Questions about the core meals of my meal plan

[Brett]

I've been having a lot of success with my diet and training but I've been stuck for awhile and re-planning. I'm a muay thai kickboxer (for fun mostly) and I'm trying to gain like 10 more pounds, but not much beyond that. I don't really train for size, but rather for strength, stamina and power. I've been really inspired lately by Brendan Brazier's book. I'm following a lot of what he does but I mostly just use the staples of his diet because I don't have the time to make a lot of complex meals. I like to keep it simple. I've also cut out a lot sugar and garbage out of my diet to solely nourishing and good food.

 

So I'm working on a new meal plan and using mostly a basic blueprint for the CORE MEALS of my diet. I'm looking to eat food that is nourishing but also going to help me build and train successfully. How does this sound to you for my goals:

 

For breakfast I'm usually going with oatmeal as a main meal (should I switch to buckwheat?) with almond butter, different nuts, flax seeds, some kind of nut milk, and then berries, bananas, or chunks of apples. Other than that, for breakfast I was gonna go with different scrambles or burritos with quinoa. Or I'll just have a smoothie in the morning. But I was planning on sticking with oatmeal/buckwheat as a main meal for most of my mornings. What do you think?

 

For lunch and dinner you can use any similar combination but I was thinking about going with an ultra green salad almost every day for lunch (as Brazier suggests). I will pack these with lots of awesome stuff. I have a long list of all awesome options to just add to these. From red lettuce, kale, different leafy greens, tons of other raw veg, quinoa, avocado, seeds, maybe even some tempeh. I'm unsure about what dressings to use or make. I was planning on sticking with tahini mostly. Otherwise I have several other lunch options listed out like tofu/tempeh sandwiches with avocado, tomato, and hummus. Or different lentil, avocado, nuts/seeds, combos. I'm trying to eat at least an avocado or two a day with my meals, and trying to add nuts and seeds to almost everything. I've also been considering cutting out a lot of tofu/tempeh/soy and seitan from my diet but it just seems sooo helpful in gaining a little bit of weight.

 

For dinner my core meal is a mixed veg stir fry, with brown rice or quinoa, nuts/seeds, nutritional yeast, avocado, a long list of vegetables I made to choose from, sweet patatoes/yams. This sounds like a solid meal to me to eat like 2 hours after training. What are some of your other favorite dinner options? The other one I like a lot is the lentil combo I mentioned.

 

I'll of course be eating 3 snacks a day with all of this and here is the list I have compiled. Please help me add some other good options: fruit smoothies with VEGA or Vegan Proteins, almond butter and jelly sandwich, daily trail mix with different nuts, seeds, raisins, dried fruit, hummus and pita, banana bread, soy yogurt w/ combos of granola, fruit, nuts, clif/vegan food bars, or different fruits/fruit salads as snacks.

 

I'm wondering if this set up will be good enough and adequate for my goals. Once I start following it I'll find out. I'm curious to hear from others to see if there are other secrets to gaining and training that I'm missing out on. A training plan is a whole nother thing which I've also been working on.

[xjohanx]

How much do you weigh today? Do you know approx how much calories you consume to maintain that weight? I think it would help if you would tell us more about your stats and how your training looks like. Do you only do muay thai or do you lift weights also?

 

For breakfast I'm usually going with oatmeal as a main meal (should I switch to buckwheat?) with almond butter, different nuts, flax seeds, some kind of nut milk, and then berries, bananas, or chunks of apples. Other than that, for breakfast I was gonna go with different scrambles or burritos with quinoa. Or I'll just have a smoothie in the morning. But I was planning on sticking with oatmeal/buckwheat as a main meal for most of my mornings. What do you think?

 

Oats are good, stick with them if you like them better than buckwheat. They are higher in fiber (which can both be good and bad), higher in fat (which can be both good and band) and a wee bit higher in protein (which is always good). I think your breakfast looks cool except it seems to be low in protein. If you make scrambles or burritos with tofu it's fixed. Hummus is also a great breakfast meal. Cutting different veggies and using the hummus as a dip.

