Perilous Journey: Surviving an Insanely Healthy Food Regimen & Intense Training

Let's be honest, as a private chef to the definitely rich and occasionally famous, I have become happily and inevitably accustomed to eating extremely well. And what is an excellent meal without a suitably satisfying glass (or three) of an intriguing red wine?

So what happens when said private chef, in his quest to achieve a healthier, firmer, leaner, stronger, and (confess it) more desirable bod, surrenders himself into the hands of a talented private trainer, who dictates a rigorous exercise regimen and a restrictive and highly specific food plan? My guess would be that an appalling level of deprivation of the finer senses and exhaustion of the aging body will be the result!

And yes, I have just embarked upon such an adventure. Two Boot Camp sessions a week, two private training sessions a week, and a carefully orchestrated but oh-so-tedious food regimen that utterly forbids alcohol of any kind, even that derived from the noble grape. In the interests of full disclosure, I will reveal that I have already been working out with my trainer for some time. But now we are kicking it WAY up, and I am training alongside the members of his triathlon team, so the demands and intensity levels are multiplying like the biblical loaves and fishes. My friend Valli Herman (hotel reviewer for the Los Angeles Times and others), after making the appropriately awed and commiseratory comments, suggested that the experience cried out for blogging... so away we go!

Here's my battle plan (aside from whining a lot): there's not too much I can do to mitigate the rigors of the physical training -- boot camp is boot camp, no mercy there; and Franco is equally without pity in the gym. But surely I can find a way to translate the bare bones of a specifically modulated food regimen into something that satisfies the palate and the soul in addition to fulfilling the direct nutritional needs of my body -- and without cheating. A formidable challenge!

So I'm writing this for all you determined souls out there who are slaving away at your physical improvement, or contemplating beginning such a program. Hopefully we can offer each other support, some good ideas, and a few laughs, swap some horror tales and triumphs, and share our individual journeys to better health and hotter bods... and I promise to discover some tricks to make seriously healthy food also seriously rewarding.

Wednesday was my first day. And the worst single day of the week -- boot camp outdoors in the park from 8-9 a.m. , an hour's break to catch my breath (or lay on the ground panting and heaving), then a training session in the gym from 10-11 a.m. -- brutal! Have any of you ever done a boot camp exercise class? If not, believe me, it's exactly what it sounds like... practice drills for high school football are a stroll on the beach compared to this. Non-stop intense cardio activity at an escalating level and pace, resulting in puddles of sweat everywhere you look (if you could see through the sweat pouring down into your eyes). Running laps, walking lunges the length of a football field, jumping jacks and squat leaps, bunny hops and crab crawls, push-ups and planks, sit-ups and leg-raises in every imaginable combination (and some you don't even want to imagine), all executed in relentless succession with only an occasional moment's pause here and there to suck in air and beg for mercy...

Then there was the training session. We're now doing single body parts per day -- arms, say, or back, or chest/shoulders -- to achieve strength and mass. In other words, we torture that one body part until it cries uncle and refuses to function any further. Wednesday was legs... and yes, afterwards I looked like a sailor who just got off a rolling, pitching boat after weeks at sea.

But enough of the Marquis de Sade aspects of this adventure. Lets talk about the food -- after all, that's what I do for a living, I should be able to work my magic here. There are six "food stations" to the day -- a pre-workout "snack" (he uses this term very loosely), then breakfast, a "snack", lunch, a "snack", dinner, and a final dose of supplements with an optional protein shake if I'm really hungry. Here's what it looks like in all its glory (not):

# 1
Rice milk 1 c. / yoghurt 1 c. / fruit
L-carnitine 1 tbl. w/ coffee before workout

# 2 (breakfast)
1 slice whole grain bread / rice milk 1 c. + 25 grams whey protein / OJ 1 c. / 5 egg whites, 1 yolk
Super digestive enzymes, 2 caps
DMG 125 mg.
Conjugated linoleic acid
Zinc 50 g / magnesium 140 mg
L-carnitine 1 tab

# 3
2 slices bread / vegetable 1 c. / edamame 1 c. or genisoy crisp or lean chicken / avocado ½

# 4 (lunch)
turkey wrap (4 oz. turkey, 1 oz. cheese + 2 veggies + mustard)
Super digestive enzymes, 2 caps
DMG 125 mg.
Conjugated linoleic acid
magnesium 140 mg

