Hey,
Here’s 5 ideas I thought were worth sharing.
Audit your Diet
There’s a lot of back-and-forth diet dogma about tracking your calories. I don’t think it’s something everyone should do all the time, but I think it’s something everyone should do some of the time.
Why?
93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy and gain about 40 pounds between ages 20 and 40. This is mostly driven by what people eat.
What gets measured, gets managed
A lot of people are shocked the first time they realize what a real serving of peanut butter looks like.
My suggestion is to download MyFitnessPal and enter everything you eat for a week – no matter how big or small. Don’t try to make any changes to your diet, just get a snapshot of what you’re eating in a week. It’s a good way to see where your calories are coming from and way to catch foods that are adding a calorie bomb to your daily intake.
A Case for Cooking
“I do think the idea that basic cooking skills are a virtue, that the ability to feed yourself and a few others with proficiency should be taught to every young man and woman as a fundamental skill, should become as vital to growing up as learning to wipe one’s own ass, cross the street by oneself, or be trusted with money.” — Anthony Bourdain
The best way to be healthy is to learn to cook healthy meals you enjoy and want to eat regularly. In a world where most people sit in front of a computer all day, it’s also a chance to use your hands and make something besides spreadsheets.
I bought a smoker in November and have been smoking something more days than I haven’t. Specifically, I have a Traeger Ironwood 650 (wish I’d gone a size bigger), it was a bit expensive for me, but I knew I’d use it a lot and wanted something durable that could hold a consistent temperature.
I’ve been making a ton of recipes from Meat Church – not all of his recipes are the healthiest things you can make – but they can be with a few adjustments. You can make most of these things in an oven too, they just won’t be as good. Here are a few of my favorites:
Pulled pork – I follow this recipe, but order vinegar sauce from Sam Jones to pair it with.
Mexican pulled pork - make this with tacos or over rice.
Leg of Lamb - This is one of the biggest hits with my family. We eat it on pitas or with rice.
Tri-Tip- I follow his method, but sear on a cast iron skillet at the end.
Brisket – I’m not huge on brisket, but its fun to make and this is a simple recipe.
Chicken Thighs - I use this recipe a lot, but don’t eat it as a sandwich.
Good Listen
The best thing I’ve listened to in the last few weeks has been this podcast with Layne Norton and Nick Bare on nutrition myths. Norton is a winning power lifter and body builder with a PhD in nutrition science.
Raise Kids not Grass
"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass'; 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.'" — Harmon Killebrew
In the last few months, I’ve noticed myself becoming a grass guy. A part of the dad evolution. I’ve spent hours messing with our defunct sprinkler system, trying to make our grass look good. A few weekends ago, we had a party with an inflatable water slide. It was only in our yard for a few hours, but killed all the grass it was on top of.
I noticed myself getting subtly annoyed by this for a few days. I kept checking to see if it was coming back to life, running the sprinklers multiple times a day and then I remembered this quote from the baseball player Harmon Killebrew.
This just made me laugh at myself and forget about the grass. The fun we had is worth some dead grass.
Eat Real Food
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See you next week,
Bates
Layne Norton is one of my favorite health scientists. No BS, sticks to the data.