How to [Eat Pizza Daily] & Stay Lean

Achieving Adaptability

The person who can eat anything they like, and often does, without any problems, can consume the most amazing food combinations without any issues.

This individual must have amazing metabolic health and adaptability. Everyone has this ability (bar those rare few with dietary misfortunes) to eat everything and anything, yet remain healthier than ever.

Achieving Amazing Metabolic Health

Your metabolism is a wonderful thing, it is incredibly adaptable and will change according to what it is given. It’s simply the total sum of energy burnt by our bodies. Whether it be brushing your teeth, digesting food, lifting weights or keeping you warm, all of these things add up to be your metabolism.
So how do we make our metabolisms amazing, so we can eat pizza daily? The most important thing you can do is to not restrict food intake needlessly. If you are constantly eating less than your body needs, your metabolism, being the adaptable bugger it is, will adjust downwards, meaning you will burn less total energy. So make sure to eat well, and by well I mean do not needlessly restrict intake.

Another simple addition to the above can be to move. It doesn’t need to be a load, but please avoid being sedentary for long periods of time. The largest component of our metabolic burn is our Non Exercise Activity Thermogensis or NEAT. This is the energy used for all movement outside of formal exercise, so it is the walking to the shops, cleaning our rooms and getting down in the bed room. That stuff really adds up! Stop laughing…

To take it a step further you can further ramp your metabolic rate up by implementing a few dietary changes. Protein out of all the macronutrients takes the most energy to be digested. So by changing the macro composition of our diet we can increase our metabolic rate. Also make sure you’re eating in a balanced way, that means not restricting any foods unnecessarily. Our body loves carbs, they provide the best fuel for us to perform exercise. You should be eating them if you want to get the most from your training.

And finally there is exercise, most people think that this has a dramatic impact on our total energy burn, but as I said previously NEAT is the biggest factor. However, it is an important aspect of having amazing metabolic health. I am going to start with the exercise to avoid, and that is slow, utterly boring, steady state cardio. That stuff really aint going to to do much for your metabolism. Our bodies will adapt to it in a jiffy, one month you might be burning 300 calories doing an incline walk for 30 minutes at 5mph, the next month you will definitely be burning less.

You want to be purposely increasing the intensity, volume and or distance of your chosen exercise. This way your body is continually adapting upwards, and you’ll be getting stronger and fitter. However, this is where the catch 22 comes in, now you’re fitter and stronger, that means you’ll burn less energy doing day to day activities. BUT, you can now perform at higher intensities, recover faster and handle more work all of which leads to burning more calories. Don’t over think it, do exercise, make sure to get outside of your comfort zone. 

So now you have the knowledge of how to get amazing metabolic health, how do you go about achieving amazing adaptability?

Amazing Adaptability

Remember how I said our bodies are incredibly adaptable? This can work against us, I am going to show you how. If you eat an all vegetable diet, you will adapt to that, if you eat an all meat diet, you’ll adapt to that. If you eat an all raw food diet, you will get sick if you consume cooked food. If you want to consume wonderful worldly combinations of any food and remain healthy, you need to adapt to the modern food environment and be able to handle pretty much anything.


Do you really want to feel like crap when you eat out, or go to a friends for dinner because you’re not eating your special diet food? On the other hand, do you want to get stomach ache when you eat any sort of vegetable, due to only being used to eating processed food? No of course not. You want to be healthy, and have it all.The number of people who can eat whatever they want without becoming fat or ill doesn’t need to be just a ‘lucky’ few.

How do we get to that point? It really is simple; be sure to eat a diet that is varied, that means it includes processed foods, high fibre foods, calorie dense foods, low GI carbs, high GI carbs, you get the picture.

Now You are an Adaptable Metabolic Animal

If you follow the above, you will have the digestive and metabolic machinery to annihilate anything. You want to do your best to feed yourself well, be active and eat a varied diet that consists of mainly wholesome nutritious foods but with the occasional meal out, bowl of ice cream and take away pizza.

Go eat some great food, get out of breath, enjoy life and #ReviveStronger

Further Reading:

Delicious Homemade Macro Friendly Pizza

People come and go, but pizza, pizza is for life. There is no better feeling than eating a slice of warm freshly cooked pizza, this can only be improved by the knowledge you made that pizza. You grafted in the kitchen, rolled the dough, laid on the toppings and furthermore, you know what went into your pizza.

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By now you know I love pizza, I also love flexible dieting, and the two in combination make my day. Flexible dieting is about having the knowledge that no diet is perfect, but you can make daily food choices that progress you towards your goals, in the knowledge that these food choices can be driven by preference. One caveat being is that you must get sufficient micro and macro nutrition, otherwise you can pretty much eat as you like. For the vast majority of people a 80/20 rules applies and works, so 80% of the time you are eating wholesome, nutrient dense foods and then 20% of your diet can be as you like.

