EUGENIZATION.

So it happened to you again; through circumstances out of your control, you’re being pulled in a thousand different directions, everyone urgently needs your attention, and before you know it it’s time for lunch and you’ve only got 5 minutes to eat and run.

What do you eat?

If you’ve got a ready answer, then kudos to you. Most people are confronted with this situation day after day and are seemingly powerless against it. As with most problems of diet, a little judicious planning will be the solution.

Once you’re stuck in the situation, there’s little hope. At that point only two options are available to you: Either you forego fueling altogether or you pick the closest, most convenient thing, whether that’s a snack from the vending machine or a pile of Nathan’s hot dogs randomly piled up on your desk.

The solution is to plan for this situation by making the best choices available to you and by taking your emotions out of the equation by creating a decision-making matrix - which in this case, is a small wallet-sized card with 4 choices on it.

During a non-harried time in your day, think about your personal food preferences and select 4 foods that are easily obtained. It should go without saying that these foods should support your goals, be it fat loss, muscle gain, etc. List these foods on a small wallet-sized card (the back of a business card works great) and keep it with your wallet or purse (or whatever you keep your money in).

For example, my card says:

Almonds
Chicken Breast
Tuna (no mayo)
Burger (no bun)

Please note that none of these foods are things that I particularly love eating (if I had my choice i’d prefer others) but all are foods that:

1. Are easily obtained - I can get any of the above at a neighborhood deli (and being NYC-based, there’s at least two delis on each block).
2. Align properly with my fitness goals - to stay reasonably healthy and lean.
3. Contain enough calories to sate me (for a little while, at least) and are foods that I’d normally eat anyway.

If I’m ever in a pinch (say, hypothetically, after jiujitsu practice and I have 15 minutes to get uptown and I know I need to fuel up), I simply run into a deli, choose one item from the list and eat it. No muss, no fuss. And if I don’t feel like I can stomach another piece of chicken ever again? No problem, since I have 3 other options to choose from.

A great way to fail at this exercise is to select foods that you think you should be eating but never eat. If you think you need more Omega 3 fatty acids but the mere thought of a sardine gives you fits, do yourself a favor and don’t put sardines on your list.

Once you’ve made up your list, place it in your money receptacle of choice and refer to it whenever you have a “5 minute moment.”