I never knew I was fat until the first day of kindergarten…

Until kindergarten I was perfect in my little world. I was adored. The very first day of school my little world got blown apart.

I remember what I was wearing. Now, let’s remember it was the 60’s! An a-line dress in a geometric print of orange, yellow, blue and green with a peter pan collar, sewn by my mother, and orange fishnet stockings. All the children sat cross legged on the floor around the piano bench where our teacher sat. A hole sprang up in my stockings….my ‘pudge’ squished out between the bits of fishnet…the hole got bigger and more of the fat on my legs pushed through. Then I could sense it. The heads turning to look. The furtive glances between my new ‘friends’. The giggles hidden behind tiny hands. I stayed inside the cloak room during recess, trying to push my fat back into the stockings to no avail. I hated my fat legs.

I still do.

I learned through the years that to be accepted, and fat (because that is truly what it is although we politely use words like chunky, husky, big girl, large) you better have one hell of a good personality. I learned to be the fun one, the understanding one, the smart one, the kind one. And I learned how to work my way around being the fat girl. But through every year there was always at least one…and sometimes many….who called me names…loudly….in the hall, on the bus, out passing vehicle windows, behind my back and to my face. I never let them see me flinch. That was saved for my heart, my soul…deep inside.

There were years of diets. Fad foods. Needles, ‘vitamins’, pee-sticks, baked white fish and steamed celery. Cabbage and grapefruit. The lists are endless. Many worked for awhile but always the weight would come back on and always more than before. With baby Number 1 I gained 40lbs that never went away. Along came baby number 2 and another 25lbs that never got lost. From that point on it just kept coming back on.higher and higher… Eventually I weighed in at my heaviest ‘known’ weight – 306 lbs.

Walk until I can’t think anymore or can’t move anymore…

At a very low point in my life, and after being diagnosed with severely high blood pressure, I laid on the couch one night, a big glass of wine beside me, my hand dipping back and forth from chip bag to mouth and I thought to myself “I could die like this. This is how I could end up killing myself. If I don’t stop doing this I AM going to die…or … I could get up and walk on that treadmill in the corner…walk until I either can’t think anymore or can’t move anymore”. So I got up and got on that machine. I walked and walked, cried and cried and walked some more. I walked until I couldn’t walk anymore. Eventually I realized that my time spent moving helped clear my head. Made me feel better….happier. Within a few months of that, I started getting up before daylight and walking outside..in the dark..so no one would see me and make fun. As the season changed, daylight came earlier and I found people waving at me as they drove by – not making fun of me. My confidence increased. I met people on my road that I had never spoken to before. As I walked and felt better about myself, I began to watch what I was eating and over the course of the summer I lost 40lbs.

Then I moved houses. And then I stopped walking. The fear of new people in my neighbourhood kept me inside. Again fearful. Again the weight crept up. A year into my new home, for some strange reason that still evades me, I signed up to walk a marathon. A huge public event. No small feat to be taken lightly. I garnered my only friend I had at that time who was ‘into fitness’ to walk with me and to meet up every Sunday to train for the long distance that was in our future. We trained for this from December to March…the worst part of the year here in southern Ontario. We walked through rain, sleet, hard snow, ice, soft fluffy snow….we found every public bathroom there was to find!

I couldn’t find snow pants to fit my size 28 body…

I couldn’t find snow pants to fit my size 28 body so I walked in two pairs of the loosest track pants I could find, with a long raincoat to cover my butt – to spare anyone driving by with all the jiggling and wiggling. I struggled to even stay within eye sight of my fit and thin friend. I kept up a steady stream of self-talk for hours on end to get myself through those days. There were lots of negative thoughts to be pushed away with ‘just one step at a time’ thoughts. There were days that I would come home to stand in a hot shower and cry my heart out. Who was I to think that I could do something like this? I was a loser. I was fat. I was a big fake with none of this so-called self-confidence. Loser. Fat. Ugly. Those words kept playing over and over in my head. I was breaking my own heart. But somewhere inside me, I would not give up. I kept heading out for my training walks eventually getting up to over 55km in one week.

The day of the race came, there were thousands signed up for this…and me. Fat Linda. I walked. I walked and walked. Head down, one foot in front of the other. At the 18 kilometre mark I was looking for a way off the course – but couldn’t find any! What the heck? Shouldn’t there be buses standing by to pick up those who couldn’t finish? If there were, I didn’t see them. And I was not about to approach someone at a drink station, the fat girl, to see how I could get out of this thing. So, on I trudged. I felt every ounce of my weight working against me. I was passed by almost 7000 spandexed bums. I crossed the electronic finish line 5 hours and 25 minutes later. My friends…my crowd…went wild! I cried. I’m crying as I remember this moment.

This was the exact moment that changed my life…

I was never so proud of myself in my life. True, honest pride. Amazement. Self-knowledge. My heart knew I could do it. It only had to prove it to me.
Since then, virtually nothing has stood in my way to be a healthier me. This is what this journey has been about. Not about being ‘thin’. Not about seeing a certain number on the scale. Not about fitting into a certain size. I read everything I could get my hands on about nutrition. I listened to my body. What made it feel good. What made it feel too good. What was the difference? Well anything that is too good – probably is too good to be true. I dropped the ‘too good’s’ from my diet and like an apple falling from a tree, my weight fell … Fat Linda began her journey of disappearance.

As I carried on with my fitness I felt the need to attach myself, yet again, to ‘something’. I needed a goal. One evening I was following one click to another on the internet and I came across a bodybuilding site. I was looking for ‘Motivations’ and along came this story of a woman who went from being obese to being in a bodybuilding competition at the age of 50. I had never even known anything about bodybuilding at the time. Bunch of ‘muscle bound dick heads’ is all I associated bodies like that with! The minute I read that article I knew this was IT! This is what I was going to do!

