I am also a vegetarian, I have both diabetes and a thyroid problem. I have been trying to avoid carbs but never realized until very recently how bad soy is for me. I have been eating it as my main source of protein.

How do you feel about dairy? I just recently got off soy but have been eating a lot of cottage cheese and plain greek yogurt to get my protein.

static stretching broken down muscles can result in pulling them. when i was a sprinter in college the number 1 thing they stressed to us was to do dynamic warmups. easy/long stretches after you're good and warmed up is just fine, just don't want to stretch really hard when sore and/or cold.

I don't think it can be argued that the bulk of our diets should be green, leafy vegetables. Your macros are completely dependent on what you are trying to achieve. If you're training heavy and breaking down muscle you need to have higher amounts of protein and fat then those who are living more sedentary life styles. I'm all for experimenting and trying to figure out what is optimal for me, that said, we are all different. I once asked a health expert a similar question and he responded to me, "eat whole foods, most of them green, drink plenty of water, have balance and love in your life and you will live a long time."

If you're lactose and casein tolerant, probably fine. The quality of the cow is going to be important here. If you can eat a wack of it and have no gut problems, skin problem or otherwise adverse reactions, I'd say go for it. I am slightly lactose intolerant but full-fat Greek yogurt is still fine by me. I am probably quite casein intolerant because cottage cheese definitely does a number on my digestive system.

I would encourage all vegetarians to go at least pescatarian though. Wild, sustainably-caught salmon is both healthy and ecologically friendly.

(Before someone jumps up and says "aha - mercury!", here's a link to avoiding that problem.)

I would agree with the health expert that you consulted except he should of said, "eat whole foods, most of them PLANTS, have balance and love in your life and you will live a long time"

Eating plants with a rainbow of colors provide more nutrients than just the green ones....think of orange carrots, red peppers, yellow bananas, white onions, red lentils, brown rice, etc.....

Cheers. I'll probably play around with these and see what I make of it.

I totally get what you say about it being a pita to obsessively track these things. There is though, at least for me, a sizeable cost involved in some of these ideas - giving up bread, for example, to say nothing of the discussion about food that doesn't taste good. So on some level there has to be some sort of cost benefit comparison.

T Chen wrote at the beginning of this thread:

"Nutrition: wheat and soy are the biggest killers imo. Getting rid of just those two is like 70% of the battle. They are the limping preflop of nutrition. Soy is a Frankenfood of the worst kind, creating all kinds of hormonal disruption in your body. From there we get into the basics like upping protein content to something like 0.5g per pound of bodyweight. Try to limit your carbs to only after you've exercised, or with dinner if you have trouble sleeping."

Let's take a look at his advice. Let's say you weight 200 pounds for example. With 0.5 grams of protein per pound that would mean that you are eating 100 grams of protein each day and that is 400 calories of protein. He says to limit your carbohydrates. OK, let's limit the carbohydrates to 100 grams, that is also 400 calories. What's left? Fat. Assuming this 200 pound guy needs 2,400 calories per day to maintain weight, that would mean that T Chen is advocating that 1,600 of your calories should come from fat.
That breaks down to 16.6% protein, 16.6% carbs, and 66.6% fat of your total calorie consumption. This diet is lacking in fiber, phytonutrients and other nutrients that come from fruits and vegetables.

Complex carbohydrates (like rice, potatoes, grains, fruits vegetables) should be the main fuel for your body, not fat. This is where the plant based eaters like me disagree with the current popular Paleo movement.

Regarding Paleo, I offer the following:

http://doctorklaper.com/answers/answers22/

I don't agree that soy and wheat are the biggest killers. Here's what a cardiologist has to say about it:

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17741...yone-says.html

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-18252...yone-says.html

Just looking into that bulletproof coffee, first I had heard of it. Butter into coffee? What? Sounds insane to me.

Terrence & Jason,
Any tips on Meal Planning? Do you cook it yourself or have a meal prep service? Are there any sample meals you can provide? That seems that biggest downfall when preparing for an event.

Also what are the must have supplements in your opinion?

Not sure why milk or cream is completely normal but butter is insane. I am a big fan of the bulletproof coffee, heard about it awhile ago but just recently started making it. Tastes awesome and seems to take the edge off the caffeine as well. Have been drinking a big one in the morning and haven't been hungry until eating a late lunch. I highly recommend trying it out to all, although not sure how great it would work if you aren't cutting out sugars and most carbs as well.

