Food/Eating

How Many Eggs Can Be Eaten Everyday?

Food/Eating, Quick Tips

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As I was perusing through one of my trusted nutrition websites, Authority Nutrition, I noticed there was a posting about egg consumption that was a few days old.

Articles about eggs always catch my eye. I am a huge supporter of egg consumption, and yes that means eating the entire egg, not just the white portion.

Eggs, considering their cost and nutritional impact, are probably one of the best foods that a human can eat. They are a great source of protein. If you’ve adopted resistance training into your exercise regimen, eggs provide a daily protein boost that will aid in your quest to build more lean muscle.

Obviously, there is more to complete nutrition than just eggs. But if you’re in search of a quality source of protein that simultaneously provides other vital vitamins and minerals without breaking the piggy bank, you really need to consider eggs.

If I was really down on my financial luck, and I needed to choose one food to get me through, I would choose eggs. Cheap, easy to cook and nutritionally dense.

For those of you who are still on the fence about making the transition away from breakfast cereals, toast and oatmeal, please give this article a read. I think that the information provided will help to ease your mind about the consumption of eggs. Notice the scientific support from the author, it’s a nice touch.

For those who are already eating eggs steadily, here is an article from Authority Nutrition that was published on February 6th. Give the entire article a focused read. This is the article that further discusses the health benefits from eating eggs, and also what might possibly be the boundaries of how many eggs can be eaten everyday.

The information is solid and entertaining.

I am in no way preaching that everyone needs to be eating eggs, but I am saying that it’s helpful to understand that eggs are a tremendously healthy alternative to sugary breakfast foods. When you consider that more and more research points toward sugar intake as a major contributor to poor body composition and other health issues, eggs begin to look like a superfood. Maybe a savior for some.

Heck you can even have eggs for lunch or dinner, which I do quite often.

Also notice that the article is very upfront that most of the larger population studies that investigate health benefits/negatives of egg consumption involve consuming 3 eggs per day (at the most).

The author does a great job reiterating this throughout article.

I personally eat 3 eggs per day at the minimum. Breakfast is always a 3 egg scrambler with veggies and left over lean meat from the previous night’s dinner.

If it is a training day, which most days are, I also add in some Ezekiel toast with peanut butter. Peanut butter is my vice food.

Lately, I have been buying eggs in bulk (box of 96ct.) to save myself time from having to run to the grocery store and the pain from waking up to no eggs in the refrigerator. I highly suggest any of you reading this look into how you can buy in bulk also. If you have good food conveniently available, you’re more likely to eat it. If you have to go through the trouble of driving to the store, checking out, driving back home, cooking it, you might find that you’re more apt to avoid it altogether.

Whatever is most readily available, you’ll eat.

I have also gotten back into hardboiling a dozen eggs at the beginning of the week. Hardboiled eggs make an amazing protein rich mid-day snack, especially in situations where you don’t have much time to sit down and eat, as I do not most of the time.

1 egg has roughly 6g of protein. Eat 3 eggs and you’ve just taken in 18g of protein without giving the situation much thought.

Sprinkle some salt on top for added flavor or just eat them peeled as they are. Wash it down with some ice cold water and you just had a meal/snack that you can feel great about.

Let me know what you think of the article, as I thought that it would be a great read for all of you…

Cheers to eating more eggs!

KG

*** If you want less trivial information and more of a structured nutritional system, I highly suggest you check out Precision Nutrition.

Precision Nutrition: Results Based Eating for Body Transformation

Food/Eating

Precision Nutrition

The best nutritional strategies are the strategies that you’re more apt to stick to.

The more I read about nutrition, the more I am reminded that the best tactics to leverage are also the most simple.

We overcomplicate a lot of things in life, and nutrition frequently is made much more difficult than it actually is.  In times like that, I outsource to professionals and programs that carry a knowledge that is beyond my own.  I have no problem humbly sending people to someone who specializes.  It’s the right thing to do.

