I've changed the way I eat

ICTWIE for short

My understanding of nutrition has evolved through the years.

It began with a protein shake in a pint of milk with super noodles before AND after training.

It soon moved onto tracking grams of protein, aiming for 1g per pound of bodyweight.

It then moved onto tracking overall calories, using MyFitnessPal.

Then I began to track carbohydrate and fat intake by the gram.

It was a chore at first but I soon got a good understanding of what I needed to eat depending on my goal. If I wanted to lose or gain weight I would just tweak one of the variables, maybe add 5g of fat or take away 10g of carbs as and when needed and I would make good progress.

This method is widely used and is pretty much bullet-proof. It will yield results without messing with your metabolism too much. It was using this method that I won my class in my first bodybuilding contest.

But then I had what some people would call an epiphany.

It began with meeting Jason Anderson. Jason is a nutrition specialist, among other things, and he had some radical (to me) ideas about food.

I listened to what he had to say and went and researched his reasoning behind it. I found that he was right. The way I had been eating may have worked but it wasn’t optimal and it wasn’t necessarily healthy either.

I learned that there is a way to eat in a way that benefits performance as well as prioritising health.

I’ve summarized these into digestible, bite-sized chunks that I will dispense over the next few blog posts. So stay tuned!