The greatest gift that training to failure brings is that it serves to dampen the need for always winning within us all.
It is only through falling do birds learn to fly and it is only through failing that we can truly achieve.
Warmest regards,
Kevin Richardson
Founder, Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™
Naturally Intense Personal Training NYC
www.naturallyintense.net
Binge eating disorder is a condition that probably affects millions here in the United States and around the world. People with binge eating disorder often consume large amounts of food while feeling a real loss of control over their eating1. This disorder differs from binge-purge syndrome (bulimia nervosa) since people with binge eating disorder usually do not purge afterward by vomiting or using laxatives.
Most people overeat from time to time, and many feel that they frequently eat more than they should. However eating large amounts of food and even being over one’s ideal weight does not mean that a person has binge eating disorder, on the contrary many individuals that are considered to be in good shape actually do have serious problems with their attitudes towards food, to the point where it can indeed be classified as a disorder. The criteria for binge eating disorder are:
· Frequent episodes of eating what others would consider an abnormally large amount of food.
· Frequent feelings of being unable to control what or how much is being eaten.
· Several of these behaviors or feelings:
1. Eating much more rapidly than usual.
2. Eating until uncomfortably full.
3. Eating large amounts of food, even when not physically hungry.
4. Eating in isolation out of embarrassment at the quantity of food being eaten.
5. Feelings of disgust, depression, or guilt after overeating.2
Episodes of binge eating also occur in the eating disorder bulimia nervosa, a condition that affects many bodybuilders and fitness models in numbers higher many would expect. Persons with bulimia regularly purge, fast, or engage in an unhealthy pattern of prolonged strenuous exercise after an episode of binge eating. The purging process is usually understood as vomiting but it can also include the use of diuretics (water pills) or laxatives in greater-than-recommended doses to avoid gaining weight- practices that many in the health and fitness circles regularly engage in to allow themselves to maintain their look.
Fasting is defined as not eating for at least twenty-four hours. Strenuous exercise, in this case, is defined as exercising for more than an hour, but not as a means to better health and or self improvement, but rather as a reactive practice meant solely to avoid gaining weight after a binge. Purging, fasting, and prolonged strenuous exercise are dangerous ways to attempt weight control. Excessive shape and weight concerns are also characteristics of bulimia, issues that may seem benign in someone in extremely good shape, but when explored can sometimes reveal that their ‘being in shape’ is not at all the result of a balanced approach to health and fitness and is inevitability self destructive.
As was mentioned previously, many competitive bodybuilders suffer from some form of the aforementioned eating disorders. The only difference is that their cycle of weight gain and weight loss, extreme dieting, nutrient deprivation and dehydration combined with the thousands of hours of almost daily prolonged periods of strenuous exercise has become almost socially acceptable. Be that as it may, the extreme practice of that particular lifestyle falls within the realm of a disorder nevertheless. That applies for those that employ the use of illegal drugs and for those that make the claim of being natural.
Unless there is a real balance where overall health is prioritized over attainment of a transient cosmetic appearance such as being big or having an extremely low body fat level, it is a disorder and has no relation to health and fitness whatsoever.
Psychological disorders aside, there is research that indicates that a pattern of weight gain and weight loss (yo-yo dieting) is not all healthy. This is true as much for the competitive athlete as it is for members of the general population. Studies show possible harmful effects for large weight regains including increased cardiovascular risk factors and type 2 diabetes in overweight/obese individuals. Harmful metabolic changes may also occur in young, normal weight individuals who do not need to lose weight as well as decreased immune system function and reduction in bone density in women.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
There are other eating disorders that can also often go unrecognized. Night Eating Syndrome is a prime example and it is one that many can relate to, albeit in a less extreme form. Night Eating Syndrome is characterized by a lack of appetite for breakfast; the consumption of more than half of daily food intake calories after the evening meal, and waking up at night to consume high calorie, high-carbohydrate snacks and insomnia.3 Foods eaten during the nighttime binge are almost always unhealthy. After the night binge, the person is usually not hungry in the morning, and breakfast, the most important meal of the day is skipped.
The excessive food intake at night also creates a decrease in melatonin, a critical sleep relate hormone. Research has shown that the decrease in melatonin contributes to increased sleep disturbances and insomnia.
Again, it should be stated that most people may not have the characteristics of this particular syndrome to the extent that it becomes pathological, but the pattern of almost uncontrollable late night snacking on high carbohydrate and unhealthy foods is a very common issue for many individuals.
