TL;DR

Meet Andre, one of our top rejuvenation athletes at Zero Club.

He spends only 1 day and has Blueprint meals for the next 28 days.

Top 1% with better Sleep in London.

Get 100% sleep performance for 1 entire week.

Lost +10Kg last year.

Introduction

I’ve been following Blueprint Protocol from Bryan Jhonson (all meals) over the last 6 months and, since following this for a long term is not an easy task, I've created a system with several hacks and optimized my meals preparation where I spend only 1 day (or only few hours) and have meals for the next 28 days - that is why 1 to 28.

Today, It cost me only GBP ~400/mo for ingredientes (~USD 500/mo) and meals are delicious. It is very personalized: I have control over all ingredients, can easily change recipes to adapt my preferences and taste. So, If it is faster, cheaper, taste is great and easier to adapt over time, then it becomes sustainable for long-term and that is why I've been on this diet for so long.

I've shared a few small hacks (eg: buying a $200 freezer) in some communities about what I was doing and they loved it. As they asked for a more “Step by step” around my process, I've decided to article and a few tools (eg: like this spreadsheet for meal plan). I was also accepted for the first cohort (BP5000 - aka Freddie Mercury in Discord) to try BP's stack in the 90 days challenges and hope it can help from there too. Have a fun reading!

Shared this in Zero Club community and got several positive feedback that incentivized me to write this. Zero Club is Europe's first longevity community.

"Thanks you guys from Zero and BP5000 (first cohort to try Blueprint's stack)! I have learnt a lot from you, so hopefully and I can give back.
Also, thank you Bryan Johnson for sharing your knowledge with this fantastic diet and experiment! (his protocol here)"

Before jumping into the Hacks, let me explain about why it needs optimization, why alternatives do not really work well and about me.

If you liked, follow me on twitter @ndrenazareth_ - will share more hacks.

Why it needs Optimization

The path to continue the diet for a long term is not easy. As many, the major challenges are : time to prep, taste, cost and adaptation over time. If you are not prepared, the intense logistic will make you give up. These are the challenges are the reasons why most of people trying Blueprint end up failing to continue (eg: watch this guy). Even with BP's stack, it won't solve of many the issues (specially in terms taste/freshness, amount of calories and adapting to you).

I've now reached to a point where current diet is better in all aspects compared to my previous not much healthy diet (which was eating at Chiplote + sushi + cooking sometimes + Eggs on every breakfast). With current diet and process, I have the benefits of:

• Faster: Prep time is only 6hr/month vs ordering/cooking food everyday. Even just 20-30min of daily cooking/meal prep can become 10-15hrs time spent in a month. And, now, I don't need to even think about over the entire month (mental cost of switching activities). Optionally, you can spend a bit more (GBP 200/day) and hire someone to cook for you, so it will only take 1-2hr/month (for goals, adjustments and buying).
• Cheaper: Cost only GBP 500/month vs my previous cost GBP700/mo (vs USD1500/mo Bryan diet).
• Better Taste: It has now a great taste for me as I did several small changes. Full control of ingredients/recipe, love nutty pudding and my 3rd meals. My first supper veggie did not really taste good in the beginning - now it is delicious.
• Adapt: By keeping +90% of blueprint standard, I have a very healthy diet and that works for me (shared my results in the end of article). However, as any diet, I needed several adjustments (eg: type of macronutrients: more Fat or Carbs, quantity of calores & protein, …) and small changes are done every month in a easier well due to the spreadsheet and controls I created.

That means, I have now no reason to NOT follow this every single day.

Why alternatives are still not good enough

Chefs

Why not just ordering food from a chef? I know that there are a few chefs in London that can cook blueprint meals. However, it would cost more (+900 GBP) and It would be harder make several little changes every month as I do in order to improve taste, preferences or to adjust calories over time. Also, I wouldn't actually be sure chef is following a high quality of ingredients and right amounts I am looking for. As mentioned before, you could bring a Chef to cook at your place, which I will also discuss more later - it is add on to this 1-to-28 system.

Blueprint Stack

Why not just ordering from Blueprint stack? I've recently entered into the first cohort (BP5000) to try BP's stack (Bryan's new set of nutritional programs). I am super excited with these products - and specially with the Vitamin stack. A few considerations I have: 1) It is all powder and nothing is really fresh. For me, it would work for travels or for a few days - but it is hard to image a life without the texture and taste of real food. 2) It is still limited. Current stack only contains 400 calories/day. 3) Because it is “mass product”, they had to remove key several ingredients (such as Brazilian nut, Chia seeds, Cherry, Collagen). Some ingredients are sold separately (eg: Macadamia, Walnuts, chocolate). That all means, in the of day, you will still need to be in charge of your own diet and add/mix other ingredients. I hope in the future they can add more alternative and easier ways for “personalization” according to your body needs & goals. With that said, the BP stack is evolving rapidly and things may change. With current stack, it is already very useful (that is why I am a customer). I do believe it can save some prep time and I plan to mix and integrate it into some of my meals. Will let you know more pretty soon.

Principles of 1 to 28

Food as number 1 priority

‍There +100 itens on Blueprint protocol. Bryan says that “Sleep + Meals + Exercise” are the 20% responsible for 80% of results. And, I would say that Meals alone is “the unique thing” that is responsible for +50% of results: You simply can't sleep well with a poor diet. Fix diet first and have a long term goal in mind.

Optimize in small steps

Do not cook for 28 days if you haven't cooked for 1 day or 7 days yet. Do littles changes week by week. If you like taste, then increase to 14 week days. You will learn which ingredients you love the most and how adapt recipes. You will also understand how diet fits into your body, how many calories/proteins you really need and adjust it accordingly. Finally, you will understand the process to cook for 28 day - things get messy very easily!

Find what is sustainable for you

Doesn’t matter if you are rich or super healthy already. It is very like you will need to deal with some of the aspect that may prevent you to keep the diet for a long time. For many, the issue is the time to prep, for others, the issue is taste or travels. So, the goal is to find your own way to stay healthy, fast to prepare, taste is good for you, and at a cost you can afford. Have a long-term mindset and always keep in mind your needs for the meal planning. Sometimes, it may work better for you to have a bit flexible diet instead of too radical. For instance, I usually do 1 or 2 free meals per week where I go to a restaurant with my wife - I found that, as long as I don't eat too much carbs / calories and avoid Lactose & Gluten (I am celiac) on these days, I usually stay fine and it is OK for me.

Preparation, upfront cost & hacks

Concept is very simple with only 3 steps:

1. preparation & nutritional goals,
2. buying ingredients
3. have a cooking day

You don't need to have a large kitchen (I don't), but you need to have the right utensils and buy (have) a large freeze.

Also, some people asked me if frozen food is great. Yes, they are very good. The only exception would be Nutty Pudding, but for that I only freeze the fruits & juice, so flavour also stays delicious.

Find on this spreadsheet some links for a few itens that bought on amazon (se tab “Purchase")

This is the list of some of the itens you will need to start:‍

1. Large Freezer 140L:  I had a smaller Freezer that barely fit food for 1 week for a couple. So, it was the biggest bottle neck for me for cooking for 1 month. Had to convince my wife to put a new freezer into our 50m2 apartment. It was a life change: we are now able to store prep meals for a couple for +1 month.
2. Powerful Mixer 1700W: I've tried to use Nutribullet 900W, but this other is not only more powerful, but also has a Large Pitcher which facilitates to mix veggies for the super veggie. It will speed up your process and create less mess in the kitchen. You will not able to blend all veggies at once, but will help a lot.
3. Food Processor: I use it to chop Carrot & Beetroots. I tried to use this to blend super veggie, but it does not do a good job (not as powerful as Nutribullet, does more mess)
4. Big container 20-40L: I also highly recommend to have a big containers that you will use to mix all veggies that you will blend and also use to make mix of berries. This is the step before adding food to the individual meals.
5. 2x Large Pot of 11L: You will need to cook a lot of Broccolis and Cauliflower to get food for 1 month, so I recommend buy 2 Large Pot. You will also use that to cook other meals (lentils, chicken, …)
6. Ice cubes markers (20x): I've bought 20 of those so I can mix all fruits, juice and honey for the Nutty Pudding. Will explain more later.
7. Plastic containers (100x): You can also buy metal containers - up to you. Try search for EPA free plastic (safer option).

