Dieting is tough – and you know what makes it harder? Being next to broke.  A buddy of mine called me and asked me if knew how to eating well on a budget, and it turns out, I only know a little bit about nutrition but I know loads about being broke.

Get Your Mind Right

The first thing you need to do about eating like a fighter (on a budget) is leave the fear-based scavenger mindsets behind.  You have abandon some of the comforts of emotional eating and eating for pleasure. Logic must prevail.

You know the urge right after you get satisfied at dinner, but there is a little bit left on the plate? Why not finish it off? You don’t want it to go to waste, right? Aren’t you poor?  That’s the scarcity mindset.  Free samples at Costco or the boss is bringing in some fatty lunch for the crew?  Should you pass up a food source, you’re light in the cash department, right? That’s the scavenger mindset. Someone offers you a cupcake and you can’t say no?  You’re afraid someone won’t like you if you don’t eat a cookie?  That’s probably just lack of will power or you can’t stand up to social pressures – either way, grow a pair.

Anyway you slice it, you have to design a plan of attack for eating and stick to it. You can’t let these weird emotions in to wreck the course of your diet-ship. Again, you must steel your mind and kick out emotional eating.

Remember Classical Dieting

What I mean by “classical dieting” is the nuts and bolts of a disciplined, thought out eating plan.  Just because you’re on a budget doesn’t mean you can forget the basics. You should keep a food journal, shop with lists that come directly from your meal plans. If you’re trying to lose weight, you should be making sure you’re in a calorie deficit when you take into account your activity level; likewise, putting on weight requires that you are giving your self some surplus.

These kind of things are the basics of a sound  nutrition plan. I don’t want to spend much time developing them; rather, I want to discuss how to make it work as a pauper.

Be Prepared

Not only is the Boy Scout’s motto, it should be yours too.

• Prepare many meals ahead of time. Divvy out the goods and package them up for a no-brainer eating experience later.
• Prepare to buy, and cook, in bulk. However, don’t buy more than you can eat and store before it goes bad.  Having a meal-plan centered shopping list helps this out – you know when you’ll next be having X or Y food.
• Prepare to spend money on food storage devices.  You need to be able to save and store the grub you produce.  If you don’t have the space to store it, it’s going to get thrown out or go bad.  You don’t have a deep chest freezer? Enough Tupperware? If your place of employment doesn’t have a fridge – you’ll need a lunchbox cooler. Plan for that stuff in your budget.
• Prepare your fridge for the food you’ll be buying. You probably don’t think about it, but your fridge is club where all your foods have their pre-party (before they party in your mouth).  Bouncers are employed at regular clubs for a variety of reasons;  one of which is to control overcrowding.  Overcrowding can cause foods to spoil – creating uneven cooling, sometimes freezing stuff.  Remove stuff that doesn’t need to be in there (vinegars, onions, potatoes). I really can’t extend the metaphor to all I need to say – but you get the idea.
• Prep snacks/emergency meal replacements.  Maybe you’ll forget to bring lunch or the school bully steals it – you want a back up option that doesn’t force you to eat out.
• Prepare a list of things you can eat at the restaurants you’re most likely to visit.  When you do eventually go out to eat, you’ll be able to keep in line with your diet and budget.
• Be prepared to buy things you’re not crazy about;  foods that are in season are generally cheaper, and wait to buy stuff you really like until its on sale or in season and then save it in your deep freezer.
• Be prepared to get your hands dirty – buying foods in their raw, least unprocessed states is much cheaper.  I’ll take the skin off my own chicken breasts for $1/lb less, or stir in fruit to my yogurt and partition it off in a small container for single servings.

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Time = Money

A lot of “dieting on a budget” resources don’t account for the money value of time.  Cooking at home and buying foods like a shrewd business man makes sense on the balance sheet, but if you’ve ever gone to Costco you know that something that saves you cash can become an spirit-crushing ordeal.

Consider vegetable chopping; it can be pretty time intensive for you to make all the carrot sticks you’ll need for snacks for the next decade (or whatever).  My solution?  Cut corners!  or don’t, I mean.  Save chopping up a green bell pepper – just wash it and eat it when you have lunch at work.  Its not hard to eat it like an apple.  Same goes with celery, apples, etc.  If you must chop, ask yourself, “Can I reasonable do this at work without undue burden?” I do partial prep on several meals and then construct them at lunch.

When selecting recipes that fill out your daily nutrition needs, choose the ones with the least time-intensive preparation.

Behold, the crock-pot

The crock-pot deserves it own section, nay, its own post! They are glorious;  you get to save time and money.  Once you figure out how to make crock-pot meals, it becomes super-easy to do.

