Weight loss 9

© The High Performance Living Manual >>
THE HIGH PERFORMANCE LIVING
MANUAL
‘The Complete System to Look, Feel and Perform
Awesome – All Day, Every Day’
www.ExceedNutrition.co.uk
By Ru Anderson
Exceed Nutrition / www.ExceedNutrition.co.uk 1

Contents
Topic Page
Welcome to High Performance Living > 3
About the Author > 4
What is High Performance Living? > 5
The Nutrition Cornerstones > 10
Macro Nutrients – The Breakdown > 16
Shopping List > 20
The Carbohydrate Sweet Spot > 21
Body Awareness > 23
High Performance Food Choices > 25
The Modern Superfoods > 29
The Essential Supplements > 33
Your Nutrition Plan > 36
Essential Workout Nutrition > 42
It’s All About Balance > 44
How Many Meals Should You Be Eating? > 46
Eat More to Lose More > 50
The High Performance Gut > 53
The High Performance Hormones > 56
Ignite the Fire > 64
Action Plan – What To Do Now > 66

Welcome
Firstly, let me say hello and welcome to the High Performance
Living System. Thank you for choosing to put your nutritional
needs and guidance in my hands. I have worked long and hard to
create the entire manual you are about to read.
After years of research testing and experimentation, I have finally
found the nutritional principles that create incredible body
transformations each and every time.
The High Performance Living Manual has been created to provide
you with a long-term approach to great nutrition; it does so by
making good health the cornerstone of the system. So be assured
you can have complete confidence in the following information and
that it can always serve you as a foolproof guide to a healthier,
leaner and more energetic body.
Be sure to join our Facebook community
(http://www.Facebook.com/ExceedNutrition) which provides
expert knowledge, guidance, support and accountability to those
using our system. It also has a host of further information that you
will find useful, including daily motivational quotes, recipe ideas
and links to my weekly blog.
I would like to thank all of the fitness professionals who have
shared their work and taught me so much about nutrition in the
process. Without this I would never have been able to share the
following information. These people are namely, John Berardi,
Martin Berkham, John Kiefer, John Meadows, Alan Aragon, Layne
Norton.
Finally, be assured you are doing the right thing - improving
nutrition is improving life, and you are now one step closer to this.
All you need to do is read and apply the information currently
sitting in your hands.
Enjoy the read, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Ru Anderson

About the Author
Ru Anderson BSc –
Performance Nutritionist,
Competitive Athlete,
Owner of Exceed
Nutrition
Ru works with a wide
range of people to
achieve their fat loss and
ideal body composition
goals after being
overweight himself. To
ensure he provides the
ultimate service to his
members he created his online nutrition coaching portal,
Exceed Nutrition, which provides every aspect required to
reach your ideal body and health.
Website: www.ExceedNutrition.co.uk
Email: Ru.Anderson01@gmail.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/ExceedNutrition
Personal Website: www.RuAnderson.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/RuAnderson01

What is High Performance Living (HPL)?
For years I had an image in my head of how I wanted to look,
what I wanted to achieve in terms of ideal body composition. My
drive to accomplish this was unquestionable, it wasn’t a matter of
if, it was a matter of when. My goal was to look freakin’
awesome and that was all I cared about. So in my mission to add
large amounts of muscle and lean up, I forgot about two other
major components that would radically affect me - how I felt and
how I performed.
I hadn’t set goals on how I wanted to feel or perform on a daily
basis, it was simply based on how I wanted to look. Neglecting
these other bases was never a good idea. I was doing so much
hard training while following the typical poor nutrition advice at
the time, and I felt horrendous as a result. I was constantly tired
from the intense training, felt foggy with a lack of concentration
throughout the day and had little energy left for other activities.
Aside from my gym time, I was pretty damn useless. Sure, I
looked the part and was strong too, but my performance out of
the gym was horrendous and I felt like crap most of the time.
There had to be another way.
I finally had enough and set myself a new goal: to look, feel and
perform awesome - all day, every day. I no longer just wanted
to look like an athlete, I wanted to feel and perform like
one too. This is what I now call High Performance Living (HPL).
The problem was, I didn’t know where to start.
Achieving HPL isn’t that difficult, yet many people will never attain
it. This is due to the lack of information out there that focuses on
improving the body and health as a whole unit. There is a lot of
advice to help people lose body fat quickly, yet it fails to consider
how someone will feel or perform when on that system, or
afterwards. Of course it might work, there are many ways to get
to the end goal, but most people cannot conduct it long term and
in the end, they lose the results as they are forced to revert back
to their old lifestyle. Again, there are mountains of information on
how to gain muscle fast, yet most of this leads to overtraining and
a general lack of energy for the average trainer.

So armed with my new goal I decided to read and experiment with
a huge number of various nutrition and training protocols, to find
out if I could achieve HPL. After throwing out the rubbish (most of
it), I was left with a surprisingly simple set of principles that allows
my clients and I to create and maintain a healthy, lean, strong and
energetic body.
What was the primary ingredient for success? Good nutrition. As a
result, nutrition quickly became my key interest and passion, and I
learnt that this is where the real focus should be placed in order to
achieve most health & fitness goals. Make good nutrition your
primary goal and everything else just falls into place.

I decided to set myself a criteria to work from, one in which I must
adhere to in order to achieve HPL:
1. To Look Awesome
You want a system to help you quickly improve body composition,
be it fat loss, muscle gain or to generally look great naked. This
must be maintainable, not just a quick fix, and you must still be
able to achieve balance within your new lifestyle.
2. To Feel Awesome
You want a system to instantly improve your overall health. You
want more energy, better sleep, improved mood, increased
confidence and a general clean bill of health.
3. To Perform Awesome
No matter what sport, hobby or general day time activities you get
up to, we all want to be able to complete them to our maximum
ability, every single day. Get up, smash it, and repeat.
No matter what your goals are, you should always be achieving
the above. If you are not, then something is missing and more
times than not, it is nutrition related. Every nutrition plan or
training program I design must adhere to the HPL criteria, other
wise it is incomplete.
So from now on your aim should be to set goals that comprise all
elements of the HPL criteria, which from my experience, always
brings much faster results and a more successful long term
approach.
This system ensures we are always asking for biofeedback from
our bodies and matching it against our unique physiology,
meaning over time we learn to auto regulate our own nutrition and
apply the best strategies to improve ourselves on a daily basis.
This new perspective makes it a lifestyle and ensures we are
always freakin’ awesome in all areas. These are the new
fundamentals to performance nutrition.
This manual has been created to ensure everyone can find,
develop and maintain HPL every second of every day.

It is possible to look incredible, eat amazing food and feel
awesome in the process. It is possible to get stronger and build
lean muscle without adding body fat and feeling sluggish.
HPL is a lifestyle, not a ‘one off’ nutrition plan or diet book, nor is
it a quick fix to all your problems. This system is therefore much
more than just a nutrition plan, it is an educational tool that
should be constantly referred to for our ever increasing busy
schedules and lifestyles. A change in plans or disrupted routine no
longer means missed or unhealthy meals because you can’t eat to
your exact meal plan. I will teach you the nutritional principles
behind awesome nutrition, so you can always be in charge and
continue to reach your goals, whatever your situation.
This is a Performance Focused Nutrition system that uses a
combination of the most researched and scientifically tested
nutritional methods that can be adjusted to provide you with a
tailor-made eating plan. Adhere to some basic nutrition principles
and reap the reward of perfect body composition and optimal
health. It really is that simple. It is no longer a requirement to
constantly track macronutrients, weigh your food or count
daily calorie intake when chasing optimal body
composition. And I will show you how.
Your nutrition should be based on the key strategy of continually
seeking more from your body - daily maximum performance. This
is a fundamental component to achieving your health & fitness
goals and should always be at the front of your mind. You will
learn how to be healthier, stronger, leaner, while feeling awesome
in the process.
Your body wants to remain the same, and even when you do try
to change it, most simply only get a change in their metabolic rate
(slows down on reduced calories) which leads quickly to progress
stagnation.
This is why we must base our nutrition on seeking maximum
performance - we need to be able to push our bodies, to force the
body to change. We must work with the body, not against it.

If your goal is to get leaner, then you must use a nutrition plan
that enables you to have the correct nutrients to supply you with
the performance to do so. On top of this, your body will be
physically changing due to your ability to do more. It will be forced
to build more muscle as a result of your continual improvement in
getting stronger, and it will strip body fat as this becomes a
burden to a body that constantly demands more.
The right nutrients at the correct times will ensure you perform at
the highest possible level for that given day, and then aid the
recovery process by quickly repairing your body so that it is
healthier, faster, stronger, leaner.
When reading the HPL manual, always keep this section in mind as
I guide you to your own High Performance Living. We will work
closely to build and develop your absolute perfect nutrition plan,
along with explaining the how’s and why’s. By the end, I will have
passed all the relevant and important information to you, so you
can successfully control your own nutrition forever.

