Supersize me!

The most unfortunate part of any workout plan is realizing the Triple Baconator and large Chicken Fries Combo is probably going to hinder your progress. I’ve never been that bad at consuming too much of anything except two things… Sodium and Carbs. The context for the carbs isn’t even as bad as most people either. I just ALWAYS drank Gatorade instead of… well anything. I also have been known to partake in the occasional Red Bull tall boy (Or six). As for the sodium, everyone who works shift work knows that microwave meals are a must! To keep them from drying out (in moisture and taste) as well as for the sake of preservation, they pump everything full of sodium. I also recently read an article in men’s health claiming that nuking your meals cuts a lot of nutrients out after they get rocked for three minutes inside of your own personal Hiroshima. This lead me to do something I haven’t done in four and a half years… spend an hour and a half in my local commissary looking at every label as if I was the weird kid in class who was allergic to everything.
Within the first 30 seconds I realized something… my staple of Gatorade as my thirst quencher already put me over my daily amount of sodium while boasting well over 650 calories. Like I said, it’s never hindered my training, but def never thought it was THAT bad. I spent a good five minutes slowly walking down the isle as sad music played and I said goodbye to Gatorade… until I realized I just couldn’t live without it. So I met my hero in low calorie G2. It supports only about 1/2 of the calories per serving and 1/3 the sugar. In the past, I have hated diet drinks as they always boasted claims that they taste “As good as the original” leaving off the end of the sentence which should read “If a disgruntled worked had taken a dump in the original before packaging…”. That being said, I was very wary about how the low cal stuff would taste, so I did what any sensible consumer would do. I opened up one bottle of every flavor I planned on buying and tried it. I of course was going to buy it regardless of if I liked it or not since id already drank out of it (For all of you who were gunna scold me for wasting it with people in japan starving), But the test was just to see if I was going to buy in bulk. I was so pleasantly surprised that, for once, this really was just like the original. And in the case of blueberry-pomegranate, slightly better!
Next was on to my reliance on microwave meals. I decided that 3 boxes of hot pockets to snag in case I woke up late and was in a jam was more than enough. And now I will plug the greatest semi healthy meal ive had in a long time. Pretzel bread Lean Pockets. Stuffed with godlike jalepeno cheese and grilled chicken, its just filling enough to hold you over if you didn’t have time to prepare lunch since the only alarm you remembered to set was the frantic 7 inch jumped to your knees on the bed as you yell at and slam your phone for not waking you up (Or alarm clock… either way we’ve all been there). Calorie count is a little high at 280, and the sodium is almost 40% of your daily intake… per sandwich… but hey, if you didn’t have time to make a healthy mid-day meal its definitely not a bad replacement for those on a 2000-2700 calorie diet or those who follow the King/Pauper/Prince method of meal choice.
Then we got to the dairy section. I hate mixing my protein with water and the thought of guzzling 12 oz. of moo juice after going hulk on some weights and sweating it out for an hour makes me want to vomit. It’s the only reason my post workout protein intake has suffered since I stopped taking isolate a month
ago. To remedy this situation, my boy Travis turned me to a formidable substitute… Almond milk. 60 calories a serving and 30% of my calcium intake a day and 3 flavors to rock my world, on top of the fact that it lasts almost 2 months longer in the fridge than regular milk. This coupled with switching to white egg beaters basically takes all the guilt out of breakfast with only a SMALL sacrifice in nutritional benefit. Slap a piece of dairy free/gluten free cheese on the eggs and it’s a downright kosher celebration in my mouth! If you want my personal opinion, god himself made the chocolate almond milk…
On top of adding fruits to the ends of all my meals, I needed a healthy alternative for sweets/ inbetween meal snacks. Enter the Larabar… it’s a gluten free, soy free, Kosher, all natural snack bar that comes in fruity and nutty alternatives. My favorite so far has been the almond cookie bar. At $4.65 for a box of five, it cuts out the excuse of being able to say you don’t eat healthy because its too expensive.
So all of these steps, including grabbing enough tuna to make my tuna melt craving beg for realease and adding the PB2 mentioned above to all of my shakes, made the cut of over 37% of my sodium intake and 40% of my sugar intake seamless. If you’re trying to do something a little less drastic, just try getting sugar/fat free alternatives to all of your toppings and dressings like I did (I.E. Honey mustard, BBq Sauce and Sugar free coffee-mate/Smuckers Jelly). You’ll be surprised at how much of you can cut out by just healthy-ing up your meals trimmings!
Oh and as for the Red Bull… I got the regular sized sugar/calorie free ones. I can’t cut them out so bite me fatty.

Until Next time, Stay Safe and Be well!