Exposing the Ideology of Nutritionism: A Glimpse at a Bigger Picture

Well I am not sure how to begin this month’s blog. A proper investigation of the topic at hand could take several Parts, but I will try to at least get some ideas started so that many of you can begin to at least question your questions and perhaps being a process of thinking differently. One of the more key tenets of a Tao- based understanding is that if you are not finding the right answers, then you are not asking the right questions (within yourself).

Another key aspect of modern brilliance is the non-acceptance of reductionist science as ‘truth’ in and of itself, and that wholes are always greater than the sum of their parts. The modern tendency toward ‘isms’ is categorizing many useful practices in ways that end up amounting to no more than ideologies masquerading as truth. In this sense there is no such thing as Tao-ism. It cannot be surmised in that way as a category of truth, thought, or practice. It is a much greater and more profound whole than what can be captured even in discussion. For some of the more ethereal topics in life, mere discussion or delineation is a mode of reduction that negates its own wholeness. (For example trying to explain ‘love’ without context)

To make matters worse the modern trend has been to accept as truth what is anything but. I have been speaking a lot lately about paradigm blindness and its associated ‘isms’ Of these, scientism and within that, nutritionism are two accepted ‘truths’ that are as arrogantly employed as all of their previous ancestors which over time were proven either false or at least faulty. The modern issue now is that nutrition study has turned into nutritionism, an ideology all its own, which does not stand on truth. And the same can be said of science, now becoming ‘scientism’ a false ideology that influences application, thought and practice based on little else but interpretations of questionable science of questionable scientists. These are now huge industries. Industry has a need first and foremost to perpetuate itself. Industry is selfish, not self-less and that should always be kept in mind when consuming ‘information’ or propaganda in any form from any industry. Tradition, which was faulty in and of itself, has now been replaced by scientism, which is just as faulty, when context is not considered. As an example I would like to address in greater depth the notion of ‘nutrition-ism’ in this month’s blog.

In recent years at the top of the academic chain there has been a shift away from reductionist thought and toward looking at whole patterns rather than component parts. This is decidedly Tao as well whether labelled as such or not. Science is still employed within that mode of investigation, but it more appropriately places science back as the horse before the cart within inquiry and investigation. The move is away from mechanistic reductionist approaches to more quantum understanding that focuses on relationships, contexts, flow, rhythms, connections etc. We see and know that the body is more than a machine; it is more complex than what reductionist science would have us think. And yet the beauty is that within that complexity lays the simplicity that allowed man to flourish and adapt as a species.

A study of nutrition can yield very specific answers to very specific questions, and yet at the same time alienate us further and further away from our own nature. This is what Marx referred to as ‘alienation from species being.’

It should be noted that food and nutrition are different things, yet a study of one or the other is inclusive of both. And herein lays the problem of context. Man is much more than sum of his parts. It is ironic that as science and nutritionism replaced culture and tradition in the last 30 years, man has become more and more ill and less healthy because of it, and not in spite of it. We need look no further than our own industry of health and wellness to notice the irony and the falsehood of nutritionism. A recent long term study showed that over a period of 5-7 years, the group that gained the most unwanted fat and became overweight, was the group that qualified themselves as ‘chronic dieters.’ Those who ate freely manifested less weight issues, metabolically, physically, and more importantly mentally and emotionally.

So lets’ get to it then. What is this ‘nutritionism’ that I am talking about? Nutritionism as an ideology has as its core many pernicious myths. One is that what matters most is the nutrient and not the food; another is that the purpose of eating is to promote a very narrow concept of physical health and wellness. And yet the irony of this science is that it has produced the most unhealthy and unwell consumers among its believers. Everyone following a western diet mentality now seemingly ‘eats for a purpose.’ In our industry it can be to get lean, get ripped, compete, or off-season to bulk up, to gain muscle etc just to name a few. But much is lost in this quagmire of ‘purpose.’ And the key thing lost is the connection of the dots to awareness and health. There comes to be a disassociation between mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of health and wellness connected to food.

The ideology of nutritionism like most ideologies produces a duality in thought and process. Food becomes associated with good/bad, healthy/unhealthy, positive/negative, fattening/not fattening etc. And yet this duality itself produces more problems than nutrition science solves. Reductionist science can never encapsulate or address metaphysical forces so important as vitality, vitalism, wholism, and the connection of these parts to overall wellness and completeness. In original cultures across the globe there was no such thing as an unhealthy diet, until the modern western diet and western thought associated with it, replaced traditional cultural thinking. A common thread throughout my new book is to use ‘diet’ as an example and illustration of illusion. And the point I make consistently is that “it is not about the diet!”

There are hundreds of references of traditional diets that were varied by region and culture. All of them prove the context of the quantum nature of food and disprove or upset the nutritionism approach to defining ‘healthy diets.’ There have been culture diets, of high fat, low fat, no fat, high carb, low carb, low protein, plant protein, meat only, plant only, dairy free, dairy based, and the list the goes on. While nutritionism reductionist science attempts to explain these diets ingredient by ingredient it fails to explain why all of these diets had less heart disease and other modern ailments associated with them, than the modern western industrialized diet.

While everyone out there seeks a ‘diet solution’ the truth is there isn’t one, because there is no diet 'issue' to begin with. Nutritionism has created diet issues along with its many myths and fallacies that keep on alienating man from his own nature.

I can get people lean and ripped on any number of the above diet specifications; yet I consistently receive questions about my ‘diet approach’ where people want me to categorize menus according to the fallacies of nutritionism. And yet one of the most basic aspects of a Tao approach to anything is simplicity.

Is it not ironic that modern man, the so called smartest creature on earth, is the only species on earth that needs professional guidance in deciding what he should eat, and how he should eat it?

Orthorexia and Hunger

Nutritionism as dogma tries to emphasize a falsehood that there is a right food to eat, and a wrong food to eat up and down the food chain. As I said culturally this has been disproven. A low fat diet is just as viable as a high fat diet, yet both contain their opposites as well. In other words a low fat diet implies, a high carb diet, while a high fat diet implies a low carb diet and so the duality of mental turmoil continues. All of this confusion negates the fact that all through time the most motivating factor of food and culture was hunger and pursuit of more food. Man was motivated by a biological sense of hunger; he had to do something about and respond to this. This led to man being nomadic, inventive, creative and omnivorous.

This is the quintessential nature of man. Hunger is good; hunger is a cue of fat burning in most cases; hunger used to be a motivating factor to action. Hunger = motivation in the natural state of man. Indeed many dictionaries will define ‘hunger’ in metaphysical terms. (say, a craving for satisfaction or achievement) This is correct.

The biological imperative of eating based on hunger was part of a greater context. Man had to procure food, prepare food etc. Entailed within this was an understood appreciation of man as part of the food chain; not above it, but an integral part of it. As we became more alienated from this truth, the industrialization of food, and now nutritionism has perverted our sense of hunger. Now hunger is perceived as something to be avoided or unnatural or intolerable. And yet it could be argued that a constant sense of controllable hunger is a measure of health and wellness. But as nutritional expert Susan Allport put it, “hunger is now a much less agreeable condition than being overweight.” I have seen this in our industry of cosmetic fitness my whole career. As much as people ‘want’ cosmetic appearance, they cannot resign themselves to the fact that this will necessitate adapting to dealing with a sensation of persistent and consistent hunger, which is actually natural to all animal species.

My conversations with other experts in my field have yielded a frustration for many coaches and experts over people who buy into the whole nutritionism dogma that there is a diet out there that will give someone the body they desire, with no hunger or appetite for wanting more. This is of course an illusion and a falsehood.

On the other hand the consequences of believing in this dogma of duality of diet mentality is that many people will settle for metabolic issues, fatigue, ill-health etc, in exchange for cosmetic external effects. And ‘effects’ and results are not the same thing. The consequence of this mentality and obsession with dieting for results often manifests in what is known as orthorexia. I see this manifestation of ill mental health frequently in my industry.

Simple orthorexia is an unhealthy obsession with eating, or with healthy eating. This is a psychological issue and represents the ramifications of modern ideology of nutritionism and diet mentality. Any obsession is not good for psychological health and worrying so much about food and eating is just not mentally healthy. And as we will see this is a cultural phenomenon, mostly related to the ideology of nutritionism.

The irony is that putting science and scientism in charge of diet protocol and ‘rules’ of healthy eating has produced the mental context of anxiety and confusion over the most basic proposition of a biological imperative which was meant to be enjoyable.

When food systems are studied in their broader context what is revealing is the mental ill-health that current vogue nutritional ideology has induced in so many consumers. What I have noticed my whole career in the cosmetic end of diet application is now backed up by research that goes beyond nutritionism to consider the broader contexts of its ramifications. Notably, there is an inverse relationship between the time people spend worrying about nutrition and their overall health and happiness. It is sad that more important criterion for happiness and wellness get squeezed out of the mental process at the expense of preoccupation with food; good/bad, right/wrong guilt/reward, fat/thin etc.

The French Paradox

By example the study of various cultural paradoxes of eating habits and food represents the limits of nutritionism and scientism toward broader understandings of ourselves and the food chain. For example, Science thought that everything was explained by examining the Eskimo diet and reducing its 'effects' to Omega 3 fatty acids and heart health. Yet this did not explain the almost total lack of anything green in their diets, and the resultant lack of various fibers and vitamins from plant life. And yet they were heart healthier than consumers of the modern accepted ‘truths’ of nutritionism. And there are hundreds of other cultural examples as well, where food staples were limited to a preponderance of specific food stuffs.

Moreover, the heart health of the Eskimo has not been duplicated in western society merely by introducing the new magic bullet of the 21rst century, the Omega 3 fish oils. So we have a modern paradox. Actually we have many that studies of nutrition, separated from the food chain cannot adequately explain.

In the 80’s there was a great deal of attention paid to the concept of the French Paradox of diet and food in modern culture. Now that attention is once again swinging back toward studying wholes and patterns and connections, the French Paradox is being revisited for clues and truths about culture, diet, and nutritional dogma. Of course we must keep in mind that the French Paradox represents the traditional aspects of eating of the French before the “Mc-Westernization” of industrial food production and consumption across the globe. The label of French Paradox was not a label the French gave themselves but rather named by American nutritionists who could not understand or explain in ‘nutrient-speak’ how a culture who enjoy their food as much as the French and merrily indulge in so many nutrients and foods deemed toxic by American standards; could also have substantially lower rates of heart disease and related illnesses.