The Nutrition Cornerstones
Below I have incorporated the most important rules to achieving
optimal body composition & health. They may appear simple, but
you should apply them every single day, consistency is key. They
are the cornerstones to good nutrition.
1. Never starve
Ensure you are eating good nutrition frequently enough to provide
your body with the nutrients and energy it requires. HPL is not
about starving the body; it is about diet optimization matched to
you. The food you eat should energize you, make you productive
and feeling good at the same time. If you get hungry every couple
of hours, then that is your body telling you it needs the nutrients
in order to perform at the level you ask. Providing we eat the right
foods at the right time, it is fine to do so - calorie restriction is
never a long-term success template to reach our goals.
2. Eat solid protein at every meal
Everybody should be eating a higher protein diet; it is healthy and
has a high thermic effect in the body, boosting metabolism and
making us look better, building lean muscle tissue and reducing
body fat. Men should be aiming for 40-50g protein and women
around 20-30 grams per meal. A daily total of around 0.6-1g per
pound of bodyweight should be the goal.
3. Eat vegetables with every meal
Green vegetables in particular, are incredible sources of energy for
the body along with providing huge amounts of vitamins and
minerals (micro nutrients) and important plant chemicals
(phytochemicals). These will keep you healthy and provide an
ideal environment for building muscle mass and losing body fat,
due to the alkalinizing effect they have within the body.
4. Eat whole foods
Base all your meals on solid food choices to provide you with
higher quality nutrients and to keep you fuller for longer. Avoid
meal replacement shakes (unless homemade) and drinks
containing calories. Supplements should not make up the bulk of
your diet. Real food comes first and lots of it.

5. Eat one ingredient foods
Create high quality meals from foods that consist of one
ingredient. The more ingredients they contain, the more they have
been processed and the chances are they contain more chemicals
as a result.
6. Learn to Carb-Cycle
For a lean body, you must pay attention to not only how much,
but also when you eat starchy carbohydrates and fruit. If you
exercise, restrict these carbs to post workout meal only, and/or
save them to the last meal of the day. This ensures we are in an
optimal position to receive this macronutrient and the body can
therefore use it for energy instead of storage.
7. Drink plenty of fresh water
Staying optimally hydrated is key to HPL. Sip on water continually
throughout the day and take a bottle with you everywhere. The
goal should be to get hydrated quickly in the morning and to then
continually sip on water throughout the day according to thirst.
8. Remove intolerances from the diet
Many people have intolerances/allergies to certain food groups
such as gluten and dairy. These can suppress good hormones and
disrupt the digestive system to the point that progress comes to a
complete halt. Removing these will also improve energy and
concentration, making you a more productive person. The ideal
food list provided later ensures the majority of common
intolerances are removed from the diet.
9. Eat healthy fats
It’s been proven, eat fat to lose fat. Add high quality fats to your
meals and you will lose weight much quicker and healthier. You
should aim for at least one healthy fat source with every meal.
The correct fats can be described as modern super foods, and
there is much more information on these later.

10. Get loads of sleep, while reducing stress
Adequate sleep is essential to optimizing the body. Lack of sleep
results in lack of results. Sleep between the hours of 10pm-6am,
always. Our nutrition helps optimize the hormones, but the
majority of benefits from this occurs at night, when we are in our
bed.

Applying the Cornerstones
So the previous rules are simple enough, yet so many people still
struggle to stick to them daily. The reason for this is that they
don’t have the correct strategies to apply in order to successfully
adhere to the rules. Here are my methods to be successful at
applying them every single day:
1. Prepare your meals
Pre-cook your daily meals in advance so you can be positive that
you can eat the correct food choices to maintain HPL. The
previous rules show the fundamentals to good nutrition, but if this
is not available when we want to eat, chances are you will be
forced to eat differently. Many people prepare their meals in
advance the night before, while some prepare for 2-3 days in
advance. This will be your individual choice matched to your
lifestyle, so providing the right foods are there at the right times,
you can prep your meals however you like.
2. Follow a nutrition plan
Having a set nutrition master plan that you can hold yourself
accountable to is essential at the beginning of HPL. This takes
away the stress of wondering what you can eat and how much of
it. It can help you track your progress and you can adjust it to
ensure you get continued results. It is the quickest method to
initially learning about your body and what it is asking from you. A
good nutrition plan also takes the hassle out of meal planning and
design - it can be a great source of information.
3. Buy a recipe book
Purchase a healthy eating recipe book that adheres to your
nutrition plan, to ensure you eat a wide variety of foods. It also
stops you getting bored of the typical meals. Keeping tasty and
varied meals in your diet is essential to long term success, a recipe
book will give you some further ideas and food choices to help
with this.
4. Have a set grocery list
When you know exactly what you need from the food shop you
will waste no time browsing the food choices that will slow your
progress. Get in and get out of the shop, your body will thank you.

5. Follow the 90% rule
You don’t need to eat to your nutrition plan 100%, that could be
detrimental in the long run, particularly if it is a strict fat loss plan.
Instead, for every 10 meals, have one that doesn’t match the
rules. The same applies if you are only following your plan 70% of
the time, so 7 meals out of 10. If you want to see further progress
this needs to increase to 80% and then 90%. Only then will you
see optimal progress and discover whether your current choices
are truly working for you.
6. Have a support network
Having like-minded and motivated people around you makes
sticking to good nutrition so much easier. Ideally these people are
doing the same thing as you and can aid you in the process. This
is especially important the first few months when eating better.
Many people are confronted by resistance from friends/family
when first changing their nutritional behaviours. Having some
support to counteract this can make the difference between
success and failure.
7. Learn to use nutrition protocols
Get educated in nutrition, adding in some advanced protocols such
as intermittent fasting and carb cycling can make the process
much quicker than the typical traditional diet.
8. Set yourself a goal
Write down exactly what you want to achieve, how you will
achieve it, how you can measure it and when you must complete it
by. Be realistic but challenge yourself. At the end of every day ask
yourself if you have taken yourself one step closer to that goal or
one step back. Set short (daily), medium (weekly) and long term
(monthly+) goals, and write them down - but keep them visible to
look at daily. When complete, tick it off and get attacking the next
one.
9. Have a mentor
Have somebody who you know can bring you to your goals, has
done what you want to do and can provide all the guidance you
need. On top of this, you should be able to work with them, like
and trust them.

10. Make it a lifestyle
A fat loss goal is great, but you should aim to incorporate all of the
above rules and strategies to your nutrition every single day of the
year, no matter what your goals. Then you will never need to ‘diet’
again.

Macronutrients – The Breakdown
The first thing we will look at is macronutrients; Protein,
Carbohydrates and Fats. This is what makes up the majority of our
meals. Most one ingredient foods usually comprise of one
macronutrient e.g. chicken breast is protein, rice is a
carbohydrate. Of course, many foods will have trace amounts of
other macronutrients in them e.g. chicken has trace amounts of
fat, but for most this is too small to be relevant or worth
considering. Don’t get caught up in the little details.
Fats
Fats are no longer the macronutrient to avoid, and this manual will
quickly make you realise this once you start eating more of it. An
extremely low fat diet leaves you with a poor hormonal balance,
lower testosterone levels, joint pain and poor neural recovery, to
name a few things. Also, for many, this is the body’s preferred
energy source. Therefore your goal is to keep your daily fat intake
high - every single day, no matter what your training/diet goal.
The benefits are clear and even the health authorities are
accepting that monounsaturated fats can reduce the risk of
cardiovascular disease, and the essential fatty acids (Omega 3 &
6) are required for life itself. Even the once vilified saturated fat is
now being re-classified as 'not so bad after all', which is great as
it’s necessary for proper cell membrane function. Simply put,
fats are essential and will not make you fat.
It's also important to mention that fat products should (just like
protein) be derived from high quality sources. Ideally your meats
should be classified as 'organic/grass-fed/wild', and your oils
should be extra virgin. This is due to the potential harmful toxins
that can be stored in animals and their fat when they are fed a
poor diet and/or kept in less than ideal environments.
There are 3 types of fat – saturated, monounsaturated and
polyunsaturated. Eating all three kinds should be the goal, with
equal amounts from each to ensure optimal health and fat loss.

If you eat the foods from the list below, you will have no trouble
making up high-quality, balanced, fat containing meals.
Essential Fatty Acids - Omega 3 oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - use this sprinkle food/salads - do not cook
with it
Organic Virgin Coconut Oil - including coconut flour, butter, milk -
cook with this oil
Nuts & Natural Peanut Butter - including almond butter & milk
Whole Eggs - organic/free-range being best
Fish - fresh wild Alaskan Salmon
Fresh Avocado
Butter - organic being best
80%+ Dark Cocoa
Grass-Fed/Organic Beef
Protein
Protein is very important to us, mainly to supply important amino
acids that provide us with the building blocks to recover from our
training and therefore improve our performance next time. Your
plan also ensures you are receiving ample protein to achieve any
health and fitness goal. I have experimented with a wide range of
protein intakes and believe no athlete (including physique)
requires more than 1g per pound body weight of protein per day.
You should be eating a source of protein at every meal – ideally
one that comes from an animal.
For protein; quality over quantity. If you can afford the most
expensive option then buy it. The following is a list of protein
packed foods that should make up most of your meals:
Plain Fish e.g. mackerel, salmon fillets, any white fish
Chicken Breast - boneless/skinless - organic/free-range is best
Lean Beef/Steak – grass-fed/organic is best
Milk/Hemp/Pea/Whey protein isolates
Whole eggs - organic/free-range being best
Dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt)
Nuts & Seeds