Buying ingredients

Copy this spreadsheet for meal plan for you. You will find several tabs. In “meals tab” is also where you can add the amount of calories.

A few tips:

• Start from your nutritional goals for the month. Do you want to loose fat? want gain muscles? what problems you had with your past diet? Then, you can think what ingredients to add/remove.
• In the spreadsheet I shared, you can find a tool to adjust the amount of each ingredient that allow you to reach your nutritional goals. I've also added some ingredients that purchases on Amazon UK.
• I usually only buy in two online store to facilitate the process (Amazon and ASDA). ASDA is a well known groceries in the UK and that is where I buy the fresh items such as Veggies, Fruits and a few other.
• I plan to purchase about 2 weeks before cooking day, as some items may take a few days to arrive. For ASDA, I can schedule the deliver day and ask to deliver at least 2 days before the cooking day.
• I only buy Frozen Veggie (Broccolis/Cauliflower) and Frozen Fruits. They come chopped and makes the process much easier.
• Healthier options: Whenever is available and price is not too high, I try to get Free range Chicken and organic food.

Recipes & cooking

Nutty Pudding

It contains 21 ingredients and you can find the full list with the respective amounts I use on spreadsheet. With high micronutrient density and almost half of my daily calories, it gives me energy I need for most of day.

That is the most delicious breakfast and meal of the day! Often I go to sleep thinking and waiting for this.

How to Prep:

I basically split into 3 parts. So, daily, it takes be only 5-10 min to prep which is adding 150ml of Coconut Mik + 2.5 scoops of Mix of Seeds & Whey + 8 ice cubes of Fruits/Juice. As toppings, I add of 1 scoop Mix of Nuts & Chocolate some additional berries.

The parts of Nutty pudding

1. Mix of Fruits, Juice and Honey: I buy all berries and cherries frozen. Mix that with Pomagranade juice and Manuka honey. Then, put it into ice cubes forms that goes to the freezer.
2. Mix of Seeds & Whey: Just mix all these ingredients in the right amount in the big plastic container: Flaxseed, chia seeds, macadamia, brazil nut, walnuts, ceylon cinnamon, sunflower lecithin, Collagen Peptides, Creatine, Cocoa Powder, Whey Protein Vanilla. ps: I store it using the Whey Protein pot. Does not go to the freezer.
3. Mix of Nuts & Chocolate (Toppings): Mix Dark Chocolate (100%), almonds (and some times a bit of macadamia). It gives a nice and crunchy flavour.

Main Changes & Tips:

• Protein: I tried to use a few Veg protein powder and Pea protein, but the taste and texture were not good for me. I plan to taste a few other Pea protein in the future, but will stick with my optimum gold whey protein (Vanilla) which flavour is great for me.
• Collagen and Creatine: Added to nutty pudding as It does not have a taste, but gives a nice texture for this meal. It also simplify my diet.
• Chocolate powder: For a matter of taste, I prefer it with less cocoa powder (and move to chocolate bar on the topping).
• Coconut milk: Changed for that as I could not find macadamia milk easily in UK and taste is great (try to buy the unsweeted)
• Frozen mix of fruits: Do not warm up the frozen mix of fruit. It goes to the blender directly and gives a consistency of smoothie. ps: I've tried to freeze all nutty pudding together in the beginning, but taste is not great. I highly not recommend doing that.

Super Veggie

Have to confess: my first few Super Veggie meals did not taste good. After a many tweaks, it is now a 10x delicious meal.

How to Prep:

Also split into 3 parts. The process is very simple.

I cook everything in the Large Pot (11L) such as: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Ginger Root, Garlic. It can be cooked together and you may need use 2. All these ingredient will be blended together in several steps.

If you have more Pot, you can cook in parallel the Lentils and Aspargus too.

Find full list of ingredients here spreadsheet.

