About 40% fat

In this middle-aged man’s health and wellness journey, he has experimented with various ways of eating while taking notes along the way.

He has done the low-fat thing, grazing by eating smaller meals and eating often, and intermittent fasting to name a few.  Generally when focused, he has kept some type of food journal to get a better idea of what he had consumed at the end of a day.

It’s all been a study worthwhile because from it has been my body-specific anecdotal experience and empirical data giving me the authority to know what’s best for my body.  And in my mind’s eye, it has qualified me to give unsolicited advice to other middle-aged men happening to be within striking distance of my lectures. 

What I’ve also learned is that what worked well a decade ago still works but not as well now.  Why is that I sometimes ask.  I’m sure the answer is because nothing is constant in my aging journey.

Like me being less active, not exercising as frequently and when I do for shorter duration and many other reasons that I just quite frankly don’t have the energy to identify and list.

Of course there’s the explanation that many middle-aged men prefer not to offer and that’s they’re eating more than what their body requires.  Mathematically, if consumption is greater than expenditure then a surplus arises resulting in new weight gain and fat.

I’ve added a few pounds of bodyweight in the last couple years and let’s just say not all of it has been muscle.

But some nutrition gurus would have you believe it’s not that simple.  If you just followed their nutritional secrets and macronutrient guidelines, your all would be well.

They suggest that all calories are not created equal.  Collectively, they offer us more eating plan variety than all the sweet treats offered in a candy store.  Slick marketing and promises of a Fountain of Youth body are ours to be had if we merely send them our money for their books, courses and nutritional supplements.

With a goal of dropping 10 pounds before his next birthday, this middle-aged man has been riding a nutritional discipline bullet-train of late with almost 100 days of disciplined eating under his belt. 

And my fruits of this disciplined labor are starting to harvest because my brain has been rewired to no longer desire and eat some of the junk I had devoured in my recent past. 

I’ve lowered my daily carbohydrate consumption and have learned my body behaves better with fewer carbohydrates at this point in my life.  I’m not eating Paleo by any stretch of imagination but neither am I eating McDougal or Ornish-style if you know what I mean.

In its (carbohydrates) place are food choices that appear to be leaving me more satisfied with a total daily calorie consumption consisting of about 40% fat. 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum