For 2 weeks, I lived the bachelor life (not the TV show).  While my wife and kids were visiting family for 2 weeks, I was to fend for myself in the eating department.  I have an amazing wife that does all the meal planning and cooking for our family.  At the beginning of each month, she pulls off the dry erase calendar on our kitchen wall and plans out every single dinner for the month.  She even plans out a few days to eat out or super easy meals that I can prepare.

Sadly, this wasn’t my reality for the 2 weeks home alone.  I had to actually make dinners for myself.  The agony.  Seriously, I hate cooking.

About 4-5 days per week, I make breakfast to help out.  EVERY single morning, it’s the same thing.  I crack 7 eggs into a bowl, whisk them and scramble them in a pan with butter.  I divide the finished product between the four out of five of us that are eating solid food and add some fruit to the plate.  That’s breakfast, every morning, 7 days/week in the Perkins house.  Our kids have never had cereal, toast, or a glass of milk or OJ.

As simple as that is to make and with a routine of doing it, I only made eggs for myself ONCE in two weeks of living the bachelor life.  That’s how inherently lazy I am and how much I avoid the agony of cooking.

What was I supposed to eat and make for myself?  I ate what I liked and what was convenient to make.  I call this the bachelor diet and I want you to experiment with this.  I’ll give you the reasons why I think eating this way could create some big changes in your health, especially if you’re looking to shed some weight.  I have no proof that it will cause you to lose weight or gain health but I have a theory behind it and if you’re game, I would love to hear your experience with it…if you choose to accept the challenge.

Rule #1:  This is a NO JUDGEMENT zone.  I wasn’t worried about nutrient content.  I placed no limits on portions.  Out of the standard 42 meals in a 2 week period, 10% did not include the list below.  I was invited out a couple times and I also planned to grab a meal out after delivering a couple workshops.

These were my primary foods for 2 weeks:

• Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches.  This was actually almond butter and organic strawberry preserves on gluten free bread, most often right after my workouts.
• Ground beef.
• Chicken wings.
• Watermelon.
• pureWOD Build (protein supplement) mixed in almond milk.
• Kohana Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate.

All items were purchased at Costco except the gluten free bread and pureWOD Build.

Why do I think this could help your weight loss journey (not that I have any proof since I neither gained nor lost weight doing this)?  I hypothesize that it comes down to calming your nervous system.  The less decision making, the less mental stress.  I think variety has good intentions but it creates paralysis by analysis for many people.

As a result, the nervous system shifts into protection mode, taxing the adrenals, with a resultant sugar and insulin fight inside your body.  You could eat a nutritious meal but because there was so much mental anguish before that meal was prepared, your body won’t digest and absorb those nutrients as efficiently as hoped.

Your nervous system likes routine.  The more you have to adapt to life, the greater the potential that your nervous system defaults to that protection side of life, which chronically puts you into a state of tissue break down.  The more tissues break down, the more inflammation is created.  It’s not just your meal choice that has your nervous system on edge, it could just be the tipping point.  If your meal choice IS your only stress in life, you’re either a toddler reading this, which is amazing.  Or you’ve given up on trying to change the status quo in your life and need to re-establish your purpose in life.

Seriously, when it comes to meal planning and eating, we cycle through the same meals multiple times in a month.  If it were up to me, I would eat the same 2 to 3 things each week.  What I suggest that you try is pick 5-6 meals that you like and repeat those for a month.  Since it’s a longer time frame that my 2 week experiment, and if you’re actually doing it with intention of losing weight, ditch the wheat products and ditch the milk products.  Wheat spikes your blood sugar, which spikes insulin and milk just spikes insulin.

What our typical month looks like:

• Breakfast:  Eggs and fruit
• Lunch:  For me, it’s snacking on some nuts and a protein shake.  The family often eats leftovers from the previous dinner.
• Dinner:  Meat and veggies.

It may seem boring but boring brings rest, especially at the end of the day.  Dinner is never boring when you’re eating with a hot wife and 3 kids.  Boring is eating chicken wings alone. Boring is actually being a bachelor.  Need help on how to be boring?  You know how to find me.