UFC Chef Shares Easy Recipes To Fuel Training & Cut Weight Easier w/ Mario Limaduran (SSOF Ep 145)

Mario Limaduran1:52

And I essentially took that sort of the nutrition theory and applied it and made it into food for the fighters and helped them lose weight in a very scientific approach.

James de Lacey2:54

Awesome. Are you still doing any of that? Because you mentioned obviously we talked before the podcast about you were just talking with Fight Dietitian who's also been on this podcast over two years ago now I think. So you still doing any of that kind of stuff for fighters?

Mario Limaduran3:14

The last time I worked with fighters, ironically, was in Australia in the Perth card and it was majority the Fight Dietician. He was like, "Hey man, you should come out." And Vog was fighting, can't remember who, but there was a bunch of Australian and New Zealand athletes, fighters that were in that card.

So I was like, "Well, maybe you're going to give me an excuse to go down to Australia and I'm never going to say no." So flew down, did a whole week. It was night. It was a fun time. A lot of work.

It's always a lot of work. And that was the last time I worked within the MMA space. So it's been maybe two years, but I keep in touch with a lot of fighters here in Denver. I live in Denver, Colorado.

So there's a lot of fighters that I've met through my time with the UFC working with the UFC. And so keep in touch with them. I was going to support my Barber in the past fight. And yeah, there's a couple other fighters that still keep in touch with, but my main focus has been mainly the operation and research and development side of Trifecta over the last couple years.

James de Lacey4:30

Fill me in then how it works because I'm sure there's probably a lot of fighters listening to this, maybe some that are aspiring to go pro, to be able to have that kind of support during a fight camp. So how does that work for you, say in a fight camp preparation? You liaising with the dietitian or nutritionist and are they giving you maybe guidelines then you're having to create meals from those guidelines? How does it all come together?

Mario Limaduran4:54

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So I have a culinary nutrition bachelor's degree. So I'm able to understand what the dietitians are requesting on a serving perspective. So let's say a fighter has to eat, it's going to give you round numbers, 100 grams of carbohydrates, 150 grams of protein and 75 grams of fats during a day.

We break those down into three or four main meals and then some snacks. So those values are divided evenly and then those are made into serving sizes. So my expertise really lies in understanding the exchange system. The exchange system is essentially like a macro counting system that was originally invented for diabetics.

So a value of one serving of protein is typically equivalent to 21 gram of protein. One serving of carbohydrate is equivalent to 15 grams. One serving of fat is equivalent to 5 grams. So if the dietitian was to tell me, hey, this person needs to eat 21 grams of protein, 30 grams of carbohydrates and 5 grams of fats, I know that I can give a person 3 ounces of protein, which is 21 gram of protein, then 30 grams of protein would be equivalent to 2/3, 23 cups of rice, and then 5 grams of fat would be equivalent to a quarter avocado or 1 tablespoon of a fat forward sauce.

Now, I'm saying this very loosely because I know the system very well and I've been studying it since college and it's a system that's very easy to understand. But it's allowed, that's like the bridge that allows to take the grams, a theoretical serving size into a practical side of food. And so that's been super helpful. That's been my secret, my secret sauce. And it's been really useful across the board with whoever I work with.

James de Lacey6:52

Are you having to also cook for everyone else in the camp?

Mario Limaduran6:52

So for camp specifically. So going back to your question, it isn't a per, like, contract basis. So if an athlete wants to work with me, I work with that person, and if they have another teammate that's training in the same camp, we can work together. Making three meals is a lot easier than making one. It takes less time, believe it or not.

So essentially, the nutrition aspect of things changes when someone is in camp, when someone is on fight week and post recovery, post-fight recovery. So all those values come from the dietitian and I just adjusted based on where the athlete is with their weight and so on and so forth.

James de Lacey7:41

Awesome. I think what might be good for the audience as well is as you just mentioned, how the nutrition changes from maybe critical out of camp to maybe in camp to as you mentioned recovery. Do you want to maybe just go through maybe some general like a general overview of how that may shift throughout that training period?

