I used to be a lot heavier. I’d say about 28 lbs heavier back in the day – “the day” being near the end of my first season on Stargate. Between all that delicious catering and all those restaurants, I really packed on the weight. At my heaviest I was a strapping 188 – as opposed to my presently lean 160. Yes, the food on set was fantastic pretty fantastic. Every lunch, we would take a walk up to the food truck where Steve would offer us a choice of three mains (including one vegetarian option) and sides. There were other goodies on the table including a bevy of delicious desserts including the daily cake or pie compliments of the amazing Anthea. We used to sit in the lunch room, eat and discuss stories after which I would retire to my office to sit and write – OR we the writers would assemble in the writers’ room where we would sit and break stories. Sometimes, if we were in prep, we would sit in the conference rooms for our various meetings. In short, a lot of delicious food. And a lot of sitting.
Back then, home cooking was as foreign to me as one of those flaming haircuts. We ate out – ALL THE TIME. The rare occasions when we ate at home were instances where we ordered in.
I’d love to say my weight loss was the result of training and discipline, a concerted effort on my part to get in shape, but in reality, my turnaround was thanks to something I call “The Snake Soup Diet”. Basically what you do is order the snake soup at the Hong Kong airport. Then, when you arrive in Japan for the second leg of your trip to Asia, you are violently ill for almost a week. By the time you get back home – miracles of miracles! – you have shed 15 lbs! At that point, all you have to do is start eating right, cut down on the desserts (maximum one per day), and work out.
Thankfully, the catering here in Toronto is truly abysmal so there’s no temptation there.
My wife, Akemi, is also an amazing cook who actually prefers to eat in (She has coined the phrase “deliciously happy”). Being Japanese, she tends to prefer fish and seafood and generally steers clear of frying as a preparation.
Lunches are my big meals while dinner’s are light, usually comprised of oatmeal, fruit, and all-natural peanut butter. And always done before 6:30 p.m
I’m also on a fairly regular workout regimen – about 45 minutes every morning, cardio and weights. Again, I’d love to chalk it up to my commitment to getting healthy but, really, the reason I am able to get down to the gym every morning is my recent discovery of kpop. I just pop in my earphones, turn on my kpop playlist (now up to 103 songs), and hit the treadmill.
Granted, my lifestyle could be healthier. I am still a sucker of fried chicken sandwiches. And some may consider my strict one-dessert-a-day (more or less but sometimes slightly more) a little indulgent (especially since mocha’s don’t count), but I’m pretty pleased with my long game.
Now if I could only apply some of that discipline to studying Japanese.
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