Food

Halfway through my work trip to Maryland and itching to get back the bat dojo and do something productive. After some semi-productive work today I went back to hotel and ate a simple meal of scallops, clams and potatoes. Leaving the hotel restaurant I decided for a long powerwalk around the nearby marina. Passing the pool, I noticed my portly nemesis from yesterday splashing about having fun. For a second I considered grabbing my shorts to offer him a rematch. But he was enjoying himself and I was happy to see the little fat dude exercising. Unfortunalty, vacation is probably the only time he ever exercises.

As part of my walk I needed to buy a few things. One of which was a razor. I go to the little quickie mart and find the razor aisle. Actually more of small rack of random junk. I only needed one razor, not a twenty pack. The woman's razors one could buy in pairs for about a $1. Yet, I'm not about to buy a set of pink razors! So I spend the $12 for a twenty pack of tough guy razors, with all sorts of marketing about how manly I'll be and how many woman will be following me back to my hotel...

So I wanted to babble just a bit about food. I think I eat pretty well. I've always had good guidance from my parents. Both are some form of semi-hippy, quasi-new age types. Growing up, fast food and soda was not common. That behavior followed me as I left home.

Here's my basic rules:
No soda
No candy, cookies, cakes
No lard, heavy fats, creams
No "candy" breakfast cereals (lucky charms, coco puffs etc...)
Limited beef, pork, lamb
Very lean cuts of chicken, turkey
Eat fish
Eat a ton of veggies
Drink loads of water
Eat fish oil

Here's my other concept:
Protein and carbohydrates must be balanced to control insulin response. Wander through the snack aisle of any typical food shop and the "food" will be 99% carbohydrates and 1% other useless crap. Even protein bars and drinks have a ratio over 3 to 1 carbs to protein. For port-workout recovery a 4:1 ratio is often recommended. What I want is my non recovery meals/snacks to be fairly balanced. I would really like to hold off adult onset diabetes. You know, the kind grandma gets for having a shitty, carb heavy diet. Exactly the type of diabetes which eventually led to my grandmothers death many years ago.

At the quickie mart I found a bag of seedless grapes and lean beef jerky. These two should balance a bit with each other to keep my insulin from blasting in one direction or the other.

So I'm not perfect by any means. On my work flights in our jets, they pack in cookies, cakes and other sweets. Do I eat a cookie? Heck yeah! Do I eat five? Maybe in a month. I'm not worried about the little cheater snacks once in a while.

There is an interesting Crossfit video of a famous Crossfit Games winner and his diet. In the video he didn't show what he ate to stay in shape, rather he filmed his cheat day! Him and a few friends piled a kitchen table with gallons of ice cream and other junk. My arteries were cringing at the sight of it all. The video ended with this shredded out, champion athlete showing off the empty ice cream containers. There is a great debate as the whether cheat meals are psychological or physiological beneficial. What do you think?

I can't wait to get home and start eating correctly again. Hotel meals and living off of quickie mart food is wrecking my guts.

Mark