Mario Limaduran7:58

Yeah, for sure. So again, I'm not a dietician but from experience I can lightly talk about this. So if I'm saying something that is incorrect, because I know you have an audience of very educated people and dietitians watch this and I respect everything that they do. So if I'm saying something incorrect, more than happy to be corrected in the comments and whatnot.

But the general scope of being in fight camp is getting ready. So dropping enough weight to where your fight week weight cut is not absolutely terrible and a terrible experience, right? So you're not only during fight camp, you're not only fueling your workouts so that you're getting ready, preparing, getting that cardio up and making sure that you can actually withstand all the training that you're going through, but it's also fueling the recovery within each session.

As we all know, MMA is one of the most intense and crazy sports. It really asks a lot of the body and so making sure that you're fueling the workouts right and recovering correctly is both essential in camp. Whereas in fight week, you're essentially just getting rid of what is called non-essential body weight.

So carbohydrate is essentially glycogen stored in the muscles. Sodium, and those two lead to eliminating water retention. Those are very healthy ways plus getting rid of fiber, getting rid of all that fiber within your gut during the week that helps you drop weight in significant ways without having to sweat excessively or really suffer through it all.

So that's a scientific approach that we've taken with the UFC. I'm more wellversed within the fight week nutrition because that's what I did for two and a half, three years. And then post fight, you always see fighters eating pizzas and whatnot.

At that point, you're just trying to eat again, recover all the energy loss, just maybe your feelings if you lost a fight. So that's a general scope.

James de Lacey9:55

If you're anything like me, you're short on time. Kids, family, work, training, and having to cook meals on top of that, it's just not going to happen. So I'm happy to announce Trifecta Nutrition are sponsoring the podcast.

You get epic meals like these ones. Turkey taco bowl, Texas barbecue protein plate. These are a couple of my favorites, but it means you don't have to prepare all your own meals and it makes getting good nutrition relatively easy.

I've tried other meal delivery companies. Most of them are too high fat, not enough carbohydrates, or if you're getting kits where you have to cook it yourself. The portions for two is actually for one, especially if you are like me and you're training often.

So if you want to take something off your plate and have meals like this delivered to your door, go down the description, there's a link there where you can order Trifecta meals. This is the performance line which are higher protein and higher carbohydrate and you can use code liftbig40. You'll get 40% off your first order.

Do you want, maybe it would be interesting for the audience I think if we go into maybe off the top of your head if you have any some basic fight week recipes that you have maybe cooked up before that you quite like to use that are say low in sodium, maybe low in carbohydrates or maybe low in fiber, that just covers those that might help some people with their own wake ups.

Mario Limaduran11:17

Yeah. So I'm just gonna spitfire everything that comes to mind. So let's go with, let's start with snacks. So something that I really admire about Jordy and the fight dietitian and their team is that for snacks, they're always including something sweet.

Because granted, during fight week, you're cutting carbohydrates, you're cutting, you're cutting a lot of flavor out. So giving those sweets and making sure that you give those snacks before the fighter's train really helps with that glycogen depletion, making sure you're not keeping that within your body.

Greek yogurt mixed with some no sugar chips and almond butter is a super great snack that is high in protein and in fats, which is the focus of fight week. You're essentially fueling your body by eliminating carbohydrates, fibers, sodium, water loading, and then fueling your body with fat and protein.

So protein maintains muscle that fuels the body in the absence of carbohydrates. I think that Greek yogurt with some chocolate chips, some coconut flakes, and then almond butter is a delicious kind of sweet treat that fuels the body.

I also used to do these almond butter balls. So it's protein powder mixed with almond butter. And then I did this matcha powder. So there's this powder, it's more on the modernist cuisine side of things. The powder essentially converts any fat into a powder.

So I used to melt coconut oil and mix it with matcha, mix this powder in there, which I'm forgetting the name of it right now. And then I would essentially make one ounce protein balls and roll the matcha in that protein ball.

So it was like this protein butter almond matcha snack and that has everything you need. You have the protein from the protein powder, you have the fat from the almond butter, you have a little bit of the sweetness and a little bit of caffeine from the matcha. And it was absolutely delicious. People absolutely love that.

