I’m not one for hallelujahs. Being of characteristic British reserve I rarely sing and shout about anything. So when I tell you that the following testimony is about as close to an epiphany as I have ever had, or am ever likely to have, you can be sure I mean it.

• I was always an exercise junkie. As a youth I would hang around the squash courts for hours playing all comers. I’ll admit there was a period in which I concentrated primarily on the consumption of beer - a sport in its own right, I would have argued at the time – but this was clearly down to the exuberance and folly of the young rather than a departure from type. By 1996 I had discovered the gym and was lifting weights 4 or 5 times a week.

• For the next 6 years I accumulated the stock knowledge base of the gym rat, passed down through generations of trap-laden hulks and distributed via magazines written for steroid users by steroid users. As bidden by these magazines I would spend 6 hours per week in the gym doing a mixture of heavy weights to failure and cardio to strip off the fat. My diet mantra was “Eat as much as you can as often as you can.” I would guzzle glutinous post-workout shakes and spend hours at work with the flatulence of a cow.

• As time went by, I evolved my diet to be healthier. I figured out that that it really did matter what I was eating and not just how much, something brought into sharp relief by the belly I had developed and the way people said “Wow, you’re big these days” without it being clear whether this was a positive statement.

• I also learned that to gain muscle I had to have periods of overeating, in which I gave the body a calorie surplus and trained especially hard to encourage the use of these extra calories. I would accumulate fat but that’s okay, because in the next phase I would eat less than I needed and concentrate on stripping off the surplus fat with low intensity cardio whilst still training hard with weights to encourage muscle retention.

• I had also learned how important it was to eat regularly. Since I was by now determined to eat only healthy food, I spent hours in the kitchen preparing food in plastic containers to be transported to work. Holidays required extra preparation and could be a nightmare.

The thing is, by the time I had started doing this I had already gained a lot of muscle and possibly come close to what my body was willing to build under normal circumstances. So instead of the ascending saw-tooth graph of weight I was supposed to see, I actually had a flat one. When I was a kid my dad would put me on his knees and bounce me up and down as though we were driving a car. One day I said to him “But we’re not going anywhere Daddy – we’re just going up and down.” This is how it felt.

Around this time, I started to do a little more running than usual during one of the ‘cutting’ phases of my diet. Disillusionment from trying in vain to build more muscle and the persuasiveness of some friends moved me into the arena of the runner, and within a year I had lost 20 pounds and was running half marathons in a little over 1:30.

I continued to obsessively refine my diet to be (in my view at the time) as healthy as possible, to the point where the only fat I ate came from a small amount of nuts and seeds, one egg and oil supplements. My range of plastic containers became as legendary as my awkwardness in restaurants. I was on 30+ miles per week and had climbed aboard the calorie merry-go-round. My eating drove my running which drove my eating. I would eat a huge meal on a Saturday night and then run for 2 hours on a Sunday morning to burn off the calories. “You look skinny and unwell,” said my partner. “Can you run a mile in under 6 minutes?” I asked in response.

So enough already. Here is my epiphany. Last year a friend of a friend referred me to Art Devany’s Evolutionary Fitness essay. I read it. I wanted to be skeptical. I had spent years refining my diet so that every nuance adhered to the supposed nutritional best practice. I had just bought 25kg of unsweetened whey and casein powder. I read it again.

• Within 4 weeks, I was a different person. I had found a way to become just as obsessive about not doing things as I had been about doing things. If I missed my 5pm meal, or did not go to the gym for two days because we were travelling, it was actually helping. I did not need to match my calorie intake with exercise. All I had to do was continue to obsessively avoid certain foods (it didn’t matter to me that it was different things I was avoiding now) and workout harder but less often. Now I was working out for 4 hours less per week, spending 2 hours less preparing food and felt twice as good. That’s 6 hours per week, which is 13 days in a year.

So although I cannot tell you about miracle weight loss, since the change in my body, though positive, has not been significant, I can report that I have gained something far more valuable than muscle – time.

As for whether this lifestyle is medically or nutritionally optimal, I will leave that for others to debate. All I can tell you is how it feels for me and will leave you with the strap line from a commercial for Croft Original Sherry that aired on UK TV in the 80s – “One instinctively knows when something is right.”

About the Author

This article was written by Alex Johnson of the Fitness Spotlight Blogger Community. His full website can been seen at http://paynowlivelater.blogspot.com.

Video on the dangers of Soy consumption for adults, children and infants from Mercola.com

Other good references include the following articles:

Dangers of Soy

High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.

Soy and Thyroid Dangers

If you have a diagnosed or undiagnosed thyroid problem, or a history of autoimmune disease, overconsumption of soy isoflavones can potentially trigger a thyroid condition. Soy foods can worsen an existing diagnosed thyroid problem in many people. In both cases the symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, and depression or moodiness are often overlooked and hard to diagnose.

