What I’m Thankful For

It’s no surprise that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Tons of food, family, football and napping – that’s as good as it gets. In between bouts of turkey, potatoes and stuffing (yes, bout, like a boxing match, because I was sweating a lot and needed verbal encouragement to stay conscious), I had time to ponder all the things for which I am thankful.

Yes, I’m thankful for the same things as everyone else – my family, friends, health, etc. – but let’s put it into strength-and-fitness perspective.

LOCALLY FARMED FOOD

I cannot overstate the importance of fresh, local food. We can argue to the death about the benefits (or lack thereof) of organic vs. conventionally-grown food, but I take tremendous pride and happiness in the ability to buy locally-grown vegetables and humanely-raised meat from farmers that I can actually meet, talk to and shake hands with.

This Thanksgiving, in my home state of Vermont, I ate waffles with maple syrup boiled in my uncle’s sugar house. I ate eggs from my aunt’s hen house. I had an unreal grassfed rib eye steak from a farm a few towns over and drank beer brewed less than a mile away from my parents’ house.

This goes beyond nutrition. It gives me peace of mind knowing that I can support local agriculture and give my money to a farmer who works to put food on his family’s table – not to corporate food CEOs looking to fund their next industrial slaughterhouse. And it helps me sleep at night knowing that most of the animals that died en route to my plate had the opportunity to live a life with minimal suffering. If you can’t understand why that’s important to me, I’m not sure I could relate to you in any way whatsoever.

Even if you’re not as lucky as I am to have a dozen relatives who are active farmers, there’s no excuse because everywhere you go, there are like-minded people who orchestrate farmer’s markets, co-ops and other ways to get fresh, (relatively) local food to people who may not otherwise have access to it. As soon as I moved to Rhode Island, I joined a farm share run by Brown University and couldn’t be happier. You pay a flat fee and each week, you get a pre-assembled assortment of seasonable fruits, vegetables and eggs from local farms.  It’s a great value and nice to know that I can get farm-fresh food in a (small) city like Providence.

METABOLIC “FORGIVENESS”

If a guilt-free Thanksgiving pig-out fest isn’t motivation enough to start weight training, I don’t know what is.

OK, maybe not the worthiest of goals. But this Thanksgiving, I spoke with a record number of people who griped and groