- How should people think about what to eat? - So, yeah, I have what I call a plate method, and it's just simple because it works for me. And, again, if you're struggling with real eating issues, these mechanisms become admittedly less effective because maybe you have emotionally triggered eating and you can't stop at one plate.

I mean, you could get the plate right, but if the portions are out of control-- - The plate. - Right. - Plate has a dimensionality of height. - Height, too. Or multiple plates. You know, like second and third. - Or plate. - Or plate, right? Like then, you know, all these things can be challenged, but what I say is when you have your plate, then you just simply look at it as like a clock, right?

And if you just make a 9.20 on the clock, so one arm goes over to the nine and one of the arms goes over to 20, well, then you're basically, you're gonna take the second largest portion of that, because then you're gonna make a line towards 12 o'clock, too.

And the largest portion is gonna be your fibrous carbohydrates. So that's the green vegetables, right? So whether it be broccoli or Brussels sprouts or asparagus or, you know, pick your favorites. You know, like those are the ones that give us a lot of the micronutrients we need. They're the ones that are generally accepted as more healthy and they're also gonna provide the fiber that's gonna be both beneficial in terms of its impact on insulin and also just through filling you up, right?

And then I take the next largest portion of that and I devote that towards protein. And I think it's really important, especially for anybody active. The more active you are, the more you embark on trying to build muscle. You're gonna need to have protein in every meal, so I have that.

And again, you know, we're talking cleaner sources of protein, but like you'll never find like boiled chicken on my plate. Like I ditched those days when I was 16 or 15 or 16. Like I realized after reading those bodybuilding magazines that maybe the low fat thing stuck for too long or the no fat thing stuck for too long.

But the boiled chicken and, you know, a steamed broccoli thing, that ended quickly for me because I realized I'm not gonna eat this forever. So I'll have some sort of fish or chicken, but it will be cooked in a way that's like, you know, it's got maybe some sauce on it or it's got some, maybe it's tomato sauce, anything to just make it a little bit more palatable and interesting without blowing the value of the meal.

And then that last portion is where I put my starchy carbohydrates. And again, that's the part that some people will say exclude them entirely because they're not healthy or they don't work for you or they're not, you know, beneficial long-term. For me, it's been a godsend. And I do think I'm like most people, my body craves those carbohydrates.

I choose things like sweet potatoes, which is my favorite, you know, or I'll have rice or I'll have pasta. I'm Italian, so I like pasta and like I will have those things. I'm not excluding them, but I don't put them in the portions that you would generally find. You know, my wife and I will go out and we'll go to the restaurant sometimes like because we travel quite a bit or used to at least with baseball too.

There's a Cheesecake Factory everywhere you went and I love Cheesecake Factory, but like the way they structure meals is it's all rice on the bottom and a little bit of chicken on top. And I mean, it's a plate full of rice that you wouldn't find me make a plate that way.

I'm going to just devote that portion of the plate to the starchy carbohydrate. And so it gives me a little bit more responsibility in terms of portion control because those are the foods, again, probably, you know, dopamine driven that are most easily overeaten. I always ask the question, how was the last time you ate 10 chicken breasts at a meal?

Like you're getting sick of it after maybe two or three, but you could eat a whole hell of a lot of carbohydrates, starchy carbohydrates, because they're just so satisfying. And I think those triggers, as you said, that want more, like that's what happens, right? You just keep, even when you're feeling full, you want more.

And that's the biggest danger to carbohydrates. So if you can develop some sort of discipline around them, then you can still enjoy them. If you can't develop that discipline for whatever reason, then maybe they do become something that you have to work yourself around or adopt a different eating style.

And as I said, I'm never to the point where I'm not trying to be dogmatic in my approach. I'm always trying to say, this is how I do it and I'm a believer in it, just like everyone else is a believer in their method. But I'm open to the idea that something that works for you and gets you to a healthier weight and a sustainability, like that is good.

That's good for me. You know, provided it doesn't introduce other issues, you know. Yeah, something one can do consistently. That's something I picked up from you over the years, you know, what can you do consistently? And for me, that also meant what, when and how can I eat? What can I eat consistently that will also allow me to be alert after lunch so I can actually get some work done or eat.

I like to train fasted in the morning, but I don't do any long-term fasting. It just so happens that I'm fine doing water and caffeine in the morning and training in the morning and then I eat my first meal afterwards. But I get carbohydrates at night. So my glycogen is restored.

