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Mr. Sciborski’s Lunch
List of posts in Useful Advice I Ignored When I Was Fat
- Training Advice from Oz’s Adebisi
- Mr. Sciborski’s Lunch
Yesterday, a bunch of colleagues from my department had a nice retirement luncheon for Mr. Rod Sciborski.
Besides the fact that Rod’s an all-around great guy, he is an avid carpenter who loves to build furniture. He showed me a picture of his most recent treasure: a mahogany coffee table that shows incredible craftsmanship.
Rod has even built two or three of the lecterns that are still being used in some of the classrooms at my college. One is in the classroom that I use this semester, and it was a pleasure telling my students who made the lectern …
However, Rod’s great carpentry skills is not the reason I’ve included him in this series of post.
The lesson that I finally learned from Rod is the importance of portion control and bringing your own lunch to work!
Rod is a tall (around 6’3), slender man, who has the type of build that makes him look great in slacks, jeans, or just a pair of cargo shorts.
Before I started my fat loss journey, we would always tease each other about how one had a physical trait that the other wished they had.
Rod always told me that he wished he had my broad shoulders; unfortunately, a lot of the bulk I had in my shoulders at the time was fat 
When he said this, I would always tell him that I wished that I had his height.
Even though I’m 6’0 (with my shoes on), I’ve always wanted to be 6’2 or 6’3. I don’t know, maybe it’s because my brothers are 6’1 and 6’3, and I hate feeling like the runt of the bunch.
However, the most striking physical feature about Rod is that for the 11 years I’ve been teaching at my little community college, his weight has remained constant.
And when I say constant, I mean this guy probably weighs the same today that he did the day I was hired!
Everyday, I would watch my erect and lean colleague come to work with a small brown bag. After a couple of years, I was able to guess what Rod had brought for lunch – yogurt, fruit, or a “regular” sized sandwich, not the Dagwood specials folks make today.
I would walk past his office and just shake my head because he was so consistent with what he ate for lunch. Even when we would have the annual Christmas party in our department, you didn’t see Rod piling his plate to the sky with food.
He would always get a modest amount of food and be satisfied. But, there had to be more to how he stayed so slim.
Most of the secretaries in the department would say that he just has good genes and that he could eat anything and still stay slender. Of course this didn’t make sense to me, so I decided to have a chat with him.
I asked Rod about his eating habits and if he did any exercise to stay in shape. To my surprise, he told me that he walked 30-45 minutes on a treadmill 5-6 days a week. It was part of his nightly routine before going to bed.
Also, he said that he has never been a really big eater. So, a small lunch was more than enough for him.
Hell, he’d been carrying his lunch to work for so long that he actually forgot when he started!
In 2003, when I finally decided that it was time to lose the chub, I knew that eating in the school’s cafeteria or going to one of the neighboring fast food joints had to stop because I would always eat more food than I needed.
So, I just took a page out of my old friend Rod’s book and started to bring my lunch to work everyday. I can proudly say that I’ve been carrying my lunch to work for more than 5 years now, and I owe it to the example that Rod set for me.
Now, when I sit down to eat my lunch, I usually think about Rob while I’m eating my yogurt (usually Greek) and eating a piece of fruit or string cheese.
After seeing how great he still looks in his 60s, I don’t think I’m going to be changing up my lunch routine any time soon.
Rod thanks for setting a great example my friend, and please enjoy being retired . . .
Don’t worry, I’ll be over to have that beer we talked about yesterday
March 10th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Sounds like your friend practices the “uniform eating” concept that Clarence Bass advocates. It’s probably easier to control calories if you’re consistent with what you eat each instead of whipping up something new all the time.
I agree about taking your own lunch, though I don’t do it as often as I should. If you eat out a lot, even if you special order things, the people making the food are usually hard-wired into preparing food a certain way and often disregard your requests. Human nature can be a difficult thing to overcome.
