Tag Archives: diet

The top 7 training tips for 2012

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Just wanted to take a moment and share some thoughts and observations here at the beginning of 2012, that might help to guide you in your fitness pursuits this year.

1. Fitness is not Health
This has been said so many times and in so many ways it seems like old news – which is even more reason to say it again. I was reminded of this old rule watching Dan John’s “Intervention” DVD series recently.

Fitness means being fit to do a certain thing. Health means optimal functioning of the body. They are not the same. People can be extremely fit for certain tasks (and in very different ways) and not healthy at all. Think, powerlifter, or football linebacker. Very fit (for their respective tasks), not necessarily very healthy. Keep these separated when planning your training.

2. “Cardio” is not “Cardio”
This time of year, most people are asking me the best way to lose fat and tone up. “Cardio” is not it.

Traditional “cardio” (jogging, running, etc.) focuses on local muscular endurance in a few muscles. That’s what creates the “cardio” demand. Your muscles need oxygen. Heart, lungs, and veins deliver.

Bodyweight training circuits will deliver the same effect, while creating a greater demand on muscle groups, which will increase calories burned over time, and improve strength (BONUS!).
Using more muscles to create more cardiovascular demand = increased cardiovascular fitness and increased muscular fitness.
My favorite short workout is still the 5-minute Burpee Challenge. If you have a bar available, add a pullup on the up phase of the jump, and a straight leg raise when you get to the bottom of the pullup. I.e.:
squat down
kick legs back
do a pushup
bring legs back up under you
jump up in the air
do a pullup (or muscle-up if you can)
come down to hanging and do a straight leg raise
drop to ground
repeat

Could you do this workout everyday? Sure. Will you?…

PS…if you’re scared of that one, try a simpler 5-minute workout – jump rope continuously for five minutes.

3. Fitness is Simple (not easy)
The physiology of fitness is simple. Upset the homeostatic balance of the body by doing work of a certain type. Allow for the body to recover. Introduce a greater stimulus than last time. Recover, repeat.

What’s most important? Very simple things. See the diagram below from the IAAF:

Focus on the three main attributes 80% of the time, and their intersections 20% of the time.

Pushups or bench press or shot put? Running or jumping rope or rowing or spin-class? Yoga or hot yoga or shadow yoga or pilates or barre method? All exercises within any given “category” affect the same systems, with slightly different emphasis.

For instance, is it possible to do pushups that demand (and generate) “max strength” (i.e. 1-5 rep range)? Of course. For many people, a quality standard pushup will be a max-strength effort. If a quality stand pushup is too easy (meaning, you can do more than 1-5 repetitions), try elevating your feet. If that’s too easy, try 1-arm pushups.

What’s your relative level of ability in the Big Three (Max Strength, Speed, Aerobic Endurance)?

2012 is the perfect time to work on your weak-spots.

4. Diet is Simple (not easy)
Eat real food that’s bioregion-specific.

Need more detail? Go to your local farmer’s market or visit a farm or three. Read the book “Plenty.”

Use the interweb for something other than Angry Birds – find the farms within 200 miles of your home and eat from them for 80% of your food. Grow food at home. Cook simply with delicious ingredients.

5. Health and Fitness are a Personal Path
To paraphrase my friend Scott Phillips – “Any fitness path/system works.” It’s a matter of finding the one that resonates and sticking with it.

Want to “get in shape” – i.e. change your shape to another shape? You’ll have to find a reason that’s compelling enough to continue over time. Forever.

I met someone recently who “used to do Crossfit.” They even continued for a while after recovering from a shoulder dislocation (sustained doing Olympic lifts). But then, the magic faded, and now, they’re looking around again (and “out of shape”).
As Su Dong Chen says – “Seek possibilities, avoid seeking limits.”
Whatever floats your boat is great. Just make sure it isn’t the same thing that’s going to sink your boat. And, as Eben Pagan says “No matter how far you’ve gone down the wrong road – turn back.”

Shameless self-promotion – I’ll be releasing a new e-book shortly that will be a program anyone can follow for as long as they live that will continually create improvement over time. Buy it.

6. Health and Fitness are Culturally-Bound
If you know me, you’ve been waiting for this one. Not only are definitions of “health” and “fitness” culturally bound and determined, but the way those things are enacted are similarly so.