Perhaps there is something more Tao about the ‘enjoying’ of food in the first place.

Keep in mind that the French are also known for being heavy smokers of non filtered cigarettes and we have another mystery paradox as well. A strict observation of content of French traditional diet shows a lot of trim French people eating a lot of saturated fat washed down with bottles of wine.

Researchers have tried to explain the paradox of leanness and health by, you guessed it, trying to isolate food stuffs and reduce the diet to specific ingredients to find that magic bullet for health and wellness. Nutritionism simply cannot explain the French paradox.

Yet in a broader context we see that the French traditionally eat in a much different way, and with a much different attitude toward foods then we North Americans. Some of these behaviours and attitudes are that the French seldom, if ever snack. And while they seem to eat what dogma determines to be unhealthy they also eat smaller portions and spend a significantly longer time eating as well.

In other words they dine and savour and appreciate food. The mental and emotional connections to food go far beyond nutrient components, and constituent parts and instead toward an appreciation of food as a cultural and biological indulgence of pleasure for its own sake. We see this as well in other parts of Europe and the world. There is an emotional comfort with food that is healthy. It is not reflective of disconnection but more an appreciation of abundance.

In Italy there is actually a phrase for this that basically has to do with the ‘slowing down’ of eating, and appreciating life, and food as a reflection of that. Traditional country side Italian and Mediterranean lifestyle embraces a respect for slowing down the day in order to appreciate the day, and celebrate it with food. If there is a paradox at all it may lie in the way we eat in western culture without regard to any context for food and a total disconnection of it beyond a reflection of want, desire, need, and indulgence.

In western culture the negative behaviours of eating for emotional comfort is created in fact by a culture that removes emotional comfort from the meal to begin with.

Food is more than nutrition. Nutrition is greater than the component parts of any given food stuff. This is the Tao appreciation of wholeness and abundance. It is not taken for granted but celebrated. Most traditional cultures have embraced this almost by nature. We are now so divorced from food, as food, that the western diet is now composed of ingredients and attitudes toward actual food that are counter-intuitive and emotionally fragmenting.

Paul Rozin, psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania does a lot of work in the area of ‘nutritionism’ and study. In one experiment he showed a group of North Americans a piece of chocolate cake and asked for a response. The top response was the word “guilt.” Yet when the French respondents were shown the same picture the top response from them was “celebration.” We have a lot to re-learn about our relationship to real food, culture, and our part in and of the food chain.

And as I have said before ‘unlearning’ is quickly becoming the new learning paradigm.

It would be quite easy to formulate an argument on behalf of mental nutrition, emotional nutrition, and spiritual nutrition, all from an attitude and act of food consumption. It may not only be ‘you are what you eat’ but it may be more importantly true that ‘you are HOW you eat.’

In another experiment the French were asked when they stop eating and they responded “when I am full.” Yet the American responses were more along the lines of ‘when my plate is empty’ or ‘there is no more food.’ As I have been preaching for years, western society pays much more attention to external cues than to internal ones and in the process many have even lost the capacity to determine satiation from biofeedback. Hunger becomes an opinion based on portion size and what the gut is used to rather than actual biological hunger and feedback. Combined with the disconnection and divorce of our selves from the mental, emotional, sociological, ecological, and cultural connection to real food and it is no wonder that reductionism has led to more ill-health than actual health. This includes mental and emotional as well as physical health.

We have lost our connection (Tao-truth) that food is a product of labor and our relationship to nature. Food is instead now a ‘product of industry.’ Nutritional science is as well. Yet some stark truths speak to the falsehood of nutritionism and our loss of cultural perspective.

When I was at the movies on the weekend, I took a gander at the large size popcorn bag, which by the way had free refills. Without a biological perspective and nuance toward nature it is quite easy to devour and enjoy that large size bag of popcorn. I do it myself on a regular basis. But let’s examine that from our biological connection which illustrates our own alienation from our connection to real food, and instead to industry. Imagine that same size bag of popcorn filled from bottom to top with sliced fresh apples and raw baby carrots. I am sure none of us would come even close to finishing even half that bag. Yet as consumers of the mentality of western diet, we eat ‘till the food is gone, or the bag is empty’ As a psychological image is this not an amazing testament to our own alienation?

A mere choice of real food, naturally made, would have us naturally stop eating way before overeating and way before gluttony. Gluttony is a ramification of our own alienation away from food as meals, and meals as connections; instead, to food as ‘diets’ with perceived consequences.

So the French Paradox may itself be upside down. It may in fact if anything be a North American paradox, which is represented by an unhealthy preoccupation with ‘nutrition and diet’ rather than a healthier perspective of ‘food and meals.’

The difference in the attitude toward food is the difference of one cultural group, embracing the ‘joy of living’ (joie de vivre) while the other group tries to control their ‘fear of dying.’ Indeed we do not just ‘consume’ the foods of our culture, but we ‘consume’ mentally the attitudes toward our food in culture as well. This is the unhealthy paradox of nutritionism.

Food is just one more example of the opportunity to embrace life rather than to reduce it to component parts. The latter is part of the disconnection of self-awareness I discuss in my new book; a disconnection that so many of my clients suffer. The message of nutritionism is to eat for a purpose, for good health, to get lean, to gain muscle, to look pretty or handsome; yet all of these reductionist approaches to a biological imperative have alienated people further and further away from a natural joy.

This joy is toward a Tao approach to a mentality toward food, instead of nutrition.

In fact food is but one representation that is in itself a powerful form of communion with other people, other species, nature, spirituality, recognition of abundance, appreciation of grandeur etc. (was this not the original notion of Thanksgiving?)

There is a reason food tastes good, and sex feels good. They are so because of our biological imperatives to propagate the species and survive. Hunger also arguably serves a similar purpose. Somehow these have been removed from overall context in day to day living. And that context is a connection to nature, our own, and in the general sense.

As it mutates, we seek to get back what is lost and disconnected, emotional comfort from food, intimacy in sex etc. Just like with sex, for many dieters, food is now so restricted and rules-oriented. The disconnection to it creates a sense of lust instead of love: A sort of “Food-Porn” mentality if you will toward aberrant indulgence, bingeing, sensory titillation etc.

So in the end health and wellness may be, and to my mind is for sure, not about ‘a proper diet’ but more importantly about a ‘proper mental approach to diet.’ And I don’t even like using the word diet. My new book addresses this from a mental, emotional, and spiritual context.

I get attacked often for my approach of warning that science is often dogma just dressed up nice and sexy. I believe it was Einstein who said that there is more religion in science than people know. Just a few years ago the top supplement manufacturer in our industry was sued over its fat burners and the various claims surrounding them. Seems this company threw around some big bucks for Universities to do ‘studies’ on the benefits of its product. The problem was there were numerous ‘studies’ that showed their own paid-for research yielded the product to have no effect or even a negative effect. Of course none of ‘these’ studies made it to publication.

There is a lot more going on in the research arena than you can accept as knowledge or truth. This is why I was happy to see the comment from a professional career epidemiologist Gladys Block, a professor in the School of Public Health in Berkeley. As a recognized accredited expert in this exact area, she had this to say as she nears retirement. “I don’t believe anything I read in nutritional epidemiology anymore. I’m so skeptical at this point.” I am sure that comment, while a breath of fresh air to me, probably caused her a certain amount of grief from her colleagues.

I’m reminded in any area of study of the quote on statistics which is especially relevant in these days of scientism, or the ‘appearance of science.’ People say to me all the time, “well Scott, statistics don’t lie.” But the old adage which is just as true today is that, “statistics don’t lie, but liars use statistics.” If you are getting all of your information from industry sources of books, magazines, and websites, then of course you are getting schooled in propaganda and ideology.

As usual, some of you will get it, many of you will not.

P.S.

This month’s blog is motivated by my e-mail Inbox. Now that contest season is on, I am receiving a disproportionate number of e-mails from people suffering metabolic damage and psychological consequences of the ‘diet mentality.’ The truth is nutritionism caters to people who grow up with ‘guilt consciousness levels.’ By adapting this diet mentality, they have another vehicle to exercise the illusory quest of ‘perfection and control’ yet they end up with neither.

This 'diet' mentality merely serves as another vehicle to measure and concentrate on guilt and reward mentality. It becomes a permutation of their whole life. It becomes a mentality that is difficult to escape. Many of you are suffering.

“It is not about the diet.”

A few have even written me, and have expressed concern that I may be disappointed in their ‘disordered eating’ and that they can not compete because diet obsessive compulsive disorder has taken them over. Since many of you who read my Blogs are not members of my Forums or my client let me make this perfectly clear.

I am way beyond the point of needing or wanting clients who ‘represent’ and especially in a contest format. I will not use clients that way, nor should clients allow themselves to be used that way.

My goal is the health and happiness of my clients first and foremost. If competing is a part of that, wonderful. But if competing is damaging to that, then my emphasis is what is best for the client’s well-being, not just present but long term!

I hope this Blog sheds some light on why so many of you struggle with a diet mentality that creates illusion, anxiety, disconnection, from rules and regulations. Often these rules and regulations, of ‘eat this, not that’ are more destructive than constructive.

The ideology of nutritionism which disconnects us from wholeness and comfort with food is certainly partially responsible for a failed mentality of good health and wellness.

To repeat, some of you will get it, many of you will not. I welcome as always your comments in my forums section.

Well I'm posting this up a few days early. This month's Blog is taking a different direction but as always the goal is to serve the greater good. So below is an article that I have written that has been sent to various sources. No one has chosen to publish it. This is disappointing to me. Yet at some degree it speaks to the reality that denial is still the order of the day in our industry. No one wants to address the negative sides of physical pursuit at the expense of wellness. But since I see it so often, I feel compelled to do so.

Below is an article I wrote that joins the parallels of extreme contest prep diets to a study done on semi-starvation way back in 1950. The similarities are spooky to say the least. I hope in good faith many of you will present this to other people, sites, Forums, or correspondance as an educational notice of potential self-destruction from adhering to absolute contest-prep approaches. Sometimes folks winning is in reality a losing proposition. I have also included references at the end for further investigation.