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Muata Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Hey Steve! Yeah, it appears that when there’s an approach that is effective, successful folks usually use it. Elder Bass is a phenomenal example of this. As far as you taking your lunch to work, is the problem that you don’t have time in the morning? I used to really have this problem too when I would cook my food for lunch. Now, since I eat the majority of my calories for dinner, I simply throw a piece of fruit, yogurt or cottage cheese, celery or carrot sticks, and some string cheese in my lunch bag, and I’m out the door. The simpler I make my choices for lunch, the faster I can pack it. Thanks for leaving a comment …
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March 10th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Great example from outside the world of fat loss/fitness gurus.
We are all products of our training.I read and hear all the crap about how our obesity is because the “poor” folks can only afford to eat fast food. The reality is we eat way too much because food is cheap–I eat 2.6 oz of tuna, 14 trisquits and an apple every day for lunch—cost around $2.75.
Rod and Grandpa are examples of eating to fuel ourselves.
A Cowboy from Texas
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Muata Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 10:41 am
I hear you Bill. Yes, while the dollar menus at fast food places make getting food easier and cheaper, it doesn’t mean that you have to eat 5 double cheeseburgers in one sitting because it only cost you 5 bucks! Yes, Rod and your Grandpa knew what they were doing when they eat food for fuel and not to see how much their bellies can hold
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March 10th, 2010 at 11:35 am
What a great post. First, I liked the sentimentality.
Second, I liked the universality: I stand somewhere between 5’6 and 5’7, and would trade places with a 6-footer in a heartbeat. Everyone always wants to be someone else, right? Third, and most importantly, it is *hard* in our society to try and be social and go to functions where fun is put in front of us. I’ve tried the “strategy” of eating ahead of time so I won’t get hungry – all that usually means is I end up eating twice, in all candor. Fourth, and as noted in the comments above, is the role of discipline and simply inculcating good habits to the point that they become second nature. I, for one, went to the gym (not my CrossFit one) yesterday, and realized once more that I haven’t made going to the gym second nature yet. Somewhere along the way, it did for my father – he exercised compulsively, and while he doesn’t go to the gym anymore, he still bikes quite a bit. More to the point, I think you need exterior incentives to inculcate a habit, at least initially. For my Dad, going to the gym was a social endeavor as well as a physical one – it’s where he made and kept a lot of friendships. It’s sort of what I’m trying to achieve with CrossFit. Maybe what I’m trying to say is there are two elements to good habits: acquiring them, and keeping them, and acquiring them may require extra incentives.
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March 10th, 2010 at 11:40 am
I actually forgot a good example. I have pursued a martial art for over four years now. It has become, simply, habit – so much so that when I had to take on a networking event next Thursday in place of my martial arts class, it felt almost sacrilegious. Your post made me wonder, how did attending martial arts every Thursday night become an almost unbreakable commitment (truly)? I think there’s no question that I enjoy the class material, enjoy the class content, and think it’s both practical and useful to know (although thankfully I’ve never had to use it). But what really hooked me, I think, is our beer and pizza nights. What made a habit a habit was the merger of fun with work, to the point that I now disregard the work and just block it out, becomes I’m anticipating the fun so much (even if class isn’t fun, other words, beer and pizza will be). Now I know this isn’t the ideal story, because beer and pizza aren’t good for Big Dawgs, but it illustrates perhaps a larger point: if you want to start a good habit, at least initially, build some fun into it, somehow.
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Muata Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
JW, thanks for your comments. You had me laughing a wee bit too loud 2 work after I read, “I’ve tried the “strategy” of eating ahead of time so I won’t get hungry – all that usually means is I end up eating twice, in all candor.” Man, I’ve done that more than enough times. I couldn’t agree with you more about the “fun” factor in your training because it IS important. Listen JW, if going out with your fellow Martial Artists makes keeps you going back after 4 years, then it’s just a matter of you not overdoing it when you go out with them. You can continue to lose fat even if you have a beer or two and a slice or two of pizza a week. Just make sure that you don’t overdo it, and you’ll be able to keep enjoying the martial art and the social support you get, especially when you guys go out
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March 10th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
“You can continue to lose fat even if you have a beer or two and a slice or two of pizza a week.”
