Food fight

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Fri Feb 25, 2000 4:29 pm

Honey, you lost that loving feeling... Maybe I should buy that diet book from that new supermodel. That'll solve all my problems.

Yea...the new supermodel who practices bulemic binges and keeps that "super" look with an occasional heroine prescription.

You too can look like Joe Stud, have a ripped, shaved chest, and have larged-bosomed, lithe blonds grabbing your oil-slathered, tan legs as you stand by your Maseratti! Just buy Joe Weeker's protein powder with HMG, TPC, ABC and gluconeocytochromomastedon-6.

Did we mention that Joe just came back from a visit to that famous plastic surgeon who rescued him from a bad case of gynecomastia? And now he's on finasteride to correct the hair loss problem along with the enarged prostate. Bummer thing what those anabolic steriods do. Don't you hate it when we have to replace these models so often?

Is this all that outrageous in Middle America? Maybe not. Recently there was a conference of all the "diet gurus" We had the famous Dr. Atkins (Eat more meat!), Dr. Barry Sears (Stop that insulin!), Dr. Dean Ornish (Ban that fat!) and a few other notable "experts"....disagreeing on what is the best diet for America. But one thing that most of them agree on - it's a great time to write and sell diet books. And while they argue, the U.S. is suffering from an epidemic of obesity. Americans can't buy enough of their books, and they read them while their waists and their health deteriorate.

What's going on here?

1) People are basically lazy and time-strapped.

2) Society is catering to the lazy - with easy access to junk food.

3) People are flush with cash and short on common sense.

4) Nobody listens to their mother - eat your vegetables and get off your butt.

Sigh......

Gilbert MacIntyre · Post by **Gilbert MacIntyre** » Fri Feb 25, 2000 6:12 pm

At 42 I look down and see the abs aren't exactly washboard anymore, but their close. The shoulders, arms, and legs are still muscular and hard. Standing 6'1" I tip the scales at 178 lbs. If it slows down in front of me I'll kill it and eat it. Chips, ice cream, chocolate bars, pizza, creams, milk, hot and spicy, what ever I want.

I get a kick out of the people who will watch me eat and say "you're lucky, you never gain weight." If you want to put it in your body and not show up around your middle, burn it off. One of the greatest side benefits of working out all the time is being able to eat what I want, in any amount I want. I do try to eat wise most of the time, but if I want to pig out look out.

Here's my book... GET OFF THE SOFA!!! Nobody ever got in shape by watching spandex babe work out.

BILLY B · Post by **BILLY B** » Fri Feb 25, 2000 6:12 pm

In my experience the active lifestyle is the best way to get and stay in shape. Find something that is fun to DO and do it alot. Anyone ever hear of Karate?

Mary S · Post by **Mary S** » Fri Feb 25, 2000 6:14 pm

Damn....I guess I should have copyrighted my idea

Shelly King · Post by **Shelly King** » Fri Feb 25, 2000 7:27 pm

Please, I'm still 4 cans shy of a 6-pack and about 20 lbs from ideal...but that's alot better than it was 7 months ago. Get off the couch is right...and get your butt to the dojo.

Kevin Mackie · Post by **Kevin Mackie** » Fri Feb 25, 2000 8:32 pm

Gilbert,

The physically fit can enjoy their vices..
Lord Percival

Use it or lose it.
Jimmy Connors

Kevin

RACastanet · Post by **RACastanet** » Sat Feb 26, 2000 1:33 am

Remember, chocolate is rich in antioxidants. Flavinoids I believe. So it should be a part of your balanced diet.

Rich

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Sat Feb 26, 2000 2:15 am

An exercise that *REALLY* gave me a workout that we did in class recently...
Do a kata at a relatively quick pace. Then, have everyone line up and sprint from one side of the dojo and back (you should do the kata at the far side of the dojo). Do the kata again and repeat till you've raced across the floor 3 times. Rest for a minute or 2 and do it again. Make the rests longer as you see people looking like they're gonna drop, or can hear them panting loudly at the end of the line. Oh, and you'll want to stop eventually.

Adam
The lowly (and very sore) white belt

Mary S · Post by **Mary S** » Sat Feb 26, 2000 5:50 am

hmmmm...how about balanced meals and an active lifestyle....gee...maybe I should write a book....

...no autographs please...

Ken Read · Post by **Ken Read** » Sun Feb 27, 2000 7:04 am

This is a glib thread from what is usually a consistantly thoughtful and insightful forum.

It is true - Northa Americans have never been fatter, but that's not because overweight people are stupider or lazier than we buff martial artists. In fact, lots of obese people have looked at themselves in the mirror and decided to make a change for themselves, and gave themselves the same advice offered here as self-evident: moderate the diet, up the activity levels.

And, boy, do they! The gyms are crowded with people working very, very hard, whilst eating very, very little, and often not for the first time in their lifelong battle against fat.

The depressing thing is that most of them are failing. Aside from offending the self satisfied fit among us by their very existance, the worst thing about this situation is the sense of failure these people live with as a result.

