Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Eat to Live

Many students, Taekwondo or Thai-Robics, always ask me about nutrition. I love it! I love when someone is interested in making a change. Tonight, I'd like to blog about a way of eating that will help you look your best and perform at your best.
The last thing I'm going to do is write down how many calories you're supposed to consume or the amount of protein, carbs, or fat, you need in a day. That's absurd- soley because I need to know your body composition. By the way, we do those for free in the Ultimate Body Challenge (UBC).
More importantly, I'm going to try and expand your context. If you've read books on nutrition, you've expanded your content. Think of context as the bowl that holds the content. Get it? :)
First of all, if you want to be successful at the nutrition game, you must decide right now why you eat. Of course, when asked, everyone says they, "eat to live." Why do you eat dessert? Most desserts have very little nutrtional value. Still, people treat themselves to some sort of dessert every single day, be it a grande white chocolate mocha, or some sort of ritual bedtime treat.
If you treat yourself to a dessert on a daily basis, you are living to eat. When you live to eat, you get fat! I'm not going to sugar coat this (pun intended). This is the truth, and hopefully I can shift your thinking.
Life is an amazing experience. In fact, for me, it gets even more amazing everyday I wake up. Everyday, I learn something new. Tony Robbins often says, "If you're not growing, then you're rotting." One of the most amazing things about life is that we have choices. We are blessed with the ability to choose. Everyday, I see people that have chosen to be obese. I see people who have chosen to be poor. I see people who have chosen mediocrity.
Whoa! How did get on this subject from nutrition? Let me explain... I am attempting to live my life to the fullest. I am teaching Taekwondo students how to defend themselves, compete in tournaments, or how to use their skills in other areas of life to help them become successful. I teach Thai-Robics and Sport Fusion to help people get more out of life. I plan on conducting workshops on a global scale someday. I plan on building another jungle gym for my kids, when we move, like I did this past weekend.
Life is too great to devote it to eating. This is what I call "living to eat." If you want the most out of life, "eat to live." Decide right now that the foods you eat are not for pleasure, but for endurance, strength, and stamina. Life has many pleasures and there is no reason to get that pleasure from food. So... I leave you with this- why do you eat?

Respectfully,

Duncan Richardson
Chief Master Instructor
The Academy of World Taekwondo
Ph: 208.381.0587
Web: http://www.FreeKarateLesson.com

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