Stupidly Simple Eating For Chris Slone

Everything sits under these two.

Think of 2,000 as a budget, not a target you have to spend. This is still a deficit for your age, size and the activity we are building, so do not force food in to reach it. But do not starve yourself under it either. Your first logged week averaged around 1,450, which is too low to fuel training, recovery and steps. Eat enough to do the work.

Protein is the primary target and the one to think about first. You have been averaging around 70g, so 120 is a real step up, and that is the point. Protein keeps you full while calories come down, and it tells your body to hold onto muscle while the fat comes off. Once 120 is locked in and easy, we will nudge it up.

Carbs and fats are yours to arrange however you like. Hit the protein, stay inside the budget, fill the rest with good food. One thing worth knowing as you learn the numbers: a gram of fat costs 9 calories, a gram of carbs costs 4. Fattier choices burn through the budget faster, leaner choices buy you more volume on the plate.

You said it perfectly on our call. You need to get your arms wrapped around the protein. Here is the whole method: reverse engineer the day before it happens.

Breakfast is currently your weakest meal. Cheerios and strawberries is about 5g of protein, which means you start every day 25g behind and spend the rest of it chasing.

• Three eggs, cooked however you like, plus one good quality protein shake. That is roughly 45g of protein before the day has properly started.
• Same every day, no decision required. Keep the strawberries if you enjoy them, they cost almost nothing.

One shake a day is the ceiling. Whole food does the rest. The shake is a tool while you build the habit, not the foundation.

Lunch and dinner both follow one rule: pick the protein first, build the plate around it.

You already eat well when you do this. Nine ounces of grilled grouper is over 60g of protein on its own. A filet with shrimp is another 60g plus dinner. Grilled chicken, steak, fish. You love all of it, so this is not a hardship, it is just putting your favorite foods in the starring role every single meal.

You found these yourself, so I will keep it short. Nothing is banned. But every chip and every Coke comes out of the same 2,000 budget as the food that actually fills you up.

The tortilla chips were quietly costing you 800 to 900 calories a day, and each Coke is around 140 to 160 more, all of it with zero protein.

Bars are a backup, not a staple. The ones you ordered are fine for topping up when you are caught short, just check the protein number on the label actually earns its calories.

Florida makes this easy, fresh fish everywhere. Kentucky is where the system matters, because good protein will not just appear in a remote area. So we plan for it.

• Build a repeating grocery order around your core proteins: eggs, chicken, steak, whatever frozen fish you can get, jerky, and your shake powder.
• Frozen fish and frozen chicken are your friends out there. They keep for months and cook in minutes.
• Work backwards from the week: three breakfasts of eggs, lunches covered, dinner proteins in the freezer, jerky in the cupboard. One order, one plan, and remote stops being a problem.

You have logged everything for two weeks as a first-timer, which is genuinely impressive, and it is exactly why we can now coach with real numbers instead of guesses.

• Keep going exactly as you are, including the meals that go sideways. The log is education, not judgment. Every entry is teaching you what food actually costs, and that knowledge stays with you for life.
• In MyFitnessPal, favor the entries with the green or blue verified tick so the numbers are real.
• When you log a restaurant meal, add a tablespoon of oil to the entry to cover the cooking fats you cannot see.

Half your bodyweight in ounces per day, so around 90 ounces for you.

This is the cheapest recovery tool you have, and it will take real bite out of the soreness you are feeling right now. Sleep, protein and water are how the body repairs. You are training three days a week now, so give it the raw materials.