Why should we care about this? We should care about this because we see these people on our dojo doorsteps. And the fact is, we are not well equipped to help them with this serious and challenging problem any more than the fad diet authors we are also ridiculing here. It is the very intractability of this problem that makes these authors rich.

I'm hoping to gain some insight to this important topic from future installments of Sensei Glasheen's Resistance training series on this Forum. I haven't learned anything useful on this thread, though! Come on folks, I've always said, and I'll bet you will agree, that people should find themselves treated with more respect than they are used to when dealing with martial artists, not less!

Brat · Post by **Brat** » Sun Feb 27, 2000 8:04 am

The problem with most of the fittness buffs, and diet gurus that wee see plastered all over the covers of magazines is that we are seeing them in their "peakest" condition. I have more muscle in my abdominal area than some people have on their entire bodies(figuratively of course.) But I seldom ever look as good as some of the sports nuts who I see flaunting their"washboards" on the cover of fittness. For a while, I kind of thought that I was a slob and couldn't keep the weight off. When I would train intensively for a competition, I would drop about five pounds and lose about an inch of fat off my stomach. I would look as good as anyone-probably better than any of the Greek God ab guys you see. But 2 weeks after my competition was over I would start packing on the pounds again. I felt pretty guilty until a bodybuilder friend of mine told me that he experienced the same thing. I came to the realization that this must hold true for our "role models" as well. I can train like hell for 3 weeks straight and get my ripped picture taken in my abdonminal prime-then I'm immortalized! You would look at it and say "man that Brat is some stud! He must work out 23 hours a day or just be naturally buff." You don't see me when I've went back to my naturally "fat" state. Most people in society don't realize that its physically impossible for most people to look like that all the time. And health club marketeers and numerous other charlatans have made billions purporting the falsity. Also people who are fat and try to work it off don't often have a very good idea of how weight loss relates to working out. My mother is a classic example. She started walking 1 mile a day and dropped five pounds immediately. Now six months later..shes not lost anymore weight. I told her that she'd "plateau'd" and needed to change her workout and/or increase the intensity. I have found this to be the single greatest deterrent to sticking with a workout. And most of the advice I hear coming from the "profeesionals" is bogus as their goal is not so muxh to actually help you better yourself as it is to sell you some s*&$.

BILLY B · Post by **BILLY B** » Mon Feb 28, 2000 1:26 am

I think the original idea behind this thread was to point to common sense and knowledge, and help the fat martial artists out there! Eat moderately and exercise frequently - period. I myself carry about 5-10 "uneccesary" pounds. I know why. I eat too much for the amount of exercise I get- period. Lets stop making excuses for ourselves, study the facts, and take responsibility!! Fat people do have bad habits and a bad habit of making excuses for those habits. I think WE as martial artists can help them as we help ourselves.

I too look forward to the resistance training information!

Ken Read · Post by **Ken Read** » Mon Feb 28, 2000 6:08 am

I think Brat is right. There is a lot of mythology and simplistic thinking around this topic fueling the diet book and spa industries.

Things just aren't as simple as we might like. What happens when you eat less and exercise more? You lose weight. What happens next? You gain back more than you started with. Because you are weak and irresponsible? No, because you have cued your body for starvation management and it has taken strong measures to protect you from this calamity by storing away as much reserve as it can for next time.

The determination to stick with starvation diets and under-fueled exercise programs is eventually overridden by the body's survival mechanisms - which will not be denied.

I'm staring to think that in order to lose fat and gain muscle we have to eat more, not less, and often. And we must exercise but I'm thinking that resistance training beats exclusively aerobic exercise hands down, but not too much or too often!

Is "common sense" always true? Is the truth sometimes counter-intuitive?

BILLY B · Post by **BILLY B** » Mon Feb 28, 2000 7:18 am

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ken Read:
Is "common sense" always true? Is the truth sometimes counter-intuitive?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Mr. Read,

Common sense may not always be true. I see your point. However, in this case I don't think you are on target. You CAN control your weight as Brat states. If I want to be athletic I should act like an athlete. If my fat to muscle ratio goes up, I am responsible to bring it down. IT IS NOT UNHEALTHY TO BE HEALTHY! No one here suggested over-training or under-nourishing oneself.

Is the truth counter-intuitive? Maybe, but its true. If your intuition is false, should you follow it?

Fedele Cacia · Post by **Fedele Cacia** » Mon Feb 28, 2000 7:19 am

Ever hear the phrase, “you are what you eat”, not you are how much you eat.

Although the rules change slightly from person to person, the blue prints stay pretty much the same, choose your foods wisely, and eat well.

Other than dynamic tension, or what ever you want to call it, for small rewards, resistance training is the only way to gain muscle. But you’ll have a hard job loosing any amount of fat that way, unless you specifically gear your workouts toward it, in which case you’ll not gain much mass.

Good luck,
Stay fit,

Fedele

[This message has been edited by Fedele Cacia (edited February 28, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Fedele Cacia (edited February 28, 2000).]