 

For lunch and dinner you can use any similar combination but I was thinking about going with an ultra green salad almost every day for lunch (as Brazier suggests). I will pack these with lots of awesome stuff. I have a long list of all awesome options to just add to these. From red lettuce, kale, different leafy greens, tons of other raw veg, quinoa, avocado, seeds, maybe even some tempeh. I'm unsure about what dressings to use or make. I was planning on sticking with tahini mostly. Otherwise I have several other lunch options listed out like tofu/tempeh sandwiches with avocado, tomato, and hummus. Or different lentil, avocado, nuts/seeds, combos. I'm trying to eat at least an avocado or two a day with my meals, and trying to add nuts and seeds to almost everything. I've also been considering cutting out a lot of tofu/tempeh/soy and seitan from my diet but it just seems sooo helpful in gaining a little bit of weight.

 

Personally I don't care for gluten but there is no good reason for you to cut out all soy. Use some soy, and eat lot's of different legumes. You will benefit from the protein. Here it would be really good to know how much calories you need in a day because you seem to focus on low-calorie foods which will fill you up and if your calorie need is low that's not a problem but if it's high it might become one.

 

For dinner my core meal is a mixed veg stir fry, with brown rice or quinoa, nuts/seeds, nutritional yeast, avocado, a long list of vegetables I made to choose from, sweet patatoes/yams. This sounds like a solid meal to me to eat like 2 hours after training. What are some of your other favorite dinner options? The other one I like a lot is the lentil combo I mentioned.

 

If you eat this two hours post training, what do you eat right after training? Again I think you should focus on more protein here.

 

I'll of course be eating 3 snacks a day with all of this and here is the list I have compiled. Please help me add some other good options: fruit smoothies with VEGA or Vegan Proteins, almond butter and jelly sandwich, daily trail mix with different nuts, seeds, raisins, dried fruit, hummus and pita, banana bread, soy yogurt w/ combos of granola, fruit, nuts, clif/vegan food bars, or different fruits/fruit salads as snacks.

 

If you like to snack that's your thing. If your diet looks like what you wrote above you should do protein shakes for all your 3 snacks.

[Brett]

Ahh shit, you're right. I think I do need to up the protein with my options. For muay thai, I do tons of calisthenics and cardio (jumproping and running). I lift weights at my school 2 or 3 times a week, but it can be a bit much if I want to do muay thai at night. I mix it up. For lifting I mostly do bench, shoulders, arms. I need a better training program for that, but lately I have been wanting to do mostly advanced calisthenics. Not the best for my weight goals I guess? Good for muay thai though.

 

Right now I weigh about 132lbs and I'm 5ft 7. I'm still pretty skinny but I've put on quite a bit of muscle and tone from everything I've been doing.

 

Yeah I think you're right and I should try to use more scrambles and burritos for breakfast. For lunch maybe I should switch it up with my salad for some days and other days go mostly with a bunch of legumes and nuts, etc?

 

If you eat this two hours post training, what do you eat right after training? Again I think you should focus on more protein here.

 

I've been having mixed feelings about this. How do you feel about Braziers claim that right after a workout you should give the body something light in protein so that your blood goes into recovery and not into digestion? THEN, after like an hour or two, you should pack on the protein?

 

Should I just try to add beans, lentils, and other legumes to my dinner meal then as well? What other sources of protein could I potentially add to what I have laid out? My main problem right now is that I haven't had a meal plan at all, and haven't even been eating 6 times a day. I feel that I'll probably get some results once I actually start doing that (this week).

 

Varifrån är du? Jag kan prata lite svenska.

[shawnb222]

I have been following Doug Graham's "The 811 Diet" for about 2 months and I haven't felt better in my life.

 

The diet consists of fruits and vegetables, and very small amounts of seeds and nuts. You consume fruits for your fuel and greens and veggies for added minerals and antioxidants.

 

Please check out www.30bananasaday.com to meet athletes, bodybuilders, trainers, people of all types on how consuming only raw, fresh, organic, ripe fruits and vegetables has enhanced their overall vitality and performance in life.