Feature Story

To Eat or Not to Eat?

by Fitz

What a silly question!

My best advice for proper nutrition is simple. First... never DIET. The nature of the word DIET refers to a temporary fix to short term results. That’s a silly idea. Proper nutrition is a way of life. Period. You should form good habits. You’ve heard it before, but check out the FDA’s food pyramid. Eat a ton of fruits and vegetables, enough carbohydrates to provide you with fuel to get through your active day, enjoy some lean meat, and make sure you get enough calcium to keep your bones nice and strong. Removing most oil, butter, and creamy sauces from your personal menu choices will go along way, considering the only thing they really contribute is fat. As far as treats go, I do not believe that any food is ‘bad’. Hopefully, once you’ve filled up on the healthy foods I’ve listed above... you’ll be too full to devour an entire cheesecake. Everything in moderation. A small desert is fine. You’ll know when you’ve had too much. 

Carb/Protein Diets

OK. I’ve already mentioned that I believe diets are a bad idea. This is the reasoning for these two in particular. Although, these two forms of torture have sold a million books, and believe me ... the authors are definitely laughing their way to the bank; they are theoretically ridiculous. They sometimes provide quick weight loss, but most dieters quickly regain their lost weight and then some. Why? They were temporary fixes. Can you imagine NEVER eating another piece of bread? Pasta? Rice? How about the opposite? No chicken, beans, or egg products. I believe that any time you ditch a major food group....you’re missing out on some important stuff. 

The protein diet is simply gross if you ask me. Have as much beef, fat, butter, and lard as you want ... but don’t you dare touch rice. This leaves the dieter with zero energy to exercise (how beneficial!!), and even worse ... fills him/her with artery clogging grease for as long as they remain on the diet. Gross. This leads to that fancy “skinny-flabby” effect. Nice, very nice. 

The all-carb diets are not quite as disgusting, but equally absurd.  Whoop-dee-doo! No protein. This will work wonders for the fitness buff. Lift tons of weights ... but never see any results! This lovely diet removes the ingredient that helps your muscles increase in size and strength. As a bonus (sarcasm), it will do wonders for the person who is dying to become anemic (iron-deficient) and pass out a lot. 

Fasting

Ummmm.... Not a good idea. I know I sound redundant, with this ‘not a good idea’ thing. But, I have to tell you that this is really silly. Our goal is to achieve great fitness, true? This is definitely not the trail to that finish line. Although fasting is a quick way to cut calories, it totally blows the idea of fitness. Why? First, you are deleting your chances of meeting any of your nutritional needs: vitamins, minerals, etc. Second, you need FOOD! Dodo. Your body relies on food to live. Plus, when your body does not take in the necessary food, it goes into a sort of emergency crisis mode. It stores it’s fat for protection in case you don’t get any for a while. If you lose weight... it’s muscle you’re losing, not fat. Third. if you don’t eat ... how are you going to exercise? Where will you get your energy? You need food. This is definitely the worst of all the dieting options.