I or my girlfriend cook all of our meals (and when I was single and lived with a roommate I cooked for both of us). Now, I am incredibly lazy but I make up for it by being a good planner. As a result, most of the proteins I make takes like 10 minutes to prepare and many hours to cook. For example:

- Braised ox-tongue (made this on Sunday). Toss in onions, garlic, water, set on low for 8 hours then sear.
- Ribs in the oven. Dry spices, put in the oven at 225F for 4 hours or 300F for 3 hours. Can also use a slow cooker to do this before you go to work.

Sub 15-minute proteins:
- Salmon fillet. Lots of dill weed and pepper, in the oven at 325 for 12-15 minutes.
- Ground beef/pork/lamb/whatever. Cook it through but try not to burn it.
- Steak (obv). Again, try not to create too much black/charring.

Cooked vegetables (esp root veg) need to be managed a bit more since there's a smaller cooking window in which they're tasty. But I can do something like a spinach+onion+avocado+peppers salad in like 3 minutes.

If on dinner break in a poker tournament, obviously All American Dave is great which is why we had him. But most casinos have buffets, and that's often your best option. Lots of vegetables and protein here. Avoid the oils (salad dressing) at a buffet because they're almost always unhealthy fats.

Supplements (oops, I missed this earlier):

I hate giving supplement advice because this is very personal. The word "supplement" means add to, which means you need to supplement the things that you're deficient in/need more of. One person might need more iron and another might need more calcium. That said...

Most people in our society are too low on Vitamin D. We spend our days indoors, and when we're outdoors we're usually mostly clothed. So that's usually a good place to start for most people. If you're a pale white guy living in Thailand, you're probably ok. If you're a black guy living in Alaska, I'd consider getting on the D train.

Most people can also benefit from fish oil/omega-3. Most people could benefit more from more n-3. I've even heard some people say that the correct amount of fish oil is "take as many as you can until your poop starts getting runny, then take slightly less than that". I'm not quite so hardcore.

Creatine will certainly benefit athletes of all levels. It is well-researched (indeed, possibly the most researched supplement out there) and safe (despite some scare headlines in the last few days).

Other than that, supplementation is so specific to the individual's goals, problems and deficiencies that I certainly hesitate to talk too much about them. And of course the other reason I dislike talking too much about supplements is that people tend to use them as shortcuts or end-arounds for eating good food.

T, can you talk more about HRV? What info does the Bioforce package give you? Does it make it as simple as 'Don't train today, bro'? I have a phone that can take HRV readings, but it's just a plot on a scale from easy to hard that it tracks over time. I'm not sure what to do with that information. I'm concerned about overtraining because I've gotten pretty depressed on a few occasions recently when I've been crushing the gym for a few weeks straight. I usually take the day off and binge eat which makes me feel better. (Overtrained? Undernourished? Same same??) Is the Bioforce pack worth the $250 or can I get this info from my phone? (Samsung Galaxy S5 if anyone other than T knows)

Does your phone app actually connect to a strap that you wear around your chest, or is it one of those deals where you're supposed to hold your finger over the camera sensor? If it's the latter, then you can safely delete it; it's probably useless. Well-known/respected HRV apps include Bioforce, EMwave, ithlete, Sweetbeat and others, but these all require a chest strap and are all pricey-ish.

As to whether it's worth the money; if you're a really serious competitive athlete then yeah. If just working out for fun and to stay in shape, probably not.

If you feel depressed after hitting the gym hard you could easily have some adrenal fatigue, CNS overuse etc. What happens when you have a session that's like 6/10 or 7/10 on the effort scale? Do you feel better? If so, then you need to make sure you're only doing 9/10 days following rest days, and only on days where you wake up in the morning feeling ready to crush the world. And then afterwards obviously you need a lot of protein, sleep and recovery.

If you legitimately always feel crappy after a 9/10 day in the gym, you probably simply shouldn't have them at all. Maybe get blood levels tested for cortisol, free testosterone, thyroid health, inflammation and all that.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a beginner hiit workout preferably on YouTube. I have been going a 3 day split in the gym and I want to add some cardio work

Thanks

Would Terrance or Jason please weigh in on using whey protein or casein protein supplementation as part of a weightlifting program. Since each are derived from dairy (milk) are these considered to be a no no if one is moving to a more "green" diet and incorporating more healthy fats while trying to stay clear of grains. I guess this would be considered to be following more of a "paleo" diet.

