Forget Healthy Nutrition, Just Take a Pill.

I saw the most ridiculous commercial the other day on TV. Typically most of the TV my wife Lisa and I watch is DVR'd shows that we like, thus allowing us to skip commercials. We purposefully avoid the news and prefer to create our own reality and opportunities instead of buying into the crap that gets spoon-fed to us via the tube'.

However, I was a little slow on the remote and got stuck watching a commercial that made me sick. Walgreens is running a commercial basically encouraging you NOT to pursue healthy nutrition as an option for wellness. That's right, don't listen to people who tell you to eat vegetables and fruits, no no no. Instead get down to the pharmacy and let one of their experts fill your prescription.

Seriously, when I see this bulls@$t it says to me, "Hey, you in front of the TV. We think you are a stupid mother-f$%ker. Here's another big heaping spoon-ful of s%#t. Enjoy, moron!"

Instead of pushing good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle as a means of preventing illness and maintaining wellness, just take a pill. (BTW - this works for weight-loss too!!!)

Give me a f*&king break.

If you haven't seen the video, fortunately the folks at I Live Chiropractic posted it. Hit this link to check it out for yourself.

Click HERE to watch this ridiculous commercial. Way to go Walgreens!!!!

Now please understand I'm not bashing Western medicine. I pay for my health insurance every month, and I have a fantastic doctor I see once a year for my annual physical for him to basically confirm how awesome I am.

I think doctors should educate patients on adopting healthy lifestyle practices, good nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, etc. Let's use medicine only when absolutely necessary. In a life and death situation YES give me the damn drugs. If I have the sniffles? Sorry, but I'm passing on the pills. We are over-prescribed. Yeah, it's great for big Pharma, but is it great for you?

Come on people, think for yourself and don't let these big corporations piss on your minds.

Wake up.

Stay Strong and Healthy,

Scott

The Mind and Body Connection for Optimal Health and Fitness

Today during Taiji class my Shifu, Grandmaster Shi Deru, talked about health and why we do what we do. He regularly sees people who are sick recover and get well again naturally. This is a huge topic of interest to me as it is the direction my personal training as well as the focus of my business has taken in the past year or so.

The founding fathers of Physical Culture-like George Hackenschmidt-knew the importance of developing the mind as well as the body.

I've always found it interesting that the fitness industry has become so far removed from health. It has become all about cosmetics, drugs, pills-look good at any cost. Unfortunately, in the fitness industry (I refuse to call it the health and fitness industry until things change) those who often look the healthiest are in fact very unhealthy. I fell victim to this myself. Supplements, pills, anabolics, fat burners, you name it; I tried it all in the name of (health) and fitness.

Then I had a realization. We have everything we need to be fit AND healthy. If we are not producing something, if we are getting sick, if we are not recovering-it does not mean we need to take a pill, potion or powder. It means we need to fix something within ourselves. I believe for most people this means developing the mind as well as the body. This is not just an eastern concept-it's a theme that is quite obvious in George Hackenschmidt's excellent book "The Way to Live in Health and Physical Fitness".

Shifu's comments about health today led me to ask him a question about why he thought that people who eat well and exercise still get sick. His answer was very simple but incredibly brilliant and insightful. He said they fail to do the internal work, to develop their minds. They succumb to negative energy and negative thoughts that ultimately manifest in unhealthy ways in the body.

Make no mistake, pumping your body full of chemicals and non-natural substances in an effort to "get fit" will result in anything but. Sure, you might look like Hercules for a little while, but there will be a price to pay for chemical and physical abuse. Many will argue this, and I would have to as little as a couple years ago.

Shifu told me we need to bring the mind back into training and focus on internal development as well as external development. Working hard is good. Training hard is good. However we cannot neglect the development of our mind. Strong healthy minds and positive thoughts will produce good energy and strong health bodies.

