Weight Loss Isn’t Always Logical

Weight loss isn’t rocket science- it’s a process that can be intentionally set in motion by creating a negative energy balance. That’s simply where your body burns more calories than it takes in from your food sources. As long as you don’t drop your calories quickly and for extended periods of time, the caloric deficit will prompt your body to use stored reserves of fat (and in some cases muscle) as an energy source to make up for the missing calories needed to keep you going. Over time, it leads to a reduction in overall body mass. Pretty simple if you look at it that way.

Even easier to understand are the benefits. If you are overweight and lose weight, you decrease the likelihood of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and  osteoarthritis.[1] Weight loss also increases the survival rates of those already suffering from obesity related diseases.[2] It’s logical thus, that to combat the increasing rates of obesity here in developed countries, everyone should understand the simple formulas for weight loss. But it isn’t about logic, and as long as weight loss is seen as a problem that can be solved by applications of what some might see as simple science, it won’t work. In today’s world, just about everyone with a weight problem is acutely aware that weight loss comes from a combination of diet and exercise. It is everywhere- television, books, internet, you name it. Yet over the past 20 years here in the United States, in spite of the increased access to weight loss information, there has been an steadily increasing rate of obesity.[3] Losing weight shouldn’t be that hard- but it most certainly is!

Cold Facts As An Obstacle To Weight Loss

Aside from the noise created by fad diets, fad exercise trends and weight loss supplements that do little or nothing at all to help people lose weight, and media bombardment from profit driven pharmaceutical as well as fitness related industries that benefit from an overweight population, there are very real barriers to weight loss that are seldom addressed. A conscientious man or woman who does their homework and asks the right questions of the right people, can learn what is real and what isn’t. It’s hard, given the background noise, but not impossible and there are some great, proven sources out there. However, even those armed with the best information possible, in most cases still don’t achieve the weight loss results they are looking for. The problem stems not always from the cold, hard facts of thermodynamics, but from the very shifting and complex aspects of our emotions.

In Western societies, the way we acquire knowledge, think and solve problems can be broken down into two basic approaches- Apollonian or Dionysian. The Apollonian approach, named after the Greek god Apollo, who represented, among other things, truth and a sense of order- is one where we employ a very pragmatic and logical thought process. The Dionysian approach, named after the Greek god Dionysius- the god of wine, ecstasy and intoxification, focuses however on our emotions. Our feelings and how we relate to the world on a very personal level. In today’s world, we tend to give more validity to Apollonian ways of solving problems. Science and facts are seen as truth and a superior way of problem solving, relegating more emotional and subjective based methods to a more subordinate role, since feelings can’t be easily quantified as factual information can. But it wasn’t always like this.

Weight Loss Comes From An Understanding Of Our Emotions

From the beginning of our existence as human beings, we have needed to employ both approaches to solving our problems, and neither was considered to be superior to the other. The logic based   Apollonian process, has always been crucial to our survival. It allows us to function effectively in the world by controlling our environment, creating tools, organizing society and planning for the future. As important as this forward looking and logical approach may be, it does not answer or address all the conditions we experience as human beings. An Apollonian thought processes and ismeant for interaction with an external reality. It can’t help us cope with loss, express our love or find meaning in life itself. For these issues, we turned to the Dionysian approach. Myth, religion, philosophy and tradition, all spring from this way of looking at the world. Practices that help us find our way in an often overwhelmingly confusing world.

There will, therefore, always be problems unsolved by approaches completely reliant on hard scientific facts, especially those that are of a personal and intimate nature to begin with. Our global problem of obesity is a prime example. Seen by many administrators, governing officials and experts in the field, as a problem remedied by the logical application of diet and exercise, this way has obviously failed. And continues to fail.  If anything, this plan of attack has had the opposite effect, as obesity rates keep climbing over the years. It isn’t surprising if you consider what we eat and what we do, (diet and exercise), falls squarely into the realm of our emotions- not our analytical thought processes. In twenty years of working with people to help them lose weight, what I learned is that weight loss is all about self control. One of the hardest and most difficult mountains for any of us to climb. To accomplish this Herculean task, people don’t need facts- they need patience, inspiration, understanding and support. Weight loss is about intimately changing our lives and leaving behind the person that we once were to become someone new. Like any new life coming into the world, this rebirth is a delicate and very often painful process where you have to deal with many complex and emotional issues.

