Could the secret to vibrant health lurk in your pantry? Join me, Rob Maxwell, as we unravel the unspoken truths of fitness and nutrition, exposing the fallacy that shedding pounds is the pinnacle of health. This episode promises to redefine your relationship with food, illuminating the dense fog of diet myths with scientific insight. Discover why a calorie is not just a calorie, and how a diet of Hershey's Kisses, while potentially slimming, fails to fulfill your body's diverse nutritional needs. We'll dissect the real meaning of 'balanced diet' and why it's not just about the scale but about fueling the complex machine that is your body.
As we navigate the essential components that comprise a truly healthy diet, we'll confront the demonization of carbs and champion the heroes of our plates—whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. We'll also make sense of 'lean proteins' and why they’re pivotal for more than just muscle repair, but for maintaining stable glucose levels too. And let's not forget the conversation about fats; they're not the enemy if you choose the right allies. So, lace up for this journey through the nutritional landscape as we piece together the mosaic of a well-rounded diet that's about living your healthiest life, not just losing weight.
Could the secret to vibrant health lurk in your pantry? Join me, Rob Maxwell, as we unravel the unspoken truths of fitness and nutrition, exposing the fallacy that shedding pounds is the pinnacle of health. This episode promises to redefine your relationship with food, illuminating the dense fog of diet myths with scientific insight. Discover why a calorie is not just a calorie, and how a diet of Hershey's Kisses, while potentially slimming, fails to fulfill your body's diverse nutritional needs. We'll dissect the real meaning of 'balanced diet' and why it's not just about the scale but about fueling the complex machine that is your body.
As we navigate the essential components that comprise a truly healthy diet, we'll confront the demonization of carbs and champion the heroes of our plates—whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. We'll also make sense of 'lean proteins' and why they’re pivotal for more than just muscle repair, but for maintaining stable glucose levels too. And let's not forget the conversation about fats; they're not the enemy if you choose the right allies. So, lace up for this journey through the nutritional landscape as we piece together the mosaic of a well-rounded diet that's about living your healthiest life, not just losing weight.
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell. I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I'm the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs and I've been in business since 1994.
Speaker 1:
Why do I call this the method to the madness podcast? Because all my years being a personal trainer and exercise physiologist, I set it all the time when people would ask questions or when I was trying to explain what kind of workout we're gonna do, I'd always say you know, there really is a method to the madness. In other words, there is science, there's psychological science, there's biological science, there's physiological science, there's kinesiology. So there's science. There is a way that things work for each individual. So that's why I call it that, and that's the kind of stuff that we're gonna talk about here and today. I'm gonna talk about that. You know what you really are, what you eat. We've heard it said and I'm gonna explain how I mean it. Anyway, before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They currently have over 285 star reviews on Zillow. They're consummate professionals. They're my go-tos for real estate, absolutely so. If you need help, give Jonathan a shout at 386-451-2412. Alright, so you are what you eat. Now, today I'm doing this in my nice little personal training studio. Sometimes I do, sometimes I do it in my home office, but you know what? You might hear the radio going on back there behind the closed door. You might hear some weights clanking. You might hear Mr Jake Johansson, our great County Council member, going after it this morning, and you know what. That's all good, because I try to keep this podcast like real. You know I don't edit and some of you might like go, yeah, no, kidding, so if I mess up, I don't edit. I mean, this is just having a conversation with you to talk about fitness and the stuff that I love. So it's real here, alright. So with that aside, let's get after it. You are what you eat.
Speaker 1:
You've heard that saying a lot and there is so much truth to it. You know, a lot of times people just throw terms together, especially in this industry. Maybe in your industry they do it as well. But you know everything gets lumped together. You get diet and exercise, you get health and fitness, you get fitness and wellness, but you know they're all different things. It's so funny how, like, we can take one thing and think it's the thing. So, in other words, a lot of people's goals, of course, is to lose weight. Like that is just where we're at in the health and fitness world. If you got a bunch of trainers in a room, they're gonna say you know, 75-80% of their clients want to lose weight. So it's where we are, it's the state of the nation, it's the state of the world.
