A Man’s Easy Guide To Eating Right
A Man’s Easy Guide To Eating Right – To feel more energized and perform at your best it all boils down to the food you choose to eat! Keep it simple and see how much better you feel!
I had lunch with a few old co-workers the other day, and as though time stood still, here came the overused cracks directed at those of us, who chose a salad and not the 3 alarm wings, cheese fries, and diet coke. Then someone started in with a tired tease that if they were ‘retired’ like me, that taking care of themselves would be way too easy. I reminded ‘stew-meat for brains’ Steve (funny how nicknames never fade away) that I had been eating good and fitting in workouts long before I “retired”, err… “switched careers”. With more holes in their memories than a block of swiss cheese, I can understand how these guys forgot that I was fending off their weak jokes with one hand while drinking green smoothies from a quart mason jar with the other, as they sipped Redbull and sucked Skittles through the gap in their teeth for breakfast.
Back then it was sad to see how their poor eating affected their moods, energy and job performance, NOW, after only a few short years, every one of these guys (some barely turning 40), are experiencing rapidly disintegrating health. Heck, the Mayo clinic can stop spending millions on research and start using these guys as “hard evidence” that eating poorly will absolutely ruin your health. And talk about a scared straight program! The Surgeon General should put a glossy picture of dandruff dappled, pasty pale, eczema flaring, acne dotted, flabby dudes in a pair of skimpy skivvies in full-page ads in men’s magazines around the country.
In an effort to help my pals out, I wrote out the following “Easy Day Eating” plan. I hoped it would encourage my pals to consider that there is an alternative to eating a predominately greasy meat-based diet, washed down by gallons of soda. Here is the plan, use it, kick off a new way of eating and ultimately feeling better. Or feel free to print it off and leave under the windshield wiper of your buddy’s truck.
A Man’s Easy Guide To Eating Right Daily Meal Plan
Heads UP!
When you are trying to eat differently for the first time in a long time, give yourself at least 30 days to make the adjustment. After all your body has been putting up with your poor choices for a quite a while.
Remember don’t toss out new foods simply because they don’t taste like a tablespoon of sugar.
Think in terms of supporting and appreciating your body, not forcing and submitting.
Listen to your body while introducing whole, nutrient dense, digestible foods, into your diet, then make a list not just of things you like, but how you feel after eating them.
Remember to drink water throughout the day.
Wake Up – Attend to bathroom duties. Then…Drink one glass of water with 3 to 4 drops of lemon added. (Lemon may be a fresh slice or an essential oil like Dottera brand)
Breakfast – 1 to 11/2 Oatmeal cups of oatmeal. Add fresh blueberries or strawberries, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a teaspoon of maple syrup. Or have a tasty veggie omelet.
Mid – Morning snack for on the way to work, between meals, on the way home etc, may include – almonds, grapes, walnuts and dates, apple slices, vegetable-based protein shake.
Lunch –Tuna or turkey lettuce wraps a cobb salad with boiled egg or enjoy a cup of bone broth or chili. Fruit.
Mid-Day snack; almonds, grapes, walnuts and dates, apple slices, vegetable-based protein shake. Or if you go with a bar, read the label, go with ones that keep the bar filled with good simple ingredients and low on sugar. Ones I like, Lara bar, Health Warrior bar, Kind bar.
Dinner – options include Salmon over wild rice, Grass-fed burger and sweet potato fries, Egg on good sourdough bread with avocado.
Evening craving – Pop a batch of popcorn, have a helping of chia pudding or break a few pieces of a good 70% cacao bar and mix it in with some almonds. A good tea with a half teaspoon of honey is nice in the winter and in the summer, a glass of cold bubbly Pellegrino with a touch of lime is a fine way to close out an easy day.
Yes, the above plan is simple, a pretty easy eating day. Don’t be fooled by the lack of hype. The idea is to get started, to start feeling good. Look I have been there. An unexpected work project adds an extra 15 hours to the week, our eating healthy dinners with the wife, turns into grab-n-go peanut butter sandwiches that we swallow and repeat breakfast lunch and dinner. A few days of that diet and our feeling like crap is overshadowed by the worry that we can’t take a crap. Like all of you, I never wanted to have to live through weeks of eating cheap overly processed foods. But I soon learned that life happens and I could either cry or learn to eat well on the fly. I made eating right a priority because bottom line, I have a family to provide for. Look we can laugh as we graze on candy bars, doughnuts, cookies and contently drink from the soda pop fountain, but the fact is that food is like any other over abused substance WHEN it interferes with our ability to perform, guaranteed we will get replaced.
Every man knows what I am talking about. Get old and fat and you will be using your last breath, getting out of the way. Those hilarious out of shape friends with the salad jokes may be funny, but they sure as heck will not help feed your family, when you fail to understand that though food is fun, using it as fuel is key. Learn to fuel your body the right way, wake up feeling strong and energized. Be a cool clear thinker, working longer and harder making your money and still having energy when you go home to take the kids to the park and carry your wife upstairs.
Set down the excuses. Trust me every effort you are making today to stay strong and healthy will BARELY help you survive the storms of the future. Stop lying to yourself, step up your efforts, give your body 30 days. Then branch out, adding to your knowledge of how the body works and the wonderful whole foods designed to support your beautiful man bod looking and feeling it’s best. Don’t laugh off the warning signs and let your health wander down the old worn ways of doing things, wake up, course correct, feel good again, be the man you want to be, and the man your family knows you are.