Recognize that your concept of the possibilities or limitations of your ability come from your larger culture (for instance, the US culture, which is largely capitalistic, mechanistic, reductionist, Protestant Christian, conservative, and detached from nature or natural cycles (and detached generally)), your individual culture (your “social circle” and family), and your internal culture (your own prejudices and beliefs…some of which may need further consideration).

Realize that your diet, your workouts, your work, your play, your entire life, all have been shaped by the cultures you were brought up in. Realize and recognize those influences, then choose the path you really want.

7. Stop Sweating the Small Stuff – Stick to the Basics and Keep Going
Finally, it’s easy, all too easy, to get lost in the minutiae. It’s what we humans are good at as animals. Finding things like “the one best way” or the “right” answer to questions is what we do best (even though we both create the question and the “correct” answer).

Stop worrying about “ultimate” “bests” and “corrects” and that stuff and go back to fundamentals. Go back to the most basic of basics for whatever it is you’re interested in. And do that.
It worked for John Wooden. It’ll work for you too.

Those are my tips for 2012! Want more info, drop me a line, or subscribe to the LIFT newsletter, or to this blog feed…

The Fat/Carbohydrate Hypothesis…Myth, or Fact?

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I just read Stephan Guyenet’s review of Gary Taubes’ hypothesis that excess carbohydrate (and especially “refined” carbohydrate”) causes obesity.

All I can say is, take the time to read Stephan’s post.

It’s the most well-thought-out, thorough writing on the subject that I’ve ever seen.

How to burn massive amounts of calories – all day long

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What’s the secret to the thin person’s physique?

I think I’ve figured it out.

After years of exercising, and ten years of training other people, I’ve found the single most important secret to physique attainment.

And you know what? It isn’t diet.

That is, if you have this thing, you can eat pretty much whatever you want and still achieve your physique goals.

And it isn’t even any specific exercise program.

You can exercise in the way that suits you best and still achieve your physique goals…as long as you have this thing.

What is it?

Before I tell you what it is, let me highlight two things:

1. After you read what it is, you’re going to say “I already knew that,” or “Oh yeah, right,” and you’re going to want to ignore what comes next – which is the most important part. So fight this tendency.

2. The word may be familiar to you, but the meaning is much different than you think.

So what’s the secret?

Intensity.

Now wait! Remember what I said above! Don’t just go “oh yeah, blah blah, I’ve heard of it, I already know that, etc.”

If you really do already know it, and you already have the physique (or level of performance ) you want, then yeah go ahead and leave – read a different post.

But if you haven’t already achieved your physique or fitness goals, give me another 100 words to explain.

“Intensity” doesn’t refer to a specific type of exercise. It does not mean “interval training.” Sometimes intensity demands interval training, but it does not mean that.

Intensity is a mindset that is applied in action.

In any action.

Scientific research has shown that any exercise of sufficiently high intensity will significantly increase metabolism throughout the day, burning more calories, and bring you that much closer to your physique goals.

But we already know that. And I still have ten words left to get to the real point.

Here they are:

Intensity is a mental state.

Science shows that it doesn’t matter whether you’re at 70% of your VO2 Max for 30 minutes straight, or if you lift weights at 90% of your 1-rep max, or if you lift weights at 80% of your 1-rep max.

How can this be?

Well, the body reacts the same way to a disruption in homeostasis. It has to re-balance the system. Disrupt that balance however you want – if the disruption is great enough, you’ll boost metabolism and see incredible gains.

My point here is this – you will never disrupt your metabolic balance enough until you have trained yourself how to be (think and act) with intensity.

Want to know more? Leave a comment with your thoughts below.

The Dangerous Circular Logic of Modern Health

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My friend sent this picture around the other day:

To Fight It, It Must First Exist!!!

If you can’t see the point of this, the add says that for every “Mega Jug” of Pepsi you buy, KFC will donate a portion of your $3 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Heard of the Ouroboros?

That old snake!

It’s the old snake/dragon eating its own tail trick!

I’m not referring to the cyclical nature of reality aspect of the Ouroboros, but rather, tot he concept of circular reasoning.

