Monday, October 31, 2016

Phil Jeremy Personal Training: THE POWER OF ADDICTION

Phil Jeremy Personal Training: THE POWER OF ADDICTION:  When one thinks of a drug addict one tends to assume some coked up smack head, alcoholic, smoker or gambler. This in most cases would be t...

THE POWER OF ADDICTION

 When one thinks of a drug addict one tends to assume some coked up smack head, alcoholic, smoker or gambler. This in most cases would be the correct association as it always a involves a negative unhealthy practice. On another level we have sugar addicts, computer games addicts, work-aholics, diet addicts and even sex addicts ... hell, I even had a client (who shall remain nameless) who was addicted to Cornish pasties in the UK and put on 10 kilos!
 But are there any addictions that are healthy? I believe there are, though many people will use an accusatory tone to denigrate that behaviour, the most obvious being exercise. It beggars belief how many times I will hear someone say 'oh they are addicted to exercise' or 'she's a health nut' or 'he's  obsessed about health and fitness'. It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad. Every time I hear it I can guarantee the person saying it is either overweight, unhealthy, drinks too much, smokes or is always ill. They of course claim that they are none of these things, denial being the standard repost.
Basically if you are fit, strong and healthy and eat well balanced nutritious food you are an obsessive addict. I sometimes wonder what people think healthy people do. Run around all day with dumbbells in one hand and a broccoli floret in the other, chanting mantras and checking their Fitbits! What they do is consistent exercise 3 to 4 times per week and eat 3 well balanced nutritious tasty meals a day that are low on carbs and sugars and high in protein and vegetables. How difficult or obsessive is that? Its just routine like cleaning your teeth, it's a habit, it takes no more time than anything else, its not obsessive in fact its very simple, you just have to make a start.
  
  I have detected over the years another rather strange psychology that has developed which is much more devious and potentially harmful. When someone has a check up, whom I think has potential health issues, they nearly always say, 'I passed with flying colours'...'Nothing wrong with me'... 'The doctor was very impressed with my blood tests'... 'He said I have the heart of a twenty year old'... 'She was amazed at how strong I was'...'Apparently I am only a little overweight'.... 'They agreed with me that I have a very healthy diet' ... and on and on they drone.
I of course look at them and think, then why are you fat, start wheezing if you walk faster than 4 kilometres an hour, always have a cold, have bad skin, look pale, have dead eyes or consume copious amounts of medicines? Let me explain something, 'passing any health test with flying colours' is meaningless bollocks.

          The reason is not the inadequacy of the test but the inadequacy of your response.

You only interpret it how you want to hear it. Fit and healthy people don't do this, they will break the test down into components looking for areas of weakness or potentially harmful trends. They will look to see what they can do either in diet or training to improve the situation. They are not interested in the good stuff, they already now that, they only focus on the things that can be improved. Unhealthy people do the opposite. It's what got them into this mess in the first place, denial again. Now we all do it to some extent, nobody wants to hear bad news about their health, I didn't when I was told about my restricted bladder but my response was detailed analysis, second opinions and a thorough understanding of what was involved now and in the future. It wasn't 'Oh the specialist said its only a slight problem but drink lots of water and you'll be fine because you have the heart of a Wildebeest.'
  In other words being addicted to health is a very positive, vitally important, if not the most important thing to be. Please don't confuse this analytical way of thinking of being negative. Positive thinking will not cure your problem if you deny you've got one. As I have said on countless occasions when discussing health with the doubters ... 'In the end everyone comes round to my way of thinking' because unless you have a death wish, or illness wish, or you desire to be a frail old granny at 65, then you will eventually realise that health freaks weren't freaks at all ... it was you who was the idiot.
 Time to get with the program folks. That doesn't mean sign up to a gym or Boot camp and then don't go, it doesn't mean, cut out bread, jog a bit but still drink too much wine and it certainly doesn't mean go to a health camp or get a personal trainer and then eat the same food you always did believing that the exercise will burn it off. It doesn't and it never will.
A little bit of education can go a long way, its not rocket science. A very successful personal trainer once said about clients who pay him a £1000 an hour. 'They don't need me they only need to do the right exercise 3 to 4 times a week and eat broccoli and chicken and they'll be fine'. Okay he was deliberately over simplifying but you get the point. You must surely know by now what habits you have that are unhealthy, just stop telling yourself okay when you are not. Start the process of fixing this today. Begin with meaningful changes, maybe only small adjustments at first but ones you know to be right, be it food or exercise. Educate yourself a bit, not with the latest celebrity diet but with real tangible adjustments. It doesn't mean a life of not having naughty things now and again just try 80/20. Eat healthy and exercise 80% of the time and cheat 20%... just don't do it the other way around.
 Finally let me make one more point. The flipside to my argument about denial is this. When you are ill or injured, normally fit and healthy do then look to the positive and how to cure themselves quickly whereas the unhealthy lot wallow in a sea of self pity about their predicament. Suddenly they are now an invalid, its an overreaction the other way and at the wrong time. This is when you need to step up and challenge the illness or recovery. It doesn't mean being stupid but it does mean that you have to eat even better and try and exercise a little very day. Often people just carry on with their crap ways of slothful choices. Find out what foods will help your recovery and what exercises you can do to increase you fitness and  physical improvement. The human body is immensely resourceful. I have trained so many people with illnesses, physical disabilities or limited capability and it is incredible, with the right amount of guidance and encouragement, what they can do and how fast they can improve.
 This of course is relevant to me now. I have been told to do nothing for 4 weeks and with no guidance on what to eat. Does anyone think for one moment that I am going to accept that, of course not. I will challenge it, fully researching what foods will aid recovery, asking advice, looking for examples of the right type of exercise for someone in my predicament. You have to know your own body and look for ways that can help you, you don't just sit there and do nothing. Listen to your body, if you think you can walk or run, do it, obviously I am not going to strain myself but I will look to recover as fast and as healthily as possible. I just know that my fit and healthy colleagues will agree 100% and I also know that the unfit overweight lot will think the opposite saying 'Ooh he should be careful he's very silly'. There is a message here folks; this is the time for the positive outlook and not when you have a  health check and believe everything is fine when it obviously isn't.
  I am now addicted to a fast, sensible, healthy and effective recovery and I will achieve that goal. Guess I am just a junkie, I'll be mainlining green drinks next ... oh shit I already do.
 Catch you all later.

