First, a little background. In the broad sense, my health is pretty good. I'm not overweight or anything. I had a physical within the past six months, and my doctor indicated that I'm in good health (cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, etc. were all within normal or better limits). That said, there are myriad areas for improvement. I've lived most of my life being a fairly skinny guy, being blessed with a fairly high metabolism. This has sadly started to change as I've gotten older. I'm 5'10" and weigh around 160 pounds. This gives me a body mass index of 23, which is in the normal range. However, hardly any of that weight is muscle, and as I've gotten older and gained weight, I can see the beginning stages of love handles. Now seems like a good time to nip that in the bud, before I get older and my metabolism slows down more. I'd rather get in the habit of being healthy early on, rather than truly become overweight and have a much bigger uphill battle to get back in shape.
My current diet and exercise regimen really has nowhere to go but up. I'm not big on sweets, but I eat out for the vast majority of my meals. I'm really not great about cooking. Part of that's due to time (having class two nights a week makes for fairly late dinners if I cook), but beyond that, I just generally lack enthusiasm for cooking after being at work all day. My choices for eating out include a lot of pizza, burritos, and other fast food. These are clearly not great options.
General ideas for improvement:
- First, and most obviously, I could simply order better food. Less fast food, less fatty stuff. On a failed fitness kick this summer, I did develop at least a couple better options for eating out in the vicinity of my office. Chipotle burrito bowls are a decent option, when you forego sour cream, a tortilla, and other extras. I also ate a lot of Subway, which can be moderately healthy, but to be honest, I get sick of it fairly rapidly.
- I could also obviously start cooking more often. The Ferriss book points out that it's not realistic (especially for bachelors who never cook) to suddenly turn around and start planning to cook every meal. I've tried this, and it works out poorly - it's a good way to buy a bunch of groceries, cook for a couple days, and then waste a bunch of food I never cook. More realistically, I could shoot to start cooking dinner 2-3 days a week. Beyond that, I could start having breakfast at home. I hit up the deli in the basement of my office almost every weekday for breakfast. That's not only an easy way to save some money, but it's also better for me. I can make better choices for what to eat. Ferriss also points out that eating within 1 hour of getting up burns a lot more calories and gets your metabolism moving. I regularly put off breakfast till 10 AM, so this would be an easy area to improve in.
- The Ferriss book also suggests tracking what you're actually eating. It mentions taking pictures of everything you eat (on your phone, or whatever's easy). The idea is that you're more cognizant of what you're eating if you're tracking everything. Ideally, if you share those pictures publicly, it's also a good way to ensure better accountability. I feel like this is sorta weird, but I guess I'll give it a shot at least temporarily.
- Finally, exercise obviously makes a difference. I'm still contemplating this one more, and I'll cover it in a future (very near future) entry.
Lunch, 2 PM: Chipotle burrito bol (black beans + fajita veggies + steak + mild/medium/corn salsas + cheese + lettuce) and a Diet Coke. The Ferriss book hates on starches a whole lot, including rice, and claims you should replace them with better stuff like legumes (including black beans). So, I got some extra black beans as an experiment to replace my usual rice. The results were...okay. The taste is fine, but the consistency of the burrito bol doesn't work as well when you don't have a base of rice. According to the nutrition calculator, though, it saves a sizable amount of calories. Jury's still out on this one.
Snack, 6 PM: Peanut butter crackers + Powerade Zero. On nights when I have class, I don't get home for dinner until fairly late in the evening. As a result, I'm usually starving if I don't have a snack. For blood sugar issues and otherwise, I hit up the snack shop on my way to class. I tried taking a picture of the crackers in class without anyone around me noticing. I'm not sure I was successful. We'll count that as a barrier to overcome once I start writing an entry on my social goals.
9 PM, dinner: Butter chicken + palak paneer + basmati rice + Magic Hat #9. As I mentioned above, I really have no enthusiasm for cooking, especially when I've been busy all day. Beyond that, I lacked any groceries in my apartment. The result was ordering delivery from Delhi Dhaba. I'm not sure this was a particularly amazing health choice, but compared to the usual delivery choice of pizza (or driving down the street for fast food), it was a minor step up.
I don't think butter chicken wins many health awards, but at least it wasn't fried. Palak paneer is perhaps a little better - it has spinach (good) and paneer (a cheese...probably not as good). I felt a little torn about the rice, after dutifully foregoing it for lunch, but it was between that and naan bread...which seemed more obviously carb-ish. Finally, beer may not be the best choice I could have made. That'll be a tough habit to break - I usually have a beer once I get home from work/class. Red wine would be better, but frankly, I just really prefer drinking a beer. This seems like a ripe area for negotiation. In general, it would also be better to not eat dinner this late - there are only a couple hours to burn off any food energy before you go to sleep. I'll need to think about how to rectify that as well.
The next step seems like setting some actual health goals, and starting to make a concerted effort to cut things out that I really don't need. Sounds like an entry I'll write later.
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