Precision Nutrition is my go to resource.  I trust them whole heartedly right now, and will for years to come.  I first started leveraging Dr. Berardi’s nutritional advice years ago when I was first learning about nutrition for myself. I really started to realize how influential nutrition is to boosting sport performance, and later on, improving body composition.

I started reading free articles from Dr. Berardi on the popular website T-Nation, which is a niche site primarily targeted at males who desire higher level training and nutritional advice.  Dr. Berardi used to contribute guest articles to gain exposure to his cause when he was an up and comer.

“But Kyle, it’s the internet, nothing is true on the internet!”, you say.

Despite the negative outlook toward health advice on the internet, there is actually a lot of useful information that a person can leverage if you know where to look and who you can trust.  The key is that you have to spend some time deciding on who you can trust!  Or, you can take advantage of other people like myself that have a great working knowledge of where you should be looking for solid information.

Sometimes you have to sift and sift until you find the gold, but it’s out there.

My experience with learning how to eat…

Prior to making any changes to my diet, I thought that my eating was pretty decent really.  But looking back, I was a fool.  My activity level was so high that I could get away making poor nutritional choices.  I was burning through so many calories throughout the day that it almost didn’t matter what I was putting into my mouth.

A lot of people have a similar situation to this.  They burn so many calories from activity that they don’t even know that making a few subtle (yet impactful) changes to their diet would send their body aesthetics to a whole other level.  

Anyways, I began to dabble with some of Dr. Berardi’s suggestions.

Here are four different observations/ideas that I came away with…

1) Nutritional adjustments are easier said than done in the beginning.

There are thousands of nutritional articles that are published on the internet every single day.  Most of them preach the same general ideas: eat more protein, consume less sugar and refined carbohydrates.  I think it is safe to say that just about everyone agrees that this advice is legit.  It’s bland and boring advice, but still, it’s great advice.

Sugar and refined carbohydrates aren’t tolerated by the body very well, especially if you’re inactive or currently carrying a higher percentage of bodyfat.

I used to eat bread with nearly every meal as most people do.  The first step forward for me was cutting my bread consumption in half.  Instead of eating two pieces of bread with a sandwich, I would only eat one.  Again, this was difficult adjustment at first because my entire life I had been eating sandwiches with bread on top and bottom, as most people often do.

Cutting my bread consumption in half was challenging, but I knew that it had to be done in order to make improvements to body composition.  It was a simple change, but it wasn’t easy.  Old habits can be tough to break.  But, over time, new habits were formed.

Eating my meals with a lean protein source on top of only 1 piece of bread started to feel natural in short time with some consistency.

I noticed significant decrease in body-fat by doing this.

2)  Vegetable intake was increased.

When people think carbohydrates, they often think about foods like bread, pasta and rice.  At least those are the foods that usually come to mind.  Interestingly, there is a significant amount of carbohydates that are in vegetables like broccoli, brussel sprouts, asparagus and other leafy greens that provide valuable fuel for performance and energy throughout the day.

This change I found to be easy.  Initially, I began preparing my veggies by boiling them.  Later, I read an article that shared that the nutrient retention of veggies was greatly increased by steaming vegetables versus boiling.  So, I began steaming my veggies for all meals.  I cooked the vegetables on a meal by meal basis, eventually figuring out that steaming veggies in bulk was a far more convenient tactic (along with being time effective).

Filling up on veggies during meals is one of the oldest tricks in the book.  If you’ve never tried it, you’re missing out.  It works.  Veggies are low calorie foods that pack a huge nutrient punch.  It’s one of the most powerful nutritional shifts that a person can make in their quest for body transformation.

My decreased bread intake was now joined by an increase in vegetables.  Again, I noticed a change in body composition and an increased energy to direct toward my workouts.

Note:  There is also a certain mental satisfaction in eating more vegetables throughout the day.  Quite honestly, I began to build a healthier mindset just from increasing my veggie intake.  You’ll know what I am talking about when you make the leap.

3)  Nutrient timing

Nutrient timing completely changed my outlook on eating, and how to approach it throughout the day. The concept that there are specific times when foods are better tolerated by the body was mind blowing. Remember, I was learning about nutrition from ground zero. If you already know about nutrient timing, congrats, because you in the top 15% of people in the world who are leveraging this concept. 

I made valuable trade-outs in the foods I was eating for breakfast and in the timeframes before, during and after my workout sessions.

Again, I saw a drastic improvement in body composition and performance.

From a performance standpoint, the most notable improvement was my ability to recover quickly in between workouts.  It became apparent to me after adopting the new nutritional strategies that Dr. Berardi outlined, that I had not been recovering fully between workouts.  I was essentially entering the next workout incompletely recovered, which can be an overlooked hold up when aiming to lose fat and build muscle.

Again, had I not made the changes, I never would have known anything different.  I didn’t know what I didn’t know.  Make sense?

I was now using food properly.  It was fueling my physical activity appropriately while keeping me lean in the process.

4)  It’s way more effective to follow a nutritional system.

In as few words as possible, a system gives you focused direction.

It takes you from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.  No heartache, no anxiety, no wasted efforts.

I know I pump up the Precision Nutrition System a lot, but it really is a world class program.  They teach you how to eat, when to eat, what to eat, why you’re eating it, how to advance and progress your eating to achieve even higher levels of health, performance and leanness.

It was one of the first nutritional programs that I came across that made logical sense in their approach.

We stress the importance of progressing in all other areas of our lives, so why not approach nutrition with a progression?  It’s soooooooooo difficult to go from poor eating habits to perfect eating habits overnight.  It’s too much for a lot of people to handle in the beginning.  Saying goodbye to old habits can be extremely draining.

I often talk about the importance of following a fitness regimen that is results effective, yet sustainable for the long-term.  To do this, you have to manage your stress levels, scale your workouts to your current physical abilities and assess constantly.  It’s in ongoing process that you want to adhere to for life.

Nutrition requires a very similar format.  You need to be willing to put an ounce of energy into learning a few tips and tricks.  Once you apply the basics, things begin to snowball and you gain momentum.  Old habits disappear and new habits form.  Your body changes in the process and eventually you’re equipped with knowledge that will serve you well for the remainder of your life.

If you can dial in your eating habits for the long-term, again, you’re now in the top 15% of healthy people in the world, without even breaking a sweat during a workout.  Sound personal eating habits are vital.

Of course, this is summarized and simplified guidance, but it’s pretty close to what happens when you transition into being a fit eater.

If you’ve got anxiety with nutrition, let these guys and gals help you out.  They are incredible resources…

Hopefully some of my personal testimonials that I touched on will help you bring your own eating into some kind of perspective.

*** If this post sounds like a sales pitch, I can assure you, it is.  Yes that’s right, it is absolutely a sales pitch.  People like to talk about products and programs that they love.  Word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful forms of advertising on the planet.  It just so happens that PN is something that I completely believe in, so why the heck not talk about it?

 

 

 

Cheers to your nutritional success!

KG

Flip the Switch

Food/Eating

I don’t think that there is anything more:

  • Controllable
  • Manageable (is this the same as Controllable?)
  • Predictable

… then movement, eating and transitioning your lifestyle into the positive category.

Think about it.

What other area in your life do you have so much control over?  You are in the driver’s seat throughout your entire life.  You determine your general health.

What other area in your life can you map out and say, “If I do this, then I am going to get the reward of that”, especially with such subtle adjustments.  There really isn’t any real effort involved, it’s more of perceived effort.  Your brain is holding you back.

Improving your overall health is certainly a choice, but once you flip the switch and make the decision to be healthy by  executing consistent bouts of physical activity paired with rock solid nutritional habits, you are GUARANTEED to get results.

Be the switch on the left

It’s tough to guarantee a lot of things in this life.

Again, stop and think about it for a quick second…

Can a person guarantee by achieving a Master’s Degree that they are going to be successful?  Is your life going to be that much better by going through another 2 years of school and thousands of dollars of school loans?  No.

