I’ve decided to write a follow up to my article “Let them have cake” since it’s come to my attention that some people misunderstood the point I was trying to make. Apparently, there are people in the fitness industry who believe that you can eat things like cake on a regular basis and still be healthy. Some go as far as consider cake as fuel for their workouts. As long as you burn it off it’s all good, right? Um, no, not right. I’m going to start with the bottom line. If you eat cake like it’s one of your food groups, it doesn’t really matter how much you can lift or how many miles you run to burn that off, you are still not going to be healthy.
I define health holistically. What does it mean? I’ll give you a few guidelines. What is your energy level? How often do you get sick? Do you have any allergies? What about chronic diseases? Premature graying? What is your skin like? Are you regular? When you do get sick, how quickly do you recover? How much extra weight do you carry? Can you go up a few flights of stairs witho
ut being winded? Do you have low body fat percentage? As you can see health is multi dimensional and not any single factor can determine if you are truly healthy. Body fat percentage is not the sole indicator of health.
You can be a smoker like Ricardo Mayorga and be totally ripped. Is that healthy? Of course not!
The point of my original article was to let people know that you can treat yourself once in a while and not think of some foods as completely forbidden. Focus on nutrition not just calories for optimal health. In the fitness world we constantly hear that it’s just simple math. You know, calories in versus calories out. Deficit will give you weight loss. Sure it will, but will it make you healthy? Please understand that even if you lose weight, the problem with this simple approach is that by consuming a lot unhealthy foods, you will pay for it one way or another.
How many times do people complain about being sidelined by colds, flus, injuries or other health issues? Poor nutrition will absolutely lead to this. What about having a nagging chronic condition that just seemed to have popped out of nowhere? I’m here to tell you that if you put garbage into your body, don’t be surprised by the nasty results that will appear. Sometimes immediately and sometimes years down the road.
Did you know that it takes 20 years for some cancers to grow? During those years your body was slowly breaking down and your immune system
‘s defenses were weakening unable to fight that growing disease. Recently, a well known figure skater, Scott Hamilton came out with a miraculous recovery from brain cancer. His treatment did not include any conventional medical intervention but focused on cutting sugar and other unhealthy foods. Please click on the link to read more about his amazing recovery.
So let’s be smart about what we put into our bodies and not take our health for granted.