…what would be the joker?

Have you ever noticed how every famous super hero has an equally famous super-villain?

Batman has the Joker

He-man has Skeletor

Superman has Lex Luthor

Every hero has his or her villain, and in comics and make-believe land, the villain is always the exact antithesis of the hero.

So why the sudden hero/villain revelation? Well I finally had the pleasure of finally seeing the latest Batman movie. It was as good as everyone says it is, and Heath Ledger was an amazing Joker. In fact, I would say that he was one of the best villains ever in a
movie.

I’d put him right up there with Darth Vader.

But this post isn’t about villains, rather it’s about the idea of an antithesis – A direct opposite.

And in this example…Eat Stop Eat is the good guy. After all it is an incredibly easy way to lose weight, this we know. But, what would it’s antithesis be?

What would be the Joker to Eat Stop Eat’s Batman?

In Eat Stop Eat I recommend a form of flexible intermittent fasting where you eat normally on the days you are eating, and you include a 24 hour fast once or twice a week. This very simple style of eating has helped thousands of people lose weight.

Interestingly, it is the EXACT ANTITHESIS of Eat Stop Eat that probably made many of these people overweight to begin with.

Think about what the antithesis of flexible intermittent fasting would be ==> Eat normally for most of the week but then once or twice a week, over-eat by a fair amount.

As an example, a person would eat normally for almost the whole week, except on Monday during an unexpected lunch meeting there would be an additional 1,500 calories from a soup and sandwich combo maybe a glass of wine or a beer with the meal, and a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant for dessert.

This small overshoot doesn’t seem like much…and for the rest of the week this person would eat very well, but then on Saturday there would be an extra 2,500 Calories from 3 slices of pizza, 2 beers and some nachos.

But other than these two dietary indiscretions, eating would be normal.

This is the EXACT OPPOSITE of Eat Stop Eat, and it is how most people who are overweight eat.

Most people who are overweight actually eat very well MOST OF THE TIME. The only difference is a one or two minor slips ups per week.

Overeating once or twice per week can have absolutely devastating weight gain effects. Fasting once or twice per week can have absolutely remarkable weight loss effects.

Eat Stop Eat is the easiest way to make this dramatic transition from weight gain to weight loss, and oddly enough it is the EXACT OPPOSITE of how most people eat.

If you don’t like the way you look, perhaps it’s time you tried a completely opposite approach.

BP

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I’ve been getting A LOT of questions lately asking about the foods I eat.

People have been asking for samples of my meal plans. And, when I reply that I don’t follow any sort of meal plan I sometimes get some very heated responses.

The truth is, I don’t beleive in meal plans, and I don’t beleive their is an optimal “healthy” way to eat.

I will go on the record to say that I eat AVERAGE.

I might eat a bit more fruits and vegetables than the average person, but you will not find Tupperware contains full of skinless chicken breasts in my fridge or green tea in my house.

In Eat Stop Eat I mention my only rule of eating:

“Eat less and enjoy the foods you eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, and probably most importantly try not to stress over what you eat”

I live by this rule.

However, I’ll admit that this is a somewhat vague descriptions of how I eat, and I can see how just might not work for some people, so I have decided to share a days worth of food with you.

So the following is exactly what I ate on Friday. I took a picture of everything. From snacks to desserts – everything I ate, I photographed.

The one thing I should share with you is that this particular weekend my wife was away, so I had Brier all to myself and I was playing the role of single daddy…(Keep that in mind when we get to dinner time)

OK, So lets start with Breakfast

Brier was up at 7:30 AM. We started the day by sharing a banana…

After eating our banana (we split this one) I then made both of us Oatmeal with cinnamon, nutmeg, some strawberries…

And we also had some Whole Milk. I had a full cup, while she had 4 ounces.

After this we played around the house for a bit, I did the dishes and managed to sneak in a quick snack around 9 Am, 1 Hard boiled egg with some Cajun spice.

After this quick snack I prepped Brier and took her to her day care, then I headed into the office.

Around 11 AM I took a break and went to Starbucks for a Grande Americano with about an ounce of whole milk and some cream.

I drank my coffee while working and then really didn’t eat anything again until around 2 pm.

