Carbs are my kryptonite

Carbs are my Kryptonite.

We were all created different and that is an awesome thing that sets us all apart from one another but there is something that we have in common with a lot of people and that will be our body type. Do you remember learning about this at school all those moons ago? I know I do and I thought nothing of it then and I haven’t done since. Little did I know that unlocking the knowledge of my own body type would affect me so positively and that it would have such a profound effect on my success so far. I AM AN ENDOMORPH! An awesome body type in many ways but it also comes with its Achilles heals that if not addressed can be your kryptonite. 

There are two other body types. Ectomorph and Mesomorph. Ectomorphs are typically, slim bodied individuals that struggle to either put on body fat or lean muscle. Whereas Mesomorphs are the body types that we all envy and would like to be, carrying little body fat and gain lots of lean muscle very quickly. The guys and girls in the gym that simply look at dumbbells and grow biceps!

But I am not going to dwell on these body types, simply because they are not me, I said when I started this blog that I will share what knowledge I have found with my own experience and if you are struggling with your body fat or weight issues you may well be an Endomorph like me. Typically soft bodied, round or box shaped and struggle to lose bodyfat. But if the nutrition is correct and you can learn how your body reacts you can burn this body fat quite effectively it just takes discipline because that one “cheat meal” a week can ruin your weeks progress. Trust me I’ve ruined weeks upon weeks of training and dieting in the past! Big upside to being an endomorph, generally we build muscle very easily.

Figuring out my body type was the first major step I took to realising what I needed to do to be successful.

"Out of shape Endomorph, typical Endomorphs shape!!"

I have a poor tolerance towards carbohydrates. The Starch kind!

I started to think about how each type of foods made me feel after I had eaten them, I found that carbohydrates, in particular those high in starch (rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread, pasta etc) were in fact my kryptonite. I noticed that after eating a meal containing these I would feel slightly bloated and could be quite lethargic and this was simply because my body did not handle them as well as an energy source. They are absolutely rammed packed full of energy and I cannot process this energy when eating these at every meal. After all a “healthy balanced” diet should contain them at every meal! Or so you would be lead to believe. For some yes, but it depends how your body handles them, remember this is all individual. So for a long time Carbs were my Kryptonite!! I wasn’t using them correctly for my circumstances. A bit like using a hammer to drive a screw in, you’ll just make a mess of the job!

So what did I learn???!! I train to high volume so I need carbs right? Yes! But they’re having a detrimental effect on my body fat! Well..its all in the timing. Starchy carbohydrates are awesome for repairing you body. So after I have done an intense session, whether it be a hard circuit, heavy sparring session or a big lifting workout I will feed my body with these carbs, but not too much, just enough to assist in my recovery. Just enough to feed my depleted muscles! Which for me, is usually, a medium sized sweet potato. A typical post workout meal for me would be:

Large salmon fillet cooked in real butter with chilli seasoning.

Medium sweet potato baked in the oven with a little real butter in the middle.

Steamed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots seasoned with some garlic.

Fish, vegetables and sources of good fats :) Perfect. All the ingredients are either caught or grown. Caveman style.

Importantly if I haven’t trained I don’t eat starchy carbohydrates! I keep my meals to lean meat, vegetables and good sources of fat (nuts, seeds, olive oils amongst others)

Fear not fellow endomorphs, your are truly blessed with this body type. I feel that I am, you just need to understand the beast. An endomorph in shape can be a truly intimidating prospect to tangle with, see below: “THE BADDEST MAN ON THE PLANET.” (at one time)

"In shape Endomorph!"

Get your nutrition right and get your training right and you can unleash an extremely efficient, frightening beast of physical performance. Now i'm not using Mike Tyson as a shining example to the human race, nor do I condone things the man has done outside and inside of the ring, quite the opposite but one thing cannot be ignored when he was "on" he was unstoppable. I'm talking about his physical gifts, one extremely gifted Endomorph. 

But unfortunately if you do not look after your body as an endomorph you wont find yourself as lucky:

"Out of shape Endomorph!"

I have found that my body responds quickly to metabolic type circuits. Intense bursts of exercise followed by short periods of rest. That kind of training most commonly found in boxing gyms, mixed martial arts gyms and any other combat sports forum. If I’m doing weights I go heavy and intense with little rest. After all I have a need to burn calories as, as an endomorph I have fat to burn and keep off! This training is more effective at burning fat than steady state cardio. For me!! Remember if running is your thing brilliant but I’m not built to run. Training this way I’m less likely to get injured and I’m getting a greater response with my body. That’s not to say I can’t run. I trained for and ran a marathon but felt no greater increase in fat loss or body composition than with any other training I’ve done. If anything I got less gain and towards the end put weight on. But thats another story :)

So get a grip on your body type, stand in the mirror if you’ve got fat gathering around your hips, stomach. Round or box shaped. Storing fat on your back and shoulder blades chances you’re an Endomorph just like me. If your going for “jogs” and getting nowhere think to yourself is this the right training for my body type. Seek out your local boxing gym, MMA gym, rugby club etc. Go and join in with their training. You just might find your body responds, fast! You can unleash the beast you just have to know how to.