 

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Phil Jeremy Personal Training: INTO HOSPITAL ..... AND OUT OF CONTROL !

Phil Jeremy Personal Training: INTO HOSPITAL ..... AND OUT OF CONTROL !:   This may come as a shock to some of my regular readers but at present I am lying in a hospital bed !! … This has come as a bit of a sh...

INTO HOSPITAL ..... AND OUT OF CONTROL !


 
This may come as a shock to some of my regular readers but at present I am lying in a hospital bed !! … This has come as a bit of a shock to me too. As you know I have a pretty healthy lifestyle, my nutrition is 95% clean... (Meaning very little crap)... And I train 5 to 6 times a week with a lot of intensity and effort, so what the hell am I doing here?
A good question but in my blogs I always try to tell it like it is, good and bad. I am fortunate that at nearly 62 years of age I can train and do things that many younger people might find quite challenging but as I always say, we are all here through the grace of God and sometimes no matter how healthy your lifestyle is; shit happens. In my case whilst having a regular check-up a few months ago they noticed a restricted bladder which normally, with medication, goes away. Anyway I went back last week, they checked me again and the specialist suddenly says :-

’We have to operate’….
What! When? .......
‘Friday’….
‘Excuse me, you mean this week’….
 ‘Yes’…
‘Is it that serious?’…
 ‘It could become serious if we don’t operate’.

