KEN'S KORNER - JANUARY 2007

THE “ACTUAL SIZE” DIET
BY AUTHOR, EDUCATOR & DRIVER KEN SKAGGS

With another New Year upon us and countless people making resolutions to lose weight, I thought now would be a good time to drop this bomb of simplicity. Before you give up on your resolution, please give this some thought. It’s not like any other diet you have ever heard of.

With all of the so-called diets out there, wouldn’t you like to hear about a diet that’s easy to understand? Counting calories can be a complicated matter, especially when you have to constantly try to guess how many calories are in something. Then, you have to figure out how many calories you are burning off every time you do any exercise. With that in mind, wouldn’t you like to find a diet that you don’t have to be a licensed nutritionist to actually understand? Then go on the “Actual Size” diet. All you have to do is put your food on a scale and see how much it weighs (or just guess the weight of it). Whatever it weighs, that is exactly how much weight you will gain when you eat it. Pretty simple, huh? I figured this out all by myself - and I’m just a trucker.

In all my years (47), I must have read at least one hundred articles about proper diet and exercise. Obviously, if you’ve ever seen me, you know I’m no fitness guru, but I know crap when I read it, and most of those diet articles (dare I say) have a very pungent odor. If you don’t believe it, just wait another year and see if science doesn’t change it’s mind about what is or isn’t good for you. They are always changing their minds. One day something is good for you, the next day it isn’t. I’m sure they are mostly right, but I’m still hanging in there until the day they decide that cigarettes and coffee are the breakfast of champions. In the meantime, I’ll just go with my Actual Size diet.

For several years now, we’ve heard that potatoes are high in starch and calories and not really all that good for you, especially if you are diabetic. If you are diabetic, please don’t listen to me, consult your doctor. After all, I’m just a truck driver. But if you are a normal, healthy person, it is this truck drivers’ opinion that potatoes are good for you. And they are not that fattening, when eaten in moderation (moderation is the key; baked is good too.) I ought to know because I lost thirty pounds one winter eating only a potato for supper each day. It’s true. Back when I was driving for a construction company, I got laid-off for the winter and spent that entire three months eating light and taking long walks. My favorite evening meal was one baked potato and sometimes a salad. I wasn’t afraid to eat breakfast or lunch in the normal way, I just concentrated on eating a light supper. And I always ate early (at about 6 PM) then had no snacks after that each day. I also walked four miles, three times a week. By the time I went back to work that spring, I was thirty pounds lighter, feeling good, and not afraid to take a walk.

Being an old Army guy from way back, I know a little about exercise. I would even argue that exercise might be more important than diet. When I was in the Army, I ate big. Every meal was an all-you-can-eat buffet. I pigged out every day. Of course, I worked it off every day too. During that time, I ate huge and still managed to lose weight and get into the best shape of my life, simply because of all the hard work and exercise I did at that time. We busted our butts from sun-up to sundown. Of course, normal people don’t have to work that hard, so we had better watch what we eat.

Whenever I drove over-the-road I would gain weight like a snowball rolling down a hill. Because of my inactivity, every little bit of food I ate went directly to my hips, waist or other area that didn’t need it. Being the lazy guy I am, I decided that since I wasn’t going to do any exercise any time soon, I would really have to start watching what I ate. I tried to use what knowledge I learned along the way in life, but common sense kept creeping into the picture. I’d look at a little piece of cake and consider the calories and the amount of exercise required to work it off. But common sense would tell me that it is physically impossible to gain more weight than the actual weight of the food. So, if a piece of cake weighs a half-pound, then I figured that I’d gain exactly that, if I ate it (so, of course, I usually did).

Diet and exercise are important, and truckers have a tough time working off calories when they are busy driving all day and dealing with the day-to-day stress that comes along with the job. But if you want to lose weight and get into better shape, find the time to take a daily walk. While you are waiting to be loaded, instead of taking a nap, take a walk (they say you actually burn calories when you sleep, but I’d be willing to bet you’d burn a few more while walking). Also, try parking at the far end of the truck stop, when you have the time. If you are doing a live-load, why not knock-out a few wall push-ups and stretches while you wait? But as far as diet is concerned, you simply cannot gain more weight than the actual weight of the food. Burning off those extra calories - that is another entirely different story.

So go ahead and have that big piece of cake and then go to www.bigcitydriver.com for more useful trucker tips and fun facts. Just be careful not to get any frosting on your mouse!

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