That would be me someday!

I found a bodybuilding trainer in my area and with all the fake courage I could muster I met her and signed on! Over the next 2 ½ years I gave my all to my coach, my training, my nutrition and I lost, shed, pee’d out….over 150 lbs. I carved a body that I truly never knew existed.

With a laser like focus I did not waiver from my nutrition or my training. I learned to eat, and like, foods that I never ate before. I learned to love the feel of aching muscles. To laugh when my muscles failed me at the end of a gruelling set. To grit my teeth and ‘suck it up’ when all I wanted to do was puke or cry – and sometimes both.

I was too intimidated by ‘fit’ people to workout in a gym, so I built a gym in my home. Nothing got in my way. I had lose skin from losing so much weight and at my age, it was not about to spring back to anything resembling ‘youth’! So I had a full body lift where I was cut completely around my body, the skin pulled up, cut off and re-joined. I had an inner thigh lift as well. Nothing got in my way. I began official competition training 8 weeks after the surgery and 20 weeks out from the competition date. I had all kinds of people tell me that I was ‘too skinny’. I now had people judging me again for the way my body looked. Men stared. Women scowled. And yet, among people who ‘live the lifestyle’, I found acceptance, admiration and support.

When I told people that I was going into a ‘bodybuilding’ competition I had a lot of negative feedback. Everyone thought I would turn into a hulking male-like figure. “You don’t want to look like that!” I could not believe that they didn’t see what I did. The discipline. The drive. The guts. Female bodybuilders do not have to be ‘men with boobs’! I came onstage with no sparkles (and believe me, I live for sparkles!) and no heels – but I was still all about the hair and makeup, lashes and nails. I posed with female flair and hard-ass confidence. That being said, I didn’t not win and I did not expect to. My body will never be completely acceptable in this industry – there has been too much of a lifetime of stretched skin. But I was very successful in being a FEMALE bodybuilder … in bringing every ounce of estrogen that is me into a perceived male dominion. Even within the ‘industry’, female bodybuilding has fewer competitions, less categories, less press. It frustrates me to get excited about an upcoming show only to find out there is no female BB. We need more women willing to kick off their heels and come to the pose-down!

But I’m just the fat chick. Who’s going to listen to me

I am now in training for power lifting. I want to further strengthen my body. I want to build my inner grit along with my outward muscle. I am on a quest to forever challenge my body, my mind and my self belief. I have gone from seeking acceptance to being a role model. And once again, I have signed up for the marathon this year. I have come full circle and am so excited to find out what the next chapter of this fabulous life will bring me!

There is no easy way to go from being obese to being fit. There is no magic. I am not going to tell you anything foolish or foofie! There is only one way to get from being heavy to lifting heavy and that is one day at a time, one pound at a time…one heartbeat at time.

This is what I believe in. This is what I live. This is my journey.

Actually, it really isn’t all that bad. I get about 20 positive responses to what I write for each negative one. It’s funny that we always focus on the negative ones, but that’s another post…

In the last 24 hours I’ve had TWO really positive emails from exceptional and strong women who have struggled with eating disorders and have been inspired by the “Strong is the New Skinny” Message. This makes me feel like we’re actually making a difference out there in the world and creating positive change. It feels good!

Being a guy AND being 1/2 of the “Strong is the New Skinny” team is an interesting thing. I STILL get accused of being a “typical guy” – and worse. And NO ONE believes me when I say I’m NOT a boob guy (I’m NOT!). And, pretty much no matter what we post someone doesn’t like it. But stuff like the two emails I got this weekend tell me that we ARE making a difference and people ARE hearing our message and it’s leading to positive change. And that makes it all worthwhile.

There was a lot of emotion and personal experience behind my original rant that asked “Is Strong the New Skinny?” Why? Because I’ve personally seen what a messed up body image or an eating disorder can do to a woman (not to mention her relationships) and it makes me really mad that our society creates and perpetuates it and that there is a whole medical/pharmaceutical/industrial/consumer complex that feeds off it. Kinda like the Red Court Vampires in a Jim Butcher novel. I ranted about the medical establishment here and I’ll stop for now – even though I could go on and on…

My personal opinion is that the current Paleo Diet and CrossFit culture is about the best we’ve done to date to combat this shit. It needs to be OK for women to be strong, healthy and take an ACTIVE and POSITIVE roll in their health and the way they look. And the SAME goes for MEN too.

I happen to know what a messed up body image and “I’m not good enough” can do to a GUY and it’s not a good thing. It’s similar to what women go through and very different at the same time.

The womens’ body image thing is pretty well defined. I think the male side of things is a bit less known. Probably, because most men want to avoid this:

No guy wants to be a “jackwagon…”

Men Feel Stereotype Pressure Too

Here’s the stuff I grew up with. Granted, Arnold will ALWAYS be my hero, inspiration and THE KING of bodybuilding but, between genetics and drug use, this is just NOT a realistically achievable body for most men:

Now, is this stuff inspiring? HOLY CRAP, YES! But very, very few men will actually achieve this type of development no matter how much work they put in. Even drugs aren’t a guarantee you could get to this level of perfection. Arnold had one in a million genetics on top of everything else that aligned so perfectly that he achieved super-stardom.

Taking this all a step further, I was a HUGE fan of Dorian Yates in the ’90s as well.

As a side note, you can see that Dorian’s development is LIGHT YEARS removed from even Arnold’s hugeness.

