Thursday, December 24, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Intrafitt Holiday Hours
December 21-23 regular scheduled classes or 1 on 1 training.
December 24-27 Closed
December 28-30 regular schedule classes or 1 on 1 training.
Intrafitt Re-opens January 4th.
If there is any changes in class schedule I will post it ASAP.
December 24-27 Closed
December 28-30 regular schedule classes or 1 on 1 training.
Intrafitt Re-opens January 4th.
If there is any changes in class schedule I will post it ASAP.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Orthorexia And The New Rules of Clean Eating - Part 2
Orthorexia And The New Rules of Clean Eating - Part 2
In part one, I described the growing obsession many people have with eating only the purest, healthiest foods, aka “clean eating.” You’d think that nothing but good would come from that, but some experts today dislike the concept of clean foods because it implies a dichotomy where other foods, by default, are “dirty” or forbidden - as in, you can never, ever eat them again (imagine life without chocolate, or pizza… or beer! you guys). Some physicians and psychologists even believe that if taken to an extreme, a fixation on healthy food qualifies as a new eating disorder called orthorexia.
Personally, I have no issues with the phrase “clean eating.” Even if you choose to eat clean nearly 100% of the time, I don’t see how that qualifies as a psychological disorder of any kind (I reckon people who eat at McDonalds every day are the ones who need a shrink).
However, I also think most Burn The Fat blog readers would agree that any behavior - washing your hands, cleaning your house, or even exercise or eating health food - can become obsessive-compulsive and dysfunctional if it takes over your life or is taken to an extreme. In the case of diet and exercise, it could also lead to or overlap with anorexia.
It’s debatable whether orthorexia is a distinct eating disorder, but I’m not against using the word to help classify a specific type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I think it’s real.
As some of the reader comments from part one reveal (rather ironically in a discussion on orthorexia), many people are quite “enthusiastic” in defending – or preaching about - their dietary beliefs: no meat, no grains, no dairy, only organic, only raw, only what God made, and on and on the rigid all-or-nothing rules go.
What people choose to eat is often so sacred to them, it makes for tricky business when you’re a nutrition educator. Sometimes I don’t feel like telling anyone what to eat, but simply setting a personal example and showing people how I do it, like, “Hey guys, here is how natural bodybuilders eat to get so ripped and muscular. It may not suit you, but it works for us. Take it or leave it.”
On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that there’s got to be a way to better help the countless individuals who haven’t yet formulated their own philosophies, and who find nutrition overwhelmingly confusing. For many people, even a simple walk down the aisles of a grocery store, and trying to decipher the food labels and nutrition claims is enough to trigger an anxiety attack.
That’s where I hope this is useful. I can’t draw the line for you, or tell you what to eat, but I can suggest a list of “new rules” for clean eating which simplifies nutrition and clears up confusion, while giving you more freedom, balance, life enjoyment and better results at the same time.
New Rule #1: Define what clean eating means to you
Obviously, clean eating is not a scientific term. Most people define clean eating as avoiding processed foods, chemicals and artificial ingredients and choosing natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. If that works for you, then use it. However, the possible definitions are endless. I’ve seen forum arguments about whether protein powder is “clean.” Arguments are a waste of time. Ultimately, what clean eating means is up to you to define. Whether your beliefs and values have you restrict or expand on the general definition, define it you must, keeping in mind that your definition may be different than other’s.
New Rule #2: Always obey the law of energy balance
There’s one widely held belief about food that hurts people and perpetuates the obesity problem because it’s simply not true. It’s the idea that calories don’t matter for weight loss, as long as you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods. Some people think that if you eat only clean foods, you’re guaranteed to lose weight and stay lean. The truth is that eating too much of anything gets stored as fat. Yes, you can become obese eating 100% clean, natural foods. There’s more to good nutrition than calories in versus calories out, but the energy balance equation is always there.
New Rule #3: Remember that “foods” are not fattening, “excess calories” are
There’s a widespread fear today that certain foods will automatically turn into fat. Carbohydrates – particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars - are still high on the hit list of feared foods, and so are fatty foods, owing to their high caloric density (9 calories per gram). Foods that contain fat and sugar (think donuts) are considered the most fattening of all. But what if you ate only one small donut and stayed in a calorie deficit for the day – would you still say that donut was fattening?
If you want to say certain foods are fattening, you certainly can, but what you really mean is that some foods are calorie dense, highly palatable, not very satiating and eating them might even stimulate your appetite for more (betcha can’t eat just one!). Therefore, they’re likely to cause you to eat more calories than you need. Conversely, “non-fattening” foods have no magical properties, they’re simply low in caloric density, highly filling and non-appetite stimulating.
New Rule #4: Understand the health-bodyfat paradox
Two of the biggest reasons people choose to eat clean are health and weight loss. Health and body composition are intertwined, but dietary rules for health and weight loss are not one in the same. Weight gains or losses are dictated primarily by calorie quantity. Health is dictated primarily by calorie quality. That’s the paradox: You can lose weight on a 100% junk food diet, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy. You can get healthier on an all natural clean food diet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight… and if you gain too much weight, then you start getting unhealthy. To be healthy and lean requires the right combination of calorie quantity and quality, not one or the other.
New Rule #5: Forbidden foods are forbidden.
Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat, the more the steam builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release valve, eventually the pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later. But if you let off a little steam by occasionally having that slice of pizza or whatever is your favorite food, that relieves the pressure.
Alas, you never even felt the urge to binge… because you already had your pizza and the urge was satisfied. Since the “cheat meal” was planned and you obeyed the law of calorie balance, you stayed in control and it had little or no effect on your fat loss results. Ironically, you overcome your cravings by giving in to them, with two caveats: not too often and not too much.
New Rule #6: Set your own compliance rule
Many health and nutrition professionals suggest a 90% compliance rule because if you choose clean foods 90% of the time, it’s easy to control your calories, you consume enough nutrients for good health, and what you eat the other 10% of the time doesn’t seem to matter much. Suppose you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks every day, a total of 35 feedings per week. 90% compliance would mean following your clean eating plan for about 31 or 32 of those weekly feedings. The other 3 or 4 times per week, you eat whatever you want (as long as you obey rule #2 and keep the calories in check)
You’ll need to decide for yourself where to set your own rule. A 90% compliance rule is a popular, albeit arbitrary number – a best guess at how much “clean eating” will give you optimal health. Some folks stay lean and healthy with 80%. Others say they don’t even desire junk food and they eat 99% clean, indulging perhaps only once or twice a month.
One thing is for certain – the majority of your calories should come from natural nutrient-dense foods – not only for good health, but also because what you eat most of the time becomes your habitual pattern. Habit patterns are tough to break and what you do every day over the long term is what really counts the most.
New Rule #7: Have “free” meals, not “cheat” meals
Cheating presupposes that you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. That’s why you feel guilty when you cheat. Guilt can be one of the biggest diet destroyers. Consider referring to these meals that are off your regular plan as “free meals” instead of “cheat meals.” If having free meals is part of your plan right from the start, then you’re not cheating are you? So don’t call it that. What can you eat for your free meals? Anything you want. Otherwise, it wouldn’t truly be a free meal, would it?
People sometimes tell me that my bodybuilding diet and lifestyle are “too strict.” I find that amusing because I love eating clean 95-99% of the time and I consider it easy. I had a butter-drizzled steak, a glass of wine, and chocolate sin cake for dessert to celebrate my last birthday. I had a couple slices of pizza just four weeks before my last competition (and still stepped on stage at 4.5% body fat). Oh, and I’m really looking forward to my mom’s pumpkin pie and Christmas cake too. Why? How? Because as strict as my lifestyle might appear to some people, I’ve learned how to enjoy free meals and I will eat ANYTHING I want - with no guilt. Meanwhile, my critics are often people with rules that NEVER allow those foods to ever cross their lips.
New Rule #8: For successful weight control, focus on compliance to a calorie deficit, not just compliance to a food list
Dietary compliance doesn’t just mean eating the right foods, it means eating the right amount of food. You might be doing a terrific job at eating only the foods “authorized” by your nutrition program, but if you eat too many “clean” foods, you will still get fat. On the fat loss side of health-bodyfat paradox, the quantity of food is the pivotal factor, not the quality of food. If fat loss is your goal and you’re stubbornly determined to be 100% strict about your nutrition, then be 100% strict about maintaining your calorie deficit.
Lesson #9: Avoid all or none attitudes and dichotomous thinking
If you make a mistake, it doesn’t ruin an entire 12 week program, a whole week and not even an entire day. What ruins a program is thinking that you must either be on or off your diet and allowing one meal off your program to completely derail you. All or nothing thinking is the great killer of diet programs.