(I am not hating on all of you that went for your Master’s… kudos to you)

My point, again, is this:  What other area of your life has such an obvious step by step procedure to attain desired results outside of choosing to eat well and move more?

I cannot think of anything.  If you can, please leave a comment below.  

My job is to create awareness.  Actually, that is my mission.  If you’re aware of the exact steps that you need to take to achieve lasting positive change by improving your body and mind, you are that much closer to success.

Once you’re consciously aware of what you should be doing, you’re screwed.  

Why?  Because now you know.  Now you are aware.  Now you’re emotional invested in executing what’s right.  Anything negative or toxic is now just moving you further from your goals.

Yes, my aim is to get at your conscious thought process, absolutely.  If I can create enough of an emotional justification in your head for you to break your current habits and reach for better habits, then I have won.  That is my goal.

I say it all of the time it seems like, but people who are currently living in an unhealthy state really don’t realize how close they are to being able to change it all for the better.  It is so simple.  Not easy… simple.

A tweak in your eating here… a tweak in your beverage consumption there… sprinkle that with some movement instead of sitting…

You viewed this on an older post, but, watch it again because it’s that good…

2.7 million people have watched this video.  That means that 2.7 million people now know what even just the smallest adjustment of moving more throughout the day can have a life.

That’s awareness.  That’s my aim, my goal and my mission.

Stop wasting time and flip the switch before it’s too late.

-KG-

Do You Know What You’re Eating? Is All “Healthy” Food Healthy?

Food/Eating

After watching yet ANOTHER news story about the recall of the Apple Dippers served at McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants around the country.

Deep breath here…

Do you know what you’re eating?

Not all apples are created equal.  Not all oranges are created equal.  Not all beef is created equal.  Not all lettuce and spinach is created equal.  Not all peanut butter is created equal…

Do you see where I am going with this?

Just because you are buying a “bag of apple slices” from McDonald’s doesn’t mean that they are nutritious or non-toxic.  The red flag should be the fact that they are packaged in a bag and last for months they go rotten.

How long does a pesticide free grown apple last?  A week at the most probably?

You see, you cannot classify all food in the same categories.  I can buy meat from Wal-Mart, but is it the same ground beef that I can buy from a local farm that raises their cows on a free range grass-fed diet?

Absolutely not.

We have to smarten up as consumers.  I know that you want to believe that the cheapest yogurt at the grocery store is just as beneficial as the full fat greek yogurt… but it isn’t.  It’s not even close.

Please make an effort to learn something about what you are putting in your mouth.  I cannot stand to hear the excuse, “The food industry is just so big!  My vote won’t count!”.  Give me a break.  We bitch about so many other pointless issues that we don’t know what we are bitching about anymore.

Food sustains life and if you are eating toxic food, your risk for disease and early death sky rockets.

Try this for a 4 week time period:  Cut out bread and sugar.

The tough part about this challenge is going to be that bread is a habit food and sugar is addictive like cigarettes (this has been studied and proven).  Check my hyper-palatibility post for more information on that craziness.

Alright everyone, I had to write up a quick post before heading to a nutritional conference in Greensboro, NC.  Great things happening down here.  I will share later on…

 

 

KG

Trickery & Timeless One Liners to Help Guide Your Lean Eating

Food/Eating

Anyone who has gotten into a discussion on eating with me knows that I don’t dive into the complicated micronutrients, label reading or hormonal changes that come about with eating different packaged foods.

Quite honestly, after you read so much material about fat loss and eating, you begin to see that everything is connected.  You start to read the same material worded a different way over and over again.  It get’s old, fast.

So, I have found that the best thing we can do for ourselves is STOP COMPLICATING what should be simple.  Eating nutrient dense food shouldn’t be hard.  The problem is that many of us were raised to believe that some of the food that was served at the dinner table was healthy.  There is nothing healthy about Hamburger Helper (Yes I ate it a lot too) or Macaroni and Cheese.

Our view of health food is skewed.  The food industry has done a masterful job at tricking us.

