when > what you eat

I made a short comment on Watson's blog about the timing and size of meals that I'd like to expand on.
I don't know the history, but it seems most modern societies these days entail:

• A feeble, half-hearted attempt at breakfast (coffee and bagel on the way to work)
• A rushed, unhealthy lunch (fast food, quick bento)
• A huge meal at night, with alcohol, then to sleep shortly thereafter

This doesn't make much sense from a metabolism perspective. I believe the science basically backs up the theory that when you wake up, your blood sugar is low (haven't eaten since dinner and your body has been rebuilding whilst your brain has been organizing thoughts and memories all night) and so you NEED to eat to start the day.

Breakfast should be a full and proper balanced meal. That resets the metabolism, and you go for several hours burning through that. Then as the blood sugar starts to drop again, maybe a little pick-me-up at 10:30; no not a donut and coffee, how about an apple or some juicy seedless grapes? Lots of natural sucrose to get the energy back up.

Then a nice filling lunch; a proper sit-down affair, take the brain off the morning's harried activities, chat with friends, maybe even get outside to walk to and from a lovely restaurant or something (well OK maybe just sit at your desk and surf the web for 40 minutes whilst eating in peace.)

Around 3:30, as the energy boost from lunch is wearing off, another snack. Skip the cookies and coffee and go for a handful of strawberries, or a banana, maybe an orange? Depends what's in season.

Finally, as the day is winding down and the blood sugar is dropping again, have a well-balanced but none-too-large dinner, say before 7pm. Easy on the carbs, if any, lots of fibre-packed vegetables in different colors.

Then several hours later, after getting a nice head-start on digesting, go to bed, say at 11 or even midnight, and get up at 5:30am the next day absolutely famished because you haven't eaten in 10 hours. (Being realistic; though 8 hours of sleep is ideal, I don't know anyone who works for a living that can manage getting that much sleep.)

BUT, before having breakfast, how about jumping rope for 16 minutes whilst watching NHK news? Then 8MA, changed up to make it more challenging: don't ever put your feet down; keep them floating off the floor, sometimes even extending and retracting as you crunch and squeeze those abs -- no slacking!

Then rip through some seriously painful chest and bicep sets until failure, and finish it all up with four one-minute planks until you are quivering in pain and delirious with hunger.
(To keep it interesting, let your 1 year-old son loose so that he can use your planking body as a platform from which to support himself as he stands up, adding a nice 10 kilos of weight just when you don't need it.)

Actually before I go to bed at night, I usually spend some quality kitchen time "cooking". My definition of cooking entails prepping my lunch, dinner, and snacks for the next day. Which is really just a whole bunch of chopping and steaming vegetables, occasionally using the non-stick frying pan to grill up some mix of something, maybe boil some eggs.

I also try to empty the dishwasher, load it up again with whatever is there, and finish off whatever my wife has started. Sometimes I am not sure what she's in the middle of cooking and I don't want to screw it up as it's usually my daughter's bento and I have absolutely no sense of flavoring. But sometimes it's easy to see how I can add value. Last night there was a container of finely diced green bell-peppers, a couple of half-sliced peppers on the cutting board, and several other peppers sitting next to them. So, I picked up the knife and diced up the rest of the peppers and put them in the fridge. Also prepped up a bowl of genmai (brown rice) to be ready in the morning (which I will have with lunch today) and checked my pickled eggs (not quite ready yet.)

Love being in the zone when just working silently in the kitchen late at night -- an hour just flies by I get so into it. I haven't been sitting regularly lately, but I do think all the late-night kitchen work is the next best thing for resetting the psyche and stabilizing the body and mind. "Chef's high"?