Kind of racing related as our overall health can affect our competitiveness, or even our ability to compete.

Seems kind of silly that I wait until almost 50 to try to figure out how to take care of myself from a food perspective. But for the first half of my life, I could eat anything and be fit and trim due to the lifestyle I had and athletics.
But...things change. As my career has progressed, I am at a desk a lot more. I find myself on bleachers watching instead of on the court or track when it comes to sports. Time seems to be more precious than ever, and my drive to stay in shape more limited every year. So now I carry 10-20 lbs more than I should...and it is getting more difficult to limit it to that much. I am pushing to do at least SOME exercise. So that part I am working on.

The part I am struggling with is eating right. He11 I don't even know what right is. I have dabbled with the Keto diet, somewhat successfully. I'm not sure that anything in life improved except for the 10 lbs I lost. I didn't really feel better, even though my blood pressure did drop measurably. As an older parent, I need to get some mileage out of this body if I am going to be around for corrupting grand children. And of course I need to stay sharp at the track. I have found it less and less fun running my car and helping my son with his jr on race day. It's more work than my body wants, and it tells me big time Monday morning after a racing weekend with both cars.

I hear about plant based diets. Frankly I don't think I could enjoy life that way. Meat is ingrained in all enjoyable parts of my life. But if I needed to reduce, I could. All meat and protein wasn't all that enjoyable long term for me either. Counting calories isn't fun, but I can do it.

But with a crazy busy life, how do you eat "right"? Straight from work to a track meet or basketball game until 8:00? Regular thrashes on the race cars after work to get ready for the weekend? Both adults in the household having busy and demanding careers? Just making meals is challenging. Let along making something healthy. Or even knowing what healthy is. What should we consider processed? Ground beef? Geeze that's kind of a staple for us.

What do you guys eat trying to stay healthy? Looking for food ideas, plans, suggestions....whatever. Heck diets too if you want. There are so many differing ideas about this subject. I just need to be reasonable it seems. Amounts and quality.

I am not super strict about anything but I almost never eat fast food and don't drink pop unless there is booze in it, which also isn't too often.

I find it easier to just always try to skew on the healthier side rather than sticking to a very strict or specific diet.

Lenny knows! A "diet" is not the answer! One must change his habits/lifestyle. If you want to be a healthy thin person then you must do what a healthy thin person does (Captain Obvious!). As Julia Child said: "Everything in moderation, I say - even excess! You can splurge every once in a while."

There is a book out there called “eat this not that” No diet, just gives you healthy alternatives to things you already eat. Very interesting read and it does work.

Plant base is very good idea,you don’t need to stop eating meat. Best if 75% of your meals is plant based, I grill most My vegetables for flavor using a grill rub. And also est a lot of salads , easy on the dressings. I’ll even do a great barbecue salad with chicken. Best thing is to stay away from sugar , bread and pasta or any other starches . I eat This way because I have a major medical problem, but with this diet still able to race have fun and live a long life I hope!!!

Bucky, I really don't have any recommendations for you because I am almost the exact opposite. I don't much care for food as a whole. I eat to live not live to eat, so I don't know if I'm eating healthy or not. I do not eat red meat at all anymore, I can,t even look at a burger. We'll fix a big pork roast for Sunday dinner every once in a while, but chicken is my staple. I do like green veggies, hot and cold, and I drool over a good chef salad. In fact salad is my favorite food group.But, unlike Nick, I'm not easy on the dressing. A fridge pack of soda lasts me a year. This is just my personal lifestyle, good luck with yours.

For health reasons I too eat clean...easiest advice is to stay away from anything "white"...this means pasta, bread, rice, etc...obviously very little sweets...liquor is sugar...meats should be very lean, stay with chicken, turkey, pork and fish mostly with lots of veggies...healthy snacks as well...

In other words, low carb, low fat eating...some folks have a "cheat" day once a week...splurging every now and then is fine...

I weighted 300 lbs on 1/2/19. I'm 39 and felt like i could have wrestled a bear at 300. My story = I had already cut out sodas out of my diet. I started slow and at first cut out my very god breakfast biscuit from the store or McDonalds. I replaced it with oatmeal at home with peanut butter and assorted nuts in it. After i got control of breakfast that i started going to BBQ place more often for lunch and eating just meat, half chicken or Half slab of ribs. A month of so later i moved on to supper and we cook or eat out with more meat and finally i quit bread. I'm not super strick with myself. I also quit my sugary Starbucks and ice cream and candy that i often eat. During this i have slowly quit most all fried foods. I am down to 256 this morning. I also fit way better in my 22in cage dragster. NOT going to afford a 24-25 cage just because i'm a fat butt. I also slowly have been working out and walking. Very simple stuff. If i tried to do this overnight i would have been a complete failure. Maybe this helps, good luck.

That's pretty great!
I can't complain. it's my fault I got here, and I'm not that bad at 231 at around 6.3". And pushing 50. But not in the shape I would like for being comfortably efficient. Time to crack down a little bit.
Great advice all!