I find myself paralyzed: there are so many aspects of getting back in shape that I want to write about, I can’t decide where to start. Everytime I think of a good place to start, I think of at least two other things to tell you. That would require WAY more organization here at jasonkemp.ca than I can muster.
So I’ve decided on this little mini-category of Diet & Fitness Tips. This will be a grab bag of definitions, tips I’ve read & tried & liked throughout the years and anything else I feel I should pass on, but don’t want to write at length about. (I actually always intend for my posts to be short, but I can’t bring myself to not be thorough. … But this time I mean it.)
So here’s the first tip, I mean, definition: diet.
Diet
When I think — and you do too, dear reader — of the word diet, I immediately think of the phrase on a diet; as in “I have to go on a diet because I’m causing planes to arrive 10 minutes late.” This implies that after you go on a diet for a while, that you get to go off a diet. Not so, dear reader. That’s not the meaning you should think of when you hear the word diet.
The meaning of diet that you should think of is “the sum of the food consumed by [the] body.” (source) So if you had a penchant for hot dogs and a can of Coke for lunch, your diet would consist of snouts and assholes…and Coke. It’s what you eat day in and day out. If your diet isn’t healthy or balanced, then you have an unhealthy diet. The only way to maintain a healthy weight is to work out and eat a healthy diet that you can maintain for long periods of time.
So what’s a healthy diet? It’s one that has the right balance of macronutrients (carbohydrate, water, protein and fat) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) for your daily needs. If you work out with weights a lot, your protein demands are higher than if you were a couch potato. If you are a lumberjack the sheer quantity of food compared to a receptionist is huge.
Stay away from diets with names. They do all the thinking for you, so you can’t judge whether a certain food is “in” the diet or not.