Top 10 Foods I Eat In A Week As A Former Olympian & Doctor

Hello Health Champions. Today I'm going to  talk about the top 10 foods that I eat in  

a week but more importantly I will also  talk about why this may or may not be a  

good way for you to eat as well. First  of all I usually eat anywhere from one  

to three meals a day and when I eat three  meals that's probably only about one day  

a week but when I do I would put those meals  probably within an 8 to 12 hour feeding window  

most of the time I will eat two meals per day  and I'll probably do that about five days in a  

week and then I'll fit the meals into a six to  ten hour window so I don't have a set schedule  

or a fixed pattern it just whatever works around  my lifestyle and probably about one day a week  

I'll only have one meal so it just depends on how  the day goes and what I have time for my typical  

breakfast is to not have breakfast that early  in the morning I'll probably only have a black  

coffee occasionally I'll have a latte I'll do my  espresso and I'll add some raw milk to it and some  

of you following a ketogenic diet might react  a little bit to the milk because that milk has  

about six grams of carbs which is all a sugar  called lactose so if you're strictly working  

toward a ketogenic diet then you probably want to  skip the milk for for me I'm not really pursuing  

a ketogenic diet a low carb in general Plus I'm  very insulin sensitive so six grams of carbs the  

lactose is going to be absorbed very slowly it has  no fructose in it and the protein and the fat in  

the milk is going to buffer the absorption so for  me my blood sugar still stays very stable but if  

that's not the case for you then you need to check  that and see if that would be a good idea for you  

when you make food choices to either maintain  or to restore Health it helps to understand how  

insulin sensitive you are so my glucose typically  is a fasting level about 80. and my insulin level  

is typically around three My fasting insulin so  then you can take those you can multiply them you  

multiply the glucose by the insulin and you divide  by four or five then you come up with a constant  

called HOMA-IR it's a measuring tool stands for  homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance  

my number here is 0.6 and typically a really  good number is around one so one is very insulin  

sensitive a good range is anywhere from 0.5 to  1.5 so I'm kind of in the range where it's still  

really good but it's almost too insulin sensitive  so I can use a little bit more carbohydrate than  

most people so let's talk a little bit about  carbohydrates We have basically two camps where  

one Camp says that they're absolutely necessary  you can't live without carbohydrates they're  

your primary fuel they're your main source of  energy etc. and then another camp that says  

carbohydrates are evil you should never have  any and I think that this group is a little  

bit closer to the truth that they're more evil  than they're necessary but you don't have to pick  

either extreme necessarily so are they necessary  no carbohydrates are not necessary for humans but  

that doesn't mean you have to eat zero it doesn't  mean everyone is intolerant to carbohydrate  

however even though you with your human cells  don't really require carbohydrates because you  

can get a few percent of glucose derived from the  glycerol in fat that you eat and proteins can also  

be converted into glucose but your microbiome  which is one of the pillars of your health they  

do need some carbohydrate the good news is they  don't need sugar they don't need white bread they  

primarily live off a form of carbohydrates that  you can't digest so if you eat vegetables you eat  

leafy greens you eat things with a lot of fiber  then you can keep your net carbs really low and  

still provide a lot of food for your microbiome  and what makes carbohydrates evil for some people  

is depending on if your carbohydrate tolerant or  carbohydrates intolerant just like someone who's  

severely allergic to peanuts who is intolerant to  peanut that makes peanuts the absolute worst Food  

on the planet for that person and by the same  token if you're carbohydrate intolerant then  

that becomes a bad food for you but it's all dose  dependent let's talk about the macros for someone  

who is carbohydrate tolerant like myself so I  typically in terms of carbs and protein and fat  

