Why The UFC Prime Deal Sucks & Stop Using Meal Prep Services w/ Peter Miller (Ep. 45)

Peter Miller1:34

So we could go into a little bit of detail. So basically they use a test called the urine-specific gravity test, which basically measures the density of your urine compared to the density of water. So think about it—urine is 95% water, but 5% waste products. So waste products are urea, uric acids, creatinine, and other products, but they're pretty much byproducts of metabolism.

Or then what's in your urine is influenced by a lot of factors. For example, your body size, what you've eaten beforehand, the supplements you take, menstrual cycle. So I'll backtrack a little bit. See, when you're early with or you're dehydrated, your body releases hormones that can save water in your body, so stop you losing water. So therefore the concentration of your urine, because you're peeing out less water, the concentration of your urine goes up with them particles I mentioned before. So in theory, that makes sense to use that test.

But as I said, there's so many factors that influence that test. Fast talk about muscle mass—so there's been a lot of studies on rugby players, wrestlers, that because they have quite a large amount of muscle, they break down a lot more byproducts. So that comes out into the urine. So they've been shown that they naturally have higher USG values, which then would potentially lead them to having false positives.

So think about it—when I've seen a lot of these hydration tests, because they do show them on YouTube, a lot of them are quite big guys. So they might have failed that test, not necessarily down to being dehydrated. Bigger guys, also in terms of having a high-protein diet, you have more protein diet, breaking down more amino acids which ends up coming out into your urine. There's urea.

So high-protein diet, a diet that most fighters typically have on fight week if they want—the majority of fighters cut carbs out, so they have a lot more high-protein diet. So that also increases your USG values. Also if you have creatine in your diet, the waste product creatinine, which is a main byproduct in your urine—so even if you stop taking creatine on fight week, the washout period of creatine's about four weeks. So you still, you still have concentrations that are higher in your urine, so that could increase your USG values.

So there's all these different factors that could potentially lead to having just a naturally high USG value without even going into the weight-cutting scenario. Also, I forgot to mention, about any high-intensity activity. So you probably see guys smashing the pads to cut that last bit of weight off. You're doing high-intensity activity causing muscle damage, which then needs to go somewhere, so it's breaking down. That comes out into your urine. The proteins come out into your urine, also can increase your USG values.

So them using that test as just, "That's it, you fail that test, you're dehydrated"—it's a lot more complicated than that. And unfortunately I don't see them changing it any time soon, because I think they've committed to it. This is what we do. We're the face of solving the combat sports weight-cut issue.

And it's just going to—you probably seen yourself how many guys fail hydration in this organization. Every event there's always someone failing it. And the sad thing about it is, because once they fail it, and then you've got basically—once you fail it, you've got three hours to pass weight and hydration again. And then if you don't, they might be off or they have to be in a catchweight.

So there's been main events that have gone on, people really looking forward to this, this is for the title, and they both failed hydration. So now it ended up being a catchweight fight. So the viewers are missing out on what would be a championship fight.

James de Lacey8:01

Yeah, I think Dr. Chris Kirk previously on the podcast talked about the idea of obviously the different ways that organizations are trying to curb the weight cutting. But it's just making fighters just cut weight more often leading into fights, as you mentioned.

But this is going to be a loaded question. What would you—is there a scenario where you think the weight-cutting issue, or whatever it is, could be solved? Is there some kind of protocol that could be in place? Or is it just it needs to be better practices for what it is now, essentially?

Peter Miller8:30

I think it's just more the lines of education. I think you can cut weight safely if you're doing the right things, not massive amounts of weight. But you've had people on your podcast like Carl Langer and Avis mentioned about the chronic weight loss. So you can lose, say, 8% of your body weight on fight week by doing the right strategies beforehand. You know, have enough carbs, fiber, etc. So I think it's just more the lines of education.

Because yeah, in my line, the amount of—for example, when someone will sign up with me and we go through the health assessments and we talk about what they've done beforehand, some of the things they've done beforehand is shocking. And then the advice they're getting, the advice they're getting from the internet. I have a little bit of an articus. Say, "Where'd you get your information on your culture?" The internet. Yeah, majority of people will get it from the internet, and it's crazy.

