Many of my newsletter readers and several of my work colleagues have asked me to write up my workouts and food for the week. I added in when I go to bed and wake up, as this affects my workouts, which largely affect my meals. Note that many of these meals are made at home, but eaten at work. Also, several of my workouts are performed in my office during meetings during the day.
My Meals and Workouts for a Week:
| Monday: | ||
| Wake up | 5:00am | 2 large cups of coffee with grass-fed heavy cream, read Small is Beautiful, mobility exercises |
| Workout | 6:00am | Trap bar deadlift, decline pushups, Bulgarian lunge, kettlebell press behind the head, weighted vest jumps |
| 7:00am | 1 large plantain cooked in grass-fed butter | |
| 7:30am | 2 mile walk | |
| Lunch | 12:00pm | Pastured pork carnitas, tomatillos, okra cooked in grass-fed butter with salt and pepper, dark chocolate |
| Dinner | 5:30pm | Caprese salad, grass-fed ribeye, curry-spiced cauliflower and onions, yams, glass of Cahors |
| Bedtime | 8:30pm | |
| Tuesday: | ||
| Wake up | 5:00am | 2 large cups of coffee with grass-fed heavy cream, read Small is Beautiful |
| 6:30am | 2 mile walk, mobility exercises | |
| Breakfast | 7:30am | 6 pastured eggs, spinach, onions, salt, pepper, raw grass-fed cheddar cheese |
| Lunch | 12:30pm | Chorizo, Brussels sprouts |
| Dinner | 5:30pm | Caprese salad, eggplant parmesan, peppers dipped in olive oil and Profuma di Chianti, grass-fed raw cheese, glass of Madiran |
| 6:15pm | 2 mile walk | |
| Bedtime | 8:30pm | |
| Wednesday: | ||
| Wake up | 5:25am | 2 large cups of coffee with grass-fed heavy cream, read The Joy of Missing Out |
| 6:30am | 2 mile walk, mobility exercises | |
| Workout | 7:30am | Bar lunges, trapbar rows, layovers, bench press |
| 8:30am | purple sweet potatoes | |
| Lunch | 11:30pm | Cajun Shrimp, spinach, broccolini |
| Dinner | 5:30pm | Poached salmon and leeks, cauliflower, glass of Priorat |
| Bedtime | 8:30pm | |
| Thursday: | ||
| Wake up | 5:05am | 2 large cups of coffee with grass-fed heavy cream, read The Joy of Missing Out |
| 6:30am | 2 mile walk, mobility exercises | |
| 9:00am | 6 pastured eggs, spinach, onions, salt, pepper, kimchi | |
| Workout | 11:30am | Kettlebell swings, kettlebell front raise (in office during Zoom call) |
| Lunch | 12:30pm | Keto cookies (dark chocolate, walnuts, pecans, coconut flakes, eggs, butter) |
| 5:00pm | Basketball workout | |
| Dinner | 6:00pm | Taco night (no shells), avocado, peppers, onions, roma tomato salsa, tomatillos, sour cream, cheese, glass of Tannat |
| Bedtime | 8:15pm | |
| Friday: | ||
| Wake up | 5:00am | 2 large cups of coffee with grass-fed heavy cream, work on manuscripts |
| 6:30am | 2 mile walk, mobility exercises | |
| Workout | 7:30am | Bar lunges, trapbar rows, layovers, bench press |
| 8:30am | Plantains | |
| Lunch | 11:30pm | Paneer Tikka, roasted beets with feta |
| Dinner | 5:30pm | Duck confit, Brussels sprouts, carrots and finocchio dipped in olive oil and Profuma di Chianti, glass of Cahors |
| 7:00pm | 1.5 mile walk | |
| Bedtime | 9:00pm | |
| Saturday: | ||
| Wake up | 6:00am | 2 large cups of coffee with grass-fed heavy cream, read Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling |
| 7:30am | 3 mile nature hike, forest bathing | |
| Breakfast | 11:30am | 4 pastured eggs, spinach, onions, salt, pepper, chorizo |
| Workout | 2:30pm | Deadlift, kettlebell squat, kettlebell lunge, one-arm press, farmer walks (all outside) |
| 3:30pm | Sweet potato | |
| Dinner | 5:30pm | Chimichurri skirt steak (cooked on cast iron on open fire), okra, collard greens, ginger scallion coleslaw, glass of Tannat |
| Bedtime | 8:45pm | |
| Sunday: | ||
| Wake up | 5:40am | 2 large cups of coffee with grass-fed heavy cream, work on this list |
| 7:30am | Mobility exercises | |
| Breakfast | 9:00am | 4 pastured eggs, spinach, onions, salt, pepper, chorizo |
| 11:00am | 3 mile nature hike, forest bathing | |
| 2:30pm | Broccolini, collard greens, dark chocolate, grass-fed cheese | |
| Dinner | 5:30pm | Cod with cream sauce, lemon, garlic, and capers, broccoli, sformato, glass of Aglianico |
| Bedtime | 8:15pm | |
There you have it. My meals and times change very frequently, so this is only a snap shot. Hopefully it provides some insight into what I do!
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pretty impressive combo of a healthy, tasty diet and balanced workout regimen (especially given your work schedule). do you think such a diet would sustain more endurance focused athletes? i am not talking about elite marathoners, but some of the fitter older folks in our area of the country enjoy biking, long hiking, trail running and nordic skiing. not necessarily to great excess, but often at a moderate competitive level. the fat adaptation theories for endurance athletes are not that convincing to this point in terms of data, though there is no shortage of passionate anecdotal blog posts. as a physician in colorado who counsels many patients regarding their health and fitness, i value your thoughts on the topic.
i am reading Leonardo’s Legacy now. Very interesting and a novel approach. I will post an amazon review when i finish. The amount of work you put into that is remarkable. best wishes
Wade,
Thanks for the nice comments and I am glad you are enjoying Leonardo’s Legacy! Your question is a good one. I generally go up on calories/carbs based on my workout intensity. I agree about the fat adapted work and unless I am purposefully trying to be full ketogenic (usually only periodically), I generally will consume post-workout carbs to larger amounts that would otherwise keep me out of it. Sprinting is hard these days since they have (frustratingly) closed all outdoor tracks and most open parks due to covid, but I usually have more intense exercise sessions mixed in. Though this week was a snapshot, but I would also stress the caloric content of my meals is very large.
Thanks,
Colin
That makes good common sense as well as evidence based sense. The idea that the choices are not just low fat vs low carb seems a bit heretical to the many advocates of one “diet ” over another. I appreciate your view that we would be better off without diet guidelines. Real people can eat real food that they enjoy and makes them feel well. As a physician and long time athlete i can guarantee that if fat adaptation worked to the degree some advocates propose, the russians would have mastered it a long time ago. Similarly, few vegan athletes stay vegan or low fat. I have seen many try but rarely sustain. Not to say here that athletics is the standard to judge a healthy eating style, but sport is pretty darwinian. As is cancer unfortunately. In both cases reality tends to trump theory. Keep up the excellent work. And thank you for your well written and extensively researched commentaries.
“In both cases reality tends to trump theory.” Spot on and a great observation. There is definitely much push back to observation in the medical diet and nutrition world, but the athletics world does seem to be more open to what actually works – this is why the meathead at the gym often knows more about weight loss than many diet experts, but I digress…