I typically will eat about 50 grams of carbs in a  day I'll eat somewhere around 125 grams of protein  

and about 200 grams of fat I I don't measure these  every day but I've done enough measuring to know  

that based on my food choices this is roughly  where I end up and then in terms of percentage  

of calories I get somewhere around eight percent  of my calories from carbohydrate I get somewhere  

around 20 percent from protein and the rest which  would be a little over 70 percent from fat so for  

someone like myself who has a home IR of about 0.5  to 1.5 you can eat a little bit more carbohydrates  

than the typical ketogenic or really low carb  diet so depending on your activity level I would  

say it's probably safe to go up to about 100 125  grams of carbs per day net carbs and that would  

put you at about 20 percent of your calories from  carbohydrate but that's again if you're a little  

bit more active and I think it's perfectly fine  for you to be there you don't have to but you  

could and the primary danger or drawback that  I see with that and again this doesn't apply to  

everybody but for some people is that if you sort  of get the taste for it you get more fluctuating  

blood glucose and if you get the taste for  carbs then that tends to increase your cravings  

so I notice if I eat a little bit more carbs like  just happened over the holidays here then I'll  

have a tendency to crave more carbs and to have  to eat more frequently but because of my stability  

all I have to do is go one to two days and cut  them out and and Cravings are gone again but  

if your carbohydrate intolerant if you are insulin  resistant then those numbers are probably a little  

bit too high a little too much carbohydrate for  you so let's say that you measure and your Homa IR  

is over four which is moderately insulin resistant  it's still not crazy or one of the worst but then  

I would think you probably want to keep your  carbohydrates consistently under about 50 grams  

per day and this is also going to vary depending  on your size and age and activity level of course  

but just a rough Ballpark and then because it's  good to change things up a little bit once in a  

while I would say occasionally like one day a week  or so you might go up a little bit higher just to  

shake things up a bit and then you could go up to  maybe 75 grams a day but what's ultimately going  

to decide is are you getting the results you're  looking for but now let's say that you're even  

more insulin resistant that your home IR is over  eight which is not that unusual because that's  

pretty typical type 2 diabetes then you probably  want to restrict carbohydrates even more and eat  

even fewer meals maybe one or two and hardly  ever three then you keep your carbs under 10  

to 30 grams per day and this is for most people  going to put you in ketosis which allows you to  

reverse insulin faster but also the ketones are  powerful anti-inflammatory signaling molecule and  

type 2 diabetes very frequently is associated with  a low-grade chronic inflammation that the ketones  

are going to help you reverse but just like the  other cases it's probably good to shake things  

up a bit once in a while the body likes to adapt  so if we get up to 50 carbs per day occasionally  

then that keeps the body on its toes so to speak  but still you don't want those carbohydrates to be  

a bad quality they don't use any processed foods  avoid grains etc. but an occasional sweet potato  

or a potato or some vegetables that are a little  bit more starchy would be a good idea so I'm not  

trying to say at all that these would be exact  numbers or that they would apply to everybody  

or that this is the way it is these are rough  estimates and guidelines based on my experience  

and my opinion but in the end the final say is  whatever ever works whatever gets the result  

so if your goal is weight loss then you need to  find a combination that works for you that creates  

that weight loss and keeps it coming if you are  a diabetic or if you're pre-diabetic and you're  

trying to improve your numbers on blood work then  you have to track those numbers and understand  

what they mean and then find the numbers and the  frequency and the combination that gets you where  

you want to go and then when I actually go to have  a real meal then that's going to depend on what my  

day looks like if I'm going to work if I'm going  away to leave the house then I might actually eat  

breakfast at eight in the morning because it might  be six o'clock at night before I have another one  

but if I stick around the house I probably won't  have anything to eat until 12 or 1 pm and a couple  

of examples I like to eat are things like yogurt  I eat full fat plain yogurt I like one from Trader  

