I am not a nutritionist and profess no expertise.  The musings below are things I’ve noticed over the years, and are provided in the hope they will help others who are starting out as clueless as I did.

 

Fast Read

• Keep your blood sugar stable with more smaller meals throughout the day

• Eat for the activity

• Protein first!

• Healthy food isn’t necessarily expensive.  Know what’s in the food you eat.

• Fill yourself with protein before starting on the starchy carbohydrates

• It’s not necessary to eat to the point of feeling full, just satisfied

• Nap and sleep on an empty stomach and wake up hungry

• Eat your main meal before your workout

• Eat some protein immediately after your workout

• Drink water throughout the day

• Caffeine and supplements can be useful

• Different types of alcohol can have different effects.  Even a small amount may be too much if you’re trying to lean out.

• Over-the-counter drugs are often not benign

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The Details

 

My food needs have changed as I’ve aged.  When I was younger I could eat pretty much anything at any time and be confident that my body would turn it into muscle and energy.  When I hit my 30s and started raising a family I had to become more scrupulous about eating regularly to keep up with the energy required to raise 5 kids (and their mother!).  Now that the kids are (mostly) raised, my focus is on maintaining a lean body, and having the strength and stamina to lead the active life I love.

 

I am not particularly zealous about keeping to a diet, but I’m lucky in several respects:  I have a wife who loves to cook and is great at it; and we live in British Columbia where there is a strong focus on healthy ingredients that are readily available.

 

Other things, however, I had to learn along the way:

 

-I keep my blood sugar pretty stable throughout the day.  Many years ago I was in a serious car accident that triggered a thyroid condition and required me to change my eating habits from 3 big meals a day to 5 smaller ones.  I don’t have the time to prepare and eat 5 meals a day, so protein shakes have been a life saver.  I always have one mixed up in the fridge, and take it with me to the gym and if I’m going to be out of the house for any length of time.  I have found that keeping my blood sugar stable forestalls snack cravings for sugary or starchy carbohydrates.  But when I do need a snack I try to make sure to eat some protein first before reaching for the carbs.

 

-I mix some Udo’s Oil and milk into my protein shake.  Aside from its purported health benefit, the fat in Udo’s Oil makes the shake far more satisfying and I think it makes my skin much heathier.

 

 

-I eat for the activity.  My normal schedule is to work at a desk for most of the day and workout in the evening.  Working at a desk isn’t much activity, so my breakfast often consists of fruit and a protein shake.  I’ll often supplement that with whatever appeals (cereal, quiche, cookies…) but it’s still a fairly light meal.  Mid-morning I’ll have another shake. 

 

-I work in finance on the west coast and most financial markets are in the east, so my working day is very long.  To break it up and stay productive, I take a break to read and have a nap when the East Coast markets close at 1PM (more about this in the Sleep section).  I try to avoid eating before napping as it tends to make me groggier when I wake up.  If I go to sleep on an empty stomach, I sleep more comfortably and wake up hungry, so I have another shake and go back to work till the evening. 

 

-About an hour before it’s time to work out, I eat the main meal of my day: lean steak, chicken, or lamb with lots of seasonal vegetables, quinoa, avocado and seasonal fruit.  During my workout I keep myself hydrated with water mixed with Nunns (an electrolyte mix) and supplements (see more information below).

 

-Immediately after my workout I drink another shake.  If I’m going out for dinner, I’ll drink less shake to save room for dinner.  I prefer to avoid the heaviness of meat in the evening, so dinner is almost always fish and vegetables.

 

-I eat whatever I like and love rich food.  But I’m careful about when I eat it.  So if I have a craving for pasta, I’m more likely to fulfil that craving before going to the gym where all those starchy carbs will come in useful, than before going to bed where it will just make me feel uncomfortably full.

 

-While I eat whatever I like, I am careful about the quality of the food.  I eat very little processed food, and when I do, I read the nutritional labels with sceptical eyes.  Labelling requirements vary widely from country to country and it is shocking what gets legally promoted as healthy and which questionable ingredients can simply be left out of the ingredient list.

 

-I’m also somewhat careful to keep varying my diet with the seasons and to avoid non-seasonal produce.  As a gardener and a biotech investor I am well-aware of the ‘advances’ that have produced delicious looking strawberries in winter and apples year-round, but I still prefer to eat what’s in season. 

 

-I’ve also learned over the years to match the quantity of food to my activity level.  When I’m having a lazy day on the weekend, I eat less often.  When I’m trying to lean out I reduce my serving sizes very slightly but still eat the same number of meals.  In this way, I still get to eat what I like, I just eat a little less of it. 

 

-I almost never eat to feel full.  The size of my stomach seems to expand and contract.  If I’m on a training program that requires more calories my stomach capacity seems to grow over time.  Conversely, when I’m leaning out, it takes progressively less food to make me feel that I’ve eaten enough.

 

-Eating out can be challenging because you can’t always control portion size or even the menu if you’re eating at someone’s house or a restaurant.  I’ve learned to be polite but firm in not finishing everything on my plate if it’s too much, and not eating the things my body really doesn’t want.  I also take a shake with me to satisfy my hunger when confronted with a protein-less meal which won’t satisfy the needs of my body.

 

-When I feel hungry between meals, I reach for water, which can be surprisingly satisfying.  I drink about 3 litres of tap water a day.  Aside from quenching my thirst, water seems to have some magical abilities to clear toxins out of the body and keep the skin healthy.

 

-I’ve found that over time my body has become much more attuned to its needs and much less likely to under- or over- eat.  Also, as my diet has become ‘cleaner,’ I have lost my appetite for the unhealthy snacks that are so easily available on nearly every table and desk.

 

Supplements, Drugs, and Alcohol

 

-I’ve never been a big coffee drinker, but find it useful before a workout.  Indeed, because I don’t drink it throughout the day, the shot of caffeine I get in the dose of Mutant Madness that I have about 30 minutes before my workout forces me to go to the gym!  I’d be climbing the walls if I didn’t work out.

 

-The other supplement that I believe in is BCAAs.  I have always been quite lean and adding muscle was always a challenge.  I did not like having to over-eat in order to put on more mass, and leaning out inevitably involved losing the muscle I had worked so hard to put on.  BCAAs have changed that dynamic for me.  One serving per day seems to keep enough protein circulating in my body to discourage the muscle cannibalization I used to experience, and allows me to keep a fairly lean diet all year round.  I no longer need to alternate cycles of bulking up and leaning out, which I found harder and harder to do effectively as I got older.  I mix a serving of BCAAs into my water and drink it throughout my workout.

 

-Alcohol can of course be a big source of calories.  If you’re really trying to get leaner, it can be an easy thing to cull from your diet, especially if you live in a weed-friendly jurisdiction where there are non-caloric alternatives that will effectively intoxicate you.  But even if you prefer to stick with alcohol, there can be big differences in the effects of different alcohols.  A few years ago I became intolerant of the red wine I previously loved and switched to cocktails made with clear alcohols like tequila, pisco, gin, etc.  I was very surprised that though my alcohol consumption went up, I actually became leaner because it turned out the sugars in red wine didn’t agree with my metabolism.

 

-I also try to be careful about developing dependencies, which for me is relying on something more that 2 or 3 times a week.  Intensive training can cause a certain amount of muscle ache, but drugs like Advil, aspirin, and Tylenol are hardly benign.  Many of these are powerful drugs with serious potential side effects. I save their use for when I absolutely have no recourse.

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Lots more pictures on Instagram:  Fit_Fun_50s

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