(This is Part 1 of so far a 2 part in-depth review of Precision Nutrition).
There are SO MANY diet plans out there. SO MANY ways to think about food, many of them seemingly contradictory: one diet pushes meat and fat; another lots of greens and no bread. Some say eat little during the day and over eat at night; others, eat all the time. But, as nutrition and human performance researcher Dr. John Berardi puts it, if you're looking in the mirror and you're not happy with what you see, the most frequent limiting factor is nutrition. You need to get it right. So if you're reading this entry, it may just be because (a) you understand that and (b) you're still looking for a nutrition solution that works.
One approach i've been exploring over the past several months is Berardi's Precision Nutrition system. It takes the focus off the diet, the what to eat, per se, and focuses instead on the head space around everything to do with eating. It takes an holistic view around the how why and when of eating and focuses on developing the right habits to support effective practice. The premise is simple, and in the style of "the seven habits of highly effective people" unless we develop the right habits to support success, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment.
John Berardi's Precision Nutrition system is based around 10 fundamental habits. Get the habits right, and the argument goes, you're set for life (you can download those habits, along with sample recipes, for free - part 2 of this review goes into further detail about those habits, too). To help get these habits in place, the PN system covers strategies for food prep, for grocery shopping, for setting up your kitchen, for planning menus, for ultra super fast nutritious meals for folks on the go, for measuring your progress (and it ain't just using a scale), and of course, for choosing the right foods.
This is not a miracle "lose 20 pounds in three days" program. This is real stuff, based on real science and especially real and effective strategies for continued, progressive, measurable success. It's the whole enchilada as it were. In the following, i'll take a look at the program, the stuff you get, including Super Shake recipes (more on this miraculous beverage anon), and how it works.
And works and works.
Technorati Tags: diet, health, john berardi, precision nutrition
The Precision Nutrition System consists of 10 main components.
An introductory & Success Guide
The Diet Guide
The Quick Start Guide
The Super Shake Guide
5 Minute Meals
The Individualization Guide
The Measurement Guide
Audio Series
No Nonsense Nutrition Video Series
Gourmet Nutrition Cook Book
The online PN resource.
Each of these components is described in detail on the PN main page (just scroll down to "what is it and what do i get") but there are a few things i'd like to emphasize that i think have particular value: the online resources and yes, the Super Shake - ok and a few other bits.
Online Resources
I've said it before: effective companies provide support for their product beyond the sale of The Thing. In other reviews i've noted that the workout bootcamp DVD series P90X has online forum support; Dragon Door, publisher of all Pavel Tsatsouline's kettlebell and strength books & dvds supports one of the most supports an active strength, condition, kettlebelling AND nutrition forums. This is SMART. PN also has a forum and online resources, but it takes a slightly different approach: anyone can join the forum a view discussions with free sign up, but only owners of its products get full access to its forums and related online resources.
One of the best resources on this forum are the human resources. There are at least half a dozen professionals covering a range of nutrition/human performance areas who are part of the PN team and who actually reply to forum posts. More than once. A lot of discussions with these experts go on on the forums. Having access to previous ones, and participating in current ones all by itself is worth the price of admission. How much would it cost to dial up a top nutrition/performance expert and ask a question about your specific nutrition plan? The answer probably covers the cost of the entire PN program. I admit it: it was wanting to get answers to my questions about diet, supplements and workouts that pushed me off the fence to order PN v2. I received my login the day i purchased the system online, so was able to ask that question (and oh about 30 more) as soon as i plunked down the cash.
And that's another amazing asset about the forum. Many of the participants are themselves health professionals with certifications like the well respected National Strength and Conditioning CSCS. So when forum participants chime in, they're coming from a knowledgeable place - and if these kinds of Pros are here, that says something about the product.
Almost as an aside to these human resources are copious online resources: audio, video, ebook, online software etc. For instance in the section on training there are e-books that cover workouts for people starting out; workouts specifically for women, workouts for people over 40, workouts for people without any equipment, workouts for people who like to go to the gym. These have been produced again by well regarded pros.
