Note: While reading a book whenever I come across something interesting, I highlight it on my Kindle. Later I turn those highlights into a blogpost. It is not a complete summary of the book. These are my notes which I intend to go back to later. Let’s start!

  • Nutritionists calculate the calories in a food based on the amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrate grams present. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. The same is true of carbohydrates. A gram of fat, on the other hand, contains 9 calories. So if you look at the total grams of protein and carbohydrate and multiply that by 4, and the total grams of fat and multiply that by 9, you’ll get the total number of calories in a serving. Based on this formula, you can look at any food label and figure out how many calories from sugar are in a serving of the food.

  • I heard an old saying once that there are “four white deaths” in food: white bread, white sugar, white salt, white fat. That’s not exactly true— whole-wheat bread is just as bad as white bread, for example. But the best guideline, no matter what your body type, is to avoid these four as much as possible and, when you do indulge, eat them only in moderation.

  • Food is information that tells your body how to operate.

  • Eat slowly and consciously.

  • Just as with an employee, you need to give your body a list of priorities: “First, I want you to do this. Then, I want you to do that.” During the day, I want my body to be as energized as possible. I don’t want it taking time from its busy schedule of training to do something else, even if that task is important. That’s why the vast majority of the calories I eat in the first half of the day, up through lunch, are carbohydrates. When I eat carbs with very little protein, I am telling my body, “I need energy. Proceed as necessary.” I feed my body gluten-free pasta, rice, oatmeal, and other gluten-free, carbrich foods for daily energy.

  • At night, I don’t need energy. I’m exhausted, and I want a good night’s sleep. So at dinner, I will tell my body, “I need you to repair the mess I made. Please take this protein and do what needs to be done.” This is when meat, chicken, and fish come heavily into play.

  • I AM AWAKE for about sixteen hours a day, and probably fourteen of those hours are spent (a) playing tennis, (b) training to play tennis, or (c) eating so I can be better at tennis. It is all that I do, every day, for eleven months out of the year—that’s how long the professional tennis season is. (During my few weeks off in the beginning of May, I still spend most of my time doing a, b, and c, but I also take time to do a lot of hiking, kayaking, and bike riding.) This is what it takes to be number one against the fittest and most competitive athletes in the world: constant, unyielding mental and physical preparation, fourteen hours a day, seven days a week.