🥗 Meal Prep

👋 Hello friend

📅

I do a weekly reflection ritual every week on Sunday at 16:00 CET. Currently it is still in German, but I am thinking about doing it in English in the future. If you feel like it, you are welcome to join via the same Zoom link every week. (duration ~30 minutes) See you then 😄

I am doing Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint Protocol for 30 days. In this week’s_,_ newsletter edition I will share Step 1 of 3 from the Protocol Starter Guide: Meal Prep.

I love that Bryan Johnson aims to rely on data and automation.

In this meal plan, every calorie has to fight for its life. If the food doesn’t affect a certain biomarker Bryan Johnson’s team wants to improve, it is out. I’m implementing the steps from Bryan Johnson’s nutritional plan in small bites.

Although it’s a single-subject study (n=1), Bryan Johnson asserts that this is the healthiest food plan ever based on scientific studies.

Step No. 1: Focus on food.

Meal number 1 is called “Nutty Pudding”. I eat this as a post-workout meal, right after my 30-minute morning workout.

Disclaimer: It took me several days to gather all the ingredients for the dishes, allowing me to gradually create the meals.

🍮 Nutty Pudding

Nutty Pudding by Bryan Johnson

I prepare Nutty Pudding in bulk. For this, a blender is needed. Make sure to buy a high-performance blender, as I, unfortunately, wrecked mine. 😀

Ingredients Nutty Pudding (in grams)

This is also a great site where the recipes are described.

• 70ml almond milk
• 33g macadamia nuts
• 9g walnuts
• 23g chia seeds
• 3g ground flaxseed
• ¼ pecan nut
• 6g non-dutched cocoa (should simply be cocoa, without any other ingredients or acidity regulators, etc.)
• 3g sunflower lecithin
• 65g berries (I prefer a frozen berry mix)
• ½ tsp Ceylon cinnamon
• 3 cherries
• 60ml pomegranate juice
• 30g pea protein

Steps Nutty Pudding

Nutty Pudding in 3 Steps

1. Add 50-100 ml nut-based milk, depending on the desired consistency.
2. Add walnuts, macadamia nuts, and ground flaxseed.
3. Add cocoa, sunflower lecithin, and cinnamon. (I ordered all these ingredients from Amazon)
4. Add 3 cherries and 30g of berries (save half of them for topping) along with pomegranate juice.
5. Blend everything.
6. Pour the mixture into a bowl.
7. Add the remaining berries as a topping.
8. Typically, I also add 30 grams of pea protein.

(left) oven vegetables, wildly mixed selection of vegetables from Bryan Johnson’s recipe guide, (right) me with the king of nuts: the macadamia nut

🥬 Green Giant

After waking up, I drink 1 liter of water, followed by the Green Giant.

Although Bryan Johnson no longer drinks the Green Giant, as he has shifted the ingredients to other meals, I find this vitamin drink a good ritual.

Ingredients Green Giant

• 0.6L water
• 10g spermidine
• 8g EAA
• 2.5g creatine
• 20g collagen peptides
• 500mg cocoa flavanols
• Ceylon cinnamon

Steps Green Giant

1. First add the water, then everything else.
2. Stir with a frother and it’s ready.

Initially, I did a few things differently. Instead of 10g spermidine, I made a green mix including chlorella.

In the category “Flavor Powders” Natural Elements scored very well with the German Society for Consumer Studies, which is why I ordered their EAAs on Amazon.

Cocoa flavanols -> Cocoa flavanols are not the same as normal organic ground cocoa powder. Ground cocoa beans contain only 5-10% of the cocoa flavanols.

🥦 Super Veggie

Super Veggie by Bryan Johnson (in pureed form)

The second meal is Super Veggie.

I eat Super Veggie 1-2 times daily but in modified forms. Sometimes I add sweet potatoes, radishes, tomatoes, or other vegetables.

Ingredients Super Veggie

• Black lentils, 45 grams dry, ~150 grams cooked
• Broccoli 250 grams
• Cauliflower. 150 grams
• Shiitake or Maitake Mushrooms, 50 grams
• Garlic, 1 clove (a piece)
• Ginger Root, 3 grams
• Lime, 1
• Cumin, 1 Tbsp
• Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 Tbsp
• Hemp Seeds, 1 Tbsp
• 1 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Steps Super Veggie

1. Place broccoli, cauliflower, shiitake, ginger, and garlic in boiling water until tender (7-9 min).
2. Boil lentils for 18-20 minutes.
3. Add 1 tbsp of dried cumin, 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar, 1 fresh lime, cooked black lentils, and the strained cooked vegetables.
4. Top with hemp seeds and 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.

You can even try different meals if you are fed up with the Super Veggie after some time.

🥗 Buddha Bowl

The third meal of Bryan Johnson varies. I haven’t tried everything yet, but the Buddha Bowl tastes extremely delicious.

Buddha Bowl on a plate by Bryan Johnson

Ingredients Buddha Bowl

• 1 Japanese sweet potato
• ½ head of asparagus
• 5-6 leaves kale
• 1 red pepper
• 2 carrots
• 30 grams walnuts
• Handful of cilantro
• 2.5 grams of extra virgin olive oil
• Handful of green onions
• 1 lemon
• Handful of chopped dill
• 15 grams of white beans
• 15 grams apple cider vinegar
• 2.5 grams of cumin seeds

Steps Buddha Bowl

1. Sweet Potato - Preheat oven to 200°C. Poke the sweet potato a few times and lightly coat it with olive oil. Roast it for 45 min - 1 hour until tender. Once roasted, cut in half and top with green onions and cilantro.
2. Red Pepper - Place the red pepper in the oven to roast alongside the sweet potato for 25–30 minutes. After roasting, thinly slice it.
3. Asparagus - Trim the woody ends and give the asparagus a quick boil for 2-5 minutes.
4. White Beans - Combine with the juice of one lemon and a handful of chopped dill.
5. Carrots - Shred and mix them with apple cider vinegar and cumin seeds.
6. Kale - Chop and massage with a bit of olive oil until the leaves start to soften.
7. Assemble the Bowl - Add sweet potato, red pepper, asparagus, white beans, carrots, and kale in your bowl. Top with toasted walnuts, and a squeeze of lemon juice for zest.

Other resources I found helpful (I think on Reddit) were this google sheet for all the different areas of Bryan Johnson and this one for the German community.

Summary

• Meal number 1: Nutty Pudding, which is easy to make in bulk in a blender. Eat it after your workout in the morning.
• Right after getting up, we have the Green Giant vitamin drink.
• Meal number 2 is Super Veggie. It contains a lot of vegetables and tastes damn good.
• Meal number 3 can vary. I suggest you click on the recipe guide and choose a meal :)

Feel free to write me if you have any questions.

Have a great week! ☀️

xx Lukas