Meditation is one way to strengthen the mind, but don't let it end in the lotus position. Meditate in everything you do. Why is this important? When you meditate, when you truly quiet your monkey mind, when your mind becomes blank and allows thoughts to pass without attachment, you are now present. You embody your true nature which is pure being. Why not be present in all you do?

Shifu teaching us about the importance of mediation.

Think about how much of your time-your life-is lost to regretting past events and fearing future events. When your mind is living in the past and future it is preventing your from being here, in the now. And guess what? Now is all there is. The past is nothing more than a previous series of now moments and the future is a series of now moments that have yet to occur-so why let them rule you?

Instead, try to be present in everything you do-whether it is sport, exercise, study, driving, talking with friends and family, etc. Be present and give the present moment your full attention. I believe this is why people become addicted to adventure sports such as rock climbing-it's hard to be terrorized by the past or worry about the future when you are hanging off the side of a cliff by your fingers and toes!

When we bring our mind into training, we encourage internal development in addition to external physical development. If we truly want to be fit AND healthy we must connect the mind and the body.

I believe when good health is achieved, and all aspects of physical and mental development are in line, our potential is limitless!

"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." -Lao Tzu

Stay Strong AND Healthy!

-Scott

End of my Raw Month - It's a Wrap!

So that's it. One month on the raw plan. I'll try to keep this a short wrap up as I'm sure you guys are sick of reading about food.

Progress

At the start of this month I was at 190 lbs and down from 220 when I started a mostly raw diet at the end of September 2011 - I haven't been south of 180 lbs since 2000.

As you probably read in my last blog post the most dramatic drop is in my bodyweight. The cool thing is that I've actually cut back on my training volume and intensity - this proves that if you want to lose weight it is mostly about nutrition, not training. The old saying "you can't outrun a doughnut" is definitely applicable.

My body-composition has changed for the better, I'm much leaner with better definition. My energy during training is outstanding and my focus and mental clarity (particularly during taiji class and practice) is great.

My joints feel really good, even after periods of heavier training.

My eyes are very clear and my skin is good - no cracking or drying - I attribute this mainly to the good fats in avocados, flax seeds / meal and flax oil -- but I could be wrong, sounds good anyway!

Planning

It's true!

The raw foods diet was very easy for me to follow. Probably because I've been eating predominately raw vegan foods since end of September 2011 this wasn't a very dramatic change, I could see how it'd be tough to jump in 100% if you don't eat that well right now.

Here's what I recommend if you want to give this a try:

• start small, begin with one meal a day and a snack or two 100% raw and transition over time
• no matter what make sure the bulk of your raw diet is 80% or better fresh veggies and fruits with some nuts and seeds -- do NOT rely 100% on dehydrated foods and "transition" foods - use these as a treat or variety occasionally
• most dehydrated and transition food recipes call for a lot of nuts, dense calories still add up!
• drink a lot of water
• incorporate juicing - don't give me that crap about juices not being whole foods, yes, I know. What juicing allows you to do is extract the micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. from a TON of veggies and fruits to get s super boost of healthy nutrients. Much easier than eating 10lbs of veggies and fruit in one sitting.
• incorporate blended green smoothies - blended your greens allows you to ensure that you unlock all the chlorophyll out of the greens and extract as much nutrition as possible, plus the blended drinks utilize whole food nutrition, so you're getting the fiber and bulk from the fruits and veggies. If you have the time to graze all day and properly chew your food like a cow or horse, skip the blended drinks. I also recommend a Vitamix or Blendtec - they are worth the cash.
• raw vegan eating will assist in detoxification - however if you want to go deeper explore juice fasting - I highly recommend looking at www.juicefeasting.com they are a GREAT resource and have info on healthy fasting for up to 90 days. This has been a very effective approach ion helping people recover from major diseases - it's worth your time to educate yourself at the very least.
• there's nothing wrong with going 80-90% raw - you'll still reap many of the benefits and it will make things like travel and eating out much easier - this is essentially my maintenance plan except when I detox or fast annually from now on.
• at the bare minimum - try to get at least 50-60% of your daily nutrition from raw fruits and veggies - i.e. living food. Want to make it easy? Eat one meal a day 100% raw, the rest of your meals aim to make 50% of the meal raw. Simple.
• don't neglect your fiber.
• a good blender and a good juicer make this stuff really easy.