Even if they don’t believe that one meal will set them back physically, many “clean eaters” feel like a single cheat is a moral failure. They are terrified to eat any processed foods because they look at foods as good or bad rather than looking at the degree of processing or the frequency of consuming them.
Rest assured, a single meal of ANYTHING, if the calories don’t exceed your energy needs, will have virtually no impact on your condition. It’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do most of the time, day after day, that determines your long term results.
New Rule #10: Focus more on results, less on methods
I’m not sure whether it’s sad or laughable that most people get so married to their methods that they stop paying attention to results. Overweight people often praise their diet program and the guru that created it, even though they’ve plateaud and haven’t lost any weight in months, or the weight they lost has begun to creep back on. Health food fanatics keep eating the same, even when they’re sick and weak and not getting any stronger or healthier.
Why would someone continue doing more of the same even when it’s not working? One word: habit! Beliefs and behavior patterns are so ingrained at the unconscious level, you repeat the same behaviors every day virtually on automatic pilot. Defending existing beliefs and doing it the way you’ve always done it is a lot easier than changing.
In the final analysis, results are what counts: weight, body composition, lean muscle, performance, strength, blood pressure, blood lipids, and everything else you want to improve. Are they improving or not? If not, perhaps it’s time for a change.
Concluding words of wisdom
We need rules. Trying to eat “intuitively” or just “wing it” from the start is a recipe for failure. Ironically, intuitive eating does not come intuitively. Whether you use my Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle program or a different program that suits your lifestyle better, you must have a plan.
After following your plan for a while, your constructive new behaviors eventually turn over to unconscious control (a process commonly known as developing habits). But you’ll never reach that hallowed place of “unconscious competence” unless you start with planning, structure, discipline and rules.
Creating nutritional rules does NOT create more rule breakers. Only unrealistic or unnecessary rules create rule breakers. That’s why these new rules of clean eating are based on a neat combination of structure and flexibility. If you have too much flexibility and not enough structure, you no longer have a plan. If you have too much structure and not enough flexibility, you have a plan you can’t stick with.
To quickly sum it all up: Relax your diet a bit! But not too much!
In part one, I described the growing obsession many people have with eating only the purest, healthiest foods, aka “clean eating.” You’d think that nothing but good would come from that, but some experts today dislike the concept of clean foods because it implies a dichotomy where other foods, by default, are “dirty” or forbidden - as in, you can never, ever eat them again (imagine life without chocolate, or pizza… or beer! you guys). Some physicians and psychologists even believe that if taken to an extreme, a fixation on healthy food qualifies as a new eating disorder called orthorexia.
Personally, I have no issues with the phrase “clean eating.” Even if you choose to eat clean nearly 100% of the time, I don’t see how that qualifies as a psychological disorder of any kind (I reckon people who eat at McDonalds every day are the ones who need a shrink).
However, I also think most Burn The Fat blog readers would agree that any behavior - washing your hands, cleaning your house, or even exercise or eating health food - can become obsessive-compulsive and dysfunctional if it takes over your life or is taken to an extreme. In the case of diet and exercise, it could also lead to or overlap with anorexia.
It’s debatable whether orthorexia is a distinct eating disorder, but I’m not against using the word to help classify a specific type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I think it’s real.
As some of the reader comments from part one reveal (rather ironically in a discussion on orthorexia), many people are quite “enthusiastic” in defending – or preaching about - their dietary beliefs: no meat, no grains, no dairy, only organic, only raw, only what God made, and on and on the rigid all-or-nothing rules go.
What people choose to eat is often so sacred to them, it makes for tricky business when you’re a nutrition educator. Sometimes I don’t feel like telling anyone what to eat, but simply setting a personal example and showing people how I do it, like, “Hey guys, here is how natural bodybuilders eat to get so ripped and muscular. It may not suit you, but it works for us. Take it or leave it.”
On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that there’s got to be a way to better help the countless individuals who haven’t yet formulated their own philosophies, and who find nutrition overwhelmingly confusing. For many people, even a simple walk down the aisles of a grocery store, and trying to decipher the food labels and nutrition claims is enough to trigger an anxiety attack.
That’s where I hope this is useful. I can’t draw the line for you, or tell you what to eat, but I can suggest a list of “new rules” for clean eating which simplifies nutrition and clears up confusion, while giving you more freedom, balance, life enjoyment and better results at the same time.
New Rule #1: Define what clean eating means to you
Obviously, clean eating is not a scientific term. Most people define clean eating as avoiding processed foods, chemicals and artificial ingredients and choosing natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. If that works for you, then use it. However, the possible definitions are endless. I’ve seen forum arguments about whether protein powder is “clean.” Arguments are a waste of time. Ultimately, what clean eating means is up to you to define. Whether your beliefs and values have you restrict or expand on the general definition, define it you must, keeping in mind that your definition may be different than other’s.
New Rule #2: Always obey the law of energy balance
There’s one widely held belief about food that hurts people and perpetuates the obesity problem because it’s simply not true. It’s the idea that calories don’t matter for weight loss, as long as you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods. Some people think that if you eat only clean foods, you’re guaranteed to lose weight and stay lean. The truth is that eating too much of anything gets stored as fat. Yes, you can become obese eating 100% clean, natural foods. There’s more to good nutrition than calories in versus calories out, but the energy balance equation is always there.
New Rule #3: Remember that “foods” are not fattening, “excess calories” are
There’s a widespread fear today that certain foods will automatically turn into fat. Carbohydrates – particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars - are still high on the hit list of feared foods, and so are fatty foods, owing to their high caloric density (9 calories per gram). Foods that contain fat and sugar (think donuts) are considered the most fattening of all. But what if you ate only one small donut and stayed in a calorie deficit for the day – would you still say that donut was fattening?
If you want to say certain foods are fattening, you certainly can, but what you really mean is that some foods are calorie dense, highly palatable, not very satiating and eating them might even stimulate your appetite for more (betcha can’t eat just one!). Therefore, they’re likely to cause you to eat more calories than you need. Conversely, “non-fattening” foods have no magical properties, they’re simply low in caloric density, highly filling and non-appetite stimulating.
New Rule #4: Understand the health-bodyfat paradox
Two of the biggest reasons people choose to eat clean are health and weight loss. Health and body composition are intertwined, but dietary rules for health and weight loss are not one in the same. Weight gains or losses are dictated primarily by calorie quantity. Health is dictated primarily by calorie quality. That’s the paradox: You can lose weight on a 100% junk food diet, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy. You can get healthier on an all natural clean food diet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight… and if you gain too much weight, then you start getting unhealthy. To be healthy and lean requires the right combination of calorie quantity and quality, not one or the other.
New Rule #5: Forbidden foods are forbidden.
Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat, the more the steam builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release valve, eventually the pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later. But if you let off a little steam by occasionally having that slice of pizza or whatever is your favorite food, that relieves the pressure.
Alas, you never even felt the urge to binge… because you already had your pizza and the urge was satisfied. Since the “cheat meal” was planned and you obeyed the law of calorie balance, you stayed in control and it had little or no effect on your fat loss results. Ironically, you overcome your cravings by giving in to them, with two caveats: not too often and not too much.
New Rule #6: Set your own compliance rule
Many health and nutrition professionals suggest a 90% compliance rule because if you choose clean foods 90% of the time, it’s easy to control your calories, you consume enough nutrients for good health, and what you eat the other 10% of the time doesn’t seem to matter much. Suppose you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks every day, a total of 35 feedings per week. 90% compliance would mean following your clean eating plan for about 31 or 32 of those weekly feedings. The other 3 or 4 times per week, you eat whatever you want (as long as you obey rule #2 and keep the calories in check)
You’ll need to decide for yourself where to set your own rule. A 90% compliance rule is a popular, albeit arbitrary number – a best guess at how much “clean eating” will give you optimal health. Some folks stay lean and healthy with 80%. Others say they don’t even desire junk food and they eat 99% clean, indulging perhaps only once or twice a month.
One thing is for certain – the majority of your calories should come from natural nutrient-dense foods – not only for good health, but also because what you eat most of the time becomes your habitual pattern. Habit patterns are tough to break and what you do every day over the long term is what really counts the most.
New Rule #7: Have “free” meals, not “cheat” meals
Cheating presupposes that you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. That’s why you feel guilty when you cheat. Guilt can be one of the biggest diet destroyers. Consider referring to these meals that are off your regular plan as “free meals” instead of “cheat meals.” If having free meals is part of your plan right from the start, then you’re not cheating are you? So don’t call it that. What can you eat for your free meals? Anything you want. Otherwise, it wouldn’t truly be a free meal, would it?