Metabolic Damage among Figure and Bodybuilding Competitors: an unflattering but real issue reflective in Dieting Studies

I have been in the fitness and bodybuilding industry now going on my third decade. My coaching experience extends to all levels of competition, professional and amateur alike. With the explosion in Figure Competitions there has also been an explosion in what I have termed “metabolic damage” which I have seen ruin individuals as competitors; their physiques, and their lives as well. Most of this is due to bad contest preparation advice and what I have termed “absolute deprivation diets” The dialogue on that can wait for another time and I have entertained it in Blogs and previous articles. The topic of this article is more to the point in examining all of the potential devastating ramifications of Figure Girls and bodybuilders working in absolute calories deprivation states, trying to “starve off fat” with crazy diet schemes and rigid diet rules that may lead to the winner’s podium of a contest, but with devastating long term consequences as well.

A short time ago I came across the work of Dr. Garner, whose main study of focus is in the treatment of eating disorders. In a book, Handbook for Treating Eating Disorders, (1997) Dr. Garner makes some salient compelling points and speaks some direct truths that reflect also my experience and concern with short and long term damage in the arena of the physical culture which has been my professional life for a long time now. As a matter of fact the known observations of one key relevant study so closely parallel what I have sadly witnessed in real life experience, that it necessitated me to write this. The conclusions are strong and impactful. I hope for a change they get some attention.

Dr. Garner’s key assessment in looking at the data and the people is “that prolonged and severe diet restriction can lead to serious physical and psychological implications” (1997) This statement alone reflects what I have seen in the Bodybuilding and Figure industry especially in the last few years with the explosion of Figure contests and ill advised diet strategies in the “pre-contest” period. It seems many, even so called 'experts' in this industry understand very little about the biology of weight control and regulation even though dogmatic and pseudo scientific presentation would lead intellectually naive competitors to believe otherwise.

In a land mark study more relevant today than ever, especially with the craziness I am witnessing in the Figure Competition world, Garner cites the Minnesota Experiment by Keys et all, 1950, as a powerful illustration of the effects of restrictive dieting and weight loss on behaviour and well-being.

The Keys et al study was known as the effects of “semi-starvation” of diet study. Truth be told by looking at the data, the calories restrictions and food restrictions imposed were far less limiting than what is going on in the Figure and modelling and pageant and bodybuilding world as it currently exists. This is the first point which should be made absolutely clear.

Next this study selected men as subjects. My findings and numerous others are that women suffer in greater magnitudes of the consequences that will be listed here, for varying reasons due to hormonal and other elements associated with gender distinctions. But it should also be noted that the researchers went out of their way in screening potential candidates so that those selected tested the highest in levels of physical and psychological health prior to undertaking the experiment.

This makes what transpired over the course of this “semi-starvation” experiment even more worrisome. The fact is that what I see from many competitors and former competitors in pageants or Figure or Fitness and bodybuilding, is that many that now come to me from hearing about my work with metabolic damage will never have a sane relationship with food again. The results of the Keys et al study and Dr. Garner’s conclusions as well, shed light on the effects of prolonged restrictive dieting.

Summation of the Minnesota Study

Basically the men followed a specific restricted diet of about half their usual calories for a 6 month’s period. The results you will read about were evident in as little as a 25% loss of bodyweight, far less than what most bodybuilders and Figure girls end up losing generally speaking. And as well, half the level of usual calories is also not nearly as restrictive as some of the insane diet practices adhered to currently in the world of physique competition.

The study also included a very important follow up and re-feed period. The findings here represent exactly the same scenario as exists in post contest eating behaviours in the Figure and Bodybuilding Industry. This will prove useful as well for reasons that will become apparent.
But to make a long story short and cut to the chase, as you will see, these men experienced dramatic physical and psychological and social changes, and these changes persisted well beyond the re-feed stage. This is more than just a parallel coincidence to what happens with Figure competitors and bodybuilders in post contest time frames as a result of extreme dieting. The question then is, just how dire were these repercussions?

Categories

Attitudes and Behaviours Related to Food

During the course of the study, the subject’s preoccupation with food became an obvious issue. Concentrating on things other than food became more and more difficult. For most of the subjects, food took over conversation, reading, daydreams, night dreams etc. Things like menus and cookbooks were themes of fascination and intense interest, where previously the subjects elicited no such interest in these matters. Since this study was in 1950, I’m sure with advent of cable and food networks as well as the internet, such a fascination could soon lead to obsession in quicker order. As a matter of fact I have witnessed this exact process among contest dieters previously unaffected by food, now obsessed by it. As I have said in previous articles and Blogs the problem here becomes an obsession that also leads to various compulsions as will also be addressed below.

To reiterate despite little interest in food or food preparation prior to the semi-starvation experiment, over 40% of the subjects became enthralled or obsessed with all aspects of food and preparation, not only during, but after the experiment as well. This post experiment period reflects what I have also observed in post contest eating behaviours which I will expound on further.

2) Many men began strange hoarding behaviours as well. They started collecting things they couldn’t afford with no reason why, and hoarded other meaningless items as well. This behaviour is also seen in anorexics as well as even in rats put on starvation diets. (See Crisp et al 1980, as well as Fantino and Cabanac 1980) More recently other behaviours such as outrageous spending have also been noted among severe dieters (Crisp 1980) representing the compulsive aspect of what I have observed over 25+ years in the dieting bodybuilding and Figure competitor. This represents the flip side of the obsession induced over diet control. It is also a sign to my mind of a changing psychology toward ill health, and a manifestation of a lack of control of compulsive forces induced by severe diet restriction.

3) The men also began to obsess over the actual timing and eating of the food, planning an almost ritualistic approach to meal timing. Concordant with that, the use of salt and spices skyrocketed. Just as I also see in the physique competitor arena tea and coffee consumption also blew up to obsessive dependency proportions. Men became so dependant on this version of stimulant use that the men had to be limited to 9 cups of coffee per day! I see this reflected often in Figure and bodybuilding competitors as well.

Also remember this study was 1950. In this day and age many are compounding their dependency on stimulants with abuse of various forms of ephedrine on a massive scale that I would prefer to not address beyond an acknowledgement of its specific abuse. Furthermore gum chewing also reflected a need to deflect hunger. One man was chewing up to 40 packs of gum per day. As with Figure competitors and bodybuilders as well, many go beyond gum to smoking and other negative habitual behaviours.
There seems to commence an individual need to try to trick or deflect hunger even in irrational contexts. In my industry multiple chemical solutions are also involved such as thyroid medications and other stimulants or amphetamine like substances over and above the usual choice of fat burners etc.

These 1950 reactions to the diet are beyond close coincidences to the pre-contest diet tendency of many to begin a path of destructive obsessive/compulsive tendencies in order to see a diet through to completion of “contest day” The problem for me as a coach is that there are far more destructive choices and alternatives available today vs. the 1950’s diet subjects. A quick warning is that expertise to diet instruction should always be chosen over absolute or vogue approaches.
This study also reflects that these destructive behaviours persisted even after the 12 week re-feed period.

Again, this is often where I see the most damage in post-diet Figure and Bodybuilder competitors who have reported a complete lack of control over food, post contest, and a corresponding sense of guilt and self-hate, of new and unhealthy proportions far beyond just “cheating on my diet”

Binge Eating

Many of then men in the Keys et al study could in fact tolerate the diet, but many others experienced a complete breakdown in self control. As stated above just as reflected in the modern physique competitor where body image becomes self image, the resultant binge eating behaviours led to self-hate, and self-disgust afterward. This guilt/reward duality tends to become a means of self-defining over time based solely or predominantly on resisting hunger or adhering to absolute eating regimens. As I have witnessed especially among Figure competitors this begins that path to never having a sane association with food again.

Food starts to take on immense emotional meaning beyond sustenance. The tragedy here is the tremendous emotional energy toll that this mentality takes on an individual. Many former and current Figure competitors report constant emotional and mental exhaustion that they fail to see related to their new emotional relationship to diet and food. This is one of the more worrisome psychological ramifications of metabolic damage associated with “get contest ready at all costs”

For the men in this study the binge eating started to represent a vicious circle of behaviour followed by self-hate, again reflective of what I see so often in the competitive cosmetic physique industry. Binge eating would ensue, followed by emotional upset, often accompanied by physical nausea. Then the individual would regain a sense of self-control, along with negative self-chastisement, and then resumption in the same circle of behaviour.

Many reading this will acknowledge “Oh my, that’s me!” Unfortunately many people fail to connect the dots between physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of any undertaking. Simply becoming aware of this can go a long way to help breaking the cycle of it. In other words, “how’s that workin for ya?”

Post Diet Ramifications

In the re-feed period following the diet in this study, even after 12 weeks of refeeding the men still complained of increased hunger even following a large meal. I see this as well all the time in physique competitors post contest who use a “mentality” of off-season to offset serious compulsive eating behaviours. On the physiological side of this equation, something I experienced myself in the early days of contest dieting, once a diet has run its course, the satiety or “I’m full” centre of the brain seems to malfunction in various degrees of intensity.

For instance after my first contest in 1983, where I lost 50 lbs in 10 weeks, I regained 45 lbs in 4 days, and I continued voracious eating behaviours for some time afterward. While I learned a valuable lesson, this path to metabolic damage has for others not only continued but intensified mostly because of the appeal of women’s magazines. The explosion of Figure contests often places unnatural metabolic demands on many women who take up the contest challenge, but whose physiologies are not resilient enought to endure it.

I’m not sure if this malfunctioning on the satiety centre is physiologically or psychologically based or both, but the body is almost responding as if food may never be available again, and the compulsion to eat goes beyond a mentality of fullness. This is certainly reflected by the men in this study, as well as the modern competitor world and even among pageant competitors who have written me regarding their metabolic damage and psychological eating issues; all of which seem to be induced via the competitive environment.

As an example from this study and something I experienced as well back in 1983, one volunteer ate immense meals of 5,000-6,000 cals but started “snacking” behaviours within one hour post meal. As I have also seen among male competitors and a few females, where pharmacological aids were used, one man in this 1950 study ate to the point where he needed aspiration and hospitalization for several days. I have seen this too often to count in competitors hospitalized within the week or month following the contest as a result of the systemic stress of constant eating, weight gain, osmotic rebound, and breathing issues. The body is just overwhelmed by post contest out of control eating and drinking beyond rational levels. More than one competitor has actually torn his stomach lining from sheer volume of compulsive food intake. Such is the price that many pay, reflected in the subjects of this study.

At this point in the article, and reflection on this “semi-starvation study” does any of this sound like normal or sane consequences to any athletic pursuit?

