So whats your bench??

“Shut up and squat” “Strong is the new skinny” “Just do it” It seems the world has been sucked into this black hole of getting fit. I personally think that it’s a great thing. When I was about 19 I was a certified personal trainer. And to me it seemed like a great idea. I think the two most important things that we’re never taught in school are proper nutrition and fiscal responsibility.  Seeing that you can have a career where you get to wear basketball shorts and get paid a decent salary, I chose fitness. My first month at the gym they told me I was too skinny to be a trainer , and that I should gain about 20 pounds. They made me step on a scale, I was only 170 at 5’11’’!! But I digress, that’s another story. During that tenure I saw multitudes of fad diets come out. There was the Atkins, the no carb, paleo, keto, etc. It was absolutely amazing the diets people were willing to endure to look how they feel they should. In my opinion, there’s only one thing that works for both weight gain and loss. Are you eady for the formula? Energy in vs. Energy out. It’s simple as that. If your energy (calories) in is less than the energy you exert, you will lose weight, and vice versa. Another problem with fad diets is that the average consumer doesn’t follow the diet correctly. The latest diet I’ve heard of is the Intermittent Fasting diet, or IF as it is called. In this diet you fast for specific amount of hours and eat the remainder. Splits can be 16/8, 20/4 and I have heard of people fasting 5 days then pigging out for 2 days. The misconception with this is that people think that since they haven’t eaten for the specified time that a McN asty sandwich and a triple thick shake is adequate. If you’re going to starve yourself why not actually put good foods back into your body?! That’s the same thing as doing a oil change and putting the old oil back into the car. Doesn’t make much sense does it? My point exactly. I guess what I’m really trying to say is before you decide to undertake any diet, do your research. Make sure you’re not going through the motions and not getting results. You need to know if it’s something you can do for an extended period of time or if you should only do it for a week. Some diets put so much strain on your kidneys that you end up on dialysis because your body couldn’t hold water because your protein levels were too high. Aside from that remember, if you stay consistent, and persevere you’re going to make all kinds of gains…ALL KINDS!