Main Changes & Tips:

• Buy Frozen: I highly recommend you to buy Broccoli and Cauliflower already frozen, that will save you a lot of time.
• Day Before: Leave lentils on water in a day before to reduce toxins
• Reducing ingredients for taste: I've reduced the amount of “cumin” (25% of originial recipe) and lime (for 50%). Taste much better for me.
• Adding Toppings for taste: I’ve added Aspargus, Olives, Basil, Leaf Parsley, Corielander, Onions. I love all these ingredients and it gives a significant difference on taste.
• Improving Texture: I don't blend all Broccolis as I like to eat some large pieces of it. Also,  I add a bit of cooked lentils together in the blender for mix with the veggie.
• Before eating: I also add  salt (sodium free), tabasco pepper sauce and Olive Oil (from Blueprint).

Boom! Now I have a 10x more delicious Super Veggie that I can eat and enjoy it every day! In the spreadsheet I shared, make your own adjustments that you need for your diet and taste.

3rd meal (Super Chicken)

For my 3rd meal, I basically add some of the ingredients that Bryan Johnson have in his recipes. I keep the chicken as base of main protein and every month I add/remove some other ingredients (eg: Sweet Potato, Avocato, Chickpeas, Edamme, Asparagus)

How to Prep:

I split into 2 parts and thee process is also easy. The most of time I spend is on cooking the Chicken. O basically add all ingredients for the chicken prep together for 40-60min. (in the Large Pot of 11L) - with exception of carrot, beets and few (see the sheet). I mix the chicken every 10min and add bit of water. For carrots and beets, I do not cook and I use the food processor to chopp them.

Main Changes & Tips:

• Changing ingredients: Every month I change ingredients a bit on this recipe due to several reasons. Sometimes I want to reduce Carbs (removing Sweet Potato and add Avocado). Sometimes I want to eat less protein (so reduce Chicken and add Chickpeas/Asparagus). Sometime change is just a matter of taste (adding Olives). If you see my spreadsheet you will find a bunch of ingredients that I've already added to this 3rd meal. It lets your plan very flexible.
• Beetroot: I buy it already cooked and just need to chop on my food processor. ps: I've tried to buy Beetroot and Carrot already chopped, but taste is not really the same.
• Day Before: Leave Chickpeas (if use this) on water in a day before to reduce toxins
• Before eating: I also add salt (sodium free), tabasco pepper sauce and Olive Oil (from Blueprint).
• Mustard: Adding a tea spoon of Dijon Mustard (wholegrain) will give a fantastic flavor!

Cooking day

A few tips:

• Cooking Day: I usually schedule one saturday from 8am to 1-3PM. That means 5-7 hours. That is more than enough to prep everything and clean kitchen. You may need a bit more hours in the beginning until you get practise.
• Sequence: I start cooking all ingredients of Super Veggie. Before start adding building Super Veggie in the individual meal boxes, I let my super chicken cooking. I finish the day with the 3 mix of ingredients for the Nutty Pudding.
• Hire someone to Cook: I have plan to hire someone to cook at my place and I will probably spend around GPB 200/day and would save time (6hrs/mo). However, I've not done it yet for 2 main reasons: 1) Taste is important for me and I am always experimenting a few changes in the recipes. So I prefer to have more control on that I will eat over the entire month. Sometimes I have ideas during the cooking day. 2) I work everyday in front of a computer. I do exercises everyday, but I am also enjoying the “cooking day” as a different activity. It has been like a “hobby” for me where I forget a bit from work challenges.

Why I started Blueprint & my results

I am 38 years old, have my own startup, so I am very busy with my work. For many years, I have not taken care of myself as would like to: eating junk food, not doing much exercises and sleeping poorly.

So, I decided to try blueprint from Bryan Jhonson last year mainly due to the benefits on increasing mental clarity.

I tried and worked - benefits could be perceived in first ~3 weeks : you sleep well, you feel well, then, so, you think better, make better decisions and your productiveness and relationships also improve.

To be more specific: I've lost +10Kg last year and was able to get 100% sleep performance for 1 entire week - very easy to reach this goal after I fixed my diet and exercises. I've been getting an average of 5:40 hrs each night of restorative sleep (Deep & REM) and currently on top 1% best sleep performance in London (whoop community). My average HRV is 109 and RHR 43, which reflects a high fitness/healthy score - It also puts me on top 1% on these metrics for my age (MEN 30-40 age, according to Whoop). And, my levels of testosterone also naturally increased by 21% - from 17.4 nmol/L (mar/2023) to 21.2 nmol/L (feb/2024) - that means more energy for daily activities.

