Diet of Champions.
Champion: Krissy Mae Cagney
A friend commented on one of my posts with this article about a Twinkie diet and I found this fascinating. It goes back to the debate of what's more important, the quality of the food you eat or the amount of food you eat. I have tried every style of eating known to man and have landed on the Flexible Diet band wagon also known as IIFYM (if it fits your macros) which is essentially Weight Watchers. In a nutshell Flexible dieting is about your body only knowing 3 things when it comes metabolizing your food. Fat, carbs and protein. It does not know the difference between a carb from an apple or a carb from a poptart. A carb is a carb. So there is a calculator that based on your age, gender, weight and activity level that breaks down how many calories you should be eating and then it breaks down into specific grams of fat, carbs and protein. Is flexible dieting the healthiest option? It's full of processed food and sugar. I don't know that answer. I'm talking about weight loss, not overall health. And if we are being honest, yes my health is very important, but as a woman, I care about my appearance more for better or for worse. I'm not saying that that's right, it's just the truth. I think that is true for 90% of my clients and people in the gym. Just ask all the women that get the bulk of their calories from wine and never eat a thing. Can't tell you how many times I have been in a restaurant and looked over at a table full of beautiful skinny women that order food and don't eat it, but are downing cases of wine. I really could care less about wine. It's all about the numbers for me, not because I'm healthier, I just rather use those calories for cake because that's my drug of choice. So I'm no better, just different. Also, the only people that come to me as a trainer concerned about their health are people over 50 or people that have already had some bad diagnosis. Like a heart attack or their Dr. said if you keep doing what you are doing, you will end up a diabetic...and still most of them want to look better and therefore feel better. I posted an article in my training group about a study where they ranked diets from best to worse in terms of effectiveness. The extremely popular and trendy Paleo diet came in 2nd to last place. Weight watchers was #1. This wasn't a surprise to me. Paleo is very restrictive and cuts out entire food groups which most people can't maintain for a lifetime. I have seen first hand with my clients that Weight Watcher's is very doable and effective. I remember during my Whole 30 days judging it because of all the processed crap that was in their frozen meals at the grocery store. And I was like "you can eat unlimited fruit? That doesn't count towards your points? That is pure sugar!" After all my personal trial and error and watching my clients, I feel whole heartedly that I will not get off the Flexible Dieting/ IIFYM train. Yes, I have had faster results by eating less carbs, cutting out food groups and eating clean. Maybe having purely nutrient dense foods was better for my overall health. But you know what's not good for my health??? FAILURE. Every time I think I've gotten my shit together and am eating perfectly. I'm thinking YES this is the trainer I want to be. I'm FINALLY leading by example. Then I fall off the wagon and I'm ashamed. I have let my clients down that look to me for inspiration and answers and most importantly, I let myself down. Maybe I should get a new profession where I can practice what I preach. I'm supposed to be a role model and I'm not... I'm a fraud.
But then I remember that I'm a human being full of flaws like everybody else. I'm doing the best I can. And I have a great amount of empathy towards my clients because I'm am in the battle with them. I'm not superior, I'm an equal. I do have the knowledge and the tools to get them to their goals if they can stick to it. Like me, most of them win the battle for a month or two but not the war. So they win the battle and lose two, but they wake up the next day and try again. That's all I can ask of them and that's all I can ask of myself.
I have to give credit where it's do. One day I was training my client Suzanne and she said "Do you know who K Mae Kags is?" And I told her I didn't. So she said "It's this bad ass chick who is all tattooed and has a company called Doughnuts and Deadlifts." So I went home and Googled her. Than I bought her ebooks and then her online training. What peaked my interest was "bad ass tattooed chick and doughnuts.".... Two of my favorite things. What I found was very sensible approach to nutrition and fitness. I'm forever grateful to that client and Krissy Mae Cagney for showing me a way that one day I might actually stick to. And more importantly a way of eating that I can show my clients that while not produce the fastest results, may produce long term results and therefore happiness, pride and self esteem. Those things are so much more important than getting skinny the fastest way possible.
So the thing that brought me to this rant was an article a friend posted on my Facebook page on a nutrition professor that went on a diet of essentially eating nothing but Twinkies. He lost 27 lbs and surprisingly to him, didn't suffer any negative effects as far as his health goes. This blog was actually my comment back to her on Facebook :) I realized it might just be a little to long for a comment so I said SCREW IT! I'll make it into a blog. So there ya go.
I'll leave you with this. When I was a tattoo artist and trying to lose weight, my favorite food group was ice cream sandwiches. I got this box of 12 fat free ice cream sandwiches from Walmart and flipped it over and started reading the nutrition information. Immediately I started doing the math. All I looked at was the calories and fat because at that time in the diet world fat was the enemy, not carbs. And I was like "YES... I'm gonna go on a pure ice cream sandwich diet. I'll eat one box a day. There is 12 in a box so that is a total of 1200 calories and 0 fat! This is possibly the best idea I have ever had! 4 ice cream sandwiches 3 times a day. I AM A FUCKING GENIUS!" I never did it because I decided it wouldn't be healthy. But now I'm thinking...maybe I was just ahead of my time!
Here are 3 links to check out:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
-Twinkie diet
http://krissymaecagney.com
http://iifym.com/
But then I remember that I'm a human being full of flaws like everybody else. I'm doing the best I can. And I have a great amount of empathy towards my clients because I'm am in the battle with them. I'm not superior, I'm an equal. I do have the knowledge and the tools to get them to their goals if they can stick to it. Like me, most of them win the battle for a month or two but not the war. So they win the battle and lose two, but they wake up the next day and try again. That's all I can ask of them and that's all I can ask of myself.
I have to give credit where it's do. One day I was training my client Suzanne and she said "Do you know who K Mae Kags is?" And I told her I didn't. So she said "It's this bad ass chick who is all tattooed and has a company called Doughnuts and Deadlifts." So I went home and Googled her. Than I bought her ebooks and then her online training. What peaked my interest was "bad ass tattooed chick and doughnuts.".... Two of my favorite things. What I found was very sensible approach to nutrition and fitness. I'm forever grateful to that client and Krissy Mae Cagney for showing me a way that one day I might actually stick to. And more importantly a way of eating that I can show my clients that while not produce the fastest results, may produce long term results and therefore happiness, pride and self esteem. Those things are so much more important than getting skinny the fastest way possible.
So the thing that brought me to this rant was an article a friend posted on my Facebook page on a nutrition professor that went on a diet of essentially eating nothing but Twinkies. He lost 27 lbs and surprisingly to him, didn't suffer any negative effects as far as his health goes. This blog was actually my comment back to her on Facebook :) I realized it might just be a little to long for a comment so I said SCREW IT! I'll make it into a blog. So there ya go.
I'll leave you with this. When I was a tattoo artist and trying to lose weight, my favorite food group was ice cream sandwiches. I got this box of 12 fat free ice cream sandwiches from Walmart and flipped it over and started reading the nutrition information. Immediately I started doing the math. All I looked at was the calories and fat because at that time in the diet world fat was the enemy, not carbs. And I was like "YES... I'm gonna go on a pure ice cream sandwich diet. I'll eat one box a day. There is 12 in a box so that is a total of 1200 calories and 0 fat! This is possibly the best idea I have ever had! 4 ice cream sandwiches 3 times a day. I AM A FUCKING GENIUS!" I never did it because I decided it wouldn't be healthy. But now I'm thinking...maybe I was just ahead of my time!
Here are 3 links to check out:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
-Twinkie diet
http://krissymaecagney.com
http://iifym.com/
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