Gaining Weight? It’s What Nature Intended

Oh, Fall, how I love you. Halloween, Thanksgiving, campfires, that crisp air, pumpkin-flavored EVERYTHING! For many, Autumn is a pleasant change of season. Here in Los Angeles, the change is mildly noticeable, but quite different than the splendor of the changing seasons in, say, Pennsylvania or Ohio. In fact, the thing I miss most about the Midwest are the gorgeous colors that nature’s natural cycle puts on display. The following season? Not an ounce of my soul misses winters in the Midwest.

Fall offers up the most delicious harvests of the year; artichokes, persimmons, apples, winter squash, pomegranates, potatoes, cranberries. If you’re wondering what the best harvests in your region are, check out this Regional Produce Seasonality Guide for the United States.

Not only is it important to know which foods are in season around you, it’s incredibly important for you to actually eat those foods!
Foods change with the seasons for a reason and have a specific macronutrient ratio of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. You will notice that fall offers many starchy carbs and fruits high in sugar. This is not an accident; these types of carbohydrates can fatten you up and give you energy. It’s all in nature’s plan, see: the beautiful colors draw you to the fruits and vegetables. The days are shorter, thus restricting energy expenditure. This results in more rest and weight gain designed for the coming winter months. Cool, huh?

Typically, people gain the most weight between Halloween and January 1. Hopefully the preceding information helped to explain why. It is completely natural to gain weight during these months. EDIT: it is completely natural to gain *healthy* weight during these months. Keep in mind that this is also the time of year when many people turn away from nature’s offerings and ingest more sugar, white flour, and all-around heavy foods. Sorry, but pumpkin pie doesn’t come out of the ground and those tasty pumpkin-spiced “everythings” are usually LOADED with sugar. Gyms absolutely love this time of year, because when January 1 rolls around, people are ready to lose the weight that they’ve gained. Again.

So, let’s all try something new this year: truly eating seasonally. Let’s also realize that a little weight gain is nature’s plan and that restricting your diet, and over exercising, can actually do more damage through injury, stress, nutritional deficiencies, and failure. Let’s also realize the difference between what the earth offers and what a restaurant, coffee shop or your grandma’s kitchen offers in the way of proper nutrition.

If you want support in this most important time of year, stay tuned, as I will be offering special programs and workshops to to empower you to change, sustainably.

Fight or Flight – My Journey in the Art of 8 Limbs

Nothing could have prepared me for my first martial arts experience as an adult. The idea of a guy like me practicing Muay Thai is probably laughable (or even worrisome), but I finally decided to go for it. Sometimes I get really enthusiastic and throw caution to the wind, which doesn’t always help my cause. So, come along with me on my journey.

I coach others in health and nutrition, thus I’m well aware of the best ways to lose weight, build muscle, and gain energy. I’m also concentrating on corrective exercise and personal training. Nothing I’ve studied could have prepared me for my first Muay Thai class.

Based on recommendations and research, I chose to train at a well-respected, old-school Muay Thai gym called The Yard. It’s a place that would make Rocky proud; no-frills, just a lot of sweat, determination, and a palpable sense of solidarity. My first impressions: a beast of a human, kicking and punching on pads, sounding like a baseball bat hitting a tree. I was intimidated, and there was no turning back.

I put down my bag, took a drink of water, and approached the first available trainer. After some stretching and several failed attempts at jumping rope, he began putting me through intense conditioning exercises. I had hip resurfacing surgery three years ago, and I also wear a leg brace. The trainer suggested I run suicides, which, of course, I said “no problem” to, and then added push-ups and frog leaps. By the time a few minutes of this had gone by, I was exhausted, and it was only the warm-up.

From there we moved on to detailed demonstrations of proper stance and hitting technique. This portion of the training was a lot of fun, until I had a sudden urge to vomit. I took a break, then returned to the workout, then left the workout again when I began having muscle spasms in my hip. I had officially overdone it.

Although I cut the first session short, I assured the trainer I’d be back for more. He said he really wanted to work with me, and asked why I chose Muay Thai versus an easier, less intense workout. My response was simple: I craved discipline, mind/body connection, and I wanted to be able to kick ass (if necessary). With that, he simply said “see you next time, Chris.”

Dads! Get (and Stay) Healthy

There’s a plethora of information out there about why new mothers gain weight and how they can lose it. But what about dads? Studies have revealed that new dads gain, on average, fourteen pounds after the birth of their bundle of joy.

As the father of an 18-month old, I can commiserate with all the new
papas. Sleep, healthy eating, and exercise become a thing of the past.
It’s easy to fall into bad habits (“quick” meals and snacks, or
skipping meals altogether), and into the deadly trap of reward through
“treats” after a long day of parenting. The stress of trying to
achieve something resembling pre-baby life can bring any man to his
knees.

There’s that ongoing joke about getting a belly as we age (and become
fathers). It’s almost become a right of passage for men to become
overweight once adulthood really cements itself, and those “manly”
things like drinking a six-pack of beer or gorging on pizza have
become the norm. It may seem like a drastic statement, but these
habits are cutting your life shorter. Heart disease is the number-one
cause of premature death in men, and the two leading contributors to
heart disease are poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.

Focusing on your child, your partner, your job, and your health can be
an uphill battle. I realized well in advance of the birth of my
daughter that I needed to make my health my top priority, so that I
would be physically able to deal with whatever was about to come at me
in the future.

Here are my five simple tips for the new dads out there:

Exercise: Even thirty minutes, a few times per week, is better than
nothing and can be a game-changer for your health. Take a walk, go for
a hike, do some push-ups, or find a gym offering early or late-night
hours.