Another super easy snack is a panna cotta, which is essentially just gelatin. So you can make a non-sugary chocolate vanilla panna cotta, and it's a nice little sweet treat. The FCPI just did something crazy with snacks. It was beautiful to see. Shout out to Chef Steve. He's been doing a crazy job.

And then as far as meals go, my secret and what really, this is gonna sound cocky, but is more of the confidence side of having been there and done it, but really what changed the space within how fighters eat within the last five years of the UFC Performance Institute, five or six years, however long it's been with the performance institute existing is that we use sauces.

Sauces that were fat forward, meaning sauces that had olive oil, that had almond butters, that had coconut oil, anything that was very fat forward and very flavorful would be the way of giving a meal that is super simple, a lot of flavor, but also get your nutrition in.

So sauces like chimichurri, pesto, zhug sauce, which is essentially just a chimichurri but from the Middle East. Romesco sauce. No Chick-fil-A sauce. I mean, if you can make one that's fat forward, that will work.

But it's essentially making an emulsion and having different kinds of sauces throughout the week that you can add per tablespoon to your protein with some avocado on the side and it gives you that flavor. So a very easy meal that we would give athletes would be their choice of protein whether it was steak, salmon or chicken.

Slice, grill it, slice it. The chicken was, or the protein was slightly seasoned with some garlic and onion powder and some paprika for color. So you get a little bit of that flavor. There's no salt in any of these recipes, but then you have a lot of the flavor that is coming from the sauce.

And then Romesco, for example, you have grilled bell peppers, which have a lot of flavor, charred tomatoes, you have toasted almonds that are made into an almond butter, paprika, a little bit of red wine vinegar, and you make this Romesco that is salt-free but fat forward, and you have a lot of flavor.

And so fighters go from eating plain chicken with olive oil in it to a grilled chicken that is lightly seasoned with a Romesco sauce and the experience throughout fight week is completely different. You're actually enjoying the weight cut instead of suffering through every single bite.

James de Lacey16:15

I love that. Hopefully some listeners can maybe look up some of those recipes too and start trying some different sauces. But yeah, that would definitely make things a lot easier. And as you mentioned, no salt. You're getting your fat in, you're getting your protein in, maybe whatever small carbohydrate portions you have, and you're not having the everything sitting in your stomach with the fiber as well, which is a cool way of putting it.

I've got a bunch of, I'm just kind of going through my little notes and we can, I'm going to go back and forth with a bunch of different stuff, but you mentioned with the USFCPI the I guess the meal delivery component that you were helping with with I think it was with Trifecta as well.

So okay, for maybe people fighters who are maybe looking to get meals delivered for maybe their weight cut or even just some of their fight preparation, how accurate are pre-made meals from meal delivery companies? Because I'm assuming there can be some variance like for example just normal package goods, you know, 20% variance on the label.

So I'm assuming there's some variance potentially within say meals delivered from companies that are made for you. So I guess how accurate are these? Can these be used or do you need to have someone maybe make them custom for you so you know they're exactly on point?

Mario Limaduran17:32

Yeah. I mean, if you can find a meal delivery that makes something custom for you, all power to you. That is very rare in the meal delivery industry because it's very labor intensive. I mean, you have to essentially hire a chef if you really want to have those personalized meals.

But with Trifecta, we have two options. We have our a la carte options which are one pound containers of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. So you can essentially buy a pound of chicken, a pound of steak, a pound of salmon, and you can buy a pound of our seasoned Asian Brussels sprouts and a pound of the cilantro lime rice.

And then you can essentially portion control and make your own meals that way or someone can make them without having to cook. So a lot of bodybuilders love that aspect of Trifecta. A lot of crossfitters, we've worked a lot with those populations and they absolutely love those kinds.

And we're innovating those lines and there's a lot that's going to come out here in the next couple months. But then we have the meals, which you question is how accurate are they? So one of the main differences of Trifecta, and call me biased, but this is what I do in my day-to-day job. This is, you're looking at the man that makes sure that this is accurate.

Trifecta promises a macronutrient balance meal, and we deliver on that promise. And yes, inherently and legally we have 20% allowance on variance and weight. Sometimes the meals are going to vary less than 20%, we're never really close to 20%, our windows are very tight.