Women can argue whether this stuff is attractive to THEM or not but, the fact is, many, MANY young men get drawn in by these images – just as many, MANY young women get drawn into images of super-skinny celebrities like Paris Hilton or whoever else. AND, you can argue that these extreme male bodies are just as unhealthy – mentally and physically – as the extremely skinny female bodies are.

Two Extremes

The two extremes we tend to have – at least in the US – are the “Skinny at Any Cost” thing on one end and the “I’m PERFECT just the way I am, pass the Ben and Jerry’s” mentality on the other. For men, it’s more like “big” or “strong” at any cost vs. “whatever, I don’t care.” I think these extremes – whether male or female – are different sides of the same coin. Why? Because they feed on each other… We’re bombarded with images of BOTH in the media at the same time. Look at the popular womens’ magazines at the checkout counter – “Lose 10lbs in a week” is right next to “Sinful chocolate cake to die for” – in the same freakin’ magazine! It sets up a cycle of dissatisfaction that perpetuates itself.

On one end, you have the “I deserve it” eating. I’ve done this more than a few times. “I had a hard week, trained hard, worked hard, etc. I think I’ll order a pizza…” This is, of course, followed by “Why the hell did I eat that?” “I feel like shit.” and, my favorite “I am SO weak and out of shape! I SUCK!”

This stuff ISN’T new

I’m a big fan of Pema Chodron and Eckhart Tolle. I “kinda, sorta” practice Buddhism but it’s more of an eclectic and pragmatic version. What amazes me is that this whole thing about extreme practices, not feeling good enough and addiction (whether it’s to food or exercise or drugs or sex or whatever…) is AGES OLD. The pathways that this stuff runs through are as old as humanity itself! It’s hard wired into us and, once you see the process and the “mental gymnastics” your ego does to convince you to starve yourself or eat the 30 Kit Kats (my favorite ) or hate yourself or whatever it’s pretty weird to watch. Eckhart Tolle and Pema Chodron both teach that once you SEE what you’re doing you’re conscious and you can change. Yeah, you’ll probably watch yourself DO the stuff for a while, but eventually you learn the ego’s tricks and can keep it in check – most of the time…

Pema Chodron compares it to having a bad rash that we keep scratching at even though we KNOW we’re only making it worse and spreading it. We don’t care because in that moment that we scratch it feels better. Until it feels worse and we want to scratch more…

The “Middle Way”

I think the only thing that saves me – and a lot of others – is actually KNOWING – or having a good idea of what ACTUALLY is healthy and what to actually eat and how to train and how to build a better body. “OK, I messed up this week on my diet and training – now I have to do A, B and C to get back on track…” Sometimes, when I wake up too early I watch those infomercials. You know, the ones with the asinine exercise equipment and screwed up diets and supplements. I usually wonder what it must be like to know so little about training and your body to actually get taken in by that crap. And then I feel bad for the people who – because of the mess that is our food supply – actually think it’s THEM that is messed up as opposed to the terrible food that’s promoted as healthy and the crazy diet plans and exercise stuff.

And, AGAIN, we have a whole big “thing” that feeds off of and profits from our dissatisfaction with ourselves, poor health from bad food and all the other standards “they” show us that we don’t live up to.

I think the “Middle Way” between the two extremes of un-health – starving and crazy diets on one hand and binge eating on the other – is learning everything you can about YOUR body and leaning to train and feed YOURSELF so you can take control and be empowered to make positive change in your own life…

Back in my bodybuilding days I did some INSANE things in the pursuit of a few more pounds of muscle or 1-2% lower bodyfat. It’s funny in retrospect – I knew a TON about training and getting lean and I knew SHIT about health. This is me a while back. I look pretty good, right? When this picture was taken I had a massive sinus infection from too much training, was dehydrated to the point of cramping and was eating jelly candies and drinking grape juice every hour after a week on ZERO carbs. And I won’t even mention the MONTHS of daily ECA (Ephedrine, Caffeine and Aspirin) and starving. I remember being so hungry I was chewing gum constantly and looking forward to more stimulants so I wouldn’t be hungry till my next meal.

Now, I KNOW that stuff wasn’t healthy and I doubt my Fran time was so great either. (Of course, Fran had yet to be born when this pic was snapped – with a FILM camera!) I can remember when I was really dieted down and carb-depleted I was struggling to do seated barbell presses with an empty Olympic bar! LOL Once I recovered I put on a lot of good weight and felt really good, though, and OVERALL, it was a really happy, positive and good experience. It would have been VERY unhealthy to live there though! The point is, I compromised my health to get to this point and was proud when I got there! Skewed priorities maybe?

A side note on the steroid thing…

Something I think is important to point out is the difference between my body in the pic above and the size Dorian and Arnold have. There were NO steroids involved in the condition I got into above – and look at how SMALL I look in comparison to the guys I idolized (idolize?). Yeah, there was SOME pride in the shape I achieved after 6 months of work – but there was a louder voice in my head telling me how SMALL I was and being frustrated that my arms didn’t strain my shirt sleeves when I wore a T-Shirt.

And, I’m not really against steroids either. Any more than some of the surgical stuff women do to look better or feel better about themselves. It’s all about personal choice and perceived risks. But that’s another post too…

The Middle Way – MY PERSONAL VERSION

On a related side note, my CURRENT goal is to beat the above shape by early summer (it’s Mid-November 2010 now). It’s over 10 years later AND THIS TIME I want to be in OUTSTANDING health AND have performance that matches what I look like. No more “mirror athletics” for me. I want the best HEALTH of my life along with the best SHAPE!