I could go on and on so if you have specific questions about my experience post a question or email me directly at sshetler613@gmail.com.

Where do I go now

Now that the month is up I'm going to stay mostly raw, my goal was 80-90% for the end of this. I never planned on staying 100% vegan, as I will most likely eat some eggs and a little fish or cheese occasionally; but over time I see me getting closer and closer to pure vegan nutrition - but for only doing this a little over a year now (April 2011 is when I stopped eating meat and fowl) I've made some huge improvements in my overall health and fitness.

Mainly I'm looking at getting my training dialed in and building my strength back while maintaining a lighter body-weight right around the 180 I'm at now.

Thanks for following this month long experiment! I hope it inspired you to take a look at your nutrition and maybe make some changes for the better!

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

Day 22 or Raw for 30 Days!

As I write this blog it's Day 22 of my Raw for 30 Days birthday plan. So far it's been an outstanding experience! This morning my body-weight was at 180 lbs. I haven't seen 180 lbs since 2002, and I'm definitely a lot leaner and carrying more muscle than I did back then, so at least something good came from being a fat and bloated 220 lbs for all those years.

#1 question I've been asked for the past 22 days - Where do you get your protein? If I had a dollar for every time, I'd have a Bugatti by now...

Despite the lack of "direct" protein consumption I have not atrophied, gotten sick, become "skinny fat", or spontaneously combusted. Yet.

If anything my body composition is changing for the positive, I'm leaning up, getting tighter and definition is improving and the cool thing is I train less than I did before. I still put effort into the workouts, but I have cut my training time down tremendously. Plus my recovery is better and overall I feel a lot better.

This cracked me up! It's funny, this is the type of crap I always used to say about vegetarians and vegans - now I'm on the receiving end. Karma I guess. Oh well - you can't argue results!

Where do I go from here?

With one more week left on my 30 day experiment I've been thinking about this quite a bit. Will I stay 100% raw vegan? Nope. That was never my intention. My goal was to improve from the 70-80% raw vegan plan I was following since September of last year. I wanted to go the 30 days for a couple of reasons, one to prove to myself I could do it since one of the biggest obstacles I see with my clients is motivation and discipline to change their nutrition habits. 

Look, I'm just as busy as everyone else. I work 6 days a week, run my own business and do all the domestic stuff everyone else does. I still have time to eat healthy and workout. 

I'm sick of hearing excuses from people. You are responsible for what you put into your mouth and it takes the same amount of effort to put a handful of goji berries into your mouth as it does a handful of M&Ms. More people need to take ownership of their lives and stop making excuses.

In addition my goal was to use this 30 days to detox and cleanse a bit as well as tighten up my nutrition so that I can maintain an 80-90% raw vegan plan with only 10-20% coming from cooked vegetarian foods. Basically I will continue to follow what I'm doing now with 1-2 servings of cooked food a day. However there will probably be 2 or 3 days a week that are 100% raw and I will continue to do 100% raw periods as well as periods of juice fasting throughout the year to detoxify and maintain the improved health I am experiencing now.

One reason is personal, I want to be healthy and have a very high quality of life through my twilight years and when it's time for me to trade this body in I want to make that transition as strong and healthy (mentally, physically and spiritually) as possible.

I also need to be a role model for my clients. How can people take health, weight loss, and training advice from someone who doesn't embody what they teach? One of my top rules "Don't be the fat trainer selling a fat loss program, DVD or book!"