While the general population may not be diagnosed as having an eating disorder, most still find the task of controlling their eating habits to be an almost impossible endeavor. However there are practical and systematic approaches that make the likelihood of success much greater and none of them involve quick fixes.
The first key is an understanding of our patterns with regard to food consumption. The development of an intimate understanding and, in the course of time, patiently learn how to modify one’s behavior.
Simply resolving to no longer eat unhealthy foods is not the answer for most, nor does the answer lie in fad diets. If that were the case then everyone would be successful in their attempts at weight control and that certainly is not the case. There must instead be an unrelenting commitment to a change in lifestyle. One that is divorced from the destructive perspective that somehow there must be some form of atonement for failures to stay on track.
It is almost human nature to believe that when a ‘wrong’ is committed, that a period of guilt is required, followed by penance of some sort. Unfortunately, this is very much a reality with regards the way most perceive their diet. The individual falters, eating something that falls into the category of forbidden and falls into a downward spiral of self hatred and disgust. This self inflicted flagellation is followed by a resolve to either exercise more, diet harder or employ some extreme method to compensate for the ‘damage’ done by their indulgence. (Sound familiar?).
Physiologically speaking, there isn’t anything that can be done to compensate for a slip in one’s diet. Nothing at all. What is done is done and any attempts to try to undo the past are simply wasted exercises in magical thinking as they have no foundations in reality. This way of thinking can very easily lead towards the aforementioned eating disorders and pathologies and not the intended goal of attaining a healthy body. Instead the slips must be looked upon as what they are; learning experiences that teach us more about ourselves since every slip holds the information necessary to help avoid their continued re-occurrence.
The limited idea of getting into shape for summer or for a contest does not permit a transition towards this way of thinking. However the idea of getting into shape over the course of several years for reasons rooted in self care does. Nothing worth achieving comes quickly, having control over one’s eating habits are no exception. It takes practice and patience. True achievements stem from a lifetime of dedication. It took me the span of two decades to be able to do it, and without the slips and failures encountered along the way, I would not be able to do it as easily as I do today.
The other important factor is an understanding of the dynamics behind learned behavior.
When you decide, for example, that you are no longer going to eat unhealthy foods, your new attitude only serves to supplement your original behavior where eating unhealthy foods were acceptable. Behavioral psychology has found what many of us in the trenches, so to speak have learned through objective observations. Namely that the very habits that we seek to change resurface because they are not fully forgotten. New and old ways of thinking coexist as opposing impulses that will always be in competition unless steps are taken to disarming undesirable attitudes.13
Disarming those attitudes requires a fundamental change in perception, a change that comes only with time and patience. It is only when you are able to enjoy foods that are good for you that you will be able to break the cycle. Again, it does not happen overnight but a consistent diet of wholesome foods would eventually bring about the conclusion that many of them are very much enjoyable and you would find yourself craving the very foods that are good for you, because they would physically make you feel better. The temptation to indulge in the foods that you wished to avoid therefore fades into the background, a temptation that over time is simply forgotten.
This is the same progression that allows me to maintain my diet all year round without any exceptions whatsoever, and the one that has worked unfailingly for innumerable individuals that I have been honored to work with over the past fourteen years as a professional trainer. I know that many of you are asking yourselves how could you possibly stay on a diet of only healthy foods long enough to get to a point where the old habits are pushed aside. Taken by itself it would be a daunting task. The answer lies in a very specific regime of infrequent, high intensity resistance training. Training that forces change on every level of the individual’s existence; on a cellular level, building new muscle and burning fat, creating in the process an appetite for the very foods that the body would need to support the new growth. Finally on a spiritual level, opening the doors to a whole new way of perceiving the world, one where limits are constantly being re-evaluated and where the seemingly impossible task of breaking free of the perpetually destructive cycle of weight loss and weight becomes very much a reality.
References:
1.Marcus MD. “Binge Eating in Obesity.” In: Fairburn CG, Wilson GT (eds). Binge eating: nature, assessment, and treatment
2.Stunkard AJ. “Eating Patterns and Obesity.” Psychiatric Quarterly, 1959, Vol. 33, pp. 284-295.
3. January issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders
4.Field AE, Byers T, Hunter DJ, et al. Weight cycling, weight gain, and risk of hypertension in women. Am J Epidemiologic. 1999;150:573-579.
5. Weinsier RL, Nagy TR, Hunter GR, et al. Do adaptive changes in metabolic ratefavor weight regain in weight-reduced individuals? An examination of the set-point theory. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Nov;72:1088-94. 3. Leibel RL, Rosenbaum M, Hirsch J, Changes in energy expenditure from altered body weight. N Engl J Med. 1995 Mar; 332:521-628.
