About The AJAC Diet

Before I get into the nitty gritty, let me be very clear...

The reason I titled this the AJAC Diet was because calling it Alexander’s
overall philosophy of flexible dietary practices based upon context and
self-education would have been impossible to fit onto a book cover, or
catchy email title.

Anyone that has followed me on my blog, email list, twitter, etc, you
know that I absolutely emphasize contextual understanding and
perspective at all times.

That said, trying to encapsulate that into a “diet”, does not work, so
label this AJAC Diet if you want. But know that it is an overall
philosophy, not a hard fast system of rules. What I have arrived at here
is the dietary models, mindsets, and simple habits of eating that I
believe best serve people’s health.

The AJAC Diet is not an “effortless” diet, a “revolutionary” diet, or any

kind of easy answer with hyperbole diet. It’s a way of eating that
delivers optimal health based upon the needs of your own human
biology, and adjusted for lifestyle.

Let's get started.

Introduction.
Perhaps the most regrettable mistake that I made when I started lifting
was that I focused approximately ZERO on nutrition.

Whereas many young guys will prioritize learning how to eat properly
to build muscle, I did not.

I can fondly recall workouts of 2-3 hours at the gym, and I would
consume little to no protein afterwards, and would drink fruit
smoothies (I thought at the time they were healthy, this was before the
low-fat bubble burst), and I’d barely eat because I assumed I would get
ripped this way.

This would go on for a day or so, I’d be incredibly sore and slow to
recover, then I’d get ravenously hungry and consume an entire pizza or
order double bacon cheeseburgers.

At that point my body got the calories it needed, but I’d go right back to
barely eating.

As you can imagine this was not conducive for health or muscle gain.

Over the coming years, I steadily changed my habits, comprehension,

and premises of what I considered healthy.

If had to trace it into a timeline, it would look something like this

2005-begin lifting weights

2008-Begin researching how nutrition affects recovery, this is my first
introduction to “Sports Nutrition” and t​ he ISSN​ was the first resource I
found online
2009-Got introduced to Paleo Nutrition through Loren Cordain

2010-Got introduced to the Weston Price Foundation, found online

2011-Discovered the work of Vince Gironda
2012-Explored bodybuilding diets through old manuals and guides
published during the Silver and Golden Age

2013-Found Mountain Dog Diet, essentially Paleo for Bodybuilders,

through John Meadows

2014-2015-Worked with around 300 clients online writing meal plans,

could see what worked and what didn't across a large population of
people. Heavily used Alan Aragon's research review to crosscheck what
I was doing

2016-Spent an entire year counting macros and calories

2017-2020-Arrived at the current model of how I eat now, which is

Whole foods based, high protein, and uses cyclical fasting both for
calorie control and general health and convenience.

2010-2020-Trained clients.

My philosophy on nutrition has been a 10 year process of continuously

refining my own diet, and distilling recommendations to work for the
broadest number of people. Almost all of my programs include dietary
guidelines, and nutrition is half the process in muscle and strength
gains.

How I Eat on a Day to Day Basis

I have two models I follow

1. 16:8 Fasting-If I am maintaining my weight, OR working to lose

bodyfat, I follow a 16:8 model of Intermittent Fasting.
 I do this quite easily, as I have never been hungry in the morning,
and skipping breakfast has always felt natural.

If I need to drop bodyfat, I simply cut back on carb intake. If Im

not trying to dop bodyfat, I eat as many carbs as I want. As Im not
a carb fiend of sugar addict, I don’t pay conscious attention to how
many carbohydrates Im eating

2. If I am trying to GAIN weight, OR if I am training twice a day and

my recovery needs to be up to speed, I eat 3-4 times a day.
---

Regardless of what model I follow, I ALWAYS eat the same food.

Red meat, ie steak, ie dead cow

I cook with lots of butter, ghee, or olive oil

I eat lots of white rice. I do not care that white rice is a simple
carbohydrate, as its zero sugar, is phenomenal for muscle glycogen
reloading, and as brown rice tastes like dried grass and has barely any
nutrients in it, I dont care about the nutrients from rice. I get my
nutrient from eat

I also eat eggs, avocados, and the odd smattering of carrots and green
vegetables.

