It doesn’t matter what your goal is. You could be trying to lose weight, gain weight, maintain or increase performance. Whether you are tracking macros, “going Paleo”, or anything in between, one of the biggest keys to successful eating is consistency, and one of the easiest ways to be consistent is with the Robot Diet.
Now, this may sound like I’m suggesting you subsist on a regular diet of motor oil, metals, and high tech polymers, but the Robot Diet is all about simplification and efficiency. Essentially, what it boils down to is this. Eat the same thing everyday. That’s it.
I know what you’re thinking. It can’t be that easy, right? It may sound silly, but this is actually one of the most common habits of healthy people. Ever heard of meal prepping? Haven’t you seen all of those folks on Instagram with their matching containers of food all laid for the week? That’s all they’re doing. Eating the same meals everyday, so they know they’re getting a consistent intake of nutrients.
Eating the same things for the majority of your daily meals actually solves a lot of common problems with one easy solution. Anyone who has ever tracked their macros has probably found themselves in the situation, at the end of the day, where they have a very disproportionate amount of one macro or another left to eat. How do you put together a meal that has 50 grams of protein, 65 grams of carbohydrates, and only 3 grams of fat? the answer is, don’t put yourself in that position in the first place. If you know what you are eating for each meal, when you wake up in the morning, you won’t find yourself in such a frustrating predicament.
For those who prefer a more intuitive style of eating, the Robot Diet also provides a method for easy tinkering. Even if you’re not weighing and measuring every bit of food, keeping to the same basic quantities gives you a level of consistency that allows for minor adjustments, when needed. Gaining unwanted weight? Just cut the overall portion size of one or two of your meals. Having trouble gaining muscle? Up the size of your protein portions. Flagging performance? Give yourself an extra helping of carbs, once per day.
Personally, I eat the exact same breakfast, lunch, and snacks, six days a week, changing things up only when I get bored, or if I need to make a major change to my macros. To be honest, if I was still single, I’d eat the same dinner most days, as well; however, my wife requires a little more variety. That being said, having the same macros left to eat at the end of each day has allowed me to create a fairly satisfactory rotation of dinner menus that fill those requirements.
If eating the exact same things day in and day out sounds as monotonous to you as it does to my wife, fear not, you can still benefit from this style of eating. Just like my plug and play dinner menus, all you have to do is create a small menu of meals, properly balanced for your needs, and rotate them with enough frequency to avoid boredom. Every once in a while, come up with a new meal or two, and add it to the mix, while maybe giving another one a rest, until you miss it. Be creative, but above all else, be consistent.
by Coach Chris Woods
