A Good Start

I am a bachelor, and I like to eat healthy. Unfortunately, our modern society isn't built for the bachelor lifestyle. From grocery stores that sell enormous portions of food that you will never use before they go bad, to recipe books that tell you how to make dishes for 4-6 people, everything gangs up on the bachelor to tell him to either get fat, or waste food. My goal here is to tell you exactly how to avoid those two things.

I personally do not like eating leftovers. I am a very picky eater, and I get sick of particular flavors very quickly. I can't stand eating something microwaved from the fridge that I cooked previously. I don't even like eating leftovers from restaurants. One of my goals here is to help all of us avoid leftovers, without wasting food, so that we all never have to get sick of any one dish.

I am also not a man of means. I'm not poor by any sense of the word, but I don't have enough money to spend on amazing food every day of the week. Part of the bachelor lifestyle is keeping everything within a budget. Another goal of mine is to show you how you can eat great, without spending a ton of money.

There are two basic elements to the healthy eating lifestyle that we need to focus on. The first is building muscle. Muscle, hands down, is the best way to burn calories. You may think that cardio (running, bicycling) is the best way to lose weight, but I am telling you that it is not. Building muscle is superior, for exactly this reason: though you may burn many calories doing your cardio workout, your body will only continue to burn calories for about a half hour to forty five minutes afteward. When you build muscle (aka, pump iron), your body's natural calorie burn can continue for up to forty eight hours after your workout. You can burn up to twice as many calories by building muscle than you can by doing cardio. The second is speeding up our metabolisms. This is done by eating the right foods, in the right portions, and through our daily workouts.

The first place you want to start is by either using up most of the food you already have in your house, or giving it to someone else for them to use. We're going to start fresh, with a clean slate.

In order to eat healthy, we are going to need a few basics. These are foods that are easy to keep around, that you will eat constantly, and are probably going to make up the most of what you buy at the grocery store. As I list each food item, I'm also going to explain why you want to get each particular kind of food item, and not others.

1. Fat-free milk.
You might like your whole milk, or your two and one percent milks, but they are not nearly as good for you as fat-free milk. Especially the calcium-fortified kind. Fat in milk does add taste, but obviously, it also adds more fat to your diet, which you do not want. Buy fat-free milk every time, preferably calcium-fortified. Milk is great because liquids take up a lot of space in your stomach, and send signals to your brain telling you that you're full.

2. Whole-wheat bread
Everybody needs bread. We're going to use bread a lot, as sandwiches are a basic staple of the bachelor diet. When you're buying whole-wheat bread, look at the ingredients label. If you see High-Fructose Corn Syrup(HFCS), don't buy that kind, find one that doesn't have HFCS in it. Whole-wheat bread is great for you, because it has a lot of vitamins that are found in the wheat, however, you want to avoid HFCS, and I will tell you why. HFCS turns off your body's ability to tell if it is full. This is why you can eat hundreds of chips and never feel full. This is why you can drink tons of soda and not fill up. I will talk more about HFCS later, but basically, avoid it like the devil.

3. Lean meat
Meat is great because it has a lot of protein. Protein is the best nutrient for putting on muscle and cranking up your metabolism. This is because protein takes more time to digest, making you spend more calories doing something you do anyway, and protein is used to build muscle, which is one of our core goals.

Now, if you are a vegetarian (which is totally okay), or you just plain old don't like meat, that's fine, you can use soy protein instead. However, I urge you to reconsider based on one simple fact: studies have shown that your body burns %2 more calories during workouts with animal protein in your diet than with soy protein in your diet. If you are on a 2,000 calorie diet, that's 40 calories extra per day. Expand that weekly and you are burning 280 more calories per week than a vegetarian on a similar diet.

When buying your meat, the most important thing to take into account is how little fat it has. You want meat with as little fat as possible. If you can't figure out which meat is leaner, ask someone working in the meat or deli section which meat has less fat. Stay away from ham, which contains a lot more sodium than other meats. Always buy low-sodium cold cuts. Turkey is your best bet when it comes to animal protein. Steaks are amazing, but red meat is harder for your body to digest, so save it as a special treat.

I also want to talk about fish. Personally, I do not eat much fish. I don't like the taste. If you do like the taste, get ready to hear something awesome: Fish is great for you. Fish contains a ton of protein, and they also contain a great ingredient that you will find in almost nothing else on earth: Omega 3 oils. Omega 3s have been shown to reduce your risk of heart disease, as well as help you burn more fat. Different kinds of fish do have different levels of protein, so I'm going to list a few kinds in the order of most Omega 3s to least. All of these kinds of fish are prepared grilled: Mackerel, Salmon, Tuna, Trout, Shark, and last, Swordfish. Tuna in a can has much fewer Omega 3s than a filet of tuna, but if you buy it in an oil-packed can, you are getting significantly more Omega 3s than if you buy water-packed cans of tuna. Oysters are also a great source of Omega 3s.