If I go out to eat, I often go out for steak.

Sometimes I eat sushi.

I drink black coffee in the morning. Never past 12pm.

My diet never changes much, and I eat this way because I ENJOY eating
this way. Its an anti-discipline approach, there is no restriction and no
difficulty in my eating because I enjoy it and my energy levels and
health are all fantastic. Why would I eat a different way?

People often ask my about my diet, and its very unsexy. There is
nothing special that I do.

I’ve traveled enough to note obvious differences in size and muscularity

between vegetarian populations and meat eating populations.

Those that eat meat are bigger and stronger. Those that eat plants are
smaller and weaker.

I consider any arguments about supposed “longer life” based on eating

plants to be contrived bullshit.

Human evolution and human history tells us everything we need to

know about how to eat.

Eat meat, eat whole foods, stay away from modern food. That is my
philosophy on diet in 10 words.

Context established, what follows are the 21 Overarching Principles

that I believe are essential to optimizing one's health, eating in a way
that is effortless and zero stress, and protects one mind from dietary
ideology and bullshit.
1. Understand Your Metabolism
This is chapter one, and while very remedial it's worth discussing.

Human beings are carbon based life forms, just as every other animal is
on this planet. We need to eat because we continually regenerate our
bodys and power the cellular processes that allow us to function on a
daily basis.

If you can hold onto that idea, it should logically follow then that you
want to eat in such a way as to ensure optimal functionality of your
body’s biology.

Said simple, it would not make sense to eat in a way that made you sick,
weak, and malnourished.

Yet this is what many people do on a daily basis.

Each day, your body expends a certain amount of energy, and needs a
certain amount of macro and micronutrients for optimal health.

Energy is measured in calories.

Macros are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Micronutrients are vitamins

and minerals.

Your body is essentially made of protein and fatty acids, and these are
the two most important macros to consume.

Your body also uses glucose predominantly for fuel, and this is what
carbohydrates provide (along with their own micronutrients)

Protein contains 4 calories per gram.

Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram.

Fat contains 9 calories per gram. Fat is more energy dense.

When you combine fat and carbohydrates together, you can create
hyperpalatable foods that digest quickly, are easily stored as bodyfat,
are easy to overconsume, and contribute to elevated blood sugar,
dysregulated hunger hormones, and are more likely to make you fat in
general.

While the psychological barriers and problems around eating healthy

are immense, the barriers to absolving ignorance are not.

It is easy to learn about macronutrients, metabolism, and how your

body uses this energy.

Possessing a basic understanding of your bodies need for energy

(calories), water (your body is made of water), and macronutrients is
attainable for anyone.

You need energy to LIVE, you need protein and fat because your body is
made of protein and fat.

You need vitamins because they all serve a specific metabolic purpose.
This includes knowing approximately your basal and active metabolic
rate (how many calories your body goes through daily), understanding
what those two things MEAN, and being able to read a food label and
not be baffled by it.

You probably need carbohydrates because your body runs on glucose.

You need to know that carbohydrates and protein contain 4 calories
per gram, and fat contains 9. You know that your body needs fat for
normal hormone production.
This principle is not so much about knowing how to THINK about these
concepts and be protected in false and too good to be true claims.

To note, I am not suggesting that you NEED to absolutely count calories

and macros to be healthy. The point is in KNOWING HOW THEY WORK,
most of all relative to yourself.

All these things fall under the umbrella of Metabolism. If you know
NONE of these things and every term is mysterious to you, you will be
conned by EVERYTHING that sounds good. Proper nutrition starts with
appropriate education.

2. You Become What You Consume

The ancient Greek physician Galen said let thy food be thy medicine,
and let medicine be thy food. He was right then and he is right today.
Your health is directly, immediately, and extensively affected by
everything you eat.

If you consume a high sugar, highly processed, pro inflammatory diet,

the effects will show up in your blood, your energy levels, your skin,
your digestion. Eating is not a separate act from health, it directs your
health every single day.

Everything you take into you will affect you/create you. So pay attention
on all levels to your environment and your consumption. This goes for
people, words, entertainment, books, ideas, culture, atmosphere, so on
and so forth

You are an adult, I shouldn’t have to tell you to not eat sugar cereal and
that vegetables are good for you. If you are really lost about what is
"healthy' eating, reading this book
Deep Nutrition, by Catherine Shanahan.

