Blaming the Obese

I'm sure everyone has wondered at some point, "Why do people get fat?" I know I have many times. Once was at a baseball game. I was a teenager then, and I was eating a corn dog (a nasty habit I kicked not too long after I stopped using heroin).  I looked over and saw a fat guy who was eating a corn dog, too. His belly was enormous, spilling out of the bottom of his untucked blue polo shirt. He gnawed my corn dog's identical twin from under his baseball cap. I wondered why he was so fat. We ate the same. "He just eats more than me," I figured and went on with my skinny, attractive life. And since I was good looking and normal-sized, I eventually lost my virginity. But this is not letters to Playboy, and I realize I was lucky to not have y poor health show on the outside. I would find out years later what eating the same as that fat guy at the baseball game does to somebody on the inside. It's not pretty. But that is another story for another time.

We are told that obesity is the cause of disease. But what if disease is the cause of obesity?

I'm a fitness professional by trade. My occupation allows me to meet with hundreds of people every year, and find out where their heads are at when it comes to lifestyle, nutrition and exercise. Where is the average person's head? Up their ass, usually. It's not the person's fault, and I don't want to give the impression that it is. I just want to find out what they know. One thing I make sure of is to ask people to walk me through a day in their life, as if they ate and exercised perfectly, just for one day. That way I can see what someone thinks I want to hear. Unfortunately, it's usually not what I want to hear!

My wife shared Peter Attiya's TED video with me yesterday, and I watched it with my jaw on the floor. This video is a great example of exciting new ideas in the health care and health & fitness industries - two fields that traditionally have been separate, but should not be anymore.

Attiya's talk highlights unsuccessful attitudes toward weight loss. Attitudes I see every day from doomed-to-fail gym members who tell me why they are going to do exactly the same thing that didn't help them before. Attitudes I have heard from doctors and trainers and dietitians. No wonder Americans are fat, sick and confused! Not to be a spoiler, but his story about his own health was something that hit home for me. This video should motivate anyone working in health care, fitness, or dietetics to learn more about the obesity epidemic. It is a challenge to everyone to change the way we think, and to question everything we think we know. 

Sun Salutation

Winter Solstice 2013

On the darkest day of the year, we reset our karma by doing the sun salutation, or Surya Namaskar, 108 times. As we salute the sun we light a symbolic fire in our hearts and recognize fire's potential for destruction, and also creation.

Our breath mirrors the natural rhythm of the tide, changing seasons and cycles, birth, youth, maturity and death. The series of peaks an valleys in earth's geography and also a reflection of the contrast between happy and sad, tragedy and humor.

Life is one big giant yin-yang, if you think about it. The early 90s want it back. That was supposed to be funny.

Go set fire to something. Namaste.

Bulletproof Tea

Intermittent fasting is a hot topic in health and fitness right now. You may have already checked out the bulletproof executive or Precision Nutrition article on IF and Bulletproof Fasting.

But even if you haven't, check this out. Even if you would never fast, this is a tasty beverage. So point  that pinky out and get to sippin'!

If you are a fan of feeling awesome all the time and want some kind of tasty beverage (without the addictive, insulin-spiking, inflammatory effects of carbohydrate), you need to try this:

Step 1

Make tea. Pick something that is naturally caffeine-free (unless you want to be up past your bedtime). 

Step 2

Transfer your tea into a mason jar. Or something else that will work for step 4.

Step 3

Add coconut oil. Or unsalted grass-fed butter.

Step 4

Use an immersion blender to emulsify.

Step 5

Serve it like an eviction notice!

Caveman-ifesto

I was reading a blog today and came across a primal journal entry written by a young guy who is trying to live a primal lifestyle in order to balance his metabolism and lose weight.
As I read it, I thought to myself, "This is really cool in a way that is both honest and a little cheesy." I didn't use that exact wording, but you get the idea. I read on and I was a little bit humbled by the kid's honesty with himself. It is very easy to spot the mistakes of others, and it is a constant struggle to keep my world view in line with reality!
I have decided to work on a manifesto, for a couple of reasons, really. First, I love the word "manifesto." It sounds rebellious, violent, rude, communist, defiant and rock 'n roll. Makes me think if I was alive in the earlier part of the 20th century, I would have been one of those crazy bohemian pinkos making pamphlets about civil rights and hanging out with writers and musicians and other trash. I dig it. Second, a manifesto is a set of values, a code to live by. Once the mind is clear of Marxist associations, the word itself smacks of personal integrity and the desire to see the world in a state of balance. Sounds pretty cool, right?

TV serial killer Dexter Morgan has a code, a manifesto, and now so do I. Check it out:

My Caveman-ifesto
Today I will live how I am supposed to: free of B.S.
I will avoid distractions and focus on what is important.
I will create balance in my life: I will not give without taking or take without giving.

