Meeting with an inspiring personality

Earlier today I was at a show with Chris MacDonald. I never had the pleasure to experience him "live". My only reference was the shows he did on Danish Television. To my great pleasure a lot of his views on training and diets are the same as mine! However his approach is based on a little deeper scientific facts than mine. I will for now concentrate on the two issues I know something about (input), diet and physical activity (output).

I would strongly recommend you to read more about Chris MacDonald on his own blog.
www.chrismacdonald.dk

Todays free "output" advice: 

#1 Use the stairs. 

It's is VERY difficult to change habits. In order to succeed - do it slowly and only one thing at a time, else you might get frustrated and easily drop back to what you used to do. 

Use the stairs - (NOT escalators). In the airport, avoid the automatic pavements. For the last 4 years I've been working full time as an Export Manager in a Danish Company. My work has required a lot of flying, in Europe, USA and Asia. 

Another principle of mine is when travelling in subways or with busses, I always try to keep my balance without holding on to anything. It improves my balance, I think it's great fun, and use a little more energy (output) than instead of just holding on to the rail. If you can't avoid escalators or automatic pavements - walk them instead of standing them!

Diets.... Why they don't work

Simple formula with a huge impact

First of all, I have the deepest respect for most specific diets and training routines. The only thing I say is that the chances of succes (success = harmonic body) on a long term basis are a lot bigger if we keep things simple!

For illustration purposes I believe that the look of our body is defined by two factors and these can be put into this simple equation:

"Look of our body"  = What comes in, diet * what comes out, daily exercise 

BODY = DIET * EXERCISE

In other words. To change the look of our body there are only two factors we can influence (unless of course we need to see a plastic surgeon). Since I don't believe that overweight is a disease, guess whether I think it is a good idea to have doctor fix your problem.....

Let's break it down even further!
1. Diet (= calorie input / energy intake)
2. Exercise (= calorie output / energy consumption)

I specifically choses not to use the word training. Our body needs to consume energy in - even when we sleep, the body consumes energy.


In the future, this is where you will find good advice, tips & tricks and general guidance for a healthy lifestyle and a harmonic body. It's not a disease - let us stop treating it as this is the case.

"The cause of obesity is now found!"

With these exact words my good friend and at that time colleague Nicolaj opened the conversation at lunch. (Two things are important to emphasize in order to fully understand the irony of the situation: a) Nicolaj is a size XL (or was, is more accurate, he has lost a lot of weight since that time), b) the lunch canteen was a buffet with many delicious dishes. 

The dialogue regarding the latest landmarks in medical science was ready to be continued and everybody looked with breath withheld and eyes gazing at Nicolaj who, with a plate filled with probably everything from the buffet, looked like one who would explain the genetic mapping of mankind from a metabolism-point-of-view.....

The surprise was big, when Nicolaj with a loud, and clear pronunciation claimed that: Obesity is a human construction error!

"Obesity is the result when the mouth is bigger than the asshole!" 

One of Nicolajs trademarks has always been a very well developed sense of humor, and another classic remark from Nicolaj is the following (when somebody offers him candy, chocolate or similar). No, thanks, I've chosen the slim line..... (kind of funny when you're weight is somewhat above 100 kg.). Nevertheless Let's get back to the "human construction error!"

Way too many experts are trying to make something as simple as a healthy living, to rocket science. Food and diets where proteins, carbonhydrates needs to be counted on a meal-by-meal basis. Training and physical activity needs to be performed in specific anaerobic zones, or with expensive equipment suitable for astronauts etc. Let's face it: It's not a disease, and you don't need to be a rocket scientist in order to pursue a healthy lifestyle. In a crazy-busy everyday you need some simple routines to fit in the tough schedule that most families experience, with work, children, family, cooking, dog-walking, etc. etc.

THIS is the essence of this blog.

It's NOT a disease.....

Recently I saw Ricky Gervais' one-man show from London. He is one of my favorite stand up comedians. A part of his show was regarding overweight people. See the clip here:

Ricky Gervais - Live in London

Besides being a very entertaining personality, Mr. Gervais also inspired me to the name of this blog. I think that the sentence: It's NOT a disease is very central. Over the last couple of years there has been an trend towards treating overweight and obesity as diseases. Words like epidemic, belongs in my ears only in connection with diseases like Ebola, Plague (Il Moria Grande), AIDS etc. Where the disease is transferred from one human being to another.

Is overweight infectious? Well, perhaps one could argument that it is. But not through aggressive vira og bacteria, but in copying other peoples behaviour. Or simply not paying enough attention to what you put in your mouth (input). I know that people with diabetes face some challenges in order to maintain a healthy diet, HOWEVER it is far from the majority of overweight people that suffers from type 1 diabetes. Even though that the number of Type 2 Diabetecs is growing rapidly - mainly due to overweight. So the overweight causes derived diseases.