I can’t change what other people are willing to see & hear, but I figured I’d once again take an opportunity to explain my position on carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are not bad. In fact, the majority of my meals are carbohydrates. You see, vegetables are carbohydrates & if you look closely, the majority of most of my meals are….vegetables!
This is where black & white thinking is so flawed. We cannot talk about all carbs in the same way. Cabbage is a vegetable. Vegetables are carbohydrates. Therefore, cabbage would be classified a carbohydrate.
There are only 3 macronutrients (excluding alcohol): fat, carbohydrate and protein. Cabbage is not a fat. Cabbage is not a protein. It is a carbohydrate.
Pasta is also a carbohydrate. We cannot act like pasta and cabbage are the same thing. They are not. Just like Crisco & avocado are not the same thing. Both fat, yes, but not the same. Are you with me?
When we look at carbohydrates, we have to consider the water content, the fiber content, the sugar content and the starch content. (Starch, btw, is a chain of sugar).
Cabbage delivers a elicits a very different hormonal response than pasta does.
I can eat equal grams of cabbage & pasta and my blood sugar & insulin will respond very differently.
Is my diet low carb? That’s relative. “High” and “low” are relative to something else. What something else? Whatever you pick. My diet is probably high carb compared to most ketogenic diets. It’s probably low carb compared to the Standard American Diet. None of that matters.
What matters is what works for me. What matters is what works for you.
I’m not fighting against anyone’s ideology, nor am I selling you my ideology. I’m helping you establish your own.
Here’s to everyone who is open to seeing it and to patience and understanding with those who aren’t yet.
I will never, ever fight someone about this stuff. That’s not why I am here. I think the world needs more respect & understanding, not less. I think the world needs more “do what works for you” and less “who’s right & who’s wrong”. We don’t have to agree. You don’t have to like what I have to say. That’s the beautiful thing – if you don’t, there are tons of other podcasts to listen to or blogs to read.
I don’t shop at stores where I don’t like the clothes. I don’t walk around them to complain about how ugly they are. I just go somewhere else. Seems logical.
If you would like to understand this better, I’ve done a million episodes on carbohydrates and I also have a comprehensive carbohydrate strategy e-course. None of them are to push an agenda or to sell products. Rather, they are to help you understand the impact of different types of carbohydrates on YOUR body and proceed accordingly.
I choose joy. Joy is power.
Speaking of joy – today’s workout was a nice change of pace. Definitely some muscle burn but it didn’t get me too winded.
“Mad Season”
21-18-15-12:
Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups
DB Push Press (35’s/20’s)
50′ Back Rack WreckBag Lunge (50/35)
On the food front:
I was in the mood for greek yogurt after my workout so that’s what I had. Lunch was a cobb salad & dinner was brussels sprouts & grilled chicken.
Here’s to eating what works for you and makes you feel amazing.
Who hasn’t seen the sensational headlines over the past couple weeks? Everything from “Coconut Oil Isn’t Healthy. It Never Was Healthy” to “The World Just Fell Out of Love with Coconut Oil”.
Where did this come from? Is there new research we need to consider? In today’s episode we’re looking at this coconut oil controversy, where it came from, the science that is referenced and how you can find what works best for your body.
I got the best card in the mail yesterday. One of my client-friends (it’s not fair to call her a client because she really has become a friend in the process) sent me a fantastic thank you note. In addition to being super thoughtful, it made me laugh & I knew I had to share the story with you guys!
As you can see, she suggests that when I write a book there should be a chapter titled “Tim Ferriss was never a fat girl.” I think she’s exactly right & I’ll tell you why.
The client who sent this card is a rockstar. In the past couple of years, she has dramatically changed her body, her health and her whole life. I’m not sure how much weight she has lost, but I’d guess somewhere between 50-80 lbs.
At some point in the past couple months, however, she began to struggle. She wasn’t as enthusiastic about her goals, she was getting bored with food and she stopped doing a lot of the things that had created her success and momentum.
She reached out for some guidance and I suggested we hop on the phone and chat about it. I asked her what kinds of things had changed – what things she had stopped doing that she knows worked for her in the past.
One change she mentioned was the incorporation of “cheat days“. It wasn’t something she had done before but, after a tremendous amount of progress, she read The 4-Hour Body (by Tim Ferriss) and decided to adopt his idea of a cheat day where you can eat anything you want for a day.
After the cheat day, she was struggling to get back to fat loss friendly choices. Since introducing cheat days, she was indulging in more things, more often. Her progress stalled and she didn’t feel in control of her choices.
