218

michael jordan has not left the building - wright thompson espn magazine

Every morning since returning from the islands, he's been in the gym. At mealtime he texts his nutritionist to find out what he can and can't eat. Ostensibly, the reason is that he stepped on a scale after leaving the excess palace of Mister Terrible and saw this number staring back: 261. Nine days later, sitting in his office and surrounded by basketball, he's down to 248. He'll claim it's about health, or looking good for his 50th birthday party. But in his mind, there's a target: 218, a familiar and dangerous number in Jordan's world.

That's his playing weight.

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i think i started calorie counting in high school.  blame it on wrestling.  and then it just became a basic habit.  i was never too concerned with all the science of carbs protein, metabolism, breakfast, shakes, bmi etc.  i just did simple math.  burn more calories than you consume.  in high school i dropped 35 lbs to wrestle at 145lb weight class.  i was a more comfortable 168 lb.  college made me balloon to almost 200lbs before i moved to asia and dropped down to 69kg.  that involved a shit ton of cardio and a lot of lettuce.  that was when the subway sandwich became a staple in my life.  69kg was obviously not a sustainable number, so i yoyo'ed around 75-85kg over the next 5 years before ballooning to where im at now.   which is why i've brought the subway sandwich back into my life.   it's pretty miserable.

i'm about 4+ weeks in.  and finally, i can feel some results.  i've finally shrunk my appetite/stomach to where i'm comfortable with less intake.  i'm in much better shape now where working out is a manageable fatigue rather than a brick wall of agony.  i've started running (the best cardio for caloric burn)...i've been running stairs (increasing distance and decreasing time).  i feel my core shrinking, i feel my body over the hump and hope that this week might be the week where there's a dramatic difference.  no alcohol, no alcohol, no alcohol (except maybe a little tonight)  ㅠㅠ.

larry's been preaching to me about his "shock the system" theory.  where you eat really fatty foods once a week to prevent your body from going into starvation mode preventing slowing metabolism.  it's a great method if you can be like him and eat one meal a day and be absolutely miserable waiting for that one meal a week, only to have to workout extra hard the next day.  it's all mental.  he eats a vege sandwich.  i eat the chicken breast.  why not just save 100 calories so one of your beers is offset.

i like how "forks over knives" challenged the food pyramid.  moderation is your basic key to life (in any area).  and overloading on protein (meats) wasn't that enjoyable as compared to the past 2 years where i finally eat rice/bread/pasta etc.  carbs make you happy. its true.  though "nothing tastes good as skinny feels".  without trying too hard, i've increased my plant intake.  the fighter in the movie didn't eat meat, that didn't intrigue me.  though, arian foster went vegan after reading the china study...yes...let me try out this plant based diet...

tony gonzalez maintains what nutritionists call an 80/20 approach – 80 percent plant-based foods and 20 percent animal protein, mostly fish. "I hardly eat red meat," he says.  80/20 ratio is pretty easy in asia.  animal protein is never eaten in bulk, nor the star of the dish,  it's always small portions accompanied with mostly vegetables.  

Eating plant-based foods has also been shown to improve blood and oxygen flow, helping repair torn muscles and tendons for faster recovery from training and injuries. High-fiber fruits and vegetables, loaded with antioxidant vitamins and minerals, have been shown to limit inflammation in arteries, while processed foods can cause it. The complex carbs in whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables also "break down more easily [than meat] into fuel," says Mitzi Dulan, an NFL nutritionist who helped Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez become a vegan. Turning red meat into energy is much harder. "Taking that fat and that density, it's a lot more work. It makes your blood acidic, and your body has to work to get your body in pH balance again."

Read more: http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/going-vegan-in-the-nfl-20130123#ixzz2LPkfDdjK 
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