What I Eat in a Week

An Example of a Healthy Diet

If you wonder what an ancestral diet could look like in action, I’ll give you a concrete example.  We’ll do a breakdown of exactly what I ate in week. 

Of course, don’t feel like you need to eat exactly like me to be healthy.  There is no “one size fits all” diet that is good for everybody.  I would argue that certain principles apply to everybody (eat real food, avoid processed carbohydrates and weird chemicals, etc.), but not specific “rules”.  

I personally follow a diet that I would describe as straddling the line between low-carb and keto (I eat around 50 grams of carbs a day) and mostly paleo/primal (I avoid all grains and most processed foods, but I do eat some dairy).  However, other people do well on a more inclusive whole-food diet (think of a Weston A. Price -style diet which does include some grains and more carbs but still has lots of animal products and no processed crap), some do well on a higher-carb version of paleo/primal, and others need to go stricter keto or even carnivore.

My point is, don’t feel like my way of eating is the only way of eating.  Keep in mind that I am a 27 year old male who is very physically active (I usually get between 10,000 and 30,000 steps a day) so, if it looks like I am eating a lot of calories, I am, and you may not need (or want) to eat that much in your particular situation.

Anyway, here goes!  

May 10, 2026 (Sunday – Mothers Day!)

• Lunch (11:45 a.m.): Three hamburger patties with ½ avocado and three tbs of salsa, four hardboiled eggs, five and half slices turkey bacon, a bowl of maple soy pork (yes, cooked with ¼ cup of maple syrup in the whole crockpot full of pork – I’m not zero carb, and I don’t think everyone needs to be.) 
• Dinner (7:10 p.m.): Grilled chuck steak and four grilled chicken thighs (both marinated in teriyaki soy sauce marinade), a cup of kale chips baked with olive oil, keto pumpkin cheesecake (homemade – egg, cream cheese, pumpkin, stevia, almond meal, butter, dark chocolate chunks, topped with “icing”consisting of sour cream sweetened with a little stevia).

• Macros: 
• Protein: 245 grams
• Fat: 165 grams
• Carbohydrates: 37 grams
• Calories: 2,575

May 11, 2026 (Monday)

• Breakfast (11:45 a.m.): Eight eggs beaten with one tbs cream and cooked with butter and olive oil, leftover creamed salmon (canned salmon, butter, sour cream, a bit of American cheese, chicken broth, xanthan gum, guar gum) with ⅓ cup peas, ½ cup kefir.
• Lunch (3:10 p.m.): More maple soy pork, more kale chips with olive oil, ½ cup heavy cream mixed with decaf coffee.
• Dinner (9:20 p.m.): Egg-drop soup (eggs, homemade chicken bone broth), seven oz (½ package) kielbasa with ½ cup of sauerkraut, ¼ cup of pecans.

• Macros:
• Protein: 204 grams
• Fat: 202 grams
• Carbohydrates: 42 grams
• Calories: 2,758

May 12, 2026 (Tuesday)

• 1:20 p.m.- I snuck a tiny bit of homemade maple-pecan bar (pecans, eggs, butter, a tiny bit of maple syrup)
• Lunch (1:40 p.m.): Eight eggs mixed with one tbs of cream cooked with butter and olive oil, served on top of two cups of cooked 80/20 ground beef crumbles, 1 ½ cups cooked zucchini and onions and two tbs butter.
• Dinner (5:50 p.m.): Frittata (three eggs, ¼ cup ground beef, three tbs salsa), ½ avocado, ½ cup kefir, ½ cup heavy cream with decaf coffee, more kale chips with olive oil

• Macros: 
• Protein: 157 grams
• Fat: 211 grams
• Carbohydrates: 42 grams
• Calories: 2,639

May 13, 2026 (Wednesday)

• Breakfast (10:55 a.m.) Two cups spaghetti squash with one cup cooked chicken hearts and onions, 1 ½ cups ground beef, and ½ cup crushed tomatoes, and ½ cup heavy cream mixed with coffee.
• Lunch (4:30 p.m.): Four hot Italian sausages, ½ cup sauerkraut, 2 lemon pepper tuna pouches (bought at work because I was still really hungry after I finished the sausages), ½ cup macadamia nuts.
• Dinner (9:30 p.m.): Egg puff (eggs, heavy cream, stevia), more maple soy pork, ½ avocado.

