It’s absolutely fascinating to me to see the number of people out there who say they work out every day merely so they can eat whatever they want. As a personal trainer, 9 out of 10 people I train come in the door with that exact reason for why they dedicate an hour of their day to exercise.
“I really like my pizza.”
Or,
“I can’t give up the sweets.”
Or, my favorite,
“I know it sounds crazy but I love my morning Egg McMuffin!”
Most of these people are crazy exercise fanatics, pushing themselves into high intensity cardio most of the time, leaving the gym dripping in sweat and ready to take on the world. To consume that double cheese pepperoni deliciousness they’ve been thinking about for the last hour.
So I segue here to talking about something that baffles the average person. I can remember, as I was growing up, my Mom introducing bad news on occasion at the dinner table. News about a long lost friend or relative who died suddenly with a heart attack or who had suffered a stroke. So often, this terrible news would be accompanied with the following phrase:
“It’s just wild. He kept so fit! I mean, he ran/biked/walked/golfed every day and wasn’t overweight at all. He just dropped over!”
What’s so fascinating to us, as humans who are easily fascinated by sudden death from a sensationalism perspective, is that someone who dedicated so much of their life to keeping active and fit could die so suddenly from something health-related. Just goes to show that the experts may not really know what they’re talking about, right? Maybe exercise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
I would dare to say that Uncle Jim or high school friend Dottie may have kept active and impressively so with the exact phrase we trainers hear so many times:
“I really like my pizza.”
Or,
“I can’t give up the sweets.”
Or, my favorite,
“I know it sounds crazy but I love my morning Egg McMuffin!”
Perhaps they pushed themselves in workouts so they could indulge in whatever they wanted at the dinner table, or in the drive-thru, because in their minds, they had “worked it off.” This isn’t fact, this is merely a presumption on my part.
I’ve had a crazy roller coaster of a health journey myself, and for those of you who follow me, you know it started with exercising to lose weight, then shifted to watching my eating and limiting animal product, to now consuming healthy animal product and high healthy fats and ridding my diet of refined sugars and fake foods. It’s a journey. I’m not an expert but I’m learning, and what I’m reading and listening to in order to learn is, well, scaring me.
It’s scaring the holy shit out of me.
Why?
Because as much as I’m proud of my family members for walking every day or joining the gym, I’m worried it doesn’t matter as much as the food they’re putting into their bodies.
Because the more I read, and the more I make myself a guinea pig for research-based lifestyle diets (Bulletproof, anyone?), I’m realizing that what we do to keep active and physically fit is mostly just great for our brain. It eases stress, builds muscle, strengthens endurance and work ethic, and pushes us out of our comfort zones. But what it doesn’t do?
It doesn’t touch anything below the surface.
Below the big biceps, under the abdominals, into the roadmap of arteries and veins and organs that make up our life force.
One of my primary 2015 goals, for my 2,000 clients and prospective clients, is to understand the importance of spending that hour of relentless, push-til-you-drop energy on something more important for your health: the way you eat.
Let me be the first to make these claims:
1) Thin doesn’t mean healthy. Your insides could be a freaking mess, a heart attack waiting to happen, and you could look like a million bucks on the outside.
2) Food IS fuel. If you put crappy Unleaded fuel in your tank, your body turns into a lemon. Aim for Premium.
3) 2015 will be the year that people start to make a connection with what they’re eating and how they’re feeling.
4) Current science proves that moderate activity is ideal, so long as the diet is comprised of fully natured proteins, high healthy fats, and the right variations of carbohydrates.
5) People who work out like a maniac will not live as long as those who put heart and effort into learning about food and how it makes them feel and function, and who then apply what they learn.
If this post scares you, good. It is because of you that I write this way, to bring out truth in an open and honest way. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the super fit P90X girl with the mad biceps and flat abs if it means I spend my day feeling bloated and crampy, low on energy and focus and rotting away my insides with refined sugars and formulas.
I’ve learned that this life is about relationships. If you don’t have those, what do you have? Your workout? That’s lame. Do me a favor and set aside 10 minutes more per day to dedicate to learning more about a full-body transformation for your insides. If P90X can turn you from fat to ripped, imagine what avocado and coconut oil can do for your liver and intestines.
I scare you because I love you.
You know that.