Words and phrases such as:

–  “Natural”

–  “Fat Free”

–  “Sugar Free”

–  “Low Calorie”

–  “Zero Calorie”

–  “Metabolism Boosting”

–  “Farm Fresh”
… are red flags in my world.

As much protein as an egg, and as much sugar as a candy bar.

I rarely walk down the center isles of the grocery store, but if I do, the first thing I notice is how clever the food companies are at tricking us.  It’s a scam all the way around.

So as I mentioned early on in this post, I often throw out a one liner to people who I talk to about nutrition and what they should be eating to see their abdominals once again.  Or, screw seeing your abdominals, some of us should be eating to prolong life and fight disease and a lifetime of hospital bills.  Because that is a reality also.

Here are just a few:

  • If your great grandparents wouldn’t recognize what you’re eating, you shouldn’t eat it.
  • If it has a mother or came from the earth, eat it.
  • Meat:  The less legs the better.
  • “If it’s a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.”  -Michael Pollan
  • “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”  -Michael Pollan

 

*  For the last bullet point, I always recommend adding protein to that recommendation.

I have seen at least 50 or more one liners like this floating around the internet regarding nutritious eating practices.  At first I thought they were gimmicky.  That was until I started throwing them out to people who were asking me if the new 100 calorie bags of popcorn were ok to eat for fat loss, or if Rockstar energy drinks could provide the daily recommended vitamin intake.

Personally I love the look that people give me when I toss out a good quote.  It’s almost as if they expected me to give them a magic bullet or a secret tip.  There are no secrets, remember?

Here is a reminder of that… 

“Well is that how you eat?”, they ask me.

“Yes”, I reply.

Don’t complicate eating.  You have enough stress in your life.  The food you’re jamming down your pie hole doesn’t need to be one of those stresses. Buy some good quality extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and get cooking.  Enjoy the experience.

 

-KG-

Don’t Read or Watch This If You Are Fragile Inside

Food/Eating

Childhood obesity (and overweight) is parental problem and a school system problem.

image credit: Mark Young Training Systems

Why a parental problem?

Parents buy the food in the house and prepare it.  The child eats what is prepared.  Parents also provide the encouragement to either sit inside and play video games, or get outside and run around and do what kids should be doing… exploring, playing sports, walking, riding bike, climbing, swimming, etc.

Why a school problem?

Schools are providing 1 of the 3 meals per day.  If a child is eating 3 square meals per day, this means that 33.3% of the meals kids are consuming per day are being eaten at school.  That percentage can increase more  if the child is also eating an early morning breakfast.  Anyone who has been through school knows that most times you have no choice but to eat what is being served.  Shame on the school system.

An alternative to being forced to eat at school is packing a lunch.  However, think about this situation for a second…

Who packs the lunch?… The parents.

Do you see how this comes full circle and becomes a parental problem again?

Take some pointers from this girl.  She is Martin Rooney’s daughter and this video was staged, but the point is that kids are heading down the wrong path.  1 out of 3 under the age of 12 years of age is overweight or obese!

That is sickening…

Enjoy the video…

I am passionate about keeping kids healthy.

As an adult, it is your choice to live a slow death of being overweight, which may escalate to obesity causing a whole host of preventable issues for you later on.  You have knowledge, ability, and responsibility to take care of yourself.

A child does not.  They rely on parents and our school system for direction.

What sort of direction are you giving your child?  Good direction?  Poor direction?

Take responsibility for you and your family, and pretty soon you know what will happen?  Our nation will shrink in size and our health will increase.  The overweight/obesity line will reverse itself, flatline for a bit, and then move back downward in a positive direction.  Small changes, big results.

If you think that I am just using this blogging platform to pipe off my opinion…  

Check your facts here:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

In health and tough love…

P.S.  I welcome all logical objections, it would make for a great discussion.  Post your comments.

I Don’t Count Calories: Ingredients, Food Addiction and Hyperpalatability

Food/Eating

I could care less about calories in food.

I’m serious.  I honestly don’t give a shit about the calories that are in the food I eat.