# 5
1 fruit / 8 dried apricots / non-fat milk 1 c. or tall non-fat soy latte / avocado ½

# 6 (dinner)
2 slices bread / baked sweet potato or russet potato / veggies + salad / fish 8 oz. / 8 large black olives / 1 fruit / green tea
Super digestive enzymes, 2 caps
DMG 125 mg.
Conjugated linoleic acid
magnesium 140 mg

# 7 (before bed)
If hungry, protein shake
B-12, 2.5 g
B-6, 100 mg
CoQ10, 30 mg

Cardio:
30 minutes, three times / first week
40 minutes, three times / second week
50 minutes, three times / thereafter

Oh yes, note the "cardio" notation at the end -- sweet... that's in addition to the training sessions of course. One almost begins to think longingly of waterboarding...

So that's my "diet" -- horrifying, is it not? When I think of the prime steaks and steamed lobsters and sour-creamed baked potatoes that I would like to be devouring -- well, it's enough to make a grown man weep for sure. I've done the bare bones of it (and that's what it is, bare bones) for 2 days; now I propose to shake it up a little, and still keep it everything that Franco intends it to be.

So that will be my journey and my adventure: survive and triumph with the training regimen, and coax the food plan into a satisfying and even delightful gratification that leads me to my goal of a healthier, hotter bod. Wanna join me?

Something new -- check out my website at neilzevnik.com

Comments

[Idytme]

This is definitely a food routine designed by a trainer with no palate. You are giving up your gift for his experience, and justly so for a few weeks, but from all I know about nutrition I don't agree with everything he wants from you. Why no egg yolks, egg whites are so....90's. Yolks contain all the nutrition that you especially need now. You take all the nutrition out and then take vitamins to replace it. Why whey protein instead of some carpaccio? After studying nutrition for a long time now, I am in the paleo camp (which means a lot of meat or fish with a lot of vegetables), not the low fat/vegetable protein camp, and I have a lot of reasons for it - but this isn't the place for that.
You already know you are going to end this routine no longer eating this way, you *are* going to be healthier because of all the workout and not the food. (I have no disagreements with the supplements). None of this food is going to hurt you, but it also isn't necessarily peak nutrition for you training, at least IMO.
I am the kind of person that has to be convinced by studies, so when you are done with this, do some research and I am sure you will be tossing out some really great recipes in a few months.

[whslfno7]

If you are a personal chef, like Neil is...it doesn't matter what palate your trainer has, you can find healthy and tasty ways to spice up any meal, even ones meant to be healthy that sound bland. Yolks contain all the cholesterol of the egg, really they only provide choline, which can be taken with supplements. If eating more than two eggs a day, removing the yolk and taking supplements lowers cholesterol intake dramatically.
The "stone age" diet doesn't meet all the needs of somebody who is working out incessantly...who can go without grains, beans, potatoes, and dairy? How is nothing but meat, veggies, and nuts going to be beneficial when toning your body? There is plenty of Omega-3 in the fish, and very little Omega-6 and other antinutrients in this diet, so that is very beneficial and will lead to muscle gain without unnecessary mass.
This diet does not look as if it follows any one specific description, it meets the needs of a worked body, while taking out lots of carbs and other unnecessary fats in the process.
Who knows if you will end this diet happy or not, the food is not unhealthy, and meets the needs of your workout's demands. Plenty of studies show that the paleo diets are high in carbs, which are not going to be beneficial for body toning, which is obviously the objective.

[Idytme]

Somehow my post got posted before I was done.
There is slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fiber. The glycogen stored in muscles don't last long, and that is why they work differently. Sprinters should absolutely rely on a high carb breakfast, but what is in question is if endurance athletes should train to use fatty acids as sugar, which is what your body does naturally or rely on that quick sugar high. Like I said, studies are contradictory, but many researchers are still defending the paradigm of the horrible food pyramid, produced by lobbiest and not one doctor, rather than real studies. A meta study of Asian populations found those with the lowest carb intake had the best blood profiles (lower cholesterol, low triglycerides) Your liver makes much more cholesterol than you can ever eat. It is insulin that causes those triglyceride and cholesterol problems (besides heredity) All that info is out there, just not embraced by all the folks trying to sell you corn and soy.

