Appreciate the tag dude! And the sharing of the story. Those gifts of food are such a minefield to walk, and it’s frustrating as a parent when you’re trying to cultivate an appetite in your child and someone comes by and carpetbombs it with the unholy trinity of “sugar” (HFCS), seed oils and salt. Nothing in nature can compete with that, and we set our kids up for failure when we calibrate them to EXPECT that taste instead of being able to enjoy REAL food.
Like, if someone gifted my kid a ribeye, they would become my best friend, haha. A rice crispy treat is a cheap buy-off.
And as you said: this is effed. And, in turn, it’s messed up how much this isn’t “her fault”: we’ve been sold a narrative that health is confusing because it’s advantageous to have that narrative. Much like how our taxes are too complicated for us to do on our own, we’re conditioned to be dependent on external entities to determine for us something that should be pretty obvious: what makes me look, perform and feel good when I eat it. Look at how many children are out there looking, performing and feeling awful because they live off a diet of fruit snacks and breakfast cereal, all because they’ve been sold a lie that it’s “part of a balanced breakfast” and that nutrition is about “moderation and enjoying all things”. These same people will make you feel like a monster if you let your kid eat eggs everyday. We tell people that red meat will kill you and that Cheerios will save your heart, and then we make Cheerios with added sugar, tell them added sugar will give you diabetes, and then we sell you the insulin to cure it to.
I saw a great quote Dan John referenced regarding the drug Ozempic: “Ozempic is an artificial solution to an artificial problem”. We made this issue, and then we made the cure.
I wrote up a few posts about this on reddit, titled “Bachelor Bulking”. Simple recipes for dudes that didn’t know how to cook. It’s really a helpful idea. We’ve created this idea that cooking is a monumental undertaking, and it doesn’t have to be at all.
5/21 Training while traveling update:
Sunday we went to the best “park” I’ve ever visited. It was a former airfield, converted to an enormous community park. Among other things it has a motocross track (lots of short steep hills) and a “ninja course” (don’t know how else to describe the obstacle course). I trained hard enough that today, my forearms were sore. Felt really good about my ability to monkey around on the ninja course, dominating it. And ran a couple laps of the motocross track - which will get you puffing very quickly.
This morning I ran about 3/4 mile, I’m guessing, outside my in-laws house.
Today, working remotely at their kitchen table while my family, and wife’s mom and brother, are off to visit another member.
Brother-in-law had a drone and was going to get a video of me dominating the ninja course but there were technical difficulties, damnit! We may get another chance this week, but the weather is foul; and it’s hard to move a group of this size anywhere, let alone to a physical activity.
I don’t disagree. I’ve been referring to my staple as “meat cereal” for years now, welcoming the mockery; but it recieved accolades from the in-laws for its “simplicity”.
But consider this: if you live on snickers and poptarts, there is no cooking. There is no cleaning. You just eat and throw away the wrapper. No dishes to wash. And dollars-per-calorie are very very low as well. Dollars-per-satiating-tummyfull is still probably lower than carnivore if you are also eating a loaf of bread with your snickers.
I have TOO MANY thoughts on this to even go on so I’m quitting now.
You tease! I love what you write and would read so much more. And this really hit me in the feels
It was while I was breaking my fast food addiction that I realized I was addicted to the fast food PROCESS: not just the food itself. I could feel my little dopamine sensors light up as soon as I crossed the threshold into a fast food joint, looked up at the menu, placed my order, swiped my card, unwrapped my food and threw away the trash, irrespective of even eating anything. I found this out when I experienced the same joy just from getting a diet soda: I was hooked on the experience of it. And it’s pure hedonism, as you noted.
Dr. Shawn Baker talked about how there was a study showing teens eating less breakfast cereal than previous generations. On it’s surface, that seems like a net positive…until you learned that they weren’t eating it because it was considered too laborious to open up the box, pour the cereal and milk into a bowl, and have to put the dishes in the sink. Teens wanted something that was self-contained in a wrapper they could just throw away…and, of course, the industry provided
This isn’t the flame-free confession thread but I will totally confess that I DID eat those before, back when I was convinced that I HAD to eat breakfast cereal with protein after a workout, because of COURSE you needed the quick absorbing carbs to shuttle the protein into your muscles before your anabolic window closed. I was in the middle of moving, house was all packed, so I grabbed a workout and pick up a cereal bar and a muscle milk. What a good little lifter I was! Haha. Shows how infectious this all is.
Oh the things I have done and have eaten to make sure I hit this window. Back in the 90’s when protein powder was like flavored concrete, I used to mix chocolate whey protein with grape juice because whey was the fasted digesting protein (according to the advert) and grape juice was the best simple carb source. This was back before shakers and you had to use a food blender for your shakes if you wanted to have anything smoother than frog spawn.
Brother in law gave me a guest pass and we snuck off for a quick session. Back and biceps, on machines mostly, as that’s what they have.
Serious hike planned for later so saving our legs.
Couldn’t get over the lunk alarm sign.
5/22 continued!
Holy cow what an amazing day!
As mentioned I had a morning gym trip with my favorite brother-in-law, not a session worth talking about but still a great start to the day.
Then - and only if you knew my family would you understand why this is so amazing - my mother-in-law watched ALL the kids while we went on an epic hike.
My wife and I; her brother, sister, and sister’s husband set out (with bear spray!) on a steep climb, 3 miles up, 3 miles back the same way, with I believe 2400 feet of elevation gain.
Phenomenal views, the chance to just be an adult, etc. And it was pretty physically challenging!
My footwear was not correct (borrowed boots that were too big) so I ended up going barefoot the last 2 miles up and the first 2 miles down, and have severe blisters from the booted portion. But that’s OK.
AND after all that, wife and I came back, got the kids, and took them to the ninja playground, where I got to do the obstacle course AGAIN and then continued just playing in physically demanding ways.
Friday, another long walk session.
One scenic destination and the rest just walking in a nice area.
Blisters on heels are just totally destroyed from the borrowed boots incident. Should have just gone barefoot.
But it was nice.
Flying today (Saturday).
Home.
5/26 long walk with wife and I alternating who rides the bike, and the 3 older kids alternating who rides their bike. They are learning fast.
5/27 memorial day. No gym trip. Im sure we’ll do something active but i have plenty to do at home.
Filled the 100lb bag!
The sand was wet. Its currently 103lbs and ill reassess if it dries over the weeks.
Did 30 reps of sandbag toss over shoulder, going to get back into this and eventually resurrect the 200lb.
Well then @simo74 let me add to your happiness:
After the above, we went to the beach. 2 miles before, i got out of the car and biked the rest of the way.
On the way home we reversed this so my wife could bike the same road.
At the beach i brought my sled and did sled drags with the kids in it while wifey surfed.
5/29/2024 Wednesday
First day back to the gym in a while!
My heel injury from borrowed boots meant I couldn’t take the pain of wearing shoes.
BSS, 3x8 BW-40lb-BW (didn’t have much in me)
DB Bench Press: 4 sets with 55lb.
DB Incline Press
DB Seated Overhead press
5/30 Thursday
Not a training day, workday started for me at 5:00AM, but in between calls I knocked out a quick sandbag session:
100lb bag.
10 rounds: Pick up the bag to shoulder, do 3 squats, set the bag down. Alternate shoulders each side.
I found that squatting was easier on my right shoulder, harder on my left. My hips just hate squatting in general but the sandbag is a different way of doing it.
Then, went for about a half mile walk down and up a hill - in flip flops.
A bit more hill walking later in the day but wouldn’t count it as training.