Alcohol: Be very aware of your consumption during this stressful time.
If you’re beginning to drink, or starting to drink more, because you
“need” that drink at the end of the day, or if alcohol is becoming a
reward, it’s time to evaluate things. Also, alcohol is empty calories,
pure and simple.

Snacking: I mention rewards throughout this article. We’ve been
conditioned to reward ourselves with the most harmful substances:
processed foods, refined sugars, salt. Keep healthy snacks, like
almonds, celery, raw cheese, and berries handy for your “snack
attacks”.

Sleep: Get it whenever you can. If you have a chance to take a nap, do
it! If you can go to bed early, do it! The work you “have to do” can
wait until tomorrow, and your favorite show on Netflix isn’t going
anywhere either.

Diet: Small changes can make a big impact when it comes to diet. Eat
more vegetables; instead of filling up on carbs, try to make veggies a
“main course” item (aim for making your plate 60% vegetables).
High carbohydrate diets are energy suckers for most people, yet most people find it very difficult to eat a meal that doesn’t focus on bread, rice, or some type of grain. Try quinoa, amaranth, or wild rice for a healthy change of pace. Whenever possible, eat lean meats (chicken, salmon, turkey) instead of ground beef (which features prominently in so many meals). Remember that your body is unique. Remember that there is NO perfect diet. If a diet claims to be magic, run like hell! You can also seek my help with this monumental change in your life.

Cheers to a healthy and happy life as a dad. Your family deserves to be healthy and happy, and you do too.

Small Towns Have the Biggest Hearts

Small towns have the biggest hearts.
They strap you in from the start.
There is a difference between dreaming big
And not dreaming at all.

Living in Los Angeles makes it easy to forget the way of the “normal” world; getting places quickly, finding parking spots on command, leaving your doors unlocked during the day…
But there are undesirable facts about most small towns across the country; a sea of chain restaurants, lack of fresh and healthy food options, minds less opened to different walks of life and opinions about the world in general.

I’m in my small hometown visiting family for a little summer vacation. Mansfield, Ohio is known for it’s monolithic prison where the Shawshank Redemption was filmed. When finally moving from Mansfield, I felt very similar to one particular scene in the award winning movie. While it’s fantastic being around family and friends, it does make me realize that I take for granted many things that a large city offers, like fresh local produce, the juice and smoothie shop that’s walking distance from my home, my Vitamix, restaurants that have more on the menu for children besides chicken fingers and french fries!

I’m sitting in a fantastic coffee shop called RELAX, it’s just coffee. They just happen to use some of my favorite coffee beans from a popular coffee shop walking distance from my home in L.A. Proving once again the we live in a small world. And upon walking to the coffee shop, I noticed people setting up stands for their weekly Farmer’s Market! I also just ran into some old friends who advised me that there were now some natural food markets around town, a health food store that carries the fish oil that I forgot at home, etc. In short, you can find your tribe anywhere, if you’re willing to look for them!

On top of all this, I will be enjoying quality time with the family, showing them how to prepare some healthy dishes, giving some delicious non-sugar options to prepare on the quick, grilling some local, grass-fed meats for the 4th, and most importantly: getting some needed rest!

We all tend to go 100mph down the road of life. We tend to forget that the pause is just as important.
Pause
Appreciate
Breathe

This might be my favorite quality of small towns, they seem to allow and understand the pause much more than the Big City.

Okay, I’m off to relax and teach my daughter to swim.

Be well.

Surviving the Slaughter

Although I haven’t eaten any form of animal flesh (besides fish, and eggs), in eighteen years, I’m only now able to call my diet what it is: a philosophical aversion to the mass slaughter and brutal death of millions of animals every year on factory farms. I have no problem with other people eating meat; in fact, I think that if I could get over my Buddhist-leaning temperament towards eating animals, I could enjoy it, and very likely feel a bit better in my overall health. Alas, though, the heart rules the mind, which rules these types of decisions.

I have many vegan and vegetarian friends, and I fully respect their decisions regarding their chosen diets. I believe that a proper vegan diet can be healthy, but only if you’re committed to taking supplements (such as B12, DHA, and creatine). I look forward to working with vegans and vegetarians through my Integrative Health practice, because I get it. Eating meat and/or animal products is disturbing to many, for a variety of very valid reasons.

Most of us have seen footage of the mistreatment of animals on factory farms, and of their brutal and often inhumane deaths. It becomes easy to side with the vegans proclaiming “See! I told you so!”, but from a nutrition standpoint, I believe there is still a need for animal products in a healthy diet. If you are a meat eater, please educate yourself on where your meat comes from. The way the animals are treated, what they are fed, and their quality of life before slaughter impacts the final product, nutritionally and ethically. I strongly suggest buying organic, grass-fed, sustainable, and hormone- and antibiotic-free meat and animal products. Is it more expensive? Sometimes, yes, but I’d like to share a quote from In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. by Michael Pollan:

While it is true that many people
simply can’t afford to pay more for food,
either in money or time or both,
many more of us can.
After all, just in the last decade
or two we’ve somehow found the time
in the day to spend several hours on the internet and the money
in the budget not only to pay for broadband service,
but to cover a second phone bill
and a new monthly bill for television,
formerly free. For the majority of Americans, spending more
for better food is less a
matter of ability than priority

My hyper-awareness of violence, which presents itself in one way through my aversion to meat-eating, stems from my life-altering childhood accident. It’s hard for me to imagine harming a living thing on purpose. I know too well the fragility of life and what the pain just before death feels like.

Luckily, I survived the slaughter. And I live a healthy, mostly plant-based life.