Are you having a heart attack??!! You want an Aspirin?

It was late March of this year and I was playing indoor golf at Golf-O-Max when a friend uttered the title of this post to me.  The amount of exercise I was doing at the time was essentially moving my thunderous body from the couch (yes, we had a couch for indoor golf) about 6 feet to the tee, taking a swing, taking a swig of beer and then plopping back down again.  After Shawn jokingly offered me an Aspirin  for my heart, I went to the washroom and took a good look at myself in the mirror.  I was sweating buckets, out of breath and it honestly did look like I could be having some sort of infarction.  Though I like to think I carried it well, I was fairly overweight and at the age of 34, figured it is only going to get harder to lose it the older I get. 

Those who know me fairly well, know that this is not the first time I have had health realizations.  Here’s a quick chronological recap:

·         10 years back - I thought, ‘hey, I used to do long distance track in school, I was awesome at it!” Two blocks up the road and I was hunched over a garbage can puking my guts out.  And that was it for the running. I now reserve running strictly for when being chased.

·         7 years back – leading up to our wedding, Kelly and I decided to get all svelte and buff for the big day.  We joined a gym, and booked a physical trainer.  Kelly did fine, but on the first day, they give me a fitness assessment as a bench mark.  The attractive spandex clad female who was giving me my fitness test advised me to keep doing squats until I couldn’t anymore.  Being the stubborn and delusional man that I am, and not wanting to lose face in front of the aforementioned female, I just continued doing them until I was lying on the floor dry-heaving.  I quickly realized I was about to puke on the carpet so I crawled out what I thought was the side door and ended up puking in the lobby of the gym, and then scurried in embarrassment to what ended up being the ladies change room.  Truly a defining moment in my athletic memoirs.

·         Last year – My friend Rob had been on my case to get healthy and offered to take me to one of his circuit training classes.  I eventually gave in and about half way through (actually more like a fifth way in) the class…surprise, I’m hunched over dry heaving into a bucket. 

So all that to say, exercise for me usually ends up with me vomiting in front of a bunch of people.  Yet, as we go back to March of this year, here I was in a position where I clearly needed to do something about my weight and my health.  So the next day, I spoke to Rob and he said he’d write down a diet for me to follow and if I did that (and exercise) I’d lose weight and start to get closer to being as awesome as he is. 

I have since dubbed this diet, my BBQ Diet.  Rob’s response to my description was confusion but hang with me, and I think you’ll see what I mean.  

(Author’s Note: This is why this is on a grilling blog. See, I do get there eventually.)

Ok, so what is the BBQ Diet?

The BBQ diet is the eating of tasty meats 3 times a day along with a healthy breakfast.  So the typical day looks something like this:

Breakfast:
2 Whole Eggs
3/4 to 1 cup of Oatmeal (cooked)
Water

Morning Lunch (10:30 – 11am)
1 Cup veggies
1 BBQ Chicken Breast
1/4 to 1/3 cup of starch (ie. Rice)
Water

Afternoon Lunch (2 – 2:30pm)
1 Cup of veggies
6oz BBQ Steak
1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of starch (ie. Sweet potatoes)
Water

Dinner (evening)
1 Cup of veggies
BBQ Fish fillet or steak
1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of starch (ie. Quinoa)

Water

The plan keeps your metabolism moving fast because you are eating often, eating healthy and so your body doesn’t end up storing all the calories for later.  

(Author’s note: This would be a good time to insert a disclaimer about me not being a doctor and nor do I claim any scientific backing for anything I have posted in this blog.  But it worked for me.)

 You can mix and match the meats, slip in some pork, turkey etc.  You get the idea.  Now, Rob’s plan did not require the meats to be barbequed, BUT, I’ve found that by barbequing all of my meats I get some great benefits from the following steps:

-          Grill all your meats for your Monday/Tuesday and Wednesday lunches on Sunday evening.  Repeat on Wednesday evening for the Thurs/Fri lunches. This is crucial as otherwise you’ll not have time to prep each day, you’ll likely skip one of your lunches, end up grabbing fast food, get fat and die

-          Use spices instead of sauces to flavor your meats.  I’m pretty sure the calorie gods forgot about spices and just drink more water if you use a lot of salt

-          Add wood chips to flavor your meats with smoke thus eliminating the need for those crazy calorie rich sauces (I personally find mesquite adds some nice flavor to chicken and beef and have been using this brand) 

-          Once all your stuff is cooked, get yourself a bunch of ziplock bags and prep your meats, rice and veggies so you can just grab and go each day
(Author’s note: do not skimp, buy the brand name.  I’ve found that plastic zipper bags is one of the areas that you really get what you pay for, so spend the extra quarter and get the good stuff)

-          And finally, protect your meals in a suitable and secure lunch pail for transportation to the office. 

So, again, I’m not a doctor or nutritionist, nor am I even an unfrozen caveman lawyer, BUT I am someone who has lost over 20 pounds on the above plan over the last 3 months.  

                                Right Photo Credit: Kysha Hunt

I plan to keep at it and see how far I can go (Rob says I need to lose another 20 lbs).  And worst case scenario, I’m eating tasty grilled meals every day and NOT GAINING any weight.  OH, and I almost forgot, I really haven’t done any exercise at all with the plan, despite Rob’s suggestions to do so.  I do plan to start incorporating some exercise into my routine, but not until I’ve lost another 10 pounds or so because then it will be easier.  To do exercise now would just be harder because I’d be carrying the extra weight.  Think about it, that actually makes some sense in a strange way.  ;)

P.S. Thank you Rob.  And thank you Mr. Holmesdale for asking if I needed an Aspirin, it was the kick I needed.