Speaker 1:
But what's kind of funny is that's just one aspect of physical fitness. I mean, it's a big one, it's related to health, but it really is one aspect, you know. Then there's cardiorespiratory fitness and endurance, then there's muscular strength, then there's muscular endurance, then there's flexibility and better put I like the term mobility better. Then there's balance, and then you can throw it all together, with the exception of weight loss, and we can say there's ADLs, there's activities of daily living, so there's so many things, but often everything gets thrown together Diet and exercise, health and wellness. So the reason why that matters today is because too many times people confuse weight loss with healthy eating, because they don't always go together.
Speaker 1:
Like weight loss is really simple. I know you're told it's not. I know that you think it's supposed to be about like intermittent fasting. Now that's the latest. You know keto and paleo and low carb and low fat and all this bull crap that, basically, is just moving the old deck chairs around in the Titanic. It's just kind of like, okay, now we're gonna focus on this to avoid this. And it's like none of that's true. I mean, weight loss is as simple as calories in and calories out. You know there's been new research on ultra-processed foods, so they're now evil. It's like Well, I mean, it still comes back to calories. Now, I'm no way a proponent of ultra processed foods. I think they're complete garbage. But the reason why they increase weight gain is because they're so easy to eat so much of. I mean, you can grab a ultra processed bag of chips and eat the whole bag and you just consume like 800 calories and you barely took a breath. So it still all comes down to calories.
Speaker 1:
Regarding weight loss, I've used to tell students this all the time. They looked at me like I was crazy. I'd say look, you can literally eat nothing but Hershey's Kisses and lose weight, which is true. I mean, I don't know how many calories are in a Hershey's Kiss. One of you can go look it up. And if I wasn't speaking on the computer right now, I'd go to my phone and Google, but I'm not going to do that right. But I don't know, I have no idea, I don't even want to try to guess. 20, 30 calories and a tiny little Hershey's Kiss. So you could lose weight if you only ate so many of them. Like, let's say, your basal metabolic rate is 1300 calories and let's say that you put in another 400 calories of activity all day long with your exercise moving around. So basically you're at rest, you're at about 1700 calories. So let's say you eat nothing but 1000 calories of Hershey's Kisses and that's all you need.
Speaker 1:
We lose weight, absolutely there is no question about it. You will lose weight. We be healthy Nope, not even close but you will lose weight. So there are two different things. Just like you could eat nothing but lettuce and gain weight Now you're going to have to eat the amount of a sea line out there of a manatee, but you could gain weight eating lettuce. I think I mean biologically speaking, it's possible. Physiologically speaking, I don't know how you could get all them lettuce leaves into your stomach with the water that they carry and not have diarrhea everywhere or whatever, or throw it up, no idea. But it's possible calorically speaking. So it's not the same thing.
Speaker 1:
So when we say you are what you eat, that's what this is about I mean sure you can lose weight, just restricting, right? I mean, at the worst case of extremes you have eating disorders where anorexics don't eat at all all day. Of course they lose weight and it's a sickness, it's an illness, but of course they're not healthy, right? So we can lose weight and get to an ideal weight, so to say, and be unhealthy because we're nutritionally deficient, we're not eating what we need. So if we want to feel like crap, we eat like crap, and so many times people will come to the gym I mean not even weight loss.
Speaker 1:
Actually, what's kind of funny is, in this regard, some of the weight loss clients are a little bit more nutritionally aware than the people who are maintaining their fitness or building their fitness, because maybe they're reading more labels or maybe they're just more involved currently in it, so their mind is on it. But they seem to understand a little bit better regarding, like, what they should eat beforehand and afterwards and all this. But other people I'll ask them I might notice that their strength levels are a little bit down. I'll say feeling all right. Yeah, yeah, I've been feeling a little sluggish and their numbers are down, like they're not using the same loads that they have typically used in the past. Or they just look rundown, or maybe they're even a little moody or whatever. Or maybe they tell me they're not sleeping good. Or maybe they'll say they're a little bit down or depressed. And when I start pushing them on their diet a little bit and that's the beauty of personal training, because you are spending, in our case, anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes with people then you can have conversations and you meet people where they are I mean that's the beauty of it, like sure, we have a plan, but you get to know people and talk to them and then try to help them. And I'm blown away so often when they tell me about what they've eaten.