What I REALLY want to find is a positive outlet for the “critical voice in the head.” I want to USE the critical voice that’s always there – sometimes louder than others – and let it push me toward positive achievement. AND I want to know when to NOT listen to it and give myself a break and be OK with where I am and with what I’ve achieved to that point. There is always MORE to do and we can ALWAYS DO BETTER. I think the trick is to be ambitious and motivated by your own self-criticism but ALSO know when it’s getting out of hand and not being accurate or positive…

And then there’s this…

Something else I see that makes me nuts – THAT I DO – is train too much. Just like bodybuilding can go unhealthy – and I think it REALLY leans that way to begin with in it’s current state – stuff like CrossFit and Paleo can go bad too. A LOT of people WOD themselves to death and make a mess of their hormonal systems in pursuit of ever lower times and higher rep counts. All good to a point, but when the ego REALLY takes control all sorts of bad stuff happens.

Again, it’s taking things to extremes. Now, I’m not talking about extreme health or extreme performance. I’m talking about taking something healthy in a reasonable “dosage” and taking it WAY to far. Robb Wolf talks A LOT about this and I expanded and commented on some of his stuff here. It happens in just about every physical pursuit…

Please address all hate mail to Wild Gorillaman at…

So, here is MY PERSONAL take on stereotypes, sex appeal and all that stuff. Remember kiddies – this is MY opinion. I get to have mine and you get to have yours. And, guess what? I’m a GUY. And a straight one too – regardless of all the clothes shopping, the cats and what Merle says.

On the one hand, I think we’re HARDWIRED to desire certain traits in the opposite sex. There’s no getting around this. There are certain traits men AND women like to see in each other and that’s the way it is. We can override it to an extent with our intellect, but A LOT of it happens below the level of thought. And we ALL have some kind of “wanting to be desirable” inside. Some more than others, but it’s there. As long as that exists in us as humans – and I think it always will on some level or another – we’re going to respond to certain traits in the opposite sex AND want to create certain perceived  positive traits in ourselves. It’s natural and I believe it’s evolutionary. It’s biology 101.

On the other hand, I think once something gets to the point of un-health, the ego is in control and there are problems. This goes the same for the girl dieting till her ribs show as well as my shredded ass in the pic above. Again, we have the issue of technology here. I think modern technology and media can give us WAY TOO MUCH leverage to take our bodies to extremes that they weren’t designed for. And these extremes can be amplified and propagated by the media and set a standard. And then there’s a WHOLE SYSTEM that steps in and fills the void created inside us by the images – and profits greatly as it “fills the void.” And, of course, the void never really gets filled…

There was this really inspiring talk that Becca Borawski posted recently on Facebook:

If you’re struggling with any of the stuff I’ve talked about here – male or female – then the video Becca posted is definitely worth a watch. Even if you just liked reading this post, the video is something I think will really speak to you. What Dr. Brene Brown is talking about here is similar to want I talked about above with Chodron and Tolle – that fundamental “not OK-ness” that goes on and can get nuts when the ego starts to run things out of control.

Changing Role Models

The 21st Century has seen a trend toward focusing on performance. The popularity of UFC events has played a big part in this. CrossFit has too. Whether they realize it or not, people are being exposed to the image of high-performing bodies. If bodybuilder bodies performed there would be more bodybuilder bodies in The Octagon. There really aren’t. There are some VERY muscular guys in the UFC, but you can’t argue with the performance of a guy like GSP who has a relatively achievable body (if not level of performance).

And, on the female side, images like this are replacing the super-skinny images to some extent.

It’s a start…

Yeah, there’s a lot left to do and we have a long way to go. And there are still WAY more negative body images out there for both sexes than positive ones. But it’s a start. Bodies that perform are slowly showing up and replacing the “comic book” extremes for both sexes. It’s a start.

In the meantime, support Strong is the New Skinny on Facebook…

ttys

Adam

]]> http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/body-image-food-addiction-not-good-enough/feed 34 http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/fitness-health-money-lies http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/fitness-health-money-lies#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:19:25 +0000 Adam http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/?p=445 I want to thank my friend Darren Rueb for the two articles he recently posted that got my creative juices flowing this beautiful Sunday morning. I also want to thank Darren for saying a lot of what I said in my anti-establishment rant about fitness, health and the crap we get fed in society a bit more rationally and calmly

I figured I’d keep going on those topics and see if I can say what I meant a little more clearly and with less piss and vinegar. Or, at least less vinegar…

Darren’s first article – Fitness Today: How You Measure Up – is essentially a comment on the fitness standards we see all around us and how some of us can have a bit of an inferiority complex depending which side of the spectrum we look toward. If you assume MOST of us sit in the main part of the bell curve we can feel great or awful about ourselves depending which direction we look toward. I’ll argue that those reading this blog and Darren’s stuff will sit a bit further to the right than most, but the vast majority of us will be in that main distribution. If I recall my stats class stuff at all, the hot computer guy and Arnold are going to represent 0.1% of the population EACH and everyone else will be between them with about 70% in the thickest part of the curve – 35% to the right of the line and 35% to the left.

Thanks to JC for the Fat Guy pic!

I won’t go as far as Stuart McRobert and claim that anyone with a bench press of more than 135lbs is a genetic superman who’s also using steroids, but I absolutely will not downplay the genetics thing for a minute.

Regardless of genetics, however, I believe that LIFESTYLE is the single most important – and most overlooked and downplayed – factor in health, fitness, strength and performance. I think a great disservice that occurs in the fitness mainstream – and the media in general – is the downplaying of the importance of lifestyle in building an outstanding, “0.1%” body.