I think there's more people in this space now who are caring to educating fighters. So I think we're still a little bit behind in terms of other sports. If you looked at soccer, football, etc., and you wanted to know carbohydrate recommendations or fluid recommendations, you go on Google, PubMed, you find hundreds. You put in "combat," there's not a lot. But I think in the next 10 to 15 years that research would—you'd hope that research is major now in this area.

So I just think it's just educating fighters about the right practices. And that's a good thing about social media now, that you can put that information out there. When in comparison to 20 years ago it'd be John from the gym who's—he's been fighting for 20 years and he's never missed weight, and...

You might be on Instagram too now. John's woke up voice.

Is there something that would be a better replacement or is it just a matter of you just can't, there's just no way to do it? Well, to measure hydration really accurately you need to do not just one measurement, you need to do a couple. For example, my housemate's doing a PhD in Combat Sports research up in ECU, Dr. Aly, and his study is about the reliability of hydration methods. So he takes multiple measurements, so the BLS, Tia, urine, so there's quite a few measurements there.

So if, say, they wanted to do it quote unquote properly, it'd be better doing multiple measurements, not just one. There's hydrostatic weighing, that's like on my gold standard, but are they really going to do that? It's time consuming, you've got an event, you've got probably—expensive too. Expensive, and the thing is with, from what I gather with this organization, they don't have any kind of like, so with the UFC they have the state athletic commission wherever they go in America.

With this organization, it's just they rule themselves. There's no one to sort of answer to, so they can just make up the rules as they go kind of thing.

And also, you could talk about what people do to actually pass the test.

James de Lacey12:10

Go into it, yeah.

Peter Miller12:40

So this is what I've used with my guys and girls. I've got, I think, eight people, eight fighters in ONE Championship. So you know, a method that a lot of fighters do is they'll say you need to lose one kilo, you lose two kilos, and then straight away you drink one liter of water. Basically, if you drink the water within the space of maybe 5-10 minutes, what happens is if you drink that water really quick, the kidneys don't—the body protects itself from fluid overload.

So if you drink it really quick, the kidneys say, okay, we don't like this. It ends up flushing out that urine really quickly, so then when you end up going to do the test, your piss is clear. So that's a method that a lot of guys do, but a lot of guys do that and the majority of people do that. And everyone in ONE knows that's the method to kind of do things, but there's still people that fail it. So as we talked about before, the other factors still influence that.

Yeah, so it's a crazy topic because you try and explain it on my Instagram page and it's just, it's trying to explain to the normal fighter, it's just such a complicated area to go down. It's a big rabbit hole. And people think you're hating on this organization. I'm like, I got guys in the organization, I don't want to—I'm just trying to show people that it's not the best method to do things. But yeah, hopefully they'll change, but I can't see them changing any time soon.

James de Lacey14:16

Before getting back to the podcast, I want to let you know there's a link down in the description for the Sweet Science of Fighting Underground Community. You can get all the help you need for your combat sports training. You get every single Sweet Science of Fighting training program online course, and you get access to a range of coaches within the private Discord community. So go check that out and back to the podcast.

Yeah, I want to understand this topic of hydration and come into the idea of, I guess, sports drinks as well. Hydration obviously doesn't have to be purely with weight cutting, just training and just general day to day. Obviously, the sports drink market is huge. Obviously, you know, Powerade, Gatorade, whatever else you can pull off the shelf. But what should a sports drink be composed of to adequately, I guess, rehydrate you from training or help you during training?

In terms of, obviously people talk about oh, electrolytes this and glucose whatever, but obviously there are different variations of electrolyte balance and things like that and how much potassium, sodium, what have you're going to get. So is there a brand that you would recommend there, and what kind of breakdown are you looking at in terms of electrolytes and things like that?

