The Art of Zen

     "I stand in front of the water, sand sinking under my toes, board clutched under my arm.  Looking out across the blue, I watch as the waves pulse against the shoreline, the ocean's heartbeat echos inside my chest. I slow my breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Steady rhythm draws   me inward to a focal point where all my energy harmonizes with my surroundings. Focus narrowing, the   ocean and I become one in the same. In those brief moments I become aware of the count down. Time has no real meaning in this place of zen, only the realization that soon every muscle, every fiber, all action and intent, mind, body and soul will be working in sync, reacting without thought, adjusting to my surroundings, firing efficiently and effectively on its own.  I become something more, something indescribable."

     My best friend once asked me to define zen? The image that immediately came to my mind was that of a serene landscape filled with luscious green trees. Across the background sat snow capped mountains below a bright blue sky dotted here and there with wispy white clouds. A babbling brook traced a path from the edge of the tree line through a dandelion filled meadow. A living symphony whispered across the open space carried on a gentle breeze, swaying the cotton tipped flowers, breathing, pulsing, very much alive. In the moment the image flashed through my head I pondered the word zen and what it really meant. It would be foolish to think that zen is definitive, for even the image in my mind, when put into words, cannot give credit to that which it truly is. A more accurate definition of zen would be the way that the image made me feel, for in that moment I became aware of the breeze across my face. I could hear the sounds coming from a place inside me and around me. Even the grass beneath my feet seemed all too real. Would that mean that zen is something real? Did for a moment my essence transport itself to that place? I cannot say what zen is, and I don't think anyone really can. Truly believing is much like zen in the sense that achieving both is personal. I hope that just like truly believing, each person may find what zen is for themselves,. Perhaps zen and truly believing are one in the same.

Carbohydrates: Part Deux

Grains, Pastas and Breads, Oh My!

What starts out looking like this......

     

     After going over my first blog on Carbohydrates I felt that I needed to tell you more! Lets take a deeper look at one of our bodies worst nutritional enemies: grains. Grains are starches surrounded by a kernel, and when eaten, digests down to maltose and isomaltose in the intestines, and then into glucose. As we all know glucose is a simple sugar, and too much sugar is bad! To illustrate, take a single slice of bread and crush it in your hand, what you see is roughly equivalent to that same amount of refined sugar. Now think about how much breads, pastas, grains, wheats, and other forms of glutens the average american eats in a single day (including you!) and mentally crush all that in your hand and put it on a plate. At the end of the day you probably have a pretty hefty portion of muck. Now realize that the hefty portion of muck is nothing more then a heaping mound full of sugar!

Quickly turns into this....

     Lets put things in to perspective shall we? According to the usda, the average american in the year 2000 consumed 153 lbs of added sweeteners. This comes to 2/5ths of a pound or 182 grams per day! This is just added sweeteners. The annual grain consumption was a whopping 200 pounds in 2000 which equates to half a pound or 250 grams per day. That means that the average american in the year 2000 consumed nearly a pound of starch per day! Im going to be nice and not include the carbs and sugars from fruits, yogurts, milk, and potatoes (chips count!). Now if you want to look at it in terms of calories then know that 1 gram of a carbohydrate provides 4 calories, now take the 432 grams of carbohydrates consumed daily and multiply that by 4 and you get 1728. Right there you have nearly consumed the USDA recommend daily caloric intake from starches and sugars ALONE!

And may lead to this!!!

     We are not adapted to eat such high amounts of refined and processed carbohydrates and all this excessive consumption wreaks havoc on your body! These high amounts elevate blood sugar levels amazingly fast and cause your pancreas to produce lots and lots of insulin to metabolize it. Our pancreas and adrenals aren't fit to handle these enormous amounts we consume and over time can lead to insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, type 2 diabetes, and even crashes in your immune system! To make matters worse, refined grains are virtually void of minerals and vitamins, which are essential to the proper digestion and metabolization of these huge amounts of starch. So, with each slice of bread you eat, and each can of soda you drink, your body is stripping minerals and vitamins from its limited stores to digest it! This only leads to further deficiencies over time! But wait, aren't there healthy, unrefined grains as well? Yes there are, but they are anything but healthy and when these are consumed so are the anti nutrients they contain. Anti-nutrients are substances that bind to vitamins and minerals, making them worthless to absorb! Looks like a lose, lose situation to me.

     If all this isn't enough to make you think twice about eating those 4 slices of pepperoni pizza sitting in front of you at lunch then think about this. Inflammation from dietary deficiencies is caused by subtle biochemical injuries that occur in tissues resulting from a lack of vitamins and minerals which are a direct result of, surprise surprise, high grain and sugar intake! Initially, this inflammation may happen symptom free, but haven’t you ever noticed how swollen you seem to get after eating that pizza and chasing it down with a milkshake or mega-gulp of soda? Over time, this initially symptom free, diet driven inflammation leads to diseases that plague modern man, causing chronic aches, pains and endless suffering!