I can vividly recall Flex magazine running pics of Ronnie Coleman in his police uniform – working a claimed 80 hours a week of SHIFT work in the patrol car – while preparing for the Mr. Olympia. Bullshit. Or the old Muscle Media 2000 running pictures of “Dan Gwartny, MD” who supposedly did 100+ hours a week in the ER – while maintaining 4% bodyfat and working out 6 days a week “to relieve stress and stay energized.” Bullshit. Both of those scenarios are obviously impossible – unfortunately, at the time I was reading that stuff I didn’t know better. Some NEVER know better.

While I’m on this topic, I also recall the urban legend that circulated through the science and engineering circles I hung out in during college. Supposedly, there was some guy who worked a full-time job, had a family AND was going to engineering school full time. Of course, he was also pulling straight A’s. Now, no one ever actually SAW this guy. And no one actually KNEW him. They only knew someone who knew him or knew someone who knew someone who knew him… The fact is that MY senior chemistry classes ran pretty much 9-5 Monday through Friday (OK, Wednesday was a light day) and many nights I NEVER SLEPT because I had so much studying to do. Of course, some part of me felt like a loser because I should have also had a full time job and been 250lbs at 3% bodyfat while pulling straight A’s. “All” I managed was a 3.5 GPA with no job, living at home and little weight training and no sleep. What a loser…

I think the frustration of “the guy in the street” is that he thinks he should be able to have that 0.1% body AND do everything else in his life with no problem. This is the image we’re sold in the media. So many people feel inadequate because they think they’re falling short or not working hard enough. Then, they WORK HARDER at EVERYTHING and get even worse results because they get even more fatigued, more scattered, more cortisol, less clear thinking and on and on. I LIVED THIS FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS.

Seth Godin – who runs THE NUMBER ONE MARKETING BLOG IN THE WORLD – has said over and over again to pick one thing and become the best at it. Here he is saying it in an interview on Technorati.

If you truly are passionate about something, GO DO IT! Don’t believe for a minute that you’re going to be able to do everything all at once. Even Arnold couldn’t do it. He focused on being the best bodybuilder in the world – and succeeded – then he blew up the box office, then he went into politics. He never could have done all 3 at the same time. It would have been impossible. Many have probably tried but we’ll never know, because they never made it…

I think the media likes to promote the “you can have it all” idea for two reasons:

1. No one likes to think they might have to give up something to get something else
2. Many, many industries thrive on people being frustrated, misinformed and ready for a quick fix or magic pill

If I wanted to be generous, I might even say that many of the hardworking people who make up the mainstream media actually believe that they CAN have it all. They’re functioning under the same delusion. So the delusion just keeps spreading.

Darren’s other article asks the important question: Fitness vs. Money: What’s More Important?

I think this article and some of Darren’s points follow right along with my point on media conditioning. My current view is that you can – and should – have both health and fitness AND money. I think our current society takes an attitude that you can be healthy OR rich. And if you want to be rich you have to work yourself to death in hopes that “someday” you’ll have enough money to do what you REALLY want to do. If you think this way, read “The Four-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss and see why the thinking is flawed. I bought into this flawed thinking for a long time and I’ve already ranted about it a lot

And, yes, some people are born into money and are able to follow their passion with no worries about paying the bills. But I think that they are few and far between (go back to the Bell Curve above) and that situation comes with it’s own problems.

I’ve read somewhere around 80 self-help/success books to this point and the general consensus is:

• Clearly define your values
• Live by them
• Find what you LOVE to do and figure out how to make money doing it

Tim Ferriss will add to that: Figure out how to make what you LOVE run on autopilot to the greatest extent possible while it’s making you money

ttys

Adam

So, yesterday I substituted raw cow kefir for my usual pasteurized goat yogurt in my shakes. Everything else remained exactly the same for the day. The results? Quiet stomach all day, no gas or bloat and I felt good all day. This morning I’m doing fine as well and all was good in the poop department. Overall, a very successful introduction of a food that is SUPPOSED to be very healthy for me.

Now, the question remains – Is raw cow milk or kefir Paleo? I think the strict Paleo answer is NO! But let’s take a few steps beyond that…

Advantages of incorporating raw milk and kefir into a Paleo diet:

• Raw cow milk has high levels of digestible protein and LIVE enzymes
• Raw grassfed cow milk has high levels of CLA
• Kefir made with raw milk incorporates not only the probiotics from the kefir but also the good bacteria that remains in the milk because it isn’t pasteurized
• Raw kefir is a lot more digestible than milk
• Raw cow dairy contains a good amount of saturated animal fats and a ton of other great stuff
• Raw cow milk from healthy animals contains a high level of Vitamin D

If you move away from the “Paleo” paradigm for a second and just think “primitive” I think you can see that cultured raw milk from grass fed cows on a local farm is about as “early” as you can get in the agricultural time-line. We’re basically talking Paleo plus a few hundred years or so. This is still very primitive and there’s a fair amount of evidence that primitive and hunter gatherer cultures have used raw dairy to good effect.

Another thing I find really cool about making my own kefir is the absolutely HEAVENLY butterfat thing that happens at the top of the jar when the cultures do their thing. That stuff is SO sweet and creamy and full of CLA and who knows what other good stuff!

The “making it” process is a little involved and can go wrong sometimes, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy. Currently, I’m getting my kefir starter from Body Ecology.

Really the only thing I have left to do here as far as testing is to keep using the kefir and make sure there isn’t any kind of delayed immune reaction. If I continue to do well on it, I’m going to keep eating it and see how I do. My hope is that the big doses of probiotics I get from the kefir daily will really help out my health and digestion. We’ll see what happens!

