Just recently, I’ve told you about my two favorite nutrition plans – carb cycling and intermittent fasting.

But, as both are pretty different, that’s prompted a few of y’all to email me and ask me which one I do.

Or more specifically (since I pretty much said I use a modified version of intermittent fasting), if I go back and forth between the two, and what they should do.

To tell the truth, I kinda do a massive hybrid (I didn’t read this anywhere, it’s just kinda what I ended up gravitating towards and coming up with for me that worked well – just like training, I read up, try stuff out, and tinker with it).

My eating schedule (i.e. – when I eat) is based on the IF stuff I told you about last time. Butwhat I eat is more based on carb cycling.

See, I won’t eat anything all day long. When I first get up, I’ll take my vitamins and fish oil (gotta have the fish oil). Then, since I don’t drink and can’t stand coffee – lol – it might be a lo-carb Monster energy drink…will usually just sip on it all morning and into the afternoon.

Right before my workout, it’s a serving of GI Nutrition’s “Ideal Pump” pre-workout drink. Don’t start your workouts w/o it.

If I’m feeling extremely fatigued, I’ll then have a serving of GI’s “Ideal Recovery” after my workout. This is something I need to start making more regular, though.

I won’t eat until 5-6pm, and will break my fast since the previous night with a big protein shake – usually 60-70g of protein. (GI’s “Ideal Whey” fits the bill here, perfectly.)

I let that settle for a while, then will have 1-3 cups of raw broccolli. Broccolli has vitamins you need, doesn’t have many calories, is a good source of fiber, and has been shown to lower estrogen levels in men (and estrogen has been shown to make men retain belly fat) fairly quickly.

I’ll then eat kinda what I want until 9-10pm. I like to keep all my calories inside of a 4-hour window or so.

I try to make what I eat protein-based if I can, though I might snack from time-to-time.

One thing I’ve been eating that’s been AWESOME lately – fire-roasted tomatoes + corn + banana peppers + diced chicken breast. Mix up, season (usually with spicy stuff) to taste. Let awesomeness ensue.

But overall, I keep the protein intake very high, and the carb intake fairly low if I can. Then, once that 4-hour window is up, I don’t eat again until 5-6pm the next day.

Now, I do this usually 5 days/week – Sun thru Thurs. On Friday, I won’t eat until 5-6pm, but by then, I’m feeling kinda run down from a hard week of workouts, work, and lower carbs, so I carb up in the form of beer and pizza.

LOL. Yeah, I said beer & pizza.

Saturdays, I’ll see how I feel. Saturdays are usually just a ‘chill’ day for me (no workouts, no work, just fun & relaxing) so I’ll kinda eat how I want. I’ll either get back on track and only eat at night, but be a little looser w/the carbs or just can relax as a whole.

By Sunday, I’m back in the swing of things full-force.

Now, I’m not saying that’s how YOU should do things by any means. This is just what I’ve developed that works for me.

If you wanna read up on some of this stuff (which I *highly* recommend), then check out these resources:

=>go here to learn about carb cycling

=>go here to learn about intermittent fasting

=>go here to get all your GI Nutrition supplements (and don’t forget to use the promo code “WIGGY” – all caps – at checkout to save 10%)

Ok – gotta run. Tons of stuff to get done today.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

Well, I never thought I’d say this, but let’s keep on with this week’s theme of nutrition and supplements. LOL

Yesterday I told you about one of my favorite styles of diet – carb cycling. Today, I wanna tell you about my other – Intermittent Fasting.

Now, if you’ve been reading my newsletter for any real length of time, you know I’m a *big* fan of Intermittent Fasting (IF). In case you don’t know what IF is, it’s basically a style of diet where you intersperse periods of eating with extended periods of not eating (fasting).

The benefits to this are numerous. First of all, you simply just give your body a break. Your digestive system gets to rest, liver gets to kinda flush itself out (given that you’re drinking enough water), and more. You know that it’s smart to give your muscles a break and not work them hard everyday, right? Same thing here.

Another reason why IF rocks is for weight loss. By virtue of the fact that you’re simply restricting what you eat by time period, you simply end up taking in fewer calories. And we all know that fewer calories in (all other things being equal) = weight loss.

Which is cool.