People sometimes tell me that my bodybuilding diet and lifestyle are “too strict.” I find that amusing because I love eating clean 95-99% of the time and I consider it easy. I had a butter-drizzled steak, a glass of wine, and chocolate sin cake for dessert to celebrate my last birthday. I had a couple slices of pizza just four weeks before my last competition (and still stepped on stage at 4.5% body fat). Oh, and I’m really looking forward to my mom’s pumpkin pie and Christmas cake too. Why? How? Because as strict as my lifestyle might appear to some people, I’ve learned how to enjoy free meals and I will eat ANYTHING I want - with no guilt. Meanwhile, my critics are often people with rules that NEVER allow those foods to ever cross their lips.
New Rule #8: For successful weight control, focus on compliance to a calorie deficit, not just compliance to a food list
Dietary compliance doesn’t just mean eating the right foods, it means eating the right amount of food. You might be doing a terrific job at eating only the foods “authorized” by your nutrition program, but if you eat too many “clean” foods, you will still get fat. On the fat loss side of health-bodyfat paradox, the quantity of food is the pivotal factor, not the quality of food. If fat loss is your goal and you’re stubbornly determined to be 100% strict about your nutrition, then be 100% strict about maintaining your calorie deficit.
Lesson #9: Avoid all or none attitudes and dichotomous thinking
If you make a mistake, it doesn’t ruin an entire 12 week program, a whole week and not even an entire day. What ruins a program is thinking that you must either be on or off your diet and allowing one meal off your program to completely derail you. All or nothing thinking is the great killer of diet programs.
Even if they don’t believe that one meal will set them back physically, many “clean eaters” feel like a single cheat is a moral failure. They are terrified to eat any processed foods because they look at foods as good or bad rather than looking at the degree of processing or the frequency of consuming them.
Rest assured, a single meal of ANYTHING, if the calories don’t exceed your energy needs, will have virtually no impact on your condition. It’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do most of the time, day after day, that determines your long term results.
New Rule #10: Focus more on results, less on methods
I’m not sure whether it’s sad or laughable that most people get so married to their methods that they stop paying attention to results. Overweight people often praise their diet program and the guru that created it, even though they’ve plateaud and haven’t lost any weight in months, or the weight they lost has begun to creep back on. Health food fanatics keep eating the same, even when they’re sick and weak and not getting any stronger or healthier.
Why would someone continue doing more of the same even when it’s not working? One word: habit! Beliefs and behavior patterns are so ingrained at the unconscious level, you repeat the same behaviors every day virtually on automatic pilot. Defending existing beliefs and doing it the way you’ve always done it is a lot easier than changing.
In the final analysis, results are what counts: weight, body composition, lean muscle, performance, strength, blood pressure, blood lipids, and everything else you want to improve. Are they improving or not? If not, perhaps it’s time for a change.
Concluding words of wisdom
We need rules. Trying to eat “intuitively” or just “wing it” from the start is a recipe for failure. Ironically, intuitive eating does not come intuitively. Whether you use my Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle program or a different program that suits your lifestyle better, you must have a plan.
After following your plan for a while, your constructive new behaviors eventually turn over to unconscious control (a process commonly known as developing habits). But you’ll never reach that hallowed place of “unconscious competence” unless you start with planning, structure, discipline and rules.
Creating nutritional rules does NOT create more rule breakers. Only unrealistic or unnecessary rules create rule breakers. That’s why these new rules of clean eating are based on a neat combination of structure and flexibility. If you have too much flexibility and not enough structure, you no longer have a plan. If you have too much structure and not enough flexibility, you have a plan you can’t stick with.
To quickly sum it all up: Relax your diet a bit! But not too much!
In part one, I described the growing obsession many people have with eating only the purest, healthiest foods, aka “clean eating.” You’d think that nothing but good would come from that, but some experts today dislike the concept of clean foods because it implies a dichotomy where other foods, by default, are “dirty” or forbidden - as in, you can never, ever eat them again (imagine life without chocolate, or pizza… or beer! you guys). Some physicians and psychologists even believe that if taken to an extreme, a fixation on healthy food qualifies as a new eating disorder called orthorexia.
Personally, I have no issues with the phrase “clean eating.” Even if you choose to eat clean nearly 100% of the time, I don’t see how that qualifies as a psychological disorder of any kind (I reckon people who eat at McDonalds every day are the ones who need a shrink).
However, I also think most Burn The Fat blog readers would agree that any behavior - washing your hands, cleaning your house, or even exercise or eating health food - can become obsessive-compulsive and dysfunctional if it takes over your life or is taken to an extreme. In the case of diet and exercise, it could also lead to or overlap with anorexia.
It’s debatable whether orthorexia is a distinct eating disorder, but I’m not against using the word to help classify a specific type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I think it’s real.
As some of the reader comments from part one reveal (rather ironically in a discussion on orthorexia), many people are quite “enthusiastic” in defending – or preaching about - their dietary beliefs: no meat, no grains, no dairy, only organic, only raw, only what God made, and on and on the rigid all-or-nothing rules go.
What people choose to eat is often so sacred to them, it makes for tricky business when you’re a nutrition educator. Sometimes I don’t feel like telling anyone what to eat, but simply setting a personal example and showing people how I do it, like, “Hey guys, here is how natural bodybuilders eat to get so ripped and muscular. It may not suit you, but it works for us. Take it or leave it.”
On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that there’s got to be a way to better help the countless individuals who haven’t yet formulated their own philosophies, and who find nutrition overwhelmingly confusing. For many people, even a simple walk down the aisles of a grocery store, and trying to decipher the food labels and nutrition claims is enough to trigger an anxiety attack.
That’s where I hope this is useful. I can’t draw the line for you, or tell you what to eat, but I can suggest a list of “new rules” for clean eating which simplifies nutrition and clears up confusion, while giving you more freedom, balance, life enjoyment and better results at the same time.
New Rule #1: Define what clean eating means to you
Obviously, clean eating is not a scientific term. Most people define clean eating as avoiding processed foods, chemicals and artificial ingredients and choosing natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. If that works for you, then use it. However, the possible definitions are endless. I’ve seen forum arguments about whether protein powder is “clean.” Arguments are a waste of time. Ultimately, what clean eating means is up to you to define. Whether your beliefs and values have you restrict or expand on the general definition, define it you must, keeping in mind that your definition may be different than other’s.
New Rule #2: Always obey the law of energy balance
There’s one widely held belief about food that hurts people and perpetuates the obesity problem because it’s simply not true. It’s the idea that calories don’t matter for weight loss, as long as you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods. Some people think that if you eat only clean foods, you’re guaranteed to lose weight and stay lean. The truth is that eating too much of anything gets stored as fat. Yes, you can become obese eating 100% clean, natural foods. There’s more to good nutrition than calories in versus calories out, but the energy balance equation is always there.
New Rule #3: Remember that “foods” are not fattening, “excess calories” are
There’s a widespread fear today that certain foods will automatically turn into fat. Carbohydrates – particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars - are still high on the hit list of feared foods, and so are fatty foods, owing to their high caloric density (9 calories per gram). Foods that contain fat and sugar (think donuts) are considered the most fattening of all. But what if you ate only one small donut and stayed in a calorie deficit for the day – would you still say that donut was fattening?
If you want to say certain foods are fattening, you certainly can, but what you really mean is that some foods are calorie dense, highly palatable, not very satiating and eating them might even stimulate your appetite for more (betcha can’t eat just one!). Therefore, they’re likely to cause you to eat more calories than you need. Conversely, “non-fattening” foods have no magical properties, they’re simply low in caloric density, highly filling and non-appetite stimulating.
New Rule #4: Understand the health-bodyfat paradox
Two of the biggest reasons people choose to eat clean are health and weight loss. Health and body composition are intertwined, but dietary rules for health and weight loss are not one in the same. Weight gains or losses are dictated primarily by calorie quantity. Health is dictated primarily by calorie quality. That’s the paradox: You can lose weight on a 100% junk food diet, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy. You can get healthier on an all natural clean food diet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight… and if you gain too much weight, then you start getting unhealthy. To be healthy and lean requires the right combination of calorie quantity and quality, not one or the other.
New Rule #5: Forbidden foods are forbidden.
Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat, the more the steam builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release valve, eventually the pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later. But if you let off a little steam by occasionally having that slice of pizza or whatever is your favorite food, that relieves the pressure.