Speaker 1:
Some will say, well, I didn't eat really dinner last night. I felt like I ate too much during the day and so I skipped. I'm like what? I mean, what are you doing? You can't do that. You can't get up after not eating dinner. Come to the workout to work out with no glycogen. I mean you can't do that. So what glycogen is is that stored carbohydrate. Our body stores around 500 grams per person. So, everybody, a little bit of change based on your body weight, but more or less we store 500 grams of carbohydrate. If we're eating like we should, I should really qualify that If we're eating like we should, we store 500 grams, which is essentially 2,000 calories worth of carbohydrates. Now, carbohydrates fuel exercise. It fuels exercise. It fuels Exercise. Okay, how many times do I need to say that? You need to get that through your head.
Speaker 1:
If you're trying to become fit, stronger, more endurance, have more cardio, and you're trying to go low carb, you are not going to become more fit. It is not going to happen Because the only thing that anaerobic metabolism can use for fuel to make more ATP which is what makes us move with denizen triphosphate is carbohydrates. Without carbs, you cannot fuel anaerobic metabolism, so you cannot strength, train or do any kind of cardio intensity without carbohydrates. Not going to happen. The low carb thing is bullshit, all right, it is not true.
Speaker 1:
People like to throw the baby out with the bath water, so to say, oh, I'm on a low carb diet. My doctor told me I shouldn't eat anymore, or I should really limit my candy and my chips and my crackers and my donuts. I'm like, okay, that's junk food. And if your doctor told you that, get a new doctor. I mean, if he told you to limit junk food, great. But if they said low carb and they know you're exercising, get a new doctor, because that's ridiculous. We need a percentage of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. We cannot skip out on any macronutrients. So you're not going to get more fit if you're on a low carb diet.
Speaker 1:
You are what you eat. Now, what kind of carbs should you choose? Well, good carbs. I mean whole grains, fruits and vegetables, things that grow in the ground. Why is this such a hard concept for people Like, do you really think on God's green earth that like great carbs that grow in the ground, such as potatoes, you know, tubers, corn, rice do you really think that's bad for you? I mean, come on, does that make any sense to you whatsoever? And can't you see where that's very, very different than powdered sugar or bleached white flour? Can't you see where, like, it's totally different, but people throw the baby out with the bathwater? They are should be on low carbs. It's like no, I mean, you know, go to other cultures, go to Japan, go to other cultures where there's a huge rice diet and they're not obese like us. So you know, let's start to use a little bit of common sense. And it's just BS.
Speaker 1:
And people just have a hard time with gray thinking. Right, I mean, they're black or white. They're like Well, if I just cut out all carbs, then I don't have to think for myself. You know, I can just go oh, that's easy enough to figure out. I know what carbohydrates are, I know how to read a label, I'm just not going to eat it. It's like Okay, so that's a real black and white way of thinking. You know, that's not a very mature way of thinking. When you get down to it, so, and it doesn't work, I mean forget all the other things. You know qualifiers, I just gave it. It just doesn't work. I mean, research shows that it's not sustainable. You're not going to do it, you're going to binge. And when you binge you're going to come back even fatter.
Speaker 1:
Because what happens is, when we're on a low carb diet and we exercise, you know, you think you're doing the right thing what you're actually doing is cutting into your muscle fibers. It's called gluconeogenesis. So that means we're literally eating our muscle fibers. Why? Because our body needs carbs, so it's creating carbohydrates out of the proteins in the muscle, gluconeogenesis, and you're eating yourself literally. So you're on a low carb diet and, by the way, a lot of this. We see a lot of this happening with the drug ozempic as well. So, like we're losing muscle tissue, so then we lose muscle tissue, which is not good, because muscle tissue is the largest driver of our metabolism. Right, it just is. I shouldn't say right, just trust me, it is so. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism is going to be. So if you're on a low carb diet, then you're going to cut into the muscle. You lose muscle. Then you can't sustain a low carb diet. So 30 days later, you just say I'll the hell with it and you start eating normal again. Well, now your metabolism slowed down, you eat more than you need to because you over correct and you gain more weight. It's a cycle we see all the time. All right, it's all the time.
