Diet — Blog — Healy Chen

I prayed for this

For the longest time I’ve wished for Costco to offer salmon poke. They’ve only ever done tuna, but not anymore! On a recent trip to Costco I was ecstatic to find a Sriracha flavored salmon poke. Even better, it costs less per pound than the equivalent tuna. I get my preferred fish and I save money. Cannot be beat! Pairing the poke with rice is absolutely fantastic.

It seems I am stuck at 166 pounds body weight for past month. (I weight myself every morning soon as I leave the bed.) Looks like I’ve reached a wall on this slow bulking plan. The math is simple: just eat more. But in exercise it’s slightly more complicated. I’m already eating as much as I comfortably want to eat. Adding more calories would mean having the act of eating be something I actually have to stress about. And I definitely do not want that.

The amount of calories that got me to this current weight isn’t sufficient to keep the number on the scale increasing. Makes sense: I need more calories to sustain this new weight. Therefore the more I gain, the more I have to eat to simply maintain. What got me here won’t get me to the next level up.

Obviously when I say bulking, I mean gaining lean mass. It would be enjoyably easy if it were just a matter of straight poundage. All I’d have to do is mash down a few crumbl cookies every day. Before long I’d be heavier and flabbier at the same time. Conversely, gaining muscle whilst limited fat gain is way tougher to execute. I really don’t want to add another protein shake into the daily rotation.

I think a solid end goal for me, at 5 foot 10 inches tall, is about 175 pounds. That’s a sizable amount of muscle mass, but not overly high to make it difficult to maintain in terms of food intake. Nine pounds is a significant amount of weight to gain when you want it to be as much lean tissue as possible.

Bottom line: got to eat more. Pass the salmon.

That's not what you want

A coworker of mine is dangerously close to being diabetic. The doctor has him on three medications already to try to stem the tide. Yesterday I regrettably informed him that being diabetic does indeed increases the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Just as smoking increases the risk of lung cancer. Maybe that will finally be the impetus for my coworker to change his lifestyle. Because losing the mind - our consciousness - is a horror no one wants.

Obviously, type two diabetes is overall bad news for practically every facet of the human body. My late maternal grandfather lived with it for the latter part of his life. It was a never-ending cycle of dialysis. It’s a surprise that he lived to 93, because he did not adhere to the strict diet and exercise advice typically prescribed to diabetic patients (you know, the part that doesn’t involve drugs). Maybe there’s hope yet for my coworker, because he’s failing massively to change his diet, and let’s not even talk about working out.

The easiest on paper prescription is the toughest to follow. I’ve another friend who got told by her doctor that if she doesn't change her diet and exercise habits, she won’t live pass 40 to see her kids graduate. That should be a sufficient wake-up call, right? The friend has changed her diet somewhat, but flat-out refuses to do any sort of exercising. It’s sad to see, honestly. My coworker also has a young daughter to live for. How much stronger do incentive need to get for people to change?

And to think the impetus that got me to change my diet and exercise - way back in college - was a mere borderline hypertensive blood pressure result during a routine checkup. I get it: most other people want an easy pill to swallow. Habits are difficult to build. Short term rewards are more salient than long-term thinking. All I’m saying is, the latter two decades of my grandfather’s life was no life at all. That’s cautionary tale enough for me.