Disclaimer
STOP! Before you continue, here are the obligatory disclaimers that seem to accompany anything that can be looked at as diet advice:
1. This is a post about exercise, diet and how to lose weight. I understand, for many these are the most annoying posts around, so if your ego does not allow you to accept information that contradicts the way to stuff your gaping maw or you're just not into this shit then don’t read it.
2. This is an opinion piece that is based on my own personal research and experimentation. Any advice I give on what to eat or not eat is based on books and studies I have read and personally applied to my body. I’m not a doctor or a scientist and this is not medical advice.
If you’re still here, read on my sweet child.
I Workout So I Can Eat What I Want and Not Get Fat
How’s that working out for ya, there, Big Chief? Is health's common saboteur, visceral fat, increasing in volume and smothering your beloved organs more and more year after year? If so, your approach of working out to offset your poor dietary choices isn’t working and you're not alone.
You ever hear the phrases "you can't outrun a bad diet" or "abs are made in the kitchen"? Well, research is showing that there may be some truth to those statements. Well credentialed Canadian author, Timothy Caulfield (Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy; Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Public Health; and Research Director, Health Law Institute), has gathered a pile of research in his book, “The Cure For Everything,” supporting the idea that exercise is more effective for maintaining your weight as you age rather than exercise as a primary means of weight loss. Diet undoubtedly takes the role of a primary means of weight loss. There are thousands of ways that exercise contributes to health and longevity so definitely do indulge in some deep, glorious bicep curls on the regs. Just don’t use it solely for weight loss without consideration for diet. Exercise as a primary means of weight loss is simply one of the biggest health myths out there!
Think about it. How hard is it to burn 500 calories in a short amount of time? Most people need to work out vigorously for close to an hour to accomplish that feat. Now, how many calories are in a Starbucks beverage and blueberry muffin? And, how fast do you think those calorie packed treats get in your belly, knock off one third of your recommended daily caloric intake (RDI), and spike your blood sugar and consequently, insulin which initiates fat storage? One of those things is way easier and way yummier than the other. Unless you think a one hour slog on the treadmill or a half hour HIIT session is yummy then I believe the list of folks that thinks like you is longer than the list of folks that think like me. In other words, in reality most people, for many reasons, don’t or can’t stick to a regular exercise practice, never mind one that can actually offset their current diet.
Evolutionarily Programmed to Eat Like an Asshole
Yeah, if you want to get rid of any unwanted fat, you're gonna have to harden up and face your unhealthy food addictions head on. It can be a battle because you are dealing with the same opiate receptors that drugs like heroine, morphine and oxycontin play on. Only, instead of making you high, the opiates from some “food products” make you hungry. In other words, they begin to control your behavior by calling you hither towards the cookies, ice cream and doughnuts- an evolutionary survival trait that made our hunter-gatherer ancestors eat as much as they could when they came across a rare calorie rich carbohydrate source. Just seeing the words “ice cream” and “doughnuts,” you probably want to have some right now lol! I can feel it as I spill this ink. We still have the evolutionary trait that tells us when something is sweet or rich, “EAT LOTS OF IT” because, as a hunter-gatherer, we may not come across a calorie source like that for a long time. The problem is, we barely have to get off our ass to have access to rich calorie sources in our soft new world full of treats scientifically designed to play on the chemical reactions in your brain.
In my opinion, the best way to lose weight through diet is to begin eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible and completely give up refined simple carbs in order to stop the ridiculous, uncontrollable cravings.
A good rule of thumb for shopping is to stick to the perimeter of the grocery store. Fill your cart with fruits, vegetables, grass-fed meats, free range eggs and foods that don't come in a package. Stick it to the man and get punk-rock about your diet by staying out of the middle isles where all the fancy food-like products are! We don’t need your packaged food, maaaaan!
Socially Unacceptable to Eat How You Want to Eat
One major problem with doing this is looking like a complete weirdo in public gatherings. People are gonna bust your stones because you don’t eat “normal.” You’re going to have to find food choices on the menu or at social events that suit the way you eat. The way you deal with this is to harden the fuck up! If you are so sensitive that you can’t take a dig or two from your buds about not eating bread or pasta, then you may need to look into talking to a mental health professional. I’m kidding of course, but it is something you encounter and need to have a plan for.
The way I deal with it is to stay low key and not bring any attention to how I eat. Don't preach about your diet! I stay reasonable and flexible in how I approach avoiding unhealthy foods. For example, if beef on a bun and coleslaw is the meal for a work meeting, it’s beef on a giant pile of coleslaw for me. If we’re at a restaurant and the salad I order comes with breaded chicken, I just deal with it and eat it. In the grand scheme of things, a couple pieces of breaded chicken aren’t going to derail what I’m trying to accomplish. I’m not celiac; I’m just a dude trying to keep visceral belly fat from taking me out early.
The Glycemic Index
The glycemic index (GI) compares how much a food spikes blood sugar levels compared to a standard food, which is glucose (sugar) or white bread. It uses a scale of 1-100, with the standard sugar getting a GI score of 100. Stay away from foods that are high on the GI like packaged snacks, cookies, breads, pastas, candy, etc. Simply explained, the higher a food is on the GI, the more it spikes your blood sugar. Many fruits score high on the GI, but they are packed full of fibre and other vitamins and chemicals that affect their GI load. I don’t find they affect my body like refined sugars and other high GI wheat products do. You aren’t going to get fat eating fruit, you silly goose.
If you wanna pack on pounds and go down a road of bad health and disease, then continually spike your blood sugar. Foods like refined wheat (which are what most packaged snacks contain) and foods with high refined free sugar content are extremely addictive and wreak havoc on your body by causing inflammation, fat storage and aging. After a week of not eating high glycemic foods, among other health benefits, from an aesthetics standpoint you'll feel less fluffy and your skin will literally feel thinner and closer to those rippling abs you've been hiding since your twenties.
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| 2014- When I first began to experiment with a low GI, whole food diet. This is actually what happened after cutting out wheat products and simple sugars. My exercise didn't change. Just my diet. |
Go to Battle…For a Week or So
Remember, in the first week you will battle intense cravings, headaches, irritability and other symptoms after giving up processed carbohydrates. But, I promise you that will go away and you'll begin to become addicted to disappearing fat, decreased inflammation and arthritis pain, and an overall renewal of energy and vitality. Combined with keeping a casual eye on calories in verses calories out, keeping your diet in the bottom half of the GI allows for effortless weight loss and personal control over what you shove into your face. After a week or two staying low on the GI, you will be able to say no to desert without feeling deprived.
Experiment With Your Own Body
Challenge yourself to try giving up packaged food, wheat products and high GI foods for a week. It's hard, but you need to feel what it's like and how easy it becomes to not crush three doughnuts at the office or a bag of candy from the gas station- personal battles I’m currently winning.
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| 2014- After a few months, I went from a swollen, inflamed, puffy guy to single digit fat percentage because of how I chose to eat. I exercised the same the whole time; HIIT of course. |
Remember, don't let your education about what you should and shouldn't eat come solely from governments or large food corporations. Money, lobbying and economics influence what they tell you. One of the things "big food" and anyone they're in bed with tells the public is that you can offset your food choices by exercising regularly. "Eat the snacks and as long as you exercise you won't get fat." An obvious thing to tell people when you want them eating lots of food in order to fulfill their duty to their share holders. Pull nutrition information from a variety of sources- pay attention to who is funding the study or article- and make up your own rational opinion about how you should eat.
Stay well and, as the kids say, stay woke!
RG