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Where does pizza fit? Well just like any food, it meets my macro and micro nutrient needs. Homemade pizza is a cut above takeout, because you are choosing the ingredients, and if you follow my recipe it fits within that 80%. So you can continue to lose weight, gain muscle, build power, develop endurance whatever your goals may be, and eat pizza. Enough with the babble, here is what you have been waiting for…

Delicious, homemade, macro friendly Pizza

I am going to provide you the ingredients and method for the basic, but oh so delicious Margherita Pizza. This aint no tiny pizza, this is the real deal, 10inch, thin crust, cheesy pizza. You can make it smaller, you can make it bigger (I have) but this pizza is your billy bob, your essential, it gets the job done, bloody well.

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What you need:

The Base:

  •  ’00’ Grade Flour – 125g
  • Yeast- 2g
  • Salt- 1tspn
  • 70g warm water

The Sauce:

  • Tinned tomatoes- 150g
  • Italian Seasonings

The Topping:

  • Mozzarella – 40g

Macros: 28g Protein, 93g Carbohydrates, 13g Fat – 595 calories

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Those are some sexy macros right? Hell yes they are, and it makes me love this pizza even more. Also check those ingredients, there is what 7 there, and of those 7 there are only 5 ‘real’ make or break ones, how good is that? It is darn good right. Plus how many of those would you consider crap? or junk? I hope none, because none are. On top of this, the method, it couldn’t be simpler. Trust me you will get why I make this almost everyday in no time.

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How to make it:

Step 1

  • Combine all the ingredients of the base.
  • Do not knead this, combine and leave to sit for 1 hour.

Step 2

  • Blend your tomatoes and Italian seasonings.
  • Set your oven to the highest temperature it will go.

Step 3

  • Flour your work surface and roll out your dough, this is the only slightly difficult bit.
  • There are many methods for this, find what suits you best, personally I round the dough, then working from the inside out with my thumbs I flatten out the dough and rotate as I do, leaving a crust. Then flip and continue on the other side. From here I pick up the dough and holding the crust I rotate the dough like a steering wheel, letting it stretch out.
  • Keep pressing/stretching out your dough till at desired size/thickness.

Step 4

  • Place your rolled out dough onto your pizza stone or plate.
  • Chuck on all your sauce and toppings.
  • Cook in the oven for 4-6 minutes, depending on how well cooked you like it.

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You got yourself some cracking pizza, with brilliant macros and that I can see fit within anyones diet. Sounds too good to be true? It isn’t, just try it, you will love it, and keep making it and become a pizza addict like me.

You love the sound of all this but do not know how many calories or macronutrients you need? Want to enjoy pizza like the above in the knowledge that you can still lose fat, gain muscle, stay lean and get strong but do not know where to start? Whether in contest prep for natural bodybuilding, physique, bikini or building towards a powerlifting meet or championship, we can all eat pizza and progress. All my clients eat to preference, I think everyone should, but not everyone knows how. Want to eat better and enjoy everything that goes in your mouth? You may want to look into getting a coach who can help you out. You can check out my services here.

Low Carb Easy Cauliflower Cheese Pizza

I came across the idea of using cauliflower as a low carb variation to flour, rice and potato a long time ago. I shunned it, declaring never to be so crazy as to drop my precious carbs and eat such strange variations. Little did I know my contest prep would lead me to search out low carb alternatives, and I did what I said I’d never do and set about using cauliflower as a low carb option. I’m glad I did, not only is it incredibly low carb it is also easy and tastes very good. I’d be lying if I said these pizza’s were as good as the real thing, but damn, when you are on low calories and trying to keep carbs low but crave a pizza, these taste heavenly.

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So enough about my discovery of the ease and deliciousness of these pizzas and down to business we go.

The Base

Ingredients:

  1. 100g Egg Whites
  2. 300g Cauliflower
  3. 30g 50% Reduced Fat Cheese
  4. Seasonings

Method:

  1. Remove Cauliflower stalks and blend till fine, like flour.
  2. Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix until combined.
  3. Lay out as desired onto a non-stick baking tray.
  4. Cook for 20-30 minutes at 200 Degrees C.

Macros: 25g Protein, 16g Carbohydrates (8g Fibre), 5g Fat

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This makes a large pizza base, and when I say large I mean like the size you get from a restaurant, not some little diddy thing. So if you do not need such a large meal or want to adjust it to fit your macros feel free to divide up the quantities.

Toppings

To be frank these are completely up to you and should be determined by preference and your individual nutritional needs. However, there are a few things I recommend that work well, although these should be no brainers to those who like their pizza.

  • Tomato Puree
  • Low Fat Cheese
  • Ham (this crisps up nicely)
  • Veggies (pretty much any, I love sweetcorn but its carby boo)
  • Walden Farms Ketchup/BBQ Sauce (so good and no kcals)
  • Salsa (really recommend this one, low cal and tasty as)
  • Italian seasoning and Garlic Salt
  • Tuna mixed in Walden Farms Sauce (this is a goody)

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So you don’t miss out on any further recipes or good looking meals then be sure to follow me on instagram @Revivestronger.