Optimise Your Day with Energy-Focused Nutrition

"Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live."— Socrates

The myths don't tell us what Hercules ate. But we know this: he lived in ancient Greece, where food was whole, unprocessed, seasonal. No refined sugar. No industrial oils. No packaged convenience foods engineered to override satiety signals. And we know from how he's depicted—lean, muscular, powerful—that he didn't overeat, didn't rely on alcohol, didn't treat food as entertainment.

His body was his tool for accomplishing impossible tasks. How he maintained that tool mattered.

Your labours are the same. Your body is the only one you get, and how you fuel it determines what you can do with it.

This is not metaphor. This is biochemistry. What you eat becomes your cells, your neurotransmitters, your energy systems. Feed yourself poorly and your body responds with poor performance. Feed yourself properly and your capacity expands.

Most people over 40 accept low energy as inevitable—a consequence of aging they can't control. This is a lie. Your energy levels are largely determined by what you put in your body. The decline people accept as "normal" is often just decades of poor fueling catching up with them.

Socrates understood this 2,400 years ago. Worthless people—people without purpose—live to eat. They treat food as entertainment, as comfort, as reward. People of worth eat to live. They fuel themselves for the work they need to do.

Energy-focused nutrition isn't about optimization for its own sake. It's about maintaining the capacity to train hard, to think clearly, to serve others when they need you, to remain useful until the end. Food is fuel for these things—for capacity, for service, for the privilege of meaningful labour.

Eat accordingly.

Food Is Fuel for Capacity

Socrates said he ate to live, not lived to eat. This isn't asceticism—it's clarity about purpose. Every meal is either preparing you for what you need to do, or undermining your ability to do it.

When you eat a heavy, carb-loaded lunch, the afternoon slump isn't a mystery. Your body diverts blood and energy to digest what you've given it, your blood sugar spikes and crashes, and your capacity to think clearly and move effectively diminishes. You didn't fail—you just fueled yourself incorrectly for the work you needed to do.

When you eat whole foods, adequate protein, healthy fats, and strategic carbohydrates, your energy stabilizes. You can train hard. You can think clearly. You can show up for others when they need you. This is what proper fueling looks like.

The ancient Greeks understood this intuitively. Food wasn't entertainment—it was preparation. Athletes at the original Olympic Games ate specific foods to maximize performance. Philosophers ate simply so their minds stayed sharp. Warriors ate to maintain strength and endurance.

But they also understood celebration. High days and holidays—religious festivals, victories, significant life events—these were times when food brought people together to feast and indulge. Not daily. Not weekly. But collectively, and for a reason. The feast had meaning because it was rare, because it marked something important, because it was shared with the community.

Modern life has inverted this entirely. We treat every day like a feast day. Every meal is an opportunity for indulgence. We eat for pleasure, for comfort, for distraction—individually, mindlessly, constantly. And then we wonder why our bodies don't perform, why our energy crashes, why we feel sluggish and unreliable.

We've made food the end rather than the means. The Greeks made it the means—fuel for what mattered, with occasional, meaningful celebration woven into the fabric of communal life.

Energy-focused nutrition returns food to its proper role: fuel for the capacity to do meaningful work, with conscious, collective celebration reserved for moments that deserve it.

A balanced meal rich in vegetables and grains

The Discipline of Eating Well

This isn't complicated, but it is difficult. Difficult because:

• Convenient food is usually poor fuel

  
  

• Social situations often revolve around eating poorly

  
  

• You've built habits over decades that work against you

  
  

• Eating well requires planning, preparation, and saying no

  
  

But difficulty is the point. The discipline required to choose the right fuel when the wrong fuel is easier—that's the same discipline you practice under a barbell. The same discipline that allows you to show up to train when you don't feel like it. The same discipline that separates people who age with strength from people who age into decline.

Every meal is a choice: fuel yourself properly, or undermine your capacity. There's no neutral ground.

What Your Body Actually Needs

A brief disclaimer: I'm not a nutritionist or dietitian. I cannot and will not prescribe specific meal plans or provide medical nutrition advice. What follows are basic, common-sense approaches to fueling your body correctly—principles grounded in research I've studied and decades of personal experience. If you need specific dietary interventions for medical conditions, consult a qualified professional.

