Food Talk with a Professional Strongman
Talking Food and Fitness with One of China’s Greatest: Fueling a Professional Strongman
Today we sat down with Travis Hayes, co-founder and head coach at LiftOn strongman gym and kitchen.
Here, Travis condenses his wealth of fitness and nutrition wisdom into bite-sized advice for the average person looking to get and stay healthy. Increasingly today, being an average person means a busy-but-not-active lifestyle. How can we make gains toward more energy and that physique we’ve always dreamed of, according to someone who has found the magic formula?
Sam’s Club
Healthy living encompasses so much it’s hard to keep up with for many people. What are the top-3 fundamentals you recommend those with busy lives to focus on first?
That actually goes against my first rule, which is ‘Start with one thing.’
Travis
Sam’s Club
Interesting, let’s hear more.
Here at LiftOn, we do fitness and we do food. People come in and they want to start from every direction at once. When I work with them, though, it comes down to which thing can they do easier or which they enjoy more. If you have more fun training, we focus on your training, because that’s what you’re going to be excited to do.
Travis
Sam’s Club
So there is some flexibility with planning health goals.
Yeah. It’s going to take you your whole life to figure your own health out, so you might as well start with the things that are going to make the journey easy for you. And once those things become a habit, then you can start to try to experiment in other areas.
Travis
Sam’s Club
What about your food journey? Where are you with your nutrition right now?
My diet now, as a strongman, is that I can eat whatever I want for the most part. When I first started, like most people, I didn’t know much about food, so I ended up with stomach problems and falling asleep with hunger pains. Now I have a meal before bed every night: Chicken, rice, vegetables, and sometimes cookies. Once you start training, you realize you have to eat more, which then goes against everything you recently taught yourself [for those who also needed to lose weight]. My advice to the average person is to be flexible to an extent according to your hunger levels and nutritional needs. Flexible doesn’t include Burger King and McDonalds.
Travis
Sam’s Club
So nutrition is a journey, but it’s not about just staying on one path the whole time.
Yes. I would say about 80 percent of my meals are healthy, and about 20 percent are snacks or cheat meals. So maybe two or three meals per week could be considered unhealthy. And I eat five meals a day. Here at our gym, we put people on four meals a day. For the average person, four meals a day is a good thing. That would be breakfast, lunch, a snack and dinner. A protein shake sometime in there would be great.
Travis
Sam’s Club
You just mentioned that about 20 percent of your meals are ‘unhealthy.’ Do you feel fatigued after eating these?
Fatigued in what way: Feeling tired, or bored of your food?
Travis
Sam’s Club
Let’s talk about getting bored of your food. Let’s say you get tired of having oatmeal every day – what do you do?
I start eating waffles, haha. This is why it’s important to understand that it’s going to take a long time to get where you want to be health-wise. Once you understand it might take five years instead of one year [to reach your health goal], then you realize it’s okay to go, ‘Okay, today for breakfast I’m going to have pancakes instead of oatmeal.’ This way you’re not feeling as guilty, because you know you have plenty of time to progress.
Travis
Sam’s Club
What about just feeling out of energy all the time? Fatigue is something a lot of busy adults struggle with. What is the top lifestyle change someone could make to boost their energy in the short-term?
I tell people that within two weeks on a meal plan, they should feel more energy. I haven’t been proven wrong yet. Putting yourself of a schedule for eating helps your body know when it will get refueled and prevents crashing. Eat every three to four hours. Also, sleep.
Travis
Sam’s Club
The effects of a bad diet are usually seen 10, 20, 30 years down the line. How have you kept yourself so motivated to stick to a healthy lifestyle in the here and now?
My work keeps me motivated. I want people who come to my gym to see that the person running the place can do the workouts himself. But even if I wasn’t running a gym, I would still stay in shape. I think when you’re younger you have an image of what you want to be like when you grow up, and mine was always a strong, muscular person.
Travis
Sam’s Club
Did achieving that childhood dream of becoming fit and muscular involve a turning point? Or have you always been this herculean?
When I moved out of my mother’s house.
Travis
Sam’s Club
Why?
My family was the kind of household that said, ‘If there’s food on your plate, you have to finish it.’ That teaches bad habits about bingeing and over eating. Once I realized I could stop eating once I was full and it’s okay to throw a few pieces of rice or broccoli away, then I started feeling better. So that was a big turning point.
My family was the kind of household that said, ‘If there’s food on your plate, you have to finish it.’ That teaches bad habits about bingeing and over eating. Once I realized I could stop eating once I was full and it’s okay to throw a few pieces of rice or broccoli away, then I started feeling better. So that was a big turning point.
Travis
Sam’s Club
In summary, what’s the last piece of advice you’d like to leave the average person with?
Not to do anything extreme. People want to dive right in but I have to dial them back a little bit. I just had a client message me last night saying he wants to start with a 20-percent [calorie] deficit. I’m like, why not just five percent? Don’t be so strict on yourself. Rather than making rules like cutting all fat or carbs, my advice is to just write down everything you actually eat in a day and more attention to the unhealthy parts.
And meal prepping: Do all your meal prepping all at one time once or twice a week.
Travis
Sam’s Club
Does that mean buying in bulk?
Yes. So if you’re going to Sam’s Club, get like 10-20 pounds of chicken at one time. Cook and box your meals for the week. Freeze the rest. You should have four to five boxes of meals a day. Spend three or four hours doing that once a week. That is the advantage of Sam’s Club: They sell everything in bulk.
Travis
Travis downed a hefty glass of nourishing mango and berry smoothie – probably his second meal before lunch – while he elaborated the mechanics behind his lean yet eclectic way of life. Beyond his successful fitness and business endeavors, Travis holds a Master’s degree-holder in Chinese painting and owns a dog, who helps supervise the workout studio.
Check out items Travis mentioned on Sam’s Club:
MuscleTech Whey Protein Vanilla
(2.27kg for 598rmb)
Naturies Complex Protein Powder
(454g*2 for 478rmb)
Member's Mark
Whey Protein Powder Drinks Vanilla
(500g for 238rmb)
HeRun Plain Yogurt
(400g*2 for 24.8rmb)
Member’s Mark
Naturally Matured Mangoes
(4.8kg for 79.8rmb)
Southern Sun Triple Mix Berries
(1.36kg for 48rmb)
Follow us to watch an exclusive video with Travis as he guides us through his weekly meal prep and advise for how to get started.
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