We all go through it: We start the offseason and we pound meal after meal.  We start growing and we get stronger, so we keep it going, pounding meal after meal after meal and then it hits you.  The dreaded appetite killer; none of us know what it is, but all of a sudden the meals stop going down and its taking 30 minutes just to get through some chicken and rice. I hate that shit.

Well I’m going to give you guys the solution that’s helped me throughout my career and one I’m implementing right now.  I know this is going to sound obvious, but the answer is… Learn how to cook!  I’m not a great cook, but in my arsenal I have a good handful of recipes I really like and when I get sick of eating I start rotating the meals.

A couple of weeks ago, I gave you guys my current diet (click here to check it out).  I’ve been doing that for about 4 weeks now and it’s a lot of food for me, so the time has come to make some changes or I’m going to start missing meals.  That’s not an option this year. 

The meal options aren’t groundbreaking or major.  I try to keep my programs as simple as possible and I don’t want to change anything Dennis James (my coach) is trying to achieve with my physique so here it is:

  • 1. Quinoa – Rice is awesome and one of my favorite carb sources and even though I’m eating sushi rice I’m still getting sick of it.  So I switched to Quinoa.  Quinoa seems to digest fast for me so it’s a great substitute because it won’t hold me back from getting in all the calories.
  • 2. Vegetables – They always make everything easier to eat.  Meals are not as dry, have more flavor and to top it all off, they are important to help keep things digesting properly. Instead of plain quinoa, I’ve started waking up and making a big quinoa salad that I can eat all day (recipe below).
  • 3. Turkey – I’ve been eating ground beef once a day with my brown rice pasta and it tastes good, but it’s just too fatty for me and I’m not digesting it right.  Since I like the ground meat idea with my pasta, I’ll keep it and just switch to ground turkey.  Make sure you check the package; some of them actually say 20% meat protein.  You don’t want that crap, look for some better quality stuff, maybe at higher end grocery stores or your local butcher.
  • 4. Chicken – I’ve been BBQ’n it for the last month and its getting old.  So I went back to frying it in the frying pan with Coconut oil.  Cut into cubes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, done.  Delicious.

Killer Quinoa

2 Cups Organic Quinoa – cook in rice cooker, after its done dump in a large bowl and add:

  • [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”wysiwyg”,”fid”:”427446″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image media-image-right”,”style”:”width: 275px; height: 206px; margin: 4px; float: right;”,”title”:””,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”}}]]½ – 1 Cup Olive Oil – amount depends on your macros
  • Juice from 1 Lemon
  • ½ Cup White Vinegar
  • 6 Mini Cucumbers
  • 3 Tomatoes
  • ½ Onion
  • Small Bunch Parsley – chopped fine
  • 2tbsp Sea Salt
  • 1tbsp Oregano
  • Pinch Black Pepper

As you guys can see there isn’t anything there that’s life changing or over the top.  For those of you who get caught doing the same shit all the time and force-feeding, these are a few options for you that won’t ruin your game.