This experiment also illustrated certain patterns of binge behaviour that I also see paralleled in the modern competitor. Most of the subjects as well as post contest individuals find the weekends to be particularly problematic without that ritualistic schedule to adhere to. With fewer distractions on the weekend many could not stop eating, consuming as much as 8,000-10,000 cals and eating not just beyond fullness but to almost complete incapacitation. This is more common than many are led to believe. Unfortunately the diet industry wants to entertain only the equation of calories and grams while trying to ignore the costs to incomplete advice that should go beyond the physical.

Many are suffering in silence and self blame not realizing these attitudes and behaviours are actually diet induced. As I have always said, and the Keys et al study reflects, for every absolute calories deficit diet, there will be an equal and opposite binge. The consequences of this can be devastating long term, not just in bodyweight but in well-being both physical and emotional.

As the Keys et al study points out some men did indeed return to a normal eating regimen and psychological health, but often it was months and months after the study. The issue for me is that with “competitors” there isn’t a long enough break to regain mental health because many now associate the only way they can be “in shape” is to go back to an “on-season” deprivation diet. So they pick a show and repeat the same destructive force again, going deeper and deeper into the point of no return both metabolically and psychologically. Many Figure competitors write me in their 20’s who are constantly ill, depressed, suffering, but the only time they “look good” is when they feel worse.

This is a sign to get off that hamster wheel. To any people reading this, if this is you, then you need to make some serious accounts of yourself and why you are pursuing diet and competition. It may lead to your own ruin, not your benefit. This whole sequence leads to a Yo Yo diet scenario backed by starvation techniques, metabolic shut down, and post contest depression and eating which repeats itself over and over.
What the Keys et al study closely reflects of the new era of competition is that habitual dieting can lead to various eating disorders as well as what I refer to as “dis-ordered eating” As Garner notes, "this study should temper speculations about primary psychological disturbances as “the” cause of binge eating” (1997) (see also Polivy and Herman 1985, 1987; Wardle and Beinart 1981)

Emotional and Personality Changes

To me as a coach the most disturbing trend in the Fitness/Figure and pageant world where such insane diets are followed are the consequences of emotional and personality changes that ensue and take over and often forever change the individual. This is not to be understated and should be stressed, is the result of extreme starvation type diets so readily followed in the pageant and Figure competitor world today.

Just in my geographical area alone there are crazy no carb, 400 calories “protein day” diets, and diets where 7- 9 lbs of broccoli or green beans are eaten every day for weeks at a time. Again, these “coaches” do not seem to understand the first thing about the biology of weight control. This is most unfortunate as many trainees will adhere to whatever is put in front of them out of a strange and perverse sense of loyalty and fear.
I will say for the record it is not difficult to starve someone in to contest shape, and make up for catabolism with anabolics and other pharmaceuticals. They may win a show, but they will certainly lose long term. The old win a battle, lose the war analogy.

In the Keys et al study we must remember that the candidates for this experiment were also the most psychologically healthy and robust prospects going in to the experiment. (Garner 1997) In other words these candidates were selected as to be “better suited” than normal or average people to endure and tolerate the effects of this semi-starvation diet protocol. However, the conclusions for these psychologically healthy men were actually quite frightening. Most experienced “significant emotional deterioration” as result of the semi-starvation. (Which we must remember was far less absolute than many contest and pageant diets as they currently exist) Some suffered emotional consequences so severe that it interfered with daily functions. Just as witnessed almost en masse with the modern physique competitors, depression and mood swings were the most common observed and reported consequences of the diet as it progressed.
Even though this was 1950, it duplicates what is seen among the modern competitive dieter. For most competitors, family members report just “wanting it to be over” and also report having to walk on egg shells because of the unpredictability of their loved ones on the diet. On the flip side, my experience is that the dieters see the loved ones “just don’t understand” which is a faulty perception or rationalization at best. They do this in order to continue to see the path through to its conclusion, called “contest day” even though the destructive signs are visible on many levels, not just physical. Often these mood swings can have violent tendencies and outbursts where anything from physical displays or verbal hurtful rantings manifest from virtually minor or no provocation.

As Garner stated referring to the Keys et al study, “irritability and frequent outbursts of anger were common” (Garner 1997) Many competitors reading this will nod an embarrassing affirmative to this experience if they are being sincere and honest. The important point to make is that the men in this study just like most male and female competitors in the physique and pageant world, “had quite tolerant dispositions” prior to the experimental undertaking. Extreme diets can definitely induce unwanted personality changes for short term and long term.

Another reported change from the Keys et al 1950 study which I also witness in the competitor field is both tremendous nervousness and apathy as the diet progresses. Some participants reported extreme emotional disturbances during the course of the study; often to “psychotic proportions.” I have seen an explosion of this particular manifestation and the point in pre-contest diets where many start to self-medicate with anti-anxiety, anti-stress, anti-depressant medications and the like. The unknown truth reflected in the Keys et al study is that these emotional disturbances would more than likely be eradicated with a return to a normal and sane diet approach.

In the Keys diet study one man in response to the stress actually and consciously chopped off three fingers. This does not seem so far fetched given the new evidence of trying to medicate stress, when the causes are non-medical. We have seen this in wrestler Chris Benoit and actor Heath Ledger. The point of the Keys et al study is the reality of diet induced personality and emotional changes beyond mature tolerance. This must not be underestimated.
For the men in this study standardized testing revealed significant increases in depression, hysteria, and hypochondriases. One man with only a 10 lb weight loss experienced “gross personality disturbances” The point to be made here is that it is not a matter of extreme weight loss that precipitates these changes, but rather extreme dieting without end.

Many good relationships I have seen come to an end as a result of undertaking competition and the emotional toll of extreme diets and training regimens that take place in an absolute sense, of extreme diets and mentally exhausting training rituals. Notice I used the word “rituals” rather than protocols. Truth be told the rituals of endless cardio are a waste of time, but to the extreme dieter,that time mentally and emotionally keeps them away from free time which would be otherwise occupied with food temptations.The extra dulling activity also exhausts them further in to an emotionally apathetic state. This makes it easier to avoid acting on food compulsions at least till contest stresses are over.

Social Changes

One of the most common social ramifications of extreme dieting illustrated in the Keys et al study as well as the modern competitor environment is one of withdrawal. Many competitors make a choice to be more socially isolated and withdrawn even from loved ones, and including their own children. Because many acknowledge their new short fuse from extreme diet, they choose to remove themselves from potentially exhausting interactions. The costs to such isolation behaviour over time can lead to personal resentments and repressed hostilities among loved ones. Many competitors will escape to a world of the competitor sub culture, where interaction is seemingly stimulating rather than threatening. Pre-occupation with various media replaces family time etc.

Many also just like in the study report diminished sexual appetite. The only appetite the mind entertains after prolonged extreme dieting is an appetite and desire for food, and a pre-occupation with it as previously mentioned. This tends to over ride other instinctual impulses, which of course can have a marked effect on social and relationship health.

Cognitive and Physical Changes

One of the first and most noticeable cognitive changes as the diet study went on was obvious impairment in concentration, alertness, comprehension, and judgement. Of course this is also reflective of the competitor diets as well. The judgement impairment is particularly note worthy as it can lead to behavioural choices that affect others and lead to long term regrets.

The one contrast of these side effects of the extreme dieting is the exact opposite of what takes place in typical athletics. In real sports and competition arenas athletes become increasingly focused and alert during preparation for competition. This is an interesting point to contemplate as such cognitive skills break down in extreme diets.

As the extreme diet wore on the subjects in the Keys et al study suffered sleep disorders, dizziness, headaches, gastro-intestinal disorders and discomfort, and hypersensitivity to noise and light. They also suffered reduced strength, not just workout strength, experienced hair loss and a decreased tolerance to cold. Every single one of these symptoms I have seen reflected in competitors that have come to me exhibiting these ill effects of extreme diet while preparing for competition. As a matter of fact I have witnessed many competitors’ male and female who suffered every single one of the above mentioned debilitations all at once! This reflects a general breakdown of systemic function.

Once again it begs the comparison to traditional sport since those in the cosmetic arena of competition are supposed to be representing health and wellness and fitness, at least that was the intention of the founding fathers of this industry. The irony is that the end result is the exact opposite of represented intention. Many competitors in this industry do not realize until too late that they do not have the physiological constitution to endure contest prep in a manageable healthy way.

Traditional sport prepares athletes to be adapted and adaptable to the specifics of competition, and they become more mentally and emotionally prepared for advancing. That is an understandable aspect of athletics. What we see here, in the competition arena as reflected by the Keys et al study is a breakdown of mental and emotional capacities rather than a strengthening of them.

Metabolically the changes were clear that the subjects in the study experienced a slow down of the body’s physiological processes. There were noticeable decreases in body temperature, respiration, and BMR. I have addressed this aspect regarding metabolic damage in previous articles as well as referring to Wilson’s Low Temperature Syndrome, that so many Figure competitors go through. At the end of the Keys et al semi starvation study the men’s BMR had dropped by a whopping 40% from normal levels. The body is an incredible adaptive machine, especially when it comes to lack of energy intake.

Other recent studies have also illustrated a reduced metabolic rate even among dieters who do not have a history of dramatic weight loss. (Platte, Warner, Wade, 1996) The point to be made here is to focus that it is an aspect of “dieting,” and not weight loss that has these tremendous consequences.

One of the observations made during the re-feed process was that metabolism and BMR was sped up most efficiently by very high calories intake. Consuming large amounts of food (not binge eating) “caused” a sharp increase in energy burned through the metabolic process” (Garner 1997) Just to mention this also backs up the major contentions of my Cycle Diet (see Cycle Diet DVD 05) that relative deprivation of calories combined with well timed re-feeds of lots of calories within a short time period of hours will effect metabolism in a positive way. This is of course far different than post contest binge eating that is mentioned previously in this article.

Those that tried to raise calories only slightly in order to still adhere to a diet, did not speed up metabolism.