Carbohydrates
No matter what your sport/hobby or current physique goal, you
can get just as good results without large quantities of
carbohydrates. This of course is providing fat intake is set to a
high level (and somewhat protein too). This is the same for ultra
low carbohydrate diets, they may make you lose fat quickly but it
is not a sustainable plan, nor are the results long lasting.
Carbohydrates provide us with quick dense energy, and as active
people, training hard means we will require energy in our daily
diet. As already mentioned, fats and proteins must always be kept
high, meaning carbohydrates can be much lower than the typical
average person’s diet. Carbohydrates should be consumed on the
basis 'eat for what you have done, not what you might do'.
So not only should our carbohydrates level be based on what we
have earned, but after we have earned them.
In fact, the large majority of our daily macronutrients should be
consumed after our day’s performance (even if you only plan on
sitting on the sofa all day). This is when we are in the best
position to receive a lot of nutrients, and also enables us to decide
how many carbohydrates we have earned - based on our
performance level for that given day.
Therefore we should only ingest starchy carbohydrates, that isn’t a
fruit or vegetable (this includes foods such as rice, pasta,
potatoes), in the last meal of the day.
This macronutrient is where most people go wrong, as many are
consuming much more than they require, in the wrong form and
at the wrong times. We have already discussed that we do not
need so many carbs providing protein and fats are high enough,
nor do we need to eat them in the early part of the day to achieve
our daily performance goals.
There is even more to consider when deciding on what carbs you
should eat. In the past, the strong recommendation was oats,
pasta and breads etc, however these products are loaded with
wheat and gluten. Everybody, including those concerned mainly

about their physique, should eliminate these types of carbs as
much as possible from the diet.
The same applies for lactose found in dairy products; it too seems
to regularly have a negative affect on a person’s performance.
Most people have some sort of intolerance to at least one of these,
and probably do not know about it.
By eliminating these as much as possible, your body will thank
you. You may or may not instantly feel the difference, but if you
were to reintroduce these foods, I could bet that you will see a
performance drop. So if there are typical carb sources that have
not made my 'good carb list' it is not that I have forgotten them,
but more than likely they are not as good for you as we first
thought.
In most cases I have offered an alternative that will taste just as
good. Some of the items on these lists may be completely new to
you, and you may ask yourself where on earth are you going to
find them? Well the truth is most of the big branded supermarkets
are now stocking these food items, and you simply need to hunt
them down.
Vegetables, particularly of the green colour variety are also
classified as a carbohydrate. Vegetables are where we want to get
the majority of our energy from. You want to ingest vegetables
every time you eat, in addition to a lean protein source.
Buy in bulk so you never run out and prepare them in advance.
Rice (plain rice, rice cakes, rice milk) – Jasmine rice tastes
awesome!
All types of potatoes
Oats – gluten-free being best
All type of beans, including lentils
Fruits - limit to 1-2 servings per day
Malto Dextrin, Dextrose, Waxy Maize Starch, Vitargo, Palatinose -
post training only
Vegetables
Manuka Honey

Shopping List
We have looked at which foods belong to which macronutrient,
what they do for us and when we should eat them. Now we can
build a shopping list to take to the store, so we can cook some of
the high quality meals we should be eating.
If you buy from the list, then you will have no problems adhering
to your nutrition plan and creating tasty, varied meals.
While you are there you will need to pick up some Tupperware
containers. Try to avoid the cheap plastic ones due to the cheap
chemicals they are made from, as they can leak these when we
add hot food items to them. Metal containers are much superior
and will last longer too.
To Buy
MEAT & DAIRY OTHER
Extra Lean Beef, 0.5-1kg Whey Protein Powder, 1kg
Skinless Chicken Breasts, 0.5 -1kg Coconut Milk, 2 liter
Turkey Breasts, 0.5-1kg Virgin Coconut oil, 1 tub
Fish Fillets, 0.5kg Natural peanut butter, 1 Jar
2 dozen free range eggs Rice cakes, 2 packs
Organic Cheese Long grain rice, 1kg
10 Bacon Rashers Organic Coffee
Puffed Rice cereal, 1 box
VEGETABLES & FRUIT Extra Virgin Olive oil, 1 bottle
Ripe bananas, 4-6 Mixed nut blend, 1 bag
Fresh oranges, 4-6 Mixed berries blend, 1 bag
Fresh Lemons, 2-3 Salt & pepper
Fresh Avocado, 3-4 Meat seasonings
Fresh apples, 4-6 Stevia
Whole chestnut mushrooms 80%+ Dark Cocoa
Cucumbers, 1-2 Gluten free oats, 500g
Fresh red tomatoes, 4-6 Grass Fed Butter (Kerrygold)
Blueberries/Raspberries, large Pack
Fresh washed spinach, large pack
White/Red onions, 1-2
Fresh glove garlic, 1
Potatoes, 2-3

The Carbohydrate Sweet Spot
Everybody can have carbs in their diet. In fact they should be
in the diet, as they can provide some awesome benefits such
as increased metabolism (better fat loss and health), full glycogen
stores (more energy and improved performance), increased leptin
levels (controlled appetite and less cravings), improved libido (you
know this one) and increased anabolism (more muscle
mass/strength).
Without carbs, we are missing out on some great
performance enhancing benefits, yet this can be a double-edged
sword. Eat too many carbs and at the wrong times, you
are going to be worse off for it – usually in the form of excess
body fat.
So how do you go about eating enough carbs to get all the
benefits from them, but not any of the negatives? The answer –
by finding your carbohydrate sweet spot.
The goal should be to find your carbohydrate 'sweet spot', the
ideal amount of carbs that provides the body with enough energy
to perform optimally, but not so much that fat is gained.
If your performance is solid on a daily basis and you can improve
at your sport while also getting leaner and building muscle mass,
you have found your carbohydrate sweet spot.
If your performance is solid on a daily basis and you are improving
at your sport but you are adding body fat, then you need to
reduce your carbohydrate intake.
If your performance is hit or miss on a daily basis and you are not
improving at your sport, then you need to increase your
carbohydrate intake.
For me, this is what makes nutrition such an individual practice, as
I have yet to find two people with identical carb sweet spots. This
is what requires some experimentation to fine tune, but the results
are more than worth the effort.

It’s impossible to guess someone’s sweet spot, but there can be
some indicators that will usually give us an idea as to the ballpark
figure to start from:
Body type can play a factor in one’s ability to handle
carbohydrates, with typical ectomorphs being able to consume
more carbs than their endomorph or mesomorph counterparts.
Current bodyfat to muscle ratio shows how tolerant someone is
likely to be to carbs. Typically, the more muscle mass you carry
and/or the less body fat a person has, the chances are they will be
able to consume greater quantities of carbs on a daily basis.
Activity levels play a large role in how much energy you burn
and therefore how much you require to top-up. The more active a
person is, the more carbs required to replace the energy being
used to perform and recover. This is why I always recommend
high-intensity weight-training over most other exercise techniques,
as it has been shown to burn much more energy during, and post
training. On top of this, you build some nice muscle too.
Based on these factors you can then form a ballpark figure on how
many carbs you should start to consume in order to find your
sweet spot as quickly as possible. For those I work with on a one-to-
one basis this is exactly what I try to find for them based on the
information given to me and then tweaking it from the constant
feedback.
Some general guidelines to follow: -
- Many people’s sweet spots are much lower than they would like,
so start low and increase as required.
- Do not start lower than 50g per day.
- If you do zero exercise one day, you may find you do not need
any extra starchy carbs that day.
All of this will require some body awareness and will take time to
tune into your own unique body to learn what it asking of you.

Body Awareness
Body Awareness means you decide whether you eat a higher
carbohydrate evening meal (and also what type of carbohydrates)
if your level of performance that day means you have earned
them, and whether you feel you need them.
So if you have had a great training session that day and are really
hungry throughout the day, then listen to these signals and
reward yourself with the higher carbohydrates. The opposite will
also apply too. If you didn't quite find the time to train as long that
day, nor are you particularly hungry then it makes sense to eat a
lower carbohydrate evening meal. This is basic body awareness.
This should also be used to decide how many meals per day you
require. Listen to your body and it will tell you when it is ready for
more food. This does not mean to be greedy - show some will
power or you will only be cheating yourself. Make the right food
choices for your meals/snacks and eating frequently is not a bad
thing, if that’s what your body is telling you. Some find the
opposite; they only require 3 solid meals per day, which again is
fine if that suits and you are making adequate progress. The myth
of having to eat 6+ meals per day to be lean and healthy has been
debunked. It should be based on how often you get hungry and
your schedule.
Get hungry often and have a non-stop daily job – eat fewer but
larger meals.
Get hungry often but work from home – eat more frequent but
smaller meals.
Body awareness is something many people must acquire over time
and it should be applied to your daily nutrition habits. The term
'eat for what you have done' is the ideal eating strategy you
should work on developing. It has a quick and positive effect on
the person with increased performance and body composition.

Real body awareness can take time to develop and many can mix
up the signals that their body is sending them. If you do not feel
you have acquired this yet, then this is something you should start
to think about on a daily basis - 'how do you feel, and how did
you perform today?’
Your nutrition should reflect this.

