"Confessions of a Strength Coach" by Josh Henkin

When most guys think about ED, they're usually reaching for a little blue pill for help. However, I'm not talking about that kind of ED! I'm actually referring to eating disorders. Yes, a blog written for guys is going to discuss eating disorders in today's post because women aren't the only ones with this issue.

If you don't believe me, then I hope you enjoy reading Josh Henkin's latest blog post. I initially had two or three other posts from other S&C (strength & conditioning) coaches I was thinking about re-posting today, but, once I read Josh's post, I knew I had to share this with you.

I encourage you to leave comments at his blog as well as here because I'd like for us to start a discussion of the emotional side of weight loss, which, IMO, is grossly neglected. There are many men in this country with eating disorders, but they would never publicly admit to it for fear of being labeled a "sissy" or "punk". Well, get over it fellas because if a former collegiate athlete and current S&C coach can admit to having an eating disorder, what's stopping you?

In my post on Wednesday, I'm going to share my own issues with food and one topic most guys secretly obsess over: body image! Until then, read about Josh's continued battle with his eating disorder and some tips that he uses to manage it. Simply click on the title of his post to be taken to the original.

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Sunday, June 8, 2008

Confessions of a Strength Coach

It is impossible to speak about fitness, health, and performance without speaking about the role of nutrition. I am not going to speak about macronutrient ratios, carb intake, blood sugar, nutrient timing, or any of the typical nutrition talk. In fact, I think these aspects are far less critical than the often neglected part of nutrition, the emotional side.

One of the best ways I help my personal training clients is to give them some insight to my own personal struggles. When people can relate and understand you are not perfect, they are far more likely to adhere and listen to what you have to say. In this blog entry I wanted to share something on a very select few of people know (some family members don't even know) which is that I suffer from an eating disorder!

This isn't a trick to get people to buy products or to stir controversy. It is something I felt compelled to share after doing a very motivating interview with Muata Kamdibe. As many of you know at this point, Muata is a professor that lost over 130 pounds. In speaking with Muata it was reinforced to me how big of a role the emotional side of nutrition really is.

When I was 13 I was about 5'10 and pushing 185 very soft pounds. After feeling extremely self-conscious about the weight I decided over the summer break to do something about it. What I decided to do helped shape my coaching today. I began to take very careful stock of everything I ate. In those days, it was high carb, low fat nutrition.

So, I made sure that I didn't eat anything with fat. That wasn't the end of it, I tracked every single calorie that I consumed. If that wasn't bad enough for a 13 year old, I then made sure to burn every calorie I ate in the stationary bike in our basement. I also spent almost every waking moment during the summer doing some sort of physical activity. Guess what? It worked!

I entered school that fall down to 145 pounds! I was very thin and everyone noticed. The attention I received was far more positive. From friends, sports coaches, and girls in my school everyone remarked very positively about my change. For anyone that knows about eating disorders, this is the worst thing to happen as it only encourages the behavior. I was constantly sick to my stomach, tired, unable to concentrate, and many times almost passing out.

My life was probably saved by actually hurting my ankle very severely at the age of 14. This meant I couldn't be as active and began weight training with my older brother. Falling in love with weight training I wanted to know as much as I could. I read all the cheesy muscle magazines that all kids do. I started eating more rationally and developing a lot more muscle.

However, this didn't solve the emotional side of food. To this day, food is a constant struggle. No, I have never seeked help for this problem, but I have begun to develop very strong coping strategies that anyone can adapt to beat the problems of emotional eating.

Let's face it, it isn't as though people don't know vegetables and fruits are good for them. That they should eat healthy unprocessed meats and heck most know fish oils are good for you too. However, it isn't a lack of knowledge, but not addressing the personal issue that is far more challenging. Here are some strategies I found extremely effective.

1. Don't have bad foods in the house. This makes is far less likely that you will eat those foods. Oh, and if you have kids, don't feel bad about not having these foods, your kids don't need them either!

2. Find other foods that are healthy to satisfy cravings. I often will find a blend of different fruits to help sweet cravings. In addition, coconut butter blends are sweet treats and have a ton of nutrition. Also, you can not raw organic honey with some almond butter as a nice treat. All these things are healthy yet are easy to justify for those sweet cravings.

3. Watch for self-destructive friends and family. This sounds horrible, but I try to avoid friends or family that are highly negative and actually promote bad habits.

4. Choose restaurants that have a full selection of healthy foods. Try to avoid bars and other places that encourage bad eating habits.

5. Eat before you attend social events. I find that if I am not starving I am far better at controlling binging or other bad habits. I don't feel compelled to even start eating poorly.

6. Exercise regularly, this may seem obvious, but I find regular exercise encourages other good habits.

7. Surround yourself with positive people whether or the internet, gym, or social groups.

8. Find other coping strategies to stress. One of my favorite sayings is by Steven Covey. Mr. Covey believes that you can not prevent bad things from happening, the only thing we have control over is how we react. Very strong and powerful to me.

My hope is nothing more than a few of you that read this can relate and find some satisfaction in knowing there are more people like you that go through the same struggles. It is a challenge every day, but by applying some of these strategies I hope it becomes a little easier.

Are you scale-phobic?

Gentlemen,

I want to appeal to a less emotional and more rationale side of you today, OK? So, do me a favor and check your emotions at the door--thanks.

I know that many of you can identify with the idea of being scale-phobic. Surely you've experienced the sweaty palms of anticipation smacking against your belly as you steady yourself on the scale? Society would have us to believe that women are the only ones who dread getting on the scale, but this simply ain't true. Many men, especially those with dunlap disease, deplore the thought of having to be weighed when going for a physical.

