Diets are Rotten at the Core.

Yesterday a huge old tree next to the library split into two. Looking at the old tree it had a bunch of green leaves and looked pretty good but as you can see looking inside and appearance of health and actual health were two far different things.

When I'm trying to pay a bit more attention to what I am eating I've noticed how a lot of the foods in the store are just like that tree. Companies want to sell you their food and are quick to throw around labels like healthy, lite, and all natural. A bag of popcorn I got the other day was using the words heavenly and lite on the front but when I looked at the fat calories next to the total calories over 40 percent of the calories were from fat. I laughed when I also saw a bag of pork rinds that seemed to be proudly labeled no carbs like pork rinds are a new health food!? Dirt might be gluten free and have no msg but I hope that doesnt become the next rage. Can you imagine someone touting the amzing qualities of dirt and the eating dirt diet?

This is the season where you can't avoid ads for getting your very own beach body in 21 days or is it in 17 days? Actually you can seem to top that with even some book on 4 hour fitness!

People want that quick fix and or the easy fix. I'm guessing if you starve yourself and/or workout like a maniac you WILL likely drop weight, maybe even a lot in a short burst. Is it water weight? What if your burning muscle too? Are you risking injury and sickness? What happens when you go "OFF" the diet? In all the claims for the new fix have you noticed how hard it is to find real numbers of people who lost a lot of weight and a year or two later are still at that lower weight? Is it really going to stay off? I have seen people who have even gone to the point of those stomach procedures and after dropping a lot of weight start putting it back on again. Is that number on the scale your only judge? What happens after your 21 day fix or 17 days or 90 days? Is it really fixed at all?

I do not want to live the rest of my life never eating a cracker again or forced to live on like two crackers a day. Its just not reasonable to do that or be expected to participate in the superhero workout twice a day 7 days a week climbing molten lava flows for 45 minute sessions. Like the tree an apperance of health and actual health I think are in reality two different things.

I like it when I see my scale go down, but I like it when my clothes fit better, and I like it when I'm riding my bicycle and I decide to go up a gear to go faster. Common sense isn't fast or flashy and it's not about selling you stuff you don't need and in the end wastes your time or even hurts you.

Since about march 1st I'm down around 22 pounds. No flash here or no biggest loser numbers. Moreover, No magic gismos, no pills, no surgery, no super foods. If you want the quick and easy good luck to you but in the end my large (but shrinking) gut says in the end it will waste your time in the end or even might hurt you.

What is the Foolsfitness way? slowly carving the new path of trying to eat a little better and getting a bit of moving activity in. Feel free to send me 19.95 plus shipping for that if it makes you feel better.

The Core of Foolsfitness I hope is not like that tree. - Alan

The UN Gym X2

Doesn't it seem odd people drive in their cars to the gym to walk on a treadmill? Did I miss why people would rather be on a stationary bike going nowhere than riding on a real bicycle enjoying the scenery and fresh air? Is it important to seek the controlled conditions of a stair machine over actual... um... stairs?

So I decided today I would go to the gym and scan my card and walk out... Notice I said walk out not Workout here. The anti-workout Foolsfitness rebel that I am laughed as I did it and I encourage you to do it too. Go to the gym and then leave. I am not anti-gym. I love the pool and all the equiptment and classess have their place especially in bad weather but consider this: How many people on a stair machine, treadmill, or staionary bike at the 20 minute mark (or what ever mark they set at the end) decide maybe they will go on a little further? I'm thinking rather few.

Now on to my Un Gym. I actually rode my bicycle across town to the gym, scanned that card, then walked out to ride my bicycle home. Somewhere in there I decided to explore a street by the river to enjoy the scenery, diverted to the coffee shop (relax! Just ice coffee black with a single sugar and no cream) and even decided after I got home I would go out again for a second ride... this time a beer was involved but after all the day I think it was fair.

The only thing I can say against the day was after the second ride I couldn't take my own stench and had to hit my shower. I'm wondering in the end if I would have had a day at the gym that matched my un gym times two. You too can own an Un Gym X2 for no easy payments (how easy is that!) Have you looked around your house? There could be sidewalks near you that work almost just like a treadmill WOW!

At Foolsfitness we endorse the UNgymX2 not workout program!- Alan

17Lbs down Weigh In, Fitness Fail, N Boot Camp

New month new weight! Last month down another 7 pounds so in the last two months total 17 pounds down and now down to 344, about the weight at the start of the blog six years ago. These last few days for what ever reason (stress maybe?) I've been just wanting to eat everything I see. I've had some sucess at restraint but have slipped with two trips to the chinese food buffet, a couple pints of ice cream, and an extra what ever that gets too close to my mouth. That number should have been 20 pounds down but it's going in the right direction.

The fitness fail... my body apparently is about 41 percent fat! At the gym I felt a bit like I was abducted by aliens when a trainer had me lay on a table and he connected some wires to the back of my hand and foot then ran some electric resistance meter on me to get the numbers. The good news is somehow I have over 200lbs of lean body mass. He thinks I can maintain my body at around 2800 calories a day... meaning I can (and usually do apparently eat ALOT) eat like 2800 calories and not gain or loose weight in a day. I think they called it a BMR (Bacon, Mac, and Relax?)

A group of people from work have decided to get together at lunch time once a week and do a boot camp style aerobic workout at the local park. Well, being Foolsfitness has it's perks and I got an invite to join the fun! I can say I kept moving for the most part. Maybe in a couple of years I will show them some one arm push ups but now I just tried to keep the Darth Vader weezing down enough so the people next to me could hear most of what the instructor was saying. I may have passed out at one point and I still can't really feel my limbs. But in the end remember that this isn't a competition for me. The goal is just to move and enjoy doing it.

At Foolsfitness we are rebels, we do bootcamp in sneakers!- Alan