[Idytme]

Just one more thing. If you are trying to build muscle, as in weight lifting and not triathlon training for endurance, than the best thing you can have after weight training is protein and *honey*. They have found that not only does honey *not* give you that sugar low after a workout but it increases muscle mass (along with protein) if eaten afterwards. Honey is full of all kinds of great stuff, and it is that extra "stuff", not just the fructose that adds to muscle mass. Kinda points out why we shouldn't pull foods apart. There are tons of studies about how much better whole milk is than low fat, whole eggs over whites, and honey over refined white sugar........ It is part of my philosophy that lean meat is better than whey protein, and I certainly wouldn't be a guy trying to build muscle and eating soy protein full of all those phytoestrogens (female hormones) that go against really what you are trying to do there. another thing to google.

[Idytme]

Somehow my post got deleted. Please, please allow some sort of link. This is the top link of a google search of "egg yolk nutrition". The information is the same whether it is the top link or the 100th. I just want to give some back up of why egg yolk is so important.
There is so much disinformation about eggs and you cannot dispute it without facts. Check out the link, or do your own google search. It is important.
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk.html

[Neil Zevnik - Huffpost Blogger]

I think the concept here for Franco was that he gave me the outline, and anticipated I would color it in according to my personal palate (or palette, to continue the art metaphor... :+)). To answer a few of your thoughts: we're avoiding red meat in order to control my animal fats, and the diet does call for fish or chicken every night, and turkey for lunches. Egg yolks minimized for the same reason -- the cholesterol and fat. My general food regimen with him calls for a wide range of proteins, including red meat -- this particular regimen has specific goals (see my reply to another comment), and thus a more restricted intake of such elements. In writing my monthly column for Better Nutrition Magazine, I have discovered (as in all fields I suppose) enormous differences in opinions and research results and conclusions and applications and recommendations in the arena of food and nutrition; it is always fascinating to me to explore the wide array of information contained therein.

[Idytme]

Neil, I do appreciate everything you are saying, and I appreciate your sensitivity. I have a soft spot for Chefs, am married to one. I love great food and I obviously love Chefs (!!) But my DH knows very little about nutrition compared to food. I cured him of his sugar highs and lows by getting him off carbs, and cured his indigestion by getting him off wheat (that he craved all the time because he had a small allergy to it). I never would have been so convinced of the Paleo diet if I hadn't seen the results for a few years of it on my dogs. A doggy Paleo diet called Bones and Raw foods. It is great to see a dog just "wolf" down raw chicken wings and turkey necks. When I went on this diet, with no limitations to fats, just carbs, after about two months I dropped 10 pounds of almost all body fat. Those pounds were the only ones I needed to lose and I fit back into stuff when I was 15. I was not "dieting" just eating a lot of protein and not eating carbs. Before that I was "certain" that pasta was great for us, it did take studying and observing what happened to my dogs for the light bulb to go off in my head. Good luck exploring and I can't wait for your posted recipes.

[OttoMann]

That diet doesn't look that bad. (This regimen is clearly designed to put on muscle.) But what's up with all the bread?

[Neil Zevnik - Huffpost Blogger]

yes, the goal here is strenghth and size and leanness and endurance. I think the whole-grain bread carbs are related to my current need to eliminate overall pervasive water weight due to a medication I'm currently taking. I'll ask Franco about that!

[rugbymom]

That looks like way more food than I would ever be allotted. I can understand being bored by it, but in terms of hunger, women dieters and diabetics all over the US eat much less than this and still have trouble losing any weight.

[Neil Zevnik - Huffpost Blogger]

you're right, this is not intended to be a weight-loss diet -- it's 2600 calories a day. Basically the intention is to reduce water weight, reduce body-fat, and increase muscle size, strength, and endurance. For my size and sex (male, 6'1", 185 lbs.) and with the intensity and frequency of my workouts, the ratios of proteins to carbs and the combinations in each meal should promote my goals -- to be stronger, leaner, more well-defined, and have greater endurance. I guess the common ground I'm looking for here is not the actual specifics of the program, since each person's regimen should be tailored to their particular needs and body make-up; but the need to develop and adhere to a program, and the challenges of sticking with it and making it satisfying not just bearbale, are tasks where most people can find some common ground.