P90X: "'Diet' is a stupid word!" Day 12 of 90

One of the most incorrectly used words by people every day is ‘diet.’  “Are you on a diet?”  “Wow, you really are following that diet.”  “I can’t diet.”

What is a diet?  It’s not a thing.  It is also not a verb.  “I am dieting.”  Many want you to believe it is…but it is not.  A diet is the fuel that you put in your body.  It’s really that simple.  These famous diets are nothing more than lists of food.  “Ohhh, I like that diet.”  That should really translate to, “That list of food looks good to me.”

No one needs to be on a ‘diet.’  You do, however, need to know how your body operates and what food works well in it.  You also need to think objectively about what you are using as fuel and why.

Most people equate ‘diet’ with weight loss…or being in shape.  Do people who work out ‘diet?’  By my definition they do.  Why?  Because when you are burning a ton of calories and trying to turn the physical machine into a more efficient mechanism, you want to put things in it that help the process.  Is it a ‘diet?’  Not really.  It’s not a diet for the same reason that you wouldn’t put sand in a car gas tank.  Is your car on a ‘diet?’  Probably not.  Putting sand in it is just plain stupid.  You need the stinking car to get around everyday…why would you mess it up?  Do you have any idea how much it will cost me to replace the car? 

Are you getting the picture?  Start thinking that way about your body.

If there is one area or organ in your body that you should be concerned about, it’s your liver.  This is one of the most vital organs in your body.  Next to your heart and your brain, it is the one organ you cannot live without.  It filters all the toxins from your body.  It also is the main processing center for your body’s fat.  Fat storage and fat mutation into energy that your body can use.  Poor liver production equals inefficient fat processing…which means weight issues and cholesterol issues.  Through insulin (produced in the pancreas), the liver also assists with the regulation of the sugar in your body.  Sugar can either be used or stored as fat.  Insulin is used by your body to break down consumed sugar and help it to get into your physical machine for energy.  If your body has too much insulin running around with no sugar to work on, your brain gets the message, “Send me down more sugar!”  Hence, cravings.

“If my liver’s job is to regulate the sugars and fats in my body and burn that stuff for energy, I want that to be its number one job priority.”

Yes, we all do.  Not so fast.  There are many things we do daily that mess up proper liver function.  The first one has to do with toxins in our environment and the second is toxins in our food.  You can’t help the first but you can avoid the second one with some work.  Your liver has a fixed amount of time every day just like when you go to work.  If you spend 5 hours of your 8 hour work day doing task A and task B is the priority, well, your year-end review isn’t going to be so sunny.

If you can avoid toxins, you can leave your liver to focus on weight regulation as its priority. You have to avoid environmental toxins.  Okay, got it.  We all try to make sure we do that one.

You should avoid toxins in your food.  The more processed the food you eat, the more exposure to toxins you will have.  Want to know the toxin I hate most?  Aspartame.  Nutra-Sweet.  Call it whatever you want.  Whooooaaa.  Wait just a minute here!  That is diet food.  DIET food…right.  Yeah, right.

So you ingest a Diet Coke or Pepsi.  It’s supposed to be good for you.  The sweet taste hits your tongue and your pancreas starts producing insulin.  Not because there is sugar….because, like Pavlov’s dogs, it THINKS sugar is coming.  Your body is trained (after years of sugar ingestion) to produce insulin as an autonomic response to a sweet taste on your tongue!  But no sugar is coming.  Then the aspartame hits your blood stream.  Aspartame is aspartic acid and methanol.  It’s a chemical compound.  It’s toxic and was actually classified as such before the big money lobbyists got the FDA to overturn its decision.  So this toxin has to be processed by the liver.  The liver has to work three times as hard to process the chemical as it would a normal food.  So it’s busy.  Your fat disposal can wait.  Sorry.  Oh…all that insulin dancing around in your blood stream?  You remember, the stuff that started flowing when the fake chemical sugar hit your tongue?  It needs sugar.  The cravings start…and then you break down and grab a donut, or candy, something, ANYTHING.  The cravings are annoying.  Now there is sugar running around for the insulin.  But the liver is busy…and overworked.  So the sugar starts to become fat as your body decides it should be stored.  Lipids are formed and cholesterol spikes.

“But it was a DIET Coke or Pepsi!!”  Yeah, right.  “But I did all this to LOSE weight!”  I know.  The truth is painful.  Why do you think our national obsession with ‘diet’ is associated with so much angst?

My train just pulled in.  Sorry.  Tomorrow, Part Two.

[later that night]

I sit here doused in BenGay.  I was doing the Legs and Shoulders.  I got into hanging position to do my pullups...did one...then...'pop'.  You could hear it.  It felt like a muscle in my left shoulder slid around bone and released suddenly.  It wasn't a tear.  But it definitely was painful.  I couldn't do anything strenuous with the left shoulder.  I substituted curls and presses for the pullups...the hanging motion was causing pain.  Later, in the rep cycle, I hung and stretched the muscle.  I put tension on it.  The pain started to subside.  I think I will be okay. I completed the workout.  Took some Aleve and now I am watching Survivor and my left shoulder is hot with BenGay.  Let you know tomorrow how it turns out!!