Vacations
Everyone needs them. Few take them when they should. Vacations — they’re necessary components of a balanced life. I should know. I never seem to take them. There you go…I’m not taking my own advice, at least when it comes to travel.
When it comes to “dieting”, that’s another story.
Perhaps this will seem like an ‘excuse’, but it isn’t — this holiday weekend just happened to fall on a weekend that my body wanted a break; a caloric shock or two to jolt the fat-burning back into gear. Odd as it may seem, I stuck to the plan for Thanksgiving. I didn’t overeat and felt 100% that day and the day after. However, I felt ‘very’ hungry the day after. I also felt…that feeling.
Let me tell you about that feeling. All I ask is that you really, really make it a point to distinguish that feeling from the fleeting feelings of, “Yeah, go for that pizza!” Big, huge, Texas-hair-size difference.
“That feeling” is a bottomless pit. Feeling hungry, a bit tired, listless, and in need of high-calorie foods. That’s your hormonal system saying, “Hey…I know this nutrition gig is good, but I need some way-out-there food for a few days.”
Your mind and your body needs the occasional break, my dearest 10ers. “Occasional” being the opperative term here.
Check it: you train X days on and X days off. Only really strange people weight train every day, 365 days a year. Everyone silly enough to do this is without a doubt “overtrained”. The body simply needs more rest than that.
Vince Gironda, my training “mentor” of mentors, actually approved of “three weeks on, one week off” when it came to weights. That’s ‘really’ ambitious recovery! During the week off, Vince suggested moderate activity and plenty of food.
Vince also cycled his nutrition, consuming whole foods from a variety of sources for a while, followed by high fat/protein and no-carb diets for a while. Mix it up. Don’t give the body a chance to adapt.
While I do not believe in ‘constant’ adaptation (as the body will simply adapt ‘to’ adaptation), I have learned to listen. There are simply times when you “must” eat a lot of food. After that, there are times when you must eat very little; and in-between is where you spend 90% of your days.
I enjoyed a 3-day “off” period. I ate fairly well, but allowed myself to consume whatever, whenever…within reason. I didn’t gourge on desserts. I didn’t eat pizza followed by a burger. I ate different foods — 4 varied seafood dishes, for example. A slice of key lime pie. A burger one night. All of this was mixed with my normal MasterMeals, but even they were ‘different’. I just felt the need for calories, fats and a break before a major push forward.
Two quick stories, then Bingo is off to bed.
First, when I was 24, I was training in California for the summer with a famous trainer. This guy had me so overtrained I was literally getting sick every other week. Clueless I tell you. Anyway, about every 3-4 days I felt crazy urges to eat a whole pizza. I finally started following those urges, and my body responded. I then adapted the daily (standard) nutrition plan to accomodate (less carbs and calories), and this “diet” began to work. It’s far from optimal, and I’m not saying you try it. But in an overtrained state, this strategy works for a while. A far better strategy is not to overtrain to begin with.
Second, a note from Tom Venuto’s trainer (and my trainer in April), Richie Smyth. During Tom’s contest prep last month, Richie looked at him one day and said, “Go home. Eat junk. Don’t come back until you do.” Tom replied, “Why can’t I just eat more yams and rice or something?”
“What? Do you think your body is that dumb? More of the same? No man…eat a bunch of CRAP. Freak it out. A day, maybe two…then come back.”
Tom came back leaner.
Arnold used this trick at times during the week, consuming a gallon of ice cream in the middle of a “diet” to freak the body out. Same principle…but the difference is timing.
For me, this “need” arises about once every 6 weeks. You have seen that for yourself, as we’re at week 6 right now. So, a “possible” lifestyle rule of thumb for those of you who do not have serious addictive personalities would be 5 1/2 weeks on, 1/2 week off your nutrition plan. Actually, this would ‘be’ a part of your nutrition plan — merely a week of alternative meals and less intense focus on food.
These three days, ironically ‘after’ Thanksgiving, have done me a lot of good. I’m raring to go with my mealplan and my training. My body responded first by dropping fat. Second, by gaining water and a tad bit of fat; nothing major, but the bloat sucks. When I resume tomorrow with my normal MasterMeals plan, my body will respond again with a lot of fat burning activity and the bloat will quickly subside.
The key is to have an exit strategy. Without one, you risk straying off the planned variance and on to the path of “whatever” eating. This is out of the question.