Peter Miller15:42

So firstly we probably go into what your actual sweat composition is when you sweat to cool your body down. So you lose water and electrolytes. The main electrolytes that are lost are sodium and chloride, other electrolytes so magnesium, potassium, calcium. That's the main electrolyte, sodium. It does vary between individuals. So you notice people are salty sweaters. This can be influenced obviously on where you are, heat acclimation status, the clothing you're in, the temperature, et cetera. But sodium is the main electrolyte lost.

So this is the post that I put out the other day about there's a lot of celebrities and rehydration products, and they say oh, it contains electrolytes. Great, it contains electrolytes, but what is the actual composition of the electrolytes? So for example, this one that I was talking about, the main electrolyte I think was magnesium, potassium, and you lose very little magnesium, potassium in your sweat, very little. It's mainly sodium.

So if sodium's not the main electrolyte in that drink composition, I would say avoid it. Because you're really wasting your money. Because the main reason that you're having an electrolyte drink is to replenish your electrolyte stores. If you're not getting what you need, what's the point buying it? I've seen some of these—the Jake Paul one and KSI, it was like $3.35 for six drinks. Like that's—no way, really? It was something really, it was ridiculously priced.

I saw newspaper articles on people fighting in stores to get this hydration drink.

James de Lacey17:24

Oh I saw that, yeah.

Peter Miller17:24

It's crazy the way people just, oh, the celebrities bring out this hydration drink, it must be good. So if you, in terms of what to look out for, electrolyte solution, it's got to be sodium, the main electrolyte, sodium. In terms of the composition, you probably want to be aiming for 500 milligrams to a gram of sodium in each serving. And obviously the more sodium, the more it tastes a little bit salty.

Brands like Hype, I know Defiant Nutrition's got a really good one, train aid. There's also a brand called SIS that do hydro tablets which are really easy to use, usually pop them in, you drink. So it's just, for the average fighter or people trying to get fit, is just looking for a good brand and looking at—most good, reputable supplement companies tend to have an electrolyte powder or supplements.

So yeah, my message on the post that I did, just don't follow the crowd. Don't just, it's a popular thing, 'cause you're just wasting your money.

James de Lacey18:40

For sure. Is there a—because I know a lot of people kind of fall into that trap, oh, I got to have a sports drink, doesn't matter what training I'm doing, I'm going to have a sports drink for rehydration. But is there a point or maybe a training status where having electrolytes isn't really necessary? I'm assuming, obviously if you're not sweating a lot, it probably doesn't really matter.

Peter Miller19:11

Yeah, and also going into knowing what your sweat composition is is very difficult to know unless you went into a lab and there's a method where basically you're in a chamber and you perform an exercise protocol and you sweat, and then they take the sweat with water, and then that basically measures are you—what your composition of sweating is. Are you a salty sweater, are you not? So it's very difficult to determine that.

But in terms of training, I always recommend, especially over here in Perth, it's—I'm in Texas, so I feel you. You're doing any kind of exercise session which is over an hour and it's medium to high intensity, that's a focus on getting some electrolytes in your drink composition.

Yeah, and that's the rule of thumb I'd go down. If it's under, like a lower intensity, and it's also seeing to the fighter—seeing what their sweat rate is, are they heavy sweaters, are they not? So based on the individual. I know guys who, they'll do exercise for 10-15 minutes and the sweat is absolutely pouring off them, where other people would be on the mats with them, after the warm-ups and you wouldn't even know they trained.

I think it's really just knowing what type of sweater you are. And it's also a really good article on ASCA—you can drop it. He's got it on his Sport Science website and it's how to calculate your sweat rate. I always forward that to my fighters. Say look, it's a little bit of homework for you to do, follow this protocol and actually see what your sweat rates are. And also just get the athlete to know a little bit. The sweat, obviously that changes as well depending on, obviously you mentioned the climate there.

James de Lacey20:53

I guess even on, if someone's fighting under lights and things like that too, you've got a lot of heat there. So that would, I'm assuming that would obviously change maybe what you're also taking in on actual competition day.

Peter Miller21:31

Yeah, 100%. And also with the heat acclimation status.

