Some thoughts on health and fitness, ie so you want to be and eat healthier?

Fast weight loss does not stay off, because science:
http://fortune.com/2016/05/02/biggest-loser-weight-study/

I turn 40 this year. I am 6’6″. I weighed 270 in 2002. I weigh about 225lbs 15 years later, while also lowering blood pressure and all the other earmarks. I am about 8 years in to being aware of fitness, and maybe 6 in regards to diet…. it’s not *just* a long term thing. It’s not really even a “choice”… it’s a pact you make with your body and yourself that you are new, your lifestyle is new, and it’s not negotiable. Consider it a job, and you’re basically there. If you negotiate with yourself about eating a whole pizza or not working out…. what if what you ate and your fitness was non-negotiable, like going to your job? Think like that. And then……

It’s an awareness that:

a) This is the most important thing you will ever take a few seconds or minutes to think about and understand, and it’s the obvious answer of how fuel works, as well as the obvious answer why diets fail:

It is not about reduced calories over a short period of time, but rather a *NET LOSS OF CALORIES FOREVER*. If you reduce calories only to have them come back after your diet, what do you think will happen? So do what I did – look at what ends up in your hand and your mouth through the day. Replace candy with nuts like Almonds. Remove all sugar candy (I stopped eating all gummi bears, which I loved, and that was a net loss of 200-600 calories a week, *forever*), or remove any mindless calories that you can. I guarantee you, if you can make this one change *FOREVER*, you will lose 5lbs easily, and keep it off forever: End Soft Drinks. If you replace liquid calories with sparkling water and lime…. you will drop that weight and it will never come back. As soon as you end up drinking your calories again, or adding the candy treats back….. the weight will come with it. It is painfully simple… calorie in, calorie out.

b) diets limit you, trick you, and put you back. They do not help. There is no such thing as “a diet”. There is “diet” which is “nutrition”, and nutrition simply means every single calorie, every single choice every single day is part of your life long “fix” and maintenance of yourself as healthy.

c) There’s really no such thing as cheat days… but when you get to the point of being healthy and eating healthy, you can eat what you want, when you want, because you are healthy. That’s not “cheating”, that’s “damn I’ve got this night out with friends, and that’s life”. It will stress you out less, and you will relapse less, if you realize you are consistently eating well.

d) Do not look like this as a trying battle. Look at this as reality, like having to stop and get gas in your car, or having to get to work. It’s just part of your deal… integrate fitness and nutrition into your life like it’s work, ie not a choice but something that is an implicit agreement between yourself and your reality.

e) Sugar is poison. It is booze without the buzz. Get rid of it in any way possible. It 100 years, it will be regulated and looked at like alcohol. Get ahead of the curve. Watch this Lustig lecture. LIFE CHANGING AND MIND BLOWING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

f) Sugar is often used to cover up the salt… look at Coca Cola. The sugar isn’t there to make it sweet, it’s there to cover up the salt that would make it undrinkable. DO NOT DRINK YOUR CALORIES. Simply do not… not fructose juices, not tonics, not sodas.

g) Juicing is a sham, and nonsense. The idea you would rid something of fiber, take out the sugar, and drink the sugar to spike your insulin… it’s just stupid. You need the fibrous materials of the apple, carrot, or whatever to soak up that sugar, and have it digest as it should… within the fiber, slowly… so it’s a balanced energy push over time rather than a spike of insulin. DO NOT JUICE. That’s my opinion. ABSOLUTELY BUY A VITAMIX, and do smoothies. You need that plant fiber. It’s good for you, and it’s the way “juicing” goes from health food scam to healthy lifestyle.

h) You are never, ever going to work off a burger. You need to mountain bike for 3 hours to work off a few M&Ms. Exercise is about control, fitness, stability, strength, endurance, and more. But it is not about weight. That’s why BMI is so controversial for athletes because it doesn’t differentiate between fat weight and muscle weight. Sadly…. weight is about what you eat. So, find ways to eat less of your vices. Our human bodies are made to starve. We’re evolved to suffer through malnutrition and famine. But our bodies have no idea what to do with, or where to put, all these foreign and unnatural calories. Eat less fake food, shop on the perimeter of the grocery store, and learn to eat fresh.