Alas, you never even felt the urge to binge… because you already had your pizza and the urge was satisfied. Since the “cheat meal” was planned and you obeyed the law of calorie balance, you stayed in control and it had little or no effect on your fat loss results. Ironically, you overcome your cravings by giving in to them, with two caveats: not too often and not too much.
New Rule #6: Set your own compliance rule
Many health and nutrition professionals suggest a 90% compliance rule because if you choose clean foods 90% of the time, it’s easy to control your calories, you consume enough nutrients for good health, and what you eat the other 10% of the time doesn’t seem to matter much. Suppose you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks every day, a total of 35 feedings per week. 90% compliance would mean following your clean eating plan for about 31 or 32 of those weekly feedings. The other 3 or 4 times per week, you eat whatever you want (as long as you obey rule #2 and keep the calories in check)
You’ll need to decide for yourself where to set your own rule. A 90% compliance rule is a popular, albeit arbitrary number – a best guess at how much “clean eating” will give you optimal health. Some folks stay lean and healthy with 80%. Others say they don’t even desire junk food and they eat 99% clean, indulging perhaps only once or twice a month.
One thing is for certain – the majority of your calories should come from natural nutrient-dense foods – not only for good health, but also because what you eat most of the time becomes your habitual pattern. Habit patterns are tough to break and what you do every day over the long term is what really counts the most.
New Rule #7: Have “free” meals, not “cheat” meals
Cheating presupposes that you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. That’s why you feel guilty when you cheat. Guilt can be one of the biggest diet destroyers. Consider referring to these meals that are off your regular plan as “free meals” instead of “cheat meals.” If having free meals is part of your plan right from the start, then you’re not cheating are you? So don’t call it that. What can you eat for your free meals? Anything you want. Otherwise, it wouldn’t truly be a free meal, would it?
People sometimes tell me that my bodybuilding diet and lifestyle are “too strict.” I find that amusing because I love eating clean 95-99% of the time and I consider it easy. I had a butter-drizzled steak, a glass of wine, and chocolate sin cake for dessert to celebrate my last birthday. I had a couple slices of pizza just four weeks before my last competition (and still stepped on stage at 4.5% body fat). Oh, and I’m really looking forward to my mom’s pumpkin pie and Christmas cake too. Why? How? Because as strict as my lifestyle might appear to some people, I’ve learned how to enjoy free meals and I will eat ANYTHING I want - with no guilt. Meanwhile, my critics are often people with rules that NEVER allow those foods to ever cross their lips.
New Rule #8: For successful weight control, focus on compliance to a calorie deficit, not just compliance to a food list
Dietary compliance doesn’t just mean eating the right foods, it means eating the right amount of food. You might be doing a terrific job at eating only the foods “authorized” by your nutrition program, but if you eat too many “clean” foods, you will still get fat. On the fat loss side of health-bodyfat paradox, the quantity of food is the pivotal factor, not the quality of food. If fat loss is your goal and you’re stubbornly determined to be 100% strict about your nutrition, then be 100% strict about maintaining your calorie deficit.
Lesson #9: Avoid all or none attitudes and dichotomous thinking
If you make a mistake, it doesn’t ruin an entire 12 week program, a whole week and not even an entire day. What ruins a program is thinking that you must either be on or off your diet and allowing one meal off your program to completely derail you. All or nothing thinking is the great killer of diet programs.
Even if they don’t believe that one meal will set them back physically, many “clean eaters” feel like a single cheat is a moral failure. They are terrified to eat any processed foods because they look at foods as good or bad rather than looking at the degree of processing or the frequency of consuming them.
Rest assured, a single meal of ANYTHING, if the calories don’t exceed your energy needs, will have virtually no impact on your condition. It’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do most of the time, day after day, that determines your long term results.
New Rule #10: Focus more on results, less on methods
I’m not sure whether it’s sad or laughable that most people get so married to their methods that they stop paying attention to results. Overweight people often praise their diet program and the guru that created it, even though they’ve plateaud and haven’t lost any weight in months, or the weight they lost has begun to creep back on. Health food fanatics keep eating the same, even when they’re sick and weak and not getting any stronger or healthier.
Why would someone continue doing more of the same even when it’s not working? One word: habit! Beliefs and behavior patterns are so ingrained at the unconscious level, you repeat the same behaviors every day virtually on automatic pilot. Defending existing beliefs and doing it the way you’ve always done it is a lot easier than changing.
In the final analysis, results are what counts: weight, body composition, lean muscle, performance, strength, blood pressure, blood lipids, and everything else you want to improve. Are they improving or not? If not, perhaps it’s time for a change.
Concluding words of wisdom
We need rules. Trying to eat “intuitively” or just “wing it” from the start is a recipe for failure. Ironically, intuitive eating does not come intuitively. Whether you use my Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle program or a different program that suits your lifestyle better, you must have a plan.
After following your plan for a while, your constructive new behaviors eventually turn over to unconscious control (a process commonly known as developing habits). But you’ll never reach that hallowed place of “unconscious competence” unless you start with planning, structure, discipline and rules.
Creating nutritional rules does NOT create more rule breakers. Only unrealistic or unnecessary rules create rule breakers. That’s why these new rules of clean eating are based on a neat combination of structure and flexibility. If you have too much flexibility and not enough structure, you no longer have a plan. If you have too much structure and not enough flexibility, you have a plan you can’t stick with.
To quickly sum it all up: Relax your diet a bit! But not too much!
In part one, I described the growing obsession many people have with eating only the purest, healthiest foods, aka “clean eating.” You’d think that nothing but good would come from that, but some experts today dislike the concept of clean foods because it implies a dichotomy where other foods, by default, are “dirty” or forbidden - as in, you can never, ever eat them again (imagine life without chocolate, or pizza… or beer! you guys). Some physicians and psychologists even believe that if taken to an extreme, a fixation on healthy food qualifies as a new eating disorder called orthorexia.
Personally, I have no issues with the phrase “clean eating.” Even if you choose to eat clean nearly 100% of the time, I don’t see how that qualifies as a psychological disorder of any kind (I reckon people who eat at McDonalds every day are the ones who need a shrink).
However, I also think most Burn The Fat blog readers would agree that any behavior - washing your hands, cleaning your house, or even exercise or eating health food - can become obsessive-compulsive and dysfunctional if it takes over your life or is taken to an extreme. In the case of diet and exercise, it could also lead to or overlap with anorexia.
It’s debatable whether orthorexia is a distinct eating disorder, but I’m not against using the word to help classify a specific type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I think it’s real.
As some of the reader comments from part one reveal (rather ironically in a discussion on orthorexia), many people are quite “enthusiastic” in defending – or preaching about - their dietary beliefs: no meat, no grains, no dairy, only organic, only raw, only what God made, and on and on the rigid all-or-nothing rules go.
What people choose to eat is often so sacred to them, it makes for tricky business when you’re a nutrition educator. Sometimes I don’t feel like telling anyone what to eat, but simply setting a personal example and showing people how I do it, like, “Hey guys, here is how natural bodybuilders eat to get so ripped and muscular. It may not suit you, but it works for us. Take it or leave it.”
On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that there’s got to be a way to better help the countless individuals who haven’t yet formulated their own philosophies, and who find nutrition overwhelmingly confusing. For many people, even a simple walk down the aisles of a grocery store, and trying to decipher the food labels and nutrition claims is enough to trigger an anxiety attack.
That’s where I hope this is useful. I can’t draw the line for you, or tell you what to eat, but I can suggest a list of “new rules” for clean eating which simplifies nutrition and clears up confusion, while giving you more freedom, balance, life enjoyment and better results at the same time.
New Rule #1: Define what clean eating means to you
Obviously, clean eating is not a scientific term. Most people define clean eating as avoiding processed foods, chemicals and artificial ingredients and choosing natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. If that works for you, then use it. However, the possible definitions are endless. I’ve seen forum arguments about whether protein powder is “clean.” Arguments are a waste of time. Ultimately, what clean eating means is up to you to define. Whether your beliefs and values have you restrict or expand on the general definition, define it you must, keeping in mind that your definition may be different than other’s.
New Rule #2: Always obey the law of energy balance
There’s one widely held belief about food that hurts people and perpetuates the obesity problem because it’s simply not true. It’s the idea that calories don’t matter for weight loss, as long as you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods. Some people think that if you eat only clean foods, you’re guaranteed to lose weight and stay lean. The truth is that eating too much of anything gets stored as fat. Yes, you can become obese eating 100% clean, natural foods. There’s more to good nutrition than calories in versus calories out, but the energy balance equation is always there.