One of the benefits of heat acclimatization is increased sweat rate. It's also your sweat becomes more dilute, so you lose less sodium. Yeah, there's a lot of factors that influence obviously I mentioned about the clothing you're in, genetics, temperature, wind speed. But yeah, it's unfortunately there's nothing that's come out with solid evidence to give to fighters to actually measure the composition, which I think would be awesome to see because you could personalize the rehydration strategies a lot more then.

James de Lacey22:37

For sure, and I want to also go down the road of eating while injured because I think people fall into the trap of, and I know I've heard a lot of athletes from various sports, they'll get injured and they'll think, "Okay, I'm going to use this time now to get shredded." And so that means, "I'm going to reduce my calorie intake basically or not eat carbs or whatever." But they're dealing with the traumatic injury, they just had surgery, etc. etc. So what's your advice for people who might be suffering injury, are training less, and what they should do with their nutrition?

Peter Miller23:06

Yeah, this is a really interesting topic that I've gone down a bit recently because I've got one of my fighters who's injured, got a knee injury. And I think a big myth is, as you mentioned, you're injured, "Oh, I'm just going to completely reduce my calorie intake and cut carbs out." And that is potentially one of the worst things you can do. Because in a time when you're injured and inactive, say you're on crutches, your leg's immobilized, you're basically, your muscle's going to reduce in size because it's inactive. So completely putting the calories down is not going to help in that recovery process.

So I always, the fundamentals of keeping your protein intake high. I'd say around, if you're hitting the two grams per kilogram mark.

James de Lacey23:33

Also, would you go higher while recovering from injury, or...

Peter Miller23:33

I think that's a minimum, I think to keep it at least two grams per kilogram. And in terms of calories, always at their calorie maintenance. Because if, as you said, "Oh, I'm injured, I'm cutting the weight down," but that's all going to help in the recovery process.

And also with keeping the protein intake high, that can attenuate, you are going to lose some muscle mass, it attenuates that a little bit. Also with creatine intake, too, there's been studies that have shown that when a leg's been immobilized and you're supplementing with creatine, that can help attenuate the loss of strength and muscle mass. Fish oil as well, with anti-inflammatory properties. I think it's just getting the fundamentals right.

I think there's, when I've got guys who are injured, it's like, "Right, keep the protein intake high, spread the protein feedings across the day, make sure that you are in a calorie maintenance." And yeah, it's just, it's interesting because people automatically think, "Oh, I'm injured, what magic bullet am I going to take to enhance, quicken the process?" And it's just getting the fundamentals right: protein intake high, eat lots of fruits, vegetables, the creatine, the fish oils. And yeah, that's pretty much it, really. I think it's just getting the fundamentals right.

And there's been studies that have shown, I remember watching a lecture when I was in uni about there was a guy who broke his leg in a soccer match, and they basically did a similar scenario: keep the protein intake high, take the creatine, fish oil. And actually when he came back from his injury, his strength had improved. He actually in his injured leg, I think, muscle mass in his leg was increased just from doing them fundamentals. So I think time of being injured can be an opportunity to get your nutrition in check.

James de Lacey26:26

Yeah, and I think people also, they see injury as, "Okay, I can't do anything." But there's always something you can do training-wise as well to kind of help with the nutrition too.

Peter Miller27:03

Well, I think as well with fighters, they're injured and they're itching to get back. And sometimes that can be a detriment because they've gone, they started training too quickly, and the injury's gone again. So it's also, I think it's making sure the fighter does have someone in the background that's an S&C physio background where they actually they've actually got something to follow. It's not like, "Oh, I'm injured, I'm just gonna, I feel good, I'm gonna go."

And I think that, yeah, definitely, with the top level guys that work, they always have an S&C coach, physio. But lower level amateur level, sometimes I have seen things where they've gone back too quickly and they got injured again. But yeah, that's another, that's, yeah.

James de Lacey27:36

It's tough when obviously it's a monetary thing too, because there's not much money at, I mean, there's not much money at many levels, but especially when you're maybe a recreational competitor or maybe someone looking to go pro, they don't have their support network there. And as you imagine, coming back too early, especially when the actual rehab hasn't been done, it's more like just rest and then straight back into it once they maybe don't feel pain anymore, that's where the big problems come.

