Feed Those Muscles

I plan to take part in a new weights and calisthenics programme being offered by my gym in September. My cardio ability is still pretty high, but that aul fat is creeping back on again with the sins of the summer mounting up. While the kids are off school we're heading out and about more often to keep them amused and that means missed gym sessions and a lot of diet no-nos. I don't mind too much (honest) because I know I'll snap back into shape when I get back onto a steady clean eating diet and workout regime again.

Except I want to stop calling my eating habits a diet. I'm talking about a nutrition plan, really. I'll not be starving myself or depriving my body of nutrients come September. Nor does my interest in health and fitness extend to waxing and false tanning. Nothing wrong with embracing all that jazz if that's your thing (and if you're competing in a body building thingy waxing, tanning and more are expected), but I'm trying to improve my quality of life and am concentrating on becoming the most efficient version of myself as I can be, which needs to take into account being a husband, dad, writer and student as well as the other aspects of my personality.

Here's a clip from a movie I watched on Netflix with my wife last night:

It's one of those food documentaries that really goes after processed food and shows us how so many Americans are overfed but undernourished. It applies to the UK and Ireland as well in my experience. The documentary helped put things in perspective. Processed food may seem cheaper and more convenient than the clean eating  alternatives (or raw vegetable juicing as Hungry for Change emphasized throughout). But if you think about it -- and I have to give credit to my wife, Michelle, for putting it in this perspective -- you can't consider processed food any sort of bargain if it doesn't provide enough nutrition. If anything, you're getting conned out of your hard-earned cash and your health. Fuck that.

We still have a way to go in our household to become a perfect example of clean eating, but every week or so we learn something new that sets us a little further along in the right direction. It may get to a point where we don't actually enjoy cheat days! Some day.

My main tip for changing your nutrition plan: if your food comes in a cardboard box, it's probably not worth the money no matter how cheap it seems.