By now, anyone reading this is pretty well aware that I go to the gym on a regular basis. But obviously, the gym alone is never enough when it comes to physical improvement, otherwise I would probably have a physique that was resembling more to Ricky Martin instead of Ricky Gervais. This is the case because in spite of how much I work out, I’m fairly lax when it comes to eating, because food is awesome and I love food. I’m not saying I will dine at solely all-you-can-eat buffets (anymore), but I have a fond affinity for burritos, barbecue and beer, and I have no intention of giving them up anytime soon.
I exercise so that I can eat.
However, I’m not going to say that I couldn’t stand to improve physically, because:
- I am a single guy, and single guys that are in better shape tend to have more success in romantic pursuits than guys that are fat miserable slobs
- Physical improvement can only lead to a higher quality standard of living
- Yes, I prioritized the pursuit of women over improved physical well-being, because that’s kind of where I’m at with my life, currently
That being said, because I’m also a supportive friend and roommate, I decided to embark on a mission to try and eat better with Jen.
So for the past two weeks or so, we’ve been pretty good about our eating habits, not having any junk food in the house (save for leftover Halloween candy), dining at home, and trying a variety of health-conscious, pretty low-calorie dinners. It hasn’t really been that cost-efficient so far, because apparently we’ve had to buy all sorts of consumable cooking additives, but it’s nice to know we have them for future use, and all sorts of healthier perishables that aren’t often in our refrigerator on a regular basis.
And to be honest, things haven’t been that bad. I’m winging it mostly, as opposed to Jen, but in the back of my mind, I know I’m consuming less than 700-800 calories per these dinners, and I’m not necessarily sure if those numbers are good or bad, per say, but I know that any one of my treadmill or stationery bicycle sessions is good for 500-600 calories burned, so I’m under the belief that I’m at a fairly positive place eating the way I’ve been eating since starting this healthier kick.
Furthermore, the tastes of the things we’ve been eating have been pretty good too. I’m not saying we’re McAmericans used to eating nothing but pig slop and utter garbage food, but we’re eating things we definitely don’t eat on a fairly regular basis. We’re cooking a lot more, which is something we often avoided because sometimes we just felt lazy and didn’t feel like doing any cooking. But the more we’ve done it, the less pain in the ass it’s been, measuring spices and oils and other liquids, chopping and portioning perishable goods, etc.
Dare I say, it’s actually been a little bit of fun trying new things out, both in the process of cooking as well as eating newer and healthier foods.
The interesting thing about all of this is that I feel that I’m making a few slivers of physical improvement lately. I can’t give any cold, concrete hard facts to confirm this, but a few of my work slacks have been feeling a bit more relaxed around the waist as of late. I wear a 34” waist on all of my pants, and it’s no secret that not all pants are created equally, but because I’m stubborn and refuse to accept that I’d wear anything larger (again), all of my pants are 34s. But some of them have always been low-maintenance and not problematic, but I wouldn’t be truthful if I said that there weren’t one or two pairs that were a little bit more snug than I’d like to admit.
However, the problem child pants lately have felt more relaxed around the waist and not nearly as tight as they once felt. Maybe it’s in my head, or maybe I am genuinely gaining some improvement, but lately they haven’t been so bad. gg inadvertent diet?
The funny thing even more lately is how this supposed progress has begun to affect me mentally. The other day, I had some errands to do that took me far away from the litany of decent restaurants and places to eat within the city of Atlanta. Needless to say, once outside of the city proper, and are closer to where I live, the options dwindle dramatically. In fact, I would dare say that there’s pretty much nowhere good to eat, remotely anywhere near my house.
However, it was getting late, I hadn’t eaten since eight hours prior, and I knew that I would have to eat something. I deliberated in my head what my options were to stop and pick something up, and absolutely nothing sounded particularly good. Now maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit by saying there’s “nothing” good to eat around me, because there exists plenty of guilty pleasure kinds of things to eat, like Taco Bells, Chic-Fil-As and a Little Caesar’s. I love those shitty foods.
But in my head, I felt that I’d been on such a good streak of eating healthier things over the last two weeks, that I didn’t necessarily want to ruin it with eating shitty foods. I wrestled with the conflict in my head, since there wasn’t anything necessarily dinner-ish available at the house, and that I’m not necessarily officially formally dieting in the first place.
I went straight home, and ate nothing but a bowl of cereal instead.
wtf indeed.
Earlier today, my friend asked if I wanted anything while he made a QT run. QT, where they have taquitos, beef sticks, chicken sticks, and other stick-shaped foods slowly cooked on rollers for 50 miles worth of revolutions. Where they have Doritos, Takis and 20 different bagged road trip snack caliber snacks. Where they have great donuts and all sorts of candy bars available.
And I said no, I’m good.
wtf indeed x 2. This inadvertent dieting thing is really messing with me, now.
