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and as I find stuff out I'll post it here too :)

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Good post J.C.

Honestly the Gracie diet is pretty good, it juts takes awhile to understand the food combinations. That being said, I don't follow the diet.

The Popovitch diet is good as well. He simplified the ideas of many diets, which is basically that you should eat certain food combinations and avoid others.

I don't have much to say. Eat Right for Your Type is decent reading material.

Some say that you should cross train with your eating. Don't eat too much of one thing. Eat lots of colors and fresh local foods.

I supplement with Hemp Protein and I'm vegetarian, but I eat dairy.

Just try and eat as clean as possible.

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Originally Posted by Jay JC Chow

AJ, I haven't got a clue what Toro is!

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http://blogyourarteries.files.wordpr...pg?w=380&h=285

That's toro. Sorry I couldn't be of much help but I don't think that you want dietary help from me. I don't have a great diet but I'm not a soda guzzling, potato chip munching sack of diabetes either. I guess what I was trying to say was first learn to enjoy real food and then start taking away the junk food. Like baby steps. Going all gung ho with a drastically different diet just sounds miserable.

http://foxtrot.fpsbanana.com/ico/sprays/diabeetus.png

My question for you all is... how do you eat a healthy diet when you don't have time to really cook your own meals? I'm constantly eating semi-fast food like boston market and places like that because its quick and easy and covers all my protein/carb/veggie bases, but I know its still not good for me outside of putting on muscle mass. Any suggestions?

Oh also, one of my favorite staples to my diet are Naked Protein or Superfood drinks. They're 400-500 calories of all natural fruits, and they are delicious.

Id recommend anyone interested in sorting out what they eat to make an account on here http://www.fitday.com/ its free. Gives you protein and calorie content etc of foods so u can see what your eating.

Ive done alot of research into it through my interest in bodybuilding and various fitness qualifications. I like to think i have a happy medium in my diet in that im not insanely picky about foods and do enjoy a burger every now and then but my general diet is prety healthy. I can write you a meal plan if you let me know your goals, eg muscle gain.

The most important part is drinking enough water, for athletes you need to be getting around 4 litres a day in you (depending on your size). I take a 2 litre bottle with me to work and just drink from that.

pre workout supps are basically caffeine drinks, they arent exactly healthy. You should only really use them if your shattered.
natural test supps like mass fx or even just tribbulus are good for pre workout

Post workout you just need a protein drink straight after training. Though at the moment im experiement with creatine drinks after workout.... gota say in my exp creatine is a load of rubbish, some ppl swear by it though.

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Originally Posted by JiuClaw

My question for you all is... how do you eat a healthy diet when you don't have time to really cook your own meals?

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Make base ingredients in large batches so that you can throw meals together in minutes. Like grill up a bunch of meat on Sunday... then use it for tacos, sandwiches, and salads for the next 3 days. Salads can be bought in premixed bags that are already good to eat right out of the bag however it doesn't take much time to make a giant bin of chopped lettuce to use throughout the week.

The biggest trick for me is not making large batches of specific meals, since I can have more range of options if I just have leftover cooked or prepared ingredients rather than just food.

For me, fruits and vegetables are key. I had to get over the idea that vegetables were filler or rabbit food and try to enjoy them. There's a lot of fruits and veg you can eat raw. Dipping veg in hummus doesn't hurt. Good protein, adds some taste.

You could do worse than V8...

For me though, carrot sticks, celery sticks, wedges from a tomato (off the vine kind, the slicing tomatos are crap), a bell pepper cut into slivers, any of that is good. Especially dipped in hummus. My two cents.

Yeah, that's the main problem I'll be facing. I won't really enjoy having my dinner as wheat bread with olive oil and tomatoes every night!

That's another thing, something which Jason brought up. Hemp Protein? Whats the best thing to supplement a good diet with. Popovitch says protein shake, I've heard lots of good stories about Hemp Protein being the best one out of the lot, and having the fruit with natural yogurt and the hemp as a whole shake sounds better than eating fruit and yogurt separately.

the popovitch diet seems interesting, he is super ripped he must know something about nutrition. I do something similar to the gracie diet that based on food combinations.

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Originally Posted by DENNY PROKOPOS

the popovitch diet seems interesting, he is super ripped he must know something about nutrition. I do something similar to the gracie diet that based on food combinations.

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http://i44.tinypic.com/1zzw4o.gif

you need to eat boy!

you have the legs of a 13 year old.

you wont lose your flexibility


you have everything to gain

Take a look at this jiujitsu killer/ choke you out with gold in my mouth like mayhem miller nigga

pick up eat to live its an awesome book and it helps break down things about food and how to eat for your life, and eat for you type is also a great book to check out

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Originally Posted by Jay JC Chow

Yeah, that's the main problem I'll be facing. I won't really enjoy having my dinner as wheat bread with olive oil and tomatoes every night!
.

