I’m pretty sure the genetic cards have been stacked against me when it comes to diet.   Okay, maybe not genetic, exactly, but close enough.

Any real, useful, lasting diet I’ve ever heard of requires a certain amount of boredom. Dr. John Berardi says if you examine the diets of the world’s top performing athletes you’ll find over and over that they eat the same thing all the time.  They keep just a few boring, but balanced and nutritional, meals in rotation.  And they eat to live, they don’t live to eat.

Well that would just be a smack in the face to my heritage. In an Italian family when you’re sad, you eat. Happy? Eat. Birthday? Eat. Football game on TV? EAT! Columbus Day? Parade, then eat.  Death in the family? Pray, then eat. New Baby? Feed it!  It’s Tuesday? How ’bout a nice lasagna?

This is a losing battle.  And I have chocolate.

Over a year ago I posted 27 Rules for Diets. As I mentioned at the time, these are not rules I follow, it’s just a collection of things that seem to be good ideas, based on reading I’ve done.  I recently came across a shorter version – 7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs by Dr. John Berardi, Ph.D. of precisionnutrition.com.  I found it on the Sherdog forums.

Habit 1: Eat every 2-3 hours.
Habit 2: Eat complete, lean protein with each feeding opportunity.
Habit 3: Eat vegetables with each feeding opportunity.
Habit 4: Eat veggies/fruits with any meal. Eat “other carbs” only after exercise.
Habit 5: Eat healthy fats daily.
Habit 6: Don’t drink beverages (soda, beer, etc.) with more than 0 calories.
Habit 7: Eat whole foods whenever possible.

These 7 rules cover a large chuck of the 27 listed in my post.

I love grocery shopping in Asian markets, but you’re on your own as far as figuring out how to cook stuff once you get it home!

Usage: Put the noodle in to boiling water to 2 minutes, noodle will spliting, then stir the noodle, adding oil and vegetable is more tastes or it can do sa pan fry noodle, clipping the noodle, after the water dried it can then fry

Ever been the Cheesecake Factory?  I haven’t been in a couple of years (I’m not even sure there’s one around here,) but there are three things about the Cheesecake Factory that stand out in my memory – 1) surprisingly good steak, 2) surprisingly mediocre cheesecake, and 3) a terribly long menu.  The menu goes on for pages and pages. Any one page could service an entire restaurant. I think I even remember advertisements in the menu.

Long menus annoy me.  The Cheesecake Factory’s menu infuriates me. Five Guys Burgers and Fries, on the other hand, is menu perfection.  They make Burgers, Fries, Hot dogs, and Grilled Cheese.  Ordering from the 5 Guys menu is a joy.  Ordering from the Cheesecake Factory’s menu makes me want to hurt people.

Today I stopped by our local small town BBQ joint.  I walked in and was greeted by a couple of women behind the counter.  As I stood there staring at the menu on the wall one of them asked what I wanted.  I continued staring at the sign, but all a saw was blob of words.  Nothing was gelling into a coherent thought.

Finally I said, “I don’t know, I don’t understand what you have.”  She said, “Platters and sandwiches. Chicken, beef, or pork.”

Ah! Perfectly clear.  In just 7 words.  I looked back at the sign and tried to independently figure out from the sign that they offer “Platters and sandwiches. Chicken, beef, or pork.”  Nothing.  The sign still just seemed like a blob of words to me.

I said, “Platter, pork.”

She said, “There’s a sign on the wall around the corner that explains the sauces.”

My head exploded.