Hi Friends,
We believe food should be nourishing and enjoyable. It shouldn’t be a science project or an exercise in constraint. So you won’t find any overcomplicated macro breakdowns, food scales, or calorie counting. Instead, Nibbles is a collection of food philosophies we’ve adapted over the years. They’re our guiding principles – an attempt to share some of our nutritional wisdom broken down into sometimes cheeky, sometimes serious, always easy-to-follow nuggets. ¡Bon Appétit!
Here’s our goals:
- We want to showcase some of our favorite foods and give you a framework to think about nutritional variety.
- We want to highlight the importance of mindfulness in our relationship to food
- We want to clarify the new science behind fasting and how planning can increase our joy around food.
- We want to teach you what you don’t usually learn about protein.
- We want to set the record straight about the importance of fat and why it tends to be over-vilified.
- We want to teach you about the loveliness of vegetables, how they destroy free radicals, protect cells, maintain bone mass, and help you stay strong.
A quick word about pronouns:
Because these chapters have been co-authored, we usually use the plural “we” in reference to our collective thoughts. In the event that we’re speaking from an individual perspective, we’ve put our names in parenthesis and used “I” instead.
AND SO…initially, let’s talk about the foods we love.
Please don’t read this as a good-foods-list and assume anything not listed is bad or off-limits. Food has no moral implications. There are no “good foods” or “bad foods” and it does us a big service to step away from any framework or vocabulary that suggests otherwise (ie “I’m being good today” or “sinful chocolate cake”.) This is simply a list of foods we’ve grown to appreciate which make up the bulk of our nutrition.
(Rob) I’m a relatively simple creature, so I often think about food in terms of colors. Let’s start with fruits and vegetables:
Green
- Brussels Sprouts
- Spinach
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Collard Greens
- Green Beans
- Green Peppers
- Avocado
- Zucchini
- Cucumber
- Celery
- Arugula
- Mixed Greens
- Bok Choy
- Cabbage
- Collard Greens
- Romaine Lettuce
- Green Grapes
- Kiwi
- Honeydew melon
- Lime
- Swiss chard
Orange/yellow
- Winter squash varieties (kobucha, butternut, sweet dumpling, acorn, spaghetti)
- Summer squash
- Pumpkin
- Orange/yellow peppers
- Carrots
- Oranges
- Peaches
- Mangos
- Pineapple
- Banana
- Lemon
- Cantaloupe
- Tangelo
- Papaya
Red/pink
- Tomatoes
- Red peppers
- Radishes
- Apples
- Cherries
- Strawberries
- Grapes
- Red cabbage
- Red lettuce
- Beets
- Grapefruit
- Dragonfruit
- Passion fruit
- Raspberries
White
- Cauliflower
- Onions
- Leaks
- Shallots
- Alfalfa sprouts
- Bean sprouts
- Parsnips
- Chives
- Endive
- Fennel
- Onion
- Rutabaga
- Turnips
- Water chestnuts
Other colors
- Mushrooms
- Blueberries
- Eggplant
Beverages
- H2O
- Sparkling H2O (unflavored)
- Coffee
- Caffeinated Tea
- Herbal Teas
** No caffeine after 3pm
**You can naturally flavor your water by adding fruit for natural “fruit infusion”
(Mel) I’m a dietitian, so while I too think in terms of colors, I also think about food in terms of nutritional categories.
Fats
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Extra virgin coconut oil
- Sesame oil
- Avocado
- Avocado oil
- Nut butter (100% all natural – no added sugar)
- Grass fed butter
- Ghee
- Rendered fat via sustainably sourced animals
- Proteins
- Eggs
- Poultry (chicken, turkey)
- Beef
- Pork
- Game meats (venison, elk, bison, antelope, boar)
- Seafood (especially small cold water fish like herring and wild alaskan salmon)
- Full fat greek yogurt
- Sprouted Tofu
- Tempeh
- Whey protein (post-workout only)
Starchy Carbohydrates
- Oats
- Dry cereals
- Hot cereals
- Rice (white, brown, wild, black)
- Beans (chickpea, kidney, lentil, black bean, etc.)
- Pasta (wheat based, bean based, rice or corn based)
- Potatoes (white, sweet, etc.)
- Quinoa
- Millet
- Amaranth
- 100% whole grain breads
- Tortillas (corn or wheat)
- Corn
- Polenta
- Peas
- Plantains
- Yucca
Non-Starchy Carbohydrates
(Color coded above)
Again, these aren’t the only foods we eat, they’re simply the foods we eat most often.
Love & muscles,
Rob & Mel