Nutrition

There’s a helluva a lotta cats out there addicted to pre-workout stimulants. Gotta be cranked for your workout; bouncing off the walls or ready to run through ‘em. So you slug down a triple espresso and stack with it with some 3 Hour Energy Blaster, NO Explode-aria and whatever else they sell at the checkout counter of GNC. Anything short of an 8-ball of coke is fair game. After twenty minutes or so it starts kicking in and you feel superhuman. You’re no longer a guy who barely slept because you were stressed out all night or the guy who… continue reading.

One of the most frequently asked nutrition questions I get is, “How many carbs should you eat per day to build muscle?” Everyone always focuses on protein but if you want to get jacked carbs are crucial. High fat and Paleo style eating can be great for getting lean but not for getting big. That job requires some rice and potatoes. Carb intake should be directly correlated to weekly training volume. For example, let’s say Billy does an old school 5×5 routine twice per week because he believes that as a hardgainer that’s all the training he can handle. There… continue reading.

I remember when I was a skinny maggot and had a hard time getting a lot of calories down. It was one of the primary reasons I was a skinny maggot. You’ve gotta eat to grow. Yesterday, while watching two Giants victories I whacked down a huge plate of eggs and potatoes, a few pears, a cup of berries, an entire gluten free pizza, a pile of Jen’s bison meatballs, six cookies, and 3/4 of a cherry pie with coconut milk ice cream. But that was a far cry from the one day I ate 10,000 calories one Saturday in… continue reading.

rsc1t “Hey Joe, always good to see you, my friend.” That’s what my buddy, Laslov says to me every Sunday morning at the Santa Monica farmers market as he engulfs my tiny mits with his massive bear paws. I’ve corrected him several times but just don’t have the heart to keep doing it. So for a brief moment in time each week I’m Joe, not Jay. My wife, Jen and I pick up a jar of freshly ground pecan butter from him along with a handful of green plums, both of which are absolutely delicious. Then we go to Harry’s… continue reading.

Sadly we’ve come to the end of this epic trilogy. I know it’ll be hard, but do your best to wipe your tears away so you can read the words on the screen and acquire some more great info from my brother, Nate. If you missed Part I click HERE. And HERE for Part II. We left off talking about pre-workout nutrition and are gonna pick up today with post workout nutrition. JF: What about post workout nutrition? What are your recommendations there? NM:  Well, Eva Mendes is a great post-workout recovery snack…oops, off track again… If you… continue reading.

JF: Aside from cutting all carbs what are the two or three other most common dietary mistakes you see people making? NM: (1) People getting swindled and fooled by marketing executives, and basing their diets on refined “health” foods instead of nature’s “real” foods.  They think they are doing something good for themselves by eating their 100-calorie bars, gluten free muffins, high fiber cereals, pro-biotic yogurts, and organic pizza. If you take only one thing away from my incoherent ramblings, I hope that it is this: organic crap is still crap, regardless of the marketing taglines.  If you refuse to… continue reading.

When it comes to nutrition there are few people who are more knowledgeable or who I trust more than Nate Miyaki. I’m gonna skip the long winded intro about his upbringing, schooling and different hair styles he’s had throughout his life. Though I will mention that he was a professional wrestler. That in itself makes him pretty damn cool. Plus he loves to quote Seinfeld episodes and classic 80’s movies. What more could you ask for? JF: Nate, let’s kick it off by addressing your thoughts on ultra low carb diets. Many people believe or claim that cutting all starchy… continue reading.

Guest Post by Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat Breaking it Down to Build it Up Fundamentally this what we are doing when we are in the gym. We’re doing some damage and stressing our muscles so they can repair and come back stronger. It reminds me of the plot of just about every Rocky movie. Rocky fights and Rocky gets his ass handed to him. Rocky makes a comeback. Rocky is bigger faster and stronger. Rocky wins. Eye of the tiger. I think we all kind of ‘get this’ when it comes to training, but what… continue reading.

1)  Like Jack LaLanne said, “If man made it don’t eat it.” In other words, if it comes in a box or a bag your best bet is to skip it. Eddie Vedder also recommended that during YellowLedbetter, “Don’t eat it if comes in a box ooorrr aaaa bag… oh, no, no.” Go take a listen. 2)  Buy locally at farmers markets as much as possible. Stick it to the man. 3)  Focus on pesticide free produce and hormone/antibiotic-free animal protein. 4)  Make sure your fish is wild caught and not farm raised. 5)  Avoid drinking… continue reading.

I’ve been on a kick with this dessert as of late and figured I’d share it with The Renegade Nation. Blend 1 cup mixed frozen berries and cherries with 1 scoop vanilla protein powder and somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 cup of full fat coconut milk. It depends how thick you want it and the power of your blender, the protein powder you use, etc. But I like it to be really thick like pudding so you can eat it with a spoon. So you may need more or less coconut milk. In accordance with The Renegade Diet rules fruit/fructose… continue reading.

I’ve covered this topic before but judging by some of the questions I receive I may not have been clear enough. So I’m gonna try it again… Fuck bulking and cutting. Clearer? The concept of bulking and cutting is old school bullshit that went out with fanny packs and jean shorts. For the initiated it means that you eat like crap for several months while training hard and heavy. The theory behind it is that it’s impossible to gain large amounts of muscle mass without getting fat in the process. So you accept a bunch of fat gain along with… continue reading.

What food you put in your body is probably the single most important decision you make every day. A lot of us have that down and always make very healthy choices. Or so we think… Unfortunately, what’s a healthy choice for me may not be a healthy choice for you. Everyone reacts differently to certain foods. For the most part you can’t go wrong with lean protein, vegetables and berries. Those foods seem to be tolerated very well by the majority of people. Once you veer off that list it gets a little bit more complicated. Foods like grains, eggs,… continue reading.

Fourteen months ago I ended my three year stint as a vegetarian. Here are the reasons why… Firstly, I debated about even writing this article at all because the last thing I want is to start a whole debate about the morals and ethics of eating meat. For some reason a lot of people take it more seriously than religion and I don’t really want regular visitors to this site getting all fired up and arguing with each other about something so trivial. But the fact of the matter is a lot of people ask me about my diet and… continue reading.

Last Wednesday I drove over to Rawesome in Venice, like I do every week, to pick up some meat, produce and a little raw butter, cream and goat yogurt. I arrived at the tail end of a government raid in which the LAPD and government officials poured out all of the raw dairy and left with a flat bed truck full of produce, nuts and bison steaks. We all know that it’s not in the best interest of big business/ big pharma for us to be healthy. Apparently selling healthy, organic food is now a crime. A crime worthy of… continue reading.

I have a great article for you today by my colleague, Brad Pilon. Brad is a super smart dude who knows more about nutrition than most people have forgotten. He’s also one of the few guys I rely on for dietary advice. Check it out… How Much Protein Should You Eat Per Day? By Brad Pilon You’d think by now we’d have a clear-cut answer to this question, but to tell you the truth, ‘how much protein’ is a question we’ve been trying to answer for over 200 years. In fact, protein has played a central role in nutrition… continue reading.