New Rule #3: Remember that “foods” are not fattening, “excess calories” are
There’s a widespread fear today that certain foods will automatically turn into fat. Carbohydrates – particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars - are still high on the hit list of feared foods, and so are fatty foods, owing to their high caloric density (9 calories per gram). Foods that contain fat and sugar (think donuts) are considered the most fattening of all. But what if you ate only one small donut and stayed in a calorie deficit for the day – would you still say that donut was fattening?
If you want to say certain foods are fattening, you certainly can, but what you really mean is that some foods are calorie dense, highly palatable, not very satiating and eating them might even stimulate your appetite for more (betcha can’t eat just one!). Therefore, they’re likely to cause you to eat more calories than you need. Conversely, “non-fattening” foods have no magical properties, they’re simply low in caloric density, highly filling and non-appetite stimulating.
New Rule #4: Understand the health-bodyfat paradox
Two of the biggest reasons people choose to eat clean are health and weight loss. Health and body composition are intertwined, but dietary rules for health and weight loss are not one in the same. Weight gains or losses are dictated primarily by calorie quantity. Health is dictated primarily by calorie quality. That’s the paradox: You can lose weight on a 100% junk food diet, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy. You can get healthier on an all natural clean food diet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight… and if you gain too much weight, then you start getting unhealthy. To be healthy and lean requires the right combination of calorie quantity and quality, not one or the other.
New Rule #5: Forbidden foods are forbidden.
Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat, the more the steam builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release valve, eventually the pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later. But if you let off a little steam by occasionally having that slice of pizza or whatever is your favorite food, that relieves the pressure.
Alas, you never even felt the urge to binge… because you already had your pizza and the urge was satisfied. Since the “cheat meal” was planned and you obeyed the law of calorie balance, you stayed in control and it had little or no effect on your fat loss results. Ironically, you overcome your cravings by giving in to them, with two caveats: not too often and not too much.
New Rule #6: Set your own compliance rule
Many health and nutrition professionals suggest a 90% compliance rule because if you choose clean foods 90% of the time, it’s easy to control your calories, you consume enough nutrients for good health, and what you eat the other 10% of the time doesn’t seem to matter much. Suppose you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks every day, a total of 35 feedings per week. 90% compliance would mean following your clean eating plan for about 31 or 32 of those weekly feedings. The other 3 or 4 times per week, you eat whatever you want (as long as you obey rule #2 and keep the calories in check)
You’ll need to decide for yourself where to set your own rule. A 90% compliance rule is a popular, albeit arbitrary number – a best guess at how much “clean eating” will give you optimal health. Some folks stay lean and healthy with 80%. Others say they don’t even desire junk food and they eat 99% clean, indulging perhaps only once or twice a month.
One thing is for certain – the majority of your calories should come from natural nutrient-dense foods – not only for good health, but also because what you eat most of the time becomes your habitual pattern. Habit patterns are tough to break and what you do every day over the long term is what really counts the most.
New Rule #7: Have “free” meals, not “cheat” meals
Cheating presupposes that you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. That’s why you feel guilty when you cheat. Guilt can be one of the biggest diet destroyers. Consider referring to these meals that are off your regular plan as “free meals” instead of “cheat meals.” If having free meals is part of your plan right from the start, then you’re not cheating are you? So don’t call it that. What can you eat for your free meals? Anything you want. Otherwise, it wouldn’t truly be a free meal, would it?
People sometimes tell me that my bodybuilding diet and lifestyle are “too strict.” I find that amusing because I love eating clean 95-99% of the time and I consider it easy. I had a butter-drizzled steak, a glass of wine, and chocolate sin cake for dessert to celebrate my last birthday. I had a couple slices of pizza just four weeks before my last competition (and still stepped on stage at 4.5% body fat). Oh, and I’m really looking forward to my mom’s pumpkin pie and Christmas cake too. Why? How? Because as strict as my lifestyle might appear to some people, I’ve learned how to enjoy free meals and I will eat ANYTHING I want - with no guilt. Meanwhile, my critics are often people with rules that NEVER allow those foods to ever cross their lips.
New Rule #8: For successful weight control, focus on compliance to a calorie deficit, not just compliance to a food list
Dietary compliance doesn’t just mean eating the right foods, it means eating the right amount of food. You might be doing a terrific job at eating only the foods “authorized” by your nutrition program, but if you eat too many “clean” foods, you will still get fat. On the fat loss side of health-bodyfat paradox, the quantity of food is the pivotal factor, not the quality of food. If fat loss is your goal and you’re stubbornly determined to be 100% strict about your nutrition, then be 100% strict about maintaining your calorie deficit.
Lesson #9: Avoid all or none attitudes and dichotomous thinking
If you make a mistake, it doesn’t ruin an entire 12 week program, a whole week and not even an entire day. What ruins a program is thinking that you must either be on or off your diet and allowing one meal off your program to completely derail you. All or nothing thinking is the great killer of diet programs.
Even if they don’t believe that one meal will set them back physically, many “clean eaters” feel like a single cheat is a moral failure. They are terrified to eat any processed foods because they look at foods as good or bad rather than looking at the degree of processing or the frequency of consuming them.
Rest assured, a single meal of ANYTHING, if the calories don’t exceed your energy needs, will have virtually no impact on your condition. It’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do most of the time, day after day, that determines your long term results.
New Rule #10: Focus more on results, less on methods
I’m not sure whether it’s sad or laughable that most people get so married to their methods that they stop paying attention to results. Overweight people often praise their diet program and the guru that created it, even though they’ve plateaud and haven’t lost any weight in months, or the weight they lost has begun to creep back on. Health food fanatics keep eating the same, even when they’re sick and weak and not getting any stronger or healthier.
Why would someone continue doing more of the same even when it’s not working? One word: habit! Beliefs and behavior patterns are so ingrained at the unconscious level, you repeat the same behaviors every day virtually on automatic pilot. Defending existing beliefs and doing it the way you’ve always done it is a lot easier than changing.
In the final analysis, results are what counts: weight, body composition, lean muscle, performance, strength, blood pressure, blood lipids, and everything else you want to improve. Are they improving or not? If not, perhaps it’s time for a change.
Concluding words of wisdom
We need rules. Trying to eat “intuitively” or just “wing it” from the start is a recipe for failure. Ironically, intuitive eating does not come intuitively. Whether you use my Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle program or a different program that suits your lifestyle better, you must have a plan.
After following your plan for a while, your constructive new behaviors eventually turn over to unconscious control (a process commonly known as developing habits). But you’ll never reach that hallowed place of “unconscious competence” unless you start with planning, structure, discipline and rules.
Creating nutritional rules does NOT create more rule breakers. Only unrealistic or unnecessary rules create rule breakers. That’s why these new rules of clean eating are based on a neat combination of structure and flexibility. If you have too much flexibility and not enough structure, you no longer have a plan. If you have too much structure and not enough flexibility, you have a plan you can’t stick with.
To quickly sum it all up: Relax your diet a bit! But not too much!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Team Intrafitt Tears up the competiton again!!!
Another great weekend for the team. Everything we set out to achieve was accomplished!! Lots of hardware and smiling faces. I'm happy for all the ladies and they all looked amazing!
The break down of the show was 2 First place trophies and 3 second place trophies and a 5th place. I will post a few clips for everyone to watch how amazing our ladies look.
Carol Lama 1st Figure Medium tall class Level 2 and 2nd in Masters class.
Sharon Philbrick 2nd Figure tall and 5th bikini Model
Meni Moskowski 2nd Medium tall Level 1 and 1st in Masters class.
The break down of the show was 2 First place trophies and 3 second place trophies and a 5th place. I will post a few clips for everyone to watch how amazing our ladies look.
Carol Lama 1st Figure Medium tall class Level 2 and 2nd in Masters class.
Sharon Philbrick 2nd Figure tall and 5th bikini Model
Meni Moskowski 2nd Medium tall Level 1 and 1st in Masters class.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small people who find it easier to live the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."
Friday, November 13, 2009
What is Supportive Nutrition?
You hear a lot of big words or phrases thrown at you in the health and nutrition world without really knowing what they really mean. Well I’m going to throw another phrase at you but I’m going to explain it so you know what the heck I’m talking about when I use the term supportive eating.
Supportive eating very simply is eating a lean protein and a fibrous carbohydrate with every meal. The lean protein and fibrous carbohydrate must be healthy choices and when you think about it if you follow the rule of LEAN protein and FIBROUS Carbohydrate, your choices are limited to only healthy options.