I say pro alot, but one of the strong attractors for me in the PN system is that it's backed up by research, and not just "here's a study by a supplement company that says their product is great" - there's a synthesis of research going on and based on a critical look at the studies, a careful giving of opinion. I *like* going to a site where an answer to a question about eating carbs post work out is backed up by "these three articles from PubMed" - it means i can go check out the argument myself if i want.
That's great to be able to get intrigued about macronutrients you say, but what about just bloody losing weight?
Enter the Super Shake
Probably the thing that sold PN to me the most was looking at an acquaintance's copy and coming across The Super Shake. Let me back up a little. One of the ten habits is to eat every 2-3 hours, and to make sure there's some veg and protein "with each feeding" - yes "feeding" as opposed to meal.
Let's set aside the rationale for eating at least 6 meals a day (though who could argue with eating eating eating?), assume for a moment that this is a Very Good Idea, and just think about the practicalities of eating a full on protein (like meat) and veg (like spinach) meal at work. uh huh. Berardi recognizes the challenge of eating a Real Meal especially at work. His response is the magnificent Super Shake.
As he puts it, these things are likely more nutritious than some of your regular meals.
The super shake means that an implicit 11the Habit is this: get a blender; love a blender. As an aside, i'd add if you don't have blender love now, take a look at the Will It Blend series on the Blendtec Total Blender and be amazed at how fun a blender can be). Anyway, how PN makes supershakes means that you really do get a meal replacement that is as nutritious or better than a typical meal. These shakes are fast, can be made with fresh or frozen ingredients, and, best of all can be flung together in advance to cart off to work. They can be made the night before or morning of, shelped up to the office and popped in the fridge. There you have it. Dam they're good.
I don't want to give away the ingredients list but they're super fine. In fact there's an ongoing thread on the PN forum to upload variations on the supershakes. One included chocolate and coffee beans. wha!!! that's sinfully good, and really good for you. How can this be?
Supershakes mean that when you're hungry between meals, you get to eat. Da. You get to eat something that's both nutritious, tasty and filling.
For those times when you just can't pack a shake (like getting onto an airplane, dam it) there are alternatives in the gourmet nutrition cookbook (vol 1 is included in PN; vol 2 is new and may be ordered separately), such as the Anytime protein bars - i think these should be renamed "eat these and never feel hungry again" You know that stuff in Lord of the Rings that the elves give the Fellowship so they don't get hungry - lamas bread (??) - well that's what these things are like. I slice 'em up into a third the size the recommend and man, they are tasty potent beasties.
Does it Blend?
You may be wondering alright alright, but does this approach work? Have you lost weight? or gained weight? or done whatever you wanted to do with your weight?
Well, yes, else i'd nay be writing about this with such enthusiasm. But i'm only a couple months in: Berardi's body transformation contests which he holds for PN members, last 16 weeks, not 12. There are about 5 weeks given to just get the hang of the habits for the first time. Berardi says that until you can follow the habits with at least 90% compliance for five weeks, you don't have the basis for really assessing whether or not the program is working for you. The great thing is, scientifically, it's easy to chart whether you have complied and to what percentage: there's a chart: either you complied, or you didn't or you "cheated." That makes life unambiguously clear.
Once you have that 5 week get in the habit space down, you can begin to think about individualizing the plan to super tweak the approach to you. The individualization guide again gives you a sure fire process to assess where you're at, think about what you need to do, and to make assessments of effect over 2 week intervals. See what i mean about this is no lose 20 pounds in three days thing? This is a for real life-based approach to your nutrition and your goals around weight.
(The follow up review i've done focuses on the Individualization part of the program. If you want to skip reading more about that for now, bottom line, it works for tuning PN to suit your goals perfectly).
The great thing is you do not have to freak out about counting calories or getting overly intrigued about food labels: stick to the habits and things kinda take care of themselves. But you just might find yourself getting to a point where you want to get a little more interested in macronutrient ratios in foods (% of carbs, fats and protein) - if you do, there's guidance there too in the individualization guide to support that.