The Change Required To Lose Weight Is A Major Emotional Undertaking

As difficult as it sounds, this is still an oversimplification of the challenges each of us face with our own inner demons and obstacles to changing our lives. When I started as a personal trainer, I learned everything I could about the human body, diet and nutrition, and I firmly believed I had all the knowledge that I needed to help people lose weight and keep it off. I had no idea whatsoever, how much more it entailed! Helping my clients lose weight meant having a nonjudgmental and always listening ear. It meant being a constant source of support and it meant always doing your best to inspire and helping them go forward one day at a time. Early on, I thought one diet, with some slight modifications, would fit everyone and boy, was I wrong! I had no inkling that I would spend hours, days and months going back and forth with my clients to create new eating plans that not only would help them lose weight, but also that would fit into their lives.

I learned that food forms a narrative in our lives, establishes order, influences our emotions, creates and sealing bonds and can’t just be changed to fit a one-size-fits-all mold. It calls for small steps, and a deep respect for the way people look at their foods, if there is any hope of helping them change. Meeting people where they are, walking with them along paths of self discovery has little to do with science, but without objective facts, we wouldn’t have all the tools we need to make weight loss a reality. One of the consequences of living in a logic dominated environment is the illusion that we, ourselves, are primarily logical beings. An overweight personal is a choice examples of how paradoxical our behavior can be. But even closer to home, each of us, at some point in our lives, has left logic far behind when we get involved in questionable relationships. Leaving us asking ourselves what in the world we were thinking in the first place! We are indeed emotional beings. So in the end, we need balanced approaches if we strive to do such difficult tasks like as losing weight and changing our lives. Apollonian roads have their uses, but what we also need today are sources of inspiration, compassion and understanding.

Get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here

References

1. Pi-Sunyer, FX. Short-Term Medical Benefits and Adverse Effects of Weight Loss- American College Of Physicians

2. American Gastroenterological Association (2002). AGA technical review on obesity. Gastroenterology, 123(3): 882-932. [Erratum in Gastroenterology, 123(5): 1752.

3. US Obesity Trends 1985-2009. Center For Disease Control

Kevin Richardson- celebrity NYC Personal Trainer is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder and arguably one of the most sought out personal trainer in New York City. Custom online diet plans available.

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Bodybuilding As A Spiritual Path

Sometimes truth contains apparent contradictions. Contradictions that come as a result of the intellect struggling to comprehend that which is beyond intellectual comprehension. Such truths speak to what lies well beyond the façade of ego and instead communicates directly with what we often term as the spirit within us. This spiritual side of ourselves is timeless and ever present, unaffected by the viscitudes of life and simply is. It is a side that so many choose to ignore but one that so many struggle to comprehend. Time has taught us that the physical can be a gateway towards the spiritual. By training the body we refine the spirit. By taking our physical self to an extreme place where intellect ceases to have meaning and our mental and physical selves unite in the completion of intense activity those able to endure will inevitably find themselves in a quiet place where another side can be glimpsed.

