Sugar is everywhere
Processed foods, from our breakfast cereal to our soft drinks are loaded with sugar. Is it any wonder that most Americans, young and old suffer from sugar addiction? The food industry, as a good businesses, has figured out a way to please us. Their goal is that we keep buying and consuming their products. Can you blame them? To profit with as high margins as possible they include high fructose corn syrup in their products, for example. It is our responsability to know what we eat and what impact it has in our health. We all need to know that excess sugar may be the cause of our obesity.
Genes or age?
I come from a family with a history of obesity. For many years I thought I had no choice in the matter. I thought that my genes determined what I looked like, including around the waistline. When I moved from my tropical home to North America. I realized that dating, celebrating and socializing usually involve eating in restaurants or enjoying a feast with friends or family. Naturally, large parts of the meal involved not just sugar but potatoes, rice, pasta or bread, and often a combination. Is it any wonder my belly seemed to grown every year? I kept telling myself that it was part of my genes and of aging. Probably most Americans think the same way and do nothing to change their habits. Eventually, they simply learn to “accept” that exercise gets harder and harder with every passing year.
OMAD: beating the sugar addiction
I started my one meal a day (OMAD) regimen 10 years ago. I soon began to see that I was not a prisoner of my genes or my aging. Without knowing it, I suffered from carbohydrate and sugar addictions. During these years, I continued to eat pasta, bread, rice or potatoes regularly. However, OMAD allowed me to become less and less dependent on them for energy. I soon became more adapted to my lipid metabolism. I had beaten the sugar addiction, and I didn’t even know it.
You see, with OMAD, you only have 1 spike of insulin the whole day. When one suffers from sugar addiction, one does not seem to find the energy for exercise. We don’t seem to be ever satisfied with the energy that comes from our carbohydrate-rich meals. So we don’t exercise. We’d rather spend our time near our pantries, always checking out for something to put in our bellies.
OMAD and exercise
We are not to blame for our lack of determination to get off the couch an do some pushups. We first must eliminate our need to eat before doing any high-intensity training. We need to eliminate our dependency on sugar for energy. Fortunately, OMAD will help, especially if you exercise during fasting. You will begin to mobilize your fat stores for energy and become “keto” adapted, that is, to use your own fat for energy.
If working out is difficult for you, start by doing some form of Intermittent Fasting (IF), reducing your eating time, first to 12 hrs a day, then 8, then 6, 4 and ideally, to just 1 hr a day (OMAD). As the pounds begin to peel off, you will find not just the energy but the desire to get off the couch. You won’t wait to do pushups, go around the block twice, or play tennis for 30-40 minutes a day. The energy and the enthusiasm will simply appear out of thin air, provided you abandon the sugar addiction. Until now you have been obese because of a sugar addiction you didn’t even understand. Now you can take responsibility from now on, begin to reduce pounds and increase your workouts in duration and intensity. Before you now it, you will be fit again.
