In the last installment of the 23 Hour Rule, I introduced the idea that what you do outside of the gym matters for your progress in the gym and in competition. Since many training programs call for about 3 hours of work per week in the gym, we found that the ratio of time outside of the gym to time in the gym is about 56 to 1. What that means to the average gym goer is that your training is just a drop in the bucket of life. While you can accomplish a lot, and I do mean a lot, in just 3 hours a week of training, you cannot undo 165 horrible hours in that short of a time. So where are we going with that idea today? Your diet.
When people say diet, what they usually mean is some fad they've adopted for weight loss. As I've mentioned before, I think weight loss by itself is a terrible goal because it's too short sighted. What do I do once the weight is off? Generally, I go back to the habits that resulted in me being overweight enough to make radical changes in lifestyle. That doesn't do anyone any favors.
What I mean when I say diet is the habits you have around food consumption. Most Americans eat a diet of convenience, meaning they eat what is easy. That results in most people being overweight or obese. (That's not hyperbole, click the link.) The idea seems to be that, I work so hard and I'm so busy that the only way to get the 3 meals a day that I NEED, is to hit the drive through for a couple of them and then microwave something out of a box when I get home. How else can I possibly survive?
Before we go any further, I need to challenge 2 ideas mentioned above. The first is that eating should be easy. That is entirely dependent upon what you mean when you say it. If easy means carrying around a 3rd grader worth of body fat and using the CPAP when you sleep, then that doesn't feel very easy to me. It sounds like making an already full life more difficult. If it means you can generally attempt to shake off any and all personal responsibility for what goes into your body, then I don't see how that will end well. What about having sustained energy to get you through your busy day? What about being healthy and looking healthy? That sounds a lot easier when I start to think in the long term.
And what about the people who depend on you? Many of my readers are parents. Is it going to be easier to teach your children to eat by your example and see them thrive, or to feed them from drive-through windows and watch them join the ranks of the overweight and obese? I understand that you're very busy, but are there things that could be trimmed out for a healthier lifestyle? This is in no way an attack on already very busy, tired, and overworked parents... I am one, and we only have 1 kid in our house. Instead, it's a call to evaluate your habits, and look for ways to make better habits, both for your benefit and for those who depend on you.
The second idea I want to challenge is that you absolutely must eat at least 3 meals per day, every day, for the rest of your life to survive. Humans are survival machines. No matter what belief you subscribe to, we've been around for a long time. There were long periods of scarcity throughout human history where people lived off of less food than some people eat in a week for long periods of time. If you don't have 3 meals a day, you will not die. If you do not eat for the next week, you will be just fine. This means that if your option for a meal is low quality food or don't eat, you certainly have the option to not eat until a better choice comes available. Life in the first world means that a better choice will come available in about as much time as it takes to drive to the nearest grocery store.
Start evaluating how you are eating. In my experience, people tend to thoughtlessly form their dietary habits. Give it a little thought, and stay tuned because in the next part we'll talk a little more about what to eat to support your training and your healthy lifestyle. Following that post there will be some thoughts on how to make healthy eating a little more convenient for you.
If you need a little help with your diet sooner than the next post, you can reach me through the comments or my email disruptivefitness@gmail.com. Further, there are other goal oriented trainees and trainers hanging out at our facebook group who would love to get you know you and help you out. As always, thanks for reading and supporting this blog!
When people say diet, what they usually mean is some fad they've adopted for weight loss. As I've mentioned before, I think weight loss by itself is a terrible goal because it's too short sighted. What do I do once the weight is off? Generally, I go back to the habits that resulted in me being overweight enough to make radical changes in lifestyle. That doesn't do anyone any favors.
What I mean when I say diet is the habits you have around food consumption. Most Americans eat a diet of convenience, meaning they eat what is easy. That results in most people being overweight or obese. (That's not hyperbole, click the link.) The idea seems to be that, I work so hard and I'm so busy that the only way to get the 3 meals a day that I NEED, is to hit the drive through for a couple of them and then microwave something out of a box when I get home. How else can I possibly survive?
Before we go any further, I need to challenge 2 ideas mentioned above. The first is that eating should be easy. That is entirely dependent upon what you mean when you say it. If easy means carrying around a 3rd grader worth of body fat and using the CPAP when you sleep, then that doesn't feel very easy to me. It sounds like making an already full life more difficult. If it means you can generally attempt to shake off any and all personal responsibility for what goes into your body, then I don't see how that will end well. What about having sustained energy to get you through your busy day? What about being healthy and looking healthy? That sounds a lot easier when I start to think in the long term.
And what about the people who depend on you? Many of my readers are parents. Is it going to be easier to teach your children to eat by your example and see them thrive, or to feed them from drive-through windows and watch them join the ranks of the overweight and obese? I understand that you're very busy, but are there things that could be trimmed out for a healthier lifestyle? This is in no way an attack on already very busy, tired, and overworked parents... I am one, and we only have 1 kid in our house. Instead, it's a call to evaluate your habits, and look for ways to make better habits, both for your benefit and for those who depend on you.
The second idea I want to challenge is that you absolutely must eat at least 3 meals per day, every day, for the rest of your life to survive. Humans are survival machines. No matter what belief you subscribe to, we've been around for a long time. There were long periods of scarcity throughout human history where people lived off of less food than some people eat in a week for long periods of time. If you don't have 3 meals a day, you will not die. If you do not eat for the next week, you will be just fine. This means that if your option for a meal is low quality food or don't eat, you certainly have the option to not eat until a better choice comes available. Life in the first world means that a better choice will come available in about as much time as it takes to drive to the nearest grocery store.
Start evaluating how you are eating. In my experience, people tend to thoughtlessly form their dietary habits. Give it a little thought, and stay tuned because in the next part we'll talk a little more about what to eat to support your training and your healthy lifestyle. Following that post there will be some thoughts on how to make healthy eating a little more convenient for you.
If you need a little help with your diet sooner than the next post, you can reach me through the comments or my email disruptivefitness@gmail.com. Further, there are other goal oriented trainees and trainers hanging out at our facebook group who would love to get you know you and help you out. As always, thanks for reading and supporting this blog!
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