There's going to be that natural variance because one, food varies naturally, right? There's some broccoli, cauliflower florets that are like this and there's others that are like this. That's going to be a factor, but there's also the factor that real humans are plating these meals.

But these meals are plated with scales. We have scales in our plating lines and so the accuracy of those are as best as we can make them happen. And then at the end of the plating line once the meals are sealed we also have a QA person, QC person that is weighing random meals and making sure that within that quality control there's not a huge variance and then that person keeps track of that.

We have paperwork on it. The details and the length at which we go to make sure that these meals are accurate and that we're delivering the macronutrients and the nutrition that is on the label is far superior than any other company that I've seen. And I've been, again, in this space for the last six and a half, almost seven years.

James de Lacey20:17

Awesome. Actually, I just had your honey mustard chicken before this podcast.

Mario Limaduran20:17

Oh, that's a new one. That's the performance meal. How'd you like that?

James de Lacey20:17

It was damn good. The thing is, because we've actually tried, my wife and I, we've had HelloFresh and we've had Factor previously, and my main issue with those is the portions are so [expletive] small. Like, I think HelloFresh was the worst one where it was like we had a deal back, we're in New Zealand at the time, and they had the meal for two option, and they open, I'm like, this is just this meal just for me. I could eat both portions and that's my food.

And then with Factor, the issue was all the meals were high fat. And for people who are training often, say, I don't want high fat meals. I can't function on high fat meals. And that's what I actually quite enjoyed about the Trifecta ones. It's higher protein, moderate to high carb, moderate to low fat. And it's like, okay, these make sense for me to be able to eat, which I really like.

The honey mustard one was, I mean, it's like 700 and something calories, 61 grams of protein in this meal. So for anyone you can't get your protein in or your food in, dude, and you need something convenient, that's legit.

Mario Limaduran21:24

No, I'm glad you mentioned that. Part of what we've seen in the market is the absolute desire of people for high protein everything. We are actually releasing a protein brownie next week. I've been working on this brownie for the last two years. It's finally here.

The meals that you mentioned are response to what the market is asking for, and we call these meals performance meals. So they're high in calories, average between 650 to 700 calories, 55 grams of protein average. Some go as high as almost 70 grams. And like you said, pretty high—I'll say 60 to 70 grams of carbohydrates—and then moderately low fat. Some are very low, some are moderately low.

Performance in the sense of, like, people were asking for bigger meals from Trifecta, and bigger people were asking for more food, inherently. Because our meals have generally been focused on people that were looking at weight loss, but there was this huge market that was just barking at us, please, please, come and create these meals. So we released them, and they've been—we can't keep—we can't keep making enough. We can't keep up with the demand. It's been really, really cool. So I'm glad you're liking that meal. You enjoy that meal.

And yes, Factor may taste better than Trifecta because it's got a lot of fat and sodium. You see the sodium. It's usually covered in sauce. That's why. It's covered in sauce. It doesn't look good. But it's a sauce that's fatty, and fat and salt are—that's why McDonald's tastes great. Because it's flavor. It gives you that pleasure in your brain when you eat them.

And so with the salt, when you see a thousand to 1,200 milligrams, of course it's going to taste good. Whereas with Trifecta, we keep the sodium at a very healthy level. Some people claim that they're unseasoned, and I agree. But that's on design and purpose, but that way you can add your own salt, Tabasco, whatever the case may be. And as a chef, I'm doing that on purpose so that you can flavor however you want, but I can also serve the population that may need a low sodium diet.

James de Lacey23:43

Well, awesome. That's actually a good segue into, I guess, good ways to season food without adding a [expletive] ton of calories and a [expletive] ton of salt. So if anyone's listening, maybe wants to prepare their own meals, they're looking to kind of keep maybe portions or calories in control, what have you got for us?

Mario Limaduran24:05

So I'm a big fan of Tabasco, even though it's got quite a bit of sodium. I mean, well, it's 35 milligrams per teaspoon. But believe it or not, Tabasco is both an acid, a salt, and a spice all in one. In the two-star Michelin restaurant that we worked at, my chef used to love adding this instead of just adding a vinegar, like, let's call it apple cider vinegar.