Another thing – it can free up a bunch of time! If you’re one of those types that’s trying to eat 5-6x per day, how much of your day do you spend dedicated to just eating? Carrying around food, preparing it, actually eating it? You’ve just added hours onto your day.

Personally (b/c I do a version of IF), I’ve found that IF has me feeling GREAT! I don’t constantly have food in my system, and I don’t always feel weighted down or bloated. I actually have *more* energy, feel lighter, and have a ton more ‘pep’.

Now, there are a lot of ways you can implement IF. The way *I* do it, I only eat at the end of the day, and do this 5-6 days/week. BUT, that is too much for most people – or at least too much at first.

(Trust me, I was crazy enough to start out like this, and it was a monster shock to my system. It took me prolly close to 2 months to get ‘used’ to it so that I wasn’t a hungry, pissed off s.o.b. all day long.)

If I were to go back and do it over, I’d have taken a much more balanced and methodical approach…not quite the ‘hit it in the face with a sledge hammer’ route I did, LOL.

Which is where “Eat Stop Eat” comes in.

“Eat Stop Eat” by Brad Pilon is one of the best books on IF on the market, IMO. It is written in simple, plain language (notice how I’m a fan of stuff that doesn’t require a degree in biology to understand?), and is easily applicable.

Better than that, though, Brad gives you a plan of attack to follow to get you going on IF. It’s easily adhered to, and literally can be done by anybody. It’s not a drastic change to the way you probably eat now, and even if you didn’t wanna use this as a springboard into more intense versions of IF (like what I do), this is something you could do forever and see amazing benefits.

Let’s face it, most people can’t stick to diets b/c the diet (in one way or another) makes them absolutely miserable.

“Eat Stop Eat” isn’t one of them.

I bought it, and was glad I did. I recommend it to you, as well.

=>CLICK HERE to check out “Eat Stop Eat”

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

In this blog post, I told you about my favorite line of supplements, put out by the dudes over at GI Nutrition.

Well, that musta got a few of you thinking, but it sparked a number of responses wanting to know what kinda diet plan I recommend.

Now, y’all know I’m no diet ‘guru’ by any means. For that stuff, I defer to the experts.

There are two main types of nutrition program I like. The first kind is carb cycling.

Cycling carbs (or basically having days each week where you cycle through high, low, and maybe medium levels of carb intake) is important for a few reasons.  The first is to regulate insulin.

See, when carbs are broken down by the body into glucose, this triggers the release of insulin. And insulin is good, b/c hormonally, it can help you build muscle. However, like most stuff, too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing. When insulin levels rise *too* much, it ends up leading to your body just creating (and retaining) excess bodyfat instead of muscle.

Not good. That’s why you cycle through your carb intake – lower days to keep insulin low (so as not to build fat), but then spike it high every now and then so as to take advantage of its muscle-building properties.

Another reason reason why carb cycling is important? Simple – most people just need to reduce how many calories they eat…the old calories in vs calories out equation. And most carbohydrate-rich foods (esp breads, pastas, and the like) are very calorie dense.

This means that you don’t have to eat a lot of it to take in a ton of extra calories.

Reduce how much of this kinda food you take in, and you reduce your calories. Reduce your calories, and you lose weight.

Pretty cool, huh?

There is a ton more you can learn, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you to check out the book “Carb Cycling for Fitness Professionals”.

This book is was written by Shelby Starnes, and is prolly the best carb cycling book out there. He puts everything you need to know into plain English (no fancy schmancy language) and gives you an action plan you can literally get started on as soon as you’re done reading it.

Oh, and as far as results, Shelby helped “Big” Chris McCombs lose 75 pounds in just 5 months.

=>CLICK HERE to see the “Big” Chris’ pics

Don’t let the title of the book fool you – you don’t need to be a ‘fitness professional’ to use this book. It can be used by anybody.

I bought this book personally, and think it’s a great buy.

=>CLICK HERE to learn more about carb cycling

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

If you’ve read my stuff for any length of time, you know I’m not a big fan of the supplement industry.

(And by “not a big fan of” what I really mean is “think it completely sucks”.)

Good thing for us there’s always an exception to the rule, though. This time, the exception is the dudes over at GI Nutrition.

