Diet and exercise: Inseparable partners
It may seem trite to be yet another “health guy” who says “diet and exercise,” blah blah blah. At the risk of causing your eyes to glass over, I beg your forgiveness in allowing me to state what, in all my observation, seems to be the truth. Indeed, exercise and diet in combination seem to be the closest thing to the “magic pill” one can find. Yet, where the reader may find reading on worth his or her time is in the semantics behind those terms: diet and exercise.
I can quote you miles of research stating this or that is the best fitness routine, or cardio machine, or lifting routine etc, and there is no shortage of people writing books, hosting websites, appearing on talk shows and posting videos that do exactly that: sell you their specific routine or diet which ostensibly worked for them.
I heard an excellent phrase recently, quoted by a young gym owner posting a video on Youtube about, you got it, diet and exercise. He said, “everything works … until it doesn’t.” Beautiful, man! That statement is pregnant with truth, bursting into the world to be seen and heard. That statement is precisely why I call my public Facebook and Youtube sites “The Nutritional Agnostic.” There has never been, is not, and never will be ONE truth for all. There is only what works. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I can only tell you what is working and not working for me. Is this information useful? Well, yes, if you try it out yourself, and if you read or listen to other people’s stories of their journey. At some point you may find common threads that will start to ring true for you — if you try them and confirm your theories. So, what inspired me to broach this topic today is that I have been tweaking my strategies, and I believe I have found a truth that at long last has sunk in, for me: an excellent diet will not make up for lack of exercise, and exercise will not offset poor eating. But here’s the rub: you have to find what works for you. How? By trial and error. At 54 years old, I’ve had plenty of trials and made plenty of errors, but I stand here now feeling amazingly energetic, clear-headed and able to handle pretty much any physical task I choose because I have persevered through my frustration and setbacks.
For me, it has been a series of gaining momentum and then running into a wall, or a huge speed bump. With the benefit of wisdom only gained through years of hindsight, I can now see that arguably my hardest lesson was not seeing the inseparability of diet and exercise as a team. I would usually focus my energy on one or the other because both take a great deal of motivation and effort to stay the course. I find that if I am out my exercise routine for a while, getting back into it is very difficult for a week or two; but then it gets noticeably easier, and even self-motivating once in the routine. I find I crave the Stairmaster, or I start feeling an unpleasant ache in my muscles that is only relieved by some reps in the weight room. Even more is the overall feeling of well-being and optimism that only comes with exercise and good eating, for me.
So what is my unique formula? Please note that it will not likely stay the same, rather it will continue to evolve and improve as long as I choose that path each and every day. I am a sugar addict. I grew up loving candy into my middle adult years. I find that everything starts with controlling my sugar intake. To this end, I have found Stevia to be a savior. It satisfies my sweet tooth, but has none of the negative effects of refined sugar. I prefer Trader Joe’s 100% organic white Stevia powder. It is at least three times as sweet as sugar, so it takes very little to sweeten a cup of coffee as an example. Furthermore, modern nutritional science overwhelmingly concludes that without the presence of sugar, spiking the insulin, good dietary fat doesn’t hurt us; in fact, it is essential to a good diet.
My next big thing is eating lots of dark leafy greens and a variety of vegetables. I prefer my veggies steamed, and I also start my day with a daily glass of fresh veggie juice. My juicer is arguably the best investment I ever made. The amount of minerals and vitamins in a glass of fresh juice dwarfs what you can get on a plate. I buy exclusively local and organic because I see no point in poisoning myself with pesticides, and I see no point in eating food that has been picked before ripe, and sat in trucks and grocery shelves until most of its nutrition is gone.
For exercise I find I need both cardio and weight training. I have a high quality Stairmaster which I love and hate. I love how it makes me feel; I hate using it. I have a 20-minute routine of intervals that gives me all I need in the shortest possible time. I find that absolutely the unpleasant 20 minutes is worth the next 48 hours of feeling amazing. I do a split weight routine, so that I don’t have to spend hours working out, and so I don’t get too fatigued and hurt my tendons and joints, which is a hazard of over-training. I vary my weights up and down 25 percent every other month, which are reported to keep the body in growth mode; otherwise, it adjusts and peaks (“works until it doesn’t”).
That in a nutshell is my “expert” advice, which of course is only expert about me. However, that does not mean you cannot take some useful tidbits and apply them to your journey. I am happy to answer questions either on my public Facebook group “The Nutritional Agnostic”, or by email: nutritionalagnostic@gmail.com. I am also hireable as a personal health coach if you want/need intensive individual attention.
Happy Holidays to all!