Quote:
Originally Posted by ReyzorXxX
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?
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.
Last edited by TChan; 04-15-2015 at 10:06 AM.
Reason: added answer on supplements