Joe's because it's the most sour that I can find  if it's sour that means the bacteria have consumed  

some of the sugar in the yogurt but it also means  that there's more bacteria and that's one of the  

benefits of the yogurt I also like to mix in  some sour cream because I like it a little bit  

richer I'll probably use about a third sour cream  and two-thirds yogurt sometimes but not always I  

sweeten with a bit of stevia and occasionally I'll  put some berries in there as well and on top of  

the yogurt I put a mix of ground flax and chia I  call it chillax and if you grind it ahead of time  

and mix it but keep it in a cold freezer it will  keep for many months I've had it up to a year and  

as long as you keep it really cold and away from  oxygen then it's going to keep just fine I also  

like to add a little bit of pecans or pumpkin  seeds they give a nice Crunch and a little bit  

more satiety to that meal an alternative to the  yogurt if I have a little more time to cook would  

be some eggs and sausage or bacon sometimes I just  soft boiler eggs and eat a half a dozen if I have  

sausage or bacon I'll probably have three or four  pan fried easy over eggs and I like to have some  

sort of vegetable with it so maybe some cabbage  maybe some bell pepper or an avocado something  

that's super yummy that I'll have once in a blue  moon a couple of times a year I'll buy a few of  

them a few times a year or plantains and you cut  them up you fry them in a pan with some butter  

salt and pepper and have them with your eggs and  bacon and it's Heavenly but even though I don't  

really have a problem processing carbohydrates  they quickly grow on me and they carry over and  

give me cravings for other things and all of a  sudden I want more sweets and more more food and  

so forth so very very rarely would I put something  like that in and if your insulin resistant if you  

carbohydrate intolerant then I would cut that out  altogether an example for dinner would be anytime  

between 4 and 9 pm I try to keep it earlier  but depending on the day and whenever I can  

get home and get around to it and finish cooking  it might be closer to nine but earlier I believe  

is better and very often I'll have a salad with  grilled chicken or grilled steak for the leafy  

greens my go-to's are spring mix lettuce romaine  and arugula and just because it keeps a little  

longer my staple is usually Romaine it keeps  a week or even two whereas the spring makes  

arugula tend to go bad pretty quick I'll also mix  in some sliced tomatoes and avocado I'll put in  

some onion and bell pepper sometime some pumpkin  seeds and always plenty of extra virgin olive oil  

and vinegar I season it with salt and pepper and  I forgot to put that on the list but I also like  

to put on some goat cheese it does really well on  a salad like this another dinner in the evening  

could be something like fish with vegetables  and my favorite fish are salmon Cod flounder  

tuna grouper and mahi mahi and the reason is that  they're tasty but they're basically when I can  

find Frozen locally and it's widely available  the vegetables would be things like broccoli  

cauliflower brussels sprouts and I'd like to keep  the broccoli and cauliflower fresh when I can I do  

keep some frozen for backup but the broccoli  keeps pretty well so usually I do that fresh  

it can keep over a week often and I'll serve that  with generous amount of melted butter or Holland a  

sauce which is based on egg yolks and butter it's  super yummy if you haven't had it look it up it  

takes a little while to figure out exactly how to  make it but once you got it it's super easy and so  

worth it and often I serve that with some Capers  for that contrast flavor and some hard-boiled eggs  

if you take the hard-boiled eggs and you put them  in a slicer and you turn them three times you get  

tiny little cubes that are so super yummy with  that with this combination and the melted butter  

quite often I'll have a pizza but I do make it  myself and I start off with a gluten-free tortilla  

they're usually low carb but I try to find things  that have natural ingredients not a lot of fake  

protein powder and soy things to keep it low carb  but make it kind of weird and then I put some  

tomato paste on there I sliced generous amount of  tomatoes and mushrooms I put lots of vegetables  

like onion onion and bell pepper on there then I  also have plenty of meat like ham and bacon bits  

and pepperoni I top it off with some jalapenos and  plenty of shredded cheddar cheese and I usually  

serve that with a salad called a pizza salad  and you can look it up online it's a recipe for  