A silent side. A part of us that is powerful beyond all imagination, and a side of ourselves where all things are possible, and all hardships can be endured and overcome. Bodybuilding, on the surface, seems to relate almost exclusively with the physical. The body is developed through years of toil, struggle and self sacrifice  into a work of umistakable art. Sadly, today it remains largely a superficial pursuit where the emphasis is so much on the end that the means falls by the wayside. Drugs take away the almost Sishyean task of brutally hard training and rewards the user with instant gratification. The struggle then becomes a destructive one as one must risk more and suffer more to reach the higher levels as progress is determined not by the steadfastness of years but with the abilty to procure and survive overwhelming amounts of drugs. Even in the natural bodybuilding circle for most the culmination of the body as a true work of art is reserved for only specific times of the year, and in a competitive arena. While there may be no drugs involved the onus is on winning a competition and often health is compromised in other ways to help make this possible. After the period of competition for many caring for the body tends to wane falls until another season draws near.

The ‘Ura’ and the ‘Omote’ The Inner and Outer Aspects

In this modality, it is a limited pursuit, and one that the general public finds difficult to understand, much less to emulate, but it can be more. So much more, if we only let it. In the Japanese martial tradition that I teach and follow there is the concept of ‘omote’ and ‘ura’. ‘Omote’ refers to that which is on the outside, the superficial, while ‘ura’ refers to that which lies within, largely hidden from cursory observation. They are two sides that mirror each other but together constitute a whole. All practice begins with the outer manifestations- but for there to be true mastery there must be a movement away from that which lies at the surface and an internalization of the very practice itself. In all disciplines this comes only from years of focused study and toil. Few seek that which lies underneath the impressive veneer of bulging muscle and fat stripped sinew, but those that do find a path, a way of life, that develops more than biceps, rather one that nourishes both the physical and the spiritual.

To Truly Find The Path One Has To Step Away From The Superficial

The contradiction: In order to truly experience bodybuilding as a path, one must first make the difficult resolution to step away from the superficial. In bodybuilding it means no longer looking at the outer self as a gauge of progress. Contradictory, yes, but it is the first and perhaps the only path towards making the endeavor a sacred and lifelong internal process, as opposed to a fleeting and shallow pursuit. I remember well in my early years of training, jumping on the scale every day, measuring my arms at every opportunity and spending countless hours in front of any mirror or any reflective surface that I could find, all in the pursuit of some tangible manifestation of progress. Like so many others, I looked at every turn for a sign- something that would validate my pain, suffering and sacrifice. It is hard to put into words the struggle that it was for me to train so hard and see so little in the way of a return. The return of course was by no means little, but to a teenager bent on acheiving his goal the slowness of the process was as agonizing as the training. As the years went by, this ‘need’ for some form of validation was satisfied by contests and photo shoots, and the acclaim that it brought from my peers. Nevertheless, it though it remained a constant part of my daily routine, it was only after I made the decision to stay on my diet as a way of life bent on caring for myself as an individual, did I suddenly make the difficult step of abandoning the mirror.

As hard as it was, it was a necessity. The training, the discipline and most importantly, the joy and vitality of the experience became something far more rewarding than any trophy or screaming crowd could equal. In the gym, I would wear clothes that allowed me to see and connect with the outer aspects of my pursuit, but other than these brief times, the way I looked was of little concern to me. the focus falling now on the training. The irony of it, and herein the contradiction, is that I look better than I ever did, and I have continued to improve far more than I ever believed possible. All without the aid of any supplement, drug or crutch of any kind. The training became and is more. If we stop and find a way to quiet the noise within that we so often use to define ourselves, we feel ourselves almost in the presence of something else that resides within each of us. It is this self, ever tranquil and always at peace that adds the final dimension to the beings that we truly are.

Using The Pain Of Training To Form A Union Of Body And Spirit

Within the context of my training regime and philosophy, the body is carried to the point of complete and utter failure much like the practice of shugyo performed by the ascetics of my martial tradition. The weights becoming such an impossible and unbearable load that every fiber of your being screams to drop and be free of. Yet it is there, at the very borders of endurance that we learn that we can strive to do more. To go past the physical, and to do so requires an effort born of something else- something that lives well beyond the self imposed realms of pain and impossibility. Finding it, finding that place within, we achieve what appears to be almost superhuman, going far beyond our limits and into a place of infinite possibility and potential. It is this knowledge and mastery of self in all its forms that brings about true strength, a strength that is intrinsic and inseparable from who we are, and not an artificial one that is born of chemicals, pills and powders and thus virtually unknown by our spirit.