We would add this to sauces, and it would take your experience to the next level just because it's got seasoning, right? And it's not a lot of—there's not a lot of [expletive]. It's just three ingredients: distilled vinegar, red pepper, and salt. So Tabasco is a great way to go about it, especially if you like heat.

I think learning how to use spices is also huge. Spices don't add many calories. There are carbohydrates, so you'll see a couple extra grams of carbs added. But, I have a whole cabinet of like 76 spices. I'm a little exaggerated with that. But learning, like, learning what spices you like and sticking to those goes a really long way.

One good spice that I have that I've actually used in many kitchens before is Montreal steak seasoning.

James de Lacey25:19

Oh yeah. I've got that in my cupboard too.

Mario Limaduran25:19

Yeah, exactly. I don't know if I put it in a cup of tea, but definitely in protein. It's perfect. This adds a lot of flavor, and yeah, it has salt, but it's not going to add a [expletive] ton of salt if you don't know how to season your food properly. It's a well-rounded seasoning that you can add to any protein, and it works incredibly well.

We used to use this in one of the kitchens that I worked at in Phoenix. It was a kitchen for a high training center for athletes in Phoenix, and we used to use that as a general seasoning, and it was phenomenal.

So out of, from the top of my head, I would advise those two things. I think that's going to take your food to the next level.

James de Lacey26:00

Let's go into even some more meal examples for fighters that maybe are average cooks. There's probably a lot of them out there that suck at cooking. So it'll be interesting maybe to go through some breakfast, lunch—or maybe breakfast, pre-training, post-training, and say dinner options—that someone could make relatively easily. Maybe they're short on time, average cooking level. And then it basically allows them to fuel their training and not blow up, get, whatever it is.

Mario Limaduran26:34

Yeah. So cooking doesn't need to be hard, and you don't need to be a three-star Michelin chef in order to eat well. You just need to learn what you like and stick to that, and then continue to iterate after that. For example, here at home, I eat very simple. I eat rice, protein, vegetables, and a sauce.

James de Lacey26:49

That's pretty much me too.

Mario Limaduran26:49

I mean, I eat for performance and for fueling and for—I'm trying to look a certain way. I'm trying to gain muscle mass, so I'm eating for that. And at the same time, the simple side of things of just having rice, potatoes, and protein, and a sauce—and maybe it's because I'm Hispanic—but to me, that's so good. It's so simple, and I don't need to reinvent the wheel.

And so that would be my advice above and beyond anything I'm going to say next. If you like potatoes, learn how to roast your potatoes properly in the oven. Or if you like rice, get a rice cooker. Make sure your rice is fluffy all the time. Or learn how to cook rice properly. If you like quinoa, do that with any other grain, so on and so forth. You like beans, learn how to cook beans, which is super simple, in the stovetop, and just have them prepared.

And then as far as the proteins go, you don't need a lot. You can literally use Montreal steak seasoning for your proteins, or you can use salt and pepper. I would highly advise that you learn how to use kosher salt and you ditch the iodized salt. No restaurant uses iodized salt, and every chef will tell you that. Iodized salt is absolute garbage. As far as flavor goes, it's very metallic, and it's very small.

And so overseasoning your proteins is very easy. Whereas with kosher salt, you're not going to have a metallic side, but the flakes are bigger, and so you're able to see how much you're seasoning your protein with. And you'll more often than not not oversalt your proteins. So kosher salt is going to be your best friend. Ditch the iodized salt.

And then as far as vegetables go, listen, vegetable cookery can be complicated, and I have a lot going on in my life. The last thing I want to do is blanch vegetables every single night. So what do I do? I go to Costco, and I get those big bags of pre-cooked, ready-to-heat frozen vegetables. Have two of those bags: one that is just a very plain broccoli and cauliflower, and I have one that is the roasted vegetables. I forget the name of the—Fire—yes, the fire recipe one. I can't remember the name.

And that in itself gives you the option of either eating very simple or of going with a little bit more flavor. And you have—since they're vegetable medleys, you're getting a lot of nutrients by just grabbing and mixing both of them, right?