I think carbohydrates are wonderful. I just don't eat them in excess. So to me, it's, I feel like when, what you describe as a very rational, literally balanced approach and obviously there will be variations for people who are dealing with obesity or diabetes or, you know, I've got friends that are on the pure carnivore thing.

I have friends that are vegan and it's always impressive to me when somebody can stick to anything consistently, except when they're sticking to just poor behavior. So there's nothing impressive about that. Well, I think that that's very helpful because I think there's a, for the typical listener of this podcast, you know, the online content that people see, the battles are very confusing.

They're distracting because people really think, oh, there's a right way and a wrong way. And it's, it sounds like the way that one can eat consistently over time that's healthy. Certainly fewer processed and sugary foods. I think almost everybody agrees there. Dr. Justin Marchegiani Yeah. Almost everyone agrees on that.

So I think it is a, it's, it's a, it's calorie manipulation through some other method, right? So even, even intermittent fasting, like, you know, like you said, like I, that could be it's, it's for people that are grazers, like if you are a grazer and your real problem is portion control over the course of the day, but you can respond to a rule that says, no, you're eating between here and here that you can obey that rule.

Well, you're not going to be able to graze during the times that you might be doing additional damage. Sure, there's, there's, there's other hormonal benefits that people will talk about from that approach, but from a longevity standpoint and habit forming standpoint, if it's fixing the habit that you're breaking too often by eating throughout, whenever you feel like you walk by food, it's good, you know, and it works.

And again, it's, it's, it's, you know, people can, will tell you, you can probably eat whatever you want to eat as long as you're eating within those, that window, but I think the more responsible people who are practitioners of that will say, no, you still want to avoid processed sugar and things like that.

So, and that's just a mechanism of eating, not really a diet. Right. But like, it's, it's, I think that people, I hate this. I hate to be as like, as, as basic as, as it sounds with that, but it's for the exact reason that if it's that 23 hour a day phenomenon that it's like, you know, you said you're impressed.

It is impressive. You know, it's so hard to control all of our behaviors and food being one of the hardest thing, one of the biggest temptations for people, you got to learn how to control that for so long and then do it day after day after day. Whatever that mechanism is that works for you is, is impressive and I'm a, I'm a believer in it.

You know, I think that's the, that's, that's how I feel. I just feel like people need to be able to be given some reins to be able to, to find what works for them. Well, I love to eat and one of the beauties of weight training is I feel like I can eat plenty for my age and I'm not as lean as you are, but I'm, I'm happy with where I'm at.

I could always do better, you know, with each year actually I've been getting better probably because I'm eating cleaner probably because I also have someone to cook for me now and, and we like, and we like, I have that too. We like healthy food and so we're, I'm very fortunate.

I don't think we have any packaged food in our home. We even started making sauerkraut at home. I don't make it. Yeah. She makes it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, she, she turned me on to a tip that I actually shared with the whole channel, which was like, you can, you can go to, we have a Stu Leonard's around our, our big grocery store chain around us and they have a catering department and you know, they're often used for catering big parties and you know, big tubs of, of, of grilled chicken, but like really good grilled chicken again, not the boiled chicken, but you know, big tubs of sweet potatoes and we'll, you know, we'll get a bunch of those and she'll go over and she'll get them, then she'll sort of arrange, you know, them on plates and put the plates in and like, I'm okay with repetitive eating.

I think more people are probably okay with repetitive eating than they think. I think that when you actually break down how many different breakfast variety, like variations do you have? Three, two? Two or three maximum. Yeah. So like, I think when people do, there's more variety for dinner probably, but like you even there, you probably eat five different types of dinners, you know, over the course of, you know, a week or a month.

Well, you know, if you have that ability to identify the things that you like, and again, no plan is going to work if you're eating stuff you don't like. It's not going to work forever. Nothing will. You have to really enjoy what you're eating. As long as these, these variations of this meal are something that you really enjoy and there are limited versions of them, their reproducibility of that is simple.

You know, it will take some time, but if you're fortunate enough in our case to have somebody who can prepare it for you, now that's even part out of the equation, you know, and it's, it's like, it just makes it very simple. But I do think when you tally up all the costs of medical care that are, that are, that are spiked by having poor nutrition and you then offset that by what it might cost you to invest in a faster strategy like this catering trick or whatever it might be, you'd be best off figuring out a way to maybe reallocate some of your money to preparing this because you know how, how important it is to your longterm health and longevity.

If you can figure out your nutrition issues, if everyone listening to this podcast can figure out their nutrition issues, this whole world will be different. That is like one of the largest sources of disease and, and pain and discomfort because people really struggle with nutrition.