How to Eat Right (no, not really)

I have a confession to make. I often see eating as a chore.

Hear me out. If you consider what I eat, you'd understand why. Here is my typical daily regimen:

-Four scrambled eggs and glass of milk for breakfast
-Two ham & swiss sandwiches for lunch
-Two handfuls of almonds, 40 grams of dark chocolate, and several tangerines for snacking throughout the day
-Large protein shake at night after exercising
-Dinner: either costco chicken bowl, chicken breast with rice, or something nasty and nukeable

Sometimes I feel like an animal, eating out of necessity. I'm in the business of counting calories. I want to gain weight (muscle), but I have trouble disciplining myself to consume the 3500 daily calories or so that I would need to make serious gains.

Now before you cry bloody murder, keep in mind that those 3500 calories have to be quality food. I can't just fill in the gaps with sugary donuts. That would be worthless. On the other hand, I suppose that if I ate tastier (yet still healthy) food, it would be easier to reach that goal? Hmmm, food for tho....nevermind.

One obvious advantage to a diet like mine is economic in nature. I don't spend a lot on food. Pretty much everything I eat during the week comes from the grocery store or costco. I get by on less but I'm still content, and I find that empowering.

Also, consider another benefit. Because my daily fare is so routine and repetitive, when I do switch things up, it is all the more special and unique. So for example, when I go out to eat at a restaurant, the food is that much more exquisite because it stands in such contrast to my regular drill, even if it's just someplace like TGI Friday's. Can someone who eats out daily or even several times a week say the same? The more exposure to any particular stimulus, the less reaction it will elicit, whether positive or negative.

Since this particular blog entry has no discernible structure to it, let me also just say that almonds are really, really delicious. I'm not talking about the roasted or salted or sugared ones. Just the raw kind you can buy in bulk at costco (they're back in the baking goods aisle). I've discovered that the less extra sugar I consume in my diet, the more I enjoy the sugars and flavors of natural food. Do you not like dark chocolate? I used to be the same way. Your taste buds adjust and after a while it's like regular chocolate, except much healthier. Same thing with carrots. Did you know they're actually a sweet vegetable? Stop drinking all that horrible sugary soda and see for yourself. Also: soak them in water to bring out the flavor.

And along the same lines as what I said before--cut most of the sugar out of your regular diet, and those deserts you occasionally indulge in will become all the sweeter and more delicious. It's a win-win: you learn to enjoy the regular flavor in your foods AND dessert tastes better.

And since I'm already rambling, let me also add that our bodies were never meant to handle so much sugar. I read in one of my Mens Health mags that during the Renaissance, the average person's total yearly consumption of sugar (from cane) was something like half a teaspoon. Now you get like 10 teaspoons in a single can of coke. One can of coke and you've had the same amount of sugar someone in the 15th century would have consumed in a period of twenty years. Sugar didn't start becoming so cheap and plentiful until they discovered how to crystallize the juices derived from sugar cane, making shipping from India considerably more manageable. Makes you wonder what everyone looked like back then. Less round, I imagine. Something to think about!