I want money.
We live, have been living in a word of excess. Buy, buy, buy is the daily message albeit delivered in a more subtle way. People’s heroes are those who disparage their character for the sake of making more money. It’s cool to post images of your ‘worth’ on social media. It seems to be perfectly alright, perfectly justifiable to fly thousands of miles to Brooklyn to throw a hand dolly into a bus all for the purpose of selling more pay per views. What was the quote from this person during the fight: ‘It’s only business’. Money at all costs.
Things like this unfortunately can influence people to become like these people who do these things. But, it can also be the antithesis for others. The ugliness of acts such as this can move people closer to the understanding that money isn’t everything, and money at any cost is wrong.
More isn’t always better but sometimes more is what we need.
When it comes to our body and what we feel is the body we want all the focus is on losing weight. When has there even been a product, a program, an infomercial on how to gain weight? NEVER that’s when. Yes, there are weight gain protein powders but the main message is to lose weight. Trying to find out how to gain weight in a healthy way could take some research and it can be really confusing and also disappointing. And I think too just like there is fat shaming, skinny shaming is also happening. Guys for years have felt the pressure to be muscular all the way back to the 50’s classic add of the skinny guy getting sand kicked on them buy the muscular guy at the beach all while the girl is laughing at the skinny dude. And the same with girls and women. You need to be thicc. The focus is never health and fitness but instead on no matter what it takes, you need to look like this. Don’t buy into this lie. Focusing on health and wellness instead of appearance will give you the things you need to stay healthy, be sick less, be less susceptible to disease, slow down aging, and ultimately if you do these things correctly you can mold your body like an artist molds clay and do it in a healthy way.
How
As simple as this solution seems I believe it is all that is needed. It’s not complicated because it doesn’t need to be. So if you are in doubt because it’s so simple, try not to discount it.
- Eat a whole foods plant based diet whenever you are hungry
That’s it. Eating a whole foods plant based diet does not require you to worry if you are getting too much fat, too much protein, too many carbs, too much sugar, too much salt. A whole foods plant based diet followed properly means you are not eating processed foods, it means you are eating all the foods you need and you are getting nutrient dense foods, the foods your body wants and needs to repair and grow muscle tissue. If you feel you have been eating enough but aren’t adding the weight than you may need to evaluate what you are eating. Are you eating foods that are processed? These foods will make you feel full but they are not providing the nutrients you body needs to repair and grow. If you are already eating a whole foods plant based diet and aren’t gaining weight, then are you eating enough? Broken down to a basic principle, calories in cannot be less than calories out. If they are you will never gain weight. As an example a professional body builder may consume upwards of 4,000 calories a day.
If you have been working out hard and correctly and aren’t adding weight, this may be what you are missing. I want to keep this simple so I’m not going to get into formulas having to do with resting metabolic rate, caloric requirements based on sex and age. Keep it simple.
If you are not gaining weight and want to, then you have to eat more.
Not many of us have the time, or the patience to count calories for everything we eat. That requires measuring every meal you eat. Keep it simple and always eat when you are hungry. That may mean eating 6 to 8 times a day. Don’t snack on worthless foods such as processed crackers, chips, things like that. If you are doing that switch those foods out for nutrient dense foods, the foods your body will use to make muscle. Besides, these foods that are nutrient dense taste awesome and who doesn’t want that? Substitute a nutrient/taste dense food such as a black bean avocado dip with pita chips for those potato chips you were going to have. Both will fill your craving for food but one gives you lots of fat which doesn’t provide muscle growth where as the other does provide the protein and carbs needed.
Again, keeping it simple follow the rule that your food needs to be whole foods plant based. Avoid processed foods as processing removes nutrients the body needs to grow. Replace this with foods that the body needs and the body will grow.
Finally
Whole foods plant based; Calories in > Calories out; Eat when Hungry = Weight gain.
Yours in health,
Darryl