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Doesnt sound nice! heres some recipe ideas

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/10_beginner_recipes.htm

Any ideas out there for somebody who eats absolutely no vegetables? My diet fairly rubbish, still in school so at lunch I'd eat junk food and all that stuff, recently I've tried eating healthier though, any ideas?

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Originally Posted by KevinGill

Any ideas out there for somebody who eats absolutely no vegetables? My diet fairly rubbish, still in school so at lunch I'd eat junk food and all that stuff, recently I've tried eating healthier though, any ideas?

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minced garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper... toss a bunch of vegetables in that, then stick them under a broiler or on a grill until they start browning. I haven't tasted a vegetable that didn't taste good that way (though I wouldn't try broccoli or cauliflower). I can't stand steamed or boiled vegetables, insanely bland.

There's a great dipping sauce you can throw together while the veggies are cooking. It's butter, balsamic vinegar, and a little bit of soy sauce and maybe one dash of Worcestershire sauce if your soy sauce sucks (mine does, it's kikkoman).

Yeah, I second grilling! You can also marinate stuff in various off the shelf dressings before it goes on the fire if you want to go really simple. Toss on some lean meat, add some rice from a rice cooker (rice cookers are ridiculously simple and pretty freakin good at making good rice), and you've got a nice meal.

To be clear you don't grill the rice. ;)

Oh, I used to have problems picking vegetables. I would just stare at the produce section and imagine all the random stuff I could make and get nowhere. Now though, I just buy whatever is on sale. Actually eating healthy food is pretty expensive so just let the prices guide what you eat and it can actually be an affordable endeavor.

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Originally Posted by AJ Camacho

Actually eating healthy food is pretty expensive...

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Dude no doubt! Our food budget has shot up dramatically. Totally agree on the prices as guide. It helps to eat seasonally. If you can get used to squashes, you can do pretty well in the fall.

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Originally Posted by Joshua Jarboe

Dude no doubt! Our food budget has shot up dramatically. Totally agree on the prices as guide. It helps to eat seasonally. If you can get used to squashes, you can do pretty well in the fall.

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what a n00b

your doing it wrong if you find it expensive

prepare all your food in advance. I got bags of veges all chopped and ready to go. Meat portions packed etc etc. All you need is 5 mins to cook it. And have a weekly plan of what you wanna eat. It stops you fucking around trying to come up with something lol

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Originally Posted by ghosn

what a n00b

your doing it wrong if you find it expensive

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Yeah? You want to enlighten me as to how to feed three people fresh fruits and vegetables in such a way as it's cheaper than prefab crap other than "buy seasonally" and "buy what's on sale?"

I'm basically following Popovitch's diet right now, it's not going too bad actually. The white/red meat ONLY for lunch isn't killing me, I would love it on a sandwich though!

Basically, I'm just eating lots of olive oil, wheat bread and vegetables, but its the way you eat them that is confusing as fuck to me. I'll get my head around it eventually, but for now I'm following his crappy examples to understand it a bit better. I do actually feel a lot more energetic, I dunno if that's a placebo effect at the moment though :)

when you get it down can you post up a meal plan please? i wana try it, could do with seeing some more meal ideas though

how many calories are you eating in it? is it tricky to get full?

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Originally Posted by ghosn

what a n00b

your doing it wrong if you find it expensive

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keep it respectful. this isn't sherdog and posting like that without your real name is some weak bs.

Here's what i do:

I plan my meals weekly, and I buy and cook food just on saturdays. In my average week, I usually eat:
-4x fish (wild, not farmed)
-6x meat (lean meat, white and red)
-pasta or rice or bread (never two of them at the same meal, and seldom twice a day, usually once a day)
-minestrone, prepared once for the whle week (I eat many types: vegetables minestrone, meat minestrone, and fish minestrone, legumes minestrone); I eat it (more or less) once a day.
-some healthy cheese, if have access to (we have some healthy kinds of cheese here in Italy, like "parmigiano reggiano")
-vegetables and fruit every meal
-half a glass of red (or white, along with fish) wine at dinner
-water (which is what your body really needs)

I advice to cook fish and meat by yourself by grilling or steaming (boiling is nice also), and eating some raw vegetables. To do this, you have to get used to the real flavor of food, which is something people are usually not used to. You might feel strange for the first one (or two) weeks, but stick with it; once you're accustomed with this diet, try to listen to your body, and you'll know how much to eat without doing too many calculations.

by the way, no junk drinks, no junk food, no sweets, no eating outside meals. Try to cheat this diet a couple of meals a week, but not more.

If you work with your brain as I do (I'm a mathematician), and need some sugars to make it work, try eating some fruits as a snack.

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Originally Posted by Joshua Jarboe

Yeah? You want to enlighten me as to how to feed three people fresh fruits and vegetables in such a way as it's cheaper than prefab crap other than "buy seasonally" and "buy what's on sale?"