Swedish Pizza salad it's essentially a version of  coleslaw but it's much healthier than that because  

all it is is cabbage thinly sliced and vinegar  you add some spices like basil oregano salt and  

pepper then you drizzle extra virgin olive oil  and some recipes though call for a little bit  

of sugar which you don't want to put in there  you want to put maybe a little bit of stevia or  

erythritol or something but this is not something  that's supposed to be sweet so if you do it's just  

a tiny tiny sprinkle and it's super yummy and goes  perfect with a pizza dinner could also be fajitas  

and they will have everything except the wrapper  the tortilla so I start off with skirt steak I  

put it on a grill that is super hot I put them  on like one one and a half minute per side and  

then I serve them with onion bell pepper the pan  fried version I make plenty of guacamole and this  

would be typically using just avocados and onion  cilantro garlic and lime plus some salt and pepper  

and very rarely I'll also add some refried beans  but they really don't need that and the wrapper  

that's more of a hand eating finger food thing  because there's nothing in here that you're going  

to miss any flavor at all super delicious when I  make chicken wings I'll typically do them in the  

oven or in an air fryer so with an air fryer  you're more limited on space but it's faster  

and they get a little crispier in the oven they  get more tender and more thoroughly cooked plus  

I think the spices kind of cook in a little bit  better but of course it takes longer for spices  

I start off with a barbecue spice called butter up  it's very versatile and you know like they say a  

little Butt Rub makes everything better but then I  make sure to add lots of hot sauce like wing sauce  

Sriracha lemon Curry any spice you like you really  can't go wrong just dousing These Wings with  

spices I'll serve with some celery and bell pepper  and with plenty of guacamole so the guacamole is  

kind of like a dip both for the wings and for the  vegetables when it's a little more festive I like  

to do a steak dinner and my favorite cuts for a  good steak would be a fillet or a rib eye and if  

it's a little more festive here's where I might  increase the carbs a little bit more as you can  

see most of the samples are very low carb carbs  but here we add in some potatoes and I'll do those  

in the oven with lots of garlic and butter salt  and pepper and I'm kind of a sauce guy so I like  

Rich sauces with lots and lots of flavor that's  kind of what makes the meal I think one of my  

favorites for steak is béarnaise sauce you can  look up those recipes and another one is border  

lay sauce which is a red wine reduction sauce also  if you have access to crème fraiche then that sort  

of makes its own sauce you just kind of clean out  the frying pan if you use something like stainless  

steel it doesn't work with non-stick you need to  have something that sticks you rinse it out with  

some cognac or some water and then you just put  in some green peppercorns and this crème fraiche  

and it makes an incredible sauce and a really  nice side dish to add some green to this that's  

a little bit Tart Is Tabouleh which is a parsley  salad and the original recipe for tabbouleh has  

bulgur wheat in it but I put pecan nuts chopped  pecans instead so you basically use parsley  

chopped onion chopped lime and chopped nuts you  drizzle some olive oil salt and pepper and it's  

super yummy it's a great side dish I probably  eat two three times a week and I use quite a few  

spices and condiments things like salt and pepper  the butter up that I talked about Curry paprika  

powder soy sauce basil oregano green peppercorns  so they kind of look like black pepper but they're  

unripe and they're wonderfully aromatic you can  find them in a lot of farmers markets and and  

places that have a lot of spices I recommend you  try them they're incredible I use a lot of things  

like hot sauce and Sriracha I like those on eggs  for example and in sauces I like the Capers like  

I mentioned with fish I like olives pickles  jalapenos and for hamburgers without a bun of  

course would be mustard and ketchup so some of you  now might say that well some of these things are  

going to have sugar in them so if you look at the  ingredient labeled then there'll be some sugar but  

there are two things you need to realize first of  all you look for the version that has less sugar  

and you can often find these without any sugar but  even if they do have sugar on the label if you eat  

something like Sriracha you're gonna eat maybe one  or two or maybe if you're like a spice freak you  

might eat three teaspoons and the amount of sugar  in that is negligible even for a diabetic that is  

so little sugar and it's not the primary flavor  that it's not really going to trigger anything  

so realize that it's dose dependent and here's  a list of some other miscellaneous stuff so like  

the gluten-free tortilla I use Stevia for a lot of  things I use erythritol for some things so Stevia  

is the better sweetener erythritol is totally okay  as long as you don't overdo it if I want to have  

a treat one of my favorites would be a keto ice  cream there's some good brands out there they use  

either erythritol or allulose and I don't see any  huge harm in it unless you're super sensitive to  