It is a strength that allows us to endure. A spiritual strength. One that carries over to every facet of our individual lives. A strength that has helped me accept that which is difficult in life, both emotionally and physically. A strength that springs from our own indomitable spirits, a force that recognizes, knows and accepts suffering as an inevitable part of life, and stands unaffected by it. This is a way of health, of compassion, caring and self development. True, you are rewarded with a strong and well toned physique and a vitality that can be defined only through experience, but throughout it all, the body in all its forms is respected and lovingly provided for. Diet, a term that before would invoke an idea of negativity, takes on an almost sacred air, becomes more and more an important part of the path. Thus, eating only that which is natural and wholesome and never even stopping to consider indulging in that which is harmful for our bodies becomes an effortless exercise.

Fasting As A Way Of Life

Fasting, an integral part of so many religious and spiritual practices is defined as the abstinence from food or drink in some form, with the idea of bringing the flesh closer to the spirit. While fasting is a temporary undertaking, within a religious context, this practice creates a fast that lasts for the duration of one’s very life. Abstaining from all that is potentially harmful creates a bond of respect to the physical body itself- one that will not be broken for any social tradition or custom, while also serving to build an unparalleled inner strength and a connection as well to all things spiritual. This abstinence and care in eating makes our most basic function- the consumption of food and water, an essential part of an even greater spiritual and physical pursuit.

Time, however, is the fire that allows all these elements to simmer together and stew into a perfect whole, and it should never be expected that such integration of body and spirit be realized instantaneously. For me it came after the toil of almost a decade and a half, but it is a struggle that bore great fruit, and a struggle where every fall brought me closer to a realization of something unimaginably rewarding. The reward that such a focus on the physical and the spiritual and the integration of every basic activity towards the realization of a higher plane is not only limited to the individual practicing it. Others see and are inspired themselves to strive towards the realization of their goals, and the creation of their own paths, founded as well on the idea bettering their overall health and fitness.

Those that find their way towards this path can know that as time draws on that we will always have the vitality and strength of good health and an inner musculature that will never be eroded by the ravages of time. We can have the clarity to know that all that we envision is indeed possible, but most of all, such a practice makes apparent that which lies beyond the material. A connection that manifests itself as well as a need, and a sincere desire to do all that we can to help others. A contradiction, once again in that the way of focusing on the self, ultimately becomes a portal towards helping and caring for others.

To truly focus on the inside, leads always once again the outside, but in a much more meaningful and fulfilling way. Thank you for reading.

Get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson- celebrity Personal Trainer New York City is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder, head of Naturally Intense™ Personal Trainers NYC and one of the most sought after personal trainer in NYC.

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Chi Kung teacher, Masahiro Ouchi with Kevin Richardson, Naturally Intense founder at 19th Street Gym

High Intensity Workouts of Naturally Intense™ Integrated Into Chi Kung Practice

When it comes to the principles of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™, I can be very much the protective parent. Everything that I teach comes from decades of hard work on my part and is very much a part of my life, and with the impressive success rate that the system has in helping people realize their health and fitness goals, it is my obligation to ensure that all trainers in the system are living success stories as well. In today’s world where everything is fast and about making a quick dollar, it is important that certain traditions remain apart from such noise. To maintain a high level of quality requires a high level of quality candidates. Individuals that are focused on first making the system a part of their life and then passing on the knowledge to others. All of my trainers thus far have been rather exceptional people and Masahiro Ouchi certainly joins that list. As the second trainer in almost two decades to be officially certified as a Naturally Intense Personal Trainer, he creates a rather unique platform for the Naturally Intense 10 minute workouts- an integration into his chi kung and Tai Chi practice.

