Saturday I headed out to a house warming party. When I am out meeting new people then it is inevitable I will spend a large amount of time talking health and fitness. Everyone has a question and luckily I am always happy to talk about it as long as I can sneak a travelling story in here or there and discuss the latest Cat You Tube videos.
The main convo’s this week were –
The 5 and 2 Diet – Everyone loves the 5 and 2 diet it seems and most people expect me to hate it. I do not! I like anything that can play a roll in producing results. The best way to think of a diet is that it is a tool, a mode of transport to get somewhere. Where diets run into trouble is when it becomes the ONLY way, or a way of life. At this point you better be sure it is built upon solid foundational principles of nutrition and you have developed your own nutrition skills (no not cooking). Eating right is a skill and not a to do list or plan to follow.
I like the 5 and 2 diet because getting normal people to eat less two days a week is a good idea. I like any diet that makes people change their routine. Likewise, I love fasting because it reorganises your connection to hunger and teaches you how many signals are not actual physical symptoms. You learn how you can easily resist craving and that they soon pass.
The 5 and 2 diet would not be ideal for people who don’t eat enough carbs/calories already on their “healthy diet” (about half of the people I see) and thus this compounds issues. It also fails to work if people take the approach (as numerous people do) of due to two good day they will go mental on the other days. While break even may happen doing this what often happens is some point in the future when motivation runs low you forget to do the 2 good days and keep on with the other bad ones. But that is not a diets fault, that is how all diets get treated. People don’t stick to them long term, especially during low motivation periods.
To be fair, I haven’t read the 5 and 2 diet and there seems to be a little confusion on how it is meant to be followed. Some people just miss breakfast twice a week, well, that seems a very pale imitation of intermittent fasting. I assume the intended rote is to have 2 lower calorie days. This is nothing new, rotating higher calorie and lower calorie days has been around for ages. I am doing a one on one off phase now to strip body fat. I see a colleague of mine has a book doing this coming out soon.
Unhappy With Their Trainer – Another conversation was a person saying their personal trainer is rubbish and he wants a new one. The sessions were too slow and had too little core with way too much stretching so he wasn’t seeing results. As I always do I throw a nutrition conversation at people when they are training yet not getting results, even if they were training too softly if food is in place results should come!
It does raise a interesting issue with the problems personal trainers face, a training session could go down either of these routes –
– A traditional smash it sesion of cardio circuit/cardio/weights
– A smash it session of weights only
– A postural session/rebalancing
– Direct injury rehab
– Mind/motivation and nutrition talk.
The question of what the person needs vs what the person wants vs best use of time is a tricky one. Most people do not help themselves by not doing what they should in their own time. Either way, people ask a lot for their 1 hour a week when there is so much to cover. Numerous “guru” trainers who come to personal training after the sports world comment how much harder it is with normal people than athletes. I know I find it hard to move past injuries, if they don’t clear with the various techniques I use then it can stall proceedings. The client wants to go hard, I want to sort out their bigger problem – their pains. A balance must be addressed.
I told this person to have a word with his trainer, give him chance to adapt then re-emphasised the food element which evidently went in one ear and out the other in a 3am drunken haze.
Me Not Drinking – My pint of water at parties is to conversation what a neon light is to flies. Most people cannot resist and comment on it. They want to know why. I tell them one or all of the following reasons –
– Crushes Your Spirit
– Teaches you to hide from uncomfortable feelings (dancing/social/sexual etc) when you should outgrow them
– It tastes awful
– It ruins my body
– It ruins the next day
– It wastes cash I could be spending on travelling or training courses.
– I don’t want to get drunk, been there done that. No need to do again (for the 1000th time)
– It doesn’t represent who I am or who I want to be.
The Non Alcoholic Hangover
If you drink you feel worse for wear the next day. If you don’t drink you feel much better of course but you still can get some feelings of being hungover. This comes mainly from the tiredness, I went to bed 5am and was up at 8am to go to the track. It was a poor session and I had to use all my skills for out witting my unmotivated mind to get down there. Once there though it was worthwhile but hardly like my personal best a week or two ago.
September 15th (0/1 day measured)
I didn’t measure my food yesterday. Exercise wise I hit the track then played touch rugby.
Diet – Protein – g, Carbs – g, fat – g, calories – calories, % P: % C : % F: %
Exercise – Track / Touch rugby
Weight – 71.5kg Body fat – Didn’t take (last measure – 36.5mm* )
Supplements – Numerous as finishing up some bottles – These include digestive aids/multi vitamins/detox supplements
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*This is my own 10 point self measurement system, it does not correlate to body fat scores. At a guess 40mm – 8%, 50mm – 9.5%, 60mm – 11%, 70mm – 12.5%. I do not take it everyday if looking to gain muscle or maintain as it puts me off wanting to eat more. If on fat loss phase I take it daily. Like any body fat measurement system, as you get to low body fat levels the number become less accurate or reliable.
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