Jumbo Rider’s BodyBlog

The sky was ablaze as the sun set as I left work last night and it gave me pause.  My life is blessed and I have done nothing to deserve the blessing.  My job is wonderful and puts food on the table. My wife is beautiful, supportive, and loving.  My children are healthy and I will soon hold my grandson.

Why have these blessings been bestowed upon me I can not tell you.  There are people in this world that are far more worthy yet suffering great hardships and in pain.  While I don’t know why I have been blessed I know Whom to thank for the blessings.

It may be a guy thing and it may be a cheap bastage thing.  I hate buying clothes when I am trying to lose weight.  It is like renting temporary space for my current ass to stay until I need a smaller pair.  What a waste.

At what point do I bite the bullet and buy a new pair of pants?  We aren’t talking small bucks here at 50-100 semolias a pop.  6′4" and 350 pounds means that I don’t buy clothes in the normal people store.  I have lost a meager 20 of 170 pounds.  This translates to pants that are baggy in the rear and a belt that is cinched to the last notch. I need to punch another notch in the belt or get a new one soon because, even on the last notch, I am having slippage issues.

These are better problems to have than suffocating in pants that are too tight.  My current pair was in that state a few months ago.  So do I have 10, 20 or 30 pounds to go before decency forces me to buy new pants?

Alright guys and gals I want you to assess your veggie intake.  Go on…..I will wait.

Ok, it is just about 1 pm my time.  I have had 3 feedings with veggies at each of those feedings.  I have had 6 - 8 cups of veggies so far today and I will double that before I go to bed.  The dressing for the salad you see in the picture here is simply oil + balsamic vinegar + a bit of honey and some seasoning.  I am eating a great variety of vegetables.

Why am I preaching about veggies today?  Americans generally do not eat veggies.  Many think the limp piece of lettuce on their fast food burger equals a veggie serving.  Heck, before changing my ways I was right there with you.  An iceberg lettuce salad maybe 3 times a week was all the veggie I would eat unless I count the tomato sauce on my pizza. Eating veggies is very important, especially for those needing to lose weight.

Nothing beats real food for nutrifying (yeah I made that up) our body and calorie for calorie there is no whole food more nutrient rich than our veggies.  Vegetables fill us up with bulk and not calories.  Vegetables provide roughage and water.  There is a place for pill form supplements but they are to ’supplement’ healthy eating and not replace healthy eating.

It is my firm belief that healthy eating involves protein plus veggies every 3 hours.  Maybe in extreme short term fasting you would want to go without, but I can never see that happening for me.  I know of nobody getting fat from eating green leafy vegetables.

My general makeup is to ponder, think, analyze everything.  When it comes to my personal weakness’ I try to study my way through them.  One way that I do this is by looking to people who have a great strength in areas of my great weakness.  This is what brought me to bodybuilding.com in the first place and why places like sparkspeople and weight watchers do not help me very much.  I like viewing, and reading about people that have achieved the body control that I want to achieve.

But there are many attributes in life that can not be learned, they are simply done.  Discipline is one of these attributes.  If you are undisciplined how do you become disciplined, or rather self-disciplined?  If only I had the discipline to become disciplined.  It simply does not work that way.  You can not learn discipline, you can only be disciplined.  All of the study and analysis is useless.

You want to be disciplined you simply must BE disciplined.  Let’s take nutrition as an example.  I would not be fat if only I had the discipline to say "no" to the junk food.  A better way to put that is to say "no" to the junk food and then you will be more disciplined. So you start the year and refuse to eat junk food.  Because your discipline is weak at this time you get through one day and munch down a Big Mac and fries the next.  OK, fine.  You succeeded in nutritional discipline for 1 day!! This is a good thing.  Now, after the Big Mac and fries blow out simply start counting off the time to eating right and make it longer than 1 day.  That is all there is too it.  Short of threat of immediate torture there is no better way to be disciplined.  Discipline is an action or lack of action and nothing more.  Each and everyone of us can be mightily disciplined or a soft noodle.  It really is up to us.  Simply decide and do.

Changing the Rules of Good Nutrition

by Dr John M Berardi, CSCS

What are the rules of good nutrition? What types of things must you absolutely do to succeed - and what types of things must you avoid?

Seriously, take a moment and think about it.

What rules do you think you’ll need to follow if you want to eat in a healthy way -; way that will improve the way your body looks and the way it feels.

