Which carbs are good
Eradicate refined flour
In this segment we take a close look at refined carbs ei: commercial bread, pastries, cakes, cookies, pastas, pizzas and over the shelf noodles. We also take a close look at rice and oat meal which I have noticed very often take the gold medal in the race for healthy Carbs. In the kingdom of carbs not all subjects are equal. Which carbs are good and which are bad? You must understand and make a clear distinction between them. While carb rich vegetables can be beneficial others such as those named earlier are downright detrimental to your health.
Will carbs hinder your 12% body fat goal
When I met Joseph a 39 year old Lebanese enjoying a body fat of 12% and muscle mass ratio and fitness levels comparable to a marvel character I did not waste a minute in inquire about his life style.
What he revealed at the time left me baffled and clearly worried. The man I was convinced was not right in his mind and bordering obsessive disorder.
When I asked: “How did you do achieve being so shredded and ripped?”
His answer was: “I don’t eat carbs”
Now putting the conversation into context the year was 2016 a long time before the Keto diet had become a trending topic. I remember thinking that he cannot be healthy, how can he function as a normal human being.
I thought the man was mad. In a society where we are surrounded with carbs at every meal, how do you avoid it and still find joy in your meals. What a total lacklustre life style!
Sports model myth and reality
Pick up your favourite health magazine and review the photos of the fitness models. Aside from possible good genetics, please be aware that each one of them abides to the strictest diet and fitness regimens. To the average person to compare themselves to these models can be the single most motivation recking practice you engage in. Be aware that the one second shot you are looking at is not reflective of the years of hard work and sacrifice these individuals went through.
There are really three possible options either they have been training from age 12 which in very common in the body building world, use steroids or partake in such restrictive regimens that would be classified by most of us as barbaric to the taste buds.
But then again, should you wish to succeeds where others fail you should be prepared to go places others are not willing to go. And that a fact.
Fast forward to my opinion today about the average fitness beginners lets cut to chase: You will never have a six pack as long as you consume certain foods irrespective of the quantities. For most unless you are a generic exception of nature but for the majority you will Never.
These certain foods are processed foods and refined carbs. I personally over the years have not eliminated the carbs completely but have embarked on a diet, I would describe as the “minimum carbs” or the “good carbs only” diet. Replacing all refined carbs with good vegetable carb in low percentages is how best I would describe my relationship with the macronutrient. On my top favourite list support my hormones, immunity and muscle growth are: Sweet potatoes, Beetroot and Carrots.
The best diet is a sustainable one
Be mindful that the strict Keto diet has worked wonders for me and is one I do not discourage. Our focus will be turned away from the classical form of diets as we know it to promote more of life style sustainable change. For 99% of us the failures we will face on these diets, the falling off the wagon and back on along with the yoyoing of our weights on the scale will not be because these diet do not work. No, it will be because certain diets are difficult to sustain and turn into a life style.
I love food. For me to be able to enjoy as many different foods as possible is something that just not sits well with me but is something that feels right. I believe that there is health in variety. As I do not supplement with any pharmaceutical product, I rely solely on my natural food intake for the supply of all my vitamins.
The rest is for you to determine how fast you want to achieve your goal. But let us establish that fast achievement diets are also prone to fast backslides. The optimum weight loss is journey is a progressive achievement. A 1% betterment of the self every single day. It is normal for this journey to take time. While I have seen people achieve total body re-compositions in 6 months, the full extent of the transformation can be expected in about 2 years of consistent work.
Diet vs life style changes
When we talk about the adoption of a new life style we are really talking about the creation of a series of new habits. The ability to create a new habit is the single most powerful tool you can ever learn in this life should you wish to succeed at anything. It is believed that the formation of a new habit usually takes a little more than 2 months, 66 days to be exact and as much as 254 days until it’s fully formed.
Team Sky which is britain’s professional cycling team in the 2000s did not have a lot going for them on the international stage. They had won one gold medal in the last 100 years and had never won a Tour de France.
In comes Dave Brailsford a man they hired to enhance their performance. His plan was to use a strategy called the “aggregation of marginal gains” and the way he described it was to get “1% better in everything that you do” They set up a number of small changes such reviewing lighter bike tyres, investing in more ergonomical seats, changing cycling suits, application of certain massage creams for better recovery, sleep improvement by identifying better pillows for the team and many more.
Brailsford believed that if they could aggregate of all these small 1% improvements that the team could potentially win the Tour de France in 5 years. Team Sky won the gold medal in 3 years and repeated it the following year.
We live in the times of “Right Now”. We desire and believe we deserve outcomes immediately. While I understand and applaud your eagerness for a better you, please do not underestimate the power of small consistent change.
Instant oat meal, fake friend or foe?
What I write next is something I wish I knew when I first started. On my journey to weight lost Oat meal has been for me both; a fake friend and a foe. Boy was I wrong. This is a perfect example where following social media blindly turns against you as opposed to listening to your body. Now from day one I included instant oat meal to my nutrition, I am referring here to the instant over the shelf oat meals. After reviewing hundreds on fitness guru’s “What I eat in a day” videos on social media it was clear that Oat Meal was a recurrent meal present in all the videos. Enjoyed by bodybuilders but also endorsed by cross fitters and runners I could not find any reason not to included this gem to my daily nutrition.
For as long as I consumed the product, my six pack gains were void of any results. I carried a heavy mid section stubborn fat which would not bulge no matter the amount of exercise and cardio. The frustration drove me to the edge. What was I doing wrong? If you find yourself in a similar situation, I guarantee it the culprit is somewhere in your kitchen.
While the good natural oat meal is a good source or carb and protein, the ones we have readily available from the supermarket are not. The issue in my opinion has got to do with “Gluten”. While a very small 0.5% of the world population today is affected by Celiac disease, the percentage affected by gluten sensivity is way higher and is undermined.
When we take a look at the world obesity epidemic it is evident that most of us suffer some degree of gluten sensitivity. We have not evolved as humans to be capable to digest this protein.
Coming back to oats; it is naturally gluten free but cross-contamination take place during the processing with gluten containing grains such as barley, rye and wheat.
Don’t fall for the labelling jargons. Nowadays, many products claiming the term “gluten free” use the term as a marketing tool. Manufacturers will go to any length to turn a profit. The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says gluten free labelled foods must contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten to be labelled as gluten free. This means an amount small enough that people with celiac disease can tolerate such foods. Therefore it is important to note that you may not be getting an entirely gluten-free product when purchasing certain products labelled as such.
For me the simplest solution is avoiding these processed products all together.
Rice good carb or bad?
Rice can support your weight loss under certain conditions. Yes it is a tricky one because it all depends on the quantity consumed. Rice is one of those foods which unless consumed in very small amounts has the potential to make you pile on the fat. Therefore the logical next question would be; what amount? And my answers would be “it all depends on who you are”. In the complex world of nutrition, there is no one size fits all answer. In which amount to consume the food will depend on such parameters as age, genetics, metabolic rate, overall health, exercise regimens and many more. Now if weight loss is your goal, it is safe to include rice in your diet only in small amounts. But if your goal is having a six pack and be shredded then consuming rice may be counter productive. In my personal experience I have chosen to avoid it all together. Only by staying away from it was I able to achieve the levels of leanness I desired. Including the food in my diet was not optimum to say the least. Now lets be clear that I am not suggesting that the food is unhealthy, as a matter of fact some of us may thrive on it but the majority wont. During my childhood, rice was a food we called our “staple”. Today I have revised the definition of “staple” for me the foods that are my staple are the ones that support by body goals.
“Rice”
”Yes Sir?”
“You’re fired!”