And after all carbs are not my kryptonite, quite the opposite but only when the amount and time is right. 

The BJJ Boxer
          

"YOU chose to get fat!"

“YOU chose to get fat!”

“Let’s have it right, YOU chose to get fat. YOU chose to ruin your health. YOU had a choice in this and on many occasions YOU chose not to be healthy. YOU chose to eat takeaways instead of making real nutritious food. YOU chose to be lazy and not do any exercise. Don’t blame anyone else or any other circumstances; it’s YOUR own fault that you’re in this place. YOU had a choice in all this.”

Have I got your attention?

It took me years to say the above things to myself and admit that the only person responsible for getting myself in an unfit, lazy, unhealthy and practically dangerous state/lifestyle was ME.  I decided all those times to drink excessive amounts of lager and eat poor takeaway food some with little or no nutrition and I did this over and over, and when I think back to it I knew what I was doing. I wasn’t naïve enough to think that living like this wouldn’t result in me being massively overweight and in poor health. I was always saying “LAST ONE THIS FOR A BIT. START TOMORROW.”

Making poor choices when I was younger.

I began my blog with a small insight to me and what I thought you might need to think about should you have a goal similar to mine and that you were ready to make that change.

I would hazard a guess that you started to read this blog thinking that I was addressing the reader. Not the case, I have found through doing it and having it done to me that preaching and forcing your opinion on someone does not work but rather leading by example and sharing your own experiences in a positive way has a much more profound effect on someone that you are giving advice to or just sharing some time with. The purpose of this blog was for me to share my experience of weight loss and struggling with my weight and also that I may share some of the knowledge that I have gained through trial and error. What has worked the best for me, what has increased my performance the most? What type of training has been the most effective?

The majority of my good experience comes from the last four years. Before that I made some horrific mistakes and worst of all never learnt from them. When I was at my heaviest I was in a dark place mentally, never really showed it and I reckon masked it pretty well with a good sense of humour most of the time self deprecating. I knew I wanted to change but couldn’t admit it. Here are some of the things I tried to do lose the fat:

1. Once I tried to live off an extremely low amount of calories. I would eat rice cakes alone with a drink of cranberry juice for breakfast. Some soup for lunch and then a can of tuna or soup for dinner. Did I lose weight; yes I did around 18 pounds in 2 weeks. Unfortunately I spent all of that time feeling like I could eat a battered rat. I had no energy, I was tired lethargic and I started to come down with a cold. Did I keep the weight off? NO I put it all back on in the amount of time it took to lose it as I started to eat again EPIC FAIL.
2. I then listened to someone who was raving about the Atkins diet. All I heard was “YOU CAN EAT MEAT AND FULL FAT STUFF AND YOU’LL LOSE TONS OF WEIGHT.” Awesome. So that’s what I did I ate nothing but different cuts of meat accompanied by full fat mayonnaise and cheese and things similar to this. It didn’t take long before I had the breath of a thousand buffalo’s, had little to no energy, was lethargic and worst of all craving carbohydrate rich food and sugar. I decided to give myself a cheat meal after a week, pizza and that was it I couldn’t stop. I would try to go back to these “ATKINS DIET RULES” last a couple of days and then gorge on crap! Needless to say this got me nowhere and simply saw me yo yo up and down with my weight. I never actually bothered to learn the science behind the diet. A little learning is a dangerous thing.
3. Supplements!! Yeah. These worked for all these pro body builders, they’re shoving all these protein powders, creatine and other magic formula’s down their necks and they’re ripped. Guess what? I tried them all. Replaced meals with them. Had them with meals. Never really bothering to see what was in them, or learning that they should be used at specific times and when you nutrition is spot on. I ate like garbage and shovelled these fancy labelled wonder products down my neck. Guess what? It didn’t work. I was simply packing extra calories on top of poor nutrition.
4. I tried weight watchers meals, half heartedly still eating junk away from people as I was not satisfied with my nutrition and this caused me to reach for the junk for convenience when caught hungry out and about. 

Like I said I never learned from these stupid mistakes and I would go around and around cycling through the above “DIETS” plus some others, like eating nothing but cereal!!  Basically shovelling sugar down my neck 3 meals a day. Destined to fail with that one. Nugget. I've tried low calorie, low fat, low protein, you name it i've done it. 