[Note: I was ORIGINALLY planning to include a bunch of references here to back up my points in this article. I haven't found the really good stuff I'm looking for so I'll update this post as I find better info.]

ttys

Adam

]]> http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/raw-milk-kefir-paleo-diet/feed 5 http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/is-bodybuilding-relevant-anymore http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/is-bodybuilding-relevant-anymore#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:38:49 +0000 Adam http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/?p=159

What’s this dude’s Fran time?

I’m not sure what got me thinking about this topic. It might have been seeing old Bill “feels like Deca” Phillips on an early morning infomercial promoting his new book. Or, it might just be that I think too much…

This was originally going to be a somewhat humorous post. I was going to be as objective as possible, but I was planning to poke some fun at the globo-gym style of bodybuilding and training. I felt like I was on the right track when I saw the cover of this month’s Flex Magazine and when I found this Phil Health video where he talks about how he wears a lifting belt during all his training and then proceeds to do overhead presses with about 50% range of motion. (BTW, I’m in no way trying to take anything away from Big Phil. I know what kind of dedication is involved with getting to the level he’s at.)

I continue to be blown away when I realize that people still read stuff like Flex Magazine and swallow all the crap they print. In fact, I’m still shocked when I pass a globo-gym (like the Powerhouse Gym we jog or do log carries past when training at CrossFit USA) and see that there are actually people there. I forget sometimes that the whole world hasn’t seen the CrossFit, Kettlebell and Functional Strength light and abandoned the “weights and cardio” nonsense and the isolation exercises and machines. As Stuart McRobert would say, there’s a new crop of young men (and women) who get sucked into the bodybuilding and fitness world year after year, usually after seeing a magazine cover. (Now it’s more like a blog or YouTube vid.) And this new crop serves an important purpose – to replace the old crop who are dropping out due to no results or becoming disillusioned when they learn the truth about the drugs and the lifestyles.

And, apparently, someone is still interested in this stuff. Last month “bodybuilding” was googled 1,220,000 times. There’s hope too, though – CrossFit was googled 1,500,000 times…

I shouldn’t be completely cutting (pun intended) on bodybuilding. Some of my best memories EVER are from about 12 years ago when I was bodybuilding almost full time. Training at Mike Katz’s World Gym in Branford, CT was great times. This was back when Bill Philips was a bodybuilder and not a self-help wannabe guru, ephedrine was cheap and legal and Hammer Strength machines were getting really popular. Hotskins spandex shorts were also popular – and, yes, I had several pairs…

But, this was all we had. It was all there was. There was no CrossFit. There were no kettlebells that we knew of (Pavel was still in Mother Russia, I believe). There was no MMA or UFC either. At least not as we know it today. If you wanted to be hardcore, you were a bodybuilder. It was extreme, it was counter-culture and it was cool. At least to me.

It’s interesting that, for most of it’s history, bodybuilding was the anti-establishment counter-culture thing. I remember training at a gym that catered to soccer moms in Guilford, CT for a while back in the day. You should have seen the weird looks and comments we got as we piled plates on a bar for deadlifts or squats. Now, CrossFit is the counter culture and even the bodybuilders are somewhat of an “establishment” to be mocked and made out to be less-than.

I think we’ve gone wrong here though…

Bodybuilding – depending on how we define it – might not be all that useless

I started doing some research so I could do an in-depth post here and I was surprised to find some really interesting stuff. Among other places online, I found my way over to a newer forum called Anabolic Society. Like another bodybuilding forum I spent a lot of time on back in the day, this one is full of intelligent, cool guys who love to train. Yes, there is a lot of drug talk and information, but there’s a lot of other stuff too. In the Powerlifting/Strength section there was a ton of good stuff about The Westside Method. And this got me thinking…

There’s a lot of value in the “strength” community. I think, as CrossFitters we have a tendency to dismiss something glossy and ridiculous like mainstream bodybuilding and the mags that cater to it. In fact, we’ll dismiss just about anything mainstream that’s related to health and fitness. But we’re also intelligent enough to know when something has value and adapt it to our own evil purposes – The Paleo Diet, The Zone, Olympic lifting, Strongman, etc. And CrossFit has brought together some of the best and the brightest from so many different disciplines. I think it will continue to do so and this is what attracted me so much to the community – the pragmatism.

The best CrossFit cert I’ve been to yet was the Powerlifting cert taught by none other than Louie Simmons himself. Those guys aren’t CrossFitters. In fact, a lot of their methods are quite bodybuilder-like. They train a body part split, they do isolation exercises to some extent. These guys are powerlifters and powerlifters train in a more traditional “gym rat” sort of a style. And you can’t argue with the results Louie’s guys get. They also do some “CrossFit-esque” constantly varied (or at least regularly varied) movement and there’s some functional training in there too.

Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, Strongman – Let’s call it the “Strength Community”

Let’s forget Flex and Muscle and Fitness for a few minutes (forever?). Let’s talk about some of the GOOD stuff that has come out of the Strength Community over the years…

There actually has been some real training going on in the bodybuilding world. It may not be functional training and there “might” be some evidence of drug use, but you can’t watch Dorian Yates training in his prime and say he isn’t strong or he isn’t working hard. Dorain was a lot of what inspired me to train when I was in my 20s.

And there are all the guys from Arnold’s era and before. These were some STRONG guys. And some still crossed over and competed in World’s Strongest Man competitions. I think Arnold’s day was about the end of the “realistic” bodybuilder bodies though.