So listen to your body — just make your it’s your brain and not your “needs” that makes the decisions. Breaks are necessary, but weeks of pigging out is always a futile and fruitless undertaking.
I promised more about the training split, but…I lied. Sorry. That will come tomorrow, but I wanted to share this with you first. I also wanted to tweak the plan I have and post it in my next blog. Today was spent for the most part away from the Mac. Yet another vacation, although microscopic in size.
Look for my unique 4-day split tomorrow, and more news about my EDTA chelation findings. I will also be blogging my supplement list — the whats, whys and wherefores.
Oh, I’ll be funny tomorrow, too. I took a break from that as well.
Be nice about that comment, or I’ll take a break from blogging about breaks. {10}
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Comments (11)
janine hill said:
Is that the same feeling as everynow and then wanting something that most of the year you can go past and not care? Occasionally I get really hungry and it is not normal for me I am happy with the small regular meals but sometimes maybe every few months it just isn’t enough.( Only for a day or two , not months at a time or anything)
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 04:12 AM
Alyson said:
Off topic (pertaining to yesterday’s blog): a huge thank you to Elisa, Tammy, Kenny, and of course you Jon for your responses to my comments on being alone. You all helped immensely and I appreciate your thoughts and well wishes sooooooo much!! I do realize this is a life-change-for-the-better-PROCESS I’m going through, and patience is a virtue, right? :)
On topic: Jon said:”…lifestyle rule of thumb for those of you who do not have serious addictive personalities…”
I know I asked about addictive personalities before Jon, and you said this was addressed in M-Power. Can you be more specific about which audio(s)? (Either I wasn’t ready to hear it :) or it’s in an audio I haven’t gotten to yet.)
This meal strategy is an interesting one, and I’m glad you pointed out the distinction between eating according to your brain/body NEEDS and eating indiscriminantly. I am a former binge/emotional eater, and the temptation is still great at times. During one of those ‘dark’ binge days in the past, once my foggy head cleared, I decided to actually log all the food I had eaten (or at least that which I REMEMBERED I had eaten). It was a real eye-opening experience to learn that in one evening I had un-done the previous 2 weeks of healthy eating (calorie-wise….in one evening I inhaled over 4500 calories of pure JUNK!) NEVER AGAIN!! From that night on, I was ‘cured’ of binging, and a light came on that, simple as it sounds, made a huge difference in my attitude towards food. I had read a lot about and considered labeling myself a ‘food-addict’, but I hate that whole victim-mentality, and thought “how can one be addicted to something one NEEDS TO SURVIVE”? It all boiled down to having a conversation with myself: look, you’re a grown up. Behave that way. You don’t have to give up chocolate forever. BUT, you simply CAN NOT HAVE IT EVERY DAY. (And, notice, chocolate does NOT make your troubles go away :) I still have a weakness for chocolate (why CAN’T it be a major part of the food pyramid….wah!) but it can’t MAKE me eat it anymore, ha ;)
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 07:12 AM
Trinity said:
This post really struck a chord - I know my body does this from time to time. Now I don’t have to feel like it’s my weak will or something - it’s just my body telling me something. It’s amazing that we are so trained to think a certain way. Of course, changing our thinking is what you are all about, I know! I slipped up over Thanksgiving. There was a plan, but it just didn’t stick. I am very prone to temptation - that is why I don’t buy junk. If it is there, I will eat it. If it isn’t, I won’t. Anyway, I felt bloated and horrible, but I got right back to mastermeals, and it seems like my body actually responded very well, giving me a great workout and looking better than before Thanksgiving. Thanks for bringing it home :)
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 10:00 AM
Cherie said:
Some thoughts on travel…
We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what.
George Santayana, “The Philosophy of travel”
We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the word than our newspapers will accommodate…And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again-to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.
Pico Iyer, “Why we travel”
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 10:25 AM
Lissa!!! said:
so what if you do have an addictive personality???
Alyson….I have used the term food addict before….but I like what you said about it….its all about choices.
what happened to me is after I released some fat…ate clean for a year and did a contest prep….and did the occaisional junk food and realized that it actually kick things up a notch…something in my brain must have said….Im eating junk food and still getting leaner….well?…eat more junk….does that make sense at all.
so ive slowly put on some extra fat…I just have to stay dedicated for 2-3 weeks and Im good to go…I listened to the 1st week of Mpower and I have to say…I feel stronger and more motivated today.
Hugs
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 11:58 AM
Woody said:
This applies to eating right and workouts once in a while.
