Tom Cruising It

I know someone who knows someone who knows Tom Cruise. Outside of a life long habit picked up from my mom of reading Entertainment Weekly, I really don't waste much time reading gossip or thinking about celebrities. However, when I learned of my 3 degrees of separation from Tommy, I couldn't help but ask about what he ate.

Hence, I've sometimes referenced certain habits I've been keeping for the last year as "Tom Cruising-it". Supposedly, when Tom Cruise is working, he is on a very specific & controlled regimen of diet & exercise, and when he's not working he is....on a very specific & controlled regimen, but only 5 or 6 days a week. He gets a 1-2 day holiday to eat whatever the hell he wants. This is pretty much what I've been doing. I don't have a nutritionist, chef, trainer or personal shopper, though -- all I got is this here blog, a light handful of readers and my wife (though she doesn't really cook, train, shop for things for me, and sees a nutritionist herself.)

I call it "Tom Cruising", but the rest of the world calls it a diet "cheat day".  The theory goes that if one restricts one's diet to lose weight, the body will adjust its metabolism and related systems to prevent weight loss. A steady, regular, reduced diet will lead the body to a new point of equilibrium relatively quickly. However, if one were to occasionally "step on the gas" and flood the system with calories, the metabolism will be forced to step it up to process what's coming in, and this new pace will carry over through the days you are calorie restricting.

Well, that's kinda BS.

Some studies suggest overfeeding (the scientific phrase for eating too much, or "cheating") only ups metabolism between three and 10 percent for no more than 24 hours, making the little boost not worth the hundreds or thousands of extra calories

But as with all things, if you drill down into the nitty gritty, things come in a lot more shades of grey. First, the physiological side of a cheat day is not all bad:

Restricting calories (as most people do when dieting) can cause leptin, a hormone responsible for maintaining our energy balance and causing weight loss, to dwindle. But temporarily upping calorie intake can re-up leptin production by nearly 30 percent (for up to 24 hours). It's that quick leptin buzz that's responsible for boosting metabolism after overeating. And in addition to regulating hunger and metabolism, this hormone may contribute to increased motivation, libido, and dopamine— so after a cheat day, dieters might actually be happier and more motivated.

And that's only the physiological side of things -- let's not forget about the psychological effects, a.k.a. being a disgusting pig in the right amount makes you hella happy.

Psychologists and nutritionists often believe allowing a cheat meal or cheat day to satisfy a craving allows people to stick to otherwise restrictive diets, Kalman explains. Other proponents of "cheating," accept that people will only really adhere to a strict diet about 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent is like built-in cheating.

Back to Tommy Boy. There is a big deal made about TC's height: celebrities and powerful people tend to tower, but TC is a normal person's height, about, well, my height. I say I'm 5' 8", but if you want to get technical, I'm closer to 5' 7.5". Tommy is a purported 5' 7", which means we share one thing that tall people don't: when we put on weight, it has less places to distribute than one with a taller figure.

TC's all-blood, all-the-time diet is all the rage.

I googled "Tom Cruise eating" to try to confirm my concept of Tom Cruising-it, and found myself feeling really bad for Tom Cruise. Sure, he's famous, has one of the greatest film careers of all time, indisputably talented, not bad looking, and probably has earned enough for many future generations of Cruiselings. But put aside all the common gossip stuff about his divorce, his religion, his kid, his intensity, and holy crap there is some weird stuff being put on the web about his eating habits.

Tom Cruise:

• ate his baby's placenta
• went temporarily anorexic when he got divorced
• couldn't pay his tab at an Indian restaurant in England because they didn't take American Express, but he ate all his curry.
• ate ice cream and pizza with Jamie Fox, are not gay. (OK, that was an Onion headline, but still.)

Several websites proclaim to know Tom Cruise's diet & fitness "secrets", but I can't see  anywhere where TC has gone on the record about it. Not that a website would use Tom Cruise's name over and over again to get more hits. No way, Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise!

I heard through my source that after TC went through a particularly traumatic time, he got a bunch of friends over and ate much ice cream. Any person going through some serious stuff is going to act out, like over eat or what ever. It's when we start whispering to each other and adding our own interests and bents, then it becomes distorted and weird. TC ate many gallons of ice cream while hanging out with the Beckhams, the Smiths and the Oprahs, and they sacrificed a lamb to L. Ron Hubble!!!

L. Ron Hubble, space robot, protects us from outer space Thetans.

It's easy to forget that Tommy is a successful fellow but also a guy who follows the same laws of physics that we do -- if he eats to much and does to little, he'll get fat and feel terrible, too. So far, my Tom Cruising-it works, and from my research, the habit of allowing oneself regular and temporary freedom  from an otherwise restrictive diet is not only not unique to Tom Cruise, but helpful in mild physiological ways and strong psychological ways. Until Tom himself calls me up to give me some tips to refine my Tom Cruising, I'll just leave his details alone as idle gossip.

A rare unretouched photo, before special effects.

-----

WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2344

Due to social reasons, sugar popped into the weekly diet this week, more than I like. However, these were happy times and I never really flew off the handle, so I'm gonna give myself a pass, as long as next week goes back to normal.

