What I’ve learned… there’s so much I’ll just list a couple of main things.
1. Some of the information that I received during college, with regards to training and nutrition, was way outdated. The curriculum focused mainly on information for folks that wanted to go into cardiac rehab, which is a great field and very rewarding, but just not what I wanted to do with my degree. This is NOT fun to figure out, because now I have to fill in all the gaps myself through self-study. I wish that we would have discussed more topics that were becoming popular in mainstream fitness, such as intermittnet fasting, various training methods (kettlebells, bodyweight training, interval training, etc.), and optimal nutrition.
2. Fear is a great motivator. Nuf said. (I’ll let you figure that one out.)
3. Our society is consumed with carbs. We grossly overestimate the amount of carbs that we need on a regular basis, hence the obesity epidemic. Don’t get me wrong, carbs are important, we just don’t need as much as we think we do. I was in the grocery store yesterday and started looking at all the products in the “processed food aisles” (the aisles in the middle of the store) and, whoa, it’s pretty much all carbs! Just about all snack foods and pre-packaged items are carbs – there’s hardly any protein or healthy fats in any of that stuff. We as humans need to get over the carbs from the junk – eat more protein and healthy fats and switch to vegetables, fruits, and some whole grains for most of our carbs. And I won’t even mention the southern diet in relation to carbs… man oh man.
4. There’s a lot of crap out there in regards to training and nutrition. Seems like everyone has a totally different perspective on what to do in the gym, what to eat, when to eat, etc. We all should be very discerning in what knowledge we consume, and what we ignore. Also, there’s not one solution that will work for every person. Different things work better for different people. It’s all an experiment – for examaple: try out a new workout routine for 6 weeks and if it doesn’t give you the results that you were hoping for, change it. Find what works and keep it, if it doesn’t, throw it out.
I just want you to think about it though: what have you eaten today? Do you run for the “easy” stuff, the processed junk or do you eat real, whole foods? When you grocery shop, are most of your foods coming from the inner part (mostly boxed, packaged, processed foods) of the store or do you buy mostly from the perimeter (where the unprocessed, real food is)? The goal is to buy as much “un-manmade” food (lean meats, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free dairy) as possible. Eat out as little as possible, after all there’s no telling what chemicals and other preservatives are in that stuff (I really don’t want to know – I’ll just stay away). Plan your meals ahead of time so you’re not running to the snack machine or picking up fast food. I also always tell my clients that they NEED to allow some cheat meals. This will keep you from crashing and burning and eating an entire half gallon of ice cream or a whole pizza by yourself. If you keep the cravings at bay by eating small portions of the “bad stuff” once or twice a week you won’t be as tempted to gorge on junk food. Dr. Berardi calls this the 90/10 rule (eat the right stuff 90% of the time and you can let yourself slide 10% of the time).