Fellas, don't worry about how you've reacted in the past about the scale because today's a new day, and you're going to approach this with a different mind set this time. Yes, the scale can help to feed that negative voice of doubt you hear inside as you start on yet another weight loss journey; however, that's just one way of looking at it. You can also view it as simply one tool you'll use on your journey to determine if you're program is giving you measurable results.

As, I've said, there's no room to be emotional about the scale anymore because you're using your fear of the scale as a crutch to not be accountable to yourself. Listen, I weigh myself everyday; yes, I really do because how else will I get to know how my bodyweight fluctuates on a daily basis? How else will I hold myself accountable for pigging out (read: eating too many calories) on nuts and the ensuing, and inevitable, water weight gain that occurs? The scale, in many respects, keeps you honest and accountable.

Guys, if you don't have one, go out and get yourself a nice digital scale. Also, pick up a simple day planner to record your daily weight as you're on this journey. OK, I know that pen and paper sounds so 80s, so for the computer addicts you may consider using fitday or fittracker, which is an online diet journal with many free tools; however, before you start weighing yourself daily, I have some practical tips for you:

• your body weight fluctuates 1-5 lbs on a daily basis because of fluid retention. So, if you weigh 285 on Monday and 289 the next day, don't freak out and think that you've gained 4 lbs of fat because you haven't. It's OK, just keep following your program and recording your weight because you'll start to see that that the gaps will start to shift downward.
  
  
• to account for these fluctuations, determine your bodyweight on a weekly basis. Basically, weigh yourself everyday, add up a week's worth, and divide it by seven to get your weekly average. I would calculate my average weight each Saturday after I weighed myself. Do this for every week of the month, and then average the weeks out to get your monthly average.
  
  
• view the scale not as an enemy but as a valuable ally, companion, and tool on your weight loss journey. Along with a tape measure, body fat calipers, your clothes, and bathroom mirror, your scale is but one tool that will help you determine if your program is giving you the results you want.
  
  
• this is a methodical process and not an emotional one. View weighing yourself as emotional as you would watching paint dry on a door. Instead of being emotional, learn from the process. You'll start to get to know how your body reacts to certain nutritional situations (bottomless bowl night at the local Italian restaurant), stressful events (wifey wasn't working late after all), exercising, etc. In addition, you'll begin to see just how much control you actually have over your bodyweight.

No more lying, no more guesstimating, and no more fear! Go, get on the scale and write down the three numbers in your planner, close the planner, and move on with your day without giving how much you weighed a second thought. If you're too large to use a regular scale, go and find a place that would have a freight scale or go to your nearest recycling center. Approach that scale no differently.

Finally, be patient; it's going to take at least two to three months before things really become interesting, as you'll have more numbers to compare and contrast. The less emotional you are, the more enjoyable recording and charting your weight loss will be.

OK, so what's up with the pixs?

I think that it's worth explaining why I have so many pixs of me during my weight loss journey in my underwear. Since I had made up my mind that 2003 was going to be the year that I would literally get my weight under control, I figured that I needed more motivation this time. Going up and down with my weight had been a recurring theme for the last couple of years for me, and I felt that I was more than ready to make a sustainable change. So, what do we usually do when we need help fellas? Reach out to your homies, right? Well, I was just the average Joe Couch Potato, and I did just that.

My buddies and brother were more than happy to help me with not only their encouragement, but we would also start an online weight loss club! Since, I've always been more of a wannabe techie, I took on the job of building the website and setting up the forum. Since my cheap ass used a free service (thanks bravenet), it didn't take long to have our club up and running.

Everyone was pretty stoked about starting because we had all put on more weight than we were happy with and knew it was time for a change. There were six of us in the club, and the forums had many interesting conversations about water weight, experiences taking fat burners, which I was very interested in, to trying to get a six-pack. The ideas were being exchanged, and I had motivation that I hadn't felt in sometime. So, I was the first one to recommend that we all post a before shot of ourselves; however, I told them that they should be like men and take it without their shirts.

Hey, I can't throw down the gauntlet like that and not be the first one to upload my pixs even though my girlfriend--at the time--told me not to because "they're going to laugh at you." I knew she was right, but I was over 300lbs., and I needed something to motivate my fat ass to stay the course. So, I hit the send button and sent these pixs:

I was 296lbs when I took these pixs; I didn't have the nerve to send pixs of me when I was part of the 300lb. club. What stands out most in my mind while looking at these pixs is that I really did not think I was that fat. I think that I, like many of you guys, have been so use to being overweight that you really have a distorted view of your body size or just how large you really are. I thought that I was just a Big Boy or a Big Dawg that needed to eat a man's size portion. Hell, I took pride in wearing XXL because I didn't want to be skinny, I would tell myself.

Well fellas, I hate to tell you this, but if you're wearing a size 46+ pants size and/or haven't seen your Willy in a while when you take a leak, then let me assure you, without ever laying eyes on your naked body, that you're fat and you have a lot of body fat to lose. So, stop flexing your man boobs and chunky arms imagining that you're buff because you're not! But, that's OK for right now, just stop kidding yourself and start a more honest relationship with yourself.

I know I did, and it started the minute I uploaded my pixs to the website. Like my girlfriend predicted, I'm sure they laughed at me behind their monitors, thinking, "Shit, there's no way in hell I'm going to do that!". Yeah, and no one else posted a pix to our online club, which, as you can imagine, didn't last too long after I was left hanging.

Nevertheless, what I didn't plan on being a side effect from being dissed by my homies, and even my own brother, is that it made me realize, "Damn dude you're on your own!". Throughout your weight loss journey guys, you are going to be alone, so start to mentally prepare yourself for this.