     Don't believe me? The above information is readily available to anyone willing to do the research. There are many, many more reasons why we as americans are so unhealthy as a direct result of what we eat. If you are tired of being unhealthy, overweight, sluggish, or just ready for a change, then I can help you! All it takes is a little commitment, a little will power and truly believing and you too can turn your life around! If you haven't already read in my first blog, then know that I went from 370 pounds down to 205 pounds by committing myself to proper nutrition and living an active lifestyle. If your goal is 10 pounds or 100 pounds, you can achieve it. I have done it for myself and I want to help you do it too! Subscribe to my blog, keep informed, post your questions or comments and please let me help!

The Carbohydrate Conundrum

Choose from the left not from the right!

     In my first blog I talked about how truly believing in yourself will result in achieving the things that you never thought were possible. Now I will begin to tell you the secret to my weight loss success! It all started with a little word called Paleo. When I was first introduced to this lifestyle (thank you Crossfit Wilmington) I thought it sounded a little absurd. Note that I said lifestyle, not diet. As a long time weight lifter and athlete I was being told that the way I ate, for every sort of physical activity and sporting event, was wrong. What I thought was my greatest ally athletically, carbohydrates, turned out to be the reason I was plagued with weight issues my entire life. "What do you mean Chris? Isn't our body supposed to get those twelve servings of breads, grains and pasta per day?" Absolutely, positively, and without a doubt NO!!! There is no reason whatsoever that we should be eating a SINGLE serving of breads, grains, or pasta per day let alone twelve. In fact, there are many things that have become staple parts of our diets that we not only don't need, but shouldn't eat!

     Carbohydrates are not the root of all evil, in fact carbohydrates are necessary to replenish our bodies' stores of muscle and liver glycogen. The problem is the sources and types of carbohydrates, the quantities in which we eat them and the other nutritional content of the foods that contain these "bad" carbohydrates. To put it simply, the only types of carbohydrates we should be getting are those from vegetables, preferably leafy and green. Colorful vegetables are good too, in fact it is a good thing to eat a variety of vegetables so that you get a broad spectrum of vitamins and nutrients. That is not to say that all vegetables are good, tubers i.e potatoes, should be very limited because they contain high proportions of carbohydrates which will cause your body to produce insulin which in turn causes you to store fat. If weight loss is your goal, it would be better to just cut out the tubers all together. "Hey now, what about fruit? An apple a day keeps the doctor away right?" Fruit contains sugar, and sugar, when consumed willy nilly, can wreak havoc on your weight loss goals. However, I do not advocate the elimination of fruits from our diets. It is perfectly fine to eat fruit, in fact, much of our bodies free radical fighting antioxidants come from fruit. A good rule of thumb when dealing with fruit is to follow one of two rules. If weight loss is your goal, then for every four servings of vegetables eat one serving of fruit. If weight maintenance is your goal, then for every two servings of vegetables eat one serving of fruit. Just like with vegetables, there are fruits that are better for you. Berries, small and dark, eat them, they are antioxidant packed power houses. Again, variety is a good thing, but beware, many fruits contain ALOT of sugar, which causes a rise in insulin, which in turn causes the body to store fat.

     Changing the way you eat isn't rocket surgery, the biological processes by which your body breaks down and utilizes nutrients are. That being said, there is a great deal of information that we the people are just not informed about. We are taught our whole lives to live and eat a certain way. There is a reason why disease, cancer, malnourishment, and other problems plague our society. Most of today's health issues are directly linked to the way we eat. This brief segment is just one of many to follow where I will inform and educate those who need help. If you are at your wit's end with trying and failing to get in shape, get healthy, lose weight and be happy, then stay tuned. I'm reaching out to aid all of you along your journey to better health. I have spent the last three years of my life delving deep into the world of nutrition, how every facet of what we eat effects the way we perform and function. The best part is, through personal trial and error I have done all the work for you! I have done the research, I have applied the knowledge and the results are a direct reflection of what I have achieved for myself. Have questions? I have answers. Subscribe to my blog and stay tuned. Remember, the body achieves what the mind believes, so truly believe in yourself and I will help you along the way! 

Preface to Excellence

     "The body achieves what the mind believes." Upon first glance it appears to be no more than a clever dictum one may read on an inspirational sayings website.  Truth be told I cannot even remember where or when in my life I saw this quote for the first time, but from the moment I did it stuck with me.  I would be lying if I said that I fully understood the meaning behind it at first, I just thought it was a witty rhyme.

     My story is a direct reflection of why this quote has so much truth and meaning.  For those who truly wish to empower themselves, harness their potential, and achieve that which they thought was impossible, they would do well to engrave this statement into your mind.  Take into account my story, see that there is nothing that one cannot attain when one truly believes.  Note the emphasis on that word!  One cannot simply wake up and decide that today is the big day that everything will change.  Really believing is waking up every single day and telling yourself that you can and that you will.  The journey to achieving is not an easy one.  There are times when it feels like it would much better to just give up and accept mediocrity.  This is not believing, this is complacency.  It is the attitude that keeps anyone wishing to do more with themselves from pushing past the boundaries of average into the realm new possibilities.  Complacency is a noun that is best accompanied by words such as can't, won't, impossible, futile, inaccessible, infeasible, unattainable, irrealizable and unthinkable.  These, and all words like it should be stricken from the vocabulary for it is these words that keep you from truly believing.  

