Relentless Pursuit
By IFBB Pro Josh Wade
Sponsored by ALLMAX
Q: I travel a lot for work and find it very hard to stick to a diet. What pointers do you give to your clients to help them succeed?
A:
hat is a great question! For us bodybuilders or people looking to get onstage to compete, you must be damn near perfect on your diet to reach super low body fat levels – but most of my clients are lifestyle clients and I teach them how to eat for health with clean, minimally processed foods and portions that will help them attain their goals of a lean physique, better energy levels and having balance in their lives. When competing, we really don’t have balance and a lot of things in life get missed and we might not even realize that at the time or it doesn’t really matter because everything we do is for the purpose of having the best physique possible. I think learning balance is one of the most important things you need to find, especially when you have kids.
Even though I was there most of the time for my kids and family while competing, I wasn’t always present. When you spend most of your day thinking about when your next meal is or when you must train, you become selfish without even knowing it and that’s what I mean by not being present or in the moment and although you are there, you are missing out on things and not enjoying the moment or making memories. I tell you it’s so important to be present while your kids are young as they grow so fast, and you can’t get back that time – but that doesn’t mean you can’t make better food choices and decisions while eating out to stay or become healthier and in the best shape possible.
Better Food Choices
It really does boil down to the choices you make and planning ahead to succeed, which takes some effort but after a period it becomes second nature and a lifestyle that you can’t live without, or you just don’t feel as good. What I mean is when you eat crappy or junk food your digestion suffers, you feel bloated and physically you just don’t feel good. Again, it’s the choices you make and if you truly adopt a healthy eating plan most of the time, you’ll feel better and get results. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a cheat meal of whatever you want at times but if you want to be healthy and get results, it means if you have to eat out a lot you should look for healthy items on the menu when eating at places like The Cheesecake Factory, for example, where you don’t need to eat the bread or obviously the cheesecake and most places have a bunch of low-calorie clean items like grilled meats and veggies not cooked in oil or butter.
One thing I try to teach clients is to look at a menu in advance of going there and try to do it while you’re not starving so you can pick a healthy item, and then when you get there you’ve already made your decision because we all know when we look at a menu when we are hungry, we might not make the best choice. That’s just a little planning ahead that doesn’t take much time and after you leave that restaurant, you’ll feel much better about the choice you made.
Tips for Travelers
If you are constantly traveling, then you know eating out every meal gets expensive, so I highly recommend traveling with some precooked meals. This is how I always did it and it allowed me to stay consistent on my frequent feedings, which is what I believe is the best way to keep your metabolism elevated. Think about your metabolism like a fire; if the fire starts burning down and you add one log at a time you’ll keep it burning consistently hot, but if you let it burn down and you put too many logs on it at once you’ll smolder it and if you don’t put it out it will take a lot longer to bring it back. That’s what happens when people take too long between feedings and now are so hungry they overeat, and when you eat so much at once your body can’t assimilate that amount and now it’ll be stored as body fat – so small, frequent feedings around every three to four hours keeps the metabolism elevated so your body knows it’s going to get a fuel source, therefore it will burn off your stored fuel source (body fat) instead of storing it. When you go too long between meals, your body goes into starvation mode and will give up muscle tissue instead of fat as a preservation of life.
A lot of portions for male clients is 6 ounces cooked weight meat and 150 grams cooked weight rice or potatoes (around 400 calories for the meal) or for female clients might be 3-4 ounces cooked weight meat and 75 grams cooked weight rice or potatoes (around 225-250 calories for the meal). What I would do is the meals I ate the day I traveled I would keep defrosted, but all the other meals for future days were put in quart Ziploc bags and frozen, which would be used as ice packs to keep my defrosted meals from spoiling. If flying, the TSA will take ice packs if they get defrosted, so I never traveled with ice packs; I just used my frozen food to keep food cold.
I didn’t want to bring too many containers when I traveled, so I would only have two of my defrosted meals in containers, and the other meals for the day I traveled would also be in baggies but defrosted so when I ate a meal, I would dump the next baggie into the container to be ready for the next meal. Another thing I used when traveling is a product called HOT LOGIC Mini, which I got on Amazon and it’s a hot plate in an insulated bag and an easy way to heat up a meal or keep it warm when a microwave isn’t accessible in an airport, on the plane when power is available or in your hotel room. I used mine a lot!
It really does boil down to the choices you make and planning ahead to succeed, which takes some effort but after a period it becomes second nature and a lifestyle that you can’t live without.
For questions to be answered in my column or coaching inquiries, please email me at [email protected]
Website: www.teamwadefitness.com
Instagram @ifbbprojoshwade
ALLMAX® Stack
Intra-workout:
1 scoop Impact Pump (helps increase blood flow and transportation of nutrients while significantly helping the focus for mind-muscle connection)
1 scoop Aminocore (prevents muscle tissue breakdown during training)
10g Glutamine (helps with DOMS, insulin sensitivity, gut health, and immune system)
5g Creatine (for that fast-acting, explosive power needed to push weights and helps with muscle hydration)
1 scoop Carbion (50g carbs) (really helps with energy and endurance during workout by giving your body carbs that don’t have to be digested, therefore they are readily available for fuel)
Post-workout:
2 scoops IsoFlex (fast-digesting protein with essential amino acids to start the building or repairing process immediately)
10g Glutamine again (helps with DOMS, insulin sensitivity, gut health and immune system)
Give these a try and I can guarantee your energy, intensity and pumps will dramatically increase in the gym.
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