3. Listen To Your Biofeedback

Repeat this after me - YOU DO NOT IGNORE WHAT YOUR BODY IS TELLING
YOU.

Working with reality means dealing with reality as it is. If you eat XYZ food,
and every time after eating XYZ food, you are on the toilet cursing god, you
probably shouldn't eat that thing again. If you seem to get acne breakouts
every time you eat cheese, or you have a salad and your digestive tract goes
to hell, pay attention.

People have this very incredible ability to ignore all of their biofeedback, and
then be shocked when they realize they are eating to the detriment of their
health. Don't be that person.

Your primary biofeedback mechanisms to observe are the following:

● Daily energy upon waking, and throughout the day

● Sleep quality and quantity
● Digestion and defecation
● Energy before and after eating
● Hair, skin, nails, and eyes

All the above are affected by your eating.

I cannot glean every example of HOW, but know that they are. If something is
off with any of these, it's reasonable to examine your diet and consider
connections.
4. Focus On Whole Food Intake
We finally get to the actual food. Whole food means unprocessed. I'm
preferential to the adage of Jack Lalanne "if man made it, don't eat it!".

Whole food then refers to foods in their natural form, meat, eggs, fruits,
potatoes, vegetables, rice, etc.

Now you can't start arguing what about bread, pasta, oatmeal, dairy
products, etc, but remember, this is not dogma. If your diet is 90% meat,
greens, tubers, fruit, and some healthy fat sources for cooking, you're likely
going to be very healthy.

Whole foods are pretty much universally more satiating, contain a broader
spectrum of micronutrients, and are more nutritious overall.

Some processed food is understandable, but it is impossible to argue with

the overall superiority of a whole food majority diet.

The most major advantage of eating a whole food is SATIATION. When you
eat foods in their natural form, you become full, as you should be.

Whether its steak, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, it is in fact quit difficult to

OVEREAT whole foods.

You can certainly find ways to do so, you can drown fruit in honey, you could
conceivably eat peanut butter nonstop.

But even then, you are going to get full. Your appetite will decrease as the
volume of food increases. You may be able to gorge at one meal, but not
multiple meals.

Eating a whole foods diet eliminates the complexity surrounding to what eat.
Once you you begin eating this way, you will realize with time that you no
longer need to worry about what you are eating, and eating itself becomes
what it should be, an enjoyable process and something to look forward to,
not fear.
5. Take Advantage of the Thermic
Effect
I recommended you eat a whole food diet. Here is the rough science
behind why that is

What has more calories?

2,000 calories from gummy bears?

Or 2,000 calories from oatmeal?

Is this a trick question?

NO, it is not. The Gummy bears have more calories.

How could this be? Because the gummy bears are far less thermogenic
than the oatmeal. The Thermic Effect of the Oatmeal is way higher. I
shall explain

The Thermic Effect of Food, AKA Dietary Induced Thermogenesis (DIT)

-All calories are NOT created equal. Yes, there are carbs, protein, and
fat. And Yes, supposedly you can measure the calories that they
contain. Protein and carbs have four calories per gram. Fat has nine.

But here is the kicker. The way food science works, calories are
measured by incinerating food in a calorimeter. This is basically an oven
that sets the food on fire.
The heat it gives off as its incinerated, that is the caloric energy. That is
where the calorie measurement comes from.
There is a critical issue with this-Our bodies are NOT calorimeters. We
do not digest food by setting in on fire until its ashes. This is why car
analogies are stupid.

Your body does not absorb "calories". What it does is enzymatically

break down the food you into smaller and smaller pieces, and converts
the very nutrients into a usable form of energy. Usually glucose, but
there are many other nutrients as well (vitamins and micronutrients
have many many uses).

Because of this, calories from one food, say sugar, they are very very
different from another food, say oatmeal, or vegetables, or protein. The
digestion process is dramatically different.

It takes energy to digest food, this energy is given off as heat (thermic
refers to heat). Or said another way=It takes calories to digest calories.
Your body expends energy extracting energy, to say it a third way. This
point must be clear.