• Macros:
• Protein: 203 grams
• Fat: 226 grams
• Carbohydrates: 69 grams
• Calories: 3,046

May 14, 2026 (Thursday)

• Lunch (1:35 p.m.): Two cups of ground beef, 8 cherry tomatoes, ½ avocado, and five tbs salsa, topped by six eggs mixed with  one tbs of cream and scrambled in butter and olive oil, and one tbs onion cooked in sausage fat.
• Dinner (7:00 p.m.): One cup spaghetti squash with one cup of chicken hearts and one cup of pot roast cooked in the crockpot, topped with gravy (pot roast juice thickened with xanthan gum and guar gum) and one tbs butter, ¼ cup macadamia nuts, ½ cup heavy cream mixed with decaf coffee, two tbs butter eaten straight because I was still hungry.

• Macros: 
• Protein: 178 grams
• Fat: 235 grams
• Carbohydrates: 49 grams
• Calories: 2,971

May 15 (Friday)

• Breakfast (10:55 a.m.): One 14.75 oz. can wild-caught salmon (bones in, skin on), cooked in olive oil and one stick of butter, topped with Italian seasoning, lemon juice, ½ cup of cooked chopped bell peppers, ⅓ cup peas, and ⅓ cup greanbeans, one hardboiled egg.
• Lunch (4:00 p.m.): Two hardboiled eggs, eight ounces of fresh mozzarella.
• Dinner (9:25 p.m.): Egg puff (1 ½ eggs, 2 tbs cream), two cans tuna, ½ cup macadamia nuts, ½ cup heavy cream.

• Macros: 
• Protein: 222 grams
• Fat: 266 grams
• Carbohydrates: 38 grams
• Calories: 3,394

May 16 (Saturday)

• Lunch (12:15 p.m.): One pound London broil beef cooked in the crockpot, ½ cup sauerkraut, 8 brussels sprouts, 2 tbs butter.
• Dinner (5:40 p.m.): I cup ground Italian sausage, eight eggs scrambled with two tbs heavy cream and cooked in butter and olive oil, three tbs salsa, one chicken thigh with experimental homemade barbecue sauce (tomato paste, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, olive oil), ½ cup homemade yogurt with a sprinkle of stevia and ½ cup defrosted frozen mixed berries, ½ cup heavy cream.  

• Macros:
• Protein: 208 grams
• Fat: 214 grams
• Carbohydrates: 45 grams
• Calories: 2,902

Meal Timing

I generally try to eat in an eight-hour (or smaller) eating window every day, and usually eat two meals total with no snacking.  Due to life circumstances (including balancing working on my health coaching business with being a grad student and working part-time), I am out of the house until 9:00 p.m. a few nights a week and I usually am ravenous when I get home, so I eat three meals those days.  I consider it less than ideal, but I still am sticking to an eight-hour window with two meals total the four or five days a week, and I still don’t snack at all on my three-meal days.  

Nutritional Completeness

First my disclaimer: Different people with different medical and life conditions may have different nutritional needs.  Just because I do not seem to be suffering from any nutritional deficiencies eating the way I do does not automatically mean that someone trying to exactly replicate my diet would get the same results I do.

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of various micronutrients is not set in stone; because the guidelines are meant for the general population, they tend to err on the side of being higher than necessary in order to make sure that even people who have higher than average needs or are poor absorbers of certain nutrients still get adequate levels.  Many healthy people can probably do fine consuming significantly less than the RDA.  Conversely, because the RDA guidelines are meant to prevent serious deficiencies rather than optimize health, some people may feel their best when they get significantly more of some nutrients than they “need” to (examples would include vitamin B12 and vitamin D, for example).

Furthermore, the RDA values were designed for a metabolically sick population eating a grain-based, high-carb diet.  If you are metabolically healthy and eating a very different diet from the general population (primal/paleo, low-carb, keto, carnivore, etc.), do these RDAs still apply to you?  The short answer is we don’t know, but not necessarily (Amber O’Hearn makes a compelling case that carnivores need less of many nutrients, including vitamin C and folate, than the general population).  

My point is that just looking at RDAs is of limited utility in terms of figuring out if your diet is actually making you healthier.  As always, talk to your healthcare provider about your specific medical needs, and keep in mind that seeing how you feel, whether or not you are symptomatic, and looking at your labs are more important than worrying about what RDAs you do or don’t hit on paper. 

