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Are you healthy?
So what does “being healthy” really mean?
Is being healthy NOT being sick?
I mean cause really just because you aren’t sick doesn’t mean you are healthy.
So then what is HEALTHY?
Is it having all of your vital stats fall within that “healthy” range set out by the medical community?
I mean is that really healthy if the person eats crap all day yet has supposedly falls within the healthy ranges for cholesterol and blood pressure and such!?!
Ehhhhh…doesn’t sound healthy to me.
They might look healthy on paper, but frankly I don’t think that is any guarantee that they won’t be plagued by illness or die at an early age.
Eating crap is eating crap. And frankly, I think it will come back to bite most people.
So then…what is “being healthy?”
Honestly, I don’t have an answer for you. And neither does anyone else.
That is why people are so confused about what diet or exercise program to follow – there are studies used to say that almost a bazillion different things are healthy!
So how do I judge when I’m being healthy?
Well I took a look at all of the evidence and picked a side.
I choose to pick the side of eating whole natural foods – real foods. I choose this diet because it seems most logical to me.
People have called it a “fad diet,” but as someone said in “The Perfect Human Diet” documentary that I watched last night, “It then is a 2 million year old fad.”
We evolved the way we did because we ate meat. Our systems are adapted to eat whole natural foods.
So processed foods? Foods that we only started eating with industrialization?
Those are not whole natural foods. Those are NOT foods we were meant to eat.
Those to me aren’t healthy.
And there are people who will site studies saying I’m wrong and that my diet is a fad.
Really!?!
You are going to call my diet a fad when there haven’t been any early vegetarian human fossils found? You are going to tell me that I should eat grains when humans didn’t eat grains until recently!?!
HA!
I have the whole of human evolution behind my beliefs…How many years are behind yours!?!
And yea…now some of you will say…”Well we didn’t have science then”….or “We didn’t know any better”….or “We lived way shorter lives back then.”
Yea we didn’t have science…we ate what didn’t kill us. Just like all animals seem to eat what is right.
I mean if a study came out today saying we should feed lions grains are you really going to believe it?
And yea…we did live shorter lives. We didn’t have medicine back then to keep people alive. We also now don’t have to contend with a lot of the dangers that they did!
And don’t get me wrong, I think science helps us learn a lot and even better ourselves.
But please don’t use it to tell me that grains are healthy and natural animal products aren’t.
We use grains to fatten animals…Maybe…Just maybe then grains really are at the heart of the problem.
Anyway, one last little factoid before I get back on topic, which was mentioned in The Perfect Human Diet….
Look at cattle feed nutritional info….the feed used to FATTEN cattle. It recommends low-fat, moderate protein and high carb.
Think about who else recommends a diet set up this way….
OH! The food pyramid! That is where I’ve seen this diet before! And guess who came up with the food pyramid orginially?
POLITICIANS!
So yea…I chose my side.
And once I picked that side, I tested it and realize just how much freaking better I felt day in and day out while eating, living and working out that way. So because I felt better than I’d ever felt before, I decided that I was being healthy.
Feeling energized and strong day in and day out to me is feeling healthy.
Not having to down 50 cups of coffee to make it through the day to me seems healthy.
Not feeling bloated. Or sluggish. Or winded at the slightest exertion….
That to me is healthy.
Being able to constantly achieve greater and greater fitness goals because I’m fueling proper, sleeping enough and not overtraining.
That to me is healthy.
Feeling GOOD.
That to me is healthy.
I honestly sort of believe that we can FEEL when our body is in order especially when we’ve cut out all the crap.
Trust me, anyone who has gone to a clean whole foods diet can now recognize how crappy they actually felt when they ate all of the processed junk.
So I challenge you to ask yourself, “Are you really healthy?”
Do you actually feel good day in and day out?
Wedding Workouts
So as I mentioned earlier this week when I launched Bridal Biceps, Ryan and I have started planning for our wedding.
We are doing a small wedding in Hawaii followed by a large reception in Southern California. Details….well they are in the works and I don’t want to bore you by listing out all of my plans (but heck if you are interested or want to commiserate about your wedding, feel free to email me!).
I actually signed up for a few wedding websites, including The Knot.
The Knot is actually pretty awesome. They have a ton of information and ways to plan. They’ve even helped me find some local vendors so that I can get a dress and plan out the reception.
