Day 1

Breakfast: Oatmeal with fruit or sweet maple syrup. His favorite fruits are blueberries, strawberries, oranges, dried fruits and cantaloupes.
Mid-morning snack: Nuts and various fruits.
Lunch: A stir-fry dish with brown rice and vegetables. Shields will load up on whatever catches his attention in the supermarket, could be spinach, broccoli or any other green veggie.
Post-workout: A protein shake with whey or soy-based protein most of the time. He usually uses whatever his sponsors send.
Dinner: A few eggs, vegetables, either a tortilla or piece of toast, and either potatoes or sweet potatoes.
Late night: A snack of cereal with almond milk.

“I shoot for six meals a day,” Shields said. “Some days end up being a little more. Some days may be a little less. I don’t like to go very long without eating.”

Day 2

Breakfast: Three to four scrambled eggs with vegetables, followed by a workout.
Post-workout: A sandwich with avocados and a vegetarian patty. Later, followed by a protein shake.
Dinner: Burrito with beans, avocados and rice.
Night-time snack: Yogurt and cottage cheese.
Before bed: Another snack with dried fruit, nuts or cereal.

Shields doesn’t like soda and will drink coconut water or 100 percent juice drinks throughout the day.

Day 3

Breakfast: Oatmeal or eggs. If in a hurry, may grab a bagel with peanut butter and jelly instead.
Lunch: Eating out, maybe Thai food with tofu, but will cut this out of the diet when his training for the St. Pierre fight gets serious.
Post-lunch: Veggie burger or a veggie sandwich from Subway.

From time to time, Shields will go to Whole Foods and get soy chicken or soy steak. He doesn’t like to do that often because it’s processed. But for a change of pace, he’ll put it on a sandwich with avocados and vegetables.

Dinner: Quinoa, a whole grain, mixed with vegetables or eggs.
Late snack: Crackers and hummus, followed later by another snack of scrambled eggs and hash brown potatoes.

Shields tries to focus on eating small meals before training. Carb-based meals, but not greasy foods like Thai takeout, usually make the cut.

“I cook my own food. Sometimes my brother cooks my food,” Shields said. “I’ve thought about hiring a chef for before a fight. I’m thinking about getting a vegan chef and trying it out. On weekends, when he’s going out to clubs with friends, there aren’t a ton of late-night eating options. He’ll get pizza or Mexican food, but such snacks will be cut out around the eight-week mark before the fight.

The guys in the cast were a bunch of hungry and hard working fighters. They were there to learn and gave it their best shot. There were some really great fights I’m looking forward to seeing again.

Some of the other coaches, Hackleman, Antonio Banuelos are old friends and great to train with. Olympic gold medal boxer, Howard Davis Jr. is a new friend and a great trainer. I took advantage of his time whenever I could and he was very generous about it. He’s someone I hope to work with again.

But it’s always great to be back home. Back taking my daughter to the movies and beaches and to hang out with my brother and his family and my friends. And of course its good to be training with my teammates. I’m training hard and planning on bringing the fight to Dan. This is a big one for me and I really thank everyone for their support.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jake-shields-live

Newly signed Strikeforce superstar Dan Henderson is in “end stage” negotiations to face Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields at the organizations next CBS event in April.

FiveKnuckles.com learned of the impending match-up from sources close to the organization, and though bout agreements have yet to be signed, the fight is in the process of being finalized according to multiple official sources.

Henderson (25-7) is coming off of three-straight wins over Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin, and Michael Bisping, respectively, to close out his recent UFC stint. He leaves the organization as one of its top middleweight contenders and gave champion Anderson Silva one of his biggest challenges when the two met at UFC 82 back in March of 2008.

A true legend of the sport, Henderson is the only fighter to simultaneously hold two titles in two separate weight classes for a major organization (Pride). After Pride’s demise, he was picked up by the UFC where he battled UFC champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (light-heavyweight) and Anderson Silva (middleweight) to two straight losses before rebounding, as mentioned, to win his next three outings.

He’ll jump right into the fire with Strikeforce against Shields for the organizations’ middleweight championship title.

Shields (24-4-1) hasn’t lost a fight in over five years, producing 13-straight wins over that span. The Cesar Gracie product was forced to move up to middleweight from welterweight due to a lack of quality competition and was tossed directly into the fray against top-5 middleweight Robbie Lawler in his middleweight debut in June of this year.

He quickly dispatched of the much larger Lawler via guillotine choke in the very first round of their five-round scheduled contest to earn Strikeforce’s middleweight title. He then defended that title last month against the highly regarded Jason “Mayhem” Miller at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers.

Strikeforce’s upcoming April event is set to be its second on CBS. The first was headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers which drew 5.46 million viewers, landing the fight among the top-10 most watched MMA contests in history.

Emelianenko is also scheduled to anchor the April card as well, though an opponent for that match up has yet to be named.