Fitness vs. Nutrition vs. Profit: guess who wins?

If you were to actually get fit on these machines, then who would pay the rent?

This is a blog about what I eat, in the pursuit of better health. A side effect of getting control of my diet and feeling better is a new sense of clarity.  I've been quick to discount the role of physical activity in my life, because I've always regarded it as a mental-health activity, not something for fitness. Though eating & physical exertion intersects in places, like bike riding that requires additional strategic calories and weight-lifting sessions that impact my sleep schedule, it's all a bit secondary to the quality (and quantity) of what goes into my mouth.

After a few years of focus, I still believe that: exercise is secondary to the quality and quantity of what I (and you) eat. Don't tell that to Big Food. It's no secret that the Food Industry will never throw itself under the bus by being honest with us about how the products it sells for maximum profit also does maximum harm. Instead, their mouthpieces will issue statements about "balance" and "choice" but never ever suggest that the only way to a balanced diet is to cut out most of what they're promoting. Instead of balance by consuming less, you balance by EXERCISING MORE. Because you never consume less. Ever.

It's become quite clear  that despite there being evidence for a general way of eating for maximal health that has become more sophisticated in recent years, every time a tiny little study emerges that proclaims one small element has magical powers, the media tends to focus on it like a dog with a bone. Grape skins are a cancer-killer! A trial that suggests megadoses of a certain vitamin can help burn fat! The race for eyeballs and excitement is at the exclusion of the boring, staid truth that doesn't change much over time. Eat more vegetables and fruits, eat less processed "food products", whole grains if you must eat grains, and all in moderation. And that's really it, zzzzzzz.

Politicians are jumping up and down on behalf of the Food Industry. Without explicitly saying, "Keep consuming! Don't cut back anything!" they get behind industry-friendly programs that fight obesity and poor health by promoting fitness & activity.

Putin just karate-CHOPs the fat kids.

So on one side is the toxic Food Industry, who like the tobacco industry of the past, will never admit to any fault or role in our obesity crisis until it becomes so apparent that government regulators will be forced to step in. But never underestimate the forces of capitalism -- on the other side is the Fitness Industry, whose pursuit of the new, the improved and the profitable have no time for boring, staid truths that don't change much over time.

The science of fitness that is funded drills down into micro-level granular things, the equivalent of the nutritional studies that discover that the extract of a grape skin tamps down cancer in lab rats, but in real human life, it doesn't really apply to anything or anybody.

The problem is that everybody in the fitness industry grabs onto this (promoted, granular) science — plus the occasional underfunded applied study with a handful of student subjects — and then twists the results to come up with something that sounds like a science-backed recommendation for whatever they’re selling. Most gym owners, for example, want you to walk in the door on Jan. 2 and think, Hey, this looks easy. I can do this. So they buy stationary cardio and strength machines that anybody can use without hurting themselves, often bearing brand names like Sci-Fit (Scientific Solutions for Fitness), which might more accurately be described as scientific solutions for liability management.

So if a gym is just interested in your monthly fees without concern if you see any results, ponying up for a personal trainer must make a big different, right?

As for personal trainers, I’ve known great ones. But the business model is akin to babysitting: There’s no percentage in teaching clients independence by showing them basic barbell lifts and telling them to add weight each time. Better to invent super-fun, high-intensity routines that entertain and bewilder clients, so they’ll never leave you. The science of muscle confusion, in other words, looks a lot like the marketing trade craft of client confusion.

Like nutrition, if fitness is made to seem confusing and complicated, it will give power (and profit) to the gatekeepers who mask what should otherwise be simple and self-evident. One could argue that praying to the sun and to rocks and nature was too simple and available, and by locking up spirituality in the straight jacket of patriarchy and unyielding dogma led to a great accumulation of wealth by a few (Sup' Popey!) . But let's try to stay on track here.

Bling bling!

THEN there’s the matter of our collective cravings. From cable news to the nation’s great newspapers, there is a tacit understanding that in fitness stories you and I want to hear variations on exactly one theme: that a just-published research paper in a scientific journal identifies a revolutionary new three-and-a-half minute workout routine guaranteed to give you the body of an underwear model. So powerful is this yearning — this burning ache to look good naked and have great sex and live forever — that even the best-intentioned of fitness journalists scour every little academic study for anything that might justify telling you that same sweet story, one more time.

The real harm, however, is caused when this fog of misinformation distracts from a parallel truth. Namely, that athletic coaches the world over conduct applied research all the time, and know precisely how to get people fit. If you train for a sport, you already know this, whether you realize it or not. Anybody who has trained for a marathon, for example, knows that regardless of what some TV fitness reporter says about some uncontrolled observational study with 11 elderly subjects somewhere in Finland, the web abounds with straightforward marathon-training plans that go like this: Every week for several months, take a few short runs midweek and a single long run on the weekend. Make sure the long run gets a little bit longer each time. Before you know it, you’ll be able to run 26.2 miles.
Those plans works for the same reason Mr. Rippetoe’s protocol works: The human body is an adaptation machine. If you force it to do something a little harder than it has had to do recently, it will respond — afterward, while you rest — by changing enough to be able to do that new hard task more comfortably next time. This is known as the progressive overload principle. All athletic training involves manipulating that principle through small, steady increases in weight, speed, distance or whatever.