This was the cutting-edge of hardcore training at the time. These guys trained hard and were strong. They probably wouldn’t have had a very good Fran or Helen, but that’s another story. Still, they were strength athletes and they were the best at what they did. And I STILL feel inspired when I see a picture of Arnold in his prime…

There is ONE thing Bodybuilders can do better than anyone else

Put your preconceived ideas aside for a minute and just think about this. Does anyone, anywhere have the in-depth, practical knowledge of body and hormone manipulation that the bodybuilding community does? If I was looking to figure out how to use chemistry to enhance my performance I’d go to the bodybuilding underground. Not Flex magazine but the underground and the internet. There are some smart, smart guys out there who will never appear in a newsstand magazine or have a column in one. As a matter of fact, I’m already looking into some stuff in this community that could have some really positive implications with adrenal fatigue. Don’t worry, it’s legal…

My point is, if you want to talk about nutrient repartitioning, blood sugar levels, nutrient timing, practical protein chemistry, insulin sensitivity, carbohydrate tolerance, etc., the bodybuilding community is the place to go.

If you want to talk about performance enhancement though chemistry, these are some of the smartest and most experienced people out there…

Powerlifting and Strongman are making inroads into CrossFit

As more and more CrossFitters – people have come from highly diverse athletic backgrounds – continue to be exposed to things like Powerlifting and Strongman within the CrossFit community, I think boundaries will continue to break down and more and more of the good, useful stuff from these disciplines will start to infiltrate the community. I also think some of the pharmaceutical and supplement stuff will come with it. And that’s not necessarily a completely bad thing.

I’m not mad at you anymore, Bill…

Actually, I should be happy that my anger with Phillips has finally faded. That only took 12 years. How could anyone be mad at someone who has helped so many couch potatoes transform their miserable lives? Well, once upon a time, Bill ran the best hardcore bodybuilding magazine out there. Muscle Media 2000 (MM2K) was awesome. It was a hardcore, hands-on magazine that had tons training, supplement and even steroid information. It was the real deal and totally cutting-edge. They even jumped on The Zone bandwagon early (this was the mid-90s) and regularly interviewed Barry Sears and published diets and info that went against the low-fat hysteria that was rampant at the time. That magazine was years ahead of it’s time.

It was timely that Seth Godin said this on his blog recently. It made me think of the old MM2K:

“If just one player enters the field and works to make people smarter, the competition has a hard time responding with a dumbness offensive. They can obfuscate and run confusing ads, but sooner or later, the inevitability of information spreading works in favor of those that bet on it.”

This is what Muscle Media 2000 did. They educated their audience, brought supplements that actually WORKED to the market and made the whole drug issue common knowledge. Bill’s company, EAS, was the company that ORIGINALLY brought creatine to the market. They also introduced stuff like HMB and CLA to the market. This was revolutionary stuff at the time. Even though there was no internet then, they had the “social media” thing going on pretty well too. I wrote to Bill a few times and got a personal reply every time. He even sent me some free stuff once.

Then, almost overnight, the magazine completely lost its edge. Bill dropped the very people who got him to where he was and started doing a really watered-down mainstream magazine. It collapsed shortly thereafter. T.C. Luoma, the editor-in-chief of the old MM2K actually describes some of the craziness that went on over there behind the scenes in this audio. Incidentally, T.C. is the guy who originally started T-Nation when he lost his job at MM2K.

Realistic physical role models

One of the things Bill became more and more vocal about when he was on track was the craziness inherent in the hardcore bodybuilding lifestyle. And they published some pretty funny articles that detailed the exploits of the steroid-loaded male AND female bodybuilders and those who liked to be around them. He also spoke out frequently against the hypocrisy of the Weider empire, the side-effects and health implications of steroids (they ran both sides of the issue) and excesses of the bodybuilding sub-culture. For a while, Bill was promoting a “new” bodybuilding that was more about supplements, intelligent training and cutting edge nutrition than drugs and excessive practices. They weren’t completely against using drugs – they promoted an intelligent, conservative and educated approach to using them if someone chose to.

Something that apparently has stayed with me all this time is a push for the realistic physique role models that MM2K started. I think Bill saw the writing on the wall and started moving the magazine toward a more realistic and mainstream “bodybuilder.” In the end, he seriously over-shot the mark. But he was on the right track for a while.

One of the guys that got a lot of exposure was Danny Hester:

Danny was in DAMN GOOD shape! And he had an appealing look that was muscular but not freakish. Two other guys who got a lot of press in the old MM2K were Bill’s brother, Shawn Phillips and Joe Lazaro.

Bill's brother, Shawn Phillips, in the mid-90s

As a matter of fact, Shawn Phillips was one of the first adopters of HIIT training. At least the first that I had heard of. I remember he had this program with stair sprints done in intervals. Sounds a lot like CrossFit, huh?

Here are some of the current CrossFit bodies. Achievable, realistic, healthy AND they perform…

Another trend regarding role models that Stuart McRobert promoted in his magazine HARDGAINER was the use of pre-60s era bodybuilders. This was before steroids came into widespread use and these were much healthier and more achievable bodies.

A BIG thank you to www.oldtimestrongman.com for the pics!

I wonder if CrossFit, the Paleo movement and kettlebells will combine with stuff like Strongman and Westside to create a sort of hybrid “bodybuilder” who looks great, performs great, values health and maybe even dabbles with some of the less accepted stuff that goes on in the strength community.