Because it doesn't matter how long you rest, if you haven't done anything on it, it's not going to be any better. It's probably going to be worse than, "Do you think, oh, I can, I feel all right now, I can move it around," go into a sparring session, like, "Oh, it's gone again."

Peter Miller28:41

Yeah, it's, as you said, about the support network, it is quite hard to obviously have all the boxes ticked, working with nutritionist, working with an S&C coach, physio. For the recreational fighter, it's the cost that you got to look into as well.

James de Lacey29:08

Yeah, for sure. And I know you did some stuff, I guess some content on nutrition on the budget. That was actually a good segue, we were talking about money. So obviously, I guess we can talk about economics and inflation and everything else going on with prices coming up and the price of food. People will talk about, buying, eating, buying healthy food is more expensive than eating out, doing whatever it is. So do you want to jump into some of your favorite, I guess, budget nutrition tips for you that anyone can use?

Peter Miller29:38

I think firstly is, if we're looking at anyone who eats meat, it's always looking for a meat wholesaler. I found, especially back in the UK, if you find a meat wholesaler, you can get a lot of, for example, chicken, chicken breast in bulk, instead of going to the supermarket and buying three pack of chicken breast. I'm trying to, I'm used to two different currencies. If you go to the UK, you get a pack of three chicken breasts would be like six pounds, which is like ten dollars, I think.

And then, whether you go to, you find a good wholesaler, you could get 20 chicken breasts for 20 pounds. But obviously you, it's frozen. But there is ones around if you're just going to do your research. And I found that massively helps with a lot of UK fighters that I work with.

You can even go to a butcher and say, "Look, I eat a lot of meat. These are the foods that, these are the meats that I typically have. Can we do some kind of deal?" Because I'm going to be buying ten kilos of chicken a week. And a lot of the time, from my experience, they tend to do deals from that. Okay, I think that's firstly.

Also, which is a big cost, you probably know yourself when you go and find a new recipe and you get all the seasonings and spices, like six spices, it's like 20 pounds. I think a lot of continental supermarkets, like Indian groceries, Chinese supermarkets, going there, they're a hell of a lot cheaper.

James de Lacey31:07

Typically bigger packs as well, right? Bigger packs. You go to the supermarket over here, you get a little jar and it's three dollars. But you go to the Indian grocery or whatever and you get a big massive bag and it's maybe like two dollars more.

Peter Miller31:45

So I think it's just being smart. And the seasonings and spices, I think that's probably one of the biggest savers, I think, going to continental supermarkets. Where you are, obviously it is dependent on where you live. So you need, once again, you need to do your research. Also, stocking up on frozen fruit and veg, that could be a big saver, especially with fruits.

I'm a massive fan of frozen mixed berries for smoothies and stuff like that. And the good thing about them is they're long-lasting. You just put them back in the freezer and they're good to go. A lot of times you buy them, "Oh, I've got, I've got..."

them in the fridge and you look at them, there's a little bit of mold or whatever. That's also a benefit from doing that, and same with the veg as well. That tends to be a lot cheaper.

So I think it's crazy because when I've mentioned this to fighters, oh, where do you go, where do you get your shopping? And they'll mention the most expensive supermarket in the UK, for example. How much do you spend a week? Oh, I spend... and I'm like, right, we could probably save a good 30, 40 pounds a week here just by, might take a little bit longer, going, traveling 15 minutes away to go to that Indian or continental market.

James de Lacey33:13

But as you said, about inflation and the cost now, it's 100%. Because that's a barrier that I see a lot, especially when guys sign up. It's like, oh, I don't want to spend too much on food, make it as simple as possible, I want to put the cost down.

Peter Miller33:13

So do them little tips, as I said, you can save a little bit of money each week. Nice. The advantage is if you plan it better, because if you're like, I'm spending 100 pounds a week on my food and I need to cut costs down.