We see this type of reasoning a lot these days. Perhaps it’s just because it’s one of those easy Jedi Mind Tricks that people usually tend to fall for:

(find other Logical Fallacies here)

You see, if there is no Pepsi Mega Jug, there is a much lower risk of juvenile diabetes. If you lump all soft drinks and other high-sugar junk food under the label of “Pepsi Mega Jug” the risk for juvenile diabetes falls to almost nothing.

You Are Not So Conditioned

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David McRaney has a great post on the You Are Not So Smart Blog.

He’s talking about conditioning, and our ability to act with “free will,” specifically in his post, with regards to diet.

McRaney mentions the work of BF Skinner, the “father” of Operant Conditioning.

“Skinner became convinced conditioning was the root of all behavior and didn’t believe rational thinking had anything to do with your personal life. He considered introspection to be a “collateral product” of conditioning.”

I’m not sure if that’s 100% true or not, but it’s an interesting viewpoint.

There is leverage, I believe, in what you choose or disagree to become conditioned to/by.

The author makes a distinction between three types of conditioning states:

Classical Conditioning – An “unconditioned stimulus” (a neutral stimulus such as a bell ringing) is used in coordination with a “conditioned stimulus” (one that generates a certain response, such as meat) to create a “conditioned response.” The classic example is Pavlov’s dog salivating with the ringing of the bell. Food was placed before the dog (conditioned stimulus), and a bell was rung (unconditioned stimulus) when the dog began salivating. Over time, the dog would salivate merely when the bell was rung (conditioned response).

Operant Conditioning – The alteration of behavior punishment or reward (“reinforcement”) of normal behavior. For instance, give the pigeon a food pellet every time it presses a lever, or a shock if it presses the “wrong” lever. Obviously, animals usually seek behaviors that lead to reinforcement responses, and avoid behaviors that lead to punishment responses from their environment.

Extinction – Is an element of Operant Conditioning in which a behavior is neither punished nor rewarded. The behavior declines in frequency.

An “extinction burst,” according to the author, is when you have a strong negative reaction to the lack of expected response from your environment.

The author finishes by saying:
“To give up overeating, or smoking, or gambling, or “World of Warcraft,” or any bad habit which was formed through conditioning, you must be prepared to weather the secret weapon of your unconscious – the extinction burst.

Become your own Supernanny, your own Dog Whisperer. Look for alternative rewards and positive reinforcement. Set goals, and when you achieve them, shower yourself with garlands of your choosing.

Don’t freak out when it turns out to be difficult. Habits form because you are not so smart, and they cease under the same conditions.”

Yes, I couldn’t agree more with this. But how do you do that? How do you “weather the storm?”

Goal-setting has always seemed extremely arbitrary, and less than motivating to me. The process has always been my concern – right here, right now.

I prefer to focus on something that grounds me to the present in order to weather my “extinction bursts.”

For me, that comes from a practice of increasing sensitivity, and awareness, or sensitive-awareness, through deeper connection to my physical being (which, for me, is also – spiritual, mental/emotional, environmental, communal/social).

I think this practice also leads to the shedding of “unnatural” habits.

Thank You, Mrs. Obama – Let’s Move, and Partnership for a Healthier America

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Michelle Obama, wife of our President, is taking a stand for physical education and fitness.

She’s started an initiative called Let’s Move!, that has a website to boot!

The group has four initiatives – Healthy Choices, Healthier Schools, Physical Activity, and Accessible and Affordable Healthy Food.

Yes, let's!

“To support Let’s Move and facilitate and coordinate partnerships with States, communities, and the non-profit and for-profit private sectors, the nation’s leading children’s health foundations have come together to create a new independent foundation – the Partnership for a Healthier America – which will accelerate existing efforts addressing childhood obesity and facilitate new commitments towards the national goal of solving childhood obesity within a generation.”

Partnership for a Healthier America

Linked to in the header above, the Partnership is composed about five founding organizations.  It’s a way to provide additional support, financial and outreach, for the Let’s Move! project.

Ok Pepsi, let's see what you've got!

Pepsi, On the Bandwagon

Pepsi Co. has announced that it’s going to support Mrs. Obama’s initiative a few ways.  First, they’re changing the way they list calories on their container.  They’re also going to provide funding for some movement initiatives.