T Chan,

Do you get your Vitamin D and fish oils from tablets sold in the pharmacy or just from your diet? I'm always skeptical of these supplements since they are such a huge industry, but they would be easy to incorporate into my life.

For those of you trying to lose weight. It may be more important when you eat as opposed to what you eat. See this article:

http://www.salk.edu/news/pressreleas...p?press_id=560

They fed two sets of mice an equal amount of high fat calories (60% fat) per day. One group got obese and the other group didn't. The only difference was when they ate! The group that got obese were allowed to eat 24 hours, all day and night. The group that weren't obese were limited to eating only 8 hours (followed by 16 hours of fasting) Both groups ate the same amount of food/calories.....

I think the 8 hour diet was a thing 2-3 years ago. Mens Health talked about it and I think Paul Ryan (? Ran for VP or something) got it some attention.

I think for grey-area things like dairy, it's an individual tolerance thing. Lactose and casein are big triggers for a lot of people, but not others. I tolerate a high-quality whey protein (i.e. isolate) just fine. If you start upping the lactose, I start getting in trouble. Casein however, will destroy me (and possibly any plants that happen to be in the same room with me after I consume it).

Say butter, being lactose-free and casein-free, is great for me, I have absolutely no problems with it and thrive on it.

You are right to be skeptical of the supplement industry. And to be a broken record, people place too much emphasis on "which supplements" vs food/sleep/lifestyle when the importance of the latter is probably 20x greater than the former.

I can't say I know that much about individual brands of fish oil, but this may be a useful link.

In general I've done well with NOW Foods brand whenever I have no other specific information (I use their liquid vitamin D; they seem to be generally good quality across the board.

The 16-hour daily fast thing: it's a good idea if you live a low-stress lifestyle and are not a serious high-intensity athlete. leangains.com is a good resource on this. If you are a hardcore crossfitter or have a lot of stress in your life, I'd advise caution (but experimenting is fine, too, of course). It's actually a pretty good system for poker.

What do you guys recommend for a healthy snack at the table? Is mix nuts or drive fruit I.e. pine apple, raspberry OK?

So after a few too many years of being over weight this thread / J Koon ( please more RIO vids)/ T Chan / Podcast chat have inspired me to go try out the bulletproof diet so have ordered the coffee/crazy coconut super oil and am halfway through the book so will let you know how it pans out.

I am a full(ish)time online mtt donk so will let you know how it affects that.

Cheers guys

Yes, these are all fine, although I would watch the sugar content of dried fruit. Also as Jason said, it is easy to overeat nuts mindlessly, because they are tasty and pretty high calorie.

I'm actually not of the opinion that most people need to be snacking constantly at the table. Poker seems like a great opportunity to employ intermittent fasting since it requires high cognitive function and low physical exertion. IMO most regular poker players should probably fast/limit calories while playing poker, and eat when the session ends. Super hardworking metabolically powerful athletes like JKoon should eat more frequently.

@JK - I use BP Coffee and follow Paleo/Primal lifestyle in general. Have you used other BP products/supplements such as GabaWave ? What is your view on Nootropics in general ?

Day 1 of a bracelet event. What is your preferred option in the AM. 30-min HIIT Session or light cardio ? (or perhaps just a good stretching session ?)

Any suggestions for the 90 minute dinner breaks to boost energy/sharpness coming back for final few levels of day when a lot of remaining players will be carb-crashing ?

Thanks for the thread folks. Very interesting.

Question for Jason about bulletproof coffee:

Is a bulletproof coffee to start your day enough fuel for an hour lifting session at the gym, or am I still going to need a regular meal w carbs and protein that takes 2+ hours for digestion?

If the coffee is all u take before a workout, about how long before?

Thx

I have dabbled with Nootropics. I honestly haven't consistently used one long enough to provide you with any advice. I enjoy the collagen bars Asprey does.

Light cardio and stretch with some deep breathing and a cold shower before I go play.

I really enjoy going home and getting a fresh change of clothes and a shower. If you're in the hotel and don't have a washing machine, maybe just a shower!