If you have skin in the game and are conducting your own N=1
experiment to reach 100 years with good health, who would you bet on,
Cruise or Ritchson?
My wife doesn’t like to watch Tom Cruise & I admit he’s a cocky, little
SOB, but in general (Top Gun aside, which is too much fantasy for a
submariner, watch Hunt for Red October instead) I like the little fella,
especially in his Reacher flicks. So, one night in Barcelona when we
weren’t at a flamenco tablao, we put on the new Reacher series from
Amazon.
Not bad, but I couldn’t fully enjoy the fantasy. Oddly enough, what was
most jarring, more than the usually implausible and convoluted Reacher
plots, and what jolted me out of the suspension of disbelief required to
watch cartoons for adults was the blatant candy & cereal advertisement
placements. It seems that the food processing industry found the perfect
vehicle to penetrate into the dark heart of action movie fans.
Oh, some will wax poetic about the deep symbology of Clark Candy
bars and their linkage with military life. , OK then, bring on Ancel Keys &
K-rations, Camel cigarettes & Zippo lighters, … if nostalgia is your thing. 1 2
& What’s up with Neagley’s sugar-loaded breakfast cereal fetish?
Another throwback to a dysfunctional childhood leaving her marred with
haphephobia [fear of being touched or touching others]? 34
IMHO, candy bars & cereals as symbols of endurance are only toxic
images of blood glucose swings, from sugar high to low, from euphoria to
depression, —a destructive cycle of dependency. A pathetic metaphor
for the sweetness of love missing in life, but the worst possible symbol for
stability & worst relationship: addiction.
I guess it just boils down to junk food versus whole food and how cheat
days fit into your lifestyle. But there are some drawbacks. You can love
Bruce Lee and Muhammed Ali, they were metabolically fit at the height of
their careers. But can you sustain that high level of performance on junk
food?
The hype:
«“To Reacher, a calorie is a calorie, it doesn't matter if it comes from fat
or sugar, Reacher will eat anything that works for him."
-"I eat whatever the hell I want, and I'm not kidding. I eat the healthiest
when I'm on set, because I have somebody cooking for me."
-"I want 22 seasons of Reacher. I want to be 100 years old and still playing
Reacher."
-"This is the thing; people will be like 'oh, he eats whatever he wants.
When I go into that gym, I'm like, 'I deserve to die for how I've eaten,' so
I'm going to try to work myself to death. What I would love to find in my life
is a balance, where I kind of eat healthy and then don't have to work
quite as hard. But I'm not doing it yet. I like cookie dough too much.”» 5
Myth Busting: «Ritchson follows a 4500–calorie per day diet plan to sustain muscle mass
and includes a minimum of 300 grams protein in his diet. ...
He relies solely on nutrient-rich natural whole foods like rice, meat, eggs,
vegetables and fruits. The diet is balanced in terms of macronutrient
intake and includes healthy amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats.
...It is nearly impossible for a busy individual to stick to a stringent diet like
this on his own for eight full months without falling off the wagon.
Therefore, Alan Ritchson was assigned an assistant to help him with meal
prep and dietary requirements.
... Alan Ritchson likes to enjoy a little bit as well. Unlike a lot of celebrities
that demonize eating for fun, Ritchson indulges in his favorite foods every
now and then. However, it solely depends upon the phase of his fitness
journey. While cutting, Ritchson has no room for cheat meals and
indulgent foods. When he is bulking up and has to gain weight, the 40-
year-old does not mind adding cheat meals to up the caloric intake.
However, he follows the 80-20 principle where 80 percent of calories
come from a clean and whole food diet while 20 percent comes from
cheat meals.» 6
« “I'm wearing a lot of weight for the role of Reacher,” he [Alan Ritchson]
said, explaining that he weighs somewhere between 240 and 245 pounds
during filming, and that this makes cardio activity considerably more
difficult for him. "The lung capacity feels like I just can't keep up. I did sprints this morning and it's just amazing I'm really winded. I'm trying to get a lot of oxygen to a
lot of muscles... If I'm climbing up a hill, it's a little bit like doing lunges for 20
minutes straight. For most people, throw 280 on your shoulders and do 20
minutes of lunges, your muscles are going to explode.
You've got to make adjustments when you're wearing this kind of size.”
Of course, you don't pack on that much mass without increasing your
food intake, and Ritchson stated that he's currently eating “just shy of
4,000 calories a day” to stay so big—but that comes with its own potential
disadvantages.
“If I stop working out for a little bit, and I'm still on that, I've trained my
body to eat 4,000 calories a day, it would take me about three weeks to
blow up,” he said. “So it does take a lot of consistency. I work out about
five days a week. It's got to be a lifestyle.”» 7
& Then there’s Cruise: 8
1. He eats grilled foods.
2. He skips the carbs.
3. He avoids sugar.
So, “jocked up & jacked down?”
Hrvoje Milakovic (12 Jan 2024) Reacher: Here’s What Clark Bar Means and How It Is Connected to Roscoe; Nate Fowles (8 Feb 2022) Clark bar featured on new ‘Reacher’ Amazon series
Yes, I know, the actress is a proclaimed Vegan