So what exactly are lean proteins and fibrous carbohydrates. Well I’ve compiled a list of lean proteins and fibrous carbohydrates that isn’t a comprehensive list but it will give you a good idea of what I’m talking about.
Lean Proteins
Chicken breast
Turkey breast
Fish
Egg whites
Low fat or fat free cottage cheese
Seafood
Extra Lean Beef
Protein Powder
Fibrous Carbohydrates
Leafy Greens
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Spinach
Green Beans
Squash
Tomato
Cucumber
Celery
Onion
Green Peppers
Black Beans
Red Kidney Beans
Soy Beans
Blueberries
Strawberries
Apples
That should give you a start on what I’m talking about. Like I said there are others that I didn’t include on this list and if you have a question about a particular food please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Essentially what we are looking for with supportive nutrition is balance between highly nutrient dense foods but also shaving away the calories not necessary to maintain or achieve a lean fit physique. Lean proteins help build and repair lean muscle and fibrous carbohydrates supply the energy to the body without causing a spike in blood sugar or excessive energy to be stored in the body.
What happens when your nutrition plan adapts to this, is when you exercise your body will turn to the depleted energy stores which will be burned quickly and the transition from carbohydrate calorie burn to fat burn will be much quicker. Think of fat as your secondary fuel source. You have to burn through all of your carbohydrate storage before going on to the fat. The less carbohydrates (esp starches) you eat, the lower your storage levels will be.
So simply put, supportive nutrition supports your health and your fat loss goals simultaneously. Eating lean proteins as well as fibrous carbohydrates with each meal and snack as much as possible will ensure the body you desire as well as the health you also desire.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Another big weekend with Team Intrafitt!!!
This weekend was big for the team as we all went to the Idfa (International Drug Free Athletics) competition at the Jane Mallet auditorium here in Toronto.
Lots of hardware was won again, and I'm very proud of everyone that competed. This show was very well organized and judged with pretty good accuracy and only a few questionable calls but, when your losing to your own teamates it's not really losing... this contest was a excellent stepping stone for all the ladies some trial and error and new systems was implemented (meal plan preparation, training styles) for a few of the ladies with really good success.
This show we had 5 ladies competing for Team Intrafitt:
Sharon Philbrick
Meni Moskowski
Carol Lama
Crystal Kenny (first time competitor)
Vera (my wife)
For each competitor I will give small insight on how the day went so some of you can understand the sport and how the body can visibly change from hour to hour. It's amazing how a few carbs, or fats too little or too much can make or break you... To be honest I don't even know how I developed the eye for it. But, I did... Anyways here's how the day went.
Sharon Philbrick- Sharon looked the best she ever has!! this show was more of a test run for our new food plan and how it will pan out for us on big day OPA Level 2 on November 21. She looked awesome we just need to work on bringing her in a little leaner and fuller keeping her off carbs totally except for contest day. Cutting her water out a little earlier to put her on in the top 3 finalists on november 21.
Carol Lama- Ms. Consistent!! Carol came out for prejuding and looked awesome but, was holding a little water around her waist and her abs were not fully in yet... We needed to decrease her carbs and add a bit more natural sugar to make her look more pumped. But, still looked to place top 3 even not at her best... Which gave a few other competitors hope to win. hahahaha... I don't think so.... Ms. Consistent came back in the evening show and put sad faces on many of the women who thought they had a chance!! She dropped the last bit of water she was holding onto and looked her best to date. Carol placed 2nd in figure open division which was one of the only questionable calls of the night... She also, placed 5th in the fitness model category. This show was also just a test run for her new plan as well OPA level 2 November 21 is the contest we have to win!!
Meni Moskowski- This was Meni's day! She was the dark horse no one seen coming! Meni hasn't competed since June and was taking the time to make improvements to her physique and it all paid off... Meni came in flawless and ripped up the competition!! There was no stopping her. Her posing was beautiful and precise, we never had to make any last minute changes to her diet just stuck to the game plan we set up. And the day went perfect Meni placed 1st in fitness Model and 2nd in figure novice division.
Crystal Kenny-Crystal looked beautiful and muscular! this was Crystals first competition and you could see the nerves were working overtime. At prejudging Crystals muscle looked a bit flat and she looked about 5-7lbs lighter then she really is. Also, her posing needed to be a bit more softer as well. the only change we made during the day was to increase her carbs to fill out her muscle. Since it was her first competition I had no idea how her body was going to respond to dehydration and eating that day. On her downtime she watched ladies bodybuilding I think she found her calling she loved it!!! Now it's back to the drawing board and put on some more muscle. Intrafitt has never had a female bodybuilder so now were looking to dominate in all categories.
Vera Grayer- I gotta pick my words here carefully or else I'll be sleeping outside... Vera did a great job preparing for this show and she did it all by herself! But, like Crystal the nerves got to her and it affected her posing and she made a few mistakes... Otherwise she looked terrific! We could heave added some more carbs and natural sugar to her afternoon meal to make her look a bit more fuller and muscular but since she is so short I have no idea how it would affect her final appearence... For Vera it's back to drawing board and add more size to bring her up the ranks. Look for her to finish in the top 5 at the next show.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Orthorexia and The New Rules of Clean Eating - Part 1
Definition- Orthorexia, or orthorexia nervosa is a term coined by Steven Bratman, a Colorado MD, to denote an eating disorder characterized by excessive focus on eating healthy foods. In rare cases, this focus may turn into a fixation so extreme that it can lead to severe malnutrition or even death.
Clean eating has no official definition, but it’s usually described as avoiding processed foods, chemicals, preservatives and artificial ingredients. Instead, clean eaters choose natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. Vegetables, fruits, legumes, 100% whole grains, egg whites, fish, and chicken breast are clean eating staples. Clean eating appears to be a desirable, sensible, even noble goal. Eating clean is what we should all strive to do to achieve optimum health and body composition isn’t it? Arguably the answer is mostly yes, but more and more people today are asking, “is it possible to take clean eating too far?”
Physician Steven Bratman thinks so. In 1997, Bratman was the first to put a name to an obsession with healthy eating, calling it orthorexia nervosa. In his book, Health Food Junkies, Bratman said that whether they are trying to lose weight or not, orthorexics are preoccupied with eating healthy food and avoiding anything artificial or “toxic.”
Orthorexics are not only fanatical about eating the purest, healthiest, most nutritious (aka “clean”) foods available, says Bratman, they often feel a sense of righteousness in doing so.
Whether orthorexia should be officially classified as an eating disorder is controversial. The term appears in pub med indexed scientific journals, but it’s not listed in the DSM-IV as are anorexia and bulimia. Opponents wonder, “Since when did choosing a lifestyle that eliminates junk food become a disease?”
Media coverage and internet discussions about orthorexia have increased in the past year. John Stossel did a segment on 20-20 (ABC) last year and websites such as the Mayo Clinic, the Huffington Post and the UK-based Guardian added their editorials into the mix in recent months, alongside dozens of individual bloggers.
In most cases, mainstream media discussions of orthorexia have focused on far extremes of health food practices such as raw foodism, detox dieting or 100% pure organic eating, where some folks would rather starve to death than eat a cooked or pesticide-exposed vegetable. In fact, some people do, as seen in the 20-20 video clip below.
In their quest for adding muscle mass and burning fat, many fitness and physique enthusiasts become obsessed with eating only the “cleanest” foods possible. Like the natural health enthusiasts, physique athletes usually avoid all processed foods and put entire food groups on the “forbidden” list. Oddly, that sometimes includes rules such as precontest diets because “fruit is high in sugar” or “fructose turns to fat”.
According to Bratman’s criteria, one could argue that almost every competitive bodybuilder or physique athlete is automatically orthorexic, and they might add obsessive-compulsive and neurotic for good measure.
As you can imagine, (being a bodybuilder), I have mixed feelings about that.
If I choose to set a rule for myself that I’ll limit my junk food to only 10% of my meals, does that make me orthorexic or is that a prudent health decision?
If I plan my menus on a spreadsheet, am I a macronutrient micromanager or am I detail-oriented?
If I make my meals in advance for the day ahead, does that mean I’m obsessive compulsive, or am I prepared?
If I make one of my high protein vanilla pancakes (one of my favorite portable clean food recipes) and take it with me on a flight because I don’t want to eat airline food, am I neurotic? Or am I perhaps, the smartest guy on the plane?
Some folks are probably shaking their heads and saying, “you bodybuilders are definitely OCD.” I prefer to call it dedicated, thank you, but perhaps we are obsessive, at least a wee bit before competitions. But aren’t all competitive athletes, to some degree, at the upper levels of most sports?