James de Lacey33:47

For sure. Do you know you can represent Sweet Science of Fighting while you're training? We're more than just a membership, we also have rash guards and shorts. If you're watching this on YouTube, you'll see that we have the Sweet Science of Fighting 2.0 shorts and we also have the Sweet Science of Fighting short and long sleeve rash guard. There's another design coming soon, but you can get those on XMmartialarts.com and you can go down the description and you can find that.

And back to the podcast. What's your go-to, I guess, for people, maybe there's amateur fighters out there, they don't want to go through the hassle of maybe tracking their macros, tracking their calories down to a tee. What's your ideal kind of meal composition, maybe what you're looking at on a plate, eyeballing? I don't know if that's an easy one to explain on a podcast, but how are you looking to do that?

Peter Miller34:44

I think it all really depends on what they're doing. If, say, based around the training schedule, say they've got a really hard sparring session at, say for example, you wake up and you've got a two-hour sparring session at 10:00, okay, the composition of the meal, we need to get, you need to fuel the training session with carbohydrates. So the main focus for that meal would be a decent amount of carbohydrate. So, for example, something like, I'm a big fan, overnight oats with a yogurt pot.

James de Lacey35:12

In terms of, yeah, I'm actually trying to think of a better way of saying it really, about the composition of the meal, because it...

Peter Miller35:12

I think it's just mainly just focusing on always having a lean source of protein, good carbohydrates, vegetables. I'm probably really butchering this now.

James de Lacey35:12

No, that's good. But what will make it easier, I think, say that sparring day example. How would meals look throughout the day then, and how would that composition change? Maybe that will give...

Peter Miller35:44

You're training if you're training twice a day.

James de Lacey35:44

So if you...

Peter Miller35:44

Sure, you started, you were sparring at 10:00 and you had them oats with good carbohydrates in the morning. Then post-training, because you know that you're going to be training later on, then you need them carbohydrates to fuel for the following session. So, I hate saying this, I hate, I hate say chicken rice kind of dish, but you know...

James de Lacey36:18

Can't hate on chicken and rice, man. I have chicken and rice almost every day.

Peter Miller36:18

I only say this because people always say, oh, don't worry about my plans on chicken, rice, and broccoli. It's just a good source of protein, good carbohydrate, rice, pasta, potatoes, always having at least a palm, palm size of vegetables too, and just always having a good serving of protein throughout the day.

I think in terms of managing it, yeah, in terms of recovery after the session too, you're training the following day in the morning, love emphasis is, you know, the meal has carbohydrates in it too. So I think I really butchered that question, sorry.

James de Lacey37:34

It's good, because you've given some examples there for before and after sparring, which is awesome. Actually, want to get your take on as well. Obviously, there's a ton of meal delivery services now, so people can kind of get everything delivered to them. I don't know, maybe you have some fighters that do that too.

I was looking at them the other day and I was like, holy, a lot of them are really high fat, very moderate to low carbohydrate, and typically normal high protein. If someone's going to go down that road, do you think they would need to somehow almost substitute or increase the carbohydrate intake, have some of their own stuff on the side? Because if I was going to do three meals of those meal delivery things, it would be 120 grams of carbs, which would be nothing if you're training hard enough.

Peter Miller38:32

Well, this is actually an interesting topic, what you've brought up, because I've had a lot of debates with fighters who use them. Because the ones that do have the macros on them, as you said, if it's on there, to get them carbohydrates in, you will have to include additional carbohydrate yourself, sports drink, or even adding a bit of extra rice if it's a rice dish, a little extra in.

But in terms of a lot of the meal preps I found, it's very hard to control. They'll say X amounts in that meal, it's 420 calories, for example, and then you look at it and think, you eyeball it, I'm not too sure about this.

So I'll give a really good example, actually. So I had a guy, he was having a meal prep, it was a local meal prep. It was saying all the macros on the meal, and then I said he wasn't losing any weight. I was like, we worked out all his calories, he should be losing weight. Can you do me a favor, can you send me a picture of a couple meals or a video?

He said, I've been having the salmon every day. Give me the salmon. She sent a video of the salmon. The salmon was like a cricket bat. I've never seen a bigger salmon. And the meal was, it was like salmon rice, it was like 400 calories. And honestly, there was no way that was 400 calories. The salmon was huge. The salmon was probably 500 calories itself.

