Diet Complete!

After spending a day crunching numbers, gathering data, and visiting my local supermarkets, I've got a weight-gain diet that costs less than $5 a day.  Budget was a big deal, because we can get pretty stretched as it is, and I didn't want to make it any harder by adding a bunch of expensive foods.

My targets were 2500 calories and 150g of protein.  According to most of the sources I found, you should aim for 1g of protein for each pound of weight when planning a diet.  This much protein will give the body plenty to make muscle from after working out.  Probably part of the reason I never gained any weight while working out was that I wasn't getting enough calories--or protein.  So, here is my daily diet plan:

Early morning (pre-workout):
2 cups of milk mixed with 2 tbsp. Ovaltine and 1 scoop whey protein
1 slice of bread with 2 tbsp. peanut butter

Breakfast:
1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1/2 tbsp. honey
1 banana

Lunch:
1 can black beans
1 can tuna
1 cup raw spinach

Supper:
1/2 bag frozen California blend veggies
3/4 cup rice
4 eggs

Late snack:
1 1/2 cups corn flakes with 3/4 cup milk and 1/2 tbsp. honey
2 rings of fresh pineapple

Totals: 2453 calories, 149g protein
Weekly cost of food: $31.92

Planning a Diet is Hard!!!

Seriously about to lose my mind trying to get a diet plan put together.  Part of it is that reading all these suggestions is making me hungry.  Part of it is doing all the math and comparing ingredients when I don't have them all here!

I realize that any doctor could come up with a viable plan.  Unfortunately, not any doctor can do it on my budget.  Solution?  Bring the doctor a diet plan and see what we get.  My goal is about 2500-3000 calories per day, with a gram of protein for each pound (~150g) per day.  This wouldn't be difficult on a high budget, but I'm also needing to keep the family afloat (no daily fillets of salmon for me!) and make sure I've got some good ingredients to feed a growing baby--who also needs to bulk up.  It can be a daddy-daughter adventure!

I did find the USDA's database of foods here, and a really good resource for fruits, veggies, and seafood here.  They've both been handy, although the database is very difficult to read when you're accustomed to the Nutrition Facts label on food.  Ah well, diet plan will be posted when it's done.

Observation - Spirit

I'll make no secret of the fact that my spiritual life isn't all it should be.  I've gotten too caught up in some of my other duties to put enough focus on my spiritual needs.

Part of the issue is the time I've devoted recently.  Since my childhood, I've done my quiet times at the end of the day, when my mind is still awake.  This became a habit, one that continued through college and into family life, where it's actually less convenient.  I find similar issues in my prayer life, with a bit too much of rote prayer sneaking in.  I'm becoming careless in prayer, which is a horrible thing.

So, my goals for the 28 Day Change spiritually include two things:  I will have a morning quiet time, and I will seek specific people and situations to pray for each day.

Observation - Mind

This one is easy.  I've built my career around working with my head, so filling it up with a lot of extra and diverse data isn't really on the agenda.  I do need to focus more--zoning out less often and zoning in more--but that's hardly quantifiable and doesn't qualify as a goal.  That's just something I'll have to stay vigilant about, and it's probably something that will come with a better routine.

Instead, my primary goal for my mind during the 28 Day Change is to learn Spanish.  I took a year in high school and one in college, and my conversation skills have not been honed much in the meantime.  I get limited practice at work, but somewhere I hit this wall and never did much learning past it.

I hear they speak Spanish in Mexico.  It's just a rumor, of course, but it's better to be safe than sorry.  So my goal is to be comfortable making everyday conversation in Spanish.

Observation - Body

Weighed myself for the first time in a while today.  For my height, 142 is considered underweight by the body-mass index.  Staying this small is dangerous, and it's something I've wanted to change for a long time.  I've also not been working out, mainly due to lack of discipline, partially due to getting out of the habit when we were down to one car.

My ideal weight?  I'd love to be up to 180.  To do that is going to require a lot more caloric intake than I'm currently getting, though.  So, working out and eating more (healthy) calories are going to be part of my regimen.  Also, there's the matter of getting sleep.  I'm currently getting between 6-8 hours of sleep a night, usually closer to 6 than 8.  Muscles need sleep to build, so that's something else on my list.

Also, I'd like to get in the habit of flossing daily, instead of occasionally.

Those are my personal body observations.  As recommended by pretty much everybody, though, there's going to be a doctor visit in the next month before I make any drastic changes to my diet or activity level.  Gotta stay safe!

The Plan

In order to make change, we must plan change.  My plans are fairly simple and consist of three main parts: observation, decision, action.

In the observation phase, I will take a look at myself and my life and consider the way I do things.  Observation can be done in various ways, but I've opted to look specifically at the three traditional Judeo-Christian divisions of a man: mind (Greek nous, also called the soul), body, and spirit.

In the decision phase, I will consider the things that need change and set specific goals.  This phase will include much planning on a pragmatic level, as I'll have an entire daily routine to consider.  This is the phase that can make or break a will, and failure to plan properly will almost always result in failure.

The action phase will be the 28 days itself.  I plan to review the plan after the first week, then continue on for the last three weeks with the final plans made then.  This leaves a bit of wiggle room for the decision phase while tying me in to the final decisions.

I'll answer two questions here.  There's no spiritual reason for 28 days; four weeks just seemed like a good, decent amount of time.  Biblically, 40 days is more traditional, but then I might as well just observe Lent.  And speaking of Lent, the timing has nothing to do with that.  It's just that my wife and I are going on a mission trip about a week after the 28 days ends.  It's as good a time as any.

Resolved

January 1.  This morning in service the speaker asked for a show of hands of people who made New Year's resolutions.  The number was very small, and considering the number of resolutions that end in failure (88% according to this study), it's not hard to see why.  Of course, part of the problem lies in the resolutions themselves.  He gave the top ten list of the most popular ones, and I was surprised that only three (quit smoking, quit drinking, get out of debt) start out quantified.  In fact, at least one wasn't even quantifiable at all.

For the 28 Day Change, my goals reach for the same things that many people are resolving today, so I suppose they will be my New Year's resolutions.  I'll flesh them out into their respective goals and life-change plans later, but here's the list:

1. Gain weight.*
2. Improve my relationship with God.
3. Get more sleep.
4. Learn Spanish.
*I know, poor me.  But according to the standard body-mass index chart, I'm borderline underweight--which can result in some pretty rough health issues, just like being overweight.


Whatever your resolutions, I hope you do them the right way.  Make goals, make plans, make it happen!