Health and Exercise

About two weeks ago I watched a movie called “Fat, Sick, and Almost Dead“. You can find it on Hulu for free. At that time I had just ordered a blender, and figured I would do a 7 days of juicing when it arrived. The blender actually arrived two days ago, but I had a dear friend who was moving away and wasn’t able to spend much time at home. Yesterday, however, I was able to start juicing.

My plan is very simple: eat mostly juice for a total of  seven days (I won’t kill myself if I eat something else, but it does need to be healthy). I dont have any particular plan on what fruits and veggies I will be adding, but I am trying to keep it as local as possible (we have two farmers markets) and keep it varied.

My basic recipe is 1 cup of water and enough fruits and vegetables two make two cups of juice. It actually doesn’t take too much since fruits and vegetables have a lot of water. I am going heavier on the fruits in the morning and heavier on the vegetables later in the day.

I’ll be posting a couple of videos, but I actually made them in Japanese for my friends who are interested here in Japan.

If you are a juicer or have done something similar in the past, leave a comment. I would love to hear your opinions and get any tips.

If you are reading this post, then you are searching for the secret on how to lose fat, gain muscle, and get in shape the easy way. So here it is:

There isn’t one!

There is no workout cheat or magic pill. Getting in shape takes hard work, and if you are looking for the easy way, then you aren’t really thinking that seriously about it. How often do you hear a gold medalist or professional athlete say that they didn’t work hard to win the medal. That they just had a “special” program. No, they got there through hard work and sacrifice. The only time they say it’s easy is when they are getting paid to sell something.

The truth is that getting in shape isn’t easy. It takes hard work and a strong mentality. It takes a “I’m gonna do this no matter what” mentality, not a “well, as long as it’s only 10 minutes a day “.  You will most likely need to change your exercise and eating habits,  and possibly your sleeping schedule, and other habits as well. These are all very difficult things to change, and if you need to be willing to sacrifice a daily piece of cake or chocolate.

Does this mean that you need to workout an hour a day everyday? No, but you have to be willing to. I can put an intensive workout into 15-20 minutes, but if I am not willing to do more, I am probably not going to stick with it. However, when it comes to 5 minute workouts, that really isn’t much. At least not when it comes to getting your whole body in shape.

The bottom line is that it has to be important to you. If it is, then going through the pain and struggle isn’t only worth it, it’s rewarding.