Come up with that list in your mind right now.

Now that you’ve considered these rules, I want you to take a second and think about your list. Specifically, think about where you learned these rules.

Certainly your rules have been influenced by how you were raised, no? Certainly they’ve been influenced by your experiences dining with friends and relatives -\ comfort foods, right? Of course, no set of nutrition rules is immune to media influences. Your rules have probably also been influenced by what you’ve heard others say - heck, every 3rd episode of Dr. Phil is about food and dieting. And, no doubt, your nutrition rules have probably been influenced by your own past attempts at changing your body - whether you’ve been successful or unsuccessful.

I could sit here all day and list potential nutritional influences. But I’ll stop here since there are probably hundreds of ‘em and to enumerate them all would bore your socks off.

At this junction, I’d just like to go ahead and make my point. And the point is this - very few of your “Good Nutrition Rules” have been influenced by those who know anything about good nutrition - let alone about long-term success and about what it really means to eat in a healthy way! And worse yet, most of those rules have been hammered home without you even knowing it!

It’s time to change the rules.

The Triple S Criterion

Now I’ll admit it. Changing the rules - just like changing your habits - is difficult. Not only does it take a desire to change - “want to” - but it takes a strategy for change - “how to”.

The “want to” is all your own. But the “how to” is what I do best. I’ve committed my career to helping people do just this - to change their rules and change their habits - and have gotten pretty good at it. In changing these rules and habits, everything changes - the way clients eat, the way they sleep, they way they look, the way they feel when they wake up in the morning, and they way they perform in day-to-day activities or during athletic events.

Today, I’m going to teach you a good part of that system - a system based on my Triple S Criterion.

What’s the Triple S Criterion? Well, it represents a three step way of evaluating a strategy for its usefulness.

Step 1 - Simplicity:
Are the rules easy to follow?
Step 2 - Science
Are the rules based on sound scientific principles?
Step 3 - Success
Have the rules produced success in past clients?

Using this criterion, the systems developed for my clients always produce a positive result.

Think again about your nutritional rules - rules that you might be quite attached to. Which criterion did you use when determining your rules? Are your rules based on Simplicity, Science, and Success? Have your rules produced the desired effect - a lean, healthy body that you’re able to maintain?

If not, perhaps they could use a re-evaluation.

Dr. Berardi’s Good Nutrition Rules

Below, I’d like to present my 10 Good Nutrition Rules, rules based on the Triple S Criterion above. In doing so, I hope to accomplish 2 goals.

• First, I want to help you rethink your whole nutrition      approach - providing you with a new set of nutrition rules and habits - a      set that swiftly moves you in the direction of your goals.
• Secondly, I want to show specifically how the recipes,      cooking tips, and strategies can integrate together to represent a      complete success system, fully integrated into the basic habits of good      nutrition.

So here are the 10 rules:

1. Eat every 2-3 hours - no matter what.
   Are you doing this - no matter what? Now, you don’t need to eat a full      meal every 2-3 hours but you do need to eat 6-8 meals and snacks that conform      to the other rules below.
2. Ingest complete, lean protein each time you eat.
   Are you eating something this is an animal or comes from an animal - every      time you feed yourself? If not, make the change. Note: If you’re a      vegetarian, this rule still applies - you need complete protein and need      to find non-animal sources.
3. Ingest vegetables every time you eat.
   That’s right, every time you eat (every 2-3 hours, right), in addition to      a complete, lean protein source, you need to eat some vegetables. You can      toss in a piece of fruit here and there as well. But don’t skip the      veggies.
4. If want to eat a carbohydrate that’s not a fruit or a      vegetable (this includes things like things rice, pasta, potatoes, etc),      you can - but you’ll need to save it until after you’ve exercised.
   Although these often heavily processed grains are dietary staples, heart      disease, diabetes and cancer are medical staples - there’s a relationship      between the two! To stop heading down the heart disease highway, reward      yourself for a good workout with a good carbohydrate meal right after      (your body best tolerates these carbohydrates after exercise). For the      rest of the day, eat your lean protein and a delicious selection of fruits      and veggies.
5. A good percentage of your diet must come from fat. Just      be sure it’s the right kind.
   There are 3 types of fat - saturated, monounsaturated, and      polyunsaturated. Eating all three kinds in a healthy balance can      dramatically improve your health and even help you lose fat.