And I want that meal prep company, I want that much food in. And I was like, there's something not right here. So I ended up messaging them, saying, look, be honest with me. He was fighting for the world title, so getting that whole thing dialed in, it's important. And they were like, yeah, we measure out every day. And I was like, I just wasn't buying it at all.

And I actually told them to stop using the meal prep, which we did in the end. Because they were saying, oh yeah, it's all measured out, and there was absolutely no way. Honestly, the salmon, I was like, no wonder he loves that dish.

James de Lacey40:51

Did he?

Peter Miller40:51

That's a big issue that I've had with a lot of fighters. I'm sponsored by this meal prep now, I'm getting my food for my camp. And then you look at the composition in the meals, you see there's not a lot of carbs in it, doesn't look like there's a lot of carbs in it, looks like the fat content seems to be a little higher than what we'd like.

But then you've got the crossover with the fighter. Well, I'm getting my meals free, so... I've had guys who, with me, are on a meal prep. I encourage them to have absolutely zero veg, so I get them to buy the steamed pack of veg, and always have them two meals, because some of them contain absolutely zero veg.

It's an interesting topic, the meal preps. There is good meal preps out there, don't get me wrong. But a lot of them that fighters use in terms of local ones, every time someone says, it gives me anxiety thinking. And it's always, send over photos, send me photos of each meal, because I want to see them.

I'm quite, I don't know what the word to describe it, I'm quite rigid in that. I want to see them, because I can't just take what they say. I need to have that sort of element of control, I think. There's an element of control you don't have, so you're trusting into them. And are they that invested in the fighter as you are, if that makes sense?

It's just a meal prep, getting his meals. I want to see exactly what he's having. It's an interesting topic. Yeah, it's...

James de Lacey42:22

I went off on one there, but yeah, it's an interesting... Have you have...

Peter Miller42:51

Have you ever heard your fighters weigh the actual food that's come? One I told you about, it was meant to be 150 grams of salmon, it was 380 grams of salmon. I want that meal prep company, I want double the serving of what they're charging me. I said, "Come, that's fine, you can." That's tricky when we're trying to lose the weight. As I said, there's good ones out there.

James de Lacey42:51

There's one in Australia called My Muscle Food and they sell them in the shops. When I've used them, they still lack the, as you mentioned, about fat content. A little bit higher in the 30 grams of fat per meal, a lot of them. And I'm never really hit over the 40 gram mark of carbs, a lot of them. And also a lot of them are pretty expensive. With all the competition, it's over $10, a lot of them are $13 a meal. And it's 400, 500 calories. Imagine doing that multiple times a day.

Peter Miller43:53

And most of them are just, I mean, carbohydrate sources are so cheap: rice, pasta, whatever it is, potatoes. That's a few cents. And then they're hitting you $13 bucks. I guess for the convenience is what you're really paying for. And also I've seen a lot of them, they look so bland. Just chicken, rice, and broccoli. Think could eat that in an eight-week camp? Thing, just cook myself.

James de Lacey44:19

What's your favorite ways to provide variety in your foods in terms of maybe sauces and spices that aren't going to start adding a ton of calories and things you don't want?

Peter Miller44:19

I think spices is important because I'm a big fan of the spice mixes: the Cajun spice mixes, Mexican, Indian. I'm assuming you're looking out for pre-made ones that have, because a lot of them have sugar in them, right? A lot of the pre-made, this is the thing where you need to sort of look at the content in a lot of these packets.

But another benefit if you want it to is combine them. So a lot of the, for example, the Cajun spice mix, main ingredients like Cajun spice, paprika, oregano, and cumin. So if you buy them, Joe, as I mentioned before, you got them in bulk, you can combine them, make your own spice mix.