I was in a groove getting things done so I decided to keep the flow going and quickly get something quick from the Tim Horton’s around the corner.

Obviously, this was not nearly as tasty as something I could have made at home, but like I said, I was in a groove.

I packed up shop around 4:30 and left to pick Brier up from day care. We were home by around 5:15 pm.

This is where it starts getting a little crazy.

I’ll preface this by saying I have NO IDEA how single parents do it.

Brier was hungry as soon as we walked in the door, and I really hadn’t planned ahead for dinner. So Brier had pasta, corn, carrots and her bottle…I helped her eat her pasta…probably about a handfull worth of cooked pasta…

Eating dinner took much longer then I expected, so instead of the usual cooked dinner (I love making dinner) I had to compromise and make something quick.

So far my day has been pretty typical, however I will point out that a Nutella and banana sandwich is not something I EVER eat…But I had Nutella in the house and was pressed for time…like I said..Props to the single parents out there.

Brier finally fell asleep around 8, so I settled in with a pear and some tea and started answering emails.

Then around 10 pm I had about 1 cup of yogurt with blue berries, strawberries, black berries, 1/3 cup sliced almonds and roughly a quarter cup of unsweetened shredded coconut.

And that’s it. I was in bed by midnight.

So this was a pretty average day, (except for dinner). Looking back, I would have preferred a bit more veggies, but other than that, it was a good day with a nice variety of foods.

No magic foods, no Tupperware containers full of broccoli and chicken, no patting myself on the back for eat ’super clean’ – Just foods I enjoy in amounts that allow me to stay at the weight I like being at.

Enjoy the foods you eat.

BP

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I’m sitting in a coffee shop across from a MASSIVE health club, and as I watch the people scurry in and out of this gigantic big-box style fitness chain, I can’t help but wonder..If exercise didn’t work, would we still do it?

Put another way – if there was absolutely no physiological reward to weight training or structured exercise (like cardio or fitness classes) I doubt any of us would even bother…

Sure, we’ve learned to enjoy exercise, but I think that the root of this enjoyment is knowing (or thinking) we are doing something that is healthy, and that it will improve the way we look and feel.

In fact I am hard pressed to think of any form of structured exercise that is not ‘end result’ oriented.

I can only think of two things we do for no reward..

We walk – because humans wonder by nature. Throw a bunch of grade school kids into a field and see what happens…they just wonder off, exploring things or sometimes just walking for the sake of walking.

And we dance (if we’re not too self-conscious). Throw a bunch of children into a gymnasium, turn on some music and watch what happens.

From watching my daughter I beleive that wondering aimlessly combined with dancing and unstructured play is the root of our innate calorie burning abiltity…Everything else is a learned skill.

Based on this I am starting to think that many of us would benefit from limiting our weight training and structured cardio to the MINUMUM we need to get the effect we desire, and then fill the rest of our time with walking, and unstructured play…

The bottom line – I think walking around your neighborhood is far better for you then walking inside on a treadmill…and most forms of dancing are probably just as good as interval training, if not better.

I still love weight training, but I think we should be striving to get the best returns from the least amount of work, rather than just working out as much as possible and hoping we hit our target.

Balance is the new healthy

BP

PS- Here is a great story about a trainer who experimented with Eat Stop Eat for one month..you can read about her results HERE

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I had a sudden urge to clean out my desk today, and while going through some of my old notebooks I found a page that had all my measurements from February of 2005.

The awesome things about measurements is that they don’t lie.

With pictures, the right light, the right angles and BAM! you are a supermodel or shredded bodybuilder.

With the wrong lights it’s a whole different story.

With measurements there is a lot less variability. They are a lot harder to fake, and they typically aren’t as affected by happenstance.

The interesting thing is that 2005 is almost 2 full years before I started fasting.

