Special Snowflake

I watch and read a lot of health and fitness articles, blogs, videos and books.  Not all of it applies to me, a certain chunk of it is geared towards body building, but I find that there are points in the overall topics that can be used by a layperson to better understand their body’s processes or reactions.  One of my favourite fitness “minds” collaborated recently with two other very influential people in muscle fitness and body building and I went through quite the rigmarole to sign up to get to view these new videos.  The first vid was about carbs and muscle building.  I was kind of excited to watch it this morning.

 

The first indication that something wasn’t going to suit me was their very dismissive tone of voice when referring to “those paleo people”.  Whatever….it’s not for everyone, I guess.  And what they were saying was somewhat accurate, unless you are eating a LOT of starchy veg, you probably aren’t going to get the muscle gains that you want.  Remember, this is geared towards body builders.  I gave it an open mind though, because these extremely fit men also have SO MUCH knowledge of the science of the body and fitness and muscle building.  And then…..near the end…..the group of them started in on how only 2% of the population is celiac and the rest of us should stop our whining and go eat a bowl of cereal and cook some pasta for dinner.  They said that human beings are very flexible and that it is “ridiculous” that anyone who was not diagnosed with celiac would think that they are so special as to think they are better off without an entire food group.

 

I was SO disappointed with it.  For about one minute.  Then I saw a tweet in my feed from someone else about how what works for you now might not work for you later, be open and adaptable…or something like that.  These, along with Megan’s video about snacking and how it’s a bit frowned upon in Paleo/Primal culture and Tara’s struggle with cutting carbs (as well as mine) I was really reminded that YOU CAN’T LISTEN TO WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS.  What works for me and what my body responds to, based on my life, my hormones, my activity level and type, my stress level, my sleep pattern, my hydration, my immune system…..it’s mine and mine alone.  Similarly, the exercise pattern that works for me is based on my muscle, my fitness level, my body’s ability to adapt, grow, change.

This isn’t new information, I don’t even pretend to think that I just dreamt up “there’s no one-size-fits-all” idea.   I was just really struck in the moment by how different people can be and how every person’s personality, emotions, mental health, metabolism, fitness level and overall beliefs will influence their actions and their results.  Anyway, I just wanted to share that moment of clarity this morning.  We all read and learn and research and try to use these frameworks that we find and try to apply them to our lives and sometimes end up thinking that we’re doing it wrong or that we aren’t as dedicated as we need to be or we’re not working hard enough or, the worst one, that there is something wrong with us, when in reality we need to take that framework, try it on, alter it, try it on again, assess the fit and do this continually, knowing that we are developing our own perfect plan that works just for us.

I’m so very glad that it’s the weekend, my calendar for the next two days is actually really light.  Tomorrow is cooking hour (and is one of the easier ones) and dinner at Ray’s daughter’s house and then on Sunday my sister and I are doing the Chilly Chase 5K!  Pretty excited about both days, the easy day on Saturday and the sister-run on Sunday!  I think we’ll be doing a bonus video on Sunday after (or during?) the run….which is cool because Sunday is the One Month Anniversary of the 90 Seconds of Real project.  Have you checked it out yet??

See you next week!

Advertisement