The Old and the New Me

The old me would be suspicious, and doubtful of any change coming from this type of thing.

The new me – or, rather, me, now – sees any effort toward a positive direction as a good thing.

Please support the Let’s Move! initiative by going to the site and subscribing to the blog roll, and enter your email address to receive program updates as they come out.

It only works if everyone pitches in…

Change – Only You Can Do It

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Smokey the Bear once said “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.”

In fact, here he is now!

While it’s not entirely true, it is entirely true.  Only YOU can make any kind of change in your world.  Only you.

I was inspired to write this post by Aaron Schwenzfeiers recent blog-link to Scott Berkun’s blog.  The question Aaron posed was whether or not Americans should receive more time off – if that might help to get people more physically active.

I’m not convinced.

Personal Responsibility

This brings up a huge issue that I’m writing a totally separate entry about – around the concept of “personal responsibility.”

I won’t go into that entire subject in depth here, but only comment on part of it.  Change, and doing what you can, with what you have, right now.

Just Do It

My main question to Aaron was – What do people use their free time for now?

When life is stressful, and seems out of your control, you’re more likely to view free time as an excuse to “take it easy,” to relax, or to indulge in the things you don’t get to when you’re busy working (perhaps at something you do not actually derive any satisfaction or fulfillment from).

It’s very similar to what dieters experience, who deprive themselves of foods, and have one cheat day.  The cheat day ends up negating the effects of the rest of the diet.

Better, I think, to focus on changing your individual situation.

The Serenity Prayer

The Serenity Prayer is typically associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, though it was created well before AA came into existence.

It says:

God, grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change

To change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference.

I really like this prayer.  I think it does a good job of reflecting the attitude we need to have in life.  Because, while “personal responsibility” is not the end-all be-all of existence (there are things that are truly outside of our control), we do have an incredible amount of power, especially nowadays, to make positive change in our lives.

Enculturation

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you say this coming.  Culture trains us to think certain ways.  That also holds true for the ways we think about our own personal freedom, and our responsibilities.

Most pertinent to this post, it holds true for our conceptions of what is possible.  I still encounter situations, on almost a daily basis, where I realize that the only thing that had ever stopped me from doing a particular thing was the belief that it was actually possible, a plan to accomplish it, and the action to make the plan happen.

That is, I wasn’t given either the self-confidence to believe in such a possibility, or, equally as important, the framework for making change in my life once I had a belief or goal.

In our culture, we seem to foster a constant desire to “have/make things change.”  While that’s not entirely bad, it’s not accurate, either.

“Things” never change.  “Things” always are just as they are.  You, you can change.  Your life situation, you can change.  Your actions (most importantly) you can change.

You can take control of what’s within your grasp to control.

The Panacea

If there is a “cultural panacea” it will have something to do with giving people self-confidence, and the tools to turn that confidence into positive action for their lives and well-being.

That being said, a lot of the folks whom we think should change, don’t think they need to change at all.  We talk about creating change a lot – for instance, in the need to decrease obesity in the United States, or increase physical activity.  But the people who are living in an “obese” state, or who are not physically active, often don’t feel the need to change either of those situations.

Do you think you need to change?

The Social Ecology of Science

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My good friend Aaron Schwenzfeier asked me if I had read any books that talked about the information from my last entry – about the continuity of an animal with its habitat.  The rest of this post is my response, with some modifications.

The short answer is no, I haven’t read any single text that shows this continuity.  The closest I could come would be something like Lynn Margulis’ works, or James Lovelock’s and others’ works with the Gaia hypothesis.

In a world where everything needs to be validated by “science,” it’s no sufficient to use common-sense to combine the different principles you’ve learned into a coherent whole.

Please don't drop the ball!!!

Breakdown

The “animal-as-continuous-with-habitat” is an obvious thing, but who’s going to write about it?  What science would you cite? I’m not sure there is much.  There are some studies coming around about the importance of environment with regard to physical activity, even health (for instance, the Framingham study that correlates social group with obesity) but they’re few and far between.  It’s hard to quantify.  And that’s what science wants – quantities.  Qualities are still derided.

The other part, “eat in season, locally,” is the same thing – continuity with environment.  But dieticians can’t quantify that, again.  They can count calories, vitamin content, etc.  They can count other things (OCD), but they can’t count the effect of eating things from other places than your natural geography.