With that in mind, you can understand what thermogenic/thermic

effect means. Its a simplified Heat measurement of the energy it takes
to digest a food. Thermogenic foods require more calories to digest.
This essentially offsets the calories that are absorbed.

Thermic Effect Scale

Lets look at some numbers now

Protein-20-35% thermic effect

So this means that whatever calories are in Protein, 30% of that is going
to released as heat during digestion.
Carbohydrates-5-15% thermic effect
The energy cost of digesting carbohydrates is 5-15% of the total calorie
amount

Fat/Lipids-3-15% thermic effect

Fat is the most easily absorbed nutrient, BUT it is also the SLOWEST to
be absorbed. This is not a bad thing, as satiety is way higher. This is why
fatty foods make you full

Things that Fuck this Up

Now here is where it gets a little tricky. How many foods do you eat that
contain only ONE kind of macronutrient?

A steak is protein and fat together.

A piece of fruit is sugar plus fiber.

A bowl of oatmeal is carbs and a whole lotta fiber.

Yogurt is carbs, protein, and fat all mixed together.

The operative point is this-

Whole Foods are FAR more thermogenic than processed foods.

There is a reason that the percentages above are given as a range and
not a specific number.

Going to back to gummy bears example, SUGAR gets digested super

fast. 5% thermic effect, and you are absorbing that quickly with a
massive insulin spike and blood sugar rise.
The oatmeal, that's probably going to be about 20%, plus the digestion
is slower because of all of the fiber. Plus it contains way more water,
plus the caloric density is way lower the gummy bears.

I can give endless examples of this, but I'm going to assume you
understand the point. Whole foods almost always take longer to digest
than processed foods, and their thermic effect is far higher. Processed
by the very DESIGN are meant to digested fast and NOT make you full.
Their thermic effect is minimal

This is how you can have a phenomenon where people don't change
their calorie intake, and only change their food choice, and they LOSE
weight.

Or that the swear they are eating MORE, but somehow bodyfat is going
down. I've had this happen many times with women especially. They
start eating a high protein diet, and I change all their carb sources to
rice and whole grains, and suddenly they are getting full way faster,
they swear they can't eat this much, but somehow their waist is
slimmer and they're losing inches. How could this be???

Well, If you go from a highly processed, low protein diet to a high

protein, low sugar/low carb diet, it's entirely possible for you to get
bodycomposition changes of more muscle and less fat, yet you haven't
changed your energy intake all that much. You changed your insulin
sensitivity, nutrient partitioning, addressed your deficiencies, and
probably improved your hormonal health as well.

If you add in resistance training and cardio on top of that, you also
further increase your metabolic rate and increase the thermic effect of
the food you eat. So now you're adding muscle and burning fat at the
same time.
Additionally, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at
rest and especially while ACTIVE. At rest, a pound of muscle burns
about 6 calories an hour. Not much, but fat only burns 2 calories.
During activity though, muscle burns A LOT more. This is why muscular
people can seemingly eat far more calories than people of similar
bodyweights. Muscle tissue is more costly. Muscle tissue can contribute
up to 25% of your daily metabolic rate, and the more you have, the
more energy it requires.

So a lifestyle with a thermogenic diet of whole foods, with animal

protein, fibrous carbs, and natural fat sources, plus resistance training,
plus cardio, and you train for increased lean body mass and strength,

= a "lean" metabolism and elevated metabolic rate that burns through

calories and is shall we say, disinclined to readily store bodyfat.

If you add in optimized hormones on top of that, then you'll have

something akin to a teenager metabolism.

This is possible for anyone, provided you are willing to change your
eating habits.

5. Eat Healthy Sources Of Protein

I'm making this one simple and simply providing a list. Again, don't read
this and start questioning why I haven't included game meats, alligator,
organs meats, etc. This is general guidance, not a vetting of every food
on earth. If you get your protein from these sources at each meal, your
diet is that much closer to being nutritionally comprehensive:

● Eggs
● Dairy products, but ONLY if you digest dairy well. If not exclude
them (cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, or skim, 1%, or 2% milk)
● Fish
● Chicken
● Beef
● Pork
● Whey Protein
● Legumes (IF they digest well)
6. Eat Healthy Sources Of Fat
Fat is absolutely critical for metabolism and overall health.

