I hope you guys have been watching the Olympics!
Holy Moly, they have been fun to watch!
Swimming: yeah Phelps is fast, no shocker there; but did you hear how much that guys eats in a day?
8-10,000 calories a day! A day!
Did you see an ounce of fat on that guy? How about when his suit is dangerously low on his 6 pack abs?
On the one hand that is amazing! I came close to eating that years ago when I use to deliver furniture all day long for Slumberland. My partner John and I would start at 730 in the morning and work until the day was done. Some days that was 2:30,3 some days it was 10pm or even midnight.
What usually frustrated me was after we got done late, I would have to hurry off to the gym to go work out; but my gym closed at midnight! Damn it! That meant that some nights I couldn’t get a work out in or could only get a short one lasting 30 minutes before I had to head back home, slam a weight gainer shake (around 1,000 calories), and then get to bed fast because I had to be to work in a few hours to do it all over again. I always thought "today is going to be different; I am going to be done earlier so I can get to the gym and get a great workout in tonight!"
We would almost run up the 3 flights of stairs (if it was easy, they would have carried it themselves!) and then take every other step on the way down so we could get done faster! And we got paid by the hour!
To keep up my energy I was almost constantly eating; I would eat around 6,000 some calories a day. And I would have eaten a lot more if I could have had a bigger lunch box to bring with or more money in my wallet so I could have eaten more when the food runs out.
I actually like to eat. It made me feel good! But I eat to live, not live to eat! I had never thought much about how much I ate until I was in a nutrition class in college. We had to write down everything during the course of the day for 3 days and bring it to class. I didn't think it was a big deal.
I remember looking over at the sheet of the girl next to me. I told her that she was suppose to write everything down that she ate throughout the course of the day, not just her snacks. She looked at me and said that she was trying to lose weight! She was eating only around 1,000 calories - at the most! We went around the room and said what our daily 3 day average was; we got to me and I told them that mine was around 6-7,000 and let’s just say that I didn’t make any friends. So they told me laughingly that I must have made a mistake somewhere and to re-do it; what for? That is what I ate. If you don’t believe me, go ask my mom so she can show you the food bill. (Thank you, Mom, for not killing me!) After all I was a growing boy!
This exercise was a huge eye opener for me! People hated me for eating so much and drinking a weight gainer shake over a thousand calories right before bed so I could gain some weight (and not wake up in the middle of the night just because I was hungry-that’s a waste of time). What? I was just always hungry and could barely satisfy it and then an hour later I had to eat again or else I got really crabby for some reason; weird huh!
I could go on about the time I went skiing with Karen and Heidi at Sun Valley last year and had to eat all the time; but we can save that for another time. But for now, just know that I passed my metabolism down to my daughter Dani-ha ha kiddo!
So Anyhoo, I can sympathize with Phelps on the eating deal. Sometimes it not that much fun to always worry or wonder if you're really going to have enough food for you.
The point here is, just because you are trying to lose weight, doesn’t mean that you should starve calories from your body to try to lose it - trust me, not having enough calories in your body at the right time is no fun. You don’t have the energy to do the things that you want to do.
Now on the other hand, did you watch the women's volley ball matches?
USA was playing Belgium yesterday and my first reaction was – ok, my second reaction I can tell you about - the Belgium players needed to lose some weight! And I'm not talking just 5 or 10 pounds, but a bunch of weight! I don’t know, 30-40 pounds!
Isn’t that mean, you say? No! Did you see them?! They are in the Olympics after all! And they would have done a lot better if they were thinner!
Think about it - how much faster could you run and jump if you had 30 pounds missing from you? And if this is your sport and you are representing your country?! I mean, come on! Your expertise and skill and quality of your game would have to go up immensely if you were at the right weight, right?! Olympian mean anything to you!?!
Now, granted, there are some sports where it is advantageous to be heavier; got it. Sumo Wrestling, for example. But volleyball is not one of them! This is a sport where you have to jump and dive and quickly pop to your feet again so you can jump up and spike the ball!
Oh well, that just made it easier for us to win , since they didn’t have the athleticism or conditioning to keep up that pace.
How about you? Do you have the conditioning to keep up the pace for your life? In our own way, we're all Olympians at life. And the game is so much more enjoyable when we're fit!
