Over the past 5 years, I've taught over 7,000 hours of personal training, buddy and class sessions. In all this time, I've tried to convince my clients of the superiority of real food over "food-like" substances.
By real food, I mean vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, poultry, organic sprouted whole grains and for some people select dairy options such as raw cheese and plain yogurt.
By "food-like substances" I mean anything and everything that is processed, refined and contains additives, preservatives, flavor enhancers, sugar, salt, artificial sweeteners and colors and a list of polysyllabic ingredients.
Recently I witnessed something that dramatically reinforced the importance of eating real food even more than any of the books or articles I've read or seminars I've attended.
I have a client, a young man who wants to lose some weight. Actually he wants to lose body fat and add lean muscle. He's like many of you who are within 10 pounds of your ideal weight but want that fat around the middle to disappear to create a more trim athletic look. In his quest for quick results, "Billy" (a pseudonym to protect his identity) ate sparingly and at odd times and became increasingly frustrated with the abundance of junk food that was constantly around him being consumed by friends and family.
When I came to work him out, he was still asleep late in the day. He started the session listless, fussy, irritable, vacillating from depression to frustration and essentially running on fumes both physically and mentally. "Billy" began to rant and rave in existential angst:
"What's the point?!"
"I can't go on like this!"
"Why can't I eat like everybody else?!"
"I can't work out every day!"
"I just want to look good, I don't want to do anything any more!"
After the emotional wave passed, we then sat down and made up a shopping list of live organic real foods to be purchased at my favorite health food store, "Erewhon" on Beverly Blvd. in West Hollywood.
The next day "Billy" was transformed. He was ready to work out the moment I arrived. He was so full of energy he added extra sets, reps, and elements to our enlightened bootcamp. At the end of our session he took off for a few sprints up and down the street.
He was so excited and hyped and pumped that the food he had purchased tasted so good. He suddenly realized that when his body gets the nutrients it needs, he becomes energized and a positive force capable of doing extraordinary things. He had a glow, a bounce and a vibrancy that was remarkable. And that was after only two meals of real healthy food: dinner the previous night and breakfast before we worked out.
Poor "Billy" had been starving his body and brain. And now he saw not only could he eat healthy real food to lean out, but that he would have more energy to exercise and fulfill whatever his schedule demanded.
It was pretty amazing. It was like seeing the lights being turned on inside him.
You may be taking much better care of yourself than "Billy" had. Or maybe you're starving your body and brain as well. I urge you to go to www.yodo.org and click on Free FAT BURNING eBook and download your simple blueprint to turn the lights on in your body.
And please, feel free to email me with any questions.
To your health and happiness!
Jerry