Every cell in your body is made from fatty acids, and fat itself is a
precursor to every single sex hormone the body makes. if a diet is too
low in fat, bad things happen health wise.

Low carb and higher fat diets have often proven superior for a
reason-fat is more satiating, more nutritious, and more critical for
overall health.

The fats you eat should NOT be "fake" fats.

Vegetable oil is horrible for health, as all the other types of fake oils
(corn, canola, rapeseed, etc).

Your fat intake should come from the PROTEIN you eat, and from these
sources when cooking

Olive oil (DO NOT cook with olive oil at high temperatures, it has a low
smoke point and turns carcinogenic)

Butter

Ghee

Coconut Oil

Fatty meats

Eggs

Avocados and avocado oil

Walnut oil
7. Eat Healthy Sources Of Carbs,
And Don’t Eat Too Many
Healthy carbs are unprocessed, nutritious carbs that contain no added sugar.
If you do consume sugar, it should be from fruit or honey. I strongly suggest
people limit overall sugar intake this way, as sugar has pretty much proven
itself to be universally lousy for health.

I use the term clean carbs often, and mean it; this list covers clean carbs.

● Vegetables
● Tubers (yams, sweet potatoes, white potatoes)
● Rice, wild rice
● Legumes
● Fruit

What about bread?

I consider this a personal choice. I do not support anti-gluten hysteria, but it

has also been undeniable that many people seem to not digest gluten "well",
although they are able to digest it.

Very often people report that their digestive health improved when the
switched carb sources to rice and potatoes, versus say bread and pasta. So I
leave this upon you to test out yourself and see your response.
8. Keep Overall Sugar Intake Low
I've discussed this in the past, but excess sugar is simply NOT good for
health. It creates addictive eating behavior, it's not good for hormones
or insulin sensitivity. It is bad for your skin, it crashes energy levels, and
it overall contributes to bad eating habits that are very difficult to break
out of.

Attempting to eat zero sugar, or at least very low sugar, it will key you in
on how many foods have sugar added to them, and how addicted
society is to it as a whole. A low sugar diet is almost guaranteed to be a
healthier diet. Recommend intake is 20-30 grams a day. Most
Americans consume over 100 grams, and have no idea they are
consuming that much.

To note, if you are LEAN and MUSCULAR, and you lift weights frequently
(these three generally go together), you can reasonably have higher
sugar intake without detrimental effects.

Your body's nutrient partitioning and lean body mass actually make use
of the sugar better than someone who is overweight and not lean. This
does not mean eat garbage, but in certain circumstances, higher sugar
intake is allowable.
9. Learn To Cook
Learning how to cook is an enormously underrated skill. It teaches you
the science of food, it opens your mind that eating "healthy" does not
mean boring, it's a practice unto itself in learning how to learn, and it
makes you more self-sufficient/self-reliant.

A lack of cooking ability is a major obstacle towards improved eating

habits. When you simply don't know how to make food taste good, it's
easy to default to fast food and processed food.

Cooking opens your world up to infinite possibilities in taste and

satisfaction.

I follow simple principles when cooking:

● Trust your sense of smell, smell is flavor

● Don't think in terms of recipes, think in terms of flavor
● Every recipe is an experiment in flavor creation
● All flavors are a combo of sweet, salty, fatty
● Frying pan, broiler, crock pot-all are easy to use, easy to learn, and
can cook an infinite variety of meals
● When in doubt, watch youtube. There is no excuse to not learning
cookery other than outright refusal

I personally consider Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Chef to be excellent. To note,

this is a massive book that is actually a study of learning how to LEARN.

So don't try to read it linear. Pick and choose chapters at your leisure.
(and FYI, I have no affiliation with the book. Purchase it at your leisure)
10. Practice Consistency
Consistency and Momentum will take care of any missteps.

The consistency you create through sameness, and self-discipline.

It's easy to be disciplined when you are eating same/similar foods all
the time. This does not mean a dry chicken breast with unflavored
broccoli (see learning how to cook).