Measuring Up
And as you're charting you progress, you may ask yourself, how do you chart your progress? The answer in PN is Beyond the Bathroom Scale - that the Scale is just one measure. There are a LOT of ways to assess your progress, and when one (like the scale) seems stuck, you may be actually making progress on others. Consider the all important waist and butt measures. Suppose you seem stuck at a particular poundage, but from your great new fitness plan (like oh i dunno, maybe swinging kettlebells) you're seeing your butt size go down. or your waist. or both. That's a Good Thing: you're building lean muscle (heavier than fat) and also getting rid of fat. Well done! The scale might not be going down but bet your pants are fitting better. An other measure that is detailed pretty intensely is skin fold measures. Yes, pinch an inch is one way where you and a partner can bond on taking each others skin fold measures. From seven sites on your body. Here's a quick test: can you pinch any skin from the back of your calf when you're standing up? I was surprised by the results on that one. In any case, the point is, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and if you want to have the MOST information to go on to determine your progress - where it's happening especially if the scale seems stuck (it happens) you've got it here.
The Other Good Stuff
I haven't talked about the guides on how to set up your kitchen, go shopping, set aside time for food prep of a sunday and get it done for the week, and all the recipes (beyond the Super Shake). That's because mainly i have a pretty good handle right now on shopping, meal prep (i love to chop), packing a lunch and throwing things into a pan: i follow the Super Food guide in PN: follow the habits, use the foods in the Super Food list, and thar ya go. And ain't it grand that the program accommodates people who like recipe books, and people who like ingredients lists!
Want to Try It Out?
If you like the sound of the plan, but aren't quite ready to pony up, aren't quite sure about the sound of potentially lifestyle changing habits, there are a few ways you can get a closer view of the program. There's the free sample from the Gourmet Nutrition recipe book There's also a 7 chapter, 45 page e-book called "Precision Nutrition Strategies for Success" that is like a condensed version of the PN system. With this you can get a really good feel for the whole program.
Berardi also has a free 8 day email based thinking about your nutrition crash course called "Body Transformation with Precision Nutrition". Give it a shot: it's free, the ideas come to you once a day for a little over a week, and that's it. At the very least, you get a preview of the 10 habits, and some ideas for checking out how to support an effective, habit-based, approach to personal nutrition. The first 3 days are just online questionnaires to help you get a sense of where you're at with nutrition understanding right now, focusing on understanding what leads to failure, or more importantly, success, no matter what approach plan or system you take to nutrition. (Aside: if you're a skinny person who actually wants to bulk up, Beradi also has a free 5 day crash course called Scrawny to Brawny that goes through stuff from supplements to exercises to get some beef on the bod in a muscular rather than flab kinda way).
So? Why a Preliminary Review?
I admit it: i'm someone who's into health and i like knowing why something works. I also sometimes like not to have to think about stuff and just "follow the plan." Precision Nutrition lets me be shallow and deep about nutrition as much as i want, and i've been doing that alot for 3 months. Most particularly, i like how there's also insight on how to balance my workouts with my nutrition: that the system is sensitive to that - and that the pros involved in PN are health professionals. For a geek like me, this kind of program is exciting: i can look under the hood. And there's so much available online, for constant updates, refining plans and so on. You can go as deep as you want. or not. It's working. Hence i want to come back to this months down the line when i'm tapping a little more deeply into the Beyond PN land.
For my family who for the most part couldn't care less about the nitty gritty and just want to lose weight and already pretty much "eat healthy" (vegetables of various colors show up on the plate, that sort of thing), PN also fits the bill. The habits make it easy, as said, to see if one is on task. The challenge to follow those habits "clean" for five weeks is the biggest challenge of the whole thing. (Initially, not having oatmeal for breakie unless i was working out first was the biggest challenge). And with things like super shakes, anything is possible. If only one could still take liquids on planes, even travel could be improved.
Now to go make some Lama bread bars. When i've been using the system for another three months, i'll come back with a follow up review, but for now two thumbs up!
Link to Precision Nutrition v2
Update March 21, 2008:
Follow up review posted, This Time It's Personal: Follow Up Review of John Berardi's Precision Nutrition version 2 - Habits and Individualization.
As you can likely tell from the title, i've found PN to work not only to achieve goals but to maintain them. The review focuses specifically on the methodology of Habits (as opposed to diet) and how the PN Individualization Guide works to tune those habits for individual perfection both for the immediate goal achievement and ongoing maintenance - to say nothing of adapting for new goals/challenges.
Posted by mc at September 18, 2007 1:29 AM