Three Oxymorons of Fitness

Oxymoron: something that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements.

Oxymoron of Fitness #1: To get energy, you need to expend energy.
Otherwise known as: an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. (Thanks, Isaac!)



I'm betting you experience this phenomenon on lazy Saturday mornings. You get up, get breakfast, and park it on the couch. Next thing you know it's lunchtime. You're stuck. You're not in motion. But if you were to get out of bed, go for a short jog, then eat breakfast, your day looks a lot different. You have energy to take care of things. That activity in the morning carries through your entire day. An object in motion stays in motion.

When Zach and I started exercising at 5am five years ago, this phenomenon blew me away. You mean I was "giving up" two hours of sleep, but I felt more energized, more alert throughout the day? You bet. It's oxymoron #1.

Oxymoron #2: If you want to lose weight, you must EAT.
C'mon, I know you've had this thought before: "Shoot. I need to lose a few pounds. I'm going to skip breakfast and lunch and just eat dinner today."

That's called the starvation diet, and it works. For about a day. Then one of two things happens:
A) You are SO HUNGRY and SO CRANKY that you eat a day's worth of calories at the dinner table, or
B) You are successful in starving yourself for a few days, and your metabolism rewards you accordingly by slowing down a notch or six, causing you to hold on to every ounce of fat because clearly there is a famine going on.

If you want to be healthy and lose weight, you must feed your body regularly. Preferably stuff it recognizes like veggies, fruit, lean protein, whole grains. (If you want some recipe ideas, click on the "Recipes" label on the right side of this blog. I'm not posting these recipes for my health...I'm posting them for yours!)

There are many methods to the madness of eating, but here's how Zach and I do it:
6:30am: Breakfast (usually Shakeology, oatmeal or eggs)
9:30am: Morning snack
Noon: Lunch
3:30pm: Afternoon snack
6pm: Dinner

We eat like infants on a strict schedule. And why wouldn't you eat that way? You're not hungry and your metabolism is revving like a fine-tuned engine. I've messed with cutting out snacks and I end up gaining weight. I feel like this is the world's best kept oxymoron secret: EAT to lose weight!

Oxymoron #3: If you are retaining water, drink more water.
I don't have solid evidence on this belief, but I think that most people in America walk around in a dehydrated state most of the time. We drink plenty of "stuff," but not near enough water. Here's what happens when you don't drink enough water:

From APEC Water, www.freedrinkingwater.com

Water helps your liver convert fat into usable energy. If you don't drink enough, your kidneys are overwhelmed with concentrated fluids, and they will make your liver do extra work. Your liver works hard to turn your body fat into the energy that you use but if it has to do the kidney's work, then it simply hold onto the extra fat that would have been burned off if you simply had enough water. 

And what's worse is that instead of excreting water and waste products, you body retains existing water to reuse. This is what causes water retention and bloating. When you don't get enough water, your body panics and holds on to it selfishly, as though you're in a famine. Dehydration thus can make you look bloated and fat instead of thin and taut. The best way to get rid of this water retention is to drink enough of it to return your body and its processes back to a normal equilibrium. 

Water regulates body temperature, filters out impurities, and keeps the brain working properly while transporting nutrients to and from cells. While the human body can store energy as glycogen, fat, and tissue, it cannot "store" water - the body uses its own water but expects us to provide a continuous supply of fresh new water regularly to function. Water is critical in moving nutrients into and out of a cell, an action known as the "ion pump". When you take in the improper balance of sodium and potassium or do not drink adequate water, your body will increase a hormone and try to "retain" water by keeping your kidneys from filtering it. Ironically, one of the best ways to stop retaining water is to drink more water!

If you have trouble with water retention, turn to oxymoron #3, which says to drink more water to get rid of water!

The great news is that all these oxymorons boil down to the following facts:
- If you exercise, you're going to have tons of energy to expend on the other things you've got to do in life.
- If you want to lose weight, you get to eat* on a regular basis.
- If you drink water, you get to lose that extra water weight you're carrying around.

What's not to like about oxymorons?

* By eat, I mean real stuff like the things in my recipe section. Not Cheetos.