You can probably find everything you need, knowledge-wise, either on the net for free or at your (gasp) public library. Here are a few suggestions:

Make it fast, cook it slow ; Everything Healthy, slow cooker cookbook ; 7 Dollar a meal, slow cooker cookbook

The great thing about crock-pot dishes is they tend to be a good match for nutrition and budget.  Veggies, dried legumes, cheap cuts of protein, little mess, no or little cooking fats needed, easy to use and clean, non-time intensive.

Replace Wisely

• Ground turkey replaces ground beef.  Generally cheaper and better for you.
• Plain low-fat yogurt replaces sour cream and mayo.  Combined with stuff like balsamic vinegar, it replaces fattier salad dressings.  The plain variety is much more versatile than it’s pre-flavored brethern (or sisteren? who knows).
• Buy the plainer, larger version of pretty much anything. Individual servings of yogurt, oatmeal packets, etc.
• Corn tortillas replace flour;  less fat and calories, more fiber.
• Gonna have a candy bar?  At least pick the lesser of the evils. York peppermint patties, 3 Musketeer mint, dark chocolate.
• Water replaces (name virtually any beverage here).
• Parsley, cilantro, and cumber salad replaces the more expensive, less nutritious bag mixes.  At least where I shop, the parsley/cilantro bunches and cumbers are 50 cents a unit.  Plus, these greens last longer in the fridge before going bad. And even one MORE plus;  salads made from the parsley type green matter can be stored with the dressing on them without wilting. So its a boon all the way around.
• Unsweetened soymilk can replace regular milk;  one of the main benefits of it is that you can store it without refrigeration. Don’t get me wrong, I think the cows milk (casein) superior, but soymilk has its place. IMO, I don’t think it should be a main source of your protein intake – liquid or the protein powder – but again, its got is place.

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The Old Standbys

• Two excellent, cheap sources of protein are eggs and  low fat cottage cheese. Boiled eggs are super portable, making them an easy snack or part.
• Oatmeal – the less instant, the better. And don’t goober it up with sugars, syrups, cream, etc.  For many on nutrition plans, oatmeal is their go-to carb.  Its slow burning nature, protein content, and fiber (soluble and insoluble) make it one a hard carbohydrate to beat.  True, they have made some leaps in the whole wheat pasta world, but price-wise it may not fit into the budget.
• Chicken.
• Legumes of all kinds.  Pinto, Black, Navy, Mung, Garbanzo, Lima, Kidney, etc.  Using the slow cooker, buying the dried ones
• Brown rice. Goes with the beans to complete the proteins.
• Whey protein; ahh… a staple of those who pump iron.  My advice is to use it when it’s portability really matters, like after the gym session you hit on your lunch break.
• Fish: Tuna, shrimp, talapia. Of course, breaded is a no-no.
• Broccoli.  Plentiful, fairly cheap, and good for you.  I’ve known some bodybuilders who have this green stuff  15 out of every 30 days.
• Bananas;  cheap, chock full of potassium, and a solid carb to boot.  Mixes well with protein powders and dairy products.
• Invest in spices that make boring, nutritionally sound foods, more exciting.  You’re a lot more likely to carry out a diet plan if tastes and flavors are good, and periodically change.

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Resources:

Budgetbytes Blog ( http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/)

I get a number of good recipe ideas from here;  Beth (the blogger) breaks out how much a meal costs and what the per serving cost is too.

The Grocery Guru ( http://www.utahcityguide.com/new/guru/index.asp )  This guys focus is buying groceries on the cheap and doesn’t really concern himself with athleticism.  Still, I’ve learned a few tricks and methods to shop from him.

Smiths Coupons (http://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/in_store/Pages/coupon_landing.aspx) I understand how un-manly coupons are, I really do.  However, this makes it pretty easy. Just log in, select your coupons, and go to the store and buy stuff.  The coupons will enter in when you use your Smiths card.

Nutrition Tips for MMA Fighters (http://slcmma.com/nutrition-tips-for-mma-fighters/)  A long list of all things MMA nutrition.

What are your tips?

Do you have any really great tips?  Dirt-cheap meals?  Let us know!

Because sometimes eating can make you angry too.

Summary:

Doing this diet can be a fun, satisfying, healthy way to live. There are a lot of great things about the Warrior Diet and it’s ideas, from tuning up your mental warrior to saving time on meal preparation. But this doesn’t make it useful to an amateur or pro mixed martial artist.

If you haven’t heard of the Warrior Diet (WD), it is essentially this: you eat only one meal a day (at night) avoid processed foods like the plague, and let warrior essence permeate your body until all your enemies lie defeated under your gladiator physique. Or at least something like that.

The Diet Specifics

As I mentioned, the basic idea of the diet is to have a controlled fast during the day and eat one big meal at night. During your evening meal, you can eat as much as you want, even if it would be more than you would consume in 3 regular meals.

For this meal, a few “rules” are to be kept.

