Food for Thought

“Eat as though you were a poor person.”
-Christopher McDougall in Born to Run

Buffets and fast-food restaurants try desperately to conceal the secret formula that I am about to reveal to you about healthy eating. There are five easy ways to always feel fit, stay healthy, and look slim, and they all revolve around one concept: eating like a poor person.

The basic gist of this theory is to maximize the amount of nutrients that you can obtain from the smallest amount of calories possible. Diets don’t work. They are short-term. In order to feel better, to be more energized, and to eliminate any excess storage of fat, we have to change our lifestyles.

My dad is living proof of this; a few years ago he went vegetarian and is now running almost as fast as he did in high school at age 43. He also lost about 20 lbs and looks like a chizzled beast. He met with success because he determined to make a lifestyle out of vegetarianism — not a temporary diet. Personally, I feel healthier than I ever have and I approach each day with more energy than I had the day before it because I have chosen a similar lifestyle. There are five easy eating tricks that have improved my overall well-being. There are five simple ways to eat like a poor person:

1. Eating to Fuel

In the super-sized, convenience-based, buffet-style society that we live in, it is easier than ever to overeat or just feast for pleasure and convenience. Instead, our bodies should be treated like an automobile that needs to be gassed up to run efficiently. Each time we over eat, we abuse our bodies and we give them something that they don’t need. This is often the hardest part of the lifestyle (because things like Cheez-its and potato chips exist), but it can have a tremendous impact even if it stands alone as a singular lifestyle change.

2. Cutting Down on Meat Intake

If we base our diets on fruits, veggies, and whole grains instead of red meat and processed carbs, this would easily be the most empowering lifestyle change. We would be getting the maximum nutrition from the lowest number of calories while adding no useless bulk to our bodies. All the myths about not being able to sustain a healthy diet without meat and protein are absolutely false; the substitutions are endless. In fact, the average american eats over twice the recommended daily allowance for protein intake. The ultra-runners in Born to Run base their diets largely on vegetables and grains, and they are able to run hundreds of miles without passing out from a low protein intake. Moreoever, research has shown that adopting a vegetarian lifestyle can actually add SIX TO TEN years onto your life. More on a vegetarian lifestyle to come.

2. Savoring the Taste

When you sleep, sleep. When you study, study. When you eat, EAT! Savor the taste. Let no flavor escape your taste buds and appreciate every bite that you take. My family likes to shovel everything in so fast that we usually forget to breathe while eating. Slow down and delight in the nutrients that you are feeding your body.

3. Eliminating Distractions

Treat each meal as its own individual activity. I thought that my favorite way to eat was to sit in front of the TV watching Gilmore Girls (I have every episode on DVD sadly) while feasting. But then I tried sitting at the kitchen table with the TV off to devote my undivided attention to the food I was ingesting. It can be an entirely different experience, and it usually prevents overeating.

4. Never Starving

Starving is probably the worst way to approach weight-loss, yet unfortunately it is also the most common. Starving yourself severely slows your metabolism and often results in binge eating at a later period anyway. Eating small portions five times a day can satisfy your hunger and leave you lighter than ever without feeling food-deprived.

5. Becoming the Chef

This technique is probably what I struggle the most with. I’m culinarily challenged. But there are so many ways that restaurants or fast food places can manipulate the food that we eat, and the best way to prevent this from happening is to cook our own meals. Treating each meal as an event and taking the time to actually cook the food we eat can make all the difference. Many of the nutrients and flavors of the food are maintained this way, and we feel that we have accomplished something after we prepare our unique creations as well, thus completing the whole “meal experience.”

The poor person analogy makes sense. I can especially identify with it because at this point I am pretty poor. If you were poor, you would savor the hell out of every meal because who knows when you'd get your next one. You wouldn't have the luxury of distractions or of a 10 oz steak, and your only option might be to eat merely as fuel.

I don’t want to waste time feeling like crap because of the food that I eat. Life is too short to abuse my body and to make harmful nutritional choices. My body is the weapon that I attack each day with, and I want it to be strong. I want to feel good, look good, and run good.

So I eat like a poor person.