Dairy this is not the best form of dairy because  it is pasteurized so I try to keep it to a minimum  

and also you don't want to overdo it especially  if it tends to give you those sweet Cravings if  

you can't control it use it once in a while but  if it gives you Cravings then maybe better avoid  

it and I do also indulge in some nice red wine on  occasion and some whiskey and very rarely a beer  

and the beer is because it has gluten it's  made from grain and it does have some extra  

carbohydrates so again if you're insulin resistant  you probably want to cut out the beer entirely if  

you're going to have some alcohol once in a while  then stick with the whiskey or distilled liquor  

because it has the fewest carbohydrates it's the  least damaged so to speak and also I think you  

want to limit the drinks to maybe seven or eight  or ten per week and if you're a woman you want to  

do slightly less than that so if you really enjoy  these then I think it's okay in moderation if you  

don't then absolutely no reason to start because  it's not like it's beneficial for anything so  

that's quite a long list now let's try to narrow  down the top ten so I'm not going to read all  

these because we've gone through them you can make  notes on your own but top 10 would definitely for  

me include steak it would include chicken and  ground beef also on my top list that I would  

eat almost every week for sure would be included  eggs butter and extra virgin olive oil and also  

very frequent are yogurt and sour cream so I guess  that's adding up pretty quickly we're already up  

to eight and then we're on to vegetables fruits  and berries and this list is even longer so we're  

going to split it in two and some of the things  that have to be on there are romaine and avocado  

and also broccoli cauliflower and bell pepper  so that already puts us at 13 I guess my top 10  

list is overflowing a little bit but that's okay  and here's part two of the vegetables fruits and  

berries so there we would include things like  tomato onion and parsley I eat all the time and  

some of these I don't like garlic I eat relatively  small amounts even if I eat 10 cloves in a week  

that's still not really enough to be a substantial  food source but parsley I do eat so much that I  

will put it as one of the ingredients I do eat  potato not every week but on a regular basis and  

also I put lime in virtually everything I don't  eat a ton of berries but when I have yogurt for  

example I'll have a package where they mix these  three berries so I kind of count them as one item  

and I do have that not a lot but I do have it a  couple of three times a week probably so there are  

19 of the top 10 foods which leaves nuts and seeds  and here we have pecans walnuts and Macadamia on  

the nuts and my favorite seeds are flaxseed chia  seed and pumpkin seed and out of the nuts pecan  

bonds are the ones that I do eat the most they are  so easy to work with they're so tasty you can put  

them on anything I love the other ones as well but  I don't use them as often and all of these seeds  

the flaxseed chia seed and pumpkin seed because I  put them in the yogurt several times a week then  

that would definitely have to be on that list so  those are my my favorite 23 Foods on my top 10  

lists and if you're one of those people who just  feel outraged that a top 10 food list has anything  

else than 10 on there then there's a comment  section down below where you can just vent and let  

it all out and if you want to learn more about how  to evaluate yourself how to monitor how to decide  

where you are in terms of insulin resistance and  carbohydrate intolerance I've created a blood  

work course because how can you take action how  can you know what to do if you don't know where  

you are and the problem is that even if you have  blood work taken every year or even twice a year  

most doctors who order the blood Works they don't  know how to read it they don't know what it says  

when they get the information back and they very  often don't really measure the things that matter  

if they only measure glucose and A1C they're  only finding the problem after it's a problem  

they can't prevent it because the signs showed up  10 15 20 years earlier if you know what to look  

for and just a couple of markers that I've never  seen ordered on any outside blood work even one  

percent of the time are things like insulin and a  complete cholesterol profile an NMR that measures  

the particle count and the particle sizes to truly  evaluate if the cholesterol is bad or not it goes  

so far beyond just high cholesterol and LDL and  HDL because you can only truly take control if  

you understand what's going on and if you get  a baseline you change some things and you know  

how to evaluate where you end up then you know if  you truly made progress I'll put a link down below  

if you want to learn more. If you enjoyed this  video you're going to to love that one. And if  

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