Dieting has been a pondering as of late. I find myself inquiring at the sincerity of those that say they are doing something that has been prescribed to them- a man told to be on a strict diet of some sort of liquid and vigorous exercise, or a woman told to have proteins and to make a daily jog part of their routine. I have such routines available for me, but I don’t do them as I should. I have an innate ability to skip days of exercise because my body is destroyed from sheer exhaustion, or I have a desire to eat some sugary snack because I’m tired of vegetables and rice.
Even guys that are cut- and women that are slim figured- have times that they don’t exercise. There are nights where they have a few beers, or dig into a pork chop with a garlic alfredo fettuccine.
I have days, where I am eating less than optimal for the body that I want to achieve. Do I freak out about how every week I look in the mirror and note the lack of notable progress in my mid-section? Not really. They say the quickest of results are often the quickest to fade away- so I’m glad for a gradual, and minimal reduction. To lose a total of 15 lbs. over the course of the year is better than losing it in the course of a week, because at least one is a steadied diminishing while the other is the quick fix that may not have any lasting effects. Although, to be fair, I do have days where I go overboard in my indulgences of pork chop, and waaay too overboard in my alcoholic consumption. On days such as those, I do need to make an effort not to have so much of that one thing- even though it might taste good or put my mind in a better place (pork chop and alcohol, respectively).
So- in regards to what the best practices are, without trying to kill yourself with restrictions- what really works? I don’t want to deny myself, per se, as I have done in the past. In that time, I might have had a better regimen of exercise in regards to cardio when I traveled to the beach and walked up hills to see the sunset over a certain spot when it sank into the sea. I might have walked to parts of the city where the lights pollution was considerably lessened and I could see a greater number of stars at night. I didn’t do any weight lifting, other than lifting heavy furniture over my head for work (yeah, I struggled with that). But I could jump off of freezers and climb steel racks and run across stores, and break a sweat and run out of breath, but I would always do that, so it was good for me. I also drank a 2L bottle of soda per night, ran the gamut of chef boyardee products for lunch, and on my way home from work would hit up the Jack in the Box in the early morning to purchase my daily dose of heart attack croissant breakfast sandwich.
That was 2002-2006.
Here we are in 2015. I’m doing office work. I work out at school on weights and do a gamut of cardio work outs. This includes crunches, headstand pikes, stretches, shoulder rolls, head rolls, floor-sit leg scissors, headstand leg scissors- you get the idea. All that, and I have dance and acrobatics. I don’t make it my daily routine to stop at the Jack in the Box every morning, and I’ve put chef boyardee off my list of approved foods to purchase at the grocery store. In fact, most foods that require a weekly refill of purchasing, I’ve put off my list because that will require me to go into a grocery store every week. I’m not cool with that. When I eat, I have what I believe to be borderline meals. I have carnitas burritos- which includes beans and rice- but it also has that bit of pork chop. I burn most all of it off, to be sure, during my workout, yet I’m sure a tidbit of it remains even after all that. Stuff like that takes more than a shake and a few pushups to get out of your system. Lately too, I’ve been craving McDonald’s fries. Add that with a soft drink and their damned nuggets and I feel bad about my food choices. It’s either that though, or the accursed In-n-Out. I’m not a big fan of their fries, but the double-double is like a siren calling out to me from the sea until I inevitably jump into the murky waters and try to swim to where the voices are- only to be devoured by three bitches on a bit of sand.
Don’t know how that connects. Any who, diet.
My 2L bottle indulgences are pretty much gone, except if you count the rapid intake of water. That is an easy 2L bottle (I know because I have a bottle of Sierra Mist that I fill with water every day). I try to eat simply when I’m at home- so I eat rice, eggs, cans of vegetables, and such. I have only a small course of meats and sweets, and it hasn’t had too much of an effect on me. I crave more meat oft times, and I try to supplement with more vegetables or more water, but eh. I am quite liberal with my salt intake when I eat the eggs and rice (soy sauce and butter on the rice), and my meat I try to salt and pepper it. I have coffee in the morning with sugar and creamer, and sometimes later in the day as needed (usually when I’m passing out and I need to study). Perhaps going for a run instead will get the juices flowing so I can focus on the task at hand? I dunno. I’m trying to figure out what works.
On top of that, my concerns over salt and sugar are starting to come up. I’ve heard of some of the health complications associated with a ginormous amount of sugar intake, and I’m a bit scared. The same goes with salt. I am quite liberal in my diet when it comes to both- so I’m thinking that I maybe need to change that up a bit. I’ve been hearing some great things about people that cut out sugar completely from their diet, saving for foods that have it naturally - like pineapples and oranges. I’ve wondered what it would be like to go through that. Then again, I don’t want to go into crazy denying myself because I don’t think it’ll make me feel right. When I start completely denying myself- I don’t believe I’m in the right head-space. It might make me look great, but I don’t think that I’m in a good place mentally, if you get my drift. I’d rather have a great mind with an ok body than to have a fucked up mind but the body of Chris Hemsworth. It’s just not worth it, especially with a life that is only 3 score and 10. I need as much of my mind as possible for as long as possible, and I can’t afford fucking it up at this point of the game- because it has some real shit to write.
In summation- I’m wondering about the sugar thing, that maybe and possibly there’s a healthy balance between cutting it out completely and not cutting it out completely. An in-between two extremes if you will. A halfway here and there, that won’t cause me to lose my shit and start banging my head against the drywall. For salt- that one I think I can swing in not doing too much of because I do it only on rices and eggs- stuff I prepare for myself and I don’t have it too much when the stuff is prepared for me. I’m thinking to mimic the stuff that’s offered to me through restaurants and I’ll have a better diet- at least one that can maintain in lieu of the rigorous workout regimen I put myself through.
Tonight is acrobatics- and I think I might have a bit of a workout session at school before I head down the studio. Just to get my muscles warmed and ready for the brutality I’m going to be put through. I love this shit, but sometimes my body hates me for it. Good- I’d rather my body hate me more often than it likes me; it will thank me later on when it sees other men my age barely able to move or barely able to see their toes because of a massive belly in the way.
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