One of the great misconceptions of eating is that you need massive

variety to your meals. This quickly breaks down in reality, because it's
trying to consume different meals constantly makes planning practically
impossible.

You overbuy food, you don't have time, and you default to prior bad
habits. When your breakfast is same/similar, your lunch is same similar,
your dinner is same/similar, suddenly meal prepping, or cooking in
general, it becomes far easier to plan and execute.

At the same time, when you eat healthy 90% of the time, the one off
incidents of dinners, going out with friends/family, parties, travel, they
become largely irrelevant. You've great a flywheel of habits and rituals,
and its momentum overcomes any temporal slowdown. You simply
resume your routines, and no stress need be experienced beyond that.
11. Stay Well Hydrated
So simple that everyone ignores it.

My go to question when people complain of headaches, dry skin,

feeling light headed, having low energy, bad digestion, prone to binging,
tight muscles and stiff joints; DO YOU DRINK WATER? If the answer is
No, then that's the first thing to start doing.

Water is so essential to health it cannot be overstated, and the vast

majority of people are chronically dehydrated and never address it.

If you are one of those people that can ONLY drink flavored beverages
and hates water, GROW UP. You are not 5 years old for the sake of the
Gods.

A very easy way to spot mild dehydration is to assess your thirst when
eating. If you sit down to eat a meal and need to drink tons of fluid to
get the good down, you're dehydrated.

Ideally, you should be able to eat and NOT be thirsty while eating.
Drinking water while eating dilutes stomach acid and makes digestion
slower. It also demonstrates you don't have enough body water to
handle the food you are consuming.

Stay well hydrated between meals, and this issue will be solved.

My general recommendation is to simply aim for around a gallon of

water daily.

If you fall short, you fall short, but it gives you a target, and you'll find
your personal hydration sweet spot.

You'll also be amazed at how much digestion improves.

12. Measure And Manage
There is a meta question of How Much, or To What Extent, do you need
to measure and weigh and quantify your food intake. This depends,
and the critical question is

"what is your ability to autoregulate?"

Autoregulate means you have internalized, unconscious, competent

control of your eating, your bodyweight (bodyweight is biodynamic by
the way and is SUPPOSED to fluctuate within a narrow range), and your
overall behaviors and attitudes towards food. You don't overeat, you
don't undereat, you don't binge.

When you gorge, you naturally compensate by eating less. When you
are very active, you identify the need to eat more food. You are
attenuated to when you need protein, or carbs, or fat, or salt.

Essentially, your mode of eating is entirely auto piloted, and it WORKS,

without you thinking much about it.

This is often called Intuitive Eating.

The problem though is that most people are wildly dysregulated; they
cannot “intuitively” eat because their intuition tells them to overeat,
they eat unhealthy foods, they cannot differentiate between how
variable their energies levels are from what they eat, and basically they
cannot rely on instinct in any way to eat properly.
What do you if you are one of those people?

Well, then you have to manage and measure. What you lack is
internalized mechanisms and instincts and self-awareness, and the
ONLY way to develop those is to PRACTICE them EXTERNALLY.

You cannot bring out what is not within you. You are going to have to
learn it from the outside In.

This means weighing food, tracking calories and macros, checking

bodyweight daily, following a meal plan, setting hard and fast rules,
learning how to meal prep, and doing these things until you become
unconsciously competent in them and the practices become ritualistic.

This takes time, FYI, and it might be massively upsetting, but it is the
only way I’ve seen psychologically “bad eaters” develop healthy
practices.

Order must be applied to chaos. Some people may NEVER be able to

eat carbohydrates regularly, touch junk food, or indulge much at all. It
could be a long time before they develop a healthy relationship with
food and are able to exert full self control. And that is okay, this process
takes time, and that must be recognized.
13. Habitualize, Then Internalize
Building off the above point, learning systems and developing your own
intuition always starts as a conscious process. It's not going to feel
natural, it's not going to feel right, and it probably will NOT be what you
want to do.

But as I like to say, if your way worked, we would not be having this
discussion in the first place. Your way does not work, because your way
is not a way, it's a haphazard amalgamation of reactions, active
ignorances, and misguidance.

It will likely be very useful to create RULES for yourself. And to follow
them. These are not eternal rules for all time, but they are boundaries
that you create and follow (all boundaries are habits, for what we do is
equally defined by what we do not do).

