“Whatcha’ eating, Ed?”

“Dude…what’s your diet?”

“Oh, you don’t need to eat healthy, look at you!”

Those are just a few of the questions/statements I get on a regular occurrence pertaining to what I stuff my face with.

The third one I  got yesterday when I was going through the checkout at Target.  I had a shirt on with my business logo/website address and was buying a package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (and other stuff… I wasn’t only buying Peanut Butter Cups).  The lady asked about my business and I said, “Don’t judge my knowledge based on the fact I’m buying junk food.” To which she replied “Oh look at you…. you can eat whatever you want in your diet and still stay fit and trim.”

Don't be a stress eater!

Nope…I can’t.  I’m a stressed out 32-year-old dad and business owner and if I eat junk, it shows and it shows quicker than I’d like.

I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted  in my diet and would proclaim it proudly, but those days are long gone and most fit folks I know can’t eat “whatever they want” for long and stay fit.

And I have to insert this – if you are one of those genetic freaks who can do so, even past your early twenties, I don’t like you.  I’m kidding…sort of.

Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make.

When people aren’t assuming I eat anything I want, the next question they ask is, “What do you eat?” and I’m going to share my plan with you.

I’m also going to be very honest with you about my diet and eating habits.

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Before we go any further, here’s 3 easy diet tips (hint…click ‘diet’ ).

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For the better part of the last 8-9 months I ate pretty poorly.  I wasn’t a fatty boombalatty, but I ate poorly compared to normal.

I got into a habit of eating junk on a regular basis and neglected my normal healthy eating habits.

I could give you all sorts of excuses/reasons for this including business-related stress, having a new baby stress, etc. but truth be told, they’re all excuses.  I know better and shouldn’t have let myself slip up.

I’m not anymore and the extra weight I gained in that time (about 10-12 pounds) has quickly fallen away and I’m getting leaner than I was before.

Always cool!

Here’s my IDEAL nutrition day – the way I typically plan my days to be in a perfect world.  I say “ideal” because this type of day doesn’t always happen.  Some days I don’t get a snack and eat too much/too fast at lunch.  Some days Andrea and I are stressed and go out to eat for dinner – which usually leads to more stress with a 4-year old and 6-month old!  Ideal doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens most days, which is the name of the game.

Breakfast:
My alarm goes off at 4:50AM and I like to be at the studio by about 5:20, which doesn’t leave much time for a typical breakfast, which is cool with me because I don’t like the typical breakfast.  I love me some smoothies, so that’s what I have.

Every morning I make a homemade smoothie and drink it on my way to the studio  (my commute is 7 minutes…not much traffic at that time!).

This morning I had a heaping serving of blueberries, pineapple chunks, protein powder, ground flax seed, and a “green” juice.  I also threw a serving of probiotic powder in there.  If you’re not getting probiotics, you most definitely should be because they’re too valuable to be skipping.  Don’t just rely on Jamie Lee Curtis and her fancy yogurt either – get a supplement, drink some Kefir, eat fermented foods.

great "diet" lunch!

We have a nice “Wand” hand blender that works quite well for the smoothies.  If you’re going to buy one, don’t go cheap.  We use it at least twice per day and that’s a lot of use for a kitchen appliance.  You don’t have to break the bank, just don’t get the $20 one.

Lunch:

Ideally, I have a salad for lunch.  I’ve paid attention to how I feel after eating several different types of lunch and salads always make me feel the best and don’t let me slip into an afternoon coma.   Remember, I’ve been going hard, working with clients, since around 5:30-40am and by lunch time I’ve put in a full day, so it’s natural to feel a let down after lunch, but salads keep my energy levels up.

A typical salad for me is a heaping bowl of a mixture of romaine lettuce and spinach leaves (more spinach than romaine), chopped broccoli, cashews/slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, feta cheese, dried cherries/cranberries and some type of vinaigrette dressing.

Sometimes I’ll eat a cookie or 2 as dessert (only if Andrea buys them…I’m not good if that stuff is in the house!), but my rule is that it has to be at least 10 minutes AFTER eating the salad.  If, after those 10 minutes, my brain tells me I’m satisfied, I don’t eat ‘em.  If there’s a little extra room, I’ll eat ‘em.

Dinner:

I hate cooking and I really hate grocery shopping.

Luckily I have the bestest wife in the whole wide world so I don’t have to cook – even though she reminds me that she thinks a man who cooks is sexy, but I always tell her I have plenty of other sexy features

We’re on the same wavelength when it comes to our diet, so she cooks up something healthy.

For instance, last night we had pesto chicken on a bed of spinach leaves and a side of acorn squash.

It tasted awesome.

Tonight we had a pasta dish with plenty of garden fresh veggies and some turkey sausage.

My snacks are either homemade trail mix and fruit, or a homemade protein bar and fruit.

The trail mix is nothing special.  It’s just cashews, almonds, raisins and a small bag of M&M’s thrown into a big Tupperware dish that stays in my office.

The protein bars are something Andrea whips up and taste AWESOME!

The fruit is either an apple or pear always.  It must be easy to transport and those 2 things are easy to transport.

There you have it.  That’s what I’m eating!

One thing I always try to focus on is making sure I get at least 4-5 servings of fruit per day and 3-4 servings of vegetables.  (Here are some other easy diet foods)

If I do that, then all is well in my diet world.  My energy levels stay elevated, my mood stays chipper and I never, I mean NEVER get sick…ever…even though I work with people all stinkin’ day and am in close proximity with their germs and what not, I never get sick.

When I stick to this way of eating, I’m on top of the world and maintain a weight of about 175-180 pounds and a 30-31 inch waist.

my six pack

I also splurge a bit.  I love me some cookies and vodka.  Not at the same time.  I don’t have a freaky drink recipe consisting of snicker doodles and Abolut (although that does sound good!), but those are 2 of my indulgences and I feel fine.

I know that if I wanted to get a six pack quickly, all I’d have to do is cut out the booze (which isn’t much…I’m not a lush), get rid of the mini-Rewards, kick up the intensity a notch and that would get me there.

This way of eating is simple and easy, not only for me, but for most folks.  There’s nothing freaky about it.  No fad diets, no cutting out entire food groups (although I eat VERY little bread because I don’t really like it and it makes me flemmy) and no craziness.

What I told you is a typical day in the diet/nutrition life of The Fit Dad and I hope you can glean some helpful diet tips and better your eating lifestyle.

Have an awesome day!

Ed

P.S. – It took a little trial and error to figure out exactly how my body “likes” to eat.  I’m a big believer in creating healthy habits, rather than trying to remove bad ones.  Create the good and the bad goes away on its own.  I did this with my “assignment” mentality.  To learn more about what the heck that is, check out my Fat Loss To Go program (which is also loaded with 10-minute fat loss workouts).  Click here to check it out.