“Back in 2004, I trained a young lady who just couldn’t seem to get the whole diet thing down. After two years of working with me, she vowed to finally buckle down and stick to her diet — for the fifteenth time.
The next day, she waddles into the gym with five different sheets in her hands. Each one was a different eating pattern that I’d given her over the past two years.
“So, when do I have the salmon?” she asks as she hands me the first sheet.
“Now, when do I take the flax oil caps?” handing me a second.
“And what about the protein shake?” poking another eating pattern in my face.
Confused and tormented, I stood there, finally realizing why this little urchin’s bodyweight had more ups and downs than any rollercoaster at Six Flags, Busch Gardens, and Disney World combined.
And I’m not talking about a moderate five or ten pound jump here. I’m talking about twenty to thirty pound swings that had her tippin’ the scale like a heavyweight prize fighter.
“Well, which eating pattern are you following?” I replied.
Glassy-eyed, she fumbled for words.
“You need to pick just one of the programs to follow, not all five.”
And so the rollercoaster ride continued.
From this ordeal, the brainchild for the article Food Addictions: The Last Stand was born.
Unless someone’s following a pre-contest diet, they don’t need to be counting grams of protein, carbohydrates, or fat and, least of all, calories.
No contest or photo shoot? Then loosen the clamp a little.
I get dozens of girls a day asking me to critique their eating numbers. And I tell all of them the exact same thing:
Make smart choices.
If you read “Food Addictions: The Last Stand,” I give very simple instructions on how easy it is to simply eat smart. If anything, the food choices you make are more important than the amount of food you eat.
Even if you stick to standard portion sizes, you’re still going to lose fat and keep a steady stream of nutrients feeding your muscles. Quite honestly, it’s hard to go wrong when you eat from the approved foods list in that article.
Do you really think that if your diet is 50% protein instead of 40% it’ll result in your demise?
Do you really think that the culprit of your 25% body fat is eating an apple at 8 pm instead of 3 pm?
Look here, blueberry! The next 140-pound, 26% body fat femme fatale who tells me that she feels awful, or that the brain can’t function without 100 grams of carbohydrates per day, is just asking for a big bowl of mashed potatoes stuffed down her throat.
There’s no reason a female can’t function just fine on less than 100 grams of carbohydrates per day on a general, healthy diet as long as all the other factors are in place.
First of all, it’s usually smart if a low carbohydrate day is utilized on a day where there’s no weight training. Second of all, if you don’t raise your protein and fat intake on days that you really drop the carbohydrates, then you’re going to feel like you’re doing time at concentration camp.
Really, though, this should be common sense. If you’re going to drop your carbs faster than the stock market last Monday, then you’re going to need to let the protein and fats pick up the slack a little.” ~ Wet Wolf