Your saturated fat should come from your animal products and you can even toss in some butter or coconut oil for cooking. Your monounsaturated fat should come from mixed nuts, olives, and olive oil. And your polyunsaturated fat should from flaxseed oil, fish oil, and mixed nuts.

6. Ditch the calorie containing drinks (including fruit      juice).
   In fact, all of your drinks should come from non-calorie containing      beverages. Fruit juice, alcoholic drinks, and sodas - these are all to be      removed from your daily fare. Your absolute best choices are water and      green tea.
7. Focus on whole foods.
   Most of your dietary intake should come from whole foods. There are a few      times where supplement drinks and shakes are useful. But most of the time,      you’ll do best with whole, largely unprocessed foods.
8. Have 10% foods.
   I know you cringed at a few of the rules above - perhaps #6 in particular.      But here’s a bit of a reprieve. 10% foods are foods that don’t necessarily      follow the rules above - but foods you’re still allowed to eat (or drink)      10% of the time.

100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference, in results, between 90% adherence to your nutrition program and 100% adherence is negligible.

Just make sure you do the math and determine what 10% of the time really means. For example, if you’re eating 6 meals per day for 7 days of the week - that’s 42 meals. 10% of 42 is about 4. Therefore you’re allowed to “break the rules” 4 meals each week.

9. Develop food preparation strategies.
   The hardest part about eating well is making sure you can follow the 8      rules above consistently. And this is where preparation comes in. You      might know what to eat, but if isn’t available, you’ll blow it when it’s      time for a meal.
10. Balance daily food choices with healthy variety.
    Let’s face it; during the week - when you’re busy - you’re not going to be      spending a ton of time whipping up gourmet meals. During these times      you’re going to need a set of tasty, easy to make foods that you can eat day      in and day out. However, once every day or a few times a week - you need      to eat something different - something unique.

So, what about calories, or macronutrient ratios, or any number of other things that I’ve covered in many other articles on my own web site and elsewhere? The short answer is that if you aren’t already practicing the above-mentioned habits, and by practicing them I mean putting them to use over 90% of the time (i.e., no more than 4 meals out of an average 42 meals per week violate any of those rules), everything else is pretty pointless.

Moreover, many people can achieve the health and the body composition they desire using the habits alone. No kidding! In fact, with some of my paying clients I spend the first few months just supervising their adherence to these rules - an effective but costly way to learn them.

If you’ve reached the 90% threshold, you may need a bit more individualization beyond the habits. If so, visit my web site. Many of these little tricks can be found in my many articles published there. But before looking for them, before assuming you’re ready for individualization; make sure you’ve truly mastered the habits. Then, while keeping the habits as the consistent foundation, tweak away.

For more great training and nutrition wisdom, check out our complete system, Precision Nutrition. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know — guaranteed.

And what’s more, your online access allows you to talk exercise and nutrition 24/7 with thousands of fellow members and the Precision Nutrition coaches. Find out more about Precision Nutrition.

~There is an old parable regarding an older Cherokee man teaching his grandson about life. He tells the boy, “A fight is going on inside me. It is a fight between two wolves. One is evil, one is good.” He goes on to describe the emotions of each. He tells the boy the same fight is going on inside him as well as every other person. The boy asks “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee replies, “The one you feed.” ~

Old man PSA-get your prostate exam.    I am having a complete exam done January 11.  This includes the dreaded prostate exam.  How should I put this?  A finger is better than a scalpel, radiation, and  or chemo.  It is also better than death, if not for you your family.  So suck it up.

I will also let you know what my cholesterol and AC readings are.

I do the same workout routine every other day.  This includes 11 exercises that, on paper, look simple enough to complete.  Well I have yet to complete the full routine.  Push-ups are done at an incline to make them easier to complete and still I manage only 3 sets not 4.  In the end I get a great workout and am drenched in sweat.  I am sore all over, including my face.  My wife said that I was making some extreme grimaces near the end.

Today is the routine and I am dreading it.  It is not fun.  I can’t boast big lifts of iron.  There is little for me to brag about and I am beat by the end.  Why do I do it? Because it is good for me.  Most of the movements are compound and include most of my body.  My goal is to keep the fires burning in the furnace.  Feed the furnace good fuel and the fat will fall away.