Nutrition

What You Should Eat to be Healthy, Lean, and Strong: 3 Goals

Nutrition can be frustrating.

It's often overcomplicated.

But today I’m going to bring you the simple way to think about nutrition so that you can be healthy, lean, and strong.

Today is about the three most important things you can track on a regular basis to be healthy, lean, and strong.

And when I say "track," everyone has a different relationship with how closely they want to track their food.

Some people say, I'm gonna track every single calorie that goes in my body.

And some people think that sounds like hell.

I'm more on the “it sounds like hell” side. I have a busy life, and I don’t like having to track everything that goes into my body. It takes a lot of time, energy, and attention and most of the time I don’t want to have to exert it.

When I eat, I want to sit down and enjoy it rather than count it.

However; I will tell you that I’m going to get very specific with some numbers.

If you're like me and you don’t like tracking, then do what I did: focus on the numbers for at least a week. Or maybe 2 or 3 weeks.

When you closely focus on the numbers for a short period of time, then afterwards you won't have to focus on it nearly as much. You’ll more easily know about how many calories something has, how much protein it has, etc.

And know that these 3 numbers are suitable to any dietary pattern. You can be vegetarian, keto, carnivore, you name it, this is something that everyone can focus on. You can be gluten free, dairy free, you can be doing intermittent fasting, no matter what this works.

So here we go. The three most important food goals to be healthy, lean, and strong:

Goal #1:

Consume high-quality protein in the amount of 0.7g - 1g gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

I weigh around 170 pounds; so for me that is anywhere between 120g to 170g of protein per day.

Now what I will say is, if you’re not used to consuming anywhere close to that for yourself, it can feel like a lot. But that’s okay, don’t feel like you have to jump there right away. Build up to it.

The Why:

There are 3 reasons why I coach people to consume this amount of protein:

1. Muscle Mass

Consuming this quantity helps to maintain and build muscle.

2. Healthspan and Lifespan

Maintaining and building muscle is of course important for aesthetics, but it’s also critical for health span and lifespan.

Muscle mass is one of the most important indicators on how long somebody might live. Muscle can allow us to be strong enough to not get injured as we age. Muscle is also the most metabolically active organ in our body which means when we eat food, muscle is great at utilizing and breaking down that glucose. Which then prevents that extra glucose from being stored as fat.

3. Satiety (fullness)

Amongst the three macronutrients of carbs, fat, and protein, protein - generally speaking - is the most satiating. This means it will fill you up the most, therefore not causing you to overeat.

The What:

My favorite sources of protein are animal sources of protein: pasture-raised eggs, organic and pasture-raised chicken, grass-fed beef, ground turkey, and wild-caught fish.

Generally speaking, animal sources are my favorite kind of protein because of their higher amounts of the amino acid of leucine.

Leucine is the amino acid that is almost solely responsible for muscle-protein synthesis aka. the creation of muscle.

So, the first of the 3 most important food goals is to consume 0.7g to 1g of protein per pound of your bodyweight per day.

Goal #2:

Consume 25-35g grams of fiber per day

The Why:

Fiber is super important for a few reasons. First it helps in maintaining a healthy liver. Secondly, it's really important for gut health. Thirdly, it's important for managing your insulin levels.

I’m not going to dive into the weeds of each of those three things. But I want to give you an example of that last reason - managing your insulin levels. If you eat fiber alongside carbohydrates or sugar, then your blood glucose response is going to be far less dramatic than if you simply ate sugar by itself.

Having well-balanced meals that include fiber helps to manage your glucose and insulin levels which keeps your cells insulin sensitive which is important for overall health. The topic of glucose and insulin levels is a very deep topic that I will not dive into here.

The What:

My personal favorite sources of fiber are cruciferous vegetables. These include brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, cabbage, and more. If you Google cruciferous vegetables, you can find which ones fall into that category. This is where I always start in order to hit my fiber goals.

Secondly, in order to hit my fiber goals, I consume fruits like apples, bananas, and any kind of berry.

Thirdly, to get to my fiber goals I consume grains like oatmeal, lentils, quinoa, and farro, to name some of my favorites.

And then the last source of fiber that I consume on a regular basis are nuts and seeds. Chia seeds in particular are a great source of fiber that is easy to add to a number of different meals and smoothies.

Goal #3:

Consume Omega-3 Fats multiple times a week

The Why:

Omega-3 fats are really important for healthy cell membranes. It allows our cell membranes to be soft and permeable and insulin sensitive.

Omega-3s help improve our mood and help our cognition as we age.

When it comes to quantity of Omega-3 fats, I’ve seen a lot of different numbers thrown out by people. I recently heard on a podcast by Dr. Andrew Huberman that it’s ideal to consumer 1,000mg of DHA (a type of Omega-3 fat) on a daily basis.

The What:

The way that I’ve personally gone about it is to consume high sources of Omega-3s at least 2-3x per week.

For me that has mainly consisted of two things:

- Consuming wild-caught salmon 1-2x per week

- Consuming ground flax seeds 1-3x per week

Admittedly, a next step I could take to improve my overall health is paying closer attention to this and coming up with a more sophisticated way to go about it.

To recap, here are my three most important food goals in order to be healthy, lean, and strong.

1. Consume 0.7g - 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight per day

2. Consume 25-35g of fiber a day

3. Consume Omega-3 fats multiple times a week

If you can do that, you're going to be on the right trajectory towards being healthy, lean, and strong.

To getting closer and closer to your Best You,

Nick