Conclusions

Whether you label it “semi-starvation diet” or “extreme dieting” or “absolute calories deficit dieting” or “contest dieting” or any other name, especially within the physique contest arena, the consequences to such dieting are dire and long term. Not only that, but the consequences extend well beyond the physical and metabolic. The result is not just seen in terms of bodyweight rebounds and food preoccupations but lead to all areas of psychological and social functioning as well. (see also Pirke and Ploog, 1987)

The Keys et al study illustrates how human beings whole psychological, physiological, and metabolic systems will orient toward food as a survival mechanism inherited from our ancestors, where the drive for food was indeed an element of survival. “All other systems of survival become subordinate to the primary drive toward food” (Garner 1997) The most important thing to note as a result of this study and many others that deal with regulation of body weight (not body fat) is that the “diet” was unsuccessful in overriding the body’s preference to defend a particular weight. (In this case an absolute calories deprivation diet which reflects as well in the modern physique and pageant competitor)

What this means is that although lower weights can be achieved it is unlikely to be maintained or sustained as a result of extreme diet choices. Furthermore, expert diet advice and practice, complete with an understanding of selectively timed re-feeds is the only way to establish and maintain not just weight loss but fat loss long term. Extreme diet methods still followed in the name of cosmetic contest preparedness is reflective of metabolic damage and psychological catastrophe in both the short and long consequences of extreme diet approaches.

My goal is to educate and inspire toward big “C” elements of Coaching. For many a little awareness can go a long way for rational people to cease and desist a mentality of extremes when it comes to body image and contest preparation. Such practices, whether they come with “expert” advice or not are self-defeating strategies to the physical and mental and emotional well being of the unaware practitioner who is led to believe that suffering is a part of healthy body maintenance.

As a physique transformation specialist in my third decade I can tell you whole heartedly that suffering seldom leads to fulfillment.

Metabolic Damage is a real issue for the modern competitor, in areas of cosmetic physique display like Figure, Fitness, and Bodybuilding and Pageant competitions. I went back to the Keys et al 1950 study of semi-starvation and its consequences because it eerily parallels what I see going on in the competitive side of our industry. By all means compete. But embrace the rational side of you which tells you it should lead to fulfillment and not devastation. There are experts out there who know the more intelligent, less extreme routes.

If you find reading this you exhibit some or many of these warning signs of your diet, then you should consider talking to a real expert and getting real expert advice. There is a difference between the biology of weight control and the science of fat loss. I sincerely hope many of you will read this article with an open mind and reconsider your diet protocol if any of this reflects your own experience.

But as usual, some of you will get, and many of you will not.

References
1) Abel, Scott The Science Behind the Cycle Diet (DVD 2005) Best of SWIS Symposium
2) Crisp, A.J. Anorexia Nervosa: Let me Be. London: Academic Press (1980)
3) Crisp, A.H., Hsu, L.K.G., and Harding, B. “The starving hoarder and voracious spender: Stealing in anorexia nervosa. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, (1980), 24, 225-231
4) Garner, D.M. (ed) “Psychoeducational Principles in the treatment of eating disorders” Handbook for Treatment of Eating Disorders, (1997) New York: Guilford Press
5) Fantino, M., and Cabanac, M. “Body weight regulation with proportional hoarding response in the rat” Physiology and Behaviour, (1980) 24, 939-942
6) Keys, A., Brozek, J., Henschel, A., Mickleson, O., and Taylor, H.L. The biology of human starvation (2 vols) (1950) Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press
7) Pirke, K.M., and Ploog, D. “Biology of human starvation” in Beaumont et als, eds. Handbook of eating disorders: Part 1: Anorexia and bulimia nervosa, (1987), pp 79-102.
8) Platte, P., Wurmser, H., Wade, S.E., Mercheril, A., and Pirke, K.M., “Resting metabolic rate and diet- induced thermogenesis in restrained and unrestrained eaters” International Journal of Eating Disorders, (1996), 20, 33-41.
9) Polivy, J., and Herman, C.P., “Dieting and bingeing: A causal analysis” American Psychologist, (1985), 40, 193-201.
10) Polivy, J., and Herman, C.P., “Diagnosis and treatment of normal eating” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, (1987), 55, 635-644.
11) Stunkard, A.J., and Wadden, T.A., eds, Obesity: Theory and therapy, 2nd edition, 1993, New York: Raven Press
12) Wardle, J., and Beinart, H. “Binge Eating: A theoretical review” British Journal of Clinical Psychology, (1981), 19-20, 97-109.

The Tao Athlete


I’ve taken some time out from writing my new book to address this months Blog topic about the Tao athlete and the Tao in general. To give some background I will use myself as an example. I realized very early on in my bodybuilding pursuits that I was somehow different in the way I looked at bodybuilding than almost anyone I had come in contact with at that young age. For years I could never put my finger on it but I just knew that when I interacted with other bodybuilders, I just didn’t pursue bodybuilding in the same way or for the same reasons as my fellow competitors. That realization would follow me my whole career. It wasn’t until the last few years that I even became acquainted with the concept of the Tao athlete; and of course the Tao itself.

At one of my very first seminars I answered a question that would be most revealing over the next 20+ years. I was still in my 20’s and I was asked about motivation for a contest. I really had no prepared answer because I had been an athlete, even mentally my whole life, so the idea of being unmotivated or not motivated never actually occurred to me till that very moment. But my answer had some people shaking their heads. I said what motivates me is that my body is the house where my true self will reside for the rest of my life. Like any house, the more I like the surroundings and lack of clutter and the more clean and organized that environment, than the more likely I am to think more clearly and “be” a better me. That was my answer even way back then about motivation.

And the thing was, it was the truth.

Early on that is exactly how I felt about my training and workouts. Even then I had connected my spirit self with my athlete self. The Tao nature of that would become obvious over time. I was never comfortable identifying myself as a bodybuilder. My whole career, instead I saw myself as an athlete, who did bodybuilding. It was a difference that still exists today.

The Tao and the Tao nature is about the path, the fulfillment or filling you up from being on the path. It’s about YOUR path. It is unique. The Tao is about balance. It is beautiful in its context that it can be about pure devotion and commitment but at the same time not be about obsessive compulsive preoccupation with outcomes, or results or externals that take us off its path and away from balance. It is said even to discuss the Tao is to lose it. It’s kind of like trying to hold on to running water. It is a natural truth that you know only when you know it. Seek it and it cannot be found, live it, and you become just like that flowing water. There is no need to hold what you are part of, and what is part of you.

This is Tao, and at the same time, not Tao.

For the Tao person of focus it means you are always in and of the moment. The past and future do not exist in that they cannot be part of this moment, and this moment does not have externals, only your voice of your path within it. This is also Tao. To try to express it, or capture it, is to negate it. But for the Tao athlete or person it is the most powerful force to achievement, and the easiest path to get there. Many, like my former self are on a Tao reality path without even knowing it by that name. They simply live as examples of expression.

The Tao is beauty without a judgement of beauty. It is your SELF recognized from the level of self. Maybe in a great many ways, to understand Tao would be to illustrate what it is not.

For my personal history, competing never had me feeling quite right or comfortable. Competition for me, at least in bodybuilding took me away from why I did it to begin with. I lost myself rather than found myself in competing. I think many people also have a similar experience. For me, it wasn’t about beating someone else. To my mind, how was that even possible in a bodybuilding contest? I used to think, will winning this show really measure who worked the hardest, who overcame their genetics by the widest margins, who showed the most honest commitment? None of these could possibly be accurately rewarded within the context of a contest. Competing quickly lost its appeal for me, on a personal level. But the artistic side of me loved the entertaining of the crowd in the posing routine. The artistic side of me purely appreciated a fine sculpted physique, in art or on a bodybuilding stage. So the question for me was one of what is gained, and what is lost by competing. As an athlete my whole life I understood and appreciated competition as well. I loved competition, or loved witnessing it; especially in its also artistic dimension of the human spirit.

But the Tao also dictates that you lose by gaining and you gain by losing. This was also my experience. My early contest successes and lessons were starting to get me to focus on other things like contests, numbers in the gym and on the weight scale. I gained in terms of recognition, status, victories etc, but also I lost my inner compass and inner reason for the initial pursuit. I was lucky enough to make that note early on and go back to pursuing it for my own personal growth. I realized what I had forgotten. This activity for me was supposed to be a path to fulfillment, not a path to grow and enhance a sense of lack or need or negative emotions.

I re-discovered my inner compass. By not competing any more I gained. Not only did I get back passion and purpose, but I ended up more successful in the process than almost any other bodybuilder I know of in Canada. And of course one’s definition of success varies.

So here is the thing. Is your undertaking, no matter what it is, truly a vehicle for growth in your life or is it mirroring your attitudes and behaviours in other areas of your life? Are you pursuing it from a sense of lack, as in not good enough, not smart enough, not thin enough, not popular enough, not enough enough, or whatever?

Is it fun and exhilarating or is that part of why you do it now just a distant memory? Are you concerned more with accumulating results, accumulating recognition, accumulating placings, accumulating trophies, accumulating “stuff” as the main reason why you do what you do? Are you compulsively driven to workout, to lose weight, to compare to someone else? Are you always measuring yourself by externals like the weight scale, the tape measurement, the weight on the bar, the number of workouts, the number of calories etc? These are informational tools only. They do not measure anything of self-worth. To be so attached to outcomes and results it to lose by gaining no matter what external success you may acquire. This is counter to your Tao nature. How many times have I discussed Figure competitors who have lost from gain? They have won contests only to permanently damage their metabolisms and lose self-respect and self-esteem long term, and thereby create a never ending struggle to gain it back.

The Tao athlete has a mature orientation to knowing and trusting the inner compass. To be externally focused is to lose that compass entirely. The goal should always be toward self-discovery and self-direction; the mental and emotional gains from this lead to physical achievement. To be attached to externals is to start to lose oneself. To understand the strength of Tao is to know that many people out there struggling to lose weight and struggling against the scale do not see what is most obvious. The Tao centre is the answer to that question. It is not “what you are eating, but what’s eating you” that is holding you back from achievement. Because achievement comes from fulfilment; fulfilment comes from process. If you do not enjoy and are not challenged by process, then you will not find what you seek; and what you seek is more than likely not on the path you are currently following.

To recognize imbalance is to find a way back to the Tao centre. The Tao centre is the trunk of the tree and the roots as well. It is the base, the strength, the power, the centre from which all else branches out. This is also the Tao.

So back to what is not Tao. The question begs at what price do the numbers in your training log or competition history come? Is balance represented? Are you firmly rooted by this pursuit? Is chasing numbers on a scale or on a barbell or in a training log or in a contest placing enhancing your being? Do you know on a gut level the feeling and knowing of enjoyment, enthusiasm, and essence from the experience of your current path? To answer no, is to answer absence. To answer no is to answer emptiness. There can be no fulfillment from empty.