4. Dairy products
There are many reasons why dairy products are great for you, and there are a lot of options for dairy besides milk. The foremost reason dairy is great for you is probably the one you've heard the most: it helps give you strong bones. Calcium is something you need a lot of in your diet, and dairy is where you'll be getting most of it. Calcium also helps you lose weight - calcium increases the amount of calories you burn while digesting, which means less work for you. Calcium also may prevent certain kinds of cancer. Studies have shown that men with diets high in calcium are less likely to develop colon cancer. Calcium has also been shown to hamper your body's ability to make new fat cells. Low-fat plain yogurt tastes great, and is a great source of calcium. It's easy to add to dishes, it's easy to eat with fruit, and it's easy to make smoothies with. Yogurt also has active cultures that aid in digestion. Cheese is another great source of dairy. It tastes great on sandwiches, can help aid in digestion, and lasts for a long time, making it a great bachelor food.

5. Peanut butter and jam
PB&J is the classic bachelor sandwich. It is quick to make, tastes great, and is decently good for you. You want to avoid the kind of peanut butter you probably buy right now, and change to buy sugar-free, all-natural PB. You don't want to eat very much, because peanut butter does have a lot of fat in it, but it's great in PB&J sandwiches, or as an additive to snacks, to pump up the flavor. It contains monounsaturated fats, which increase your body's production of testosterone, helping to build muscle and burn fat. Jam is not so great for you, so don't eat much of it, but raspberry jam (smuckers or colander are my favorite brands), in limited amounts, makes a great sandwich when mixed with peanut butter. Jam is also a better top for toast than butter.

6. Berries
Berries are the most awesome snack ever. Pretty much any kind of berry will do. Berries don't last THAT long (refrigerated they last about two weeks), but you will eat them so quickly that it won't matter. They go great as a snack, they go great in your breakfast, and they go great as a sweet addition to certain dinners. Berries contain powerful antioxidants, that help fight heart disease and cancer. Raspberries are my personal favorite, because they also improve your eyesight, balance, and coordination, besides tasting AMAZING. Blueberries are great as well, because they contain large amounts of fiber, which is good for digestion, and also keeps you feeling fuller, longer. Strawberries are great, but because they are larger, you want to eat fewer of them.

7. Almonds
Nuts contain protein and monounsaturated fats, which both help you build muscle and burn fat. They help fight heart disease and cancer, and help you feel full. Almonds are the best nuts you can find. They contain a ton of helpful vitamins and minerals, and are a great snack. Avoid smoke and salted nuts, get plain old almonds, and eat at least a couple of handfuls of them per day.

8. Extra-Protein Powder (also known as Whey Powder)
Whey protein is the best animal protein for building muscle, hands down. It has the highest amount of protein for the fewest number of calories, and it's extremely easy to add to your diet. You probably can't find this at your local grocery store, so visit a healthfood store like GNC and ask for some whey protein. You'll notice they have tons of different kinds in the store. Plain old whey protein powder doesn't taste like much, so is easy to add to a lot of foods. I personally buy the chocolate flavor, because I like to add mine to milk and smoothies, and it tastes great.

9. Flax seed powder
Flax seeds are the only other thing on this earth, besides fish, that contain Omega 3 oils. I've already told you how great Omega 3s are for you, and so you should want a lot of them in your diet. Flax seed (which you will also have to find at a health food store) has a nutty flavor, so it is easy to add to all kinds of meals. One tablespoon per day is all you'll need to maintain a good supply of Omega 3s, especially if you don't eat fish.

10. Instant Oatmeal.
Oatmeal is my preferred breakfast of choice. Buy the unsweetened, unflavored kinds, as they will have ingredients you don't want. It's quick to make (2-3 minutes in the microwave, less if you buy the quick cook kind), and it's easy to add healthy ingredients to. It's high in fiber, which will keep you feeling fuller, longer. Oatmeal also helps fight heart disease and cancer. I like to make my oatmeal with fat-free milk, a tablespoon of flax seed (it really gives the oatmeal a much more interesting flavor), and a handful of berries.

These ten foods are easy to keep for long periods of time, are great for you, and should make up your basic diet.

The last thing you should eat daily, and I cannot stress this enough, is a daily vitamin. My personal choice is Centrum Performance. Most people, especially bachelors, do not get a lot of the vitamins they need daily, so a daily vitamin is crucial to staying healthy. You want to get a daily vitamin that is high in vitamins A, C, D, E, K, B6 and B12. You also want plenty of riboflavin, niacin, iron, and zinc. I also reccomend taking a vitamin containing at least 70% of your daily value of magnesium, which helps build muscle, and finding a vitamin that will get you at least 1000 IU of Vitamin D per day, which has been shown to help bolster your immune system. Centrum Performance has only %10 DV magnesium and 400 IU Vitamin D, so I also take a magnesium supplement and a Vitamin D supplement.

I eagerly encourage all of my readers to send me feeback and ask questions. If it's something you don't know about your bachelor lifestyle, and want to find out, I'll do the research for you! If you think something I've written is wrong, please let me know, and I'll respond quickly, with more evidence backing up the correct answer. I welcome all kinds of feedback, and will try to respond to each and every bit. If you don't feel like commenting, I can be reached at brendanjmcguire AT gmail DOT com, or if you don't like email, you can instant message me on AIM at BachelorNutriGuy.

In the future, I'll be covering a few topics that are crucial to the bachelor lifestyle. These include, but are not limited to: working out, speeding up your metabolism, hard-to-keep food items, how to handle restaurant eating, and I will also be posting a weekly bachelor recipe - great food dishes, usually dinners, that are quick and easy to prepare, and best of all - leave you with only one serving. No leftovers, no waste!

- BreadMan McGuire