Masahiro Ouchi- Chi Kung Master &  Naturally Intense™ Certified Personal Trainer

With a thriving meditation practice here in New York and in Tokyo, Japan, Masahiro Ouchi is the founder and director of The Healing Tao Center of New York, founder of the TaoZen Association and Senior Instructor of Universal Healing Tao. He is a faculty member of the Healing Tao University, and has been chosen as their Teacher of the Year.  Masahiro has been teaching T’ai chi, Qigong and meditation for over 30 years and has taught Tao and Zen disciplines at everywhere from NYU to the Open Center to numerous prestigious venues in Asia, Europe, Central America and Africa.  His focus and purpose has always been to help teach others how to bring ancient spiritual and healing practices into their daily lives that they may live their lives as fully as possible.
Masahiro found, however that for all the benefits of the spiritual and mediation practices, there was not enough emphasis placed on practices that engaged the body.

“Everyone is so focused on the mind, that they forget that they even have a body, and that brings about imbalance.”- Masahiro Ouchi

The Spiritual Aspects Of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training

About two years ago, seeking to find a way to improve his physicality, he began training his training with the 10 minute high intensity workouts that are the core of the Naturally Intense System. Masahiro immediately fell in love with the idea of pushing the body literally to the limit and beyond. What was even more surprising was his realization that those 10 minute workouts were in fact based on the aspect of Shugyo, which formed a central part of my own training as a teacher of the martial tradition called ninpo/ninjutsu. Most of what I have presented over the years as the Naturally Intense System of Diet Of Exercise™ is related on some levels to this esoteric practice.  The end result of shugyo or any form of truly highly intense physical activity is a certain inner clarity and perspective. This comes when the attention of the mind and body focuses solely on the execution of a task that takes both aspects to their limits- the noise of unrelated thoughts falls away and what is left is a very direct body and mind communication. Many of my clients, from writers to musicians to yoga and meditation teachers have realized this inner side of high intensity training and use it very effectively as a means of improving their own focus. This was exactly what Masahiro was looking for, not only in terms of helping him lose a bit off his waistline and sculpt his body somewhat, but in terms of finding a vehicle that would allow him to truly experience and be aware of his physical form.

Masahiro Returns To New York To Bring Naturally Intense™ Back To Japan

After leaving for Japan for a while to tend to his large meditation practice in Tokyo, Masahiro returned to New York City, determined to learn the basic concepts of Naturally Intense™ and integrate them into his holistic practice. I can hardly say how honored I was to have him as a pupil and to have Naturally Intense integrated into a spiritual life practice, and during his tenure as an apprentice trainer, he truly distinguished himself as one able to make the Naturally Intense™ System a part of his life, and as one able to pass long that knowledge to others as well in a safe and compassionate manner. Yesterday was his last day of apprenticeship with me at the 19th Street Gym, and was awarded his level one certification. Today, Masahiro returns to Japan to bring the 10 minute workouts of the Naturally Intense™ System to a whole new continent. I wish him all the best and look forward to his return in March for his second round of certification.

Masahiro Ouchi’s TaoZen websites:

English

Japanese

NYC Personal Trainer Kevin Richardson is one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City, a lifetime drug free bodybuilding champion and the founder of the Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise™. His unorthodox 10 minute workouts and customized dietary plans have been helping people get better results in less time for the past 19 years! Get a free trial personal training session with Kevin here!

Recall your dream, make it real, see it, feel it, be it, and never forget to protect the child that gave you this gift in the first place.

Warmest regards,

Kevin Richardson
Founder, Naturally Intense System of Diet & Exercise
http://www.naturallyintense.net

Think of your eating ways as a manner of preparing a shrine for an important guest- the manifestation of you that will very soon walk through its doors!

Celebrity personal trainer NYC, Kevin Richardson is the creator of  Naturally Intense High Intensity Training™, a lifetime natural bodybuilder and one of the most popular personal trainers in New York City. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here.