Welcome Back, Mr. Bowels
Well hello my fellow bowel blog readers, it has certainly been a while. My last post was over a year ago, and there is much anticipation and pressure for this come back post, I don’t know if I can handle it, but I’ll give it a try.
I guess I just haven’t been too inspired to write blogs, as I’ve been trying to focus more of my extracurricular time on Crossfit (we’ll get to that), music, and science. What sounds like a good idea would be to briefly recap the major events, situations, and happenings, that have occurred over the past year, that have played a significant role in my life, and the life of my insides.
During the summer of 2009 I embarked on a journey into the world of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, in which a person uses a set of personal skills to track his thoughts and actions, in order to uncover and trace anxieties and stresses which can initiate certain IBS symptoms. I continued this therapy with great success for many months, and symptoms were relieved to a great extent. As I have mentioned several times before, IBS is a no fun rollercoaster, one that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight, the only thing one can hope for is opportunities to learn from it, thus creating one’s own therapy and coping strategies to deal with it, day after day. Do you have any idea what it’s been like to worry about my daily bathroom stops for the last 10 years? It wreaks havoc on a person’s mind and body, making them feel discouraged and hopeless that there is no solution or treatment to this chronic battle of a scientifically unexplainable mind and gut dysfunction. BUT, as I strongly believe, attitude is life, and with positive attitude comes the means to fight the uphill battles of adversity, which in this case is a set of fleshy coils that refuse to cooperate and live in harmony with the rest of my body, and more importantly my brain. Now tell me, fleshy coils, why is that so darn difficult? Anyways, wow, this feels good.
So, I continued throughout the fall and winter in the peaks and valleys until I found myself engulfed in a new type of exercise routine called Crossfit. If anyone likes to exercise, and is tired of the boring routine of global gyms with tricep and back machines that keep you stationary while you complete the same rep over and over, check out www.crossfit.com for the answer to your problems. In brief, CrossFit is a strength and conditioning fitness methodology that promotes broad and general overall physical fitness. CrossFit combines weightlifting, sprinting, and gymnastics. CrossFit says that proficiency is required in each of ten fitness domains: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy. It defines fitness as increased work capacity across all these domains and says its program achieves this by provoking neurologic and hormonal adaptations across all metabolic pathways. Since October 2009, I have been a member and huge supporter of Hybrid Athletics (www.hybridathletics.net), a strongman associated crossfit gym, and it has changed my life.
Engaging in crossfit workouts multiple times a week lead me to dive into the Zone Diet. What is the Zone? Simply put, it’s the metabolic state in which the body works at peak efficiency. In this program, food is used to maintain a favorable hormonal balance, especially among insulin, glucagon and the super hormones called eicosanoids. Eating fat does not make you fat. It’s your body’s response to excess carbohydrates in your diet that makes you fat. Your body has a limited capacity to store excess carbohydrates, but it can easily convert those excess carbs into excess body fat. The “Fattening of America”, ring any bells?
Food can be good or bad. The ratio of macronutrients- in the meals you eat is the key to permanent weight loss and optimal health. Unless you understand the rules that control the powerful biochemical responses generated by food, you will never reach the Zone. The Zone is, in every meal and every snack, 40% Carbs, 30% Protein, 30% Fat.
I won’t continue to bore you with nutritional info and reasons why most Americans are fat, but I tell you the truth, this diet works. Once I started on such a clean regiment of food, including reducing the intake of sugars, processed foods, and some grains, my IBS symptoms, along with body fat started to disappear. It has been quite an experience learning about how the body metabolizes and uses food for different functions, and I suggest you read up on it if you are looking to lose weight or just get on a new path to feeling better overall.
I’ve been on the diet for about 8 months now, I cheat every now and then, and currently I’m experimenting with adding the Paleo aspect, which I will get into another time.
In short, the summer of 2010 was a great one. As I sit here and complete this post, it’s my first weekend staying in Connecticut all summer. Many trips to Montauk were had; I highly recommend you get out there the first chance you get. It’s a laid back surf and fishing town, without the pretentiousness of the Hamptons.
I’m not going to lie, my mind has been pretty damn crazy with everything going on these last few months, and not until a few weeks ago, when I slowed things down, re-opened my notebook, sat back and took a deep breath….ahhhhhhh, did I start to feel better. What do you know, this week, I feel pretty good.
More to come.
Gotta plug the new demo. I wouldn’t call this a demo for professional purposes as it’s near 7 minutes, but it sounds good and I am proud of it.
Enjoy the final weekends of summer.
1 year ago