Activity levels waxing and waning with the seasons is as old as life itself.  All animals do this, not just human animals.  The squirrel hides nuts away for the cold winter, builds a large layer of fat to keep itself warm, etc.

Is there a way to measure that, though?

Meow...it's THIS big...

Happiness

Finally, how do you measure happiness?  A few studies have tried, and they create “scientific” versions of happiness – with plenty of “categories” to rate different aspects by.  Is that how happiness is made?  What about the feeling of safety and security that comes from living within your tribe?  How would you measure that.

And even if you could, what would happen?  What if you realize, through the course of your research career, that a feeling of happiness and safety was all that really mattered?  What would you say?  How would you say it?  How would a message like that be taken by your scientific colleagues?  By the general public?

The other thing, and perhaps the biggest impediment to getting real answers about things, about the true “optimal state” of the human animal, is revealed by this question – Why does science measure what it does, and not the other things?  What is guiding science?  Who gains from scientific research?

An ounce of gold, or a pound of lead?

You’re in The Cul-tcha

Culture dictates all.  So, what does our culture value most?  Money.  Our culture is built around the flow of money.  An economic depression is the most terrifying thing imaginable in our society (other than a nuclear holocaust).

I’d go so far to say that much, if not most, of science is guided by money.  You need funding to do science.  So you have to do science in a way that gets that funding.  If you can get funding for a particular research design and not another, you’ll choose the design that gets you the money.

Who is paying that money?  I would hazard a guess, again, that much, if not most of the money being donated to the pursuit of science is being donated by people who want to make more money from that science.

They are pursuing science for the sake of money.  Not for the sake of discovering “truth.”

A few examples of this, taken from the ideas in my post:
The studies done on continuity of animal with habitat are largely from zoo populations – trying to discover how to keep zoo animals alive.  Why would you do that?  What is a zoo for?  What does a zoo tell people who visit it?  How does a zoo treat animals?  I’ll let you answer those questions for yourself.

Studies of diet largely focus on quantity of micro/macronutrients and the physiology of the body.  Almost none involve the fact that that body is not a “physiology” without its habitat and social environment.  There is no isolated “body” to study…it doesn’t exist alone, in a vacuum.  But, further, and again – What is the purpose of dietary research, and to what ends is that research put?  Who gains from dietary research?

Our measurement of chronobiology has largely been to discover how to handle “shift workers,” and make them healthier and more productive.  There is some research on circadian and ultradian clocks, but it isn’t integrated into anything else.  It’s just “science.”  Another problem, I guess, that should be mentioned.  Science for science’s sake is even less effective than science for money’s sake.  It may produce amazing information, but what happens to that information, if it is done in a culture that is separate from the main flow of science?  It sits there.  It doesn’t get used or analyzed, or integrated into the big picture.

Studies of happiness and culture are similarly isolated from other science.  There has bee a trend in the past ten years to combine scientific zones of study, in fields like psychoneuroimmunology, or social ecology, etc.  But they aren’t really making themselves heard that strongly.

What’s Eating at You – Diet?

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My recent post on the Paleo diet raised some great questions and comments from various sources.

I want to say something about diet here.

A “healthy” diet varies by region, by geography. YOU ARE NOT SEPARATE FROM YOUR ENVIRONMENT.

Fukuoka. He was continuous with his environment…

Your physiology is determined to a great degree by your environment. The type of terrain you have to navigate, and how you navigate it. How frequently you have to move through that terrain, similarly, and what types of tasks you need to accomplish in what type of frequency, will also determine your physiology.

The weather in your geography – the barometric pressure in your area, the amount of rainfall every year, of sunlight – will determine how your body looks, feels, and can move.

The types of animals and plants available for consumption in your area represent natural energy that is in synchrony with the seasons your body is in. Eating outside of that synchrony (the old “I live in NYC, but eat strawberries from Brazil) creates metabolic discord in your system.

Yes, human beings need a certain amount of nutrients, but not as much as you’re told, or as you think, or from the sources you’ve been told (or think) that those nutrients are “supposed to” come from.

Before I go much further, consider the wide range of climates and geographies that human beings inhabit. From deserts to ice-packs, from coniferous and deciduous forests to rain forests, from tropics to temperate zones to the arctics.

