War is declared – on excess bodyfat
Yesterday was May 8th … does anyone remember that date anymore? To me, “May 8th ’45” is just something you should know, something I have trouble believing is already forgotten. Already, it was 64 years ago for sure, but in the big time-specter of history that’s just a blink of an eye.
May 8th 1945. The official end of World War II, almost to the day 11 months after the invasion in Normandie by the allied troops (and I wrote Normandy the French way on purpose) on June 6th 1944.
Yet, the world is still at war. On all kinds of fronts. Military fronts, religious, terrorist, illness, famine, obesity … any newspaper you open, any newscast you catch on TV or radio, there’s some talk of one of these wars; go to the Malls, shopping centers and supermarkets, and you’ll find “organized begging” for more funds for disease research (on top of what tax money should cover) – for many of these I feel like telling them that prevention is a lot easier and I could even tell them how for many things.
It’s crazy though, many of those battling their personal war on obesity (or just some overweight) are often under nourished. That’s actually one reason why they are overweight. Seriously, think about it: you give your body a certain amount (volume) of something sold as edible and identified by you as being food. It tastes good, your taste buds are happy as a pig in … you know what J your belly feels full, often to the point of bursting – yet the body, the brain the renewable cells, the 90% of you not made up by the belly and taste buds (rough estimate of percentage here by the way) you, are not nourished.
Result, your brain tells your stomach to cry for more food. Ever notice how you feel hungry about an hour after leaving a fast-food place? It’s your brain talking, because let’s face it, those two burgers (or giant one), large fries, large soda (even diet) and maybe even a shake … they’re not digested and out of your stomach yet. That will take a good 6-8 hours, if the stomach was empty when you put this into it.
So why are you feeling hungry? One thing is highly likely to be dehydration. There’s precious little water in the above meal and often the dehydrated state is perceived as hunger. In addition, there’s so little actual nutrition in what you just ingested, that the majority of your body is not satisfied.
Most people will head to the next fast-food place and have something else along the same lines of denutritionized “food” (that word is not in the dictionary, I just made it up and got a red squiggly line under it from my spell-checker, but it should be a word!) and …
Obesity lurks. Because you’re adding calories, you’re adding fats and sugars. There are chemicals in the “food”. These will be processed by the liver first, to get the poison out of your system as fast as possible. While your body is busy with that (and the same goes if you drink alcohol with a meal by the way), the digesting food is being stored in the reserves until it can be dealt with – after the toxins. Stored? Reserves? Oops, that’s bodyfat people! More toxins ingested, more fat stored while these are being processed and eliminated.
We were at a Greek restaurant last night, not far from our home. They’re great, really nice waiters, owners, cooks (open kitchen to the restaurant), the food is fabulous, the prices affordable … and best of all, I can have any one of their dishes with just the house salad (and dressing on it) and not gain an ounce! Most other places, even having grilled chicken and salad I’d go up te next day. Anyway, I digress J
What struck me last night, was a couple of women at a neighbouring table. Both were overweight, on the verge of being called obese actually depending on where you set the visual limit between the two; and I couldn’t help but notice the difference in their way of feeding and ours.
Where they both grabbed their pita-and-meat (chicken or “gyro” I have no idea which) with both hands, gaped large to be able to bite into it and stuffing it (literally) into their mouths, we were eating with forks and knives, putting just enough food into our mouths to be able to chew without leaving the mouth half open in the process, and enjoying the food. From their way of eating, it looked more like a feeding frenzy – get it in and down as fast as possible and never mind if it tastes good – plus of course they had both the rice and the fried potatoes as well. And the “funny” part? We overheard them mentioning “Weight Watchers” although we didn’t hear what they were saying about it, we did comment to each other that they sort of missed the point if this was their way of eating …
Go to a restaurant this weekend (or any time you want to), look at how people eat. I’m sure you’ll find the overweight ones shoveling food in large amounts into their mouths, and the thinner ones eating more slowly and with smaller fork-fulls (or bites). Just as an experiment J
Do yourself a favour, go to http://tinyurl.com/myEODD and have a close look at how you will not only drop that excess bodyfat and keep it off, but also enjoy some of your favourite not-so-healthy foods in the process. I “love” food (as in I enjoy eating good food, wouldn’t marry the stuff obviously, as the author of EODD says), and there is no way I’d go through life eating salads, steamed broccoli and grilled chicken, with the occasional tuna salad thrown in. I want to have some garlic mashed potatoes once in a while, but more than that I want to have some chocolate and the occasional lemon pie!
Every Other Day Diet lets me do that – have my cake and drop the fat too J
You know, it’s true what they say, you cannot out-train a bad diet. In other words, all the hours of cardio and pilates and spinning and soft-weight-machines (not naming Curves … oops, just did) will not help you burn fat and reshape your body, if your nutrition isn’t doing the ground work for you. In fact, you can out-eat a bad training plan much more easily.
Eat healthy and clean and sensibly (like with http://tinyurl.com/myEODD Every Other Day Diet) and skip almost all training, you will burn off excess fat. The only trouble is, you won’t add any new muscle tissue (which in turn helps burn even more fat) and you may even lose some of the existing muscle!
“But I don’t have time” … oh no? You sure of that? I didn’t have time either after I started working full time. I only have 30 minutes for lunch and that has to be spent at my desk in case someone comes to the door or calls … and 30 minutes, not enough to get to a gym and back anyway. I could train after work, that was my plan. Only … after work is when I have time for a dentist, a lawyer, the cleaners’, grocery top-up, grabbing a quick coffee with a friend … not to mention preparing the meals for the next day as well as supper that day – for two. And I do like to relax with at least one hour of recorded TV before calling it a day, but I also have to get on the computer for some forum work and on-line training.
I ended up setting my alarm for 4:40, 20 minutes earlier than before, so that I could do my resistance and cardio workouts before the rest of the day took over. 20 minutes? Yup – and that includes getting my water bottle ready since I always forget to prepare it the day before; setting up the work station (Dbs); etc. Because I use 7 Minute Muscle (http://tinyurl.com/7MinMuscl) all I need are 16 minutes a day, 5 days a week. 7 minutes for the muscle work with weights, and 9 on some form of cardio, and that’s it!
For someone with time and gym membership, this is perfect for lunch-time training and still get your meal. Lewis is doing just that. He has an hour off for lunch, 30 minutes to get to the gym, train, and back; and 30 minutes to heat his lunch and eat it.
Sorry, long post today, but I haven’t even told you half of what I wanted to … next time! Promise. Everyone who thinks they’re too old because they’re 40 or more; all who find they struggle with motivation; I have news for you. Next time!
Sarah