Let Them Cook!

 

#29

If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! - Pink Floyd


Fit Tip: Learn to Cook

I have given cooking tips and even shared recipes before, and for good reason: you must learn to cook to some degree in order to obtain health. The exception being you are wealthy enough to hire a chef or order prepared healthy meals, but I don't think I have reached that demographic with my newsletter... yet. I work with what I affectionately refer to as "the general public" at my place of employment and you would be shocked how often I discover people only know how to make zero or one subpar meal themselves. If you are surviving on packaged or fast food it will be almost impossible to win. Freezer meals and fast food will always be very high in calories and low in protein and nutrients. You will not feel your best and you will not perform your best. Even the more convenient home cooked meals tend to be lacking; you boil some pasta, throw in the sauce and are left with some very-easy-to-overeat carbs. 

Learn to pick a protein and base a meal around this. Learn to be OK with a little bit of boring. Get used to preparing a meal that is not primarily bread or noodles. Get acquainted with your grill; grilling is a great way to produce large amounts of tasty protein quickly and with little mess. Experiment with spices. Figure out what basics you should start stocking to be able to create healthy dishes. You may only need to learn 5 different dishes and rotate those; most people stick to the same few meals. 


The Type of Snacks I Can Get Behind: New Study

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11624330/

It is no secret that our current population is far too sedentary. This study investigates the use of small but frequent activity, termed exercise snacks, to combat sedentary lifestyle. The obvious conclusions are increased health, but in a surprising number of ways. It can be used as a time-efficient way to get activity in that truly adds up. Exercises snacks also break up the long periods of sitting or monotony of the day. Want to try it yourself? Don't overthink it: Do 10 squats a few different times throughout your day. If you did 0 squats before, this will help you a lot. If you already hit the gym regularly it will still help quite a bit with your mobility.  


July Challenge: Follow the 80/20 Rule for Nutrition

Our challenge this month has been following the loose diet plan of mostly good foods. The 80/20 rule is a simple and sustainable approach to eating. Most of what you eat should be real food: nutritious whole foods with plenty of protein, fiber, and other nutrients. The 20% is your wiggle room to enjoy yourself. 

The 80% includes whole foods and those contributing to good health: things that are single ingredients like beef, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables, fruits, rice, potatoes, yogurt, ect. The 20% might include more processed foods, desserts, or things that are high calorie with little nutrition to offer: donuts, breakfast cereal, chips, bagels, bread, pizza, pasta, ice cream or anything in a sealed bag with a long list of ingredients on the back.

Keep working on this habit for July.

Win the weekend!


Brad


Durable Dad Training

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