As a side note - I recently read Dr. Gabriel Cousens' book and watched his DVD on reversing diabetes naturally, due to the fact I have relatives who are diabetics as well as knowing many people who suffer from this horrible disease. It was incredibly informative and enlightening, then my friend Antony posted a link about Dr. Cousens recently on Facebook which reminded me about this - his approach to treating diabetics and getting both Type 2's and 1's OFF insulin and medications is a raw food nutrition plan. Here's a great video intro of his program:

And here's a link to the preview for Dr. Cousens' video I purchased my father:

I'm looking forward to seeing what the last week has in store! Also, last year for my birthday 6/13/11, I conducted a personal fitness test. I repeated the test for my birthday this year and will be posting my 1-year comparisons in the upcoming week.

Thanks for reading!

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

Meditation

Scott Trying to Calm Down his Monkey Mind

Meditation is something I've been struggling with over the past couple of years. When I first started meditating it was tedious. All I ever heard was meditate for 30 minutes every day. That didn't make sense to me.

As I understood it meditation was supposed to be a complete quieting and calming down of the mind. If I magically entered some enlightened, zen-like state, how was I to know when 30 minutes was up? If I came out of my meditation at 29 minutes, would my efforts have been a waste?


Even if I could last the 30 minutes, was I doing it wrong if I had thoughts? If I couldn't let the thought pass and dwelled on it, was I not meditating correctly?

I read as much as I could, I listened to meditation programs on CD and MP3, I read some more.

Then something happened.

Shifu Leading Meditation

When training with my Shifu, grand master Shi Deru, at my Shaolin School's annual Qi retreat this past February, he guided us through meditation each day.

That is when it hit me.

Meditation is simply about being present and rediscovering your true nature.

Rediscovering your true nature happens when you can disconnect from your ego-by ego I mean your physical self, all the things here in the physical plane that make you, you.

When you can fully quiet your mind and observe your ego - it hits you - you are not you. Your real nature is that of being, of pure consciousness. The problem is you will begin thinking about it and lose "it".

If you are meditating, simply be. Be present. That is all. Sit cross legged on the floor or a chair with your hands placed one on top of the other thumbs touching, just make sure your feet are grounded and your back is straight. Begin to relax every muscle in your body, but don't go limp. Be alert, meditation is not about zoning out-it is about pure awareness-just be relaxed. Breathe. Listen to your breathe. If a thought enters your mind don't freak out. It is fine. Just observe the thought and let it go. Do not attach to the thought. If your "monkey mind" (as Shifu refers to it) begins to take over that's ok - just calm down and focus back in on your breathing.

That is it. That is meditation.

Rediscover Your True Nature-Your True Self

At our retreat when Shifu was asking us all about our experiences many people gave great answers - but I particularly liked Shi Xiong Chen Zhe's response, he said, "When I meditate, I feel almost invisible."

Don't become particularly wrapped up in how long you meditate. I think it is a mistake to think that the only way you will achieve any sort of benefit is to meditate for exactly 30 minutes every day. If you do this you bring meditation into the realm of time which is a complete contradiction. Meditation is about being present, not yesterday and not tomorrow but now. Simply sit quietly, focus on your breathing and relax. Finish your meditation when you finish. Whether it is in 3 minutes or 3 hours.

This idea was confirmed to me when I listened to the excellent audio-book "The Joy of Living" by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

In it Rinpoche states (and I am paraphrasing) "that it is far better to meditate properly-when you are calm, relaxed, happy and at peace-for multiple two or three minute sessions throughout the day, than one longer session where you are forcing yourself to meditate". Please keep in mind that is very loose paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

Meditation is not magic-it is simply learning to be present and identifying with your true nature, your true self.

When walking just walk, when sitting just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

However, I would venture to say that ANYTHING that brings us into the present that does not require a lot of thinking or analysis, may be considered meditation.

Think about it, a weightlifter going for a record attempt, a rock climber hanging by their toes and fingertips off a rock face, a skydiver plummeting toward the earth, a martial artist practicing a form. All of these things bring you immediately into the present.

I don't think there is a better description than the ancient zen proverb that Alan Watts reiterates in his excellent book, The Way of Zen, "When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble."


Thanks to Tom Kreutzer for the photos!


Stay Strong and Healthy!


-Scott