One target: protein. Everything else is a generous budget.
This page is your protein playbook: the foods, the systems that make it repeatable, and two example days showing what hitting the numbers actually looks like. You train early and your first real meal often lands at noon. That morning gap is the one thing we are fixing, and it is easier than you think.
One real target, one budget, one timing rule. That is the whole system.
The budget is generous on purpose so protein is your only real focus. Hit the 100g, land anywhere inside 2,000, and we are good. One thing to watch the other way: if you are regularly finishing days under 1,500, that is a problem too. Fed enough to train, fuelled enough to not run on fumes.
Your body builds and repairs best on a steady feed of protein through the day. Long gaps with none, like a whole morning, leave it breaking things down instead.
The morning number is the whole game for you. Solve it with the shake or the egg mix below and the rest of the day is just two normal meals with the protein portion made a bit bigger.
Every meal starts with one question: what is my protein source? Then build around it, in this order.
The ribeye rule: if steak is your protein every day and it is always the fatty cut, the budget disappears fast. Lean cuts (sirloin, filet, 93/7 mince) are the default, the ribeye is a deliberate treat, not the daily driver.
Three protein moments a day. The morning one is new, the other two you already eat, just protein-forward now.
Something in before noon, every day. Pick whichever fits the morning:
First thought: what is my protein source? Then the rest:
The easiest 35g of the day, because dinner is already cooked at home:
Dairy does not love you, so skip the whey and go for a beef protein isolate, and only a third-party tested one, so you know exactly what is in the tub and nothing that should not be. The three I would pick from: Transparent Labs Beef Isolate, MuscleMeds Carnivor, or Equip Prime Protein. All dairy free, 20 to 25g of protein a scoop. A shake is a tool, not a meal replacement, but for your mornings it is the perfect tool. One rule that never bends: a shake never goes down alone. Every shake gets something to chew alongside it, even something as simple as a banana (120g). Chewing tells your brain a meal happened; liquid alone does not.
Break the day in half: half your steps and half your protein done by midday. Do that and the afternoon is always a downhill run, never a panic to catch up at 9pm.
Every meal is the same three slots. Swap freely inside a column, never across columns. That is how you get variety without ever rebuilding the plan.
→ Chicken for fish, rice for potato, broccoli for salad: all fair game. The slots and the gram amounts never change, only the food in them.
Rotate on prep, not on impulse. Once a week, pick 2 proteins, 1 carb and 2 veg from the columns above and that is your rotation for the week. Bored of a food? Switch it out at the next prep, not mid-week. The morning slot has its own menu (shake plus fruit, egg mix, or protein oatmeal) and rotates the same way: pick one, run it for the week.
Eating out, on the road, or any meal you are not weighing. Works anywhere, zero logging.
One off meal is not an off week.
A low day, a night out, a morning that got away from you. The very next meal goes straight back to structure, starting with the protein question. No "I'll start again Monday." Next plate, back on plan.
The framework in action. 100g of protein, inside the 2,000 budget, without eating like a bodybuilder.
100 grams of protein every day, half of it before midday, inside a generous 2,000 calorie budget. Protein is the first thought at every meal. That is the entire system.