Speaker 1:
And God forbid you listen to us, don't listen to us. Don't listen to the podcast or make an essentially zero money off of this. Listen to the person out there that's trying to sell you some stupid product out there or belief system. That's just not true. So they can earn a buck, right. Listen to them, be foolish, but you know when you're ready, all right. So that's that rant on that part.
Speaker 1:
But you are what you eat. So if you want to feel like crap in your workouts, eat like crap. If you want to feel good, fuel for exercise. If you want to feel good through the day, fuel for the day right. So we need Good whole grain, fruit and vegetable carbohydrates. If you want to live like a winner you hear jake out there, you know Hammering it on the leg press. You know he wants to be a winner. He works hard. First client of the day so far today Right. If you want to be like that, if you want, if you want to change your life, have a good lifestyle, feel better, feel better about yourself. You got to eat to win. You just do, and that we got to fuel ourselves with proper carbohydrates. Now, of course, everything in moderation, but that's true for every bit of food. But you need to eat enough of it or you won't have energy. If you don't have energy, you are probably Good carb deficient.
Speaker 1:
And again, don't get too confused whole grains, fruits and vegetables, things that grow in the ground it is hard to go Wrong with. Now a lot of people are all of a sudden on an oat bashing kick right, that is just Stupid and ridiculous, all right. There's nothing in the real Literature that states anything about oats being bad. Oats are just a good form of carbohydrate. Now Are there some, you know, synthetically made or maybe Poisoned with all that? You hear that with oats and other things in the ground, I mean maybe, but like, get organic, get good oats. I mean it's not the oats that are bad, I mean sometimes it's our industrial farming system that's bad. But again, that doesn't mean we throw things out. We educate ourselves and just get the right kind of whole grains.
Speaker 1:
But if it grows in the ground, if it grows from a tree, carbohydrate wise, why are you staying away from it? That's ignorance. Ignorance, or you're just like black and white thinking and you just don't want to think for yourself. So you just oh, no carbs, all right, then you're not going to have energy, you're not going to have power, you're not going to have speed, you're not going to have alertness. The only thing your brain can use for for fuel is sugar, is glucose, and that's all. Sugar is really in the body is glucose. If you're low on glucose. You can't think if you're low on carbs, you're going to be long glucose. I mean, if you want to feel foggy, don't eat carbs. If you want to have no energy for your workouts, don't eat carbs. I mean, okay, there you go. I mean, does that make really any sense when you think about it?
Speaker 1:
So we need good whole grain carbohydrates. We are what we eat. We also need lean Proteins. Now we can get lean. Lean just means low on fat, that's. That's like all that means right, if you're lean, you have low fat.
Speaker 1:
Now the the reason why you hear that said a lot is because a lot of proteins are high in fat. That's all. It's not like we say, oh, you need lean carbohydrates, well, that's because carbohydrates are not fat. You don't have to say that. But lean proteins is.
Speaker 1:
We say that because of the fact that so many high protein products are high in fat. For example, dairy, full fledged dairy, is my saying it's bad for you? I'm not saying it's bad for you. I'm saying that Regular dairy is high in fat. So sure, it's high in protein, it's also high in fat. You say, well, what about skim? Well, there you go, that's lean protein.
Speaker 1:
Again, I'm not going to get talking about other things that dairy might cause you like, oh, I'm lactose intolerant or I'm gluten intolerant. By the way, most of the things have been proven to be not true, but they do sell a lot of products. They do sell, like you know, lactose free milk and you know, and all that kind of stuff, and once again you fell for it. But Some people really are a little more intolerant to dairy. But and this is just an example but sure, now all of a sudden, dare to skim milk and if you're smart, I shouldn't say it that way, but organic is typically better because, again, you're gonna stay away from the pesticides and all that.
