The Six Pillars of Nutrtion: A Simple Nutrtional Template That Works

I recently listened to a podcast from Mike Robertson of Robertson Training Systems and he interviewed Mike Roussell, PhD.

I am familiar with Mike through his articles on T-Nation, Men's Health, etc. and I forgot how applicable his nutritional information is in addition to being really good.  One tool he uses with his clients is The Six Pillars of Nutrition which can be found in a quick video found here or his book found on Kindle found here.

The Six Pillars of Nutrition are for people to be used as a pre-req. before they start more advanced and individualized nutritional templates.  They are:

1. Eat multiple meals/day.  Ideally breakfast, lunch and dinner with one snack.
2. Reduce processed food.  Try to avoid or limit white processed sugar, flour and food that comes out of packages.
3. Try to get fruits or vegetables with each meal.  This is pretty self explanatory, however be cautious of getting too many servings of tropical fruit like bananas, pineapple, grapes, etc.
4. Drink water.  Drink more water and limit liquid beverages that contain sugar and/or lots of empty calories.
5. Consume lean proteins.  Make sure you are getting servings of lean proteins at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
6. Be strategic with starches.  Ideally have them either at breakfast or right after the workout.

In the future before you try to get all crazy with your nutrition plan, give these six behaviors a try.  You may be pleasantly surprised by how well they might work for you!