In each of these places, human animals live just fine. They can, if times are good, live to the same ripe old ages that human animals in any other area live to (given the same good conditions).

It’s not about a specific diet.

“Happiness, is a smile on a dog”

Consider This
Instead, I think it’s more important to consider the state of the physiology the diet is going into.

If you are happy, and feel safe and secure, things in your body tend to run smoothly. Homeostasis is achieved and maintained easily. Your body heals faster. Things correct themselves.

If you are unhappy, your body is constantly releasing stress-hormones that break things down. They tear your body up from the inside.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy
In the happy state, the food you ingest, whatever it is, will flow through that smooth-running system. Your body is miraculous in its ability to take what it needs and discard what it does not (as long as you’re moderate in consumption).

In the unhappy state, the food you ingest will not be processed well. Your body won’t be capable of digesting, it will be busy constantly preparing to defend itself. Things won’t go right. You’ll have gastro-intestinal disorders – ulcers, heartburn, acid reflux, poor digestion.

In that unhappy state, it doesn’t matter what you eat.

Not only that, but what does get absorbed will simply be put to use continuing the bad state. That sounds like hell.

I loved this movie!!!

Eat What’s In Season, Where You Live, Now
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t advocate eating McDonald’s. And I agree with Michael Pollan, to a point. Not every locale produces the same foodstuffs. Pollan’s dictum, to “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” is not actually how we evolved. Our brains got bigger from eating a lot of protein. Plants don’t have a lot of that. I have a different idea.

Eat as much organic, locally-grown food as possible. Reduce or eliminate processed foods (including breads) from your diet. Whatever is in season, is what is best for you at that point.

Part of the thing we Northern-European humans used to do was to rest more in the winter. It would be cold, it would snow. It wouldn’t be a good time to work. And there wouldn’t be much work to do. We could live off of dried goods for a while, till those ran out. Then we were stuck with whatever we could gather from the land. Pine needle tea. Hardy winter greens. Root vegetables. Animal meat.

It’s not hard to imagine.

I can imagine that!

What Determines Your Happiness?
Your happiness is directly related to your feeling of safety and support in the world. A community of like-minded individuals, a “tribe” (a word/concept that’s catching on these days).

In the womb of the tribe, you are complete. Your worldview is reinforced and supported. You are cared for. You are able to do your work, and step back, without attachment.

You are able to be happy.

the exuberant animal tribe

the exuberant animal tribe

FDA Reconsiders Labeling Guidelines

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Another goodie from the NYT, that’s too good not to comment on: “One Bowl = 2 Servings. F.D.A. May Fix That.”

Finally, it seems, things are starting to make sense.

Or are they?

Unfair Trade, with my GI Tract

Ben & Jerry’s
When I was in college, we’d all get together now and then, have some food, drink a few bottles of wine, and then each polish off our own pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

Didn’t seem like a lot of ice cream, but I knew what was in it. I worked for Fresh Fields (now Whole Foods), and was keen on dietary information.

A pint of Ben & Jerry’s had something around 1300 calories in it. I think there were 30+ grams of fat per serving. And it tasted delicious!

It didn’t bother any of us. I think we were all young and active enough to be able to burn that stuff off. I don’t know. We’ll find out in another fifteen years or so, when one of us keels over.

Wherefore Art Thou, Nutrition?
Until then, I want to ask the same question I always ask – what does this mean?

Seriously, folks. Do food labels lead to any change? The NYT did another piece in October of last year, showing that the posting of caloric value of foods in restaurants’ windows didn’t lead to any change.

So what is the meaning of this? More regulation? More change?

One of the things that we do know about human (or animal) behavior, is that animals are less likely to be concerned when something appears immediately obvious or transparent.

In that same October NYT article, in fact, the people going into the restaurants with posted nutrition values had actually consumed more calories on average than customers had before the posting took place.

I know you want some.

Something to Gain, Something to Lose
Who is gaining from these new rules? Not Americans. Not “the common man.” At least, the common person isn’t gaining anything but extra girth, and a new risk-factor on their health insurance application.

Someone else is gaining something, too. Who is that?

Change is happening, but to what end? And on whose terms?