After listening to a bit more of her predicament, I told her that I too had read The 4-Hour Body and I have no doubt that Tim’s strategies work for him. But, Tim Ferriss was never a fat girl.
Tim Ferriss didn’t struggle with obesity, with food obsession or with the things that go along with both.
Just because it works for Tim, a white guy with a lean build, doesn’t mean it will (or even should) work for you.
I’m not picking on Tim Ferriss – this is true for anyone. Just because a particular food strategy works for that beautiful fitness model you follow on Instagram doesn’t mean it will or should work for you.
Here’s what matters: is it working for you? Are you getting the results you want with that strategy?
In the case of this client-friend of mine, she could be totally convinced that there’s merit to a cheat day and she can find 1,000 people who swear it works for them. None of that matters. It wasn’t working for her. So, it’s not for her.
Don’t distract yourself with what works for other people. We have different backgrounds, different mindset, different metabolisms, different hormonal imbalances. All that matters is what works for YOU.
Not what should work for you, not what could work for you, what DOES work for you.
What gets you results, makes you feel amazing and is sustainable.
Got it?
Unapologetic non sequitur…
Today’s workout was absolutely awesome in all the right ways!
“Hang Tough”
AMRAP 4:
27 Hang Power Cleans (115/80)
27 Wallballs (20/14#)
27 Calorie Bike
Rest 4:00
AMRAP 4:
21 Hang Power Cleans (115/80)
21 Wallballs (20/14#)
21 Calorie Bike
Rest 4:00
AMRAP 4:
15 Hang Power Cleans (115/80)
15 Wallballs
15 Calorie Bike
The 4-minute cycle was just enough to allow for speed & intensity while being able to recover before going hard again. I loved it!
I also did 5 rounds of a 100-cal cycle on my Airdyne bike throughout the day at home. I’m so glad I got my new toy!
On the food front:
I had a couple cups of cold brew coffee before my workout and then picked up a coffee with a splash of heavy cream on my way home from the gym.
I forced myself to get through a couple work projects before having “breakfast” which was a smoothie with almond milk, cacao powder, coffee & raspberries.
Why fruit in the morning? Because I really pushed hard on those hang power cleans today and I thought it would be a nice recovery meal. Golden Rules = carbs at night OR post workout.
I had steak and veggies from Paleo Power Meals in the early afternoon & dinner was a cobb salad with grilled chicken (I added extra chicken).
I think we can all relate to being attracted by a diet promising rapid results. We want the results and that matters more, in the moment, than whether or not we can sustain them.
I loved what I read in a recent issue of The Harvard Business Review:
The good news is, you’re making good time. The bad news is, you’re lost.
All too often, we care more about pace than sustainability.
This means that we do the same work over and over, we spend far too much time, money and energy on results we won’t sustain.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing something that most people aren’t talking about.
It’s really not about how you lose the weight. It’s about whether or not you develop the life skills you’ll need to sustain your results.
Interested in the Fat Loss Fast Track? The fall group is currently closed but you can get on the wait list for our first group of 2017!
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I think we’re all sick & tired of dieting failure, dieting obsession and feeling like we’ve failed.
It’s exhausting!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried every diet under the sun.
For years I felt frustrated, confused and like something was wrong with me.
Nothing was wrong with me. Something was significantly flawed in my approach.
Traditional weight loss programs are designed to fail.
I don’t think it’s you. I think it’s your approach.
In today’s episode I want to help you understand why dieting failure is so common – why diets are exactly designed to fail in the long term and what you can do differently to ensure success.
One of the primary reasons they don’t work is because they are based on a leader/follower model.
In the leader/follower model, the “leader”, whether a person or a company, creates the rules and the structure and you, the follower, step in line and follow their commands.
There are many major problems with the leader follower model and I summarize them into the following categories, which I describe in today’s episode:
Distraction
Doubt
Dependance
Drifting
Depersonalization
Deflection
Instead, if we want long term success we should seek the leader/leader model.
The leader/leader model operates based on the premise that some people have great guidance and strategy to offer, but no one knows your body, your preferences, your lifestyle and your results better than you do.
In the leader/leader model, you are creating your own plan based on your body’s feedback instead of blindly following someone else’s strategy.
In the leader/leader model, you’re identify & creating tools that work for you, not establishing a list of rules you must follow.
To watch the full video of this presentation, click here.
Ready to join the last Fat Loss Fast Track of 2016?
If you find the Primal Potential podcast help, it would mean the world to me if you’d take a minute to leave a rating & review! That helps show platforms display my podcast to new listeners! Thank you so much for your support! I can’t tell you how valuable it is!