Another good page below about Soy Dangers from GreenLiving Online

Dangers for babies: The most serious problem with soy may be its use in infant formulas. Most of the fears concerning soy formula are around the high level of estrogens. Professor Richard Sharpe, head of the Medical Research Council’s human reproductive sciences unit at Edinburgh University, recently completed studies on soya milk and testosterone levels and found a link between the amount of soy consumed and lower hormone levels. “Soya formula milk is a [recent] western invention. There is not the historical evidence to show it is safe,” said Dr. Sharpe.

Weston Price’s Brouchure on Soy

Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.

So what is good for us? (taken from the above page at GreenLiving Online)

The healthy alternative: Fermented soy products, on the other hand, ARE good for us in moderation. These include miso, tempeh, natto and tamari sauce. The fermentation process removes the phytates, trypsin inhibitors and heaglutinin. Fermented soy foods have long been a staple in Asian diets and are generally beneficial when combined with other foods such as rice, sea foods, fish broth, organ meats and fermented vegetables. The traditional Asian diet contributes to lower levels of cancer, heart disease, and increased bone density.

Source: PaleoDietOnline - “Hey everybody, I have a question for you? Do you think the sun is your friend or your foe? The first thing that probably pops into your head while trying to answer this question is Ultraviolet radiation. The majority of us, myself including, have been spoon fed by the media, magazines, and even doctors, that Ultraviolet radiation is ultra-bad for you. (Sorry for the horrible joke) Anyway there is a problem with this, they all look at this one sided.” > Read the Full Article Here

Source: ProHealthBlog - “It’s so frustrating! A friend of mine is dealing with some serious weight issues. Nearly passing the 350 lbs mark he’s really trying to turn things around, yet he doesn’t really seem to be getting anywhere. He has tried changing his lifestyle several times, yet never really accomplished any long term results.” > Read the Full Article Here

Source: Steve Pavlina: Personal Development For Smart People
“Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight, and I’d almost always sleep in late. I usually didn’t start hitting my stride each day until late afternoon.

But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high correlation between success and rising early, even in my own life. On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity was almost always higher, not just in the morning but all throughout the day. And I also noticed a significant feeling of well-being. So being the proactive goal-achiever I was, I set out to become a habitual early riser. I promptly set my alarm clock for 5AM…

… and the next morning, I got up just before noon.”

> Read the Full Article

Source: Steve Pavlina: Personal Development For Smart People
“Polyphasic sleep involves taking multiple short sleep periods throughout the day instead of getting all your sleep in one long chunk. A popular form of polyphasic sleep, the Uberman sleep schedule, suggests that you sleep 20-30 minutes six times per day, with equally spaced naps every 4 hours around the clock. This means you’re only sleeping 2-3 hours per day. I’d previously heard of polyphasic sleep, but until now I hadn’t come across practical schedules that people seem to be reporting interesting results with.

Under this sleep schedule, your sleep times might be at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm. And each time you’d sleep for only 20-30 minutes.”

> Read the Full Article

Source: Four Hour Work Week
“Long time no see! I just landed back in CA from a long overdue mini-retirement through London, Scotland, Sardinia, Slovak Republic, Austria, Amsterdam, and Japan.

Some unpleasant surprises awaited me when I checked in on the evil e-mail inbox. Why? I let them happen.

I always do.”

> Read the Full Article

Source: Business Week
“Drive through the rolling foothills of the Appalachian range in southwestern Virginia and you’ll come across Abingdon, one of the oldest towns west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. If it happens to be a Saturday morning, you might think there’s a party going on—every week between 7 a.m. and noon, more than 1,000 people gather in the parking lot on Main Street, next to the police station. This is Abingdon’s farmers’ market. “For folks here, this is part of the Saturday morning ritual,” says Anthony Flaccavento, a farmer who is also executive director of Appalachian Sustainable Development, a nonprofit organization working in the Appalachian region of Virginia and Tennessee.”

> Read the Full Article

Source: The Art of Manliness
“Grilling a steak truly is like art: lots of people can draw, but not everyone is Michelangelo. Most of us will never make masterpieces at home, but getting close is much more simple than you think. Properly grilling a steak will separate you from the majority of the guys on the block and might even impress the ladies. But more important than showing up the fellas, you owe it to yourself to prepare the meat in the best way possible. It’s a matter of respect, I’d say.”

> Read the Full Article

Source: Tim Ferris Blog - ““Not-to-do” lists are often more effective than to-do lists for upgrading performance. The reason is simple: what you don’t do determines what you can do. Here are nine stressful and common habits that entrepreneurs and office workers should strive to eliminate. The bullets are followed by more detailed descriptions. Focus on one or two at a time, just as you would with high-priority to-do items. I’ve worded them in no-to-do action form:” > Read the Full Article Here