I spent a lot of time in my past researching weight-loss. How to do it effectively, how do it quickly, how to do with the best end result, and how to do with as little effort as possible. I always knew that if I had to go to that much work to figure it out it probably wasn't right. Being a competitive boxer however, I had to find ways to drop large amounts of weight quickly. I would get crazy advice from all kinds of people, and had coaches from all over the country give me advice that was really out of their league and super dangerous to give. I did everything from eating boiled chicken, rice and salad everyday for months, to eating only 900 calories a day - keep in mind, I was training 3 times a day and burning thousands of calories. I lived on soup, caffeine pills, jugs and jugs of water and spent a ridiculous amount of time in the sauna spitting into a bucket. For those of you who know nothing of the sport of boxing; it's a sport that is determined on your weight, like being a jockey, MMA fighter, or wrestler. If you don't make weight in boxing, like other combative sports you get your butt kicked. Plain and simple. One thing that I always thought about whilst trying to lose and keep off the weight was that I seemed to struggle to lose the weight at a certain point. I always felt like if I would just have a real meal, I would probably end up dropping more weight. This was an impossible concept to other boxers because the trick was to cut out calories and the weight would come off. However, no one really did the research. I also found it really strange that at a certain point in our prelim weigh-ins at our "road-work" instructors house, I would actually start gaining weight in his sauna. He was perplexed that I would go in at 101 lbs and come out 103. I felt like I knew the answer but chose to never argue it.
Looking back on this now, and having done the research, gotten the education, and spent countless hours training people, I can tell you exactly what happened and exactly what that "gut-instinct" was. Our bodies are incapable of error. They are perfectly designed. I know, you're thinking "but I get sick all the time." Or, "my thyroid doesn't work right", etc... First of all.... (and very briefly for right now) you're doing it to yourself. Genetics may be an underlying factor, but let's face it, if I asked you what you could be doing better, you would be able to think of something right away whether or not you admitted to it out loud. My body chose to hang onto the weight because I was starving it. The low calories, the repetitive diet, the over-training, the lack of sleep, the stress from trying to box at a national level, graduate from high-school and work a part-time job was overload for me. Eventhough mentally I felt like I could handle it, and it was almost a bragging right for me, my body stopped working for me to save itself. It didn't care what I was doing or feeding it, it sucked every nutrient it could get out of that lettuce, every ounce of protein and amino acids to repair my muscles from that chicken and every bit of carbohydrate it could out of the rice to keep me going for the day. Due to the lack of fat in that diet, there wasn't much there to pull from to protect my organs, so I had a lot of strange recurring infections, and kidney problems. Looking back on it all now though, I'm pretty impressed with my body for even being able to survive through that major crisis.
I'd like to point out quickly also, that I'm not bashing any sports that require you to be a certain weight. My heart is and always will be with boxing. I'm just pointing out that the lack of knowledge from myself and the coaches was the problem.
As for gaining weight in the sauna, I simply didn't have the water or nutrients in me to be able to sweat off more weight. So, my body held on to every ounce of water it could and actually started retaining it which is what caused the weight gain. Again, very impressive. I sat in on a course a few years ago with a guy by the name of Christian Limoges. He's a Naturopath who spoke on the subject of an alkaline diet and being "raw vegan". This means he eats nothing that comes from animals, and nothing that is cooked over 180 degrees. He turned me onto the claim that our bodies are incapable of error. He explained that the acidity and toxicity in a can of coke is enough to kill us, but because of our amazing systems, and their ability to filter, our liver can take that poison and turn it into sugar and it will be broken down into fat. The main function for fat is to protect our organs. So that can of poison was turned into sugar, which was turned to fat to protect our organs. Ummm... AMAZING! Keep in mind, the fat it turned into is a problem because of the fact that there are no nutrients in the can of coke and it was made from simple sugars, but it still didn't kill you and your body tried to turn it into something positive.
When we "yo-yo" diet, and cut out nutrients and calories, we are doing long-term damage to our organs, hormones, and our body, soul and mind if you will. This constant back and forth in our weight confuses our bodies and forces them into survival mode. It also makes it really difficult to have any sustainability in our plans to make these changes life-long because inevitably, you're cutting out foods; and as soon as you do that, you start to crave the simple version of it. Cut out sugars from fruit and you'll crave simple sugars like candy and chocolate. Cut out carbs and you'll start to crave bread. There's a reason why we eat with such variety. If you eat the same thing everyday, your body will begin to lack proper nutrients and muscles, organs and your ability to think clearly will be depleted.
I always said if I had to write a book with "the answer" to good weight-loss and fitness it would be world's shortest book.
Weight Loss: Burn off more than you take in; stop eating from a box and eat what the earth has supplied for you.
Fitness: Be active in some way or another everyday; stop sitting on your couch and doing nothing.
VOILA! That would be my book. Because, really guys, it's that easy. You wouldn't have to spend all that time reading food labels if you ate what came from the earth. (Especially if it's organic and free of pesticides) You wouldn't have to slave away at the gym every day if you would just keep active and moving. Walking with your kids counts as physical activity; vacuuming is another, doing laundry, gardening, these things count. You're moving and now you're eating real food with real nutrients, there's no crazy cravings or up and down energy levels and life is going good because you're not getting sick all the time. This amazing shift in lifestyle would also help eliminate your need for thyroid meds, blood-pressure meds, cholesterol meds, etc... because you wouldn't be poisoning your body with all these "man-made" boxed foods. The problems we are suffering with, are caused by our lifestyles. We take on too much, look for quick-fixes in food, and end up burning out, trying to be convenient with well... everything; and then the only ones who pay the price are us.
Here's an even extra-added bonus; plant your food, and now your doing even better by the planet. All of our problems are cyclical. We pollute our planet, we make food in boxes, we breathe in these toxins from all the plants that make the food in boxes, we consume all these poisons by eating food that was made in these toxic plants and then we wonder why we're unhealthy and why childhood obesity is on the rise and why there are so many cancers filling the earth. This is why. I will say this over and over again, we are doing this to ourselves.
Stop hitting the bookstores looking for the next "now diet". Understand that people in the "blue zones" of the world (these are areas of the earth where people are the healthiest and live into their hundreds"; plant their food, eat only what is naturally resourced from the land where they live, move all day to keep their environment thriving and sustainable and this gives them real motive to live. It gives them a sense importance. All of these things are important in living a long and healthy life. You can't take shortcuts if you want to sustain good health, but it also doesn't have to be major effort. Park further from the store, take the stairs instead of the elevator, consider chores at your house part of your exercise routine, and eat well. Without proper diet even the best athlete will never get the results they want. Remember, if food companies cut out the fat in something, they have to replace it with something else. If they cut out sugar, it too, has to replaced with something. The alternatives are always unhealthy and usually the same thing that's causing your health problems. Be smart about your food, be smart about what you're doing - don't just sit around; get up and walk, play with your kids, get some fresh air, turn on some music and dance in your kitchen; get more rest, find ways to eliminate the stress in your life and surround yourself with people who are living the same way. It may require more conscious effort in the beginning, but it becomes second nature in no time and the concept is actually sustainable because it's what we were designed to do.
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