I used to work as a builder years ago, I was in great shape and didn't have to think too much about my diet. In fact, with the knowledge I now have I can safely say that my diet was terrible. Near on suicidal in fact!
My morning routine was to get up, jump in my car and meet with my boss at his house. We would then travel to wherever we were working at the time, usually an hours drive or more away. Once there we would find a cafe to grab a tea before we started work around 8am.
At 10 each morning we would stop work and eat.
This would be a big fry up at a cafe, a burger from a snack van, or even a McDonalds. Whatever it was - it was a huge meal.
At lunchtime we would do the same. There were times when some of us brought a lunch with us but even then it would go in the bin and we would eat with everyone else. It was just what we did as builders.
On a Friday we would always try to finish work early and go to the pub. The pub would almost always end up as a full on night out (we got paid on Fridays). The weekends weren't much better.
So, a solid 5 days of eating crap food and then going on a drinking binge. You would think that I was overweight and unfit.
I had a six pack throughout my time as a builder, over 5 years.
This was simply because I was burning so much fuel. 8 hours solid physical work 5 days a week is extremely tough and the calories I consumed were very much needed.
In fact, with the few opportunities to eat and the amount of calories I had to consume - I didn't have much choice but to go for high calorie foods.
Now, here's the thing - as we get older we tend to do less. Staying with the builder story, we get the younger guys to do more of the physical work. We take on a more supervisory role. We also tend to slow down a bit. We may not notice it too much but we are doing less and less as we age. Add to this that we need fewer calories and we start running into problems.
Our Diets don't change. We still have the fry ups, burgers, and drinks at the pub. We eat the same foods, drink the same drinks but are doing far less than we used to.
Think of a guy in his 20's that does building work. How does he look?
Now think of a guy in his 50's that does building work. How does he look?
As we age we have to accept that we can't get away with what we used to. We can't eat all of those foods and drink all of those drinks. Not if we want to stay in control of our weight and maintain good health.
We need to stay active not do less and less.
We can still enjoy all of the things that we used to - but we must make sure that we aren't eating and drinking excessively in relation to our lifestyle.
Thanks for reading
Darren