Athletes of all kinds – not just bodybuilders - take their nutrition and training regimens far beyond what the “average Joe” or “average soccer mom” would require to stay healthy and fit.
What if you don’t want to be average – what if you want to be world class? What then? Is putting hours of practice a day into developing a skill or discipline an obsessive-compulsive disorder too?
Okay, now that I’ve defended the strict lifestyle habits of the muscle-head brother and sisterhood, let me address the flipside: being too strict.
Where does the average health and bodyweight-concerned fitness enthusiast draw the line? How clean should you eat? Do you need lots of structure and planning in your eating habits, or as Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher said, does making too many rules only create more rule-breakers?
Debates have started flaring up over these questions and as inconceivable as it seems, there has actually been somewhat of a backlash against “clean eating.” Why would THAT possibly happen? Eating “clean” is eating healthy, right? Eating clean is a good thing, right?
Well, almost everyone agrees that it’s ok to have a “cheat meal” occasionally, but some experts - after watching how many people are becoming neurotic about food - are now clamoring to point out that it’s not necessary to be so strict.
The diet pendulum has apparently swung from:
“Eat a balanced diet with a wide variety of foods you enjoy.”
To
“You MUST eat clean!”
To
“Go ahead and eat as much junk as you want, as long as you watch your calories and get your essential nutrients like protein, essential fats, vitamins and minerals.”
Talk about confusion! Now we’ve got people who gain great pride and a sense of dedication and accomplishment for taking up a healthy, clean-eating lifestyle and we’ve got people who thumb their nose at clean eating and say, “Chill out bro! Live a little!”
The current debate about how clean you should eat (or how much you should “cheat”) reminds me of the recent arguments over training methods such as steady state versus HIIT cardio. Whatever the debate of the day, most people seem to have a really difficult time acknowledging that there’s a middle ground.
Most dieters, when they don’t like a certain philosophy, reject it entirely and flip to its polar opposite. Most dieters are dichotomous thinkers, always viewing their endeavors as all or nothing. Most dieters are also joiners, plugging into one of the various diet tribes and gaining their sense of identity by belonging.In some cases, I think these tribes are more like cults, as people follow guru-like leaders who pass down health and nutrition commandments that are followed with religious conviction. Seriously. The parallels of diet groups to religious groups can be downright scary sometimes.
Whether the goal is to optimize health, to build muscle or to burn fat, there’s little doubt that many individuals with all kinds of different motivations sometimes take their dietary restrictions to extremes. Obviously, an overly restrictive diet can lead to nutrient deficiencies and can adversely affect health, energy and performance.
In some cases, I can also see how swinging to any extreme, even a “healthy obsession” with pure food could lead to distorted views and behaviors that border on eating disorders. If you don’t believe it’s a real clinical psychological problem, then at the very least, you might agree that nutritional extremes could mean restricting social activities, creating inconvenience or making lifestyle sacrifices that are just not necessary.
I believe there’s a middle ground - a place where we can balance health and physique with a lifestyle and food plan we love and enjoy. Even more important, I believe that your middle ground may not be the same as mine. We all must find our own balance.I believe that going back to BALANCE, but this time with a better definition of what balance means, is the approach of the future.
I also believe that some new rules would help us find that balance.
What do you think? Can you eat “too clean?” If so, is that a disorder if you’re physically fit and healthy? Share your thoughts on what you just read in part one and I’ll be back to post my list of new clean eating rules in part two.Thursday, October 29, 2009
Simplifying Fat Loss Through the Holidays
The holidays are edging ever so closely upon us, and just like every year around this time, our fat loss efforts fall drastically by the wayside in favor of get togethers, family outings, parties, and holiday shopping. The excuse that exercise and eating healthy takes too much time or ‘I’ll get back on track after the holidays because its too hard now’ surface more than usual. And then like clockwork, every year in January, we clean the slate and start over.
Now I struggle just as much as the next person when it comes to remaining consistent during the holiday season but what I have learned is that even though time gets shorter and social and seasonal commitments get more frequent, we don’t have to completely ignore our fat loss efforts, we just need to modify them a little bit. There are several ways we can do that but I’ve narrowed it down to the three most important and most effective ways that you can start right now and have them as habit before the holiday rush begins.
First, since you will be even shorter on time, it is necessary to change up your workouts to maximize your time in a short period. Best way to do that is the Tabata protocol. Tabata maximizes your efforts in a short amount of time while actually increasing your fat loss results. Typical Tabata protocol is 20 seconds of exercise time followed by ten seconds of rest and is repeated 8 times. Exercises such as your bodyweight are ideal for this. Push ups, squats, stair sprints, burpees are all good examples of exercises with no equipment that you can use. For even more variety, pair up exercises and alternate back and forth between two so that you end up performing four sets of each exercise. Each eight set station lasts 4 minutes so you can add as many stations as you like depending on how much time you have. In 20 minutes you can complete a full workout without sacrificing results, actually enhancing results.
Now that you have your workout plan set, now let’s move on to a plan with your nutrition. The holidays are brutal on your nutrition, so we must have a strategy in place to minimize, not eliminate the damage. Realistically this is the best approach as we all know very well being inundated with sweets and dinners, parties, and other social events are going to happen and happen a lot.
So one thing we can do is be very selective. We don’t have to eat junk every single time we go to a social event. We can pick and choose the events we want to indulge in. The events we do not we can eat before we go, take a snack with you, or be very selective of what you eat at the event. It is unrealistic to avoid all the treats the holidays bring out, so be very selective and pick your moments.
When you pick your moments also try to be reasonable with your portions. There is no need to go overboard with the amount that you have, be selective of what you indulge in and be reasonable with your portions so that you are satisfied but don’t overstuff yourself.
Lastly, set a goal for yourself. The holidays are the most difficult time of year on your nutrition and consistent exercise program, so setting a compliance goal is a great way to push yourself through the difficult time of year. To achieve fat loss results you must be 90% compliant with your nutrition habits and exercise efforts. So through the holidays a good goal is to maintain the results you have already achieved, so set a goal of 70% compliance minimum. If you maintain 70% compliance through the holidays you will avoid the average 8 pound weight gain most experience, your habits will be better solidified and you will start off the new year ahead of everyone else without the feeling of being restricted.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
"The challenge"
The Challenge
Let others lead small lives,
but not me.
Let others argue over small things,
but not me.
Let others cry over small hurts,
but not me.
Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands,
but not me.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Zero To 100: 5 Ways to Spike Your Metabolism Today
Metabolism is the engine that burns fat. In order to boost metabolism there are several factors that have to be in play for a boost to happen. Unfortunately there are many things that affect metabolism causing it to slow down. Before you know it you have gained 20 pounds and your health is reeling out of control.
But it isn’t over, there are many ways in which you can reverse the vicious fat gaining cycle. And it doesn’t have to be a long drawn out process. There are steps you can take now that will have an immediate effect on your metabolism and set you on the path to melting fat off your body at an alarming rate. Here are five that you can start right away that will get your fat burning engine revving.Start drinking lots of water.
1. Drinking lots of water will prepare your body to become efficient which your metabolism likes very much. A hydrated body means hydrated muscles and hydrated muscles work at an optimal level. And when your muscles work at an optimal level, your metabolism speeds up. Since your muscles are the engine that is your metabolism, healthy muscles are essential.
2. Schedule and eat five to six small meals per day. This has you eating every three to three and a half hours. Your metabolism likes to know it isn’t going to run out of energy and it uses past experience as its indicator. So if you only eat one to two meals per day, your metabolism prepares for that by storing excess energy to use during the long periods between and does this in the form of fat. However if you get on a schedule of eating five to six small meals per day, your metabolism recognizes this and realized that it doesn’t have to store excess energy because it knows it is going to get more very soon, so it burns off the excess energy helping you get leaner.
3. Ditch the food labels. Foods without labels are just that foods. There is no need to put a label on the food because it is obvious to the consumer and will also be obvious to the body. Foods such as vegetables, fruits, most lean proteins, raw nuts must be abundant in your diet to assure your metabolism runs high and efficiently. These foods are not only healthy but also provide a spike in the metabolism simply by eating them. The body works harder to digest raw foods therefore expends more calories from that food just to digest it.
4. Take a Multivitamin. Taking a multivitamin is very important not only for fat loss but also for your health. In order to get all your vitamins and minerals in your food, did you know you have to eat 7-10 servings of fruit AND vegetables per day? That is virtually impossible and maintain a calorie deficit for losing fat. In order to make up for this discrepancy, so the logical solution is a multivitamin. Select multivitamins that are whole food based meaning they were made from sources of foods to get the vitamins and minerals that make up the product. These can be found mostly at natural food stores . Two things to look for: typically the multivitamins stink if they are natural, and they will be pricy. But don’t overlook them because they can mean the difference between 5 pounds and 25 pounds lost.
