IF OPINIONS WERE ???

Nobody who knows me would ever accuse me of being shy about my opinion. As a general rule I’m going to tell anybody and everybody what I think about absolutely anything and I will express my opinion with absolute certainty, as if only an idiot would disagree with me. But those who know me would also tell you that I am very likely to express the exact opposite opinion the very next day, sometimes even on the same day, in the same conversation. One of my favourite quotes of all time is from Leaves of Grass:
“Do I contradict myself?”
Very well then I contradict myself.
I am large;
I contain multitudes.”
Walt Whitman also happened to be a pretty opinionated guy. He was also batcrap crazy. Many people believe the same thing about me. But here’s the thing: I spend a lot of time thinking very deeply about things. Most people who know me will tell you that as well. And part of thinking, really thinking, is having a debate about almost anything in your own head. If you are doing that, you will contradict yourself and you will definitely contradict other people. Not because you’re right or because they’re wrong but because nothing, absolutely nothing is absolutely true one hundred percent of the time. I’m not talking about relativism here. There is truth. But all truth is situational and all truth should be challenged constantly in order to make that truth an honest truth. No easy truth is a real truth because honesty is never easy. This is especially true when it comes to training and nutrition, where the Heisenberg principle is always at work.
One of the smartest things that was ever said to me was also said by one of the smartest trainers that ever lived, The Iron Guru, Vince Gironda:
“If nothing changes, then nothing changes.”
Change is the only constant to successful training. A too predictable, overly methodical approach to training will always lead to stagnation, because if its predictable to you then it is also predictable to your body. Yes, there is science to being a great trainer. But that science must be tempered with Quantum as well as Newtonian thinking, which requires contradiction and most all, change.
I happen to truly be in an environment at The Gym where I have the utmost respect for my fellow trainers. And those who know me know that I do not say that lightly. I’ve worked for the big Greedlife type chains where making money is all that matters. That always lead to a rigid monolithic approach to training, and therefore to the lowest possible quality trainers for the most part. A quality trainer thinks, and therefore she or he questions. An approach like that does not last long when numbers are the dogma instead of actually trying to help people or make a difference in their lives. At the Gym we work for ourselves and being good at what you do actually matters more than how much money you are making. Not that we don’t like money. Who doesn’t like money. But money and numbers should not be all that matters to anyone. And this is more true in training where you have a very real opportunity to truly change people’s lives. But only if that matters to you as much as making money. Al and I were drawn together by this idea, though it manifests itself in very different ways for each of us.
Which means that we don’t always agree about everything.
There’d be a problem if we did. It would mean that we did not think deeply about what we do and/or that it didn’t matter enough for us to disagree.
So when one of Al’s clients asked me about the idea of Fasting as a training tool I found myself telling him what I honestly thought. That I don’t buy the theories behind Fasting for fitness. I think if you deprive your body of macronutrients for any prolonged period of time it sends a message to that primitive organism that is your body that there is no food available so it better store fat for the next time that happens. I also don’t buy this idea that depriving yourself of macronutrients somehow cleanses your body. Healthy eating does that. Water does that. Yes, we are exposed to more chemicals than we could have ever evolved to deal with, but you don’t wash a cup by not putting anything else in it and hoping that it will somehow clean itself. You clean it by cleaning it. This is of course an overly simplistic analogy. But most of the theories that are used to argue for Fasting, intermittent or otherwise, boil ultimately down to even simpler ideas. Simple ideas can be true. But simple ideas masked by complicated reasoning do not stand up to William of Occam’s rule, and I am always leery of them. I also think that your brain, which requires sugar to stay alive, tricks you when you deprive yourself and demands the sugar that it needs, which can lead to increased craving for sweets and simple carbs, not just in the short run, but quite probably in the long term.
Telling another trainer’s client my opinion probably wasn’t very professional. It definitely wasn’t very nice. But words like “nice” and “professional” are too often the semantic bastions of people who don’t want to be challenged and therefore do not challenge. Maybe that is just an argument for me to continue being a loud mouthed shnook. I definitely meant no respect to Al. I honestly do have the utmost respect for Al, both as a human being and as a trainer. But respect, to my mind, does not preclude disagreement. It demands disagreement, based on the belief that the other person is smart enough to carry their side of the debate.
I’ll still have to apologize of course. Because even in this my opinion does not make me right. Even some loud mouthed shnooks know that telling the truth is not the same as being right, or having the right.
So, remember that Walt Whitman quote?
My mother was schizophrenic. I definitely contain multitudes…
Do I Fast?
Yes.
On a regular basis.
In fact once a year I practice an Aboriginal tradition know as the Spirit Walk. I walk for 3 days without eating, sleeping, stopping or even drinking. At least twice a year I also Fast for at least 24 hours. But I do not do any of that to cleanse, to lose weight or even because I think that it’s good for my body. I do these things for spiritual reasons and to discipline my mind, not my body. Obviously the former practice is in fact bad for my body. And I would argue that even that the 24 hour Fasts are dangerous for my body for the reasons I’ve already expressed. I happen to believe that there is more to being me and to being a healthy me than just my body. I cannot and do not want to separate myself from my body just yet. My body is important to me. But it is not the only thing that is important to me.
Now, to I believe everything I just said to be true?
Yes.
Does that mean that I’m right and that Al’s wrong?
I truly wish it did, but it only means that this is what I believe. And then only what I believe at this time.
I am a very smart guy. But so is Al. I think very deeply about such things, but so does Al. I work very hard to know what I am talking about, but so does Al. I am one of the best trainers that I know. But so is Al.
So, what the hell does all this mean?
Should you Fast?
Shouldn’t you Fast?
You should think about it. You should argue about it. You should trust your trainer. You should have faith in your trainer. But blind belief is not faith. It is laziness. And the very worst things that human beings have ever done we have done because we were too lazy to think very deeply. All that any of us can ever do is to express our opinions, no matter what we tell you. Some of us express those opinions very loudly, even when we’re not asked for them. The best of us try hard to learn as much as possible so that we can give you our most informed opinions.
But they’re still just our opinions.
It is your job to decide which of those opinions you should believe, which of us you should believe.
That’s not easy. It’s not supposed to be easy.
Nothing worth doing or worth having is easy.
You would be doing yourself a disservice, and those of us who care a disservice, by being too lazy to think about it.
Good trainers, good people want to earn your faith.
And you can earn theirs by thinking.
Or you can just tell us to shut the hell up.
It never has stopped me before, but maybe it’ll work on Al…