I can tell you from going on 30 years in this game, its extreme demands and extreme pursuits are guaranteeing more imbalance than balance, and more people lost from their path than on it. If you pursue results at the expense of balance what you will experience is the results of imbalance which are usually some form of pain and suffering either physical or existential.

When balance is skewed toward the extreme the irony is that most people experience neither results nor achievement.

This attachment to outcomes is producing an epidemic of mediocrity in performance and overall burnout from activity. To be unaware of the brilliance to even to be able to do what you do; to be unable to appreciate the efforts regardless of the results is to empty your Source of experience. I will address that source in a minute.

When I was early on, before the placings and awards, when I was truly in touch with a deeper purpose it all came so easily. I remember in University the gym would always be empty at exam time. Everyone would be pulling all nighters, no one working out. Because of my centeredness, which I didn’t realize at the time, I was the opposite. I was studying less and working out longer during those times. Why? Because it invigorated me. It cleared my mind. It restored my Source Energy.

The “how” in my process I have realized has been my secret weapon all these years. I have managed to never veer very far away from my roots and my trunk. When I did, that is when I lost the most and experienced the most anguish. That is when I lost by what I gained. That is when I felt a drain on my Source energy.

In the Chinese tradition there are three energies of the path. The first you have all probably heard about. It is Chi. The Chi energy is your daily energy. This is both and always physical and spiritual. It can fluctuate and it includes the importance of what I always discuss, biofeedback. This is why rest and recuperation are so important to the true SELF; because rest and recuperation also represents rest and recuperation of your spiritual daily self as well. Without this rest one is more likely to burn out than to wear out. And if the whole time you are resting you are obsessing about what’s next, then you are not recharging.

Your Shen energy path is the energy you radiate out each day. It is a vibe if you will that you put out into the world. It is what the world experiences from what you radiate. Your Shen energy is real, cannot be faked. It is not the vibe you want people to perceive, but is the actual real vibe you put out. Someone with a lot of Chi energy will also radiate a lot of Shen as well.

Your Jing energy is your life’s spiritual battery. It is your stored energy that you are born with, and it is fixed at birth. We steadily deplete our Jing energy throughout our lives. Hating yourself, your body, your workouts, your job, your surroundings etc, will deplete your Jing; and this will deplete all sources because your Jing energy feeds your Shen and your Chi. Negative emotional attachments and emotions also most intensely deplete Jing and age us.

This is why so many Figure competitors struggle so much in my opinion. Instead of enhancing their energy Source, they drain it by measuring against external standards they cannot possible maintain.

Not to get off track but as poet DH Lawrence said “the cruellest thing a man can do to a woman is to portray her as perfection.” And now in our world, man no longer has to do so, as the media and culture and women do it to themselves at a huge expense.

From my new book is the next point. Depression, anxiety, shame, guilt, anger, envy and jealousy are often rooted in low self-opinion. Although this is an emotional context, it reflects mentality. It is so very important to not assume you are only as worthwhile as your achievements, love life, social status, attractiveness, wallet size, fat percentage or whatever. Many of these externals are temporary at best.

They are only reflections of oneself, not the ‘root’ of oneself. When you measure your worth on the basis of one or more external factors, you are likely to go up and down like a Yo Yo in both mood and self-conception. Life is always changeable. Higher levels of awareness neither force nor resist change. To be rooted is to be grounded, to be grounded is to have the strong trunk base of energy. Self-assessment needs to replace self-judgement. The most important thing someone can do to this end is to remove self-rating from self-acceptance. Again, you will not be happy “when you lose all this weight” but finding happiness will make weight loss easier. Its not your diet that is weighing you down, it’s your thoughts that are weighing you down.

Trying to “control all variables” is an exercise in folly that only produces and induces stress. Look to external variables in a way that allows you to “keep them alive” rather than being slaves to measurements that then induces judgement. This is to lose “the way” The Tao. The Tao athlete truly understands energy levels connected through the self are reflected in and through the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual self. It truly is a mind over matter attitude toward looking inward, and using external variables, not judging oneself within them for good or bad.

Sport or any activity of pursuit should always be a vehicle to enhance and fulfill oneself. What the Tao student knows is that a passion for learning is greater than a desire to get good grades. The former nurtures energy and strengthens, that latter reduces by an attachment to externals that produce stress, anguish, worry and other energy draining emotions.

So the question is whatever you are pursuing “do you attach self-esteem to the pursuit?” If so you will not find what you seek, because what you seek is not “out there” at the end of the path, in say a contest. What you seek is actually already “in here” and is a part of being on the path, experiencing it and knowing it. This is why the Tao cannot be adequately discussed and explained.

When we allow our obsession to take the fun out of pursuit, we diminish not only who we are, but our Source energy as well. You should follow any path because of what it gives to you, because you love it, not because you seek something from it. This is me. I always always always loved to workout more than anything. And I was always connected to myself from it. In that sense while others were suffering from their pursuit I was growing at an exponential rate as a person. I was, through this pursuit more complete because I used it to connect the dots of mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical self-awareness. It strengthened me beyond measure, because I didn’t measure. I knew then and now know intuitively that it is not about the diet and not about the workout.

The Tao athlete preserves that “kid in a candy store” type of attitude and challenge. It is not something measured and judged but is instead something that is experienced and assessed, but not just in physical terms. Pursuit of any kind should always represent "fun and games" in the mental sense. How many of you have approached your diets that way in any stretch of the phrase? I remember early in my career when I thought I was really hungry on the diet, I would cut cals even more, so mentally I would say, “now I know what real hunger is” then when I went back to the calories I thought was making me hungry, I would just mentally laugh at it. I intuitively kept it alive, kept it a challenge, kept it ‘fun and games’ but made it a difficult challenge as well. At the time it may not have been the most scientific approach, but on the other hand, I was never one of those competitors “just wishing it was all over” Ask yourself, what kind of experience are you truly going to have if your mental state is just wanting to get it over with?

All worthy pursuits will still boil down to very hard work, incredible discipline and commitment, and scientifically applied expertise or approaches. But the attitude of “experiencing” and the knowledge to always “be present” is to know the Tao of pursuit. It is to know real accomplishment. The Tao is the constant communication of the little self with the Source SELF. The mental state is one of anticipation and excitement even in the face of fatigue. So the question begs, “Are you as strong in your head as you are in your body?” If doubt, worry, guilt, factor in to your active mind, they you are not on the path of right for you.

Where doubt exists possibilities will not.

Champions at life do not know the word “try” They only know I WILL and I AM. This is the nature of the Tao process. That does not mean there will not be set backs. It does mean we are only responsible for efforts. Following a path just to “be” a better athlete will lead to results.

One of the reasons competing ended up not being for me was because I wasn’t trying to be better than the next guy. I was only trying to be better than I was before. Eventually I realized I did not need a stage to assess myself against that. And I certainly didn;t need the opinions of seven others to validate it either. Once I accepted that challenge I made incredible gains.

A workout was never about how much I could lift, or how perfect I could eventually look.

The Tao athlete sees and knows all of that 'process' as a way to better understanding oneself. The results are not something to record in a log book as a numbers game of a job well done. The results are instead a part of who you are. Always striving to train to one’s limits, or burnout a training partner, or trying to find meaning through the external attachments to workouts and diets only leads over time to utter contempt replacing childhood fascination. You begin to hate what you once loved and strived after.

If this sounds familiar,you need to go back to just a concept and attitude of “allowing.” Allow the workouts to happen. Remind yourself of the greater purpose, not the smaller one. Focusing constantly on externals like weights lifted, calories expended, and whatever else, will reduce your efforts to “have to, must, and should” these will sap your energy sources. Yes, devotion to these factors is always important; but emotional attachment to them is immature. A workout is not something to conquer and vanquish, a diet is not something to endure and survive.

I had my first sense of Tao awareness a many years ago. I used to see video tapes of rock and roll bands where the musicians would smash their guitars into pieces. That never made sense to me. To me, the musical instrument was a part of who they are. In my mind it would be like me setting my arm or leg on fire. It made no sense. Later I was pleased to know that many other musicians felt the same and treated their instruments as true extensions of themselves as artists. This is to know the Tao.

I see the same in things like award ceremonies like the Academy Awards and the Grammy’s etc. No artist begins a creative act seeking an award at the end. No one reads a script and thinks, “This will earn me an academy award” No. Instead, as artists they take on roles or create music that resonates within them. This is also to know Tao nature. The externals are nice but not sought after.

I think the same can be true for physical training toward cosmetic enhancement. Finding the right activity or path for yourself is key.The journey is the destination. Competing then can be an external extension of that pursuit but only if someone approaches it as vehicle to self-improvement or self-knowledge. In that sense, success is always bigger than winning.Experience will always reveal essence.

This is the Tao athlete.

Some of you will get it, some of you will not.

The Carrot, Egg and Coffee Parable

Since last weekend’s workshop I have been literally deluged with e-mail from both attendees and non-attendees asking me to expand on the Metaphysical segment of my presentation on the Friday night lecture portion of the workshop. As it turns out, people are far more interested in the metaphysical side of M.E.T. than the physical.

It seems to have a struck a common nerve and makes this month’s Blog a no brainer. Now I can’t possibly duplicate what I do in person, but the fact it was not only well received but “life changing” as many put it, illustrates that people are finally starting to get it, that industry indoctrination to dogma, and an inherent clinging to information at the expense of true purpose, is a hollow empty pursuit in both the short term and long term.

I would like to also address the Tao nature of athletic pursuit, as the movement is really catching fire. The Tao, stands for the T, in M.E.T. but I will have to address this in next month’s Blog. There is only so much that can be covered and still have it sink in to levels deeper than note taking and rote learning.

Suffice it to say here that the M in MET, stands of many key words to illustrate the metaphysics of athletic pursuit or any other pursuit in any realm. The E in MET likewise represents other key words of focus beyond that of gathering information and implementing rigid principles.

And the T in MET is far beyond the physical and represents not only the Tao athlete, but much much more. Transcendence should be a key part of any pursuit worth undertaking, and if pursuing a goal does not translate in to truth, self-knowledge and personal growth, then perhaps the person needs to re-address the “why’s” of their undertaking and not so much the “how’s”

If you were to be stranded on a dessert island the rest of your life with all the comforts of home, but never to interact with anyone ever again, would you still pursue the same endeavours, and if so would you still do them with the same goal or purpose as before? With no one to measure against or judge you, and no societal norms to abide in, or adhere to, or be compared against, what meaning would you attach to said pursuits? This is reflective of the Tao nature of any pursuit from golf to bodybuilding to tri-athlons, and even to roller skating should that be your chosen pursuit to reflect your purpose or your spiritual guide.

