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This post is for the Red Delta Project. The home page is at www.RedDetlaProject.com. This site is just being used as a host for this podcast.

They fear a skipped workout, a slip in the diet or a lousy set or two.

Then there are those who live with a false hope believing the rewards of health and fitness will come to them if they just do this exercise or eat that vegetable.

While there is certainly something to be said for basic ideas like getting more exercise and eating less junk food, we must keep a basic rule of diet and fitness in mind. If we forget it, we could end up worrying about nothing or expecting results that are still a long way off.

Give a quick listen and learn why few things in fitness are entirely good or bad in and of themselves.

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At night.

While wearing black.

And blindfolded.

It’s all this black and white thinking about diet and exercise that’s stressing me out and making it tempting to go moon a bunch of Hell’s Angels.

We are a society that likes to sharply divide our lifestyle choices. It’s all about how these exercises are best and these exercises are bad. Or these foods are good for you, but these foods are bad so don’t eat them. Ever.

It all creates this idea that every meal and activity we do carries the weight and responsibility of walking around with the nuclear launch codes for every missile silo in existence.

Trying to figure out how to stay healthy and happy can be very stressful!

But it doesn’t need to be this stressful! There are plenty of people in the world who don’t know a calorie from a polysaccharide and are perfectly healthy and happy. Yet open up a few web forums and some diet books and you come under the impression that you need 2 masters’ degrees and be a registered dietitian just to plan dinner.

By the way, better not hit the gym for a workout unless you have a personal trainer, a degree in exercise physiology and years of experience with Olympic athletes. Otherwise those dumbbell curls could land you in the hospital.

Not saying all the education is not important, but you don’t have to be a genius to stay fit and healthy any more than you need to be Bill Gates to watch You tube videos on a computer.

When I get all stressed about how good or bad certain lifestyle and diet habits are (as they have been flawlessly proven by science and research of course) I remember one of the first basic rules of Fitness independence:

The effect of everything upon our bodies and lives, both good and bad, is dependent on quantity.

Everything that’s good and holy and everything that’s bad and scary in the world of diet and exercise all depends on how much of it there is in your life.

Eat a large pizza every night with a 24 pack of Blue Ribbon and It’s probably not going to turn out so cool. But I’m willing to bet an occasional slice and a beer at a hockey game won’t cause your world to come crashing down.

They say running is bad for the knees, so does that mean I can’t chase after my dog when he gets off leash? And doing yoga is supposed to help me de-stress, so hitting a couple poses once a month should do the trick right?

From a young age we learn that life isn’t as black and white as the world we see though our television programs. Yet we are trying so hard to make fitness and healthy living just like we are living on the Dick van Dyke show.

I think it all boils down to just wanting answers. How much should I bench? How many miles should I run? How many fruits and vegetables? How much of this can I eat and still fit in my skinny jeans? Inquiring minds want to know and we want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The simple (and easy) formula on how to be fit and live free is now here. Listen in and change your life in under 25 minutes.

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Even so, it’s important to understand that insulin is a very important and valuable hormone for the human body. Just listen to any type 1 diabetic who can‘t produce enough insulin and it quickly becomes apparent that it’s a good thing we have the stuff produced automatically without needing to give it a second thought.

That still doesn’t stop some folks from worrying about how much insulin they are producing in the false fear that even a slight rise in insulin levels will mean good bye six pack and hello elastic band  sweat pants.

The main focus of the insulin fear tends to be carbohydrates and refined carbohydrates or sugar. It’s generally believed that these sorts of foods cause insulin to be released by the truckload and turn even a few grains of rice into 5 pounds of fat.

We can rest easy though with the basic understanding that insulin does not respond to carbs or sugar.

It responds to a change in blood sugar.

Some might say it’s the same, but knowing the difference will give you the freedom to enjoy your carbs and simple carbs without fearing weight gain.

It’s important to understand that a rise in blood sugar comes from nearly anything we eat. Even foods that are low on the glycemic index still cause a slight rise in blood sugar and hence an insulin response when digested.

The two key factors with insulin response is both the quantity of the food eaten and the rate at which it breaks down when digested.

Knowing this, we can control insulin response from carbs and sugars by 1) controlling the portion size and 2) combining them with foods that will slow down the rate they are broken down and digested.

Controlling portion size is obvious. The more calories you consume in a single sitting the more insulin response there will be. Even if the response is low, the more food you consume the longer it will take to digest and the longer your blood sugar levels will need to be regulated by insulin. So no matter what you eat, fewer calories = lower and/or shorter insulin response.

Slowing down the rate of digestion is possible with mixing in fats, proteins and complex carbohydrates. So eating white bread might have a fast shot to rising blood sugar but put on some lunch meat, cheese and mayo and suddenly it’s not going to be rushing into your system at nearly the same speed.

It’ll be a cold day in hell when I give up my sushi and ice cream. Knowing the relationship between insulin and blood sugar gives me the freedom to enjoy both of these things and still be ready for the beach.

Be fit, Live free,

Matt Schifferle

Even so, they both play different (and separate) roles when it comes to your fitness. Diet can’t do what exercise can and exercise can’t do what diet can.

Listen in and learn the limitations of each towards your specific goal!

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 At the risk of over simplification, I believe that most motivations to exercise fall into two main catagories.

-Working out for show

-Workout out for go.

 Show goals are sort of like body building type goals. The goals of the show goals are things like muscle tone, weight loss, inches lost, bigger this and longer that. It’s noting about what you can do, it’s all about the image staring back at them in the mirror.

Go goals on the other hand are all about what the body can physically do. Folks with go goals could care less about six pack abs or muscle tone. It’s all about upgrading the body to perform at a higher level whether it’s about crushing the competition or working all day without fatigue.

It’s very easy to get the two schools of thought mixed. Many have wished to become stronger (a go objective) when they really want to become bigger (a show objective.)

Some folks might be afraid to admit to a show goal fearing they might appear vain or shallow. It’s as if wanting to look good in a bathing suit is for narcissists but going for greater strength or energy seems to be a little more righteous and noble.

Unfortunately this blurring of the lines has caused more than a little frustration and wasted time over the years. Countless folks seeking a slimmer mid section have been frustrated by seeking a stronger core. Their core undoubtedly gets stronger but often not slimmer since the two goals are in fact very different since one is for show and the other is for go.

If you’re primary goal is for show, then ditch the functional training approach and don’t worry so much about being faster, stronger or have better endurance. Those things might come with a nicer looking body, but it’s possible to achieve them all without improving your image at all.

If you’re goal is for go then start looking to improve performance at every turn. Adopt training strategies that mimic the activities you want to improve your performance in. Move faster, quicker and with the purpose to build performance.

If you’re like me however and want a combination of the two then by all means go with a hybrid of tactics. I’ve long felt that organic exercise is a very good blend of producing results for both show and go.

So get clear on what you want. Don’t worry about what your goals say or what other might think and charge forward. Your better body is waiting for you.

Be fit, Live free,

Matt Schifferle