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The following is an excerpt of an interview I did for The Elite Body, with Shawn Phillips, author of Strength for Life.
Jim: What are some general food nutrition guidelines that you recommend to live a life of strength?
Shawn: I’m going to be frank as I tend to be. I think Body for Life is the first book really to take what was learned through body building. It’s a little like what we learned by going to the moon – bring the science back. You go to the edge and you come back. What we learned is that balanced protein rich meals and frequent feedings work. We learned them. We practiced them. We brought them to the mainstream through Body for Life. Now ten years later those things are becoming more and more true and more and more accepted. Every single day you see more protein value; the importance of protein; the satiating factors of protein arising every single day. Those have become truer. That said Body for Life called for six small meals a day. I never could quite do the six meals a day. How about you?
Jim: No, I can’t do that.
Shawn: I struggle with it. Honestly, I’m a five meal a day guy, but I take it down to the strength level. I like to go down to the simple. Let’s be real. We’re a social society and we structure our days around breakfast, lunch and dinner. I like to go what I call the three plus two method. I eat three main meals and as long as those meals are balanced, healthy and I mean having – I start with protein job one. Every one of those meals should have a good solid source of protein which buffers your carbohydrate release; get some vegetables in there; get some fruits.
Do not skip breakfast. Breakfast is A Job #1 of food nutrition guidelines. Please, eat breakfast and then in between there I call it mini-meals. I don’t like the word “snacks.” I say they can be a little bit smaller, but still. You can use your nutrition shakes in between there. Full Strength is such a meal. I use Full Strength to start my day as my primary kicker for the day and then as an afternoon meal. You can have your egg whites and oatmeal which I did for 20 years in the mornings. Have consistent meals.
One of the other tips I want to give people is to get out of the mindset that every single meal needs to be some sort of diner smorgasbord – all you can eat buffet deal. Food is a wonderfully enjoyable activity. We love to eat. Let’s save our love for eating for the meals that are really truly sociable and where we’re really expressing that love for food. Don’t make every meal – so I call it repeat performances. For literally 18 years of my life I had the exact same breakfast 90% of the time. I love it because I felt great; not because it was so darn delicious. That’s pretty simple.
I have 10 simple strategies in there, but I like to show you how to end dieting together and some tips there – really that inside out awareness practice. Basically, my food nutrition guidelines are that I really believe in basic balanced meals; the frequent feedings; the simple approach; lots of water; protein stable carbohydrates; vegetables; healthy fats.