More importantly, I am significantly better emotionally and more present with people that I care (ask my wife).

However, applying it in a way that you can keep it for a long time is a totally different story. I have limited time to spend on this and I also enjoy “eating”.

So, my goal with this project here was to build a sustainable diet for me and that means finding a great balance of Time, Taste, Cost and Easy to Adapt - while keeping 90% of blueprint standards.

Finally, I did this while I was building my own business, creating new products from zero, having business meeting. And that is why I believe Working Hard & having Top fitness/health score are partners - not enemies.

Hope it can help you in some way.

FAQ & updates

After I posted this article, I've received several questions. Find some of the answers:

Q: Really impressed with your restorative sleep (mine is 3:33 hrs). Can you share your routine?

It is hard to say what really worked because I don’t have previous data. I can say that 1.5 year ago my sleep was poor - don’t know by how much. But this is what I do now that should affect results:

-30-60 min weightlifting everyday

-15-25 min HITT 3x/wk

-30-60 min meditation (2-4x/wk)

-15 min Sauna (almost every day)

-Only 7 supplements

-Following BP meals every day (excluding 1-2 meals/wk when I go to a restaurant)

PS:

-Don’t sleep alone (with wife)

-Didn’t buy yet that expensive device (8sleep?!)

-Don’t have a good discipline yet of bedtime and tend to work late (my main challenge now)

Q: What are the supplements you taking?

Melatonin (only 0.3g), zinc, vitamin C, turmeric, ashwagandha, Creatine and Collagen

Also, last year I've stopped drinking Caffeine (changed for Decaf coffee).

Q: How to warm frozen food?

Using microwave for 5 minutes. Mix a bit, then, 2-4 min more.

Q: Is your wife also on BP? Need to convince my wife to buy the freezer

She is only eating Nutty Pudding, but she buys prep meal from a place - so it also helps here. She is now planning to adopt a few more meals after she saw some of my results.

I think everyone around you will say that you are crazy. But, after your mind starts to stay more clear, you will think that you were actually in a “zombie mode”. So, craziness is the way you were living before.

Q: Envious of your restorative sleep stats. Several question: Are you strict on last time for eating? What's your bf%? What's your avg strain on Whoop? How much do you think melatonin is contributing? How about darkness in bedroom? Is it like super black or just normal dark.

Answering each question:

• Not much restrict on last meal, but for sure affects my sleep. So, trying to eat min 3 hrs before bed.
• Body fat is around 10-11% w/wingscale.
• Average strain of month was 16.5 . I only do 1-1:30 hr of daily exercise. (But some weekends of more walking and other activities)
• Melatonin i take is only 0.3g. I don’t think it has much affect, but my current challenge is with consistency (78%). So i guess it helps with latency
• Bedroom is superblack (we put this into our window here)

I think something that has a great effect on restorative sleep is quality of meals. I recently spent 5 days on a trip and did break on my diet. After 2-3 days, my Restorative sleep dropped from avg 5:40 to 4:30. It took me one week to move back to my previous avg

Q: What time of day do you use the sauna normally?

Morning, around 9AM. Right after gym. Not sure if it has a really high impact on longevity, but probably some effect on recovery and strain. I mainly do that because I really enjoy it and I see it is a very rewarding activity after more work out.

Q: What is the purpose for Manuka honey from Nutty Pudding ? It is very expensive

It was mentioned by Bryan as an optional ingredient for NP. It contains antioxidant and antimicrobial capacities. Also did that to add some sweetness, but not sure if makes much difference. If you want to save money, you can easily remove it.

Who I am

Andre Nazareth (aka Freddie Mercury in Discord)

Member of Zero Club since day one.

Follow me on twitter @andrenazareth_ - will to share more tips.

DM if you want more details about anything. If you liked this article, share it to someone. If you decide to try, let me know “one or two best practise” for you - I will compile that and share.