The fact is that inside of each of us is a powerful force to guide and direct us toward happiness and fulfillment. We seem to have lost contact with that force.

As mentioned in an e-mail to me this morning, this “force” if you will has been represented symbolically in Star Wars, via a light sabre. (or life saver) Hence, “let the force be with you” This is not nearly as hackneyed as people may think, but instead something worthy of deeper contemplation. We all have a spiritual compass, unique to ourselves, our life, and our spiritual energy.

However because of the nature of society and the all encompassing force of ego consciousness, we live only in the information world.

I’m here to tell you the secret does not lie in pre and post workout nutrition or a low carb vs. low fat approach. Staying within this information based dogma is self-limiting not self-fulfilling. If it was self-fulfilling than no one would be struggling to hold on to physical achievements, to have them for a moment and then to watch them slip away, only to have to start at the beginning again, concentrating on information, like sets, reps, calories, grams, in a never ending repetition of behaviour with no purpose; in essence execution without meaning.

Yet instead of grasping the fruitless nature of “information” based dogma, we end up repeating the same, thinking that it’s a matter of “different calories” different diets, different workouts; yes that’s where the secret lies.

And all the magazines and websites and supplement companies that need to perpetuate themselves will keep presenting you with more and more complicated information and dogma, blinding you to the reality that “truth” is beyond information.

I will get to that.

First most of what is missed is because people have a counter intuitive relationship with themselves. What should be an opportunity for growth and an open mind is in actuality perceived as threatening because of the old success/failure duality. But as Marianne Williamson said, “our biggest fear is not that we are incapable, our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination” For most people stuck in the information based dogmatic approach to achievement, such a statement makes little sense or seems confusing.

Not so if you live from a spiritual base.

As the French philosopher once remarked, “the only real voyage of discovery exists NOT in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” When someone “sees” from a non physical, meaning non ego based, non position based place of strength, one sees only possibilities and not limitations. People need to go beyond information in order to stop limited thinking, and thinking in limitations, such as “this diet” or “that workout”

It was a surprise to me that prior to my workshop many were writing expressing real stress over whether they would be out of their league there, and if they should attend at all, thinking surely in limitations of form. I’m sure many avoided the workshop for similar reasons. But seeing adversity and choosing resistance or avoidance of it is counter intuitive and only leads to stagnation in the non physical inner world of truth and importance. To that end I present the old parable on the Carrot, The Egg, and Coffee.

The Carrot, the Egg, and Coffee

The carrot, the egg and coffee grounds were to face adversity in the form of boiling water for a specified time period. The carrot before facing the adversity of the water, was strong, vibrant, and colourful. That was its basic nature. After facing and trying to resist the adversity of the boiling water the carrot came out, dull, soft, limp. Its basic nature had been changed, but the adversity of the water remained undaunted and clearly the victor.

The egg before being beset with the adversity of the boiling water seemed symmetrical, whole, and complete in its hard shell protecting its inner liquid nature, its real self. Upon facing the adversity of the water the egg also tried to resist. The boiling water was unrelenting. The adversity was too much. The symmetry of the outer shell was now easily cracked, easily broken. What it attempted to protect had become hard, different, no longer fluid and liquid. Its basic nature had been altered by adversity.

Yet the boiling water remained undaunted, still the adversary, still the victor, still unchanged.

The coffee went in to the boiling water but something was now different. Instead of attempting to resist or avoid the water, the coffee embraced it. By embracing the water and its adversity something interesting happened. The nature of the coffee indeed changed. But it was enhanced. The coffee by embracing the adversity became something greater than it was, and for the first time, it was the boiling water that changed from being embraced rather than resisted.

The adversity of the water became part of the new form of what coffee, had “transformed” into. The coffee, unlike the carrot or the egg, embraced the adversity and by so doing, altered the adversity itself, to a more complete version of itself.

The coffee was improved by not only facing the adversity of the water, but by embracing it!

There are so many life lessons to this parable. I should think most are obvious.

Often I get many people who want to start training with me who begin with “limitations” They complain of bad knees, or a bad back or shoulder etc. When I ask them what they do for these ailments, the automatic reply is “I avoid this exercise, that exercise, etc” My immediate response of such counter intuitive logic is “how is that mentality working for ya?” In other words, does it make the affected area stronger? No. Does it make it less susceptible? No. Fact is by avoiding or resisting adversity for challenged muscles, they stay weak, they stay limited, and someone has an enduring excuse for limited thinking, failure, and rationalization.

The only real way to prepare for adversity is to experience it!!!!!!!!
However how we experience it is beyond the informational, beyond the physical. If you resist or avoid adversity you are either forever changed by it, your nature is altered negatively because it enhances fear, or you remain weak from its avoidance, also reflective of a fear mentality.

Let me save you all the suspense. There will be adversity in your life in many forms.

Resistance and avoidance are counter intuitive. They are not options. Instead let’s define fear differently. Often just having a means to identification can be powerful. Replace the word fear with the acronym of F.E.A.R. From now on Face Everything And Respond !!!

After presenting the metaphysical part of my lecture at the workshop, I still remembered all the people that expressed some intimidation and trepidation for the actual workshop. I created right there a “coffee” like attitude. I instructed everyone from that point on, no one gets left behind. The goal of the workshop would be the metaphysical approach of T.E.A.M. I run my business the same way. Enough of this macho crap of the old Musclecamps of the 20 inch arms over here, and the 400 bench press peeps over here. That is limited thinking and thinking in limitations.

No more!

Our motto for the workshop was T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More) Now that is just an expression. Just like the parable above it could be resisted, avoided or embraced. Everyone got it. Everyone embraced the T.E.A.M. spirit.

The result was something to behold. There were no wall flowers. People would see an exercise demonstrated and ooh and ahh at its difficulty, but seconds later they were doing it. There was no “trying with doubt attached” There was only ‘executing excellence” toward it. (The E aspect of MET) That is not to say all movements were mastered. But they were embraced and from that point approached by a sense of challenge and invigoration rather than intimidation and fear.

If you’ve read the thread on the workshop then you can feel right beyond the posts, that T.E.A.M. was victorious.

Now here is the thing. The T in M.E.T, also represents transformation and transcendence beyond the “Metabolic Enhancement Training” to subjective meaning of experience. The problem with living in the ego centred world is that we are always occupied only with ‘form” as in the roles we play, how we measure up, how we achieve, what we have etc. If we look at it more closely the ego world is the world of “form” By living in that world all the time we only have access to “in-form-ation” That is quite limiting.

The solutions to all predicaments come to be seen as “in-form-ational” and physical.

Can’t sleep? Medicate. Feel anxious? Medicate. Not feeling joy? Medicate. Well with the death of actor Heath Ledger and the wrestler Chris Benoit before him, we can witness that a physical solution to non physical issues is a losing battle. Medicating adversity is avoiding and resisting it on a different plane than its existence. How is that looking to ya?

Most in our industry of competition and cosmetic enhancement forgot why they began this process to begin with. They are now forever wrapped up in the unrewarding unfulfilling world of form, where how much they lift, how many calories they eat, and their pant size are now the precipitating factors and ends. The joy is lost.

Listen, we don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing!

The surest way to make anything old is to start measuring yourself against it all the time.

We need to get beyond the world of “form” Follow me here. If we can “trans-form” to measuring against activities, then we can transcend to measuring ourselves instead against qualities of character. When we “trans-form” from the physical world and find our spiritual compass, then we can access what is beyond “in-form-ation” now we can access our spiritual nature. When we do that now we can access “in-spir-ation. I am telling you spiritual force is stronger than any other “form collecting” you can do.

Scott how do you stay on your diet?

I don’t count calories and I don’t; count grams. I stopped doing that ages ago, as a process of limited thinking and thinking in limitations and form. I stick to my diet by “executing excellence everyday” I don’t judge myself against a calorie to be measured.

That does not measure me, it limits me.

Instead I measure myself against excellence. I would not miss a workout, or cheat on my diet because commitment and discipline are qualities of character of spirit, like devotion, integrity, self-honesty etc. By measuring myself against that, the little things like following through with excellence of execution and expecting more (all elements of the E, in M.E.T) are easy by comparison. Diets are not hard, our mental and emotional attachments to them just block clarity of purpose.

Think of the spiritual self as the trunk of a large tree complete with vast route systems, and such a steady base upon which to stand.

This spiritual base which we all have as a birth right is unique to each of us. It is “the way” (the Tao) by which we connect the dots of physical, emotional, and mental being.

Everything else is just ‘branches to existence”

The problem is most of us have this upside down. Stop seeking. Like I said at the workshop, if you seek a helping hand you can find two, one at the end of each of your arms.

The fact is Big “C” coaching is beyond fancy information. Big “C” coaches are more like conductors of a symphony, aiming to create harmony between the physical and the metaphysical. Stop being impressed by insignificant information that has no bearing on your “experience” of phenomenon. Instead of accessing “in-form-ation” start accessing your own “in-spir-ation” which is infinitely stronger. I promise you the meaning of everything from that point on is substantive, not formative.

As one of my articles in the workshop workbook states, I can impress you all day long with my knowing of the chemical constituents of chocolate. Does that in any way at all, lead to an experience of its taste?

As usual some of you will get, many of you will not.

If you do in fact get it, then I leave you this, “May the force be with you”

My next book is all about this aspect of Big C coaching in the real world. If you like this Blog, then you will want to get the book. If you find this stuff represents “gibberish and non sense” then you will be well to stick to books of measurement and pseudo science.

New Year’s “Evolutions”: Negative Diet Strategies Reflective of Self-Image Issues

New Year’s seems to always be a time of reflection for many people. For many of my clients, looking forward to the New Year seems to bring out both anticipation but fear and trepidation as well. Whether or not some folks were just checking in after the holidays, or others were spelling out their New Year’s goals, some venting of their feelings usually ends up in my Inbox around every New Year’s.

This year, I had over 16 e-mails that were reflective of the 2 below. My on-going fight against Metabolic Damage remains as steadfast as ever, but one thing about coaching that few others seem to get is that the process of “doing right” is as much from the neck up as it is from the neck down. To this day many of my counterparts are ignoring the fact that Big “C” coaching needs to address not just the physical, but mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of pursuit as well.