Stop spinning your wheels

There are a lot of ways to waste time, and a lot of reasons to do it. I like to waste time on weekends, when my wife and I play hooky from household chores and go on a walk instead. In pretty much all the other areas of life, making efficient use of time is important to everyone.

Think about it. If you are a typical red-blooded American, you probably wake up at the last possible second, get ready for work, microwave some sort of hot/lean/egg/meat/cheese "pocket" or stuffed toaster pastry thing and eat it in the car on your way to work, washing it down with a cup of coffee from one of those Keurig machines that people seem to love so much. Why? Because it's fast!

Maybe you go to the gym on the way home, flip the beast mode switch because if you work out harder you don't have to work for as long, right? not seeing changes yet? You are probably missing a few pieces of the puzzle. You are spinning your wheels on that one.

People don't like to waste time. I hate wasting time. I have turned away clients who refuse to commit to at least 3 months working with me. Why? Because time is the one thing we cannot get more of. Money? Sure. Friends? Unless you're a complete asshole, yes. And so on...

I have wasted plenty of time in my life. If I think about all the unproductive conversations, relationships, and jobs I have had-commitments that have gotten me nowhere-it could give even a badass like Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry or Bruce Willis in Die Hard a panic attack.

So if you are looking for shortcuts, go get some steroids, or liposuction, or T3 shots, or a fake tan, or HGH, some Adderall to wake you up and Ambien to knock you out (F.Y.I. you might kill someone in your "sleep"). The law of action-reaction boils down to one thing: there a consequences. Take steroids, grow bitch-tits. Lipo, you might die on the table or have cottage-cheese belly. Do T3, the body will reduce production and you will have to take it forever. Adderall affects norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin pathways in the brain, possibly leading to depression and adrenal fatigue. Although Ambien is "less likely" to get you hooked than pharmaceuticals like benzodiazepines, there are still unpleasant side effects that should be considered. Oh yeah, you rape and kill in your sleep. 

The only way to truly reduce the amount of guessing you need to do to get those results in the gym is to find out more about your body.

Exactly how much body fat are you burning when you ride the bike? Run? Walk? Lift weights?

How many calories do you need each day and from which sources?

Is your level of stress affecting the production of other hormones in the body?

When is cortisol highest in your body throughout the day?

How is your blood glucose affected by the meal you just ate?

Why do these things matter? That is too much for this blog post. I guess I'll just have to write a follow-up.

The point is: stop wring your time and find out what your options really are. With whatever you a struggling with.

If it is your weight, do that lab test I have been telling you about for the last few months. If it is stress, reduce it by using adaptogens like coleus forskholii and natural sedatives like valerian root and melatonin. If it is glucose, get a glucose tear and test throughout the day, log your food, compare notes with your trainer or dietitian. If it is an unproductive relationship or job, maybe stop wasting your time waiting for things to change and move on with your life. And while you're at it, stop killing people in your sleep, it's just weird!

Tanka Bar

I found a great bar for people who are following an anti-inflammatory or paleo eating strategy.
Check it out:

1:1 protein to carbs
Soy free
Gluten free
GMO free

Buffalo is the first ingredient - Do I need to keep going? It just gets better: Tanka bar is made by native americans! Hell yeah.

New Favorite Magazine

My new favorite magazine is Paleo Magazine (Wow, this is starting out like a 5th grade book report). My wife picked it up at the grocery store a few weeks ago and I have been reading it little by little ever since then. So pretty much every time I take a dump at home.

What do I like about Paleo Magazine? Here's a list:

• Citations after every article. This is not some dumbed-down word-vomit written by some bored-with-life writer who knows next to nothing about trying to live a fitness lifestyle. I can tell that each PM writer is coming from a personal place, and not compiling a haphazardly thrown together crapshoot of "expert's recommendations" that are 20 years out of date. This is the real deal, and if you don't believe it, you can look at the studies. They are right there in your face - Boom!
• Positivity. In the article Paleo is a Practice (Paleo Magazine February/March 2013), Adam Farrah lets the reader know that giving yourself slack in not only OK, it is good for you. When it comes to dealing with setbacks and bumps in the road Farrah asks these questions, "Are you an encouraging coach or a relentless bully? Are you living in the present or are you stuck resenting and replaying the past? Are you reliving your mistakes over and over in your head?" I get stuck doing that sometimes, and it never gets me anywhere! Very refreshing to read an article on a topic like that written by a man and it not come across as a total wuss-fest.
• Shopping resources and pantry lists. Complete with website info to find out where to get things, tips and tricks and things to watch out for. Very helpful.
• I just checked out the Paleo Magazine website, which is very cool despite not being completely finished (when opened, the community tab says something like "coming soon"). Big deal - I can live without want ads for kombucha cultures for a little while longer. There are lifestyle and recipe tabs that more than make up for the lack of a paleo craigslist or whatever that means.

My favorite thing about the website is this cool quadrupedal movement video workout. I love stuff like this! Check it out: http://paleomagonline.com/learning-to-crawl/
Tell me what you think!