Sunday Story...Skinny, Fat, Fit, and Healthy

Sunday Story…Skinny, Fat, Fit, and Healthy

You can’t Exercise your way Skinny and You can’t Eat your way Fit.
There I have said it.
For those of you out there who think you can just do a few more push-ups, run a few more miles, and do another round or two on the human hamster wheel and it will allow you to eat all the pizza, doughnuts and junk food, drink all the beer and soda you want…You are very wrong. AND if you fall into the camp that thinks all you have to do is “watch” your diet and eat “clean” and you will end up in good shape…You are also very wrong.

There are 3 things you must do to do be fit.
1. Exercise
2. Eat
3. Rest
That’s it, that is all there is.

I could stop writing this now but I won’t. If you have been paying attention you should be up on my thoughts on all three of those things. I am going to repeat some of them now. Before I do though, here is a bit more on the genesis of how I got to this place.

At age 34 I began to realize that I was in pretty bad shape. Not 100 pounds overweight bad but bad nonetheless. I looked at a picture of myself at a friend’s wedding and I was “jowly”. My chin was disappearing. I could still throw 100 pound hay bales around, ride, and do most of the things I wanted to do but I was definitely slower and heavier. I still smoked, drank and ate the standard American diet (SAD) which was full of crap (calorie rich and pathetic).

I started Martial arts training in TaeKwon-Do. Then to get more flexible I realized I needed to be stronger so I started “working out”. I hired a personal trainer. He taught me a lot about exercising, lifting weights and the like. His nutrition advice was to eat boiled chicken breast and rice, take some protein shake supplements, and creatine. I think he was a former steroid user and it certainly worked for him btu that wasn’t a path I was going to go down. I got bigger and stronger but not more flexible and I got slower and less agile. So I started running and, like Forrest Gump, I didn’t stop. I ran 50 mile races and totally immersed myself in the culture. Until I started blowing up my knees. And I got weaker and although I could run 50 miles and barely get my heart rate above 130bpm I really wasn’t in great shape. I ate a lot of pasta and other high carb foods to keep my energy levels up. I didn’t have 6 pack abs and I really didn’t have the kind of flexibility and agility I thought an athlete should have. But I could run. And I could roll on the mat for long periods but I was slow and my body was breaking down in ways that were very un-enjoyable. Age I was told, it’s inevitable.

Well, my friends, that’s a diagnosis I was not going to accept. It was obvious that being big and muscular wasn’t answer and being an endurance freak wasn’t either. Eating boiled chicken and rice was boring and carb loading on pasta was making me fat. So I needed to find the middle ground. And that puts us here, where we are today. And today I am 163# at 5’9” with a body fat percentage well under 10% (which means I have the working of a 6-pack) and I feel more flexible and agile than ever. Still working on the speed though!

Exercise
You must go hard, petal to the metal, all out. Work out hard enough that your heart is in your throat, your lungs are burning and when you are finished you are Done. Pick up heavy stuff and move it, quickly. Go fast if you run, swim, row, jump rope, or ? No treadmill, no elliptical, no stationary bike to zone out on. Do the basics…pull-ups, pushups, sit ups, squats but do them in different ways using different planes of movement. Be completely absorbed by your regimen while you are doing it. Change it all the time. Learn new stuff. Stretch your muscles often and work on your range of motion issues. Walk places, park your car at the far end of the parking lot, take the stairs every time you can, ride a bike just to ride it, take a walk with your family and talk about whatever there is to talk about.

Eat
Put natural food in your body. Eat all the vegetables you want. Lean protein from animals raised in a natural environment. A little fruit once in a while some seeds and nuts occasionally. If it requires processing in a factory before you can eat it…don’t. This means everything in a box or a package…everything. If the list of ingredients is longer than 3 or 4 things and includes any words you don’t know the meaning of don’t eat it. Broccoli has no ingredient list. Pasta does. Bread does. No sugar. Stop eating dairy…I know I love cheese too but it is not good for you. Stop eating grains…your digestive system cannot process them in a healthy way. Both dairy and grains have anti-nutrients built into them to help Mother Nature not human beings. Eat fat in the form of avocadoes, olives, flax seed oil, fish oil, coconut, and more. Fat is healthy and good for you provided it comes from the right places. If you must supplement, supplement don’t replace. Quit trying to solve all your boo-boos with natural remedies and pharmaceuticals…most of your problems are solve able or at least manageable through proper diet (including ADD, ADHD, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and a host of others).

Rest
Get some sleep. If you aren’t sleeping well see the diet first. Then turn the noise off…the TV, the cell phone, etc. Take a half hour before you go to bed and wind down by reading inspirational stuff or meditating. Sleep in a dark room. Wear socks. Keep the heat down in the room where you sleep. Get up at the same time every morning (this will force you to go bed when you are ready). Drink less liquid right before retiring. If you eat before bed eat very light. Do things everyday to manage stress…meditate, tai chi, breathe, exercise, eat right. Cut down/cut out caffeine…it produces more stress and doesn’t help you sleep.

As you can see a lot of this advice flies in the face of “conventional” wisdom. It also flies in the face of what we have been told by people we thought should know and should have our best interests at heart (the government, the doctors, the food companies). Guess what? You are responsible for your health. You, not me, not the government, not your M.D., not some big corporate conglomerate…YOU. If you want to thrive and be fit, that is. If you just want to exist and wonder why, at age 65, you have a lineup of little brown bottles that are keeping the pain wolves away, and causing side effect after side effect don’t do anything I am saying. It is a certain future.

For myself, at almost 55, I am fitter than I have ever been since high school and maybe better than that. I am more flexible and agile than I have been in 30 years. I am not as fast as I was 40 years ago and yes my knees still pain me. I love my food and when I eat something that isn’t on the prescribed list I savor and enjoy every bite. I sleep well.

Come join the revolution…you’ll be glad you did!


Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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