A woman calls her boss one morning and tells him that
She is staying home because she is not feeling well.
“What’s the matter?” he asks
“I have a case of anal glaucoma,” she says in a weak voice.
“What the hell is anal glaucoma?”
“I can’t see my ass coming into work today”
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 12:53 PM
Brian said:
Jon, great post today. Our bodies are amazing in their ability to adapt, also what a great way to break up the day-in-day-out routine. Glad you enjoyed your time after Thanksgiving, keep up the good work!
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 02:27 PM
Jon Benson said:
TO ALL
Bodybuilding legend Frank Zane has used a “three steps forward, one step back” approach his entire career. This included nutrition…however, and this is a big honkin’ “however”, Zane was a master at discipline. There was no “year-long binge eating parties” for Frank. He was like a machine.
He reasoned that the body needed variance and a break from everything, and that included “dieting”. Still, his “off” time was healthier than most people’s “on” time.
The principle is valid for fat burning. I will take 8 pounds off, 2 pounds on for the rest of my life. How about you? If the two pounds “on” revs the hormones (T4, leptin) back into high gear, and is followed by 8 pounds off, then your net is 6 pounds. Ironically this is about 6 pounds over 6 weeks.
Sound familiar?
10 in 10?
There you go… : )
To Janine:
You have an RSS reader, don’t you? You must…you’re always first girl!
We’re going to be posting a link to an RSS reader. For those who don’t know what that is (read: me, too) — this is basically like your email software only it checks when blogs you like have been updated. Very cool.
Yes, the feeling you’re describing is exactly what I’m talking about.
To Alyson:
More than welcome.
Week 28 in M-Power is “Reframing: Overcoming Addictions And False Beliefs”. The “Reframing” audio is really cool as it goes into more detail on the subjects covered in weeks 1 and 3.
You simply may not be there yet. Email me about that and I’ll get you started.
Reframing is ABSOLUTELY VITAL to ongoing success.
On a side note: many of you took me up on that offer to call me if you’re having problems or challenges with your 10 in 10 progress. Without one exception (and please, feel free to blog if you’re one of the ones who called), we went through some basic reframing. Reframing is an NLP technique, but it’s really more of a “how to be honest with reality” exercise.
Very empowering, and quite essential when dealing with things like supposed addiction (I get into trouble from doctors on this one), anorexia or bulimia, and other self-induced deceptions. It’s not an issue of “bad person” at ALL…it’s an issue of believing something at your Core that is “true to the illusion.” Hard to explain, hence the audios…and the audios make that an easy process.
If I can help someone reframe in 5 minutes on the phone, that should tell you something. : )
Also, there was an M-Powering Words series on addiction that you may have missed. I’ll post that as a blog if you guys are interested.
To Trinity:
The fine line is the reality of “will” versus “need”. I know a guy who believes that his “need” is to eat crap several days a week prior to a bodybuilding show. That’s just nonsense…unless you’re on what’s called a “CKD” (cyclical ketogenic diet), and you literally use “crap” to fuel refeeds and glycogen replenishment. However, that’s an advanced dietary strategy and NOT one I’d recommend for life.
Keep us posted with that balancing act…but yes, it is indeed part of the cycle of nutrition, much like the cycle of life has ups and downs.
To Cherie:
Great quotes! Thanks for that…love the “lose/find yourself” thought. True.
To Lisa:
See the M-Power series stuff above. : )
First of all, you need to dismiss “addictive personality” from a description of yourself. You’re “addicted” to air, clothing, food…survival issues. Strip those away, and watch how fast you kick bad habits. Seriously.
I’m NOT saying there are not alcoholics or drug “addicts” in the world; I’m merely arguing that they’re not truly addicted. They’re merely “highly compelled.” Now, that may seem like word-play, but it ISN’T. You tell your brain “I’m addicted” enough times and guess what? It links whatever you’re saying to things LIKE food, air, water, clothes…which is one reason (there are also chemical reasons, of course) that people are “addicted” to drugs and alcohol.
The FIRST step, in my opinion, is to STOP TELLING YOURSELF YOU’RE AN “ADDICT”. You are highly compelled toward a substance that is useless. You crave something that is useless. You DO NOT NEED something that is useless, and “addiction” implies NEED.
No one ever died because heroin, sugar, fast food or booze was removed from their lives save a few who had MIs during withdrawls (a condition that would have occured eventually and soon anyway); millions have died because it was kept in. Also, millions die every day from FOOD being removed from their lives. THAT is “addiction” as I choose to define it. Why? Because it’s more empowering to overcoming the root of the problem:
self-deception.