Because you have a mix of vegetables. And then sauces. Sauces, what's going to really differentiate your meal from one to another. What did I say in the beginning of this conversation or of this topic is learn what you like to eat.

So if you like to eat barbecue sauce, then just go grab a barbecue sauce in the grocery store that has a clean label or learn how to make your own barbecue sauce, which is not that difficult. And stick to that. And if you get bored, learn how to make another sauce.

Or if you're feeling like you want to learn and become better in the kitchen, just go one recipe by one recipe. Make a big batch or just buy a big bottle of whatever you like and just stick to that. There's no shame in repeating the same meal if it's helping you to get to your goals.

James de Lacey30:12

Awesome. Do you want to maybe go into some meal examples even that people can put together? I know we covered protein, rice, and veggies like every good bodybuilder likes to put together. What have you got that someone could take from this podcast and start to cook?

Mario Limaduran30:29

Yeah. So for breakfast, and thank you for bringing back to those examples. Oh, that was a good intro. Yeah, there you go. For breakfast you can do sliced toast with an omelette and a yogurt parfait.

That could be the Oikos protein yogurt with half a cup of berries and a tablespoon of granola on top and you're going to have a phenomenal breakfast there. You can also do your scrambled eggs and cereal and the cereal, there's no shame in that if you're going to work out and use those carbohydrates for a purpose.

I have Honey Bunches of Oats in my cabinet and I absolutely love every now and then to do one serving of the cereal with a cup of the milk and some eggs. If you want to increase the protein in your scrambled eggs, I always add egg whites to three eggs. So, a half a cup of egg whites to three eggs. But that can vary depending on your size, your goals, your energy output. So, those are some breakfast options.

For snacks, I'm huge on the bars, any protein bar. There's a fig bar that you can get at Costco as well. I tend to eat those in the afternoon before I go to workout. Snacking on fruits as well. So, I typically have pineapple, banana, eight, and I mix that with a little bit of almond butter before also working out.

It's like a great snack, but also pretty great preworkout because of the carbohydrates of the fruit and a little bit of the fat. And if you want to add a little protein powder to that, you can also do that for extra added protein.

And as far as lunch and dinner go, you can do so many things with lunch and dinner. I am personally loving currently the tortellinis, pre-made tortellinis from Costco. Those are great because they have protein in them.

James de Lacey32:40

I'm going to have to go find those.

Mario Limaduran32:40

Yeah, they're great. They got like 15 grams of protein per serving. So, you're inherently already getting like I think 30, 40 grams of carbs with 15 grams of protein.

You can add diced chicken, you can add tofu, you can add salmon, you can add ground beef. Whatever your heart desires, you can add it to the tortellinis plus a marinara sauce and you have a beautiful meal. I've also made a bunch of meatballs.

I think that's a great meal to meal prep ahead of time. You can just buy a big chunk of ground beef or ground turkey and make 2 oz or 3 oz meatballs. And that's an easy way of just having the opportunity to add that to rice, to a sandwich, to potatoes, and just have a complete meal.

For lunch also, if you're feeling lazy, you can buy the deli meats from Costco, which it's a big container of deli meats. Some cheese and some mixed greens, get some whole grain bread, then make yourself a nice hearty sandwich with a side of vegetables.

You're good to go. I would also add some Quest chips, protein chips in there for extra, for an extra crunch and that extra sort of lunch factor. So, those are some ideas. I know I'm spitballing a lot here. I don't want to overwhelm people.

James de Lacey33:50

That's good. I like that. Are you a crock-pot or Instant Pot guy?

Mario Limaduran34:04

I actually, you want to know a funny story? There's this viral video going around on Instagram of this Asian dude that is Insta Potting like 5 pounds of meat and there's this song. It's a house music song called Stephanie and the dude just opens up the steam of the Instant Pot when the beat drops and it's gotten so much attention it's crazy. My friend sent me that video.

They were here two weeks ago and he was like you need to remake this and I was like I don't have an Instant Pot. He was like, "I will fly with an Instant Pot to you next week and you will remake this video." I thought he was kidding, but the dude showed up with an Instant Pot. He had an Instant Pot on the plane with him. So, I am now the proud owner of an Instant Pot.