High Performance Food Choices
The goal of any performance-seeking person is to have an
extreme sense of body awareness. From a nutritional stance, you
would no longer require the need to eat to a calorie or macro
number to achieve optimal results. The nutrition methods used in
this manual will help to improve this awareness, and provide the
best system to then reap the most results from using it.
This body awareness will extend to not only how much you feel
your body needs but also what macronutrients (protein,
carbohydrates, fats) you need too. For a performance-seeking
person, a calorie is not just a calorie. Your meals are geared
for maximum performance. Whether you want to simply jump
higher, lift heavier, drop fat, or all of these - then there are certain
foods that are better for achieving your goals. The type of food
you ingest will have an important impact on your end
results. If you eat mainly junk foods, chances are you will gain
more fat than muscle, while if the quality of your food is low when
dieting, chances are you will end up losing muscle.
A great advantage from this style of eating is that you have the
option to eat a wider variety of foods so you will enjoy eating,
never lack key nutrients, nor put yourself into a craving spiral that
only a large pizza and chocolate dessert will satisfy. You will also
find that even when you might fancy a change from the typical
'weekly shop' menu, you find yourself cooking up healthy and
nutrient-packed meals.
The first port of call and usually the easiest, is to highlight the
rubbish foods so many of us are eating on a daily basis without
even knowing it. This sounds easy, right? Skip the take away and
alcohol – how about we look at all the ingredients that are found
in these typical junk foods and discover why they really are killing
us. And guess what, they are not just found in foods we call
‘junk’, they are also in our average breakfasts, lunches and
dinners, right under our noses.
The typical Western diet is made up of roughly 70%
carbohydrates: cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and
pasta/rice dishes on an evening. Sure, it may be only half a bowl

of cereal with a splash of milk, or maybe it is only two slices of
bread for lunch instead of the ‘triple-decker’ you once enjoyed, but
this doesn’t solve a thing. Cutting back on these foods does not
help us create a lean and energetic body.
The first thing to focus on is a basic elimination diet, as the
common foods we eat are the root cause to what is
making us lazy and fat. Below is a list of foods and ingredients
that should be avoided on a daily basis to improve your results –
they are not in order, they are all equally important.
Sugar
I like to call this an ‘addictive poison’, due to its powerful affects
on hormones and the brain, making it a leading cause of obesity
worldwide. The underlying problem with sugar is the fact it is
made from two molecules: glucose and fructose.
Fructose is our main enemy here as this is metabolised by the liver
which, unlike glucose, does not get used by any of the other
body’s cells for energy. Further, our liver cells do not store large
amounts of fructose, meaning stores are quickly topped up and
excess is then easily turned into fat and put back into the blood
stream, ready to be stored by the body.
Eating sugar gives us pleasure, we enjoy it, and evidence shows
this can become very addictive due to its powerful affects on the
reward system in the brain, similar to other addictive substances.
It can stimulate the same neural pathways as nicotine and
cocaine, leading to strong cravings, over consumption and
addiction.
So avoiding a substance for which the body has very little use,
which has addictive properties, and is easily stored as extra body
fat should make complete sense now. Let’s move on.

Artificial Sweeteners
If we can’t eat sugar, we can replace it with sweeteners, right?
Wrong! And although these may be calorie free, there is strong
evidence to support a correlation with obesity and other related
diseases. Most sweeteners are man made, manufactured in
a lab and designed to create an addiction response just
like sugar – food companies are not stupid, they know this stuff.
For example, do you crave a burger and chips, or do you crave a
McDonald’s? Exactly!
Artificial sweeteners are becoming increasingly popular as people
are becoming more educated on the problems of a high-carb type
diet coming from sugars. Food manufacturers have realised this
and have replaced sugars with sweeteners instead.
To further confuse people these products are typically sold to us
as ‘diet’ or ‘low fat’ products and marketed as ‘health foods’. This
could not be further from the truth.
Along with this, these factory-created products do not contain
much ‘real food’ anymore, and are actually much less nutritionally
dense than their natural counterparts. Sure, they might be low in
calories and carbohydrates, but they are still adding to our obesity
problem, while causing severe harm to our health.
While we are on the topic of chemically-modified foods, another
increasingly manufactured macronutrient is fat, particularly trans
fats. These are the worst for us and are added to some processed
foods, really playing havoc with our health.
Other popular processed fats are seed and vegetable oils. The
problem here is the high omega 6 contents, which have been
proven to be harmful to us, in excess.
Grains
The grains component in a person’s diet is usually the single most
important factor for holding someone back from achieving a lean
body. It has been known that grains are extremely energy dense
yet at the same time, not particularly nutritious.

The result was a switch to ‘whole’ grains, but it is clearly
evident this was not a magical cure to help us create a
lean and energetic body. The truth is, the majority of us need
to be prepared to substantially reduce the grains from our diet
when seeking optimal fat loss.
The reason again comes down to how foods affect our hormones
and the related responses from this. When we consume starchy
grains (carbs) such as bread (including ‘whole’ grain) we get a
large rise in blood sugar levels, which releases the hormone insulin
that cues a signal for the body to store the excess energy –
usually resulting in body fat. On top of this, a sharp rise in blood
sugar is usually matched by a sharp fall, crashing energy levels
and making us hungry again.
Most grains also contain a protein called gluten, which is a binding
molecule added to our foods during manufacturing. Evidence
shows that up to 50% of the population are sensitive to gluten,
yet most will see benefits from eliminating this completely from
their diet. Obvious signs of sensitivities are poor digestion,
stomach pain, bloating and tiredness.
Many common grains are also home to other nasty ingredients
such as sugar or other processed foods. As a result they offer
minimal nutrient benefit to most people and should be replaced
with ample amounts of seasonal fruit and fresh vegetables.
There are no nutrients in grains that we cannot get from other
food sources.
Poor grains like bread and pasta should be avoided, while others
such as rice and potatoes should be consumed in moderation,
depending on your goals.

The Modern Superfoods
There are a number of foods we eat that have been classed as
‘superfoods’, yet most of these lists have never been updated to
reflect new findings, or the research we are conducting today. Also
what exactly contributes to classifying a food as ‘super’? Some
would agree this term has been made up by marketing companies
claiming their products are superior to others and they offer
something more to the consumer.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a superfood in the
general sense is ” a food considered especially nutritious or
otherwise beneficial to health and well being.”
I would take that one step further and say that the foods
suggested below are those that are going to give us some serious
High Performance Living - to feel, look and perform awesome.
After all, that’s our goal, each and every day. Lets get started,
some of these might surprise you:
1. Coffee
So that stuff you have been shoveling down your neck on a daily
basis turns out to be damn good for you. For years many people
believed this wasn’t the case – how could something that not
only made you feel better but also taste great be good for us?
Well, the truth is, coffee is actually one of the best antioxidants
we can add to our diet. It is high in caffeine, that is great for
increasing metabolism and burning body fat, and also contains a
decent amount of vitamins (mainly B vitamins) and minerals
(potassium and magnesium).
With a higher metabolic rate we will not only lose weight faster
but have a greater overall energy turnover, meaning we can
actually eat more food.
The caffeine in coffee also makes you feel good and has been
shown to actually increase athletic performance when taken pre
training. This works by a number of methods but mainly via the
mobilisation of fatty acids from fat tissue within the body. The
benefits of coffee do not stop there. Research continues on the

substance and it appears it may even lower your risk of type II
diabetes, Alzheimer’s and liver cancer. Pretty awesome stuff,
right?
From experience, coffee can be a double edged sword. After all,
it is a stimulant and these need to be managed to some degree.
Ideally you should limit your intake to 1-2 cups per day. The best
times for these are first thing in the morning and again pre
training (to boost performance and fat burning). Caffeine is what
makes up pretty much every pre/during energy workout
supplements, so save your cash and stick the kettle on
instead. If you are sensitive to caffeine, it is best to stop all
intake of coffee before 2pm. This will help reduce any
intolerances to the caffeine and reap the most benefits from it
daily.
Lastly, it’s important to consider the quality of your coffee, as it
is one of the most sprayed crops when growing - making organic
the preferred choice.
2. Grass Fed Butter
Butter has been given a hard time in the past, due to its high
saturated fat content. As a result, it was replaced with one
calorie sprays and vegetable oils, as these were touted as being
the more ‘healthy’ option.
However, this is ‘old hat’, saturated fats are highly nutritious and
contain an abundance of fat soluble vitamins. Also, recent
studies show that there is no association at all between
saturated fat and cardiovascular disease. In fact saturated fats
have now been shown to improve satiety and increase fat
burning.
The key thing to note is that your butter should come
from grass fed cows. This provides a source of higher quality
fats such as conjugated linoleic acid, which may boost
metabolism leading to improved weight loss. Grass fed butter
also contains more fat-soluble vitamins, mainly vitamin K2 which
is associated with preventing a number of diseases.
One final important reason why butter is a superfood is the fact

that it makes most things taste damn tasty too, and good tasting
meals are essential for long-term results.
3. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is another high saturated food making the modern
superfoods list. This should be our cooking oil of choice, as it is
around 90% saturated fats, making it highly stable at greater
temperatures, keeping its benefits even after high-heat cooking.
Coconut oil is also comprised of medium chain triglycerides, fatty
acids that can be used to provide instant energy for the body
and brain. These fatty acids do not require digesting by the
stomach, and therefore go straight to the liver where they can
be converted to ketone bodies.
This can greatly benefit body composition too, as it can
encourage the body’s ability to use fat for energy and increase
energy expenditure compared to other fatty acids. Coconut oil is
also anti-bacterial, protecting us against many infections and
viruses due to its lauric acid content.
Use coconut oil for all your cooking, it tastes great too. For the
ultimate super food boost, you can even add it to your coffees to
create one powerful cup of high performance goodness. 1
tablespoon added to your favourite organic coffee will provide
you with instant energy, fat-burning properties, higher
performance and a ton of antioxidants. I call it ‘Rocket Fuel’.
4. Whole Eggs
This question still gets asked - how many yolks should I have?
The answer is always the same - all of them.
Eggs have been given an unfair hearing for many years by food
geeks mainly due to the concern they may cause heart disease
via increased cholesterol levels. It has now been proven that
dietary cholesterol, such as that from our eggs, has no affect on
cholesterol levels in the blood. In fact, quite the opposite can
occur as they can actually improve our good cholesterol readings
(HDL) by converting the bad (LDL).