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whats your budget?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jay JC Chow

This isn't an article, it's basically a question.

Nutrition has always been on the back of my mind when it comes to Jiu Jitsu. I love junk food, a lot of people do. When I don't eat this junk food, or drink the junk drinks, my athleticism increases virtually instantly, I feel less tired.

I've been really interested in dieting recently, but I've never really seen a set diet for the average guy with a job, a student, etc. The Gracie Diet is very vague, just basically tells you to eat Acai ;), and expects you to be able to afford all these foods. No thanks guys.

I've had a look around and the Popovitch diet is a lot easier to understand:
http://www.bjjcenter.com/multimedia/...hp?ArticleID=4

I just wanted input from any guys in here how they sort their diet out?

My goals:

- No bad drinks. Coke, Pepsi, anything sugary like that.
- No chocolate, fatty foods, desserts.
- A balanced diet that will let me eat decent food, but still enjoy the food I am eating.
- Use correct supplements for pre/post-training. I'm using a recovery drink at the moment with plenty of BCAA's after training.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and as I find stuff out I'll post it here too :)

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Basically dude, it all about trying to eat 6 balanced meals a day, 3 main meals and 3 snacks.
These meals should protein and carb heavy for recovery and energy. The 3 main meals should be a portion of protein (Chicken, turkey, lean beef mince, fish etc) the size of your flat hand, a portion of complex carbs (Potatoe, brown rice/pasta) the size of your clenched fist, and the rest should be vegetables. The snack meals can be anything healthy and protein based for example a protein shake, nuts and seeds, sandwiches. Drink 3 litres of water, with regards to supplements try and get a good protein powder ( one high in BCAA's and low in carbs and aspartame free) check your local GNC or Holland and Barrett. Brand to look out for are EAS, Sci-mx and USN, have heard good things. Also invest in glucosomine sulphate for your joints. Hope this helps.

PM if you want more info?

Just my little input on this. A guy I train with who is a 40+ year old machine swears by raw egg and fruit juice blended for 1 second in a blender as a post workout drink. I've been doing it for two weeks and I'm sold. He also got me into Chia Seeds. Same seeds as a Chia pet. They are amazing for long sustainable energy. You just take a small hand-full of them and crush them up, wisp them in some fruit juice for like 5 min and then let it sit and gel up. Eat a small spoonful whenever you feel tired throughout the day. Been using them for pre-workout and mid-day with my lunch. I would say I work out way more than most people(running 25+ miles a week with a full gym routine and MMA practice) and eating sensible meals with 4 raw eggs and juice post workout and Chia Seeds pre-workout have done wonders for me. Recently I have been reading about black rice....thinking of a "black diet" dinner (black rice, black beans and a lean meat).

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Originally Posted by Clayton

Just my little input on this. A guy I train with who is a 40+ year old machine swears by raw egg and fruit juice blended for 1 second in a blender as a post workout drink. I've been doing it for two weeks and I'm sold. He also got me into Chia Seeds. Same seeds as a Chia pet. They are amazing for long sustainable energy. You just take a small hand-full of them and crush them up, wisp them in some fruit juice for like 5 min and then let it sit and gel up. Eat a small spoonful whenever you feel tired throughout the day. Been using them for pre-workout and mid-day with my lunch. I would say I work out way more than most people(running 25+ miles a week with a full gym routine and MMA practice) and eating sensible meals with 4 raw eggs and juice post workout and Chia Seeds pre-workout have done wonders for me. Recently I have been reading about black rice....thinking of a "black diet" dinner (black rice, black beans and a lean meat).

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This sounds really interesting, thanks for this info. Ch ch ch chia!

Whats up with Dolce?

I have had a lot of success with the Eat This Not That books /website. It gives you the healthiest choices and allows you the freedom to eat like you want but make the most nutritionally sound decisions instead of following a structured diet plan. They have information on eating out, cooking, and supermarket shopping.

Thiss iz most dank book i have come across: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heal...=9780929173481

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Blaylock

Dolce's living lean is dope.
One of my guys is trying it out and has dropped 9 pounds in 2 1/2 weeks. And he only rolls 2x a week

If you have a farmers market near by I would go there for produce. You can get fruits and veggies in bulk really cheap. I went last weekend and for 25 bucks I was able to stock up for a full week and this is with four kids who eat like cows!

As of now I don't have much of a diet plan per say but I have cut out all processed food, soda, almost all sugar and salt. I drink mostly water with a bit ice iced tea. I eat my three meals with three snacks a day in between. I am slowly changing my eating habits so it becomes a life style!

If not for jiu jitsu I probably would not care. Jiu jitsu has helped me quit smoking, has changed my eating habits and is a huge stress reliever.

http://www.elitewrestling.net/Forms/grapplers-guide.pdf