Letting Your Workout Ruin You Eating Habits

I hear this all the time – “I just ran five miles so I earned this donut!”  Well, if we constantly live this way - then we will derail any efforts put forth to become healthier, leaner, faster and stronger.  This mentality may also result in weight gain!  While we do need to eat more food as we work out or run, it needs to be high quality food.  We cannot view our workouts as calorie in/calorie out (I have discussed this in previous blog posts). 

The other side of this equation is the overweight runner.  Many people tell me that I am thin because I run.  This is not true – I lost the weight BEFORE I started running long distances.  Poor food choices will cause weight gain even if you are running or working out every day.  How many overweight marathoners do we all know?  These people put in a ton of miles and many of them do not lose a lot of weight.  I am not calling any one out here, I am just saying running or daily exercise doesn’t make you thin by itself.  Weight loss is found in the kitchen, not on the trail!

My view is this:  The training should remind us that we need to eat clean so we can do more, have less injury, and achieve our goals!  In 14 months I ran five marathons and a 50K Ultra. I was able to do this because my diet supported this level of training.  When you eat high quality foods, your body will reward you because you can do more!

It can be a slippery slope to run to eat.  We should view food as “eating to live!”  I am not saying we should never have a treat, but the daily thought pattern of rewarding yourself with bad food because you worked out is not sustainable.

Change your thinking and change your life!

Top foods and ingredients to avoid:

Hydrogenated Oil / Trans Fats: This oil is very difficult for the body to digest and raises LDL (the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL (the good cholesterol).  They are also active agents of heart disease, diabetes, nutritional deficiencies and cellular deterioration. 

·        Common foods include: vegetable shortening, crackers, cookies, baked goods, salad dressings, breads and chips

Red Dye #40 & 3, Yellow Dye #5&#6: these have all shown significant links to cancer and thyroid issues.

·        Common foods include: candy, cereals, and frosting

Margarine – there is nothing healthy about margarine, it is made from highly refined oils and even hydrogenated oils.  You best bet is real butter or alternatives such as almond butter.

Hot Dogs and any other meats high in nitrates – these foods are highly processed and when these nitrates are broken down in the stomach they can have a very adverse effect on the body such as headaches, nausea and vomiting.

Artificial sweetener & HFC (high fructose corn syrup) – Splenda (sucralose), Sweet ’N Low (saccharin), Equal (Aspartame), Sweet One (Acesulfame) are all linked to increases in cancer and they still have the same effect on the body as sugar by raising the insulin levels in the blood stream.  HFC is a highly processed form of corn syrup and most commonly made from GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) which also have strong links to cancer.  If you want something sweet, stick with sugar, it is the least evil of all of these.  In the end, you will still gain weight using these sweeteners.

Microwave popcorn – this product is very popular however the chemicals used to make microwave popcorn are very dangerous to our health.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) – this chemical has been shown to be a neurotoxin and has very negative effects on the body, including migraines, cancers, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Sodium Benzoate And Potassium Benzoate – commonly found it bread, it is an endocrine disruptor and has been shown to increase rates of cancer.

Olestra – a fat substitute that is a a synthesized chemical most commonly used in fat free ships.

Other resources:

http://undergroundhealthreporter.com/the-10-worst-food-ingredients/#axzz32wIc6Sw5

http://www.everydayhealth.com/health-report/jillian-michaels-healthier-life/processed-foods-pitfalls.aspx

http://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/avoid-these-9-worst-food-ingredients

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/11/26/most-unhealthy-ingredients_n_2177450.html

http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slide/scary-ingredient-1-olestra?slideshow=186430#sharetagsfocus

Smoking & Cancer, Chronic Illness & Medicine

Our view of Healthcare today is so skewed that I really struggle when people can’t make the connection between food and chronic illness.  I love the analogy given by Dr. Joel Fuhrman – today’s healthcare could be compared to trying to find a cure for smoking vs telling people to quit smoking. 

When we continue to seek medication and surgeries to fix our problems then we will never know what it means to be healthy.  Our lives will be filled with pain, illness and medical bills. 

I know it was not that long ago that I did not care much about what I ate and it showed, but at the same time I was not sick (yet).  You would think sick people would be very interested in this advice but they really aren't.  I have tired many times to make small recommendations to those who are ill and they say everything I suggest is not what their Doctors tell them.  Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it is obvious they do not know either.

Whether you trust my advice or not, I challenge you do to this – do your own research, do not let Dr. Oz tell you every day how to live.  Discover for yourself what real food can do for you.  I challenge you to try it for 30 days and I think you will find that maybe I was right!

Change your food, change your life!

Funding Cancer and Gene Research

As I learn more about health and nutrition, and the impact it can have on our health, I’m questioning all the money spent on science and research.  I am not against finding cures and doing medical research, but I feel we are overlooking the most obvious and key component - which is “what is causing our bodies to break down?”  Food is medicine; our bodies regenerate most of our cells every 100 days.  How can we not believe that food plays a critical role in how our bodies respond to disease?

I see that a lot of money is being spent on finding the “fat” gene - really?  Come on!!  Mother Nature gave us the fat gene to help us survive.  Long before readily-available grocery stores, we went through periods of feast and famine.  Our bodies are designed to store fat to handle the times when there is a scarcity of food!  There is no need to find the fat gene, but there IS a need to educate our society.

We are too driven as Americans to have it all and not pay the consequences.  It really is not that difficult to eat real food; however our government, Big Food, health care companies, and retailers simply do not care.  They want the money!  And if they find a cure for obesity then they will cash in.  But what is the cost?  Do we keep eating the way we do and make ourselves sicker?  Do we keep spending millions and millions of dollars to figure out how to fix our ills, or would the money be better spent educating others how to eat a high-quality meal without all the side effects?

There is not enough money in the world to fix all the cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illness out there.  There truly is only one way to fix most of our health problems.  It has been proven time and time again, but this type of information is lost in the mass hysteria and our tendency not to take personal responsibility for our own actions.

I used to be the fat guy - the one looking for a quick fix.  But once I realized how simple things really are, I found that I enjoyed life a lot more.  My senses are at their peak, my energy level is high, I do not get sick, I look great, and I do not fear aging!  No amount of medicine can ever achieve that!

Live life to the fullest and take care of the one and only body God gave you!