What is the best Jiu-Jitsu diet plan in the world? The one you manage to stick to. Easy to say, but extremely hard to do. And yet, accountability is the one thing that is way more important when it comes to dieting and meal plans than anything else. It doesn’t matter how many grams of superfoods you eat at what time. It is relevant, of course, but not detrimental. If you want to reap the benefits of a healthy diet, you need to pick one and stick with it. Clean eating can be easy, but only if you set yourself up to succeed.
The answer to the question of what kind of meal plan is the healthiest does not have one single answer. That is because plenty f diets out there are very healthy. Actually, it is much easier to eat healthy than we presume. There’s no need for a Ph.D. professor to tailor-make everything for us. Even pro athletes don’t hassle as much as some of the trending diets would have you do. In fact, there’s no real specific Jiu-Jitsu diet plan that’s actually tailor-made to make you better at BJJ. Three are ways, though, of making any diet plan healthy and clean, and they’re easy to follow, as long as you’re aware of them.
Why Do You Need A Jiu-Jitsu Diet Plan?
Absolutely not. How many people do you know that train other sports and have specific diets for them? Do any tennis players have a tennis meal plan? What about a rugby or Nascar meal plan? Something about martial arts and weight cutting has people believing their diet needs to contain the name of the sport in order to be effective. So, the only reason people are looking for a specific “jiu-jitsu diet plan” is psychological. And it does factor into the big picture.
The fact of the matter is, this is an important aspect of any meal plan. However, it is not just the psychological aspect. Okay, you have your Jiu-Jitsu diet plan, whether it is Gracie or another family’s all set up. How do you go about making it work? It is not about the plan itself if we’re being honest. The reason why most diets fail is that people can’t stick to them. So, the most important thing after picking your diet plan is to make sure it works for you. To make things easy let me put it like this: What worked for Helio Gracie 50 years ago in Brazil, won’t work for you today in the USA. Even better, what works for you won’t work for the person sitting next to you right now.
Looking at a Jiu-Jitsu diet plan to organize your meals is a great idea. However, trying to follow something to a “T” is not going to work long term. What will work is a plan that you can stick with, and that follows a few simple guidelines. The less you complicate, the better your results will be. T is as simple as that.
Rules To Make Any Meal Plan Work
A bit of common sense is the first and most important ingredient in any meal plan, BJJ, or not. If you need to spend three hours per meal cooking it, there’s no real point in even trying it out. The same holds true for that stuff that passes as food among bodybuilders. If the food is too bland and tasteless, you’ll grow tired of it in a fortnight. In order to set up for success, here are the three things you absolutely need to make any Jiu-jitsu diet plan work:
1. Plan Ahead
The holy trinity begins with a very logical step – become a prepper. Not a doomsday one, but rather, a meal prepper. Iт doesn’t take much to get into the habit of having a meal or two readies ahead of time so you just pop them out and go for it. Especially when you have to juggle between work, house chores, and training BJJ. Moreover, extend preparation тоyour shopping as well. Know what you’ll eat at least a few days in advance and do all the shopping at once. That way you cut back on needles time in supermarkets, plus you don’t’ have to figure out what to eat on a day-to-day basis.
2. Prevent Temptations
This one is very easy to do – just don’t buy stuff that you know doesn’t fit your Jiu-Jitsu diet plan. Sugar should most certainly be on that list. So should any processed foods, especially processed meats and grains. Not buying the bad stuff is not hard once you decide to go on a meal plan. The most difficult thing is throwing out the stuff you already have lying around. Throwing food is never a good idea so you belter stow it away somewhere where you won’t be able to get to it quickly when temptations strike. Or, better yet, give it to someone. We all have that weird friend that can eat anything and look like they’re a pro athlete.
3. Plan to Fail
If you’re looking for the perfect eating plan with no glitches at all, you won’t find it. It doesn’t exist. Instead, plan to fail with your plan. Accept that you’ll eat a thing or two that’s not on the plan. Moreover, you might spend a day of splurging. In fact, you should factor in days like this in order to keep you sane. Whatever plan you choose to stick to, has to have exceptions and you can enjoy them guilt-free when you know they’re an option. If you don’t give yourself some leeway, you’ll most definitely fall off the clean eating bandwagon at some point.
Foods That Are Actually Good For You
In order to satisfy even those who love to obsess over every tiny detail and want a complete Jiu-Jitsu meal plan to go with their Jiu-Jitsu strength and conditioning routine and Gracie t-shirt, I’ll go over some food options that you can’t go wrong with. Just don’t go eating anything but because these are just some key elements of a clean and complete diet and not the only things you need.
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Seafood
Any type of seafood is extremely rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids which are very important for our bodies. They act as antioxidants to reduce blood pressure and boost immunity. Moreover, these properties are not just used for marketing purposes but are actually proven benefits of eating sea fish. You also don’t’ have to do it every day, twice a week will suffice and you can feel free to rotate your choices.
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Soy
This is a food that gets a bad name due to the production processes that sometimes include GMOs. However, it is a staple of the village diet in Japan, a meal plant that has produced the most centenarians in the world. That said, as long as you’re careful where you get your soy form, it’ll fit right on top of any Jiu-Jitsu meal plan. Tofu is the most common and easy to incorporate shape, though.
Soy is awesome for the nervous system, reducing inflammation and preventing certain common types of cancer, like breast cancer for example.
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Berries
I guess you can’t talk or think about a healthy diet nowadays and not picture berries of some sort in it. There’s actually a good reason for this. I guess that apart from the Keto/Carnivore diet bunch, everybody else agrees that berries are a great food for a healthy meal plan.
Apart from the incredible levels of antioxidants you get from different berries, they’re also an awesome source of energy without all the drawbacks of highly processed carbs sources. They’re also very rich sources of Vitamin C, as well as the immune-boosting ellagic acid. Plus, you can have them in liquid form if you use them in smoothies, rather than just having to eat them as part of your meals.
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Green Tea
Perhaps the one thing everyone agrees is healthy. Green tea is in any and all diet plans, and that includes any respectable Jiu-Jitsu diet plan. It does depend on what type of green tea you bu as well as the form you get it in. The closer you are to the most natural leave from, the better. However, even teabags will do the trick.
Green tea has incredibly positive effects on the brain, on top of providing you with even more antioxidants to help you with athletic performance. There’s also quite a high content of theophylline, a close cousin of caffeine that has all the benefits but none of the side effects. Enjoy as much as you want of it throughout the day. If you can substitute coffee with it altogether, that would be ideal.
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Oats
Perhaps the most underrated of grains. They’re immense for heart health on top of containing huge amounts of essential minerals and just as many vitamins. Fiber-wise they’re irreplaceable, containing lots of beta-glucan that lowers sugar absorption and helps keep your gut healthy. Oats contain few calories, yet as a whole grain, they are a powerful source of energy. The perfect food for a Jiu-Jitsu diet plan.
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Eggs
Last but not least, we have the humble egg. Not just one of the best sources of protein, but also the perfect source of fat you actually need for your body. Not to mention all the minerals eggs contain, especially free-range. Easy to fit into anyone’s meal plan, they’re a staple of athletic and healthy diets. And yes, you need to eat them whole. Otherwise, they would’ve only come as egg whites.
Closing Thoughts
Choose a meal plan that you know you can stick with. That’s the biggest piece of advice I can give you on clean eating. Sure, it can be a Jiu-Jitsu diet plan, an MMA meal plan, or whatever. Just make sure that when it comes down to preparing a meal, or shopping, you know exactly what you need, and you don’t dread having to cook or eat something. After all, food is there to be enjoyed, right?
