I have been considering posting this for some time but some of the shite I’ve seen and heard lately is really hurting my brain so here it is. This may not sit well with you and, quite frankly, I don’t care.
I know around 50 personal trainers and a couple hundred trainees/clients who will disagree with what I have to say but to hell with it. They’re wrong, or they’re hippies.
What the hell is happening to the personal training/ health and fitness industry?
We’re supposed to be helping people achieve their weight loss/ muscle gain goals et cetera, right?
Not confusing the sh*t out them and arguing about how much of an angel you can be when it comes to nutrition.
95% of people want to simply lose a bit of weight, gain some muscle or look better naked. the other 5 are either lying or they want to get more explosive for sport. I very much doubt they are coming one of my gyms or bootcamps to for some holistic approach to health and ‘wellness’. If you fit into this category you are better off somewhere else because I don’t like people wasting their money on crap like that.
If someone comes to me and says I will do anything ‘no holds barred’ I will tell them the ideal way to go about it but I will also inform them that doing 80-90% of what I say you will get 99% of the results. I will give them all of the best nutritional practices I can think of. They will get the results a little quicker but is that 1% worth 20% extra work for most people?
Not really.
I don’t care what anyone says you will get 95% or even better results being ‘good’. Being an angel isn’t expected but if you want to go there I can help you and congratulations you are more committed than most.
So if you can get 95-99% of the results while doing less work, why are so many people dwelling on the minutiae…
-This is bad for you/ no that’s bad for you
-Whey protein is bad / whey protein is good
-Pea protein is bad/ pea protein is good
-Fish oil is bad/ krill oil is good and vice versa
Long sigh. . .
Have you all had your omega 3 enriched, organic, sprouted grain, wheatgrass, fat-free, fish oil, apricot kernel, green tea greens shake this morning…?
No?
Oh your in trouble… you’ll never lose that fat or gain that muscle now… you are almost surely going to fail.
Or are you?
I love Elite FTS/ Jim Wendlers take on this (keep in mind these guys just want to be STRONG and they don’t care how fat they get. I.e. you shouldn’t eat this for breakfast)
Too many people are being hippies about their nutrition. I always know when I look at a persons food diary and see quinoa, hemp, berry extract and some magical powder of some description that they have been on a lot of health food websites or the person at the cash register in Holland and Barratt got a hold of their credit card.
I call BS to ‘most’ of it…
Some of these foods have benefits but to live on them and be completely absorbed by them is another thing. I have seen people whose whole lives have become completely consumed with nutrition. I mean, literally sweating because they forgot to take their fish oils or some crap.
You see where I’m going with this? At the very least, that would be very very stressful. At worst, it is a waste of cash.
I have literally heard people say: ‘I know why I feel like crap today, I never took my tablespoon of cinnamon and I missed taking fish oils at lunchtime.
You’re not going to die or feel any different if you miss a single serving of anything.
Healthy nutrition does not have to be a chore that you have to endure every day. If you’re not enjoying yourself then you won’t do it long term. Simple.
Our bodies have evolved to survive quite efficiently on what’s available. So what if there were no pesticides and preservatives years ago. Yes, it’s optimal to avoid these things but if you can’t, don’t stress about it.
If given the choice, go for homegrown, organic and fresh. Just keep in mind that a bit of frozen broccoli or a bag of salad that’s not ‘certified organic’ isn’t going to kill you.
As for the ‘health foods’ that have become mainstream lately. Yea, some of them have health benefits, but should you stress out and wince your way through your spice rack eating stupid hippy spices and gagging on spirulina for the sake of it. I don’t and I’m kind of healthy without it.
If you were struggling to stick to a plan, complicating it with minutiae is a sure-fire way to make a b*lls of it and you know that once one thing goes wrong everyone hits the chocolate.
You need a simple nutrition plan. Gagging at everything you eat and pretending that the food tastes good is not the way to go. The habit will never stick and you will inevitably fail or be unhappy forever.
I am by no means saying that some health foods are not really good for you. I am suggesting that we don’t ‘need’ all of them and if you find yourself stressing over it then forget about it and stick to the basics.
Before I finish let me conclude with a summary of my current nutrition plan
-I eat lots of red meat and its not bad for you by the way.
-I eat a lot of protein (not bad for your kidneys either)
-I eat a lot of saturated fat… which is not bad for you either.
-I eat fresh vegetables where possible but if it’s an issue I’ll get frozen vegetables and if I don’t have access to a steaming apparatus I will boil them or even microwave them.
-I DO take a greens supplement but do I think it’s the end of the world if I don’t take it? – NO
-I take fish oils… but didn’t for about 8 months until about 2 months ago. Is krill oil better? I’ve read a lot of crap about it and as far as I can see there is no conclusive evidence that either is better… once the EPA and DHA is decent, I don’t care.
-I take whey protein. . . I don’t care if it’s derived from milk, neither should you unless your intolerant to dairy.
You don’t have to take sides just get on with it.
I drink an odd can of 7up free/ sprite zero/ diet coke to keep my sweet tooth at bay. Is it good for me? No, but is it really that bad? The jury is still out and I’ve done my research. Nothing is conclusive. Aspartame hasn’t killed me yet but do I drink 10 cans/day?
No, just in case.
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I drink alcohol but I opt for the ‘lesser of two evils’ – A Bulmers light and afterwards maybe some diet carbonated mixer and some clear spirits do the trick for me.
Final thoughts:
If you listened to all of the advice out there and worried about carcinogens/processed foods/sweeteners/food quality and where an animal was brought up or what it was fed and knit picked your way through life you literally wouldn’t be able to ‘safely’ eat or drink anything.
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Stop and think for a moment. Just because something isn’t good for you it doesn’t necessarily mean its bad, it can just be neutral.
Bryan Kavanagh BSc CSCS
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