And yes, those I think are great tools to make big batch cooking. Absolutely.

James de Lacey34:55

Have you made that video yet?

Mario Limaduran34:55

Not yet. I got the studio set up. So, sometime this weekend I will make that. I got to go to Costco. So, I'm going to buy some a lot of meat and just make a meal prep a good amount of meat for the week.

James de Lacey35:10

Nice. Yeah. I love my Instant Pot for like, I typically make, because Costco does, because red meat is typically expensive. Like buying steak and stuff, you're looking at like $10 a pound maybe minimum. But when you buy their lamb leg roast, the lamb's like $5, $6 a pound. So probably...

Mario Limaduran35:24

Yeah. It's one of the cheapest red meats you can get other than obviously the ground meat.

James de Lacey35:24

So I was like perfect. And you can just throw that in there and you got a beautiful, super lean. So yeah, absolutely.

Mario Limaduran35:38

That and pork loin. I would say pork is another very economic. That is funny how pork has almost been shunned as a protein source and it's so cheap. You can get as you mention like Costco like the cut up, I guess it's the cut up pork loin. It's like $2 a pound.

James de Lacey35:56

Yeah. And if you get the actual pork like tenderloin, the whole big [expletive] tenderloin, a real lean one, that's $4 a pound. It's super cheap and it's so lean. It's a very clean protein. It tastes great. So you can either slice it into steaks and grill it or you can put it in the Instant Pot and make pulled pork, make barbacoa with that. Like there's just so much that you can do. So definitely don't be shy on the pork.

Yeah, for sure. Since you're right thick in the weeds of things with everything culinary with Trifecta, with people ordering food, you mentioned how there was a lot of demand for these performance meals, higher calorie, higher protein, carbohydrate kind of meals. Are there any other trends that you're seeing coming through? I guess dietary trends that people are requesting coming through that maybe, I'm going to say not good but just I guess maybe any trends that are coming through that are standing out.

Mario Limaduran37:00

Like I mentioned earlier on the call or in the podcast, there's definitely the protein is the big, the popular guy in the room right now. So everything under the sun that has protein is being consumed like crazy. That's why we're releasing our Trifecta high protein brownie.

It's got 15 grams of protein with 240 calories. So it's super fudgy and delicious. It's a great snack and you see the bars that are coming left and right, products that are just very high in protein just because we finally understand the importance of it.

Another trend that we've seen that we're working on, I kind of teased that earlier on the podcast, but sauced proteins. So components, ready to eat components, that you don't have to think about like you have your protein with your sauce, you just mix it and you reheat it.

That's exploded everywhere. You see at Costco, you see a supermarket. And so I think Kevin's is the name of the company has done an excellent job at doing that. So we are currently working on doing exactly that. We're going to sell one pound containers of our antibiotic free, hormone free, grass-fed beef with a barbecue sauce on it.

We're going to sell the chicken with a teriyaki sauce on it. And both the chicken and the sauce, the protein and the sauce are very clean. So, that's a huge demand that we've seen across the board. But those are the only two things that come to mind. Nothing else really comes to mind at the moment.

James de Lacey38:31

Are you still seeing a big demand for say keto style meals or is that starting to die down?

Mario Limaduran38:31

That's definitely died down. We released our keto line. That was actually the first line I developed with Trifecta back in 2018, 2019 and that was the height of it. Keto I believe is our third most popular selling type of meal. Vegan being the lowest on the bottom there. But really our performance meals have been the most popular meal in the last 6 months.

We released the first set of meals in September, October, I believe. And they've taken up our demand, excuse me, by crazy, you know, by a fire. It's awesome.

James de Lacey39:09

Coming back to fighters' nutrition again, all over the place on this podcast 'cause it's always shooting from the hip. But obviously you've been around a lot of different, I guess, within the industry for a long time. So are there any big, I guess, mistakes or things you've experienced that you've seen fighters make regarding their nutrition, whether it's in a camp, out of camp, or anything like that?