6.Nutrition NoteworthyVol. 7 [2005], No. 1, Article
7. Field AE, Manson JE, Taylor CB, et al. Association of weight change, weight control practices, and weight cycling among women in the Nurses’ Health Study II. Int J Obesity. 2004;28:1134-1142.
8. Kajioka T, Tsuzuku S, Shimokata H, et al. Effects of intentional weight cycling on non-obese young women. Metabolism. 2002 Feb;51:149-154. 6. Sea M, Fong W, Huang Y, et al. Weight cycling-induced alteration in fatty acidmetabolism. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2000;279:1145-1155.
9. Graci S, Izzo G, Savino S, et al. Weight cycling and cardiovascular risk factors inobesity. Int J Obesity. 2004;28:65-71. 10. Field AE, Manson JE, Laird N, et al. Weight cycling and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes among adult women in the United States. Obesity Research. 2004;12:267-274.
11. Fogelholm M, Sievanen H, Heinonen A, et al. Association between weight cycling history and bone mineral density in premenopausal women. Ostseoporos Int. 1997
12. Shade ED, Ulrich CM, Wener MH, et al. Frequent intentional weight loss is associated with lower natural killer cell cytoxicity in postmenopausal women:Possible long-term immune effects. J Am Diet Assoc. 2004;104:903-912.
13. The Psychological Review
Information contained in this article is not meant to treat, diagnose illness, nor substitute for medical counsel
and is intended for purposes of information and education only. Consult your physician before modifying your diet
or starting any exercise program.
Warmest regards,
Kevin Richardson
Founder, Naturally Intense High Intensity Training™
Naturally Intense Personal Training NYC
How do you properly breathe while you train?
With your nose and with your mouth!
Stop thinking and trust your body to be as it should.
Warmest regards,
Kevin Richardson
Founder, Naturally Intense High Intensity Training™
Naturally Intense Personal Trainer NYC
When times come that you are in doubt of the fact that you are making progress, consider very seriously that drops of water cannot know themselves to be a river. Press on!
Kevin Richardson
Founder, Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™
Naturally Intense Personal Training NYC
Protein Supplements- Do You Need Them?
Part 2 of 2
Protein supplements over the years have become one of the mainstays of the health/fitness and bodybuilding movement. Once used almost exclusively by bodybuilders and athletes, sales of protein shakes and bars continue to increase year after year as more and more members of the general public are using them. Within the framework of the fitness world- protein shakes are an invaluable part of achieving a lean and muscular physique. Without a doubt there are few within the industry that do not use them, I myself used protein shakes almost everyday for over fifteen years. I no longer use them, however as I believe them to be not only ineffective, but also potentially unhealthy.
The first and most important argument to be made is the fact that in spite of all the articles published and the innumerable number of bodybuilders, athletes and fitness enthusiasts that consume them religiously, protein supplements are inherently unnatural. The human body is a marvel of biological perfection, so is the environment in which it evolved. Over the course of one hundred and fifty thousand years human beings have relied mainly on certain food sources for sustenance, they consisted of meats, fish, grains, nuts eggs and milk of various kinds. They did not include shakes containing cross filtered, pre-digested whey proteins or micellar casein. Now one might make the contrary argument that both whey and casein are cow milk derivatives, but there are three points that invalidate this argument. One is that although they exist in milk, a naturally occurring food, they do not exist naturally in isolation. The second is that these proteins are derived from cow’s milk, a food source naturally intended for other cows, not for human consumption. The Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine, headed by Dr. Neil Barnard, cautions against the near universal custom of giving children pasteurized homogenized cow’s milk, as it is associated with juvenile diabetes, allergies, and mucus conditions. However, the American Dairy Board has done a very effective job of marketing this product. Almost everything that most of us know about milk comes either directly or indirectly from this powerful lobby group. Also it should be noted that no other adult mammal consumes milk past infancy, only humans do so against every biological indication that they should not. Lactase, the enzyme needed to digest milk decreases as we age, a strong indication that consumption is meant only for infants along with the most obvious factor that human females do not breast feed indefinitely. All things considered, milk proteins are not good choices, especially in an artificially isolated form.