Having said that, for fun, I ran a couple of days of my food log through Cronometer and ran a week of my eating plan through Grok and asked about how nutritionally complete my diet was.  The overall takeaway from both was that my diet was very nutrient-dense and nutritionally complete, especially for a “restrictive” diet like keto (the scare quotes are intentional).  Grok’s overall assessment says: “Excellent nutrient profile — this diet covers or exceeds most RDAs solidly, especially for an active male. Strengths in bioavailable animal-source nutrients; minor watch items are typical for keto but manageable with your current inclusions.”  (Yes, I know that AI bots are not really impartial.  Take Grok’s assessment with a grain of salt.)  

Most of my B vitamins were well above RDAs (B1 was low on some days, but that would be offset by the days I ate pork).  Vitamin D was quite high from salmon and eggs, and I hit the RDA of vitamin A even without including liver just from eggs and diary.  Folate was not super high but adequate (largely from eggs and avocado).  I didn’t hit vitamin C everyday, but well-exceeded it on multiple days a week (such as when I included bell-peppers).  

 Vitamin K was a little low some days, but averaged out with the occasional inclusion of veggies like kale.  Minerals were good (iron, zinc, and selenium were quite high, copper and calcium were lower but adequate).  

Finally, my protein was obviously very high (including lots of collagen from salmon skin and bones and eating ground beef and cheaper steaks with a lot of gristle included).  The inclusion of a lot of salmon and other fish also meant I got a lot of omega-3s.  

Grok’s main concern was magnesium and potassium being a little low.  I do take a magnesium supplement to be on the safe side, but I also have no symptoms whatsoever of low electrolytes.  

So I feel pretty comfortable with my diet in terms of nutritional completeness.  Obviously, every week is a little different, but this week is an accurate snapshot of what I typically eat. 

Compromises

On Saturday, I was working outside and sweating a lot, so I had a sugar-free gatorade and an artificially sweetened electrolyte drink.  Both together only added four total carbs to my day, but they added artificial sweeteners and colors I usually avoid.  I don’t do that every day or even every week.

 Like many people, money is certainly a factor that enters into my food choices.  I do eat some processed meat such as sausage and hot dogs, although I only use brands that have less than one gram of carbs per serving.  I know that there are some additives and chemicals in processed meat even so, but given what I am working with, I consider them better than processed carbs.

Most of my food is not organic, grass fed, etc.  Do I think that organic, free range, grass-fed meat and eggs and organic veggies are probably better for your health than their regular counterparts?  Yes, but “regular” meat and eggs (and veggies, for that matter) are still very nutrient-dense and healthy foods.  I see upgrading to organic and local food as more fine-tuning than as a primary lever.  I would like to eat more food from local and organic sources, but right now this is the best I can do.

I do use xanthan gum and guar gum to thicken gravies and sauces occasionally.  I know a lot of people will tell me that xanthan gum is evil and toxic and created by growing bacteria on corn, blah blah blah.  The amount I use is tiny (a teaspoon thickens a whole pot of soup or gravy), I don’t eat it every day, and I don’t suffer any digestive distress or other symptoms after I eat it.  Anecdotally, I know that some people do, and obviously those people would do well to avoid it.  I also see it as a cheap and very low-carb way to take all the juice (and tasty fat!) left over from cooking meat in the crockpot and put it to use rather than wasting it.

Those are my “compromises”.  I feel at peace with them.  If you feel you need to compromise on your diet for financial reasons, please don’t use it as an excuse to throw in the towel!  Your diet will never be perfect anyway.  Just eliminating seed oils, grains, and sugar from your diet and prioritizing meat, eggs, veggies, and healthy fats is enough to give most people huge benefits.  If you have the money and inclination to improve your diet more after that, that’s great, but it’s fine-tuning.  It’s not essential to see real results.

Convenience

I’m one of five kids, and I started cooking at a young age, so I’m used to cooking in large quantities.  Cooking in bulk is a big time and effort saver.  If you are cooking ground beef anyway, you may as well cook twice as much and freeze half in one-cup, ready-to-use portions.  

You may notice I eat the same thing several days in a row sometimes.  If you like feeling like a hunter-gatherer, this can make you feel like you just killed a mammoth and now you and your whole tribe are living off the kill for the next week.  It is also convenient: cook a huge hunk of beef or pork in the crockpot, and now you can use that as a base for meals for several days.  Of course, if you’re one of those people who crave variety, and you’d rather spend the extra time cooking something different every day, have at it!

Time is money, so finding ways of saving time and effort are important.  Cooking in bulk and saving/freezing and using the crockpot are two techniques I use a lot.  I also eat a lot of egg meals; eggs are nutritious, cheap, and easy to cook.

Well, that’s what I eat in a week.  What diet works for you?  Let me know in the comments!