Quickly & Easily Improve Your Health & Nutrition
Surfer Nutrition:
Here’s some easy, but relevant aspects to your nutrition, that Mr. or Mrs. Average should apply. This stuff is fundamental. Surfer? Great! This is also Surfer nutrition.
There’s a lot of extremism, and fad-dominance in the food-world of social media. This stuff right here is easily applicable, and highly relevant.
Make a few basic changes that will have a larger overall positive impact, rather than drinking a 10$ green drink the morning after you boozed till 3am. Let’s get into Surfer nutrition.
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1) Don’t start the day with coffee, start with a glass of water. Mr. Average is generally on the side of dehydration. Soda, a bunch of coffees, and not nearly enough water. A crazy thing is that the human body isn’t physiologically adapted to survive on a bunch of sodas, a bunch of coffees, and not much water.
So Mr. Average’s body is already wanting water, and then he sleeps for about 5-6hrs, wakes up, and then immediately throws back some coffee. I am a strong supporter of coffee, but you really should start the day with some water.
If you really want to step up your water game, throw in a pinch of sea salt and a squeezed lemon or lime. The vitC and electrolytes do some good things to your body.
2) Too many simple or refined carbs, nowhere near enough protein, and still hating on the fat. What does Mr. or Mrs. Average’s breakfast look like?
A bagel with some light cream cheese, maybe a donut and a coffee, perhaps some skim milk and cheerios (or weet-a-bix for those on the other side of the world).
Basically it’s a breakfast nearly entirely of refined carbohydrates, or flour based foods, with no quality fat (or minimal), and no protein (or minimal).
This is massively common, and is just about the opposite of what should be happening, especially at breakfast. Carbohydrate intake, with no accompanying fat or protein, plays some games with your blood sugar levels, which then plays games with your stress hormones in an attempt to recalibrate your blood sugar.
That morning or afternoon crash, that is your blood sugar going all wonky because of your only-carbohydrate breakfast. The same can really be said for any meal.
Look to get a balance, some protein, some carbohydrate (preferably in the form of fruit or starches, not refined carbs), and some quality fat.
It will set you up for better sustained energy, more balanced blood sugar, and probably help with that weight that keeps creeping onto Mr. Average’s gut.
*Quick note: breakfast smoothies.
I’m all for them and they’re a staple in my diet and a huge part of my Food & Performance program (see bottom of page), as they’re quickly easy, and can be nutrient dense.
I often see smoothies that are predominantly carbohydrate, with minimal fat and protein. I’m all for some fruit, and for healthy carbs, but there’s got to be some fat and protein source.
Here’s the lowdown on Shakes: Surf Shake
3) Don’t be afraid of quality saturated fat (high quality butter, coconut oil, ghee). What you should probably stop eating are refined vegetable oils (canola, safflower, cottonseed, soy, etc).
Mr. Average or Mrs. Average has been fed a constant stream of media bullshit since about the 50’s on the dreaded Saturated Fat, and the healthful Vegetable Oils. This is non-sense, and a very big problem in nutrition today (in my opinion).
This boils down to a bit of science and effects on cellular metabolism, but the take away is that our bodies are unfortunately not designed to deal with high levels of poly-unsaturated fats (canola, safflower, cottonseed, soy, etc.).
They’re also very heat-intolerant, meaning the chemical structures break down easily when heat is applied, which in turn creates Free-Radicals, which are no bueno.
I’m not saying to suddenly adopt a high fat diet, but I am saying to look at the types of fat you’re consuming, and make some shifts towards high quality saturated fats. If you (and your doctor) are still of the mindset that saturated fat = cholesterol = disease, this is old school and invalidated science.
I hit on this topic massively in my Food & Performance program (which you can read about below), and I also help with Surfer nutrition. But I really want to push you towards some self education, and you can start here: Chris Masterjohn & Cholesterol Vegetable Oils are Toxic
4) Booze. Mr. or Mrs. Average wants to drink a bottle of wine every night, but wonders why they feel like shit, have terrible cholesterol levels, and can’t lose the gut.
Maybe it’s because you’re consuming a bottle of alcoholic sugar every night. I don’t think I even need to expand upon this further. A casual drink here and there is all good, and studies even show it to be beneficial.
I think a good glass of pinot noir, or an occasional tequila are great. Having multiple drinks every single night is probably a sign of some type of underlying problem, and is only doing negative things to your physiology, hormone balance, blood sugar, cholesterol, body fat %’s and health.
-CRIS
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