Dieting while cruising

[Scott Stevenson]

Hi Scott. Regarding your diet examples in your ebook do you still recommend using almond butter? And when you use it with shakes Im guessing you just blend it in with the shake, never tried it like that to be honest.

Almond butter is definitely an option, but I try to shy away from blanket recommendations when it comes to specific food. Take almond butter for example.

• Some might have a food allergy or insensitivity (and/or need to avoid peanuts which sometimes can cross-contaminate other "nut" butters).

• When dieting nut butters can be a trigger food for many, especially women.

• It might be more organoleptically satisfying eat the butter vs. mix it into shakes. When dieting down, one might want to eat the butter separately, but when packing in the food, mix it in.

• Sometimes folks can get on a food jag / start pseudo-mono-eating a food like almond butter (or what have you) b/c of a recommendation and then develop an intolerance / dislike for a food. This isn't good off-season or pre-contest.

• We know at least as far as peanut butter vs. peanuts, that there is a reduced useable calorie content in an equivalent mass of peanuts, due to (poor) digestibility. I would presume this applies to almonds, too (as you and find undigested bits in the stool, just as with peanuts). So a dietary trick I sometimes employ (when dieting down) is to substitute almonds for almond butter when dieting down. This creates more chewing (good for the sense that you're eating more), tends to keep folks away from that trigger that can come with the sweeter tasting butters, and reduces effective calorie intake.

But still, almond butter's a pretty good choice, IMO.



-S