What is the best breakfast? You’ve guessed it, whole eggs, and
lots of them. The high fat content provides ample amounts of
energy to start your day, along with a feeling of satiety. Eggs
contain sufficient amounts of protein to support and build a lean
and strong body. Their low carbohydrate level means we can
continue burning body fat throughout the day, as our body
learns to use fat for energy and not sugars.
Eggs are also full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, with
most of the good stuff being found in the yolk – never, ever,
throw them away.
Like all our healthy fats, it’s important to buy these from a high
quality source, with omega 3 enriched or pastured eggs being
the best. Find some eggs with the deepest and darkest orange
colour and you will have found a good quality supplier.
Finally
All of these foods have once been vilified, yet it appears this
should not have been the case. Perhaps if this had not happened
then today’s society would be in much better health and shape…

The Essential Supplements
Supplements can be a minefield these days. With so many
different options and promising claims, it can be difficult to know
what exactly we should be taking and if it will even work. When
truth be told, if a supplement claims to do something that
sounds too good to be true, then this is usually the case and you
are better off saving your hard-earned cash.
However, there are a small number of supplements that have
been scientifically researched and field-tested to show they work.
And guess what? The ones that work do not have any fancy
names or shiny packaging and are usually consumed already via
our diets. The supplements recommended below are merely
vitamins, minerals or oils that can be sourced to natural origins,
not artificial powders or liquids made in a factory.
So why should we supplement natural nutrients when following a
healthy eating plan?
Well the research shows that increasing the levels of certain
vitamins and minerals is needed to get the most benefit from
them. Usually, these levels are much higher than we can typically
get from our food sources alone, even when eating high quality
foods. We should also consider the overall quality of our foods in
today’s society - pollution is higher, crops are sprayed
more frequently and many items are heavily processed
before reaching us. The quality of our food is not up to scratch
any more and is often lacking some of the key nutrients which it
is supposed to provide.
In addition, many of you reading this are also training hard, to
push you closer to your ideal body composition and health goals.
This can be depleting on the body, as it adds further external
stressors, which also require extra energy and nutrients to aid
recovery in order to force the body to adapt to the training
stimulus.
As you can see, boosting natural levels of some vitamins and
minerals via supplementation is important for our optimal
performance and health. Providing your nutrition is dialed in, and

you are eating correctly with high quality foods, I strongly believe
the below supplements can benefit you and help you reach your
goals.
1. Vitamin D – Health, Strength, Muscle Builder & Fat Loss
Supplement
Most of us in the UK are deficient in this vitamin, due to the lack
of sunlight we get. It has been shown to improve mood, aid
immune function, fight off cancers, burn body fat, and improve
bone health. It’s also been shown to boost muscle strength and
growth, mainly due to its potential to increase testosterone levels
in males.
Dosage: Take 2000 IU (summer) – 4000 IU (winter) daily of
liquid/spray form vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol – the more potent
form of the vitamin.)
2. Omega 3 Fish Oil – Health, Fat Loss, Muscle Builder &
Strength Supplement
Fish oil contains the essential omega 3 fatty acids EPA and DHA,
which are known to provide a number of health and performance
benefits due to their highly anti-inflammatory properties. From a
health perspective these fatty acids appear to reduce the risk of
heart disease and stroke, while from a performance aspect they
can help to prevent muscle breakdown, enhance joint healing,
improve brain function and achieve greater fat loss.
Dosage: Take a total EPA/DHA value of 1-2g per meal per day.
Liquid form being best.
3. Green Tea – Fat Loss, Energy Production & Health Supplement
Green tea contains compounds called catechins, including EGCG,
the primary active ingredient for its thermogenic properties.
EGCG has the ability to inhibit an enzyme that breaks down
norepinephrine, the neurotransmitter involved in regulating
metabolic rate and fat burning. Green tea also contains caffeine,
which helps boost energy levels and provide further fat burning
actions. It can also serve as a great antioxidant, and may help
reduce certain cancers and provide other health benefits such as

improved joint healing.
Dosage: 3-4 cups of high quality green tea per day, along with
500mg of green tea extract with every meal. (The extract has
been shown to be more effective in smaller doses and may also be
absorbed better by the body – if you can choose only one, use the
extract)
4. ZMA – Health, Strength, Muscle Builder & Fat Loss
Supplement
This is a combination of zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6. Its
benefits are supported by clinical research as it has been shown
that hard-training individuals may be deficient in these minerals.
You will see improved hormone levels aiding better recovery,
sleep and strength.
Dosage: Take 30-50mg zinc, magnesium oil spray to back of
knees/legs and 10mg vitamin b6 on empty stomach 30 minutes
before bed. All-in-one tablet forms are available.
Lastly, I often get asked the question, “Can I just take a multi-vitamin
instead?” The answer to that is no - multi vitamins do not
have high enough quantities to provide the benefits that the
higher dose protocols can. Just like with food, the quality of our
supplements matters too - always buy the highest quality
product your budget allows.
If a supplement falls well short of the typical dosages I
recommend it is more than likely poor quality and a waste of your
money. Not only that, you would have to take more of these in
order to reach the ideal dosages, so in the long run you would be
spending just as much. Also, many of the cheaper products
contain fillers and further ingredients to bulk up the product,
therefore it is always best to buy the higher quality option in order
to know exactly what you are taking.

Your Nutrition Plan
You now know the goal is to develop great body awareness, which
is the secret to HPL. This is a learning process and the first part of
this is to strictly follow a bespoke nutrition plan. This is the most
important factor in learning more about your body and getting the
results you want.
The next step is to assess the results of this over a few weeks -
how do you feel, how are you performing? Then adjust your food
amounts/macronutrients levels based on this. Again, re-assess and
adjust in a similar fashion a couple of weeks later. This technique
is naturally going to improve your ability to achieve body
awareness, right up to the point that you can do it successfully,
each and every day.
The above schedule should also be used for those using their plan
to seek maximum muscle mass or fat loss. Aside from constantly
assessing your performance on how you feel and perform (which
should always be held the number one priority) you also need to
develop awareness of your body composition - how is your body
looking, are you gaining muscle, losing fat, both, or neither?
Again, the first thing to do for ongoing progress is to adjust your
macronutrient intake to match your physique goals. If you want to
gain lean muscle mass, your goal should be to see a slow body

weight gain of around 2lbs per month. It is best to weigh yourself
on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, after any bowel
movement. If your goal is maximum fat loss, your goal should be
to see a body weight decrease of 0.5-1lb per week.
One of the key take home points when seeking maximum muscle
mass or weight loss is to reap the most from the least. This is
extremely important to ensure performance is kept high and
continually improving. For fat loss, the aim should be to keep
calories as high as possible, to supply the body with the nutrients
it needs. So if extra fat loss is what you are seeking, then
increased activity should be a priority over decreasing calories.
Finally, your goal should be to achieve complete body awareness
that will then dictate how much nutrition you require each day
based on performance feedback. This method is much more
effective than constantly counting macro ratios and hitting calorie
limits - so the above recommendations should only be starting
points for those first developing their plan and learning the basic
steps to body awareness.

Daily Breakdown
We can now form a daily eating schedule, based on a number of
effective performance-enhancing nutritional techniques. We will
break our day down into morning, afternoon and evening and
describe the typical techniques used at these times of day and
why.
Morning - Fast Period
This is a key nutritional tool I use for many clients, even if it is just
one day per week. Having experimented with this method for the
last couple of years, if followed properly, it results in greatly
increased performance.
This is the basic guideline for fasting: -
1. Eat your first meal of the day when you are hungry.
Many people do not wake up hungry - the body is still sleeping,
particularly the digestive system. The best time to have your first
meal is usually a couple of hours after waking, when your body’s
digestive system is fully functioning and you are getting slight
hunger pangs. Of course, if you are hungry upon waking, then eat.
For those that are completely new to fasting in this manner, it may
appear to simply come across as simply 'delaying breakfast'.
However, there are a host of benefits associated with restricting
nutrients for portions of the day. Our key goal to make you
become more body aware, and fasting is a great way of doing this,
as you will discover that your body can go for periods
without food intake, and also what it feels like to do so.
During the fasted period, your body will begin to detox itself,
which will make you instantly feel better and healthier. You will
have more free time in the morning to undertake tasks that were
usually spent thinking about, preparing and eating food. For those
simply interested in muscle gain and/or fat loss, fasting has great
benefits in providing improved nutrient partitioning (how well your
body uses the nutrients you give it) and improved insulin
sensitivity (how well your body processes glucose

(carbohydrates)). I believe these are the two most important
factors for physique athletes, and are strongly associated to
gaining quality muscle and dropping body fat simultaneously.
Mid Morning/Afternoon – First Meals of the day
Once we break our fast, start by consuming a protein, fat and
vegetable meal. Depending on your weight, this usually makes for
a good sized meal, and due to the high fat content, will supply you
with plenty of energy and provide that fullness factor throughout
the day. By keeping carbohydrates minimal in these meals we are
primarily doing three things:
1. Not spiking insulin levels (with the presence of carbs) so we
continue to burn fat throughout the day;
2. Not getting any energy slumps during the day due to fluctuating
glucose levels and;
3. Improving our body’s ability to handle/use carbohydrates when
we do introduce them.
Evening/Post training: Last Meal of the day
This final meal of the day is consumed after all the day’s work and
training/performance is complete (typically 6-8pm). This is when
you consume your daily carbohydrate intake and the remainder of
your protein/fat intake. For those simply using body awareness,
this is when you conclude on your day’s performance level, and let
that dictate what this meal should include and how much.
This is a great way to enjoy your carbohydrates, all in one big
meal, so take time in its preparation. The body has been designed
to go periods of higher activity, low food, followed by low activity,
high food.
From a performance point of view, aside from being a stress-free
way of eating, your body is primed to receive the carbohydrates,
as you are now much more metabolically efficient. If you have
trained that day too, your body will be even more efficient and
accepting of carbs – they will soak them up like sponges!

