Q: Great site by the way. I've looked at your articles and read many of the questions people have put to you. Keep up the good work. Being an average 'Joe' with Bills to pay, fitting a healthy lifestyle with a combination of wanting to loose fat, then ultimately to build some upper power strength, I wonder how people manage to do it. My gym is usually too busy to go after work, thus I go in the morning before work. As per your suggestion, to eat before a workout I would need to wake up about 5:30am-6am. (I'm sure sleep is just as important :) ) I am usually there approx. 1 hour, in order to leave for 8am. Also the practicalities of having at least 5 well prepared, what seems, warm meals per day during office hours would be a stretch. Is the issue more to do with diet and workout preparation for my current lifestyle (and maybe others) or the inability to find time in today's society? I'm aware this may be a question that exceeds your normal Q+A. Your thoughts and advice from the above would be greatly appreciated.

A: You are certainly correct: fitting all the fitness requirements into a single day is not an easy task! I think for most people diet becomes the biggest problem. Finding 2-5 hours per week to exercise should be possible for almost anyone (though, yes, sleep is important too!) but preparing and eating 5 or more complete healthy meals every day can be quite a challenge. This is where you may have to make some compromises...

Best option is quick, on-the-go meals that you prepare at home, take with you to work, and chow down in under 5 minutes. This usually means sandwiches of some sort of another. Start with two slices of whole-wheat bread for carbs, use either lean chicken breast, tuna, or sliced hard-boiled eggs or egg whites for protein, and regular mayo or perhaps a slice of cheese for fats. Add to that some lettuce, sliced tomatoes, pickles and ketchup/mustard and you have a pretty decent meal with about the right amounts of protein, carbs, and fats. It doesn't even absolutely require a refrigerator to keep or a microwave to heat (though veggies do get soggy when not refrigerated). If you are trying to lose fat and can't afford to have too much carbs you can choose very low-calorie breads that are now available or perhaps use large lettuce leafs as a wrap.

Option two is good for somebody who really doesn't care about the look of the food too much as long as it's good for you... Simply mix water, whey protein powder, plain old-fashioned oats (precooked, if time allows), and maybe some natural peanut butter in a bottle and take it with you. When the time comes to eat simply gulp it down. If you use pre-cooked oatmeal, then the consistency shouldn't be too bad and the taste might actually be decent with chocolate-flavored whey protein and some peanut butter. This is also a complete meal. This would be my ideal 'weight gainer' -- much better than any commercial weight gainer powder you could buy.

Another option is to not have complete meals every time. A handful of dry-roasted nuts and/or a piece of fruit will provide healthy calories in a very easy and quick meal. It won't have quite as much protein as you would ideally like, but it's not a bad compromise once or even twice a day as long as you get plenty of protein in other meals.

Finally you can always start using protein meal-replacement bars. I am not a fan of these but are certainly better than missing meals. There are kinds that are low in carbs which makes them good choices when losing fat and there are kinds rich in carbs (unfortunately too often the wrong kind of carbs) which are OK on a bulk. A carb-rich kind can also be a decent morning pre-workout meal -- it's fast and will provide the calories you need to have a good workout session.

So it's all a matter of compromising and finding foods and meals that work for you. You may not have the ideal diet, but it'll certainly be good enough to make progress without creating so much hassle that it interferes with your everyday life.