I’ve known Alex & Chris Karsos (the two main dudes behind GI) since the beginning. In fact, I was one of the first few guys to promote them way back.

Now they sponsor pro baseball players, pro lacrosse players, pro strongman competitors, NFL hopefuls, and more. Oh, and their “Focus Food” bars are in more Major League baseball clubhouses than you can shake a stick at.

Their products are “NSF Recognized for Sport”, meaning that they meet strict testing standards that are recognized by numerous collegiate and pro athletic leagues (like the MLB, NFL, NCAA, and more).

In case you didn’t know, the NSF certification means that what GI says is in their products on the label is ACTUALLY what’s in them. Nothing more, nothing less.

Good stuff.

But, does their stuff work? Oh, hell yeah.

I can’t imagine hard workouts without their “Ideal Pump” pre-workout drink. I swear, that stuff has been responsible for more of my workout PRs than listening to old Metallica.

“Focus Food” is literally the best protein (and energy, for that matter) bar on the market, hands down. Tastes the best – seriously, that stuff is GOOD – and works the best.

I think there is pixie dust in “Ideal Recovery”…or something. I’ve never had *anything* that I could take right after a mongo-intense workout, and no joke, inside of 5 mins, be feeling better (almost like I could go again).

I could ramble on for a while, but you catch my drift.

Listen, don’t settle for all the other bogus crap out there. GI Nutrition’s stuff works, has been independently proven to contain what they say it does (how many other supplement companies can tell you that?), actually *tastes good*, is all natural (no fake crap), and is *very* reasonably priced.

I mean jeez – what more could you ask for?

Ok – their customer service rocks, too.

Do yourself a favor and go check out their stuff – I promise you’ll be glad you did:

=>Click Here – http://ginutrition.net/products

WHEN YOU DO – be sure to use the promo code “WIGGY” (all caps) when you check-out. You’ll Save 10% on your order.

Trust me – you’ll totally dig this stuff. (Why do you think I post it on my facebook all the time?)

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

Ok…say it with me…do it with me…

*face palm*

I screwed up. Kinda. Actually, I didn’t screw anything up. What I did was just completely miss a few emails.

Yeah…I’m makin’ about NO sense right now, huh?

Here’s the deal – you’ve prolly heard of my buddy Tom Venuto. He’s the dude behind “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” (like the best selling diet ebook on the intrawebs of all time). He’s a former bodybuilder, nutritionist, trainer, and a bunch of other stuff I forget right now.

Not to mention he’s an all-around cool dude.

Well, y’all might remember a few months back he put out a new book called the “Holy Grail”. It’s all about losing bodyfat and building muscle at the same time. Tons of science in it, but written w/us regular folks in mind – easy to read, and even easier to implement.

When the book was promoted before, it was sort of a ‘trial run’ so-to-speak. You know, pre-sells and that kinda stuff. He’s about to release it ‘for real’ (or something like that) and has been giving away a ton of cool free reports to hype up the product launch.

(You know how these kinda things work.)

Well, being busy w/a ton of other stuff, I’ve pretty much missed ALL the build-up, giveaways, and all that other stuff. Yay me…way to be on the ball. LOL

As it turns out, Tom is releasing the book today. (Told you I was late on it.)

BUT, you should be able to still go get all the cool free stuff Tom was offering. Yeah, you’ll have to enter your email and all that kinda stuff…like I said, y’all should know how this kinda thing works by now. Besides, if the info is coming from Tom, it’s gonna be good. You can bet on that.

Here’s the stuff he’s giving away:

=>The Holy Grail of Building Muscle and Losing Fat REVEALED (60-mins mp3 plus transcript)

=>Secrets of Gaining Muscle without Gaining Fat

=>Never Lose Muscle (100% Pure Fat Loss)

=>50 Body Transformation Mistakes

Now, y’all know I’m a huge fan if Intermittent Fasting (only eating at the end of the day). BUT, it’s just not for everybody. And that’s cool.

If you’re somebody that’s just not into IF, you’re looking to try something else, (or you just like getting freebies), check out Tom’s stuff.

I mean jeez…can’t beat the price, right?

Be sure to tell him Wiggy sent ya…

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Muscle Building Programs | Cardio Workouts | Cardio Fitness | MMA Workout | MMA Training