Mario Limaduran39:48

And this is coming from a very empathetic standpoint, because if you're a young fighter that is trying to get into the space, I think what I'm about to say has changed a lot and it's improved a lot with people like Charles and Jordy and Tyler Minton that are doing an excellent job at coaching people and putting out content that is free and building platforms that can educate even the youngest fighter that doesn't have a lot of economic powers to hire a dietitian.

When we started working with UFC, the trend that I saw is that a lot of fighters acted as if any practice outside of what they've been told or what they've done in the past was witchcraft. Meaning that there was a lot of skepticism around, like, well, why should I change the way I eat during fight week? I'm just going to suffer through it because it's worked in the past and why change what is not broken.

So I think there's been a lot of education that's happened within the MMA world in understanding that the holistic approach to nutrition is something to be considered when you're on camp, when you're off camp, when you're in fight week, and it's very important, otherwise your body is going to stop responding.

So the number one thing I've seen fighters do is either not buy into the new science that is coming out and that's being given to the environment, or buying too heavily into the bro science that focuses on one mechanism in one food that is supposed to have impact in this mechanism and is supposed to make you feel better, which is the dumbest, most bro science approach to nutrition. So I would say don't fall into that nonsense.

James de Lacey41:37

Are you seeing many fighters coming through, say, carnivore diet and things like that, or many fighters falling into that?

Mario Limaduran41:55

I think it's just a general popular thing that is still happening. I can't say I've seen a lot of fighters doing that, but it's part of what social media is pushing. So it's quite common, but I can't say that I've seen a lot of that.

James de Lacey42:16

And it's funny because you talk about the different fighters' mistakes and stuff. I remember back when the first time I was interning with, I started my transition career, there were players there—'cause a lot of athletes just aren't educated on nutrition stuff, which I guess you can understand to an extent because they're just trying to be the best at their sport.

Some of these players, they didn't know what fresh fruit was. They thought fresh fruit was canned fruit. They thought that counted. So, like, there's—it's crazy, like, that I mean, this stuff happens around. Like, sometimes it's an education thing. And when players think that canned fruit that's in syrup is fresh fruit, you can run into problems.

So I'm assuming maybe now with social media—now this was like over 10 years ago—so with social media now there's probably less prevalence of that because, as you mentioned, there's so much free information that people can get. But there also comes with the downside, right? Because we just talked about carnivore.

Mario Limaduran43:14

I mean, yeah, there's two sides of that coin. There's, well, you have all these really smart and educated people that are putting out excellent content, but then you got the carnivore people, the Pendinos of the world, that are saying that if you eat one thing, you're going to die because of this one—which is ridiculous. I absolutely despise people like that on the internet.

So definitely you have to learn how to filter out the noise and the charlatans and listen to the people that are working with the highest performing athletes within the space, and those are the people that are worth listening to. But also always have a sense of wonder and question what they're saying, just in case you don't know who they are.

James de Lacey44:00

For sure. What can people, as we close this out, what can people look out for from Trifecta and yourself going forward? And also, where can people find and follow you and see what you're up to?

Mario Limaduran44:18

Absolutely. You can follow Trifecta at Trifecta on all the socials. Our website is trifecta.com. We are releasing meals constantly and updating our assortment constantly.

So as the bulk of my job, I already tasted it a couple times—we have the protein brownie coming out next week. So we're expanding our snack program. We have these sauce proteins that I'm working on that I would like to release sometime in the near future. And we're always looking at improving our food and making it better.

If someone that's listening to this has tried Trifecta years and years ago and you had a negative experience, 100% you had a negative experience and I acknowledge that, and super sorry for it. But we've improved things massively since then. So I highly encourage everyone to give us a try.

And personally, you can follow me at Chef Mario on Instagram, and Chronicles of a Cook on YouTube. I'm probably in the middle of rebranding the YouTube, and I'm going to start uploading a lot of YouTube content here sometime this year. But I'm mostly active on Instagram, TikTok. It's Mario Lima, but that's just me ranting about life, so I don't know if you want to follow me there. So those are a few things that are coming down the pipeline.

James de Lacey45:32

I'll link all that up down in the description too for anyone who wants to follow you. And I appreciate you coming on, Mario, and sharing everything.

Mario Limaduran45:45

James, thank you for having me. This was super fun. I really appreciate it.