Carpe Diem, The Series: Rise with a Power Breakfast
Author: Paul Stevens
In my first and therefore introductory article, I told you a bit about myself and what I do to keep myself active. For this second installment, I thought I’d outline my usual diet. How do I keep this older motor running without fouling the internal workings?
Recall that I’m not a big guy (5’6”, 150 lbs) so I don’t need to consume food to the level of a pack animal. I don’t have any known health issues but I don’t use that as a free pass to eat like a teenager which is basically eat whatever you want whenever you want because your million-mile-an-hour metabolism will burn off just about anything you can throw down your gullet. I have learned over the years that a decent diet goes a long way to helping me feel pretty good just about every day. I try to eat at fairly regular times each day to keep myself on an even keel. For me, if find that if I skip meals for whatever reason, things will not work in my favour. “Feed me now” says the body so I try to listen and obey to what really becomes the ultimate judge.
I almost never skip breakfast as it was drilled into my head from a very young age that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’. If I am going to take the pooch out for an early morning run, breakfast will wait until we’re done. If I’m going out on a bike ride, especially if it is a longer one, I’ll have a good feed prior to hoping on the saddle. Previously, I would eat a lighter breakfast with a plan to fill up after the ride but I found that at about the three quarter mark on a 50 km trek, I was getting uncomfortably gassed and felt tired for the rest of the day no matter what I ate after the ride. When you’re on the bike, stomach contents aren’t being jostled about like when you are running so I have never had an issue with an upset stomach while chugging out the kms, regardless of what I ate for breakfast.
I have found that if I have had a large breakfast prior to a ride, I’ll take it easy for about the first 5-7 km just to get the metabolic furnace warmed up. After that, all bets are off and I usually feel free to carry whatever pace I’m up to on that day. By large breakfast, I’m talking fruit smoothie, a couple of eggs, with toast or bagel. By the way, having a resident nutrition geek at my disposal has been a big help. Evan Stevens, a contributor to the Fast Twitch Grandma world is my son and his tips are very useful. For example, I used to use margarine thinking that it was a healthier alternative to butter. Evan, the educated one, pointed out that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic so it didn’t take much to get me back to the natural spread. For toasted bread or bagel, I do not slather on the butter but use it judiciously. Just enough to moisten the bread or bagel with no dripping allowed.
During a longer ride, especially in warmer weather, proper hydration is needed so water bottles with straight H20 or one of the many electrolyte drinks are kept at the ready. If Evan hasn’t eaten all of the power bars or other such goodies at the house, I’ll pack a snack for myself to recharge along the way. I’ve tucked a pudding cup into my saddle pouch from time to time and I find that makes a great refresher. Don’t forget a spoon.
When the ride is done a couple of hours later and I’m back at the homestead, nothing cuts the thirst and appetite like a glass of cold chocolate milk. When I was young, chocolate milk was my go-to drink if the previous evening’s activities got a bit out of hand (Translation: I had the makings of a hangover). A bit wiser now (I hope), I use chocolate milk to recharge rather than as a survival measure. Follow this with a decent lunch on the lighter side (sandwich, etc.) and then ready to do the daily chores around the house.
The appetite is in full swing by dinner time and I am fortunate to have a creative chef who doubles as my wife. My culinary skills are limited and are focused on the BBQ. What a man can do with fire! Despite encouragement (I won’t call it nagging) from my wife to expand my cooking repertoire, it’s just something that does not turn my crank. I remain convinced that out of necessity, there are two types of people in this world; those who cook and those who eat. I am in the latter category. It is a universal truism that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. So for every cook out there, there must be an eater. Anything less and the balance of the universe would be out of whack with possibly catastrophic results. I want no part of that so I make the sacrifice where I can.
I can cook if I have to and I will never die from starvation but the actual process is just something I’m not excited about. This may seem a bit odd as my Dad was a professional chef and my Mom was his equal but without the credentials. I guess the cooking gene was not passed on to me.
If I have an upcoming hockey game, I’ll need at least four hours between the last meal and game time. Anything less than that and sluggishness will set in. Since we play later in the evening, I will not eat a large meal after a game as I find that it upsets my ability to get a good night’s sleep. Apparently there is some science to support that so I didn’t make this part up.
The morning after a later night game is followed by a full breakfast the next day. I found that if I went too light on such a breakfast, I would be very low on gas by mid-afternoon, almost begging for a nap.
I think I eat reasonably well – lots of fruit and vegetables, not much in the way of red meat (although a nicely BBQ’d burger every now and then is a guilty pleasure), chicken, fish, pasta, and light on the fried food. I’m not a coffee drinker and never have been. Nothing by design; I just could never get into the coffee habit. I do however profess my liking of soft drinks. Not the diet stuff either, just the hardcore full-bodied sugar-laden fizzy water you are not supposed to touch. I do however have no more than one can a day – max. I’ll have about a third of a can with lunch, put the remainder in the fridge and take a sip every now and then until it is gone around dinner time.
Alcoholic consumption is light as well. I like to have a beer or two when we get together with friends so I would guess that on average, this adds up to 2-4 bottles a week at most. I don’t have taste for hard liquor (Will someone please explain the appeal of single malt scotch?!) and although a glass of wine can be nice with a fine dinner, something in my simple mind tells me that it is too complicated to sort through the myriad of vintages that are available. Beer is beer. Within relatively narrow styles, it tastes pretty much the same and frees the mind to contemplate life’s greater mysteries, unfettered by the need to consider the merits of a Beaujolais Nouveau vs. a Chardonnay or whatever.
Life wouldn’t be worth living if there wasn’t some snacking in between but one of the benefits of moving forward on life’s road is that it takes less to enjoy the same tasty pleasures. For example, a mere handful of chips will now suffice compared to younger days when a full bag wasn’t enough. Through all of this, my best judge of what I consume is my waistline. If the clothes aren’t getting tighter, I’m not gaining weight and if I keep up my activity level, there is nothing hanging over my trousers.
I suppose we all find the excess that is the holiday season a bit overwhelming which is a big part of the reason for the post-season rush to the health clubs early in the New Year. It doesn’t take too much to feel the impact of that second (and maybe third) helping, especially when such meals happen in rapid succession. I can feel the overindulgence almost immediately so an extra bit of effort when running with the dog will get things back on track soon enough. For me, I gained a couple of pounds over the holidays but worked it off within about a week. Thankfully, I have another year to get ready to do it all over.
I don’t want to diminish in any way the importance of a good and steady diet. I consider myself very fortunate that my body will quickly let me know when to scale back and that I can burn off the excess with relative ease and expediency. If I can offer any suggestion, it is to listen and look – listen to what your body is telling you and just look at the results in a mirror. If you don’t like how you feel or look, there is an abundance of highly qualified sources to get you on a long and sustainable track, many of them right here on the FTG website. The mission is to enjoy yourself and feel as good as you can along the way.
Your friend, Paul.
And remember – Carpe Diem (but in relaxed sort of way)!
