Michael W. (Mick) Stewart CFT BSTStraight Talk on Diet
By Mike Stewart
email: Admin@MikeStewartFitness.com
I am asked all the time about "how to lose weight", "gain muscle" or eat right.
Just yesterday I was in Randall's (wearing my Fitness Trainer shirt) when an elderly gentleman approached me and asked me how to "put on lots of muscle." When I told him it was all about diet, he said, "Nah thats not what I'm interested in - I just want to know how you lift and what exercises you do." When I repeated (again) that diet determines how much weight you will lift, he turned on his heel and walked off.
Recently, I was in Sears (again wearing my shirt) purchasing some autoparts for my car when a young, obese lady (about 25) came up to me and asked me this gem: "Pardon me sir, are you a personal trainer?" When I replied in the affirmative, she asked, "how do I lose weight?" I immediately asked her, "well, first what do you eat?" She was honest and said: McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc. I told her that first, she had to stop eating crap in order to lose bodyfat and gain muscle and second, she had to establish a fitness lifestyle. As I began to give her my usual spiel about proper diet, she too then replied, nah, I enjoy fast food too much to stop, and thanked me and walked off.
What ignorance.
Its interesting. Most people I speak with are clueless about diet but refuse information about why they are obese or what it takes to lose it. They are looking for the quick fix. The magic pill. They have been led to beleive (eroniously) that
(a.) working out,
(b.) taking a thermogenic (Hydroxcut, TrimSpa, etc.) while still being able to
(c.) eat at McDonald's ... will allow them to loose weight.
They beleive they will some how drop a dress size or be able to buckle that belt by taking (or finding) the magic pill.
The simple conclusions are this:
1. We are what we eat. Think about that for a moment.
2. You must eat breakfast. If you don't your starving your body of nutrients for the rest of your day.
3. You must drink several glasses of purified water a day to clean out your colon and 'insides.' Its best to drink a glass of water RIGHT when you wake up.
4. You must eat 3-4 small meals per day with two GOOD snacks to provide your body energy to survive those 40-, 50-, 60-, or 70-hour a week jobs. For those of you who are working 50+ hours a week, ask yourself this question: is it healthy for you? And second, does your boss care about your health? The bottom line here is your health, not his.
True story:
Years ago, I was assistant property manager of a large real estate firm in Southwest Houston. My boss, an incredibly overweight, dictatorial, obese female (age 49), was typical of the "martyr employees" I have met in my 25 years of working in office jobs; she never ate lunch, worked late (every night), ate crap at her desk (but would not allow you to eat) and requested all employees to work through their lunch hour ... "for the benefit of the corporation." She was obsessive-compulsive about "the success of the corporation" and told me on several occassions that if I "sacrificed now for the company" I would be rewarded in the future with a large office, big desk, a wrist watch and a four-fold increase in pay. Instead of quitting right then and there, I spent the next three months, worked my rear-end off, - 70 hours per week (salary), gained 17 pounds of fat, slept 4 hours per night and never saw my family. I eventually passed out at work one night from exhaustion (at my computer) and was woken up by the night cleaning crew. I saw how insane this was and quit to join a different company with a different philosophy. Several years later (I was told by another former employee) the night-time cleaning crew arrived in her office at 3am and found her on the floor next to her desk. She was pronounced dead at the scene by Houston EMS and was later told she died of a major myocardial infarction (heart attack) in her office; the resultant autopsy showed arterial decay due to her incredibly bad diet and overwhelming stress. Satisfied that she had "given her life for her work", this company simply rehired another martyr employee in her place. Question: Is your work bad for your health? Only you can answer that question.
Another true story:
While driving to work in 1999, a man in a car next to me on Highway 6 (near Westheimer) had a major heart attack. His vehicle (a white, Jeep Cherokee) veered next to mine and when I swerved to avoid him, I pulled off the road. I watched as he swerved off the highway, down into a ditch, up onto an embankment, plowed through a barbed wire fence, into an open field where he finally stopped after slamming directly into a tree. I stopped my vehicle, jumped out and ran to this man's car. When I opened the car door, I found the driver ... a man who looked about 70 (was actually 47), blue in the face (which meant heart attack). I pulled him out on the ground, began CPR and pounded his chest (while several people stood around and watched) for 30 minutes until EMS arrived and took over. They shot him up with athropine to stop the m.i. He was immediately transported to West Houston Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival (DOA). Several days later, his family contacted me (through the Harris County Sheriff's Office) to thank me for attempting to save his life. They told me that he had been employed at a major brokerage firm, had been working 70-80 hour weeks (urged on by his boss to work more), that his diet was horrible and he was mentally stressed to the breaking point. What they told me next was incredible, "Dad beleived that if he worked more he could retire early."
Who are you working for? You or them?
5. You must get 6-8 hours of sleep per night, period. If your working more than your sleeping then you need to decide whats more important: having a good life or living exclusively for your job. The American Heart Association has linked work-aholism with significant risks of heart attack.
6. You must exercise. And that means lifting weights.
7. You must do cardio. At least three times a week. If all you can do is walk down the block, then do it every other day for five minutes. But DO it. Dont say your gonna do it, but never get around to it. Get your butt outside and sweat.
8. You must eat proper, lean protein (chicken, fish, beef, steak, tofu, etc.) to build lean body muscle.
9. You must eat proper carbs (grains, breads, sweet potatoes, etc.)
10. You must stick with it. Remember -its your body, its your life.
Regardless of how productive you are as an employee, you can be replaced. Everyone can. Your boss will even tell you that. One of my bosses told me that every employee should work at least 30 hours more a week to impress the corporate executives!! What insanity!
Dedicate yourself to a good lifestyle not a deathstyle build exclusively on making someone else wealthy!
To lose bodyfat, gain muscle and have a life free of disease and stress, you *must* eat right! But you must also establish a zest, a zeal, a fanatacism for fitness ! Fitness is not about going to the gym and going through the motions; it's a single-mindedness - a lifestyle.
While everyone else has fallen for the over-consumptive American lifestyle in our must-have-it-now culture, with the your-life-is-your-job deathstyle ... be the person who breaks out of that mold! Be the person who makes fitness if not a primary, then a secondary goal within your life.
Remember, you have one body and one life. Your given only so many years so make it count!
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