For many people (there are exceptions), no matter their goal,
performance is increased greatly using this approach, with many
seeing great increases in energy levels during training/games. This
proves the 'eat for what you have done' approach to your nutrition
plan.
Furthermore, when you are in high activity mode (training/job)
and/or you are in a stressful environment (training/job) your body
is simply not primed or efficient at processing carbohydrates, or
high food intake in general. However, by fasting in the morning,
consuming protein and fats during the afternoon and finishing on
a carbohydrate based meal, you are still stimulating and fueling
the anabolic physiology for maximum lean body mass gains and
burning body fat. Awesome!

Water
Do not forget about water. I recommend a bare minimum of 2
litres of fresh water per day. It is easy to consume as it can be
placed strategically into your nutrition plan. For example, the
fasted mornings are ideal times to sip on some fluids. You should
also mix your protein shakes with ample water which all counts
towards your daily total. If you are training that day, you will
naturally want to take on some fluids during training to keep
hydrated. Follow this with another glass or two with your meals
and you will have consumed plenty of water.
Finally, not all water has been created equal. Quality mineral water
(filtered is good too) is important to those drinking large
quantities, as typical tap water does not contain as good fluoride
levels or nitrogen balance. It also tastes better.

Workout Nutrition
For those weight training, or undertaking an intense sport that can
break down muscle tissue, or fatigue the central nervous system,
then workout nutrition is essential. This will aid recovery and boost
results by providing key nutrients in easy-to-digest form to the
body.
The basic recommendations are simple - 1 serving of whey protein
powder (if dairy tolerant) in 1 cup coconut water/milk blended
with 1 ripe (brown spoted) banana, 1 cup of frozen berries, dash
of cinnamon.
A more advanced protocol would be; 20g Casein Hydrolysate, 5g
L-Leucine, 5g Citrulline Malate mixed in ample amounts of water.
Consume half before training/game and the other half during. 30-
60 minutes post exercise I recommend the above mixture again.
Casein Hydrolysate is the highest quality protein powder on the
market and contrary to its name is also absorbed much faster than
any other intact protein or amino acid. This provides the body with
a complete amino acid profile and instant delivery of these
'building blocks' which will boost performance by reduced fatigue,
faster recovery, increased endurance and heightened protein
synthesis.
L-leucine is the power house of amino acids and aside from
boosting the protein power from the hydrolysate casein by
increased protein synthesis, it also helps preserve lean tissue,
supplies your body with energy when under stress (i.e. when
performing athletic activity), preserves muscle glycogen (glucose
which is stored in the muscle tissue used to power your
movements), maintains nitrogen balance, and enhances mental
clarity when performing intense physical exercise.

Citrulline Malate is a unique combination of the amino acid
citrulline and the organic salt malate that offers athletes a
potential method of improving performance, delaying fatigue and
accelerating recovery. It is particularly useful for people involved in
high-intensity exercise such as weight-lifting and sprinting.
Citrulline aids in the removal of toxins such as lactic acid and
ammonia, which are by-products of intense physical activity,
protein metabolism and catabolic states.

It’s All About Balance
Combining a high protein diet along with frequent, intense and
prolonged training can have an acidic affect on the body. It is
important to consider how the acid base balance of the body is
critical to your health, your body composition and even your
exercise performance. You should therefore be interested to find
out how some simple food substitutes/additions can correct this.
Every cell of the body functions optimally within a certain Ph
range. If you continually put your body into an acidic state, the
cells that require more alkalinity have to fight to neutralise the
acid in the body.
The body, at all costs, wants to operate at a stable ph. The
biggest problem with this, aside from wasting a person’s energy, is
that we are left with a negative nitrogen balance due to the high
levels of acids within the body. Over time this can actually lead to
bone and muscle loss.
To help balance your acids you should aim to consume the
following on a daily basis; -
1. Plenty of fruits & vegetables (particularly fresh, unsweetened
berries/raisins and spinach)
2. Glutamine (2-3g in every shake)
3. Salt - added every meal.

Low Protein Day
Another nutritional strategy you can employ to combat high acidic
levels is a low protein day. Your plan should incorporate a low
protein day once per week. This should be placed on a non-training
day or the day after a game/meet with no more than 50g
of protein consumed. This improves our performance in a number
of ways:
1. It gives your digestive system a break from a constant high
protein diet;
2. It improves the body’s nitrogen balance which will in turn
actually provide us with a better anabolic environment in the long
term;
3. It provides an opportunity to eat alternative food sources on
this day that helps limit potential allergies to the typical high
quality protein sources we consume, and therefore provide you
with a varied selection of nutrients.
On this day, I recommend that your food be mainly from green
vegetables, fruits, nuts, berries and oils. Avoiding wheat, gluten
and dairy is also highly recommended - this includes protein
shakes and all supplements.

How Many Meals Should You Be Eating Per Day?
The ‘optimal’ meal frequency debate continues on and general
advice these days can range from one large evening feast to the
old tradition of 6+ meals per day.
So which of these are right?
Well, it depends. Nutrition must be matched to your physiology
and current goals. Of course, for long term success it must also fit
your lifestyle and be manageable on a day to day basis.
There are ‘success’ stories for almost every nutrition
protocol/strategy, whether it’s the result from eating 2 meals per
day or 8. This indicates that overall daily food intake could be the
key factor in someone’s results, not how many meals they have
had. The results usually come down to the fact that the person
has found a nutrition system to suit them, and that it helps them
adopt a healthy lifestyle as a result.

What this does show us is that some of the time honoured myths
can now be firmly put to bed:
1. More Frequent Meals Increase Metabolism
When we consume food we get what is known as the ‘thermic
effect of food’. This is the amount of energy that is expended by
the body during digestion. When we eat food we get a slight rise
in our metabolism, however eating more meals per day does
not provide any significant increase to metabolism and
therefore fat loss. It is actually the total amount of daily food
consumed that equates to our daily energy expenditure on
digestion.
Simply look at the numbers. If you consume 3 meals per day at
1000kcals each, or 6 meals at 500kcals each - you get exactly the
same daily energy turnover.
2. You Must Eat Breakfast Upon Waking
Eating upon immediately waking has been suggested to help us
with improved fat loss. This is not the case as it does not kick
start the metabolism for the day. In fact, it has been shown
that going periods without food (usually skipping breakfast) can
actually increase metabolism. On top of this we can get
additional health benefits such as improved insulin sensitivity,
nutrient partitioning, greater fat loss and induce the cellular
clean-up process known as autophagy.
When to eat more frequently?
1. When building more muscle mass and strength
To gain muscle we need to provide the building blocks in order to
do so - this needs high quality food. This is when it would be best
to eat more frequently to ensure maximum muscle
protein synthesis. Research indicates that this can be maximally
achieved every 4 hours, so a typical eating schedule could look like
8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm, with high quality protein in each meal.

2. When suffering from metabolic damage or food issues
If you are suffering from post ‘yo-yo’ dieting weight gain, or have
been extensively using a low calorie diet approach, it would be
best to return to a more regular eating pattern with increased
food quantities. This is to restore homeostasis within the body
and to balance hormones.
This is also true for those with previous or current issues with
food such as general cravings or binge eating cycles. This is to
ensure blood sugar levels are constantly steady and we never
reach a point of hypoglycemia.
A typical 4 meals per day approach spaced every 3-4 hours
would be ideal with healthy snacks between meals if required.
When to eat less frequently?
1. When focusing on fat loss
Providing you have a good relationship with food, follow a healthy
lifestyle and food choices, skipping meals may be beneficial in your
quest for lower body fat. This provides the opportunity to feast on
larger meals to provide that feeling of fullness despite the lower
overall daily intake of calories. A typical 3 meal per day approach
could be applied such as 8am, 12pm, 5pm, or if using intermittent
fasting on a morning, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm.
2. When your lifestyle says so
Some people have extremely active and busy lifestyles, eating
every few hours may not be an option, nor do these people
particularly want to either. This doesn’t have to hold you back
from your goals. The body is well adapted to under eating at
periods of intense activity/workload and feasting after. If you
want only 2 meals per day and enjoy this way of eating then
there is no problem with doing so, providing your overall nutrient
requirement to match your goals is being met.

Finally
Match your nutrition to your lifestyle, and not the other way
around. Good healthy food should enhance our life, not hold us
back.
The most simple method to decide how many meals you should
eat:
1. Eat when you are hungry.
2. Stop when you are satisfied.
3. Repeat.