My predictions

Here are my predictions for the coming years in the CrossFit community and Physical Culture in general:

• We’ll continue to see people leave mainstream and globo-gym fitness. More so, I think we’ll see people from other disciplines like bodybuilding, powerlifting and strongman adopt CrossFit methods to make their sports and training better. CrossFit methods work.
• In the CrossFit community I think we’ll continue to see the drive toward specialization and sub-niches, particularly in the strength disciplines. I think there are going to be some CrossFit strength (Oh! I better brand that!) sub-niches springing up as things like powerlifting and strongman continue to infiltrate CrossFit.
• I think the kettlebell community will remain relatively fractionated and unchanged. And most CrossFitters will continue to swing kettlebells ALL WRONG. I, for one, plan to get more Kettlebell Sport into my training this year and see where it takes me.
• Within the next year or two, I think there will be more experimentation with supplements, gray-market pharmaceuticals and more in some CrossFit niches. Most notably, these will be the ones with a strength bias and a lineage that traces back to established strength sports.
• Paleolithic diet and lifestyle are going to really take off and get big. Owing in part to CrossFit and part to the poor health that’s getting more and more prevalent around us, Paleo is going to get really big and popular. It will be interesting to see how anyone REALLY capitalizes on Paleo since you can’t really sell a supplement to people who eat a primitive diet.
• I also think Robb Wolf’s new book – The Paleo Solution – will be one of the main factors in bringing the lifestyle mainstream. His style and attitude are so accessible and “un-guru-like” that I think he’ll break down a lot of barriers without even trying.

ttys

Adam

This has been an exciting month for me. The March 2010 issue of MILO just came out and my article “CrossFit for Lifters” was in it. I’m unfortunately not able to reprint the article here, but here’s the magazine cover and a link to Ironmind’s MILO site.

In my article, I explain some of the basics of CrossFit and the theory behind it and explain how a weightliter or strength athlete can incorporate some CrossFit into his or her training to get an improvement in cardio and fitness.

Here’s an exerpt dealing with implementing CrossFit within an existing strength athlete’s program…

“There are a number of different ways you can incorporate CrossFit style work into your training. Since I assume you’re already training hard and heavy with a barbell, I’ll make the following suggestions:

• Do the CrossFit work on a rest day or substitute CrossFit for traditional cardio on your cardio days. CrossFit workouts are brief but very intense. Keep a close eye on your overall training volume and add in the new training carefully keeping aware of its effects on your recovery and progression.
• Try one of the CrossFit benchmark workouts that looks interesting and record your time. I’d suggest Linda, Helen, Angie or Grace because they use movements and equipment you’ll likely be familiar with. The deadlift burpee workout above is also a good one.
• At a minimum, try about six CrossFit workouts over the course of the month. Always do a different workout and try to vary the content of the workouts as much as possible. That is, don’t choose the same type of workout for all of them. Mix it up and choose workouts that are as diverse as possible. Record your time and other metrics for all of them.
• Also, push yourself to do things you’re not comfortable doing in the CrossFit sessions. If you hate running, emphasize workouts that require running. If you love doing barbell work emphasize CrossFit workouts that use bodyweight callisthenic movements. The point is to train outside of your comfort zone at a very high intensity.

Repeat the SAME benchmark workout you did at the beginning of the month and see what your time is. It should be faster – possibly a lot faster. At this point, you might also want to review your training log and see if there are any other improvements you can ascertain.

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://adamfarrah.net/blog/MILO-CrossFit-lifters]

I vaguely know someone who’s in the mainstream fitness and bodybuilding industry and I contacted this person about possibly talking to a friend of mine who is considering fitness modeling as a career choice. Now, my friend is still in High School and is looking into careers for herself. Anyway, mainstream fitness writes me back and says happy to talk to my friend but wants $50. “Can’t work for free.”

Are you fucking kidding me! You want money to talk to a girl in High School who has a few questions! WTF!

One more reason mainstream fitness is dying out and CrossFit and Kettlebells are taking over.

In the meantime, I emailed Becca Borowski, Program Director at CrossFit LA to ask her a question about a certification she had. She emailed me right back with a really nice response. She didn’t even ask me for money! LOL

Or, take my friend Merle McKenzie from CrossFit USA in Berlin, CT. Merle has helped me out so much in the 6 months or so I’ve known him. He’s given me training and business advice, introduced me to people, fed me. Now we have a good relationship where we help each other out.

I also have a good relationship with Ken Blackburn from IKFF.  Another great guy who likes helping people out.

Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader is the same. Great guy and always happy to help out.

This “New” fitness community that’s forming around Kettlebells and CrossFit truly is “Open Source” like Coach Glassman says. People with a shared passion coming together and learning and sharing and growing – and becoming more and more successful because of it!

This truly is a New Economy Web 2.0 movement. And the Old School, Bricks and Mortar world can’t die out soon enough for me!

Now that I’m thinking about it, about a month ago I had a really shitty experience with the editor of a mainstream online bodybuilding and fitness magazine. This guy was the biggest douche I’ve talked to in a very long time. I had networked to him through a very high profile guy I know who his magazine had interviewed – so I was coming in with a solid reference – and I offered to write some content for the magazine on Kettlebells or CrossFit. The dude basically pissed all over me for a few emails and closed by saying “we’ve done about all we’re going to do on CrossFit and Kettlebells.” Yeah, wouldn’t want to lose space that could go toward another article about biceps curls or some useless supplement you have a 10,000% markup on…

I actually recall feeling violated when the interaction with this guy was over! LOL It really was THAT bad!

These guys are fossils and they don’t even know it yet… It reminds me of the guys who thought the “automobile” was a fad and kept making horse drawn carriages at the turn of the Twentieth Century. “Yeah, that Henry Ford guy is nuts…”

Old school fitness is dying – SEE YA!

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://deathbywallball.com/blog/crossfit-kettlebells-rule-world]