Last weekend, I rode my bicycle about 150 miles from my home in Manhattan to the eastern end of Long Island. I did it in (for me) a surprisingly brief period of time, despite a wicked headwind, and made the first train scheduled to leave from Montauk that day. I did not pay anybody anything for a fitness plan or go on a special diet. I just have been increasing my load regularly, and found the time to stretch out and see what my legs could do. I did that on Saturday, and on Sunday I was relieved to find my legs and back were a little sore and stiff, but still had a normal full day with my kids and friends, and took care of the usual weekend chores.

Actual photo: I did a little time travel on last weekend's ride.

So if your own exercise routine hasn’t brought the changes you’d like, and if you share my vulnerability to anything that sounds like science, remember: If you pay too much attention to stories about exercise research, you’ll stay bewildered; but if you trust the practical knowledge of established athletic cultures, and keep your eye on the progressive overload principle, you will reach a state of clarity. 

Clarity. I write this blog for clarity. Perhaps that I ride my bike for fun and don't really consider it exercise or a weight-loss tool helps. Because exercise doesn't really effect weight loss that much, despite what Big Food wants you to believe.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2912

Urgle burgle, that's too high. Part of it is the fallout from the exertion of an all-day fast ride on Saturday, which makes me think the next time I do a ride like that, I need to restrategize the number and density of calories I take in, to avoid impacting later in the early week.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2780

SLEPT: 9:15pm - 5:30am, 8.25 hrs
Cheetos kinda snuck in there, dinner just wasn't satisfying due to some grit in the asparagus. Still, I didn't loose control and start shoveling in sweets, so there's that.

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, falafel, tomato basil soup, health salad, pickles, 715 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45 pm, momma salad, Grazebox nutmix , 330cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, Hake, roasted asparagus,  poppa salad with Italian dressing, 525 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, cheetos, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, homemade popcorn, +/- 300 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 3050

SLEPT: 9pm - 5am, 8 hrs
Between slightly under cooked brussel sprouts that left me unsatisfied and one single bite of my son's pasta, I was craving sugar and satisfaction in a terrible way, and I usually don't have M&Ms in the house anymore, but I had some left over from the long bike ride I took this past weekend. Eating them was a little compulsive, and makes me wonder if one can ever truly be over a sugar addiction.

Regardless, it's nice not to have the despair I had when I'd fall of a diet after 2 days, feel totally hopeless and give up and go back to old habits immediately. Tomorrow is a new day to get it right.

AM SNACK: 5:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, Fage whole yogurt with honey, vanilla and almonds, 500 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, madras lentils, pickles, 660 cal

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, Grazebox chili almonds , 310 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, sautéed chicken breast, roasted brussel sprouts, cheetos, poppa salad with Italian dressing, 920 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, M&Ms & cashews, four chocolate digestive cookies, +/- 500 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3245

SLEPT: 9pm - 5am, 8 hrs
Ugh, the sugar cravings grabbed me again.

AM SNACK: 5:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, sautéed chicken breast, roasted brussel sprouts, quinoa, pickles, 700 cal

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, Grazebox pretzel mix , 260 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, poppa salad with ranch, 170 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, cashews, 340 cal

DINNER: 8:15pm, shiritaki noodles with shrimp, shitaki mushrooms and oyster sauce, 365 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate digestives, cheetos, chocolate chips, +/- 800 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2645

SLEPT: 10pm - 4am, 2pm-3pm at work, 7 hrs
Poppa salad smelled slightly funky.

AM SNACK: 4:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, Fage whole yogurt with honey, vanilla and almonds, 500 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, vegetarian meatballs, roasted broccoli, black beans, pickles, 675 cal

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, Grazebox chips and salsa , 160 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, pizza, chocolate cake and ice cream, +/- 750 cal
Out to dinner with people, fancy pizza, fancy ice cream.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, a little ice cream, a few spoonfuls of pastry cream, +/- 200 cal
Making desert for 40-50 mouths on Saturday, some had to end up in my mouth.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, cheetos, 200 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2840

SLEPT: 12am - 6am, 1:30-2:30 at work, 7 hrs
Ugg, had insomnia. Was in bed at 9pm, intended to wake up at 3 to ride, but when my alarm went off, it was either ride and destroy my day, or "sleep in". Seriously considered abandoning good eating for the day, as work was doing pizza and ice cream for lunch for everyone, but I got it together when I thought how crappy it would make me feel when I saw my daughter for dinner, and how we'd be eating hotdogs and ice cream, anyway!

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, Fruit smoothie, 400 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, health salad, pickles, slice of pizza, 810 cal

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, cheezits , 310 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, hot dog, fries, ice cream, water, +/- 1000 cal