After finding a ton of information about planning out your wedding, I then searched the site for fitness information.
There was barely any to be found. They have whole pages dedicated to the color of your wedding and such but no easy to locate information about getting in shape for your wedding.
I was super surprised.
And then…I received the following email from them.
I like pink, but this email made me want to barf.
“Size down your gown in 90 days.” – AKA Starve yourself and overtrain for 90 days in an attempt to look good on your wedding day.
Ok. At least this program does tell brides they need 90 days. That is better than a lot of the “look good” tips I found…like don’t eat salty foods right before so you don’t look bloated.
But still!
Why does it have to look so wimpy!?!
Why does all of the stuff that bridal sites advertise have to be so fad diet?
Why can’t they start the brides planning their diet and fitness programs as soon as they have them start planning out everything else!?!
Here is my recommendation to brides-to-be:
- First ask yourself some few basic questions about what you want (just like you are doing with your wedding) What areas of your body do you want to tone? Do you want to lose any body fat? How do you want your body to look on your big day?
- Then if you aren’t currently on any regular exercise or diet program, start doing some research. How much time do you have each week to dedicate to a program? What foods do you love and could never give up? What types of diets have worked for you in the past?
- Then as you are plotting out when you will be doing food tasting and traveling and working and taking on dress fittings, think about what diet and fitness goals you will want to have hit at each stage. (For me I want to be at my final goal right before the final fitting. I then just want to be maintaining for the last month or so. Plus the longer I just maintain my final goal, the better I will look on my big day AND the easier it will be to stay toned and fit when I’m binging on my honeymoon! :-))
- Now seek out help. You have a basic timeline. You have thought about what diet and exercise programs could work for you. You know your goals. A trainer is always great (and of course I’m biased) but they will know ways to help put together the three previous steps into a program that works for you. Or maybe you seek out guidance from friends and family members you trust. BUT whatever you do, you take your outline/timeline and start working toward your goals ASAP.
Why do you start ASAP? Because like I’ve repeated numerous times, everything is an experiment. Unless you’ve actually looked exactly the way you wanted to before, you probably don’t know exactly what it takes to get there and you may need to tweak your program as you go along.
That is why you don’t want to wait till the final 90 days before your wedding to start getting into shape…because if you do wait till the last minute, YOU ARE PUTTING ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET!
And what if that 90 day program doesn’t work!?!
Then you are screwed.
Great way to stress yourself out! HA!
Anyway, start planning NOW! Know if there are any vacations or holidays in the meantime that may derail your diet. Know your fitting dates so that you look the way you want to for your final dress fitting so that your dress fits perfectly on your big day.
Plan out your exercise program so that you have some “me time” during what can be a slightly more stressful planning process!
And if you need help, I’m always here! (And in this case, also working on my own bridal biceps!)
Here is the beginning outline of my program:
Right now, I’m beginning a “healthy, unstressful phase” of my bridal bicep program. I’m doing slightly more carbs and training hard. I’m taking one cheat a week and basically just focused on maintaining.
It isn’t that I’m not always trying to look better, but I’m not stressing about it now. I’m just staying healthy and instilling healthy habits so that over the holidays I don’t lose ground.
In the weeks around the holidays, I will become a bit more strict to compensate for enjoying the holidays (since I’m not one for the stupid “holiday weight loss tips.”). Following the holidays I will go into an intense cutting phase. Followed by a month of maintainance. If I’m not yet at my goal, I’ll go for another shorter cutting phase before my final maintainence phase.
And guess what!?!
Throughout all of this, I will be lifting heavy! During cutting phases, I will do more cardio than during my maintenence phases, but that doesn’t mean I’ll become a cardio queen! No long chronic cardio for me! Remember cardio isn’t the key to weight loss….lean muscle mass is! 🙂
AND I won’t do a bazillion bicep curls or tricep extensions to have toned arms – I’ll do push ups and pull ups and lift heavy weights during compound movements. (Check out one of my worst nightmare workout programs….I guess at least they have brides working out for 6 months…Although this just looks so boring and not at all efficient!)
Anyway, join me for some “bad-ass” bridal biceps!
For a wedding workout consultation, feel free to email me at manbiceps@gmail.com!
Man Bicep 