When you eat real food, you can relax your thoughts during a meal.  It’s great.  You should try it.

What’s real food you ask?

Boom… real food.

Thank you Pick N Save for the lovely picture to make help make my point.

What I care about are the ingredients that are making up those calories.

I can get all of the information that I need about a food by the number of ingredients listed on the box.  I have to be honest, these days I don’t buy anything that comes in a box.  My girlfriend can testify to this, it drives her nuts.

I could fill an entire 8×11 sheet of printer paper full of one-liners about eating that I commonly use with people, but one that has seemed to really hit home was the following…

5 ingredients or less is a green light food.

Once I have been working with a client for a while, I move my recommendations back to 3-ingredients or less for worry free eating.

Here is an example of food you shouldn’t eat:

Tough to see the exact ingredients, but easy to see that it’s a long ass list.

Are you curious to see the “health” brand that contains this novel of ingredients?

I will disclose the brand at the end of this post…  I have to keep you reading somehow, right?

Eventually, once the habits of that client begin to adjust to their new found eating strategies, one of two things happen…

1)  They begin to eat 1-ingredient foods naturally because they see what eating real food does for body composition in short time, with or without the addition of movement training.

2)  I slowly transition them to eating 1-ingredient foods with ease (ease based on results).

The ingredients in food are addictive, and I predict (as do many experts) that we will begin to see massive lawsuits against the food industry for their conscience intent to make unprocessed manufactured food addictive to consumers.  Watch.  It will happen.

Hyperpalatability is another term that you should become familiar with.  Dr. John Berardi, CEO of Precision Nutrition and author of my favorite cookbook (Gourmet Nutrition), has written a great piece about hyperpalatibility over at www.precisionnutrition.com.

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Berardi’s article:

“Processed foods are engineered in ways that exceed basic reward properties of traditional whole foods, making them hyperpalatable.

Consider items such as ice cream, burgers, candy, melted cheeses, buttery/oily sauces, and so on – these are the foods that stimulate the release of opioids and dopamine in the brain and have addictive potential (note: artificial sweeteners can even trigger a dopamine response).

Rodent studies confirm this: Rats are unlikely to binge on normal rat chow. But when given the option of sweeter and fattier rat chow, rats go on a bender.

The table below shows the characteristics of some “normal” foods and some hyperpalatable foods. Notice how much higher in sugar, fat, and/or sodium the hyperpalatable foods are — and how many ingredients each food contains.”

Notice anything about the chart above?

Check out the number of ingredients in foods that have been identified are hyper-palatable.

This isn’t rocket science ladies and gentleman.  It’s right there in the chart, and it is listed again and again in the research.  We know what is making us fat.

In my effort to really beat my point into the ground until it makes it’s way through the filters that we all have on our eyes and ears, I recently snapped a bunch of pictures of foods at the grocery store…  find them here soon.

Yeah, I know you don’t want to hear my advice Prince.  Tough shit. Diva.

What I know for sure…

I know that nutrition has been written about over and over.  I am kicking a dead horse here.  I know that.

 Huge newspapers like the New York Times have begun to exploit the food industry and preach the importance of healthful eating.

But we aren’t getting it as a population.  For some reason, it is falling on deaf ears and blind eyes.

The United STates is the

So what is psychology behind a person actually knowing what they should and shouldn’t eat, yet continuing to eat the worst quality food on the planet?

I think that the issue is deep rooted to our childhood and also to social factors (friends, family, etc).

Junk eating starts young these days.

So, it’s Saturday and time to hit the Farmer’s Market.  You won’t find one vendor at the Farmer’s Market in Eau Claire, WI selling their fresh harvested Doritos to the public. 🙂

Real food being sold @ the Farmer’s Market in Eau Claire, WI

Getting you to think one article at a time.  Time is now, let’s goooooooo…

Oh, I almost forgot.  Remember that brand that I promised to reveal?  Here is the “natural health food” I was talking about…

P.S. I also think that there is common perception that eating healthy foods is more expensive than eating junk.  I will show you why it isn’t in a future post… Stay tuned.