So I can compare my measurements today with my measurements from 2005 and get an idea of what almost 2 years of fasting has done to my body.

in 2005 my right thigh measurements were:

4 inches above the top of the knee = 18 inches

6 inches above the top of the knee = 20.25 inches

10 inches above the top of the knee = 22.5 inches

My right arm (flexed) = 16 inches

My chest = 42.5 inches

My waist = 35 inches

My shoulder circumference = 47.5 inches

These are my current measurements as of September 25th 2008

4 inches above the top of the knee = 18 inches

6 inches above the top of the knee = 22.5 inches

10 inches above the top of the knee = 23.75 inches

My right arm (flexed) = 16 inches

My chest = 42 inches

My waist = 32.5

My shoulder circumference = 49 inches

(****I don’t have my weight from back in 2005, however I know my wedding was in 2005 and that I had started to diet for my wedding by February…so I’m guessing I was under 200 pounds…probably about 15-20 pounds heavier than I am now.)

So what has fasting done to me?

My legs are bigger, but my waist is smaller. This is a good sign.

My arms are the same size which makes sense since I don’t train them too often and I’m happy with a 16 inch arm.

My chest is a half inch smaller which also makes sense since I don’t train my chest as often or with as much weight as I did back in ‘05.

I was really happy to see that my shoulder circumference has increased, since over the last two years the majority of my upper body work has been centered around increasing the size of my shoulders.

So, after almost two years of fasting once or twice a week, my waist is smaller, but everything else has either stayed the same or even increased in circumference.

Combine these results with my pictures (you can see them HERE) and I am confident in saying that after two years of following the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle I have lost fat, and gained muscle.

BP

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Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Ben Johnson’s 1988 Olympic steroid scandal.

Steroids have changed a lot of things in our lives.

The existence of steroids makes us question our sports heroes.

The prevalence of steroids makes us question just about everyone we know who carries an unusual amount of muscle.

Steroids also had a profound effect on how we think of ‘nutrition’.

Because steroids are considered cheating in almost every sport, athletes who were abusing steroids had to come up with excuses to why they were able to put on 30 pounds of muscle over an off-season.

The answer was easy “nutrition” or more appropriately “better nutrition” – the idea that eating ‘better’ could create massive changes in how the body looks.

From Bodybuilding to Baseball, Wrestling to Football, it seemed like a lot of professional athletes were suddenly eating more protein, cutting back on the sweets and instantly gaining unprecedented amounts of muscle.

It is my personal opinion that the “miracle effect” that people beleive foods have on our body was born out of a cover up of steroid abuse. And it is because of this that we greatly overestimate the effect that food can have on a human bodies ability to build muscle.

It is also why so many of us are disappointed when after months of eating 400 grams of protein a day combined with every supplement imaginable, we don’t get the same results.

So from our sports heroes to the billion dollar sports supplement business, to the equally large industry of nutrition consulting, the events of 1988 changed the world of sports nutrition dramatically.

BP

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Here’s an interesting quote:

“fasting (simply eating less) is Nature’s omnipotent method of cleansing the body from the effects of wrong and too much eating.”

Now this isn’t my quote, rather its a quote from Arnold Ehret, the man many people consider to be the father of naturopathic medicine.

I can’t help but wonder if the founder of naturopathic medicine thought that simply FASTING was the ‘omnipotent’ (again, his words not mine) method of cleansing the body, then were did all of the cleansing DIETS come from?

Bottom line, I still don’t know exactly what detox is, but I feel strongly that it is definitely NOT something you can find in a bottle or pill.

BP

(as a reference, I found the quote on wiki and special thanks to JB for emailing about Ehret)

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I was hit by a sudden realization today in the gym.

We have somehow been taught that we need to make exercise LOOK DIFFICULT.

We have learned that we need to ‘stress the muscle’. Go slow. Stress. Squeeeeze.

Look around the gym during your next workout – specifically, check out the bodybuilder and bodybuilder wannabes – Do they make lifting weights look easy? Or, do they make it look really, really hard? Almost like they are fighting the movement the entire way.

While I have heard about the idea of the mind-muscle connection and making sure you feel the muscle work, I don’t know if I buy into this philosophy.

To me, it’s almost like you are teaching your muscles to fight against their own potential.

In direct opposition to this habit is what we see when athletes perform an amazing skill.

How many times have you heard someone describe it as “He/She made it look easy”.

