Tweet from: Chez Ollie
To: @FitOldDog “Hi Kevin mate, i’m 42 years old 7 overweight by 70lbs. I’m experienced but would like 2 know yr daily diet? Thanks sir! #RESPECT”
Hi folks,
As an aging Ironman triathlete, what is my daily diet? First I would like to give you FitOldDog’s Advice on nutrition:
“Eat that which looks good, smells good, tastes good, feels good in your mouth, makes you feel good during and after eating it, and works for your training load and specific metabolic quirks.“
Here is my hurried synopsis of my daily diet.
Two fresh farm eggs, flipped to make them 'over easy,' on whole-wheat toast covered in real butter, and salted, makes FitOldDog's daily breakfast, come rain or shine.
Breakfast, the most important meal of the day: well, I would say that my breakfasts are generally consistent, starting with two cups of tea (preferably PG Tips – NOT decaf, as I never did understand decaf tea, alcohol free beer, or sexless marriage), with milk (preferably skimmed, though I’m considering going over to whole milk). The tea is followed by two fried (over easy), poached (soft) or boiled (soft) eggs (preferably local farm laid, from free range chickens) on two pieces of whole-wheat bread. I have followed this regimen around 80% of the time for about 50 years. When traveling I prefer the McDonald’s sausage McMuffin with egg, two hash browns and a large cup of coffee, unless something more interesting is available. If I am in a foreign country I eat local food. For instance, in England I love to have a full English Breakfast, in Australia a steak pie, in France their delicious cold breakfasts with a large milky coffee and a croissant full of real butter and jam, in Amsterdam food from those fishy wagons out on the street, such as jellied eels, in China NOT chicken’s feet but the rest is delicious, fresh fruit in Hawaii, Tamales in Mexico or Johnny’s Gone Fishing, in Germany pretty well everything is delicious, and so forth (not that I travel quite so much nowadays).
I spotted a nice pair of pears on the table and they were delicious.
Lunch: this varies a lot, but I prefer to have local food, and I often eat a fresh local sandwich with Persian stew, but it is whatever I fancy that I can lay my hands on. If I eat Chinese food, I always have something with shrimp, whilst I really like shepherd’s pie if I can get some. If I lived in England it would be a steak and kidney pie every day. So, basically stuff I like that I can cook (I love to cook) or buy out.
Dinner: Not too heavy and not too late, and if Deb is cooking it is often salad with coconut rice and salmon (yummy – I love seafood), or some fresh steamed local vegetables or boiled cabbage (still English), with potatoes and carrots and such. Sometimes it’s just a fruit smoothie made in a blender with yoghurt and fruit, including ripe bananas (brown is ripe, and they fry up great). I also love fresh fruit pie with heavy cream (sound like health food?).
Snacks: almost never. I do have two or three Peppermint Patties a year, but I don’t seem to be too much into sugar. If I have to eat, I like an avocado on whole-wheat toast with some salt to taste, but then again sometimes it is a bacon and egg biscuit, or a tasty pear.
Sitting in our new couch, FitOldDog looks to be about the right size for his next race, don't you think? Photo by Tara House.
Low fat and tofu: don’t believe and never did believe all that low fat hype. I would prefer not to eat animals too much, so I eat a lot of eggs, but I don’t trust tofu. I would have stopped eating eggs if I’d listened to the experts – my Mom said, “An egg can make a whole chick, so it must be a pretty complete diet,” and I think that she is right. I also like lots of butter in my food, and I agree with the scientific basis of the pro-fat arguments laid out by Gary Taubes.
Whilst training: I follow very strict rules of preload, intake during the race, including PowerBars and Hammer Gels, post-race recovery food, and all that stuff. If you take in about 2000 calories a day on average for general living, plus you burn 2000 calories in a workout or 8000 calories in a race, you had better eat to make up the deficiency or you’ll bonk big time.
Favorite Pizza: Hawaiian.
The Real Trick To Not Gaining Weight: Understand how your body works with respect to food, during a meal stop eating when you are still a little hungry, count calories from time to time so you can assess the balance of intake and output, exercise and then exercise some more, or buy a bigger couch and you’ll look little.
Oh! Yes! I nearly forgot my most important carbo-load, beer. I like good beer, especially in an English pub (or draft Guinness in Dublin), but it has to be earned or you can turn into a lard-ass.
-k @FitOldDog
Those eggs don’t look as though they have been flipped.
Hi Marian, they haven’t, because flipped they hardly look like eggs in a photo unless the lighting is just right. Must admit that I was in a real hurry when I knocked that post together.
-k
And go easy on the salt; it makes you senile.
Yes! Salt is an interesting issue. The body has plenty of ways to regulate that stuff, so it is anyone’s guess what to do about it. I love salt on my eggs in the morning.
-k
I’m nervous of trying different things because I’m tired of feeling bad. My present diet, which seems to suit me, is:
Breakfast: Porridge made with milk and water 50/50 with a little honey.
Mid-day: Fish or chicken with vegetables.
Evening: Fresh fruit with plain Greek yoghurt.
Daily prunes and baby aspirin.
I also eat eggs and beans sometimes. Oh, and yogi tea (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper, etc.) Also, cayenne pepper and turmeric are good for you. I avoid sweet things, baked goods and too much carbohydrate. Am trying to incorporate coconut oil into my diet to prevent dementia.
Hi Marian,
your diet seems balanced, but a little dull. I wonder if feeling bad has anything to do with diet in your case. Have you kept a diary of life, with a ‘feeling bad score’ each day? You need data to sort this one out.
-k
I keep thinking of starting that. As it’s nearly halfway through the year I may not be able to find a diary but I could use an exercise book. I have had this problem for years. A doctor once told me that my fuzzy head and fatigue might be due to “not having enough fun”.
Hi Marian,
I like your doctor’s suggestion and he could be right, or maybe fuzzy head is not fun. Nigel has a similar problem, but he calls it spaciness, which he finds to be no fun at all. I wrote a blog post for him that said the same thing that I said to you – collect data http://goo.gl/Y1GPT. Get a book and start writing – 1. everything you can recall about it, 2. new section, what happened today, which is real data because it is not at such risk of corruption by the effects of the fluidity of memory http://goo.gl/i8ben.
-k