     Just for a moment imagine being the fat kid growing up.  Now I'm sure a lot of you don't have to imagine, I know I didn't.  Not only was I fat, but their were points in my life where I was embarrassingly fat.  My journey is one that can relate with many in this world, but only up to a certain point.  It is at that point where the list narrows down to very few.  If you are thinking to yourself that this is another account of a weight loss story then you are partially correct.  However, my story differs in the sense of what I'm trying to convey to you.  

     I always thought that being fat was just the way it was, that it was in my genes.  Obesity was something not all uncommon in my family, as it is in every day life.  I tried not to let it get to me.  Growing up I always wore a smile on my face.  I always tried to make those around me happy in any way I could which was usually by making them laugh, a practice not uncommon in those with self image issues.  Despite constantly trying to gain the acceptance of others, I was still picked on, as it tends to be with children.  Granted, I wasn't all that fat as a child, just pudgy, or jolly as I liked to call it.  Over the years I gradually put on more and more weight and the picking turned into torment.  I was constantly being ridiculed for how I was.  Not a day went by where at some point I would look in the mirror and ask myself why this was happening to me.  Why do people pick on me so bad even though I'm so nice?  Why can't I just be skinny?!  

     Upon reaching high school I finally realized that I had some athletic potential.  I started lifting weights, I started playing sports, my confidence was creeping up ever so slightly.  Unfortunately, I was still fat and the ridicule continued to come my way.  At that point however, I stopped caring as much about being picked on, but the days always came where I felt like there was no hope, that I was just going to be overweight forever.  

     Doesn't this seem like the perfect place for the change?  Aren't you thinking to yourself, "will his torment never end?!"  Unfortunately, things didn't really change much for me after high school.  There were periods where I would go up and down in weight, hitting 280 pounds then exercising and dieting my way back to 260, but I still won't truly believe for several more years.  

     In college I found the amazing sport of rugby!  I also dedicated much of my time to the gym, getting stronger and stronger, to the point where I could perform impressive feats of brute force.  I had become quite the immovable wall so to speak and yet I was still fat.  Even during these, the first times in my life where I was somewhat comfortable with being who I was, I couldn't understand why I wasn't achieving the picture in my mind of what I should be.   I constantly wished for results that I hadn't fully committed to attaining.  Oh the agony!  Oh woe is me!  I was still fat.

     Hitting rock bottom is both physically and psychologically devastating, but this is where the most incredible change can take place.  In the years following my first round of college I truly became disturbingly overweight.  I ballooned up to almost 400 pounds!  My waist inflated from the size 44 that I was accustomed to all the way up to a size 58!  I cannot put into words the depression and numbness that took over my life during these, the dark times.  I can tell you though that without this period in my life that I would not have truly believed.  

     One morning it hit me.  I woke up and realized that if I didn't make some serious changes, that if I didn't commit, I was going to die a young man.  This early death wouldn't be in an epic way like from wrestling a grizzly bear or base jumping over an active volcano, but in a hospitable bed or on a surgical table.  This is when it happened.  I stopped feeling sorry for myself for the state of my health.  I stopped blaming everything and everyone else and took accountability for the true culprit, me.  My trip back from the brink began with the gym and exercise.  I started researching new ways to improve myself, always changing, always adjusting.  This new phase of my life was not without it's ups and downs.  Nothing worth having is easy, and my life part two was anything but!  There were many times that I wanted to give up and go back to the way things were.  There were times when I let the "good enough" mentality creep in.  These were the times where I hunkered down and pushed even harder.  I continued to expand my knowledge of fitness, to do things that I never thought possible.  Then I discovered nutrition.

     There are things that I can tell you about the body, how it works, what it does with the nourishment we provide it and how the end result ends up staring back at us in the mirror, but that is a whole different chapter in my story.  I currently weigh in at 215 pounds.  I wear a size 33-34 jeans.  I have a body fat percentage in the range of 7-12%.  All of these results I attained through hard work, perseverance, dedication, and sheer force of will.  I truly believe that I can achieve.  If anyone out there has hard time believing what I am telling you then allow me to include with this story a little picture evidence of what can happen when you truly believe in yourself.  The following are real pictures of the old me:

Here I am on the left at after my sisters HS graduation.

 

Here I am on the left with my brothers and cousins, note that I am not smiling.

I know that I wasn't the most obese person on earth, but being 370 pounds was anything but fun.  Now here a some pictures of me now, after my journey and after truly believing:

 

 

This is what can happen when you apply yourself.  Lose some weight, gain some confidence and now suddenly the world is my oyster!  I compete in Crossfit competitions and Spartan races.  I have trained myself to stand up paddleboard, and in doing so have earned a few 1st place finishes with more to come!  All it took was truly believing.  

     This is just the first of many stories to come, a brief synopsis of my tale alone is not enough for everyone to be convinced.  I empowered myself, and now I hope to empower others.  Make sure to keep an eye out for my blog as I continue the journey.  Truly believing never stops.  Once you start down this path, the opportunities are endless.