INSANITY – Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.”

(sound familiar?) Then you might take something away from my experience.

Was I insane? I reckon so, on some level. Thicker than a submarine door? Yes. I was an idiot. After all I wasn’t cutting corners like this and doing everything else wrong and lazy in my life. I was being quite successful in my professional life and achieving work goals I was setting myself with relative ease, because I was working hard. So why could I not transfer this ethic to my health and fitness. After all I wanted success with that just as bad.

So when did I start to get a handle on this and decide that I was going to change. It was all brought about by chance. Around 4 years ago I was given the opportunity to box for charity and liked the idea of competing, seeing if I could. I got a real bug for the training and with this alone I started to make head road into shedding fat. My diet was still poor but I considered it to be “healthy” eating a mix of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. I bought into a lot of what other people were telling me to do. 6 meals a day, counting calories, not eating after 2000 hrs, never missing breakfasts and so on. I became obsessed with counting calories to the point I became anal with it much to the annoyance of everyone around me.  Although this tactic worked and it did. I could not sustain it as I was never really learning about the food I was eating and thought that calories in versus calories out was the be all and end all of weight loss. Yes it has a part to play but it is by no means the full equation. Over the 4 years I was boxing I was still up and down with my weight, whilst I was training for a fight I was strict with my eating and whilst I wasn’t I dropped back into old habits.

 Never afraid to fight but never got my nutrition right.

I found my inspiration.

On the 10/11/10 I found my inspiration to change forever. At around 1500 hrs that day my daughter was born and lit a fire inside of me that I had never felt or had before. I knew the moment that I saw her that I had to ensure that I was going to be around for as long as possible for her and that I wanted her to be proud of father. I knew that I had to set an example for her and this is where it all changed. I declared all out war on weight, I decided to box again that year. I was weighing around 98kg when she was born. I decided that I had to clean my diet up, this must be the missing link because I would train like a man possessed, I couldn’t push any harder in the gym. I came up with the notion that if it hadn’t grown or hadn’t been killed I wouldn’t eat or consume it and I counted calories again like some maths wizard. Come September it was fight night and I was 76kg. After the fight however I started to gain weight again. I was sticking to my idea of healthy eating but training had dropped off. I didn’t gain a lot but I could not get the lean physique I wanted and spent months wondering why. I started to naturally sit around 86kg. At the start of 2012 I even trained for and ran a marathon in the coming months and actually put weight on! Thinking my diet was on the money!  But that’s the topic for a separate blog post!

Finally taken control, faster, fitter, stronger. I chose that.

 Later in 2012 I went to a seminar where I met a young man spreading his wisdom on diet and nutrition and that’s where everything changed again and I haven’t looked back since.

In the blog posts that are to follow I will go into detail about what I’m doing and what I’m finding now with my diet and nutrition and I’ve never been better. I thought it was important that you have some idea of where I’ve been, before I tell you where I am or where I’m going!

Please don’t make the same mistakes as me, learn from where I messed up:

1. Fad diets don’t work in the long term, you can’t stick to them forever and you never really gain a full understanding of the nutrition your putting into your body.
2. You can’t starve yourself to lose weight; you WILL fail using this method.
3. Don’t just listen to what people “advise” you to do, sure, take it onboard but find out for yourself if there’s any merit to what they’re saying.
4. Don’t go round in circles trying the same things if you are not getting the results you want. Doing this actually means you’re insane. Look up the definition!! 

On the last blog I mentioned setting goals, a PT that I follow on Twitter, Andy Mckenzie (@IronmacFitness) wrote:

"Setting goals is bullshit. First ask yourself why? When you know that, then the 'real' goal will unveil."

This is so true, its alright setting a bunch of goals but if you dont think about it and come to a realisation of why they are your particular goals they wont mean anything. The goal will become more substantial once you understand why and as Andy said the real goal will become clear. Get Andy followed or find him on facebook, IronMac Fitness if you appreciate the no bull shit approach as I do.

I will mention my goals as I go along but here was one of them for the New Year.

“Start a blog and make a positive impact through my own experience on somebody, even if it’s just one person.”

I received a text message yesterday from a good friend, an old colleague that I have not spoken to for a while, he has always struggled with is weight and has always had a desire to do something about it, I’ve changed his name on the text as not to embarrass him:

So there’s one of my goals already nailed!! Good start to the year by all accounts just with that.

Write down your goals, think about why they are your goals and gain a deeper understanding of them,  set things in motion and make it happen. Learn from my mistakes and your own!

The BJJ Boxer

Twitter: @thebjjboxer