10 Rules of Good Nutrition

I've been on the hunt for nutritional guidance beyond what's provided in the P90X materials, and recently came across the Precision Nutrition System. While poking around on its website, I found a helpful (and free) 40-page guide called Precision Nutrition: Strategies for Success, which offers loads of useful information for food dummies like me. For example, here are its 10 Rules of Good Nutrition:

1. Eat every 2-3 hours.
2. Eat complete, lean protein each time you eat.
3. Eat vegetables every time you eat.
4. Eat carbs only when you deserve to (well, not ALL carbs -- eat fruits and veggies whenever you want).
5. Learn to love healthy fats.
6. Ditch the calorie containing drinks (including fruit juice).
7. Focus on whole foods.
8. Allow yourself “10% foods” (foods that break rules, but which you’ll allow yourself to eat or drink 10% of the time).
9. Develop food preparation strategies.
10. Balance daily food choices with healthy variety.

Yes, this free document is clearly a sales ploy by the Precision Nutrition team to get people to buy their products, and yes, there's nothing on the list above that most of us haven't heard before. Still, the guide provides surprisingly detailed advice on changing one's diet for the better, and is worth a look.

Feed Me

Since starting P90X, I've kept to a pretty consistent morning exercise routine: I wake up no later than 5:30 a.m., and eat a half-cup of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt (60 cal) mixed with two tablespoons of ground flax seed (70 cal). I take my vitamins, and then I stagger into the garage to kick off my daily workout. At 7 a.m., I mix myself a protein drink and get the kids out of bed, change them, and get their breakfast ready. Then, I make myself an egg white omelet with 1/2 cup egg whites (60 cal), 0.5 ounces of goat cheese (35 cal), and about half of a tomato, diced (15 cal). If I've had an expecially intense workout, I'll also toast a slice of whole wheat bread (140 cal), spread a tablespoon of organic creamy peanut butter (100 cal) on it, and eat it with a banana (120 cal).

It all adds up to about 730 calories, which represents about a third of my daily calories under the P90X plan. And it's all consumed before 8 a.m.

My plan is to make breakfast my biggest meal of the day, and to eat a bunch of small meals/snacks every 2-3 hours throughout the remainder of the day, until 7:30 p.m. or so (3 hours before bedtime). So far, so good. Snacking at work has been doable -- I've stocked my work fridge with hard boiled eggs and string cheese, and I pack myself a handful of almonds every day. Most recently, I've been thinking of making myself a big ass shake (using the Precision Nutrition guidelines for Super Shakes) and pouring out a nice portion every few hours at work.

Dinner's the toughest. I enjoy having a family meal with M and the kids, and while my wife is doing her best to support my efforts to hew closely to the P90X nutrition plan, I recognize that my diet can't dictate everyone else's eating preferences. Still, it's not fun being the only person at the table who's munching on a plate of salad greens for dinner.