5. Perform weight training. Weight training or resistance training is the direct action you can take to boost your metabolism. In order to directly increase lean muscle you must train with resistance. Cardio and nutrition alone isn’t going to do it. This is too often the missing component in a fat loss program. Too often people are afraid they will get big and bulky. Most people who train with weights have that as their main goal and not get big and bulky. In all actuality it is harder to get big and bulky with weight training than it is to get lean.
There are the five that you can implement today. Set a plan and attack your fat using these five ways to boost your metabolism.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
This time of the year gains you an average of 12 pounds of fat...
Canadians gains an average 12 pounds of fat between
Halloween and January 1st.
This was a statistic that a fellow fitness professional
pulled from a magazine article.
Now I don't know if this is true or not, but when you
think about it this could be very true.
You eat a little candy on Halloween then the holiday
parties start appearing.
Your life gets busier with holiday shopping and parties
and then there are the holidays themselves.
Needless to say your focus on proper exercise and nutrition
has been pushed to the wayside.
So I don't know if the 12 pound average is accurate or not,
but it makes a lot of sense and quite possibly is accurate.
So what are you going to do about it?
Don't wait until the first of the year to make those new years
resolutions.
Don't wait until mid-december to start complaining about
gaining weight.
Act now and make sure that when everyone else is complaining
about their weight going up you are losing weight and creating
different new years resolutions instead of the normal
"I am going to lose weight" resolutions.
Take action and get these types of results before January 1st.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Intrafitt Kettlebell bootcamp sign up
Today's kettlebell demo was awesome!!! I was very proud of all of you for being so open minded to this way of training and making Jeff feel welcome. As, all of you know I very sceptical of many trainers and their abilities to produce results with their clients. ( the 95%-5% rule applies here) 95% of trainers have no idea what they are doing and 5% do... So, bringing Jeff to Intrafitt you know I did my research to make sure he is legit and he is!! As you all seen today with that wicked workout.
If your are interested in this awesome class and seeing what it can do for your fitness goals please sign up now. We will be holding the class Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6:30pm starting October 20 and ending November 12. The cost will be $20.00 per class. I will be limiting the class to only 10 spots. So please if you loved todays workout variety sign up now!!
I guarantee you will not find a class like this!!
P.S. 10:15 am Ladies I'm blown away with how you performed today!!! It was amazing ....
P.P.S here's a little video of today's actions
If your are interested in this awesome class and seeing what it can do for your fitness goals please sign up now. We will be holding the class Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6:30pm starting October 20 and ending November 12. The cost will be $20.00 per class. I will be limiting the class to only 10 spots. So please if you loved todays workout variety sign up now!!
I guarantee you will not find a class like this!!
P.S. 10:15 am Ladies I'm blown away with how you performed today!!! It was amazing ....
P.P.S here's a little video of today's actions
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Apprentice...
New 8 week session...
New times...
New trainer...
October 19-December 11 at 12:15pm and 1:15pm
I will be taking on a new certified personal trainer to learn the ropes on how to run a "real" bootcamp class. Not like most of the crap you see out there! I feel it is my duty to pass on some of my skills and knowledge to someone who really wants to learn. Just like my mentor did for for me... And look a the bodies that come from our bootcamp!! AWESOME!
This "new" session bootcamp will be instructed by the new trainer. And all workouts will be reviewed by me first just for effectiveness and safety reasons. I want to offer this session at a discounted price due to the time it is offered at.
Days: Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Date: October 19-Dec 11
Times: 12:15pm or 1:15pm.
Cost: $288.00 ($12.00 per class)
Please email me ASAP to register. Intrafitt@hotmail.com
Each class can only take 12 campers.
New times...
New trainer...
October 19-December 11 at 12:15pm and 1:15pm
I will be taking on a new certified personal trainer to learn the ropes on how to run a "real" bootcamp class. Not like most of the crap you see out there! I feel it is my duty to pass on some of my skills and knowledge to someone who really wants to learn. Just like my mentor did for for me... And look a the bodies that come from our bootcamp!! AWESOME!
This "new" session bootcamp will be instructed by the new trainer. And all workouts will be reviewed by me first just for effectiveness and safety reasons. I want to offer this session at a discounted price due to the time it is offered at.
Days: Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Date: October 19-Dec 11
Times: 12:15pm or 1:15pm.
Cost: $288.00 ($12.00 per class)
Please email me ASAP to register. Intrafitt@hotmail.com
Each class can only take 12 campers.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Team Intrafitt took home lots of hardware this weekend!!
Team Intrafitt
The Results are in: Carol Lama 1st place figure, and 1st place figure over 35
Sharon Philbrick: 4th place tall class, 3rd place figure over 35.
Alex Wigle 1st place junior mens bodybuilding
Friday, October 2, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Identifying Weight Loss Scams
12 Ways to Spot a Fad Diet
The next time you watch an infomercial, read an advertisement, or spot a new supplement reporting miraculous weight loss results, we wouldn’t blame you for cocking a wary eyebrow. When evaluating claims for weight loss products, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends a healthy portion of skepticism; most don’t come close to fulfilling their claims. And in the rare cases where a product might result in some temporary weight loss, it is almost never a permanent solution and is usually unsafeBefore you spend money on products that promise fast and easy results, weigh the claims carefully. You might even consider contacting the FTC directly for more information or if you have concerns.
These 12 tips will help you critique and evaluate weight loss claims and spot a scam before it’s too late:
1. "It’s so easy to lose weight without dieting or exercising!" Face it—permanent weight loss takes work, effort and time. Pass on any products that promise miraculous results without the effort. Buy one and the only things you’ll lose are money and confidence.
2. "Eat whatever you want and still lose weight!" Losing weight requires sensible food choices, not overloading on high-fat, high calorie foods.
3. "Lose weight forever…you’ll never need to diet again!" For weight loss to be permanent, it requires lifestyle changes. On-going maintenance is always a must.
4. "Block the digestion and absorption of fat, carbs, or calories!" There is no magic potion that will allow you to block the digestion and absorption of fat, carbs, or calories. A little pill to curb cravings and suppress appetite just doesn’t exist.
5. "Rapid weight loss: Lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks!" Looking to lose weight rapidly for your high school reunion or wedding? Products that safely produce lightning-fast weight loss just don’t exist. A weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week is the safest and most effective way to take off weight and keep it off.
6. "Finally, a weight loss formula for everyone!" A diet that claims to be perfect for all is erroneous. One-size-fits-all just doesn’t work. Your lifestyle habits and health concerns are unique. That’s why SparkPeople helps you design your own personalized nutrition and exercise programs to suit your particular lifestyle needs.
7. "Lose weight with this miracle diet patch, cream or gel!" You’ve heard it all before—"Apply and watch the fat melt away!" But truthfully, all that melts away is your hard earned money.
8. "Scientifically Proven! Doctor Endorsed!" Where is the proof and how was the research conducted? Were people studied, or rodents? Were there 3 subjects in the study or 3,000? Has the research been published in a medical journal and reviewed by peers? A doctor of what profession? Or is the "professional" as purely fictitious as your weight loss will be? Be sure to check the details.
9. "Money-back guarantee!" It may make you feel safer to give the product a try, but realize that many companies do not follow through with this promise. You’re left holding an empty promise and an empty pocketbook.
10. "100% safe!" Just another attempt, trying to get you hooked with a meaningless phrase. Think of it this way – if there were no reason to doubt, why would they need to make this claim at all? Many products have been removed from the market due to safety issues, but not until too many lives were already destroyed or lost. Does ephedra ring a bell?
11. Those convincing testimonials: We can all look 10 pounds slimmer by: standing up straight, shoulders back, and stomach in; having a good hair day; applying the right make-up; and hiring a professional photographer. Remember, just because you recognize the actor or actress doesn’t make the product any more reliable. They are now just a little richer and you a little poorer.
12. "A miraculous breakthrough!" Turn and run the other direction when extravagant claims make the product sound to good to be true.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Awesome Quote
"The important thing is this:
to be able at any moment
to sacrifice what we are for
what we could become."
- Charles DuBois
to be able at any moment
to sacrifice what we are for
what we could become."
- Charles DuBois
Ok, now take a deep breath and think
about that.What do YOU need to
sacrifice TODAY to become all
that you can be?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
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