I think flavor is very important. That's why I try and make my meals as enjoyable as possible. I'm actually a trained chef as well, so I'm always interested in flavors and stuff because if you're on an 8 to 10 week camp and you're eating really bland food, it's just not enjoyable. So that's a big emphasis on my work, is making sure the meals are packed with flavor and there's just lots of herbs and spices to it. Because there's nothing worse than just, I've seen guys post stuff on Instagram stories, "Oh, fight camp start," and just a little bit of chicken. I'm going to suffer more.

I actually did a video on this on my Instagram talking about, are you a good cook? It is important to have some basic skills in the kitchen because I think that makes a massive difference. As we said, if you can only cook the equivalent to poor foods for 8 to 10 weeks, it's going to be a drag. Whereas you're, "You know what? I've got some good skills here. I enjoy cooking." I think that makes a massive difference in terms of, it's never enjoyable, but it makes the cooking experience a bit more enjoyable.

James de Lacey46:52

Because I think people get in the mindset, as you mentioned, "Oh, I'm just having plain dry food because I'm cutting weight," but you can still have all that stuff as long as you're fitting it in whatever your eating plan is. And then cooking yourself and I guess using ingredients that you can measure out and know exactly what you're getting versus going in. Maybe you love fried chicken, you can make fried chicken in your air fryer with less fat, using panko breadcrumbs or whatever else. And there's so many different things you can do.

Peter Miller47:20

Well I think as well on my plans I've got burritos, got pasta, Mexican. And as I said, well, my plans are on app, so when I put the plans over and they message me, "Oh, I've got tacos this week," it's just that little psychological boost. "Oh, I'm having this, I'm having this this week." And I think it definitely helps massively the fight camp experience.

James de Lacey47:20

For sure. Are there any sauces that are your go-to? Obviously a lot of sauces can either be high sugar, high fat, kind of thing, which can be an issue. But is there anything you like to use?

Peter Miller47:48

So there's a couple of Mexican ones called, I think, Cholula. All those hot sauces are zero calorie. Also, talk about this, what I've got for you guys to do: it's say you like spicy mayo. Getting a light mayonnaise or a really low fat mayonnaise and getting a chili paste, and then you mix it together, mayo. And there's a Korean mayo that I use quite a lot which I put quite a few guys on to. It's gochujang paste, it's a red chili paste. So just basically buy a tub of the mayonnaise, mix it in, then you got your own kind of mayonnaise.

So it's, obviously it's not everyone's going to be really handy in the kitchen and wanting to do stuff like that, but it's just educating. Alright, we can't have these sauces, but we can make little swaps here and there. But in terms of, Nando's, the Nando's sauce, if you have that, that's okay. But I think it's been in terms of when my recipes, I'll mention how much to put in. Because if you just say, "Oh, a little bit of sweet chili sauce," and the next minute you look at the dish, this is absolutely sweet chili, 200 calories just poured on, okay.

James de Lacey49:21

There definitely, those sauces can almost take you over your calorie count pretty quickly if you're not careful, especially ones loaded with sugar or ones that are just pure fat. I think the Nando's ones are pure, are fat based with the oil, so that makes it even easier to go over.

Peter Miller49:57

The Nando's ones, I think it's good in a way that I think in terms of sauces, they're not understands, but the sauces are only small. I think they're really big. People just, when you go to Nando's, they do it in the big bottles and the people are just, so I think it helps the control a little bit.

James de Lacey50:25

I think all the Americans listening to this are wondering what the hell we're talking about, but it's basically a chicken place around other parts of the world that's pretty damn good. They do grilled chicken and roast chickens and stuff like that. But I digress, back to the...

Peter Miller50:25

I think that's everything.

James de Lacey50:53

I was actually going to ask you, Peter, if people want to follow you and find what you're up to, where can they do that?

Peter Miller50:53

Probably best hit me up on Instagram, Condition Nutrition. I should be the first person that pops up. So if you ever need any advice or you want to ask any questions, I'm pretty active on there, so pretty good to respond.

James de Lacey50:53

Perfect. And I'll link that in the description too, so if anyone wants to get in touch with Peter, you can head there, follow him. I'll put his website down there too and you guys can find all that. But thanks for coming on, Peter, I really appreciate it.

Peter Miller51:15

My pleasure.