Nutrition negotiations

Everbody wants to live healthier. The most common question I am asked is "What do I eat?". As my nutritional logic has shifted over the years so has my advice. As results improved I have become less lenient with the types of food choices I allow my clients to make. This hard-line has actually been at times ineffective. I had trouble with this. Someone is asking me for help, I give an extremely accurate response and people respond with " I really can't eat that?..ooh" or "Hamburger and cashews for breakfast? Why can't I have oatmeal and a glass of milk?". At times I have pushed so hard I actually pushed clients right out the door. I didn't get it. Then it occurred to me that we are all starting from different points. For some, it is their first attempt at a new lifestyle. For others, maybe just need to make some slight adjustments to an already decent meal plan. The key here is progression. We need to try and make small steps towards our goals. Some move faster than others. As long as we are true to our own personal development, something is better than nothing.

Hey guys....check your ego at the door

The reason for this is because it could be standing in the way of your true potential. I am starting to think if all men trained at home by themselves, I would have a shop full of jacked athletes. We instead choose commercial gyms packed with women and treadmills, for the sake of what we refer to as "atmosphere". Some basic principles seem to apply in these facilities:

1)Concentration curls and benching are choice excercises.
2)Be sure and apply the max effort 1/4 depth squat as well.
3)And just skip the deadlifts all together.

These gyms do have one postive though, they help us with our posture. You know, we walk tall sticking our chests out for all to see..lol. Now I am not saying to quit and start an underground gym, I am simplying saying to use core lifts, good form and a program design that meets your individual objectives regardless of what others are saying or doing. Mostly, worry less about your poundages or programs based on other people's perception of strength and quality.

Be less concerned with opinions of others. Society is packed with stress and negative behaviours. Our training carries over to all aspects of our lives. So get the most from it.

Rhyme and reason

I had a gentleman come into the store yesterday. Real nice guy, full of energy. He came to me for advice on his training. So he began a 20 minute disertation on how he has went from wanting to get lean to wanting to add size. Now he simultaiously wants to enter into MMA. I found his determination and work ethic to be excellent. So I asked him to describe his training and guess what I found? He has done absolutely nothing different in years. His version of being progressive was either adding sets or subtracting sets based on how he "feels", or wheter to train for an hour or hour and a half. Now I am not trying to make fun of the situation, rather make a point that your training and nutrition have to be coordinated to your objective. There is a saying "What gets measured gets improved". There needs to be a rhyme and a reason for why we do what we do.

Stay focused and healthy, but mostly, stay happy!

Added to yesterdays blog....

I was hoping to get someone at least thinking about yesterdays topic. It worked! But not the way some would think. There was a response to the video from some guy titled "Whoop". No, this was not a response to me, but I felt the need to comment. This type of opinion is also more common than you would think. Now rather than paraphrase his thoughts, I decided to post them. Here you go:

I really don't care for this stupid "surgeon general" position in the federal gov't. Sure, having an NIH, CDC, and other public health organizations is one thing, but, my god, don't have some physician or surgeon telling me or my family how to live our lives OUTSIDE the doctor's office! That's insane. It's just as insane as the ONDCP and the "drug czar" telling us not to do drugs. The state serves the people, not the other way around. I don't want gov't babying me like a child.

Now this just blows me away. Someone gives factual information for our massive health decline and this guy takes it personally. I can guarantee when we have stood over friends and loved ones caskets we have all asked the question "Why?". Now we receive some answers and we want people butting out of our lives. I will remember this next time I watch someone drinking gasoline. I will assume they want me staying out of it.

This gentleman may seem excessive in his thoughts but in all my years of nutritional counsel I found one phrase that descibes a large majority of my client base, Non-compliant!!

Let's not let good information go to waste. It is good to "Fight the Good Fight" just make sure it's the right one.

I was watching a youtube video from the surgeon general Richard Carmona. This piece was fascinating to me. It outlined his views on America's Public Enemy #1. I assumed this to be a speech involving global warning or maybe terrorist's. Actually it was on obesity. Rather than use this entry to outline statistics on the subject (which are mind-blowing) I found one statistic to be the most shocking. A video on America's #1 Enemy had been viewed only 830 times in 3 months...hmmm....9 million obese children (and growing) and 830 views. Well because I am not a youtube guru, I decided to test the amount of views to other popular topics.

MUSIC: The rapper "Surgeon General" (I have never heard of him) 2000-4000 views. Not bad

ADULT: Top 5 listings under "Boobs" average 1,000,000 hits in a matter of months..??

ENTERTAINMENT: Lindsay Lohan's most recent "leaving the club" 9400 views...in 2 days. The rest are in the mega millions

The point being, as much as I hear about the health epidemic in our country, I see nothing being done about it. With the amount of time we spend online and with the obvious change in "average" I pray for an increase in research on subjects that will directly effect our lives. We all will have to be accountable for something. I can't believe our health and the health of our loved ones is not more of a priority.