• Eat natural, unprocessed foods.  If it came in a package and has a mile-long list of ingredients (high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated…) , thou shalt not eat it.
• Less aggressive tastes first. Start with uncooked fruits and veggies, and move to more aggressive tastes like salty, beefy, etc.
• Have a lot of variety. Include as many aromas, colors, textures, and tastes in a meal as possible.
• Stop eating when you are full – or – when you become more thirsty than hungry.

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During the day, you can eat a little bit – fresh squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, raw nuts, low glycemic index fruits, lean protein – but no pasta/bread type carbs. Also, you should drink lots of water.

If you are very active, the diet makes some concessions and allows some eating post workout.

Outside of these eating based rules, the WD has several themes which run along side the dietary advise.

In general, live more naturally. Eat local, fresh, seasonal foods.

Enjoy what you eat and how you eat. Eat with pleasurable company, have lively discussion and laughter during and after the meal.

Let hunger be a positive thing. After eating like a warrior for a while, you’ll have a certain mastery over food, hunger, and desires. In the day time, stay active, sharp and “hungry for life”.

Workout in short, intense bursts. Make sure exercises build functional strength.

Be a warrior. Insert mental images of the movie 300 here.

Of course, this is just an overview. The book make a lot of claims and makes a lot of explanations. Ori’s scientific reasoning is sound in some places, and suspect in others.  There are numerous references to ancient Roman and Spartan lifestyles; some times the history reading is a bit like hero worship, but interesting nonetheless. You’ll have to sort out it for yourself.

Personal Experience

I originally read Warrior Diet, by Ori Hofmekler, about 4 years ago and got sucked into the warrior idealism that the book exudes. Certainly, I am not a nutritionist, but I have diligently lived the WD for 6 straight months, as well as lived a modified WD for over a year, so I know what it does to my body. I’ve been reading different forums and diet logs, and all I can say is that your mileage may vary.

Some bodies work well with the whole under eating during the day/overeating at night gig, some people respond poorly. For me, the WD diet worked pretty well on many fronts. The diet works for the author, Ori, as you can tell that he’s fairly ripped.

For me, it the diet was a good lifestyle. You only have to eat once a day – which is a huge time saver – and by the time you get to dinner you are very hungry, which means food tastes really good. By cutting out processed, unnatural foods (overly sweet and salty preservatives muck up your perceptions) I started to have a much more acute sense of taste. I could taste everything I ate at a deeper level, for instance I began noticing the strong sweetness in carrots.  As a side effect, junk foods didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t crave them or even like them when I did eat them (very infrequently, I might add).

I loved eating this way – my food tasted better and I felt satisfied every day. I suspect that you get a serotonin boost at night when you eat until you’re full.

The first little while, hunger pains were pretty tough in the afternoon.  Part of it was a psychological addiction to food, part was a biological balancing act of blood sugars.  The WD says you should eat a little bit to combat the hunger pains, but I wanted the full warrior feeling. No pain no gain.  After a while, my body adapted and the cringing pain of hunger was all but gone. To this day, I still don’t get mood/energy swings when I don’t eat.

As a general rule, I used to get sleepy after lunch.  By fasting, I avoided the afternoon grogginess. While on the WD, I had a lot more energy during the day and slept pretty well at night.

The warrior diet did funky things to my sex drive too. In general, in made me more aggressive and horny – but not in that uncontrolled high school type of way.  Maybe it was all in my mind, but I felt more masculine and sharp. I didn’t “perform” any differently physically, but there was definitely a marked difference in my mental state.

In terms of athletic performance, I didn’t notice any significant change. I was a fit young man before I started the WD, so I didn’t look to the warrior lifestyle to give me a sixpack of abs. In fact, the first few weeks I gained a few pounds of fat. If I had to guess, it was due to increased cortisol levels associated with not drinking enough water. The diet says to drink a lot of water, but I didn’t really start drinking enough till week 3. Eventually, that fat came off.

Afterthoughts

If you’d like to try the warrior diet, I say go for it.  If you are overweight, I’d guess that you’d lose weight because most people have trouble packing in 2,000 calories in one meal if the evening foods are natural and healthy.

However, if you’re looking to increase your MMA performance I just don’t see the Warrior Diet facilitating that.  After reading up quite a bit on Billy Rush, MMA nutritionist superstar, I’m sold on the 6 small meals a day plan for fighters. When you’re really into MMA, you probably have more than one workout a day. With those workouts, you have optimal windows of nutrient uptake and serious needs of proper recovery.  Your most important meal of the day is the post-workout recovery meal, second only to the pre-workout mini-meal.

Bottom line: The pro’s of daily fasting just don’t out-weigh the gains you could be making by eating more frequently, in time with your workouts.

If you have any questions, let me know or you can crawl the WD forums.