Brian’s Corner: In the Beginning, there was darkness…

This section of the blog is not actually written by Brian, but written ABOUT him by his lovely wife, ina.

Let’s first give you some background on Brian’s lifestyle:

Brian is a very handsome 28-year-old working professional whose favorite food is pizza, and favorite drink is Coke. Ever since college he had been drinking up to 6 Cokes per day. Nowadays, he’s toned it down to only one, which is a big accomplishment of his.

Once a week, on the days I’m not home, he will cook himself some whole-wheat ziti with marinara sauce. Why whole-wheat? He read the first chapter of the book Eat, Drink and be Healthy and it forever scared him off regular white pasta. Good for him. I wish he had gotten to Chapter 2 at some point.

Brian’s favorite snack used to be Oreo’s with milk (1%), until he noticed he had a hard time sleeping at night after he had them. So he switched to Hershey kisses. It is amazing to see this man open one after the other and put them all in his mouth. I tried to do it with him once, and I could not open the wrapper as fast as he did. It was uncanny.

Other than pasta, I have NO idea what he has for dinner. We order from Bertucci’s quite a lot, actually. They are 5 min away and they started to DELIVER. So that was always an easy (yet expensive) choice. I am actually afraid he might be getting himself McDonald’s and more pizza more often than he should.

Brian is not completely devoid of self-awareness when it comes to eating better. Reading the first chapter of that book was something he did out of his own interest in becoming healthier, but there is always something that gets in the way. Mostly procrastination and lack of motivation.

Brian was never big on left overs. He grew up in a big family where the food did not last more than a day in the fridge. Usually it was his father who had the left overs, but nobody else. So he just never really got a taste for them.

Brian also lives a very sedentary life: he gets in his car in the morning, drives to work where he is mostly sitting down (although sometimes he gets to take the elevator from floor to floor), then gets back in his car, comes home, lies in the couch with his computer, then goes to bed to a fully horizontal position. This is his every day life, and he is aware that it is not how he wants to lead it. So, with a little encouragement from his truly, we will be signing up for a gym on Monday and we will make it a habit to go every Monday night together.

In these Brian’s Corners, we will talk about his progress with a better eating habit, and any tips & tricks that may be helping him along the way.

Here is the first Brian’s Corners tip: Brian recently switched from Classic Coke to Decaffeinated Coke. This was a BIG move on his part to ween himself off the caffeine. He is a BIG Coke drinker, and if he says that the taste is almost the same, then by golly, the taste is almost the same! If you have a Coke addiction, this might be a good place to start making a change. Sometimes Brian gets caffeine headaches. This is NORMAL during the ween off phase. Just do it gradually and switch completely out of the caffeine. Your body will thank you for it.

ina