This took me aback, as you might expect, especially as I haven’t been inside a hospital ward for over 56 years. Anyway he just said it’s got to be done so that it prevents any future problems.  Fair enough I thought, prevention is a good thing. Apparently I was born with this but it’s never been an issue before maybe because of all the exercise I do and the fact that I drink a lot of water therefore my system is always moving, who knows? However no matter how fit you are as you grow older there is always a risk of infection if it ever gets blocked.
Then he hit me with the cost….  Ouch!  And then he told me what he was going to do… Basically cut the bladder neck and a bit of the prostrate (which is healthy by the way and not enlarged)…. with a LASER!! ….Triple ouch!!  The more I researched this, which was extensive as you might expect, the more serious this operation appeared to be. I mean some guy firing a laser up my sensitive parts is not my idea of a fun time. And it got worse, I am not allowed to exercise at all for a minimum of 4 weeks, or drive, or fly, or even carry any shopping…. and No sex!  Now I said, wait a minute… ‘NO Shopping!’  J
Ok, joking aside let’s cut to the chase here, no sex? I thought he was having a laugh but apparently not. This whole thing was slowly turning into a nightmare and to be fully recovered can sometimes take even longer. Of course by now I am getting second opinions all over the place but in the end I realized I would have to bite the bullet and get on with it.
And so here I am sitting in my hospital bed contemplating life as I look out the window. Mr fit and healthy laid low by a dodgy bladder.
Any operation is serious so I prepared myself as best I could. I might run up and down a 6,000 foot steep canyon in the dark, alone at 5am but going through the hospital doors really terrified me… I just wished I was back at the canyon, so much easier and peaceful and a lot less stressful.
The operation was scheduled for noon the next day. Here I was in the hands of others with everything completely out of my control, not a place I am used to being. (Sue must have thought it was Christmas with all that time to herself). First they took about 5 tubes of blood, which the nurses thought was hilarious because it shot out of my arm like a jet, which normally doesn’t happen apparently and then she said my arms were like a roadmap due to all my prominent veins.  (It’s called vascularity- a sign of fitness which is enhanced by extremely low body fat (usually below 10%)FYI. All great and marvelous but this was not doing me much good now whilst sitting in a hospital bed.
The morning was scary as hell waiting for Dr Evil and his giant laser. The waiting was interminable.  There was a huge thunder and lightning storm outside and I had visions of the laser backfiring and me coming out of the surgery looking something like Wolverine….  Or it could be even more serious and he could accidentally cut the wrong bit and suddenly I’m Catwoman! By now I was delirious even before the drugs, just total panic... The language barrier caused even more confusion, one wrong answer to the wrong question and I could be in a different surgery having a triple by-pass … or breast implants!
Everyone was of course incredibly caring, professional and understanding, then again at these prices they should be, in fact I’m surprised I didn’t get a 2 week Caribbean cruise thrown in. It’s a very strange operation where they paralyse you from the waist down but you are still half awake, sort of drunk, which as you all know is not something I am all that familiar with. Anyway I survived and a few hours later I’m lying in bed with all sorts of wires and tubes sticking out of every orifice feeling like shit. Only last week I was planning my next adventure running for days through the high deserts and stunning canyons of Southern Utah…. and now I can’t even get to the bathroom. This was not good.

For anyone this sort of thing is unpleasant but for people like me it’s mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting. Anyway I spent the next few days just asking when I would be let out. The restrictive nature of hospital is for very good reasons but for a control freak like me it’s like a prison. Poor Sue was forever shuttling back and forth with requests and food parcels. I had already pre-prepared my green drinks and supplements but it still amazed me how nutritionally deficient the food is. Healthy effective nutrition seems very low on the priorities. If this is the norm, which I’m told it is, then people really do eat shit. … And they don’t even know it. I lay awake for hours the next morning awaiting the big breakfast and when it arrived it was coffee and a bread roll! I honestly thought a proper balanced nutritious meal was to follow but that was it. I mean people are recovering from illness and this is what they get… and this is a private hospital. Luckily I had all my green drinks, protein supplements, vitamins, minerals etc… plus a daily chopped salad prepared by Sue the night before because I suspected this could happen.  I know school food is poor but this is a hospital, why do they not have a resident nutrition expert detailing recovery procedure. It seems to be all about drugs, when the nurses saw all my stuff they had no idea, surely this should be taught along with all the other medical qualifications. If more people were engaged in prevention then the hospitals would not be so overcrowded.
On the plus side the nurses and general care and professionalism were of course fabulous and right now this was the most important thing to me and for that I am grateful... Besides I am not used to that many women fiddling around with me all at once.
What an experience, now I know why I have always tried my very best to be healthy and fit. I have been fortunate in that I don’t take any medicines and am never ill which I truly believe is as a result of my lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, I know many people have far, far worse experiences than this and often through no fault of their own but as I said earlier we are all here through the grace of God so I am eternally grateful for having got this far in pretty good shape.  However statistics show over and over again that a heathy lifestyle can prevent a great many medical problems. It’s astonishing when you see people walking around a hospital with a drip and then going outside for a cigarette… the mind boggles.
I hoped to be out after 3 days but there was no chance of that. Anyway after a few tough nights and a rather painful procedure involving a catheter, which I will not explain as any men reading this will not want to know, the resident Doctor arrived,  he introduced himself as Dr Pee …  I am not making this up, I had to ask him twice.  I would have laughed but by now I was really feeling poorly which surprised me because just after the operation I felt okay. I suspect this whole thing is going to take some time to get over, it’s certainly been a chastening experience. I am only allowed to walk for the next 4 weeks so if you see me running through the park, arrest me immediately. I’ll no doubt be driving myself and everybody else around me nuts. I know some might consider my way of living as a bit extreme but I’d rather be OCD about health than anything else. I am determined to get well quickly and will feel blessed again when I finally hit the open trails on my mountain runs. In the meantime I reiterate my constant refrain.  Don’t take your health for granted , take action now, lose weight, start exercising, stop smoking and cut your alcohol and sugar consumption, otherwise you could be in here with something far, far worse.

Stay healthy everyone.