That said, the fundamentals of proper fueling aren't complicated. When I did my CrossFit certification, the nutrition advice was refreshingly simple: eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. That's it. No complicated macros, no exotic supplements, no restrictive protocols. Just real food.

They also taught us to shop the perimeter of the grocery store—the outer edges where you find fresh produce, meat, and dairy. Avoid the inner aisles filled with processed, packaged items that sit on shelves for months or years. And perhaps most importantly: "If it has a label, it's not food." If you can't pronounce the ingredients or the expiration date is months away, it's likely not real food—it's a food-like product engineered for shelf life and profit, not for your health.

These aren't revolutionary insights. They're common sense that's been obscured by decades of food industry marketing and nutritional confusion. Here's what your body actually needs:

Protein at every meal. Especially as you age, protein becomes critical for maintaining muscle mass, supporting recovery, and keeping you satiated. Aim for 25-40g per meal. Meat, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt—foods that look like what they are.

Healthy fats. Your brain runs on fat. Your hormones depend on fat. Olive oil, nuts, avocados, fatty fish. Not the processed vegetable oils in packaged foods—real fats from real food.

Complex carbohydrates, strategically. You need carbs for training and recovery, but not all day every day. Time them around your training sessions. Sweet potato, rice, oats—whole foods that provide sustained energy, not the quick spike-and-crash of refined carbs.

Minimal sugar and processed foods. This is non-negotiable. Sugar is not fuel—it's disruption. It spikes your blood sugar, crashes your energy, and contributes to the metabolic dysfunction that makes aging harder than it needs to be.

Hydration. Water. Not juice, not flavored drinks. Water. Your body is mostly water. Give it what it needs.

Vegetables. Lots of them. Different colors, different preparations. They provide fiber, micronutrients, and volume without excess calories. If half your plate isn't vegetables, you're probably doing it wrong.

Practical Application

Morning: Protein-focused breakfast. This is critical. Research consistently shows that eating adequate protein at breakfast reduces hunger and cravings throughout the day, stabilizes blood sugar, and improves body composition over time.

Eggs, Greek yogurt, leftover meat from dinner, cottage cheese. Real food with 25-40g of protein. Not cereal—especially not the processed, sugar-laden boxes marketed as "healthy" breakfast options. Not toast. Not "grab and go" bars. Start your day with fuel that sustains you, not fuel that sets you up for a mid-morning crash and constant hunger.

Midday: Balanced meal with protein, vegetables, and healthy fats. Save the larger carb serving for after training if you train in the afternoon.

Evening: Similar to lunch. If you trained hard, include more carbs to support recovery. If you didn't train, keep carbs moderate.

Around training: Carbs before for fuel, mostly protein after for recovery. Simple.

Snack Smart - Instead of reaching for sugary treats, opt for snacks that combine protein and fibre. A handful of almonds, a piece of fruit with nut butter, or veggie sticks with hummus work well.

Mindful Eating - Eating slowly and without distractions helps you tune into hunger and fullness cues, preventing overeating and energy slumps.

Movement Breaks - Sitting for long periods drains energy. Short walks or stretching every 45 minutes to one hour refreshes mind and body.

What to avoid: Processed foods, sugar, excessive snacking, eating when you're bored rather than hungry.

These habits aren’t about perfection but about creating a rhythm that supports sustained energy and well-being.

A nutrient-dense mix of nuts, seeds, and dried fruits

Energy for What Matters

You don't optimise your nutrition so you can "feel good" in some abstract sense. You optimise it so you can do what needs doing.

Train hard. Think clearly. Show up for your family and community. Remain useful and capable as long as possible.

Food is fuel for these things—for capacity, for service, for the privilege of meaningful labour. This is the Herculean Way. Eat accordingly.

Your body will respond. Your energy will stabilize. Your training will improve. Your mental clarity will sharpen. Not because nutrition is magic, but because you're finally giving your body what it actually needs instead of what's convenient or comforting.

Energy-focused nutrition isn't a diet or a trend. It's thoughtful fueling for the life you're trying to live.

Conquer yourself. Age with strength.