Eat More to Lose More
Working in the health & fitness industry, along with being a
competitive athlete, it’s fair to say I have spent quite some time
talking and watching guys and girls with those physiques we
admire and aspire to have. To describe these people we typically
use the words ‘motivated’, ‘dedicated’ or perhaps even
‘hardcore’. This is because they train every day, sometimes twice
and can usually be seen carrying a huge amount of tupperware
boxes containing vast quantities of food that could feed a family
for a week.
So what can we take from this? Well we know these people have
a large yet strict and consistent diet, and they like to train a lot -
a heck of a lot. This is the secret to their success - they are using
a basic principle known as ‘Energy Turnover’. Sure, this might
sound like an ‘eat healthy and train a lot ‘mentality but the fact
of the matter is, when you exercise more, you can eat more,
when you eat more, your body has the ability to change more.
This is basic energy turnover; the relationship between the
amount of energy put in from your nutrition and the amount of
energy out via exercise.
I have spent a lot of time playing with various nutrition protocols
and techniques to enable us to eat more food while still achieving
our health and fitness goals, but it has been evident that this is
largely capped without the inclusion of exercise. For example, a
non exercising person could expend 1500 calories per day yet eat
2000 calories, resulting in a daily excess of 500 calories. On the
other hand, an exercising person could expend 3000 calories per
day and could therefore eat 3500 calories to result in the same
500 calorie excess.
In theory it appears we would get the same result, and therefore
we would do just fine without the added exercise. In the real
world, this is clearly not the case and much greater results are
created using the higher calorie and exercise protocol. The
increased calories and therefore greater energy turnover appears
to be the key to adding more lean muscle, reducing body fat and
feeling awesome in the process. It is a result of an increased
metabolic rate, creating a better body.

Our goal should be to create the highest energy turnover we can
on a day-to-day basis, meaning daily exercise is essential to do
so. This is exactly how athletes have trained forever, including
those solely interested in aesthetics. They know a high energy
turnover will develop a leaner, faster, stronger and healthier
body, much better than reducing calories.
This all works by improved nutrient partitioning – our body’s
ability to use the food we give it. In other words, more calories
go to our muscles for growth and repair, while less are put to fat
cells for storage. We are also eating more high quality foods,
meaning more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are available
to us, providing a much better recipe for long term success.
More often than not, those who do not exercise must cut down
their calories in order to lose body fat, which over time can lead to
deficiencies in critical vitamins and minerals. This will lead to a
lower energy turnover, food cravings (resulting in binge eating),
poor hormonal profile (loss of libido/lack of menstrual cycle), poor
digestion, mood swings, poor energy levels and generally a worse
bill of health. On top of this, the results expected are not achieved
and the person will always have the inability to ever reach an
optimal body composition when using this approach. In the end,
all motivation and determination are lost, which results in going
back to the typical unhealthy lifestyle.

Therefore, our goal (including when seeking fat loss) should be
to eat as much as we can, while still making progress.
We can do this by exercising more. How much more?
Ideally, we exercise daily in some shape or form. I always
recommend at least 2-3 full body weight training sessions per
week with 1-2 high intensity interval sessions, such as sprinting,
and then 1-2 low intensity sessions such as walking. This allows
maximum energy turnover while providing exercise variety,
alternating stimulus and still ensuring ample recovery periods
between sessions.
It’s important to build up to all of this. Remember, Rome was not
built in a day. Slowly start by trying to conduct some exercise
every day, even if this is just some walking 3-4 times per week
on top of your weight training routine. If you are eating in
accordance to what I promote here on Exceed Nutrition (and if
you are not, then you need to address this first) keep it similar
and slowly increase calories on the days you do extra exercise.
It’s important to remember that the energy turnover principle
can be matched to any goal, not just for fat loss. The training
and nutrition choices you make must always match your goals,
and you should have accurate plans to achieve this.
Finally, if you dream of your ultimate body, a lean, strong,
energetic and healthy physique, you had better make sure you are
eating and training enough to support this. Nobody has built and
maintained a great body by under-eating and training less.

The High Performance Gut
Our gut allows the foods and water we eat to enter the body while
preventing dangerous toxins and compounds from getting in.
When our gut is not working optimally, or it is in a state of
distress, these dangerous compounds can enter the body. You will
also not be fully absorbing the key nutrients your body requires for
the tasks you ask of it.
The digestive system’s basic function is to break food down into
small particles that the body’s cells can use for energy, repair and
growth. Depending on the food ingested, it passes through the
digestive system and is broken down into amino acids, glucose
and glycerol.
We have good and bad bacteria in our gut, which continually
replenishes, based on the diet we follow. It is hugely important to
look after your gut bacteria and ensure it is doing the correct job.
There can be a lot of influences that we have control over that can
unbalance the good gut bacteria that can result in an irritated
and/or inflamed gut wall. This is known as leaky gut.
Leaky Gut Causes
1. Acute/Chronic Stress
As usual, the negatives of a stressful lifestyle strike again! Stress
can be linked to pretty much every illness yet it is not uncommon
for most people to suffer from it on a regular basis. If you are
constantly under stress, then your digestion will slow as it reduces
blood flow to these organs. Leaky gut can be greatly increased
when the gut has reduced blood flow.
2. Poor Diet
Yet another reason not to constantly stuff your face with crap such
as sugar, trans fats and processed foods. These foods have all
been shown to inflame the GI tract. However, even those
following a 'healthy diet' can suffer from other offenders such as
gluten (think grains), dairy (think casein/lactose) and fructose
(fruit sugar).

A diet low in fibre can play a significant role too, as fibre keeps us
regular and therefore excreting dangerous compounds in the
process and regulating the bodies PH balance (the body likes to
operate at a stable Ph).
3. Medication
Antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs will cause havoc on your
gut and kill off good bacteria. When this happens we create a
prime environment for yeast (candida) growth which can damage
your small intestinal lining.
How to resolve the problems
Here are some things to apply to ensure your gut is fully
functioning and absorbing those high-quality nutrients you feed it.
1. Remove the rubbish/known intolerances
Usually the easiest yet most effective method for those with basic
symptoms. Minimise sugars, trans fats, dairy, gluten and alcohol
consumption. Usually one or more of these are the root cause for
many leaky gut problems. An elimination diet is ideal if new, then
slowly reintroduce these food groups to test tolerances and
allergies. Highly recommended.
2. De-stress and relax
Find ways to chill out and relax, get away from the day-to-day
stressful chores. Find something you enjoy doing and do it often.
Learn to enjoy your food, take time in its preparation and eat it
slowly to improve digestion. Lastly, eat when you are hungry, as
force-feeding food is never a good idea and is received as a stress
to the gut.
3. Pre & Probiotics
A course or two of probiotics will always do you more good than
not, especially if you've recently completed a course of antibiotics.
A variety of strains is best and the high quality products will need
to be stored in a fridge.
Pre biotics are fuel for the existing good bacteria, and probiotics
are the actual good bacteria. Ideal food choices to naturally

increase levels are: bananas, manuka honey, garlic, onions,
artichokes and leeks.
4. Antioxidants and Glutamine
Glutamine can help reverse leaky gut and minimise free radical
damage by offering itself as a preferred food choice to the small
intestines. Take 5 grams x 2-5 daily.
ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid) is superb at reducing free radical activity
and regulating antioxidants to ward off gut infections. Aim for 100-
300mgs between meals
NAC (N-actyl Cysteine) is a powerful antioxidant and immune
support supplement. It works by reducing gut damage and further
boosts the immune system. Try 1-2g daily.
5. Enhance Your Flora
Sauerkraut is ideal to eat just before a main meal to aid the
digestive process.
Kim-chi is similar to the above but is a fermented cabbage - enjoy!
High-fibre fruit and vegetables should be a staple part of all your
meals. These can protect the colon against bowel disease,
including cancer. Increase fibre slowly, you have been warned.
However, some gas can actually be a good thing when it comes to
fibre as this can be a sign of the intestinal flora adjusting.