Rules give you freedom from chaos, and direct your energy to where
it's useful. Rules becomes habits unto themselves when they are
followed long enough.

As you develop rules, habits, and self-discipline thereof, your nature will
begin to change. These things will gradually become a part of your
being, until you longer feel like a pretender doing them.

You are what you practice, and your beliefs will come to align with that.
The dissonance is a necessary stage in the experience.

This also takes time, FYI.

14. Be Adaptable At All Times
I say follow rules, but do not be broken when you break your rules. Far
too often, stricture is mistaken for structure, and people utterly break
down when their diet cannot be adhered to.

This ism what I call “building from sand and fog”. Its the illusion of
structure that dissipates and is shifted easily.

Not being able to follow your usual way of eating is not grounds for
distress. If a birthday party can destroy your whole mode of eating,
your mode of eating was and is broken from the beginning.

I eat fast food constantly when I travel. That does not mean I get the
soda and fries that would normally come with it though. I stay very well
hydrated. I make a point to eat a big breakfast if nothing else so I have
energy for my day. I refrain from fried foods generally. And if it happens
that I'm a dinner and the social dynamic is to indulge, I indulge.

AND I DO NOT CARE, BECAUSE IT DOES NOT ULTIMATELY MATTER.

I can fast the next day if I need to. I can have only one meal a day for a
few days if I honestly gained weight and noticed it. Adaptability and
momentum complement each other. I have many tools at my disposal
to keep myself healthy, and unless I completely disregard my health
and quit caring about how I live, it's largely impossible for me to
become fat.
And this is not because I'm an exceptional person. I know this is an
achievable state for anyone that is physically fit, trains hard, and
practices “food sense” as part of their daily life.

15. Cut Fat Fast And Furious

“Keep the Goal the Goal”

~Dan John~

I read this quote years ago, and its always stuck with me. One of the
biggest reasons people fail to lose bodyfat is because they do not
legitimately take the CORRECT action to lose fat.

Fat loss is not an “Ill TRY” process. Fundamentally it IS simple math, and
if you eat in a true deficit, and you maintain this deficit for weeks and
months,

You WILL lose fat. That is what will happen.

Do not misinterpret this and think it means follow a crash diet. Both
women and men are notorious for doing stupid things: eating only
1200 calories, not consuming enough protein, not counting calories at
all, not tracking what they are eating...the list goes on.

There are two things that need to be in place to cut bodyfat

1. A calorie deficit, typically started at 500 below your current

maintenance
 2. Adequate protein intake, at least 1 gram per lb bodyweight, and
higher than that if you plan on dieting to get to true single digit
bodyfat

Cutting is predicated on you being:

● Metabolically Healthy
● Being lean with developed lean body mass
● training correctly and eating healthily

When you are in this state, you can do dramatic cuts and use strategies
and tactics that another person would otherwise crash and burn on.

Following an intermittent fasting approach, going zero carb and doing

HIIT cardio, using high volume workouts and specific nutrient timing,
you've got fun things to try, and you've the mental stability to handle
the hunger and the discipline.

Short cuts in the 4-8 week range such as these can strip fat off, you can
resume a maintenance schedule, and it's a way to stay lean year
around with long term diets.

Done year over year, you can GRADUALLY become leaner with time,
while still building muscle mass.

Again, you must be already HEALTHY to do this. This is not a suggested

approach otherwise.

You can play a short game finite approach because your infinite game
approach is already in place.

16. But Diet Slow And Serious

This is most people.

This means that you approach dieting on a LONG term continuum. It

goes something like this (adapted from the Mike Israetel model)

● You set up a reasonable diet that you can adhere to

● You aim for 1-2 lbs fat loss a week
● You do not do anything dramatic to make this go faster at all
● You adjust only when necessary
● You do this for 2-4 months
● You then change back to maintenance for 1-2 months
● You repeat as many times as necessary
● If you are VERY overweight, you can diet for longer periods of
time, with potentially shorter breaks in-between

This is not sexy, but it works. And relative to your current state of living,
it's probably going to be a dramatic overhaul and a long learning curve
regardless.