Funny, my brother is a huge jock (since he was five until he finished intercollegiate sports). He’s worked out everyday since he was a freshman in high school, more or less, and is used to – and has no problem with – getting up at 5:00 (!) to go to the gym. If he’s not lifting, he’s running; if he’s not running, he’s lifting. His warmup is, as the saying goes, honestly often my workout. Anyways, last weekend, I was regretting that I had eaten, or was going to have to eat, something or some amount that was unhealthy. His response was the same as yours: “You’re doing the right things, eating the right way, exercising, you’re on the right track, this isn’t a big deal.” Nice advice and reassurance to get.
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Muata Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Hey, you’re brother’s right! Sometimes on our journey, we focus so much on what we did wrong than “accentuating the positives” of what we’ve done. Think of it this way. If you are in a calorie deficit 6 out of 7 days in a week, the one day that you eat a couple of slices of pizza and down a couple of beers will not upset the proverbial apple cart JW. With nutrition or training, it’s all about being consistent more times than you’re not.
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March 10th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Yes. When you bring your lunch, you know exactly what you will and will not eat all day. The only thing left is to stay away from vending machines.
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Muata Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 11:03 am
You’re right about that Frank, and I usually shake my head when I walk by them because there was a time, especially in grad school, that I would mindlessly buy candy bars from vending machines. Man, I can remember working on a paper and not even remembering how I ended up in front of the candy vending machine
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March 10th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Hi Muata,
When they took out the free coffee at work 10 year ago I started bringing my own lunch and thermos – that was the one time of the day I controlled my portion size. However when I got home near the fridge – I made up for it.
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Muata Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 11:04 am
LOL! That’s too funny John. Yeah, it’s really important to make sure that your fridge isn’t loaded with the stuff that you’re avoiding at work.
Thanks for leaving a comment …
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March 11th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I am becoming one of those guys that can eat the same thing everyday with the food/fuel concept. I was wondering, what does your typical dinner menu looks like these days?
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Muata Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hey Javier, my typical dinner is usually some sort of meat and vegetables. Nothing exotic or out of the ordinary. Actually, I love when my wife makes meatloaf because she puts mixed veggies in it, and I’m in heaven. But, Javier, you have to find out the foods that you enjoy eating, and if you’re trying to lose fat, simply start by eating less of the foods you like, even if it’s fast food. There’s no magic way of eating no matter how many internet “gurus” want you to believe that their “diet” is the answer. No, I simply focus on eating whole foods, with a minimum of processed stuff. Above all, I’m very conscious of my portion sizes because that’s the real key to losing fat and keeping it off. Thanks for your comment …
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March 11th, 2010 at 10:25 am
What is reason you eat your biggest meal of the day at dinner? For some reason I always thought people were supposed to eat their biggest meal for lunch.
Great post by the way.
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Muata Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 11:14 am
JC, I’m glad that you liked the post. The reason my biggest meal is dinner is because I usually have chocolate milk (2% milk + chocolate protein powder) for my first meal since I train in the morning and don’t have time to eat real food before going to work. While at work, I usually eat some yogurt, fruit, cheese, and nuts because I don’t like feeling weighed down during the middle of the work day. So, when I get home, I’m actually looking forward to having a nice sized dinner of meat and veggies while being a couch potato with my family
Now, I could try and sell you on the idea that this is the way that our paleolithic ancestors and how modern day hunters and gathers eat, but the truth is JC, I simply like eating this way. Experiment with what works for you. Hell, you may find that eating lunch as your biggest meal actually works for you, and if it does–go for it my friend! Thanks for leaving a comment …
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September 1st, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Great running into your blog. I’ve always been the athletic type and I go to the gym and play sports religiously. That’s always been the easy part. Food was another story. Only recently have I really started to watch what I ate, how much of it I ate, how frequently I ate it. And that has made a complete difference in my physique on top of the training I was already doing. I’ve been keeping it up. I’m in the best shape of my life. It’s just that eating the same old stuff gets..well..old! Also, portion control is tough at times. Even for good, clean food. Sometimes I just want to be a tad more than just satisfied. I’ve been disciplined. It’s just that it is quite a struggle at times. What’s your take on this?
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