Tips and Tricks from Tim Ferris

In 2007, author Tim Ferris, wrote a book called The 4-Hour Work Week, which is a text on how to improve your life’s output efficiently with concepts and daily applicable tools. It was and still is a great success, and I now listen to his weekly podcasts, where he has conversations with world-class performers about their practices and daily routines. His tips, tricks, and hacks in knowledge and routine stimulates my own effective improvement in life.

Recently, he came out with a document of one-page gems to help you around your kitchen, a continuation of his work from The 4-Hour Chef. You can easily access the full downloadable document called “Here is the Stakes resource/PDF” on his website. As I was perusing through the document I found a great simple one-page guide on how to stick to a simple slow-carb diet. As many of us do, we probably have goals to eat better and healthier for the New Year. I am not a fan of dieting for the sake of dieting, I much prefer dietary lifestyle changes, which entail a much more sustainable and permanent change.

I believe that success to things like nutrition is in the small permanent improvements we make rather than intermittent dieting (which may certainly be effective for other circumstances). The slow carb diet is based on eating foods with a low glycemic index (The glycemic index of any food is associated with the particular foods effect on a person’s blood sugar level). The diet revolves around the elimination of starches, which are large molecules of pieced together glucose, and other sweet foods such as fruit, sugar and artificial sweeteners.

The Lego of Food

This nutritional lifestyle focuses more on lean proteins, legumes and vegetables. It differs from other diets in a sense that it alleviates pressure on calorie-counting and more on macro-nutrient composition of foods. I’ve found that the slow carb diet allows for less of a confinement of what not to eat and turns focus on what we can eat, and how to prepare.

I think of it as like a Lego of food, there are blocks that we are given and it’s up to our imagination to put them together to make something appetizing and nutritious for our bodies.

Here are the guidelines (as taken from Tim Ferris’ work):

1. Avoid white starchy carbohydrates: bread, pasta, potatoes, or grains
2. Eat the same few meals over and over again
3. Don’t drink your calories, with an exception of 1-2 glasses of wine a night.
4. Don’t eat fruit, since most have a high glycemic index.
5. Take one day off a week and go nuts.
6. Follow the meal-builder guidelines to make easier meals
   1. Choose a protein, legume, and vegetable from the list below.
      1. Proteins: Eggs, Chicken (breast or thigh), Fish, grass-fed Beef, Pork, lamb
      2. Legumes: lentils, black beans, pinto beans, red beans, soybeans

• Vegetables: Spinach, Mixed veggies, Sauerkraut, kimchi, asparagus, peas, broccoli, green beans

It’s as simple as this. So give this a try, and leave a reply with any questions, concerns, tips, or tricks that you’ve found is helpful.