STOP READING NOW.  I mean it…what you are about to read is going to rattle your normal attitude towards food.  This article may be your choice between the red pill and the blue pill.  Once you choose there is no going back!

Folks, most of us have been brainwashed by the triplet of big gov, big pharma, and big ag (including big fast food) into believing that we can have our cake and eat it too!  Well you can’t.  There are penalties for eating too much cake and they are not always the obvious ones either.

Just imagine if 10% of the people who smoked a cigarette died in the 3 days after their first cigarette.  How many people would smoke?  I know I would never have started.  And would we let it be legal?  A cigarette is not the only product that, if used as directed, will kill you.   Everyone thought margarine was good for us back in the sixties and seventies.  We beat up butter and replaced it with a chemical product that resembles plastic.

Healthy choices at fast food restaurants?  NOT!  Between the food handling procedures and the big agriculture products eating at any Fast Food place is potentially hazardous to your health both long and short term.  Buy your own food and eat it at home.

Soy is good for you.  NOT!  Soy milk is a waste product that big ag has marketed you into believing is good for you.  And the potential for hormonal disruption especially for men is too great.  If you must eat soy and you really don’t, then eat the fermented products like tempeh.

Milk provides calcium.  NOT!   Pasteurized and homogenized milk, even with calcium added, has little to no nutritional value except to provide lactase (a sugar) and casein, an inflammatory agent in the protein.  Drink only raw organic milk for health.  Better yet…skip the milk in favor of fermented dairy if you must (kefir and yogurt).  Goat milk is better than cow too.

The food pyramid is the way to eat.  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  Just look around you…there is an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in this country.  And every country across the globe that adopts our style of eating gets fatter as well.  The food pyramid was originally designed to have limited grain consumption, not the current 6-11 servings daily.  Guess what…grains are not good for you.  They are high glycemic, cause insulin spikes (accelerating weight gain) and create inflammation and addiction to sugar.  Bad, very bad.

Eat vegetables, lots of vegetables—raw, steamed, roasted, or grilled, some fruit, seeds and nuts (pumpkin, sunflower, almonds, walnuts etc.), meat from organic natural sources, organic, free range and local eggs (including the yolks), healthy fat—avocado, olive, butter, coconut, nut butters and drink water.  Simple, really, but not terribly easy for many people.  Aim for about 80% of your food consumption like this and you will be on your way to optimum health and fitness.

If you liked this article or have any questions leave me a comment below!

Namaste

-John

You can get more info from John at his own website, or follow him on Twitter and read his blogs (Feel Good Friday and Sunday Stories)

OK, I am going to come clean.  Some years ago I thought breakfast was a cup of bad (read cheap) black coffee, a greasy apple fritter and a cigarette.

Every morning, stop at the local mini-mart, grab and go, eat it in the car at 80 MPH on I80 on my way to work.  No wonder my waistline was expanding!

I mean really …only a couple three hundred calories (easy) about 60% fat (the bad kind of fat), the rest high glycemic carbs.   How could you not get fat on a daily intake of that?

Today, breakfast looks like a grapefruit.  Actually, today breakfast looks like nothing.  Today is a fast day for me.  I started intermittent fasting a couple of months ago.

I fast on Monday and Thursday from the night before until my evening meal that night.  The evening meal is my normal meal…not a 2000 calorie pig fest.  I will drink tea throughout the day, maybe an emergen-c or 2, then a protein and vegetable meal in the evening.  I also do not change my workout schedule on those days.

Why fast?  Fasting is an important component of the paleo diet regime.

Our ancestors often had times of no food.  No food allows my digestive system to rest a bit and re-set itself.  Since I eat little to no refined food, grains and other inflammatory foods (more on this next week) when I fast I do not crave sugars and other foods.  Fasting also serves as a tool in weight management.  I will lose 2 to 4 pounds over the 24 hours of fasting, some of it is water granted (most of the real food you eat is water), but my energy levels actually remain high and my mental acuity is easier to manage.  A caveat…if I have been eating not so clean (like on Monday after some weekend indulgences) I will be irritable when I fast and crave sugar as well.

So…no nutrition is an important part of your nutrition program.  I know this is heresy to many people on the 6 meal a day program, never allowing your body to not have fuel to burn.  I have been there on that plan too by the way.  I get it and it works to a certain degree.

Remember the mantra…Move More Eat Less.  Fasting is part of the mantra.  Eating the right foods in a conscious way, with an attitude of gratitude, in the company of people who support and love you is part of the mantra.  Walking after you eat with the same people is part of the mantra.

Next week, Eat this not that!!!

Namaste

- John

- You can get more info from John at his own website, or follow him on Twitter and read his blogs (Feel Good Friday and Sunday Stories)

Hi Gym Junkies…Recently our intrepid leader Vic Magary sent out a note asking for volunteers to write a blog once a week for Gym Junkies.

I volunteered and he decided to let me have at it (although it may be against his better judgment).  Vic and I met a couple of years in Greensboro Alabama at an Ultimate Black Belt Test service function.

We were there to build houses (think Habitat for Humanity), train and spend some time exploring how community service can serve both the community and the business at the same time.

I am pretty sure Vic thought I was crazy as I was in the middle of my 500,000 push up quest.  Yes, you read that correctly… ½ million pushups, ½ million crunches in 22 months.

These were not the greatest pushups…not like I do them now with the elbows tight to the torso and chin/chest on the mat.  By the way, don’t try 500,000 at home or anywhere else.  My shoulders paid a dear price for that bit of over use.

Almost 20 years ago at the ripe old age of 34 I started martial arts training in TaeKwon-Do.

In the intervening years I have tried to be a body builder type (no steroids though)after which  I ran marathons and ultra marathons (anything over 26.2 miles is ultra) until my knee surgery (which was caused by something other than running) although running precipitated the surgery and all the while maintaining my martial arts training.

Today I am a 53 year old 5^th degree martial artist and fitness instructor.

If I had to distill my workout/nutrition philosophy in a single sentence it would be this:  Move more and eat less.

This mantra comes from Mark Sisson and the primal blueprint.  We were all wrong for so many years…Chronic Cardio (thanks Mark) is a slow death.

I owned a gym for a short period of time…you know the typical Globo-Gym…people would come in and get on a bike or treadmill or stair stepper, grab a magazine and proceed to read, talk on the phone, text, or zone out for the next 45 minutes.

No intention and no change in the routine…and guess what…no change in their bodies either.  Granted moving like this is better than not moving BUT there are better and more interesting ways (less time consuming as well) to create optimum health and fitness.

And that is the goal my friends:  Optimum Health and Fitness.  A strong mind in a strong body powered by whole foods eaten with intention and gratitude.  More next week on the nutrition front because you cannot exercise yourself skinny!!

Namaste

-John

BTW be sure to check out Vic’s comments on a new article over at Fitness Spotlight on the best cardio workouts