Once the ‘addict’ realizes that, on some level, the substance has become “necessary” and that this is a complete and utter LIE (but one that is completely believed by the subconscious through anchoring and poor thinking), then overcoming that “addiction” is a million times easier.
This, again, is not a rail against those who struggle through alcoholism or “clinical addiction” (I don’t even like to use the word, obviously) of any sort. I more than ‘feel’ for you — I have worked directly with addicts for years. Rather, this a different take on the subject philosophically and practically.
I would challenge any “addict” (food, booze, drugs, sex) to take on this exercise and the ones covered in M-Power and see if it doesn’t help the process. This is not an alternative to treatment; merely a powerful adjunct.
To Woody:
Heh…humor. : ) On a site like this??
To Brian:
Thank you kindly!
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 03:09 PM
Kay said:
Jon,
Don’t know if you’ll see this or not as you’re already a couple of blogs ahead of me. I’m going to be very careful and try not to stick my foot in my mouth as I just got caught a few days ago by you using MY definition of macho: a brave man who acts on his honorable convictions.
But to the topic of addictive, I do not use this term as an excuse, it took me years to apply this term to myself because I didn’t want to be an addict. But I had to finally admit that I do have an addictive personality and because of that I have had and do have addictions. I do not need the Dr Pepper I gave up a couple of weeks ago but I had convinced myself that I did. So I have a very strong compulsion to feed that desire (craving). I believe, so I’m not going to try it, that after alittle over two weeks of abstinence from it, if I were to go buy one can and drink it the compulsion would pick up right where it left off. With the anorexia, it’s different because I need to start doing something that I’m compelled NOT to do. Eat food daily, multiple times a day even! I think it’s revolting and that’s how my mind and body react to it. I resent the time and effort eating takes. I think it’s rational and reasonable to only eat once or twice a week, about as often as I need to fuel my car. For a lot of years it worked for me too.
Now I personally don’t know anyone else who thinks about food the way I do, but I’d rather be this way than a compulsive emotional eater. I do know people who can smoke one joint, have one soda a week or one glass of wine sometimes, but that’s not me.
I’ve read some stuff the past few years that research is indicating that people who are bi-polar are addictive. I hate to resign myself to that because I’d rather go back to smoking pot than living on anti-depressants but I also hated to resign myself to the fact that everything I put in my body or withheld from my body (food) that would change the way I felt, I became compulsive about and those things end up controlling me.
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 11:30 PM
Jon Benson said:
Kay;
The use of the term ‘addict’ is not an ‘excuse’…I merely assert that it’s not empowering nor technically accurate.
Also, you did ‘not’ put your foot in your mouth; frankly, you never have to worry about that with me, cool?
This is a deep conversation and best had one-on-one. If labeling oneself as an “addict” helps them stay clean or stay focused, then it’s more than fine by me.
For me, that would be limiting — but not “bad”, if that makes sense. Our goals are still the same.
Jon
Posted on Nov 28, 2005 11:54 PM
Elisa said:
This is so interesting! There are those times, especially after I’ve been really working out hard or increasing the intensity of a workout that I crave MEAT. It’s funny. I actually say out loud - I need MEAT and FAT right now! Sometimes I say, I need some pizza. Not a pizza but some. Usually, when I eat a fatter piece of fish, duck or some fatter meat or the pizza (depending on the day), my body actually responds as you’ve said Jon by burning fat.
I have a cold right now. One I’ve had since Sunday night thanks to my boyfriend’s son. I haven’t worked out because I’ve had a fever. I will work out with a cold as long as there is no fever. My body has craved more carbs (not a lot) and less food altogether so I’ve accommodated it. My cold is almost gone and everyone else’s lasted a week or more.
I think you get to a point where you know your body and what it needs to perform and if you can respect that without going to the extreme, you will see a huge difference. I look better today than I did on Sunday and I haven’t so much as lifted a weight! I think my body needed the rest and the change of diet so it could heal.
Alyson you are very welcome. I think it’s awesome that you are so introspective and honest with yourself. This is a hard time and you are making the best use of how to learn from it. And who says chocolate isn’t on the food pyramid…. my guess is it could be as long as it’s eaten in small doses ;-).
I am hopefully back to the weights tomorrow. I miss the gym!!!
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 07:22 PM
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