17. Stay Lean Always

Assuming you have reached a healthy bodycomp, you want to always
maintain this from here on out. If you are a man, this means not letting
BF% rise above 15%. For women, keep it no higher than 25%.

The reasons for this are clear: your overall hormonal health and insulin
sensitivity both begin to be negatively affected when you accumulate
excess fat about this level. There is no good reason to gain excess
bodyfat, fat is fatal as I like to say.

Staying lean does not mean being "ripped", it means maintaining the
lifestyle that supports this state of health.
18. Recognize When Diets Sound
Too Good To Be True
There is no magic diet that is effortless, painless, requires you to give
up nothing, fixes your childhood abandonment issues, absolves you of
your emotional void of not having had sex, intimacy in years, you using
food as medication, you ignoring your body and wanting a quick fix, you
not exercising, your parents not loving you enough, you refusing to
change anything except take pills, you being obese, and so on and so
forth.

And being blunt, you probably need therapy if food is deeply rooted for
you and leads to tears, shame, and guilt.

So no, whatever the diet is not going to fix all the above. EVER.

19. If I Had To Give An Answer, Low

Carb Diets And Fasting Work Best
For All Around Health
The health benefits of low carb, high fat, moderate protein dieting are
massive. Easy to follow, very nutritious, and the ONLY approach I've
seen work long term with obese people who achieved permanent fat
loss

Intermittent Fasting is extremely powerful as well; restores insulin

sensitivity, mobilizes fat stores, maximizes the effects of exercise,
increases growth hormones, increases energy.
I am not the first person to key in on this at all. A well known obesity
specialist, Dr. Jason Fung, uses a fasting + low carb diet approach with
his patients very successfully.

Additionally, most human beings today are simply NOT that active. You
don't need to eat much in the way of carbs, and you certainly don't
need to eat all day.

20. Control Your Emotions

I hate the idea that “food is fuel” because it's not true. People BOND
over food, food is love, food is affection, food is meditation, food is
something to come together. Food represents more than “gasoline” for
the body. Your body is not a car.

Controlling your emotions when you eat is often half the battle to
controlling WHAT you eat.

For many many people, food and stress are intricately tied. People
“stress eat” to make themselves feel better, and then feel worse about
the eating.

The common recommendation to this is familiar to anyone that has

studied habit formation

1. Acknowledge your craving

2. Identify the TRIGGER for the craving.

3. Do something else to not satisfy the craving, ie, take a walk, eat a
healthier food, stop and wait for the craving to pass, drink water, etc
etc.
The main focus in breaking bad habits is interrupting them, but I advise
taking this a step further

WHY are you stressed?

Diet is the metaphor for consumption. What do you take into yourself?
What is distressing you?

Attaching negative emotions with food, the problem is not just the food,
it's the source of the emotional distress.

Controlling your emotions is not an admonition that you need to STOP

“feeling” but rather a call to action; who is in control of your mental
state? What is stressing you so much to lead you to eat? Have you
attempted to solve these sources and stress and eliminate them?

The best way to handle stress is to eliminate it entirely.

If you have self-limiting beliefs associated with food, and view it as

punishment and reward, and attach moral weight to eating “good” and
eating “bad”, you need to break down these premises and realize you
are creating your own obstacles.

This is all easier said than done, and it takes time no doubt, but the
establishment of eating “healthy” requires it. If you do not examine
your emotional state and address the roots of your stress and mental
dissonance, you’ll never be in control of yourself.

21. Diet Is A Continuum

Final point, and hopefully this has been made clear

-learning how to eat is learning about yourself and your needs, and
your eating is a master metaphor for what you consume in your life as
a whole.

Fixing your eating improves many others area of your life for this
reason; you change what you intake from reality at large.
Who Is Alexander J.A. Cortes?
My name is Alexander Juan Antonio Cortes. I am a writer, dancer, personal
trainer.. I have an obsession with the art and science of self-actualization. I
believe that everything in the body and mind can be trained to be better,
faster, stronger.

Here’s my website: h
​ ttps://cortes.site/

Follow me on Twitter: @
​ AJA_Cortes

Follow me on Instagram: A
​ JA_Cortes

Learn about my other training programs​.