The Wild Man has revealed something about my food intake recently. We have all heard about how what we put into our bodies, it’s fuel, should be of good quality if we are expecting good results.
I’ve noticed that the Wild Man is thin but with good muscle tone. He doesn’t have any excess fat on his body beneath his rust-colored fur. Yet, it would be ridiculous to imagine him on a stationary bike or a treadmill or slave to any kind of “health regimen.” But the guy exudes healthy wholeness. I never see him eating, so watched more closely.
I’ve been working on a website called www.thecalorist.com for a guy who is a member of the CR (Calorie Restriction / Optimal Nutrition) Diet test group being studied by Washington University in St. Louis. As I see it, the benefits of CR are three-fold:
1) You will supposedly live significantly longer (20%) because you are burning dramatically less calories over a lifetime, slowing metabolism, and thus not burning out your body which is what aging is.
2) You will look great because you aren’t eating the fatty, thoughtless American diet replete with tons of sugar, refined flour, fat, and free refills. In other words you will be eating things that are nutritional and low cal and your body will begin burning off those excessive calories that you took in over all the years you were eating without thought.
3) And, here’s the kicker, you won’t have to start some ridiculous exercise routine that you’re going to feel terrible doing and even worse if you miss a day. Exercise routines demand more calories, they make you hungry. Is there really anything more ridiculous than picking up something heavy just to put it back down and doing this again and again in order to burn fat. I mean, if you love to run marathons, run them, but not without regard for diet. Some people, and I would bet, a lot of people exercise because they don’t like the flab on their body.
Personally, I want to look good and feel good but I don’t want another hour or minute of my life spoken for. That’s not freedom. Now, I already spend a certain amount of time eating, so why not eat better; more nutritiously and less destructively?
Now the possible 4th benefit from following a CR diet is that you will feel better. I’ve only been following it for about 3 months and I honestly can’t say whether I feel better. I do feel better when I look in a mirror and can see my body minus the 23 pounds I’ve lost, but I feel pretty damn good. They say that lots of raw vegetables make your digestive system happy. I feel better knowing that I’m not taking in as much heavily processed foods that weigh down my body’s systems.
It’s kind of an efficiency thing, like when you purchase a car that’s going to get better gas milage. It’s a diet that seems fundamentally right and logical: Eat less high-calorie / low-nutrition foods and replace them with low-calorie / high-nutrition foods. It requires very little additional effort and that effort disappears as you ease into a routine, thus it isn’t mentally taxing or physically taxing because this diet actually restricts the amount of exercise (calorie expenditure) that you are allowed. It is actually an investment that requires less of you in order to get more out of life.
Nutrition: Fitness: follow CR and check it off your list.
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