Regular Diet (常食)

My girlfriend (as wonderful as she is!) have been having "minor" scuffles recently about my regular diet, probably a common theme among couples that begins in the dating stage and lasts until eternity (exciting!) Mostly, I've become accustomed to eating like my college days, something that hasn't worn off despite me being on the verge of being 30 due to being able to burn it off and make up for mistakes through a high volume of exercise. In the last few weeks, though, I've noticed a bit of weight gain as well as waist gain (a lot of belly fat) and it might be time to make a change. It's pretty embarrassing watching dodgeball videos of myself and noticing the belly sticking out especially if I'm wearing tighter clothing. Like the opposite of a six-pack.

One big thing I've noticed is that rice can inflate the body as well as the scale reading: my parents always raised me on the assumption that "I was a growing boy" and more or less pushed to have me eat 2 bowls of rice every night with my dinner, something that's not terrible but accompanied with all the other primary food groups that I also consume, serve to sometimes (literally) inflate my stomach.....I can feel it expanding after a meal sometimes, very scary feeling. There's definitely foods, too, that make me lose my mind and want to eat more and more.........I stop at nothing and eat like a madman, and I don't talk to people while savaging through an entire meal......that's pretty unhealthy.

The one thing I do counter my girlfriend, though, is she sort of favors the camp where EVERYTHING is bad for you. Literally almost every food is a heart attack waiting to happen, or will catch up to me in a few years, or is VERY BAD for you to have for dinner, and VERY VERY BAD to have right before going to sleep. It's a bit blown out of proportion, and despite my eating habits being so deadly, it hasn't killed me yet. Sure there's merit to a balanced diet, but letting loose once in a while and not sacrificing taste isn't too bad neither. There are exceptions, of course, but in general the universal adage of "if it tastes good, it's bad for it" holds mostly true. oil and sugar and fat have over the course of many generations of evolution been made to taste good for human beings, so it's challenging to correct it.

One proposed compromise I've found recently though: Tofu. Looks just like meat, has a similar texture as meat, can be cooked like meat (tofu steak, MaPo tofu, etc.) but is kind of a vegetable, and doesn't have the harmful health problems associated with meat. (Time Magazine recently did an article where studies show consuming meat has a correlation with developing cancer). If I was forced to give up meat one day by my doctor or my girlfriend, it would be very tough going cold turkey (no pun intended), but tofu wouldn't be a bad consolation prize/ Nicotine gum. Other foods include low-fat, non-cooked items like sushi. Aw man, I could write a whole article now about the merits of sashimi (I basically already have), a big change from just a few years ago, but the downside to that is......it isn't filling enough. Tofu has a similar problem. The big ticket items that make my stomach satisfied, meat and rice, are.....you guessed it, VERY BAD for you.


So normal diet needs like a little tweaking. On sports days, though, I have a special diet: bananas. Eggs. Sugar is an absolute no-no before a big match, because I find it gives me about 20 seconds of max power coming out of the gate, and then just a massive breakdown as all the energy seems to leave my body. Even a nutrition newbie like me has heard of anecdotes about eating too much food slowing one down, and I've seen it in my performance: through the course of examining performance after levels of food eaten, I've found that light meals (with a banana!) of course before the game gives the best results: body is kind of balanced, has enough energy to burn rather than an empty stomach, and I get a spring in my step. Plus, after the game when I've become super tired and hungry, I can still have a full dinner! (of tofu and healthy foods from now on, apparently.)