First off, excellent post!
Secondly, I absolutely hate fad diets.. and hate diet pills and supplements with just as much passion. I have this at home because while my wife is hot and not fat, she hates to workout and just wants to take a pill to lose a few pounds. This mentality has crept into every area of American life it seems. People want to eat the junk and do as little work as possible to consume the right foods as well as little work to keep their bodies in shape.
For me, the biggest myth out there is the calorie myth. Sure, if you are morbidly obese, you'll need to cut back on the bad calories. Yes..there are good calories and bad calories. If you are eating a brownie.. you're consuming bad calories. If, however, you substitute the brownie with Soy Nuts.. you are consuming good calories.
So let's break this all down a bit. Calories are calories.. right? Wrong. We've established that. So why do I always tell people to actually uptake their calorie counts.. especially when they are working out. It's simple. Your body is a sponge, it absorbs the nutrients it needs and then expels what it doesn't need. If you are consuming a ton of bad calories such as a trip to McDonalds every day and then you only eat a light breakfast before and a over portioned meal afterwards.. not only have you consumed a ton of bad calories but your blood sugar levels are all out of whack. So you work out hoping to get rid of the calories but you don't notice any significant change. Here's why. When you work out you obviously are getting rid of calories; but your body needs calories to heal itself as well. So if you up your intake to 3,000 calories a day (good calories people) and you eat at around the same time every day and include a snack in between these meals, your body is then able to take the nutrients and heal itself.
I'm in a bit of a rush so I'm going to add one more quick thing here. Portion sizes. I challenge any one who is interested to measure out everything they eat into a portion size as directed. That bag of chips you are eating..check the label.. a portion is like 10 chips. How many did you eat? 20? 30? The whole bag?? What about something basic like a bowl of cereal. Check the label. Measure out the portion that is on it, you'll find that you're probably consuming 2 or 3 portions without even realizing it. So, for people who loathe working out. Start with the portioning routine. Measure everything you eat. I don't care if it's a meal or a snack and you'll find yourself dropping a few pounds from that alone.. and cut out the sodas and caffeine. I haven't had caffeine in almost a year and I feel tons better just from that.
So my start to this whole thing is to pay attention to calories but don't get so consumed into them and believe the whole less calories = less weight. It just isn't true in most cases. Then portion, portion portion!! 3 portioned meals a day with a good healthy snack in between them. Keeps you from starving and keeps your blood sugar levels at a stable rate.
For anyone who is interested I can help with shopping lists on what to look for and Baraka can help with how these things work in your body (dude is wicked smart!). I can also help with a diet plan to use while working out. I tend to go with a diet plan that works in 3 phases along with what you are doing in the workout. First month is usually heavy on protein, the second month is balanced, and the third month is *GASP* carb heavy. The reasoning behind it is simple. The first month you are shedding fat cells and your body is trying to build lean muscle ..protein helps you create lean muscle. The second month is more stable because you've built up your lean muscle and you're now cruising in your workouts. The third month, you're feeling great and working out with huge amounts of intensity..and the way to feed this intensity is with carbs.
So here we are at the holidays.. this would be a perfect place to start your portioning routine. Instead of complaining that you ate too much, you can say you ate the right amount.
Ya know, it's funny, because for me, I've never in my life ate more than I wanted. I've never stuffed myself. I basically ate until I wasn't hungry anymore and I've never been over 200 lbs (sans the medication issue a year back). I've always snacked between meals and always been fairly active. I think we can all help each other on this vast subject.. so come on.. ask your questions or give your advice on what worked for you. Healthy can be fun