Take this lift for example:

Now, I understand that we all don’t want to be Olympic lifters, but it does beg the question – shouldn’t we be trying to make lifting look and feel easier, not harder?

Next time you are in the gym, concentrate on what you are thinking while you are lifting..are you making the lift feel harder than it needs to be? Are you limiting yourself by ‘acting the role’?

If so, try doing the opposite – breathe properly (no grunting or hissing) and try to make lifting look effortless, see what kind of difference it can make with your energy levels and the amount of work you can get done.

I tried this today and was amazed. I had a great workout, AND left the gym feeling…well, energized.

BP

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I saw an interesting TV commercial yesterday, and thanks to the miracle of YouTube I can share this video with you.

Check it out below.

Now, after watching this commercial..did you notice something weird?

Here are the ingredients of nutella from the nutella website:

Is it just me, or did the commercial fail to mention the first two ingredients of Nutella, as well as the last 3 ingredients?

Honesty goes a long way in marketing.

BP

PS- Don’t worry Nutella, I still think you are tasty…I just didn’t like the commercial.

(still tastes great)

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If you remember back to July, I mentioned that I wanted new cookware for my birthday.

Well, I finally got around to doing some shopping.

My plan was to get some high-end stainless steal fry pans, but I found that all the stainless steal cookware were endorsed by chef what’s his name, and were WAY more expensive than I expected.

Since I like paying for quality and not celebrity endorsements, I decided to forget the stainless steal, and continued to do some browsing.

Boy I’m glad I did…I found something very interesting.

Green Pans.

The reason I was shopping for stainless steel was that I wanted to get rid of my old Teflon pans. Over the last couple years I have become very weary of PTFE (the chemical used to help spread the Teflon chemical all over traditional non-stick pans).

It’s considered potentially harmful, and Ive read that by the year 2015, companies who make non-stick cookware are required to find a non PTFE chemical- free alternative.

In my opinion, since I’m now cooking foods for Brier (she’s 15 months now) why use Teflon at all?

And this is where Green Pans come in.

In contrast to the classical PTFE-based non-stick technology (using PFOA as a processing agent), Green Pans (which by the way, are blue..go figure) use something called Thermolon™.

They say on their website that coating cookware with Thermolon releases 50% fewer greenhouse gases during production and contains NO toxic substances that could be released at high temperatures.

Also on their website I foudnt he following information:

• Temperature resistance up to 450°C (850°F)

• No toxic fumes are released if overheated

• High Quality Non-stick

• Durable and highly scratch resistant

• 0% PTFE & 0% PFOA

• Environmentally friendly production, significant reduction in CO₂ emissions in production.

When I got my Green Pans home I immedietly put them to work…

Test 1: Scrambled eggs …the pans handled them easily.

Test 2 – Omelet..again not a problem.

Test 3 – Clean up…easy…one good wipe and they were ready to be used again.

Bottom line…I like these pans. They work well, and if their claims are true, they are better for my family and better for the enivronment.

Just a little tip from me to you

For more information you can visit…www.green-pans.com

BP

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Every time I pick up a trade magazine it seems like the functional food industry continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Even to the point where functional foods are slowly replacing traditional foods.

Fish oils and green tea are BIG business right now, an can be found in everything from milk and yogurt to bread.

(It’s actually getting hard to find foods that haven’t been fortified with SOMETHING)

So…after fish oils (which are a product development NIGHTMARE)..and after green tea (not as bad as fish oil to work with, but still makes flavoring a product horrible) what’s next?

Well, here’s my thought.

Vegetables are going to make a comeback.

Why?

They have a good story..and they are MUCH easier to work with than fish oils or green tea.

For instance (and here’s the million dollar free advice)

You can bake adding in vegetable purees…they are easy to work with, add great flavor and compliment most bread products very nicely

…And if you can bake with them then they will be easy to do product development work with.

For instance…listen up General Mills…you could easily fortify breakfast cereal with vegetables.

Sweet potato Cheerios would ROCK (I’ll take a 5% royalty for that one).

So added to Brad’s list of nutrition predictions…I hereby boldly add that after green tea and fish oils become old news…watch for vegetables to make there way into your breads and cereals.

Just some thing different for today,

BP

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