Speaker 1:
Then, yes, that's eating to win, because now you have lean protein. So, chicken breast, white meat, chicken is lean protein, white fish is lean protein, beans is a great plant source of protein. Tofu and yes, tofu, I said tofu. You know Most the research on tofu and estrogen and all that again, hasn't been really Verified and if you haven't issue, talk to your doctor. But there are lean sources of Protein out there that you can choose and this isn't. This doesn't have anything to do with your choices with Animal and farming. I mean, I get all that that's totally different. So, like, please, like, don't try to take it in that direction, because I share many beliefs on that.
Speaker 1:
But I'm talking about we need to eat lean proteins, regardless if you get them from plants or animals. Lean Proteins for our physical fitness and health. And we need to have complex carbohydrates, like, if you eat that way, if you eat clean, then you will start feeling better. That's what we mean by you are what you eat. Now, a group, a Population of people that have always been really good at this and it's funny they kind of get a bad name out there in the world is bodybuilders. You know all muscle head lump heads dotted out. You know well, you know it's funny is, when it comes to nutrition, most of them not all, of course, and it can't generalize totally but they really get it like they do eat pretty clean and you know what they eat a lot, but they eat clean.
Speaker 1:
So that's what I want to get you to understand like, when you eat clean, you are what you eat. You can eat more. Like you could eat pretty much almost as much yellow squash as you wanted to, right, fill up that plate and it's loaded with fiber, it's loaded with complex carbohydrates, you can eat more. If you eat crap, you can't eat as much, just total volume, it's just you can't. So when I say we are what we eat, we need good whole grain, complex carbohydrates so we have energy for life and we have energy for our workouts with energy to get through the day.
Speaker 1:
We need lean proteins because protein helps us with two critical elements. And Before I go on, let me state that a lot of Americans over eat protein, but it's because all they eat is high fatty foods oftentimes that sure are high in protein but they're also high in fat. So we have to be a little bit cautious of that. But if we go with lean proteins, then we're good. And the two major things that protein does for you is it's a growth and Repair macro nutrient, meaning that if we don't have adequate protein, our cells can't repair as Efficiently as we want them to.
Speaker 1:
So once we work out, a lot of people say, well, you need protein to grow. It's like not completely true. You need carbohydrates to grow, you need protein to repair. So I know it's semantics. It kind of means the same thing, but people get it wrong. You need higher protein so the muscle cells can recover. You need it for growth and repair. That's a major function of protein. The second function is it helps with blood sugar regulation. So it will help lower the insulin and glucose response in your cells when you have protein at a given meal. It will lower the glycemic index with carbohydrates when you have protein at a meal. So in other words, if you have protein and whole grain carbohydrates together, the glucose response isn't going to be as sudden, it's going to Assimilate a little bit slower, which is good. So protein helps with the glycemic control and it helps with growth and repair.
Speaker 1:
Carbohydrates give you energy. Now the final one is fat. We do need some fat in our diet, but we don't need nearly as much as we think. But we do need Some. And I would caution you to go with unsaturated polymono and saturated fats, in other words, plant fats, because they tend to have better effects on the body. Now If you are on a super low fat diet, you might have trouble with your hormonal system, so we have to be careful there.
Speaker 1:
So we do want to make sure we get enough fat, but again, most Americans do, but unfortunately they get it Saturated fats and from animals, and that's not really what we want. We want more of the walnuts, the flaxseed oils, the olive oils and things like that, but we do need to eat them in like moderation, because fat is simply so calorically dense. So when we eat to, when we do need to have our limited but some Poly and mono unsaturated fats, we need to eat a diet primarily of whole grain, fruit, vegetable. Good Carbohydrates come from the ground and we need to eat the lean proteins. If we do that, we are what we now. We're eating good, guess what? We're gonna feel good. All right, speaking of feeling good, thank you, jeff and Zach Hawk of overhead door of Daytona Beach, because after they come out and install your garage door, everybody's gonna feel good because you're gonna have the best garage door in town, bar none. All right, give them a shout at overheaddoordatonacom.