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Friday, April 20, 2012

Back Dooring the Food Ind, Capitalism, and Eating Donuts with Jamie Oliver

I wish he'd get in shape, but he is extremely correct. 
Cook for yourself, cook w/ your kids, support the revolution.
Iowa Buy Fresh Buy Local











www.jclfa.org

These increases in awful health have become acceptable and that may be the worst part. I'm a tall, low body fat% and in shape american (in comparison to the whole), I have no room to speak.

Overweight/obese/diabetic/unhealthy/inactive/etc isn't an affliction. It's going to take courage, discipline and drive that people didn't know they had in order to change everything they know about food and their relationship w/ it.

But it's possible, I've seen it enough times to know that it's repeatable. Until going the journey w/ someone there's no way to understand (I sure didn't). 


The Tipping Point may be one of the most important pieces of his speech, and one I really agree w/.



1. Our MONEY is our most powerful VOTE and we are responsible for the food in the store. 

We must be more, we must do more, but it comes one step at a time, and right now I'm not taking an active head on fight against the food industry. Try that and we will FAIL, they are too big, too strong, w/ too much money. That fight is pointless.

If you want a change, VOTE with YOUR $$$$. Purchase grass fed beef from a local farmer, fruits and vegetables from farmer's markets (that doesn't come from Chili, yes we get fruit all the way from there, lots of it).  Then cook it yourself.

Look what a quick google search came up with:
http://www.eatwild.com/products/iowa.html

It's not hard to find the food.

The food industry is business and looks at a bottom line b/c money drives the world. I'm a capitalist, so I agree w/ this, that's how it works. It's your choice what you buy, and that drives what gets sold. If you buy hoho's every time you stop at the convenience store then you are just as responsible as the food industry (I'd even say more). They wouldn't produce it if you didn't buy it.

The food industry rely's on you, NOT the other way around.

2. Build a positive relationship w/ food.

This is much easier said than done. Some people can get away w/ murder when it comes to nutrition, some people cannot.

  • Standing up to eat
  • rushing meals
  • on the go
  • unorganized lifestyles
  • emotional eating
  • unconscious eating (not asleep)
  • lack of appreciation
  • "convenient eating" (eating out/ordering in)
  • etc.

These are just a few of the common things we do on a regular basis.

Everyone can relate to the moment you just finished a plate and felt sad b/c you hadn't even realized it was the LAST bite. This is a sign of having a very poor relationship w/ food.

We need to take one small step at a time, master it, and move on to another portion of our lifestyle that we can improve. 

 JUST ONE. JUST ONE. JUST ONE
Do NOT think you are awesome enough to try TWO.
ONE AT A TIME.

Take something that seems easy and small and trivial and use that ONE thing for 2 weeks w/ utmost urgency as if you're going to die if you don't succeed at doing this ONE thing EVERYDAY for that 14days.

It could be as simple as taking a multivitamin Everyday until you have the sucker down. Until you can take a vitamin everyday LIKE A BOSS.




If that's the only change for that month, and we found a way to sustain it and make a lifestyle change. WE WON!!!! Even if it's the only change for that given time. We have won.

Then we move on to another b/c we've mastered that one thing and can sustain it.

But if we try to biting off more then we are setting ourselves up for failure.

ONE THING at a time.

3. Support the revolution

Like I said above, money drives the world. Personally I'm not an advocate for charities, and it's just my opinion that their main goal is to survive b/c they create jobs, and if their cause all the sudden happened, they'd be out of a job. This is just my opinion, take it h/e you'd like.

Growing your own plants in your backyard is a way to support this revolution.

So is sitting down around the table as a family.

You say there's no time and it'd never happen. My mom and dad found a way. Even when Molly was 17, Joe would've been 15, I would've been 11, and Maggie would've been 4 and everyone of us were in sports (except mag b/c she wasn't even in school). Idk how they did it, but almost every meal was cooked by one of us (yes we all knew how to do this at a very young age) and we ate as a family almost everyday. We also all ate breakfast....EVERYDAY.

Giving money works, actively participating works, just showing up is a support that seems pointless but has a huge affect.

Building numbers (active participants/money/whatever) for a cause is how it gains power. 

This is a good thing to stand for. 






Wednesday, April 18, 2012

My Lack of Training Philosophy

From time to time I'm approached w/ the classic question, "What's your training philosophy?". This seems like it should be an easy question h/e I have yet come up w/ a straight fwd answer. Partly b/c it's always changing (evolving/growing) and partly b/c I use so many different avenues to get the desired outcome. 


For some reason "I don't know" doesn't really work ("you don't say"-sarcam). So I get questioned on Oly lifts, power lifitng, kettlebells/Dumbbells/Barbells, plyos, corrective exercise, endurance, static/dynamic stretching, etc. It's slightly exhausting to even try to label myself. To be honest, no I don't. 


Personally, I don't adhere to one principle of anything.


I'm not all powerlifting, all kettlebell, all olympic lifting, all movement based training, all barbell, all endurance, strength or speed. 


I'm down w/ what works for the given situation we're presented w/, and if I figure out a better/more efficient way to do something that gets the results I want in the same/less time then I'm going to use it. 

I say, let's get our bodies as efficient as possible in the most efficient way possible.

I'm looking for COMPLETE.

Not just barbells or kettlebells, movement or powerlifting. I think pretty much everything works (as long as it's quantifiably testable, somehow backed w/ well put together, collected, and provable data that's also logical), so I take the best pieces of all of them, w/ the assessment and goal and make a program based off of this for that individual. This brings us closer to COMPLETE.

Do I think we are able to create COMPLETE programs in order to create the most COMPLETE MUTANTS out there? No, not yet, otherwise records wouldn't be getting smashed year after year (Usain Bolt=MUTANT) There is no way that this is simply due to talent.

Do I think the potential to make some real freaks out of mediocre athletes is possible? YOU BET. 

Do I think the potential exists to ruin incredibly talented athlete's? Yep, and it's really not all that difficult.

I agree w/: 
  • The 5 senses: hearing, taste, touch, sight, smell. 
  • Moving heavy weight, and the carry over to speed from that. 
  • Moving lighter weight w/ more speed. (This includes oly lifts when they are appropriate h/e I would still classify them as more of a skill than an exercise and I don't use them much due to a comparatively long learning curve.
    • here I'm really referring to jumping w/ weight in hand, and challenging lesser weight w/ more speed in a lift like the bench press. 
  • Plyometrics (in logically adjusted volumes
  • Unilateral and bilateral training
  • Psychology: Visualization (it's not hocus pocus, it's building confidence and belief), Discipline, Struggle, Focus, etc. They have a place.
  • Nutrition and that POOP is a direct indicator of health
  • Soft tissue work: SMR, ART, Graston, TFM, etc. They all work. 
  • Barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells all have their uses and eliminating one entirely is going to drastically reduce progress. 
  • Eccentrics, Isometrics and concentric exercises? Yep, and not all, always altogether (but almost always)
  • Corrective exercise w/o doubt has it's place
  • Breathing techniques? Yep those too (a lot)
  • The body works as a whole, not in pieces 
  • Packing the neck is just as important as bracing the trunk
  • Pushing sleds completely changes the game
  • Test and retest is a must
  • The Assessment guides everything, but w/o critical thought and a trained eye it's still a guess.
  • etc....
It's NOT about using one or two different principles/implements. It's doing an assessment (everyone has overwhelmingly different needs) and drawing from your tool box to make a program. 



In the end, I have no idea what my philosophy would be other than 

"I use what I know that works to get closer to complete", and that's that.