What 25 Years of Nutrition Work Eventually Taught Me

It’s my birthday. Here are three things I’m doing right now — quiet, unflashy, working — that 25 years of nutrition science finally taught me to trust.

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):

• The principles haven’t changed. The Power Practices and Six Pillars still drive every result that matters.

• The average person eats 26 different foods a week — your job isn’t more variety, it’s making your 26 better.

• Modeling healthy habits for your kids is the most underrated consistency tool I’ve ever used.

• The pursuit of the perfect rep keeps me in the game and out of the injury cycle that takes most 40-something dads down.

The Boring Stuff Is What’s Actually Working

Today’s my birthday. And instead of writing about what I want to do this year, I want to tell you what I’m actually doing right now — three things I’ve quietly locked in that are making the biggest difference in how I feel, look, and show up.

I’m optimizing for a lot of things at once.

When I talk to college athletes, one of the things I always come back to is helping them use nutrition to fuel them as athletes and build habits that carry forward — so they’re healthy adults once they’re done playing competitive sports.

At this point in my life, that idea matters even more.

Because when I think about what I’m trying to do with my nutrition, health, and fitness, I’m optimizing across a lot of different things at once. Energy. Stress management. Long-term health — both biomarkers I can measure, like cholesterol and blood sugar, and things I can’t explicitly measure, like future risk of cognitive decline or future risk of falls and fractures from decreased muscle mass. And I’m also optimizing for my current state — for strength and how I look and feel.

At first it can seem really confusing or complicated to optimize for so many things. But the more I distill it down, the more I keep landing in the same place: the principles are the principles. The Power Practices remain true no matter what. The Six Pillars of Nutrition are just as relevant as they ever were.

By Six Pillars I mean:

1. Eating multiple meals per day — three meals plus a snack and/or recovery shake

2. Eating fruits and vegetables at every meal

3. Eating protein at every meal

4. Optimizing carbohydrate intake around exercise to improve insulin sensitivity and how those carbohydrates get processed

5. Focusing on water — not calorie-containing beverages (alcohol included here)

6. Limiting foods with added sugars and processed foods

And by Power Practices I mean:

• 10,000 steps per day

• 20 minutes of mindfulness per day

• 2–3 strength training workouts per week

• 3 meals per day with protein and vegetables

• 7–9 hours of sleep per night

I have more food selection quirks.

I love food. And I enjoy eating foods I enjoy. But most of the time, I’m focused on the value of the bites I take and the calories I consume. I consider every calorie we consume to be a valuable one. Every time we have an opportunity to eat, it’s an opportunity to fulfill a nutrient need.

Because of this, I’ve noticed I gravitate toward particular foods again and again.

It’s been shown that the average person eats about 26 different foods on a weekly basis. You don’t need a lot of variety. Instead, let’s focus on making those 26 foods the best possible choices.

What are your #Core26 Foods? Here are mine:

1. 90% lean ground beef

2. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast

3. Eggs / egg whites

4. Plain, non-fat or low-fat Greek yogurt

5. Whey/casein protein powder

6. Black beans

7. Wild blueberries

8. Raspberries

9. Bananas

10. Brown rice

11. Rolled oats

12. Dave’s Killer Thin-Sliced 21 Whole Grains and Seeds

13. Potatoes

14. Spinach

15. Lettuce (Bibb is my favorite)

16. Cucumbers

17. Bell peppers

18. Yellow/red onions

19. Avocado

20. Broccoli

21. Pistachios

22. Natural peanut butter

23. Chia seeds

24. Ground flax seeds

25. Extra virgin olive oil

When those foods are stocked in my house and showing up on my plate, the rest of the work — hitting the 30/10 standard, keeping protein high, getting two-thirds of my plate from produce — basically takes care of itself.

What are your Core 26? Write them down. Then look at the list honestly. Are those the foods you actually want feeding you for the next decade?

I am more aware of how I am modeling healthy habits for my kids.

This makes me healthier and more consistent.

Modeling healthy habits for my kids also helps me crystallize and distill what I’m trying to do on a daily basis — and why it’s important. I find that’s universal across the Power Practices. How I stress the importance of sleep with my kids (which is a challenge with teens, but not impossible). How I’ve introduced them to mindfulness meditation. How I talk and think about foods and food choices. Introducing them to strength training and what that actually looks like.

And here’s where it loops back to my own training.

With strength training, I’ve been on the pursuit of the perfect rep. Every set is a series of reps. And each of those reps is an opportunity to make the perfect one. Same setup. Same brace. Same tempo. Full range. Controlled.

This doesn’t only help my form and my concentration. It also stops me from doing stupid things that might lead me to get injured. And in the end, I actually don’t see many decreases in strength. The numbers are still there.

In any discipline, there’s something powerful about teaching that discipline to someone else and watching how it transforms the teacher. Teaching my kids about different healthy habits has further crystallized how to make those habits happen in my own life.

You’re not being selfish for prioritizing your health. You’re showing them what an adult who prioritizes his health actually looks like.

That’s leadership.

What These Three Have in Common

None of these are flashy. None of them require a new app, new equipment, or a new plan.

They’re three places where I’ve stopped looking for the next thing and started executing harder on what I already knew. Optimizing for many things at once by trusting the principles. A smaller, better menu. Modeling for the people watching me.

That’s what 44 feels like. Less restless. More patient. More interested in what actually works than what’s interesting to talk about.

If you want to give yourself a birthday gift today — even if it isn’t your birthday — pick one and start today.

Trust the principles you already know.

Write your Core 26.

Or tell your kids what you’re working on and let them watch you do it.

That’s the work. That’s all it’s ever been.

— Mike