I started this series out of curiosity. Professionally, as a personal trainer, I wanted to discern whether or not IF was viable and rewarding physically. Personally, I had the goal of self-control and temperance attainment, and since this is the final piece of writing in this particular series, I will give you a report. You may not like what you read, because I am going to debunk some popular and well abused myths that many have relied upon to keep in place some self-defeating and enjoyable habits!
WARNING: Run now, if you don’t want to get called out dear reader!
Here are five facts:
1. Muscle doesn’t know age
2. Form follows function
3. No one wants to be fat
4. No one wants to hire a fat personal trainer
5. You can get fit at any stage and age of your life, unless you are debilitated in some way (here in is a fact and myth mix… sometimes we are debilitated because we have injured ourselves with our choices)
I am going to address each of the above with matching myths with some debunk for fun
1. I am getting older, and my hormones are causing me to gain weight: You are definitely getting older, and, no matter your age, muscle loves work and can be developed. Lift some weights, and give your muscles some say in how your body is shaped
2. I just can’t do things like I used to: Our bodies match our activities. If someone your age looks lean and fit, and you don’t, ask them what they are doing… it is not genetics, it is what they choose to do within their bodies that forms them on the outside
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| The only way to stop gaining is to choose not to |
3. I have heard people say that they don’t mind that they have gained weight, but when I ask them if they are ok with gaining more, a look of horror flashes in their eyes. If you are overweight, you are eating more calories than you are burning… download a fitness app and count those suckers, they add up quickly, turning into pounds of fat in no time (3500 extra calories=1 pound)
4. This is true, about hiring a trainer, no matter how you slice it. How can you trust someone that does not display fine workmanship? Why would you hire someone to sculpt you when they are too lazy to do their own carving?
5. I have a client, in fact, I have had many clients, that have lived with and worked through pain and illness and injuries: some of the conditions these highly functional people have lived with include: heart surgery, rheumatoid arthritis, ACL tears, replaced hips and knees, back surgery, diabetes, spinal curvatures, hernias, ankle sprains, cancer, burn victims… and and and… they were unstoppable and work(ed) through the discomfort to get to the other side, to get to fitness and the freedom it affords
Excuses have their uses
I am going to get personal here, because I promised you full disclosure in Part 1 of this series on Intermittent Fasting. I am fifty-two and have been a trainer since 1996. I have tried a lot of eating plans, always with the goal of shedding weight that I had gained during indulgence. Call this a form of fasting, with extreme eating on weekends followed by weeks of indulgence, and then a clean up or fasting phase, to get me back onto the fitness track. This pattern has been lived and repeated for as long as I can remember and has always made me feel a little fraudulent. My joke is no one wants to hire a fat trainer, I have tried… and this is a message that I has kept me feeling a bit ashamed and out of control and a whole lot accountable, to reign things in when I could have tipped the scales unfavourably and perhaps, permanently? What I know is this: getting and staying fit requires tenancy, desire, commitment, hard work, dedication to a vision of what we want our lives to feel and look like.
We are aging
I am aging, and so are you… and? I want to stay functional, and I presume, you do to? Our form follows our function, and this means that when you stay active, your body takes on that look, the one that says you care about yourself, that you matter, that you have this great life to live and you want it to be full of pleasure, not the pain that overweight causes to your mind, your body, and your vitally important spirit. Obesity is self abuse: so is the dysfunction that comes from overindulgence in food or drink, and under-usage of the body you have been blessed with to take you to and fro.
I highly recommend this way of life
This series was about Intermittent Fasting and I have to say that it is one of the most worth while experiences I have engaged thus far as a professional. I highly recommend this way of life. Personally, I have learned to wait, to listen, to take time, to savour, to stay awake and aware… I am sleeping a lot less and getting far more valuable mind work done these days. I know I have self-control, because I am exercising it, in a thousand little and wondrous ways. The temperance part, the one that has me called to a godly way, it is about resisting temptation, and the Lord knows, we all have lots of that daily.
Do yourself a favour
I conclude thusly. Do yourself a favour and assess your life. What is working, what is not? How are you harming yourself and what patterns need to be interrupted and replaced? Are you loving the skin you are in? If not, what are you willing to do about this, today? You have some work to do, don’t you? By October, you could look and feel differently about yourself.
Give yourself the gift of fitness: fast, eat, think, play, pray, love…