The High Performance Hormones
Us nutrition geeks have decided that our diet should be individual
to the person, and it should be tailored using numerous factors
such as body type, diet history, lifestyle and so on. Every person
will see various results from different strategies, and no one
system can work for all.
However, when we achieve rapid improvements in body
composition and health, you can be sure no matter what the
system used to get there, it will have optimised the person’s
hormones in the process.
The truth is, if you want to lose weight, you need to eat less than
you burn. If you want to gain weight, you need to eat more than
you burn. The variations in macronutrients, daily calorie intake,
meal timings, supplement use and so on will vary depending on
the person. But behind all this there is something much more
important going on and this is what needs to be considered when
establishing any sort of successful long-term eating plan.
You see, in the long run, a calorie is not just a calorie and the
reoccurring macronutrients (think protein, fat, carbohydrates) that
we are putting into our body’s daily, are having long term affects
on our hormones and metabolic rate. This is why we must have at

least some basic understanding of our hormones and how they
work for us, and against us.
What hormones are we talking about exactly?
The two hormones I believe to be the most important, when
wanting rapid improvements in body composition and health are
insulin and testosterone. And let me tell you why...
Insulin is the anabolic hormone in the body. It is a potent inducer
of amino acid uptake and protein synthesis. All dietary
carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in the small
intestines, which is then absorbed by the blood stream. This will
either be used as an immediate energy source or it will be stored
in muscle tissue, the liver or as body fat - as directed by insulin.
Testosterone is present in everybody and is a steroid hormone
from the androgen group. In humans, testosterone is primarily
secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females. It has a
whole host of functions including increasing muscle mass and
strength, maintaining bone strength and ensuring the sexual
organs are in working order. Testosterone can fall below normal
levels, and is typically seen during the ageing process.
Let’s talk testosterone
As we already know it is a very powerful hormone, and one of the
best natural ways to ensure optimal levels of testosterone is via an
improved diet. The main testosterone boosting macronutrient is
fat.
There are 3 types of fat - saturated, monounsaturated and
polyunsaturated. Eating all three kinds in a healthy balance will
dramatically improve fat loss and health. Most people are not
eating anywhere near enough fats in their diet, and it is stopping
them from building muscle and losing body fat.
However, for the purpose of this manual, we are talking
testosterone, and for that we need more saturated fat. Yes, you
heard right, more saturated fat. It won't clog your arteries, it won’t

give you heart disease nor will it raise bad cholesterol levels -
scientific evidence now supports this too.
What should I eat?
Firstly we need to understand that saturated fat is comprised of
short, medium and long chains. Each has their own benefits and
more importantly their ideal food choices they can be found in.
This means we need a varied high saturated fat food selection to
ensure we are getting the whole spectrum of benefits it has to
offer.
Secondly, many of the foods below are ones which you have
probably typically tried to avoid. For this manual the key point to
remember is that saturated fat positively affects hormonal function
as it provides higher levels of free testosterone (even cholesterol is
used to produce testosterone).
Short chain fats are rapidly used for energy as they break down
quickly in the digestive system. The best forms of this come from
butters, particularly grass-fed butters when from dairy. Cow's
butter, goat’s butter and almond butter are my favourites.
Medium chain fats can become a very efficient and easy energy
source for the body, as many can bypass the digestive system
entirely, straight into the liver. These are mostly found in tropical
oils with coconuts being the most favoured. Coconut oil is great for
cooking, as it remains much more stable at higher temperatures,
as it is almost all saturated fat. Coconut milk is a great
replacement for the crappy cow’s milk we have in the UK. These
also have anti-viral and hypoallergenic properties so most find
these a great alternative to dairy.
Long chain fats typically come from polyunsaturated and
monounsaturated fats which are used by the body for a host of
bodily functions, including the protection of the heart. Foods like
beef, dark chocolate and extra virgin olive oil are ideal. Use extra
virgin olive oil to sprinkle on foods or salads, as cooking with it
destroys its good qualities.

Finally, the other main sources of high fat foods that should be in
your diet are organic/free-range eggs, natural peanut butter,
mixed nuts (almonds/macadamias), wild Alaskan Salmon and
other dark meats.
When should I eat to boost testosterone?
Just like protein, you should have a serving of fat at every meal,
except in any during/post-workout shakes/meals. At this time we
want to drive nutrients, particularly glycogen (carbohydrates)
quickly into the muscles, and fat will only slow this process down.
How much should I eat?
I am not one for counting every gram of food that goes into
someone’s body and I know when you are eating steak and eggs,
pouring EVOO on salads, and munching on mixed nuts for snacks
daily, you will be getting adequate fats. As with most things,
variety is the spice of life, so regularly include any number of the
above foods in your meals and you will be rewarded with better
testosterone levels.
Supplements for improved testosterone
1. Vitamin D3
Is a fat soluble vitamin found in certain foods and also functions
within the body in response to exposure to the sun. However, it
can also be described as a pro-hormone and is critical for a
person’s growth and maintenance of a healthy body. The studies
and research now completed on this vitamin has proven it to be a
very valuable vitamin for athletes. I encourage you to have a read
of www.vitamindcouncil.org for more information and further
benefits.
Obviously those who are exposed to more sunlight require less
vitamin D supplementation, however if living in the UK, this will
still increase during winter periods.
For those just starting out with vitamin D supplementation, I
recommend 5 days of 10,000IU spread evenly throughout the day.

For summer months I like to get 2,000IU per day and 5,000IU per
day during the winter.
2. Zinc
Is an essential trace mineral and micronutrient that is found
throughout the human body, mainly in the muscles and bones.
Supplementing zinc can help prevent sub-clinical zinc deficiencies
that may hinder testosterone levels. Zinc is therefore a very
anabolic element and its effect on healing, tissue repair and
muscle growth is maximized during sleep. Therefore zinc is best
taken 30 minutes before bed – around 50mg is ideal.
Anything else to improve testosterone?
Yes, lower body fat, and at that I’m talking about 12% or lower.
I’m convinced lower body fat improves not only your test levels
but all of your hormones, making you much healthier. If you are
deliberating over increasing calories yet don’t have visible abs,
then diet some of that fat off first and you will rewarded come the
next time you increase calories. Lower body fat will also have a
dramatic effect on how your body responds to the next important
hormone we are going to be discussing – insulin.
What should you expect to feel with improved
testosterone?
If you are going from naturally lower levels to moderate/high
levels you will quickly feel the benefits. Usually this in the form of
elevated mood, improved energy, better recovery, increased libido
and increased strength. Those with already naturally higher levels
appear to not respond as well to natural test boosters, hence the
mixed reviews on most products.
Let’s talk insulin
As we already discussed, insulin is another very powerful hormone
in our bodies, and how we handle it can have a drastic impact on
our body composition and overall health.
Unlike testosterone we are not looking for an all-round permanent
boost of this hormone. Instead, insulin needs to be elevated and

suppressed to get the results we are after – increased muscle
mass and less fat.
It’s all about improving insulin sensitivity…
The more insulin ‘sensitive’ you are, the better nutrients are
partitioned to help you get leaner and more muscular, so it works
in your favour. Nutrient partitioning is essentially how our body
uses the energy we provide it from the foods we eat.
The simplest method of improving this is by paying attention to
carbohydrate type and timing. I am assuming you already know
that constantly pounding your body with excess carbs
results in permanently high insulin levels, which has been
linked to nearly every degenerative disease known to man.
The best time to elevate this hormone is around our training and
our last meal of the day. At all other times the goal should be to
keep it suppressed. This means we should be consuming our carbs
in our pre/during/post-workout meals and in the evenings to
ensure we are creating an anabolic environment for when we need
it most (post-training & and pre-sleep). This seems to work very
well for most people, but of course there are exceptions to the
rule.
Eat too many carbs at the wrong time or the wrong type of carbs,
and they’ll be converted to fat.
Also, excessively high carb diets decrease insulin sensitivity which
will also stall your muscle building and fat loss. This is typically
seen in obese people and diabetics, they have become insulin
resistant (the opposite to sensitive) and therefore do not partition
their nutrients well.
Essentially, the more insulin sensitive we can make our bodies the
better we partition nutrients, which potentially leads to less fat
storage and better lean muscle gains.

Other strategies to improve insulin sensitivity
1. Intermittent Fasting (IF)
By fasting you are keeping insulin extremely low for a long period
of time which in turn makes you more insulin sensitive. IF does
not work so well with females, so start out with short fasts (1-2
hours in the morning) if you want to try it. The same goes for
men, start slow and only use it for short periods of time e.g. 4
weeks. Reap the instant benefits from it and move on.
2. Fewer meals
This is in line with the IF approach and is something that goes
against the typical bodybuilding/athlete eating philosophy. By
combining some of your meals so that you are only sitting down to
eat 3-4 times per day you are not spiking your insulin as much
throughout the day as if you were to eat 6+ meals. Although you
may not be eating carbohydrates in these meals, we can still get
an insulin response from just eating protein and fat based meals.
3. Don't stress
Again this arises, and it's now pretty clear that stress is like a
poison when working to create your ideal body. Too much stress
will reduce insulin sensitivity and trigger increased fat storage.
Don't worry about life's little things, ignore the haters and nay-sayers,
find something you love to do and do it often, relax a lot,
sleep a lot and have plenty of sex. Stop and have a look around
from time to time, enjoy life.
Supplements for improving insulin sensitivity
1. Omega 3
The omega 3 fats, EPA and DHA, help the body to increase insulin
sensitivity and optimize nutrient partitioning by reducing
inflammation within it. Our typical diets are very pro inflammatory
which is usually the result of a high Omega 6 content. Essentially
we want to balance the omega 6 to 3 ratio to ensure we are not
creating inflammation within the body.
My favourite supplement stack for this is 1g of Omega 3 fish oil
and 1g Cinnamon taken at each solid meal. This is a good starting
point for most people but you should increase the amount of fish

oil per meal to decide the best level for you. Cinnamon works by
helping lower blood glucose levels following a meal.
Omega 3 fish oil is an incredible supplement but many of those on
the market are simply too low a quality. When I say 2g, you
should be aiming for at least 2g from a total of EPA and DHA
content.
How should I feel with improved insulin sensitivity?
Unlike testosterone you will not feel any physiological changes,
however energy levels will improve which will bring enhanced
mood.
The real benefits from good insulin management comes in the
form of improved body composition.
Finally
This will hopefully serve you as a ‘go to’ guide, to help you achieve
an improved hormone profile, and to understand why it is essential
to do so when pursuing your physique & health goals.
When it comes to achieving your optimum physique, you can bet
at some stage you will have to address these hormones, so get a
head start now and try implementing the ideas mentioned. You
won't regret it.

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