Not long ago I began serious training in physical fitness, and a personal trainer completely reworked my food schedule. I keep a daily “food log” of what I’m eating, and everything is recorded, clear down to how many glasses of water I drink. With such a system of record-keeping in place, it’s damn near impossible to cheat, and after a while, I don’t want to. My mind is constantly aware of how much I’m eating or drinking, and I find myself increasingly conscious about food in general.
After monitoring my diet, and my body’s reaction to particular foods, I now find myself gravitating more and more toward self-preparation. When I attend my university classes, I bring along a lunchbox filled with fruit, baked chicken, rice balls, and slices of cucumber sprinkled with rice-vinegar and sesame seeds. I look around myself and see classmates chowing down double hamburgers dripping grease, or slices of pizza.
After a time, I realized that my trainer had not just instituted a new system of exercise, he had converted me to a new lifestyle: one organized on a principle of personal efficiency. Not just for healthy food, but for healthy living. Through it, I find myself doing things differently, and feeling better for it. Sleep is another change; more of it, and more time for it.
Where before I would think nothing of pulling an all-nighter, or going to an all-night poker party and getting by on four or five hours of sleep, now I hit the sack by nine or ten o’clock. There’s much to be said for getting to bed early, reading a book or listening to something before turning off the lights. With podcasts and DVR’s, there’s no need to stay up late, and what good does it do anyway? By the time the clock reads 10:00 PM, I’m sound asleep. My alarm goes off at 0600, and I flip on the coffee maker on my bedside table, loaded with water and a teabag the night before (coffee gives me heartburn). By the time I’m out of the shower, there’s a full pot of tea waiting for me. Then it’s off to the club for a workout before the day’s work begins.
Stretching, toning, elliptical exercises, cardio, dumbbells, free-weights, stretches, snatches, power-cleans, pushups, rowing, situps, karate, and always water; constant hydration.
By the time my training session ends, I’m feeling supercharged, and ready for the day’s challenges. At lunch I see people hurriedly gulping double espressos or throwing a bran muffin into their gullets before charging off who knows where; constantly looking at their watches, hoping against hope that there is still time to make the deadline. Sure, I’ve got deadlines, but with careful planning ahead, you can get the work done and not feel pressed for time.
As part of my new regimen, I’ve sworn off fast food, and set aside time to make my own meals. Sure, it’s more work, but you get a lot more choices than just three different sizes of fries. Even as I write these words, I’m taking careful bites of a green salad with chunks grilled beef, covered with oil & vinegar dressing. I’ll complement this with a Fuji apple and a couple of carrots and a handful of blueberries for dessert. I feel great; it’s too bad not everyone else does.
Every day around lunchtime I see the same 20-something with a slice of pizza in his mouth, and every day he looks a little heavier, his face a little more unshaven, the skin on his cheeks a little more slack, the eyes a little more glassy. I think he’s living on caffeine and pizza with extra cheese; as a diet, not good.
According to a recent report, the PB&C milkshake contains 2,010 calories, and is equivalent to eating 68 strips of bacon, or 30 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/374036...nutrition/
I’m still trying to wrap my head around that: 68 strips of bacon! Take a good look America—this is what’s filling your arteries!
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