I remember a couple of years ago having a conversation with Bigg about friendships. He explained a few of his close friends like this…it’s like having a friend checking account. Sometimes you make deposits, some times you make withdrawals. Ok, so I was new to the scene and even though it looked to me as if he was making a hellava lotta deposits, could be he’d been taking withdrawals for years that I haven’t seen. The funny thing about that stuff is things just seem to settle on their own. At some point you realize how healthy friendships seem to stick and others just fall by the wayside in time. Anyways.
The same concept can be said about our bodies, our internal checking account. For example, my Grandpa. Grandpa lived to be 96 and up until about a week and a half where he was unconscious in the hospital before he died, he was going strong. In fact, the day or two before his falling ill, he was eating hamburgers with his son’s. That’s pretty cool. So okay, 96. If I were his son’s, I’d think to myself, huh…I’ve got some pretty rockin’ genes. Let’s keep this going for as long as possible.
But the good genes checking account can only take you so far. At some point, you have to begin to make deposit’s into it. Of course that starts with food. Unless you are horribly malnourished child, and unfortunately we know a few of those, or a child fatty walking the Type II tightrope for your first 20 years, chances are the average daily meal of a youth athlete is pretty ok. You’re not making deposits early but you’re really not making withdrawals.
But what if you’re not a youth athlete? First off, extreme diets have no business for our youth. None. Kids need nutrients that food supplies them and drastically depleting these nutrients to follow a trendy diet is not acceptable. Especially in ‘Merika where we have grocery stores with tasty food and if you can’t afford that, we do have food shelves (believe me, I’ve had to use them when the Z’s were young.) A box of Hamburger Helper is about three bucks and a pound of hangaber is around three bucks. BAM, dinner for $6. You’ve got protein, some carbs, some fat. Right there in a new style box (SRSLY, did we need new packaging for Hamburger Helper?) Don’t fall under the spell of making your children instantly start withdrawing from their checking account. It’s not fair. They don’t have a voice yet to say no and when they do they’re driving their friends nuts at school by eating all of THEIR food. Srsly.
We talked about the sugar hounds and child fatties (sensitive, eh?) yesterday. Same thing applies to this. With every sugary treat NEEDED (no, I’m not talking about fun stuff like birthday cake, or pancakes here or there). I’m talking about the sugar addicted young who immediately begin a withdrawal system that will follow them well into adulthood. Where are the deposits of these kids? We can’t keep withdrawing, Wells Fargo doesn’t let us, neither does your body. At some point you’ll need to pay up. Duh.
I know a dear, dear person who is about as sweet as they come. In fact, she reminds me a lot of my Auntie Karen and for the few lucky one’s who know my Auntie, you know how high that compliment is. But my friend’s daughter has an eating disorder, and it scares me for this woman. She had her first heart attack at age 20. That was her body attempting to close their account. I want to be very respectful when writing this. It is terrifying and having a child in a different form of trouble, making withdrawals just as serious on his body in a different form, I am bonded with her as a scared mom. Our accounts will close at some point, let’s not hurry that along. Food and the types, amounts, and limitations our bodies have already sent us is going to be your biggest deposit, or your biggest withdrawal. At some point; however; constantly withdrawing will close your account. Only instead of receiving a nasty note from your bank, your loved ones will be planning your funeral. Your parting gift to them for eating like shit, forget it, you get a pine box.
The average person exercising or training is just that, average. Therefore, it is not necessary for us to run our bodies into the ground with something that is supposed to be making deposits into our accounts. We are not professional athletes, we just like pretending we are. But we’re not, so knock it off. If whatever you are doing finds you constantly injured; constantly in pain (ever see a runner walk around complaining about how bad their knees are F’d up?); or constantly exhausted…you’ve stopped adding and have started withdrawing from your account. The very thing that began with weekly deposits have taken a turn. Stop that. We all know these people, my favorite are the “powerlifters” who’ve been training for 5 months or so; have bought every EliteFTS and Westside Barbell t-shirt available; walk around with their hoods up in the gym; have become fat and completely asshole and grunt through a 225# squat. Dude, srsly. Check yourself, is your training making deposits or withdrawals.
Of course there are other important factors; sleep; water; good wine; bacon. All ways to make deposits. But food is number one.
What’s in your wallet?
Whoever is happy will make others happy too.
Anne Frank
tosabarbell 