As someone who always hated eating breakfast first thing in the morning (especially as a child) the Warrior Diet has more than a few things that struck a chord with me. I've always enjoyed eating, but the idea of multiple meals just seemed like an indulgence when I could just have once nice feast a day and then just nibble or sip on whatever I needed to keep me energetic enough during the day before.
Each to each. But this is one that I'm very interested in experimenting with in 2011.
Warrior Diet
The Warrior Diet is a call for action. Based on survival science and historical evidence, the Warrior Diet proposes a radical yet proven effective solution to modern man's ailments and deteriorated physical condition.
Its premise: eat one main meal at night, avoid chemicals, combine foods adequately and challenge your body physically. The Warrior Diet shows how to nourish the body in sync with its innate circadian clock – separating between a.m. foods and p.m. foods for effective removal of toxins, increased conversion of fat for energy, increased utilization of nutrients and improved resilience to stress. The result: a leaner, stronger and healthier body.
The Evidence is Undeniable
Recent studies on intermittent fasting have shown the benefits of following eating programs similar to The Warrior Diet. Mice and rats maintained on an intermittent fasting regimen lived up to 30% longer than those fed ad libitum. Especially striking are the improved insulin sensitivity and cardiovascular risk profiles in animals maintained on diets with long inter-meal intervals.
Of all the different diets I've seen (and this one, like many, is considered a lifestyle by its devotees), this one seems to be most compatible with a jiu jitsu lifestyle. From what I've gleaned from the Gracie Diet, they practice a similarly minimal approach, often fruit in the morning, soups and quiches at midday and a more common protein/starch/vegetable dinner in the evening. In fact, I remember one of them saying something along the lines of only eating one cooked meal each day.
Jesse was talking about how he had read that you should be able to train a full session of jiu-jitsu on the energy provided by a single banana. For me, this is another reminder that it isn't necessarily a great idea to be trying to "fuel" the body all day long with meals and foods.
