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What's In My Kitchen Part 1: The Cupboards
by Dr John M Berardi, CSCS

If you’ve read my theoretical nutrition articles you’ve likely familiarized yourself with the macronutrients, when they should be eaten, etc. However, it's easy to talk the nutritional talk -- the question is, do you walk the nutritional walk?

By offering you a glimpse at the contents of my kitchen, I hope to give you the opportunity to check your own practical nutrition habits against my own, and see how nutrition theory is put into practice. So let’s go through a tour of my cupboard, covering both pantry items and supplements. By the end of this article, you should see that good nutrition practice involves limits and discipline, but not the austerity that most people assume it does.

Pantry Items:

Rolled Oats
Quantity: 3 lb. bag

Mixed Nuts
Quantity: 2 lb. bag

Mixed Beans
Quantity: 1 lb. bag

Dried Fruit Mix (no added sugar)
Quantity: 1 lb. bag

Legumes
Quantity: 2 x 2 lb. bags (1 bag lentils, 1 bag mixed beans)

Quinoa
Quantity: 1lb. bags

Whole Wheat Pasta
Quantity: 2 x 2 lb. bags

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Quantity: 1 bottle

Canned Tomatoes
Quantity: 3 cans

Canned Beans
Quantity: 3 cans

Flax Seeds
Quantity: ½ lb bag

Miscellaneous Grains
Including oat bran, wheat bran, oat flour

Green Tea
Quantity: 2 boxes of 20 packets each

Spices
Salt, pepper, fresh garlic, basil, oregano, chili powder, onion powder, and cinnamon are a good start. Seasoning mixes are also handy and take the guesswork out of flavoring. For example, right now I have Italian, Indian, Mexican, and Thai mixes in my cupboard.

*Note: the pantry is where the average kitchen goes horribly awry. Cookies, crackers, potato chips, baking supplies, and other hydrogenated and over-sweetened junk, all perched high above on a shelf, ready to snipe away at your hard-earned health and body composition.

If this is your kitchen, carefully position a large trash receptacle directly beneath said shelf. With a smooth sweeping motion, use your forearm to plow these enemies into the abyss below.

The items above are most likely the only ones you need since most of your nutrition should be coming from fresh, perishable foods – those listed in my previously published article discussing what’s in my fridge.

Supplements

Biotest Metabolic Drive (Protein Supplement)
Quantity: 2 x 2lb. containers

Biotest Surge Post-Workout Drink (Workout Drink)
Quantity: 2 x 1lb. containers

Prolab Creatine (Basic Creatine)
Quantity: 1 300g container

Concentrated Enteric-Coated Fish Oil (Fish Oil)
Quantity: 3 x 50 capsule bottles

Genuine Health Greens+ (Green Food Supplement)
Quantity: 1 x 2lb. container

Biotest ZMA (Zinc-Magnesium)
Quantity: 1 90 capsule bottle

*Supplementation should be determined by your training goals and your resources, both time and money. Other than your post-workout drinks, fish oil caps, the occasional scoop of protein or a MRP, and perhaps some necessary micronutrients, no supplement should be taken year-round. And while it should go without saying that supplements should supplement and not replace a solid training and nutrition program, this is one of the most common mistakes I see, even in intermediate trainees. This is an example of my list based on my goals.

In the end, if you wish to expedite the process of reaching your goals, you'll do the following:

Perform an inventory of all the food in your house, excluding nothing. Everything goes on the list, even if you didn't buy it and don't intend to eat it. If it's in the house, either you, someone you love, or someone you marginally tolerate will eventually eat it, so everything is fair game.

Compare your list to mine (both the items on this list and the items in my fridge article).

See how close you’ve come. If you’re close (on both the items to have and the items not to have), keep up the great work. If not, round up all the offending grub, and give it a warm send off as it pulls away in the back of a garbage truck.

For those who think it would be more charitable to drop it all off at a food bank, I have news for you: the poor don't want your mother's half-empty box of Ho-Ho's either. If you really want to help, make a donation, drop off some good food, or volunteer your time.

Populate your kitchen with the foods above, and you will have built the foundation for nutritional success.

 

Recommended nutritional products
from Dr John Berardi Phd

Precision Nutrition The more I looked into John Berardi's stuff, the more I liked what he was saying. So I got myself a copy of his nutrition package (you get a whole bunch of stuff with this) and was really impressed. This is an awesome resource for anyone who wants a step-by-step guide for how to get their nutrition dialled in. Make no mistake - this package will tell you pretty much everything about high-performance nutrition you need to know. What I really like is the breakdown of good nutrition into 10 easy to implement habits. The most useful part of the package however are the food preparation tips. As Berardi correctly states - you can know everything about nutrition, but if the food isn't there when you need to eat it, you're screwed. Take a look and see what you think...

Gourmet Nutrition Eating properly can be difficult without a little inspiration. This book gives you a whole lot of inspiration with over 100 amazingly tastly recipes that are easy to prepare, healthy, and are mouth-wateringly delicious. This book is inclused as part of the Precision Nutrition package, however you can also buy it separately if you just want to add a new array of great recipes to your arsenal.