The two e-mails below are not about picking on anyone or being critical or anything like that. These e-mails and many just like them reflect the self-induced and unnecessary anguish that many associate with goal directed behaviour. This Blog is an attempt to address the common thinking strategy mistakes that I see repeating themselves over and over again, even among the same people. If you are beginning each year with pretty much the same diet or physique goals, and the same self-image issues, then your physical process is not the issue. The issue is one of thinking strategy, which I have stated on many occasions, are often “stinking tragedies”

These are real e-mails. I make them anonymous because they represent a common theme I see all too often throughout the year. And the point is, without addressing these thinking strategies on a deeper level, no matter what is accomplished, it will not be maintained. The proof of that is that both of these e-mails are from people that have dieted for competition before. (But neither one with me, they came to me some time after)

So the question begs, “What is gained, and what is lost” if after a time all thoughts go back to negative self-image issues, and the circle begins again. So first, read the two segments of e-mails below. Many of you out there will relate to them in many details. Again, the point is not to punish or condemn but to learn and grow. These are my clients and I care about them and their well-being, so let’s not forget that as I delve in to the problems of negative emotional thought process associated with diet strategy that continues to miss the bigger picture.

E-mail Number 1

“You were right about the ebb and flow of the training spark. But for me it seems to be more with the diet. It is still going well. I still feel hungry sometimes. I've been a bit constipated the last week as well, but not really sure why. So that has made me feel a bit bloated and uncomfortable. So that has caused a few "fat day" feelings. It's hard sometimes because I just feel like I wish I was "normal" and that I didn't have to put so much effort in to the diet part. It's not that I want to eat junk food or anything like that. Some days it would just be nice to not have to think about it so much. It seems like it's always on my mind.

I'm a bit stressed because I really need to go dress shopping, but I'm afraid it will end up with me crying and depressed because I don't like the way I look in anything. The thing is, I was engaged once before, and found a dress that I looked great in, but I was also about 20-25lbs lighter then. So I find myself comparing me to how I was then. I know I shouldn't, and I hate that I do it. I just really want to lose some bodyfat before I walk down the aisle.

Some days I wish I never would have competed at all. I wasn't happy being fat before, but I was more oblivious to it. I had never been
skinny, so I didn't know any different. Now, I seem to constantly be striving for some mental image of perfection I have of how I want to
look. And since I was there before, it seems like I'm failing because I can't get back there again and I'm so desperate to lose the weight. I
just don't want to be fat anymore. I know it will take time, and that the inner stuff needs to be fixed first. I hate that it seems to
control me so much. A missed workout or eating something other than what is on my plan (even if it's still healthy) makes me feel so guiltyit's ridiculous. Some days, I just expect too much from myself. I feel like any reason I have to not train is just an excuse, even if I
am sick or run down. I really need to find a balance and realize that life will happen no matter what, and that one missed workout or a
slight deviation in my diet once in awhile isn't going to destroy my efforts. I am doing better most days with it all. I've just been
feeling gross the last few days so it all surfaces again.

E-mail #2

I realize how lucky I am to be here and how much energy I waste on always concerning myself with what I am eating and doing. I want to live a healthy and happy life not always worried about when and what I have to eat. I want to make healthy choices without obsessing about it. I want to eat good without weighing and measuring everything I put in my mouth.... I haven't been faithful to my diet or training in the last week and a half. I haven't overeaten just not eaten what I should be eating and not often enough. And as a result I have gotten terribly sick the last 3 days with a very bad cold/flu. I feel much better today but yesterday was the worst with a fever and the chills. I very rarely get sick and when I do it's always when I haven't been eating well.

If you look at both of these e-mails one thing stands out and that is use of the words “want’ and “don’t want” as well as so many emotional ties to that “state of being” all of which I highlighted for effect. And that state of being is entirely due to being in a constant state of “wanting this” or it’s seeming opposite of “not wanting that” Notice that the level of self-judgement and self recrimination remains as a constant. There are also elements of resentment within both e-mails.

Now if we go back and understand the content of the e-mails within its broader context we can see that diet strategy is also a reflection of a life strategy in general. In other words, how we pursue and perceive things, no matter how trivial or important they may seem, is a real reflection of over all world view or approach if you will. So there are tremendous life lessons present here, that even though reflected in diet strategy represent ways of thinking that are impactful in tremendous ways to the experience of living.

If someone approaches any task or goal with an element of emotional resentment, at any level, then even if the goal is achieved, it is so emotionally exhausting it is unlikely to be maintained for long. I see this all the time with attitudes of ‘I hate cardio” vs. “I love training.” In other words you create your world of experience with what you choose to focus on. Focus on wants, frustration, guilt, shame, and you will surely experience more of them regardless of goal attainment. How do I know? How many have competed only to never hold on to what they “strived” so hard to achieve. When “want” is your bottom line attitude, then it will keep presenting itself.

Many have competed “wanting” that physique, they can’t possibly maintain. And what happens once they attain it. Usually that “want” is just replaced by another want. Many want that contest look till they have it, and once attained a set of “new wants” appears does it not?

All of a sudden the attained physique is not nearly as important as “now I want to eat normal food” “I want to be able to go out and have a few drinks with my friends, and not be so worried about my physique" “I don’t want to be a slave to my training any more” So what happens then? These people with the “wanting mentality” then go out and pursue these new wants till they lose entirely their physiques they previously “wanted” for so long. And then the process of “want” continues all over again. This is hardly a winning thought strategy.

People need to change if necessary their thoughts, actions, and behaviours to build a life that suits them, not a life burdened by endless “wants” and pursuing accomplishments as end results with no long term meaning.
If people are going to develop effective life strategies, even in something as seemingly simple as diet psychology then lessons must be learned or the process just keeps repeating itself.

The sad thing about history, personal or otherwise is that people seldom seem to learn from it.

Elements of emotional context like blame, excuses, rigidity of thinking and judgementalism are self-weakening positions. People need to learn to observe without judging, explore without attachment of value or reward. More important is transcending the Infantile Ego position of Self-Pity and resentment. Negative emotional energy just brings about negative emotional consequences, as in more and more “wanting or not wanting", and then more negative emotions attached to its pursuit like guilt, pressure, obsession, shame and the like. These will zap the power of the self and create the never ending hamster wheel of making insurmountable mountains out of easily attainable molehills.

The idea of an effective diet strategy (again, reflective of life strategy) is to move “toward” positive values, and not “away from” negative ones in one’s conscious process. For instance trying to move “away from” guilt, shame, sadness, anger etc only act as a drag on you pulling you back towards them thus creating a sense of emotional “heaviness” to any task. This is exactly what we mean by the term “emotional baggage”; however, moving consciously “toward” positive values like love, self-love, respect, self-respect, joy, healing, peace of mind etc will help “push you” toward those very things. Notice that real “values” have little to do with material possessions, including cosmetic achievements like a lean body.

It’s important to develop a thinking strategy of the carrot, not the stick. Focus “toward” what you want as a quality of character, ( for example being self-directed) not “away from" what you don’t want in terms of a state of being. (for example “I don’t want to be fat”) It is important that in order to “have something” and to “be it” one must get rid of the whole concept of “want this and don’t want that” as they just tend to reproduce “new wants and not wants,” incessantly, and you end up like a dog chasing its tail. Along with this is the necessity to know the difference between outcomes of pursuit and our attachments to them. Getting rid of attachments to outcomes is also a decidedly empowering move.

People don’t really long for the goal of being “not fat.” They long for the feelings “they attach” to having achieved that goal. This is how the law of reversed effect works.

Simply the law of reversed effect states that for many, the harder the effort to succeed, the more likely is inevitable failure. This is because of an emphasis on ”want” and being focused “on” instead of “working toward” For many ladies, they are far too focused “on diet” rather than ‘working toward” self-direction. Again, this only brings pain and drain to ordinary pursuits.

Simply “wanting, and desiring, and wishing” and the like only get in the way of “allowing” the actual outcome to manifest. It’s time to change the mental thinking strategies. Stop chasing and start being a witness to fruition. It is that easy.

But to try to prove self-worth, or claim self-worth is to lose it. It must be lived, not stated and not strived after. Striving is also not an effective thinking strategy, or not nearly as effective as a strategy of ‘allowing.’ Diet strategy being representative of life strategy illustrates through experience, that diet or any other undertaking of personal challenge is only a struggle till it is worked through. At some point when working through thinking proper thinking strategy, the battle ends because the war is won over. Challenges then become just that, challenges, with no attachments to self worth within them, but rather a broader context of self-direction. There are no longer struggles or personal battles. The mature mind wins out over the Infantile Ego previously discussed.

There is no longer a position of thought of “I want this” or “I don’t want that” There is only “being and doing” from that point. There is no longer a sense of pressure nor difficulty nor emotional attachments to the specified activity (e.g. diet) From this vaulted place of thinking strategy, ease of doing becomes common place, because one’s position is a basic one of self-satisfaction. Seeds of discouragement cannot take place in a grateful heart.

Meaning and Awareness

From a position that doesn’t concern itself with “want this” or “don’t want that” then meaning and awareness are going to be more motivating factors. This is right thinking. Meaning, personal meaning and awareness of pursuit give “value” to that which is pursued. This is when any thinking strategy reflective of larger life strategies starts to swell into positive experience. At this point dieting, or competing or even Christmas tradition take on value added expression that serves instead of exhausts a person on an emotional level.

A good coach (ahem) coaches a trainee to know that there should be real meaning equated to specific achievement or achievements. This is the sincere way to add value to pursuit. Otherwise, and in most cases people simply “assume” attainment of goals, for example physical goals such as weight loss will transcend to a place of fulfillment and happiness and this is almost always NOT the case. This is why there is so much post contest or post event (Christmas) depression and blues complete with self-judgement. Meaning has not transcended the event (contest, Christmas, whatever) to become part of the working spirit of a person that directs thinking strategies.
The value associated with that meaning then, does not become a part of the person’s character.

The rush is perceived to be a result of the event itself (the contest or Christmas anticipation etc) and therefore so much that could be gained for self is lost in faulty perception of perceived value. The discovery of magnitude here is that it is not the goal itself that is often desired but the self-satisfaction associated with it, by perception. I know many who claim “competing makes me happy”, o