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

[Jay 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

[NelsonLucca]

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

[AJ Camacho]

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.

[Jay Chow]

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

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!

[Jason Eisner]

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

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.

[AJ Camacho]

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

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.

[Matt "Gumby" Glach]

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.

[Gary Burton]

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.

[AJ Camacho]

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?

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.

[Joshua Jarboe]

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.