Now while milk proteins account for the overwhelming majority of protein supplements, there are also egg and soy protein products available, although to be honest neither one compares in any way to the only protein source that our bodies were designed to consume- real foods. One often overlooked factor in the hoopla about protein supplements is that most of them are predigested, i.e. they are chemically altered to allow them to be assimilated easier. Again, on the surface it sounds prudent, predigest a protein source so it is available even faster to muscles in need- but a closer look reveals the backwardness of this train of thought. A study done by the American Journal of Physiology confirmed what many in the fitness field knew for decades- namely that ingestion of protein increased the metabolic rate more than thirty percent more than other food sources. This increase in metabolic rate, called the thermic effect, is a key factor in bodyfat reduction and is one of the reasons why a high protein intake tends to promote fat loss. However, by ingesting a protein supplement that is in liquid form and thus will be assimilated much faster than its natural solid counterpart you significantly lessen the thermic effect. More importantly, the fact that these proteins are also partially pre-digested means that they will have even less of a thermic effect in the body.
The alternative to protein supplementation is to get your protein from real foods only. The irony is that almost all top (and I place the word ‘top’ here purposefully) natural bodybuilding and fitness related competitors start their regime to get into peak conditioning by dropping protein supplements from their diets and relying solely on solid foods. They do so to take advantage of the thermic effect offered by solid protein intakes and because experience has shown that consumption of protein supplements tends to create a somewhat bloated appearance. That being said, my epiphany came after years of using protein supplements in the off season and then cutting them out before contest or photo shoots. I realized that if I looked my best, and was at my absolute strongest when I wasn’t using protein shakes in the pre-contest phase, why should I go back to using them in the off-season. And so I stopped, reluctantly at first, but in time I realized that I was making the same consistent gains in strength, muscle mass and overall conditioning as when I was consuming protein shakes on a daily basis. It meant that I had to pay more attention to my food intake and eat more than I originally did, but in the end, it is that very transition that I credit for my current level of year round conditioning. Not only do I not have the bloated appearance from protein supplement consumption, but I also feel better. My stomach feels much better than it has in decades and my energy levels are significantly improved.
So the bottom line is that without protein supplements, you can actually look and feel much better, but there is one other important benefit- cost. Can you imagine how much money you would save if you didn’t have to purchase protein shakes all the time? Saved money that could be better put to use in buying real food. The supplement industry invests a considerable amount to make the athlete and fitness minded individual believe that they need protein supplementation, they do so because they profit tremendously from the sales. Almost 99% of the information that supports the use of these supplements comes from magazines/books/companies that make, advertise or distribute protein supplements or from an individual that was influenced by the aforementioned group. There is as of yet no scientifically validated evidence that protein supplements of any kind do actively contribute to increased muscle mass or an increase in performance over a prolonged period1, none whatsoever. All that exist are conjectures rewritten by those that stand to benefit from supplement sales- conjectures that are woven into articles and books that are no more than cheap quack science.
The marketing of protein supplements appeals to the public’s microwave mentality- a quick shake is sold as being ‘an intelligent alternative given today’s fast paced lifestyle’- (the line is taken from an article in a so called health magazine that is owned by a company that also has stock in supplement production and that makes millions from the advertisements placed by other supplement companies within its pages). That way of thinking is to be blunt- weak minded bullshit. Ninety eight percent of American households have television sets in them and most of them find the time to watch the latest reality show or popular prime time program. The hallmark of a lifestyle truly committed to health and fitness is that the needs of your body is given a certain degree of importance. If modern man can find time to watch ‘Survivor’ or ‘Desperate Housewives’, then they can surely find enough time to get off of their behinds and prepare themselves a healthy meal. In addition to being a father of three I have no less than four professions, each one demanding a significant part of my day, and yet I make the time to cook all of my meals and my family’s meals as well. Does eating well mean waking up extra early or staying up late to spend time in front of a stovetop or oven putting together a well thought out meal? It certainly does and if you are not prepared to do so, or find a viable way to have real food correctly prepared for you, then you need to reassess your priorities because you are not truly committed to getting into better shape.
Final Thoughts
Changing your body in a positive manner requires sacrifice, there is no getting around this universal truth, convenience simply does not factor into the equation. Now the industry would like you to think that it does, and it would be nice to take a shake here and there and achieve the body of your dreams, but I also think that every mature adult is aware of the fact that nothing of value in life comes from shortcuts- a strong, lean and muscular physique is no exception it comes from years of dedication, commitment, sensible training and time.
References:
1 Exercise, protein metabolism, and muscle growth. Tipton KD, Wolfe RR., Metabolism Division, Department of Surgery, University of Texas
Information contained in this article is not meant to treat, diagnose illness, nor substitute for medical counsel and is intended for purposes of information and education only. Consult your physician before modifying your diet or starting any exercise program.
Warmest regards,
Kevin Richardson
Founder, Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™
Naturally Intense Personal Training NYC
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