-----

MONDAY COUNT: 2165

Good eating day, back in the office.
AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, steel cut oatmeal with brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon & salt, 350 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, almond butter & grape jelly on whole wheat, health salad, 590 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 7:30pm, apple/carrot/beet/cucumber/celery/ginger/kale/cayenne juice, 160 cal

PM SNACK: 8pm poppa salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, grilled pork tenderloin, roasted broccoli & shitake mushrooms, quinoa, 565 cal 
B ate half the broccoli, had to stretch the remaining over this dinner and 2 packed lunches. Supplemented with the mushrooms, but suspect I may need to add more veg to the lunches.

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, Fritos, 300 cal

-----

TUESDAY COUNT: 2810

Odd day - went to the office but the office's building was shut due to mechanical difficulties. Ended up working "remotely" from home, despite not having all the needed resources, as work's servers were down, too, but I muddled through. Made a proper lunch, got laundry done, did a light food shop, made chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with left over chocolate pastry cream for a going-away treat for a neighborhood family tomorrow.

B was out late, and I was unusually hungry. After my 2nd evening snack which brought me to the edge of my calorie budget, I needed to finish the cookie sandwiches before starting Edie on her go-to-sleep ritual. A shmear of pastry cream got on the counter, I wiped it up with a finger and without thinking, popped it in my mouth. It was all over right then and there. Between being hungry, tired, stressed and the taste of chocolaty goodness on my tongue, it was all too much. I quickly finished the cookie sandwiches, pulled the extra cookies out and inhaled the bag. I did not do a calorie count on the cookies, but I DID make them small (.5oz of dough each) and in the end, ate maybe 8-10 of them. For an uncontrolled indulgence, I've done a lot worse. I can't really beat myself up too hard, as this seems to happen only once a month, and for the first time I was able to contain it rather than let it run to multiple courses.

AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, Fage whole yogurt with agave, vanilla and almonds, 325 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, broiled hake loin, roasted broccoli and mushrooms, 395 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 6pm poppa salad with homemade Italian dressing, 150 cal

DINNER: 7:15 pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, steamed string beans, kimchi, 540 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, Fritos, 200 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, cheesy poofs, 300 cal

EVENING BLOWOUT: 8pm, handful of homemade chocolate chip cookies, +/- 500 cal

-----

WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2310

Fell asleep last night with Edie around 9pm, so this morning's happy wake up by 2 tots at 5:30am was pretty A-OK. Felt a little hungry early, which made me happy -- my cookie blow out really wasn't as bad as it could have been. Did not like that I didn't feel sore at all from yesterday's work out, gonna push up my work out from Friday to tomorrow. Ate too much at dinner and ate more cookies, but skipped Fritos to keep in a budget

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 8am, fruit smoothie, 410 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, grilled pork tenderloin, roasted broccoli & shitake mushrooms, quinoa, momma salad 730 cal 
Packed for work, but eaten at home. Won't stay fresh much longer, and I got two of these lunch-packs!

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, juice, 170 cal

PM SNACK: 5:30pm poppa salad with tahini miso, 100 cal

DINNER: 6:30 pm, 2 slices of pizza, 5 small cookie sandwiches +/-900 cal

-----

THURSDAY COUNT: 2480

Another day working from home. Edie had "graduation" with a big spread of food, then I went to Red Hook to for the final meal of the after-school high school class I taught for it's first 3 classes, and taught for the previous 6 semesters. The new chef definitely did not stress nutrition, he he.

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, steel cut oatmeal with brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon & salt, 350 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, grilled pork tenderloin, roasted broccoli & shitake mushrooms, quinoa, momma salad 730 cal 
Last of the week's lunch packs.

PM SNACK: 4pm, poppa salad with tahini miso, 100 cal

PRESCHOOL GRAD SNACK: 5:45pm, mini pizzas, bourekas, +/- 500 cal

SCHOOL DINNER: 6:45 pm, salmon, chicken, spinach salad, lasagna, banana pudding with vanilla cookies, orange soda, +/- 800 cal
Gotta admit, the food was delicious and I only finished half the huge portion the students served me. The 8oz cup of fully-leaded soda definitely left me feeling a little queasy on the bike ride home.

-----

FRIDAY COUNT: 1955

Back in the office. Nice evening with B celebrating her birthday in a married-stylee, Ethiopian food then an ice cream. 

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea, 0 cal

New batch, cold-brewed in the fridge for about 10 hours. I noticed that the packaging said the contents is good for "28 cups", which I assumed was 8oz, though I believe a standard "cup" of caffienated beverage is 6oz. Regardless, 28 8oz portions is... a little under 2 gallons. I've been making 4 gallons from the same amount. So as an experiment, I doubled up the tea, and made the $10 box make only half the quantity of the past, but it's worth to see if it was a significant change in quality.

In a word: yes. I've gotten used to weak iced tea, and to all of a sudden have a glass that is a) properly strong and b) brewed perfectly to prevent any bitter tannins, well, as I brought the first sip to my lips I was asking myself, is this good? And once it hit my mouth, sloshed for a second, then got swallowed, my mind knew it was good even before I could think the words, "Yes, this is the right way."

The tea brand I brew (Rishi) is not cheap, the inexpensive boxes are $10 and the rarer, fancier ones are close to $20. Still, even with the cost break down, my new pint of iced tea is only about 65¢, a far cry from Starbucks or the dirty water served in a diner.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, Fage whole yogurt with agave, vanilla and almonds, 325 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, chicken meatballs, johdpur lentils, steamed string beans, 430 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad and seaweed sheets, 200 cal

DINNER: 7pm, Ethiopian food, water, +/- 700 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, ice cream cone, +/- 300 cal