The body and Mind of a Seeker of Excellence
Those who know me, know that I work out…pretty intensely at that.
And that has made me undeniably strong and big, and honestly sometimes uncomfortably so…
But as an Adventist, I've always wondered if I was actually doing the right thing for both my body and mind long term, because now, I am about 10 kgs over my healthy weight class and I could argue that muscles are heavier and my body type is the kind that gains easily, but that would be half the story.
The unfortunate issue is that I need a lot of protein which makes it very hard to quit taking meat(white meat) .I now have developed just slight knee issues from heavy squats(thankfully I've picked this up early so I took a break recently to fix it first), and a foggy brain from the food I eat from the diet recommendations I have which has a lot more animal product than I've taken in my entire life to date.
I am strongly inclined to advocate for a better way, a holistic approach. Forgive my vulnerability but I’ll be honest, the stronger my body has gotten through these traditional (worldly ?) workout techniques and diet recommendations, the weaker my willpower became morally - unfortunately.
I could easily say no a couple years back to a bottle of soda or bingeing to a show, or even sleeping too late very very easily ... .there could be a combination of factors that went into it, but the main issue was that my mind was always clear. I had always made it a point to have a rich, functional and excellent life, I still do, but over the past couple of months, what I had thought to be my saving grace, was undoubtedly used against me.
Modern exercises aren't bad, but in the way that most young men are pushed to pursue it, they are harmful. The traditional idea of strength and physical 'peak' in men is often being able to squat 1.5 times your weight, so in my case about 135kgs, bench press your weight - 92ish kgs for me, curl half your weight 40 ish kgs in my case and finally deadlift 2 times your weight, all feats I achieved months back (and yes, I am bragging a lil, lol). But these goals and numbers at any weight often put an unnecessary strain on a large part of other muscle groups and body parts, like knees, the back, the spine, the ankles and other minor muscle groups, that are very hard to repair and train - including the heart.
My point today is not to dissuade anyone from pursuing a traditional workout for whatever goal that they may have, I am proposing to you an alternative. Just so we are clear, I am not the arbiter of Adventist living, I fall short in more ways than one, but thankfully because of grace you and I can claim Christ and his faith can be ours wholly, truly and for eternity, and that faith though little and brittle as it may be compels me to propose to you this alternative that I would recommend to take.
1.A change in diet:
We are often told to take 0.8-1kg per kilogram of body weight per day. That claim was wild the first time I heard it, and its still wild today. Because that would mean, I'd need to take 150g of protein per day. That would be 24 eggs in a day, or 5-6 chicken thighs. That just sounds like gobbledygook. It's not sustainable nor sounds healthy.
I remember trying to emulate the eating patterns suggested and I always had some problem or the other, from food portions not making sense, to the food looking like something straight out of a lion's den. The amount of protein did not seem healthy, and I sincerely truly never fully recovered from the brain fog that caused me.
Most people don't know this but meat takes about 14-58 hours to digest,yes, its true, google it right now! . Wild right? So sometimes for 2 or so days your body is constantly working to digest food with no rest whatsoever, to make matters worse, you eat meat daily, so for years on end, your digestive tract has reasonably never stopped working.
We can safely deduce from first principles, that you are definitely setting up your digestive tract for failure. Knowing this, I have decided to slowly but surely wean myself off meat completely (white meat) - I am making this distinction every time because my colleagues and friends consider white meat as greens, lol .
The biggest argument for abandoning meat in general is the mental clarity that comes with it. As an Adventist, mental clarity is necessary in both the understanding of scripture and the making of morally astute decisions. These two activities that may even seem unrelated are very important to your spiritual life, and even all activities involving the brain. You will become more aware, more present, with a clear mind that will then unlock your full mental faculties to understand even those concepts you'd claim are hard.
The story of Daniel usually stands as a pointer especially for those who seek to fully understand biblically rich doctrine. The diet the young Jews chose directly impacted them to the point they had a natural 'glow' and were 'fatter' in flesh, they looked much better physically and were straight up 10 times sharper (Daniel 1:11-20). I want to look good and have a mind that is 10 times sharper too!
I guess 10X leverage truly is in a vegan diet.
So what would this look like, how would I approach the famed B-12 issue and how would I prevent myself from looking like a skinny vegan who can easily be blown away by the wind? Well, as in all things, I will approach this change in diet with prayer, moderation, temperance and a lot of wisdom. The bible says be 'wiser than a serpent, and harmless as doves....' - (Mathew 10:16), maintaining a willingness to learn and being creative with it. In fact I will make it as fun and naturally protein full and possible.
2. Change in workout approach
I used to work out on average 3-4 times a week, and boy was I constantly exhausted. Muscle pain, knee pain, weight gain coupled with muscle gain and a host of other issues. These weren’t purely a fault of the system I had but the system was the major contributor.
In studying the heroes I have from the past, none of them worked out like me, and they mostly did functional activities and that made a lot of sense. And that is the approach I am going to use.
Working out for and with functionality and longevity is the primary focus, working out mostly in nature is the secondary focus and moderation is the guiding principle. With these in mind what would that look like for me? Well, it looks and sounds amazing!
5 activities throughout a sample workout cycle:
1. light but functional indoor workouts
2. A swimming session a week or two
3.One long distance cycle(bicycle ride in nature)
4.One short distance cycle (bicycle ride in nature)
5. One controlled jogging session
These could be supplemented by a hike every month, a short or a long hike, but at the end of the day, a beautiful walk. These are activities one could do at 23, and at 80, alone or with people and it doesn’t close you down to a confined space everyday after work or school, but opens your heart and mind to the beauty of nature and God's creation, making every physical activity you do throughout the week and opportunity for God to visit with your mind using the objects of nature to reiterate beautiful lessons of his grace and mercy towards you and his desire for you to have life and have life in full.
The message above isn’t to castigate you, or point out a clear and directed path for you to follow, but to provide practical principles that would be a foundation for how you implement it in your life. I just hope that as you read through this, your mind gets to see that being a child of God can reflect even in your diet and choice of exercise and life, and that could mean the difference between being able to distinguish the voice of God from the noise of the world,
The pursuit of excellence requires a healthy body and a clear mind. It requires you to work not just to the end of a task, but also to the depths of it, to the very core, creating a distinct and clear message. Excellence speaks, it says something, it communicates an idea, it communicates a thought and an intention.
For excellence in its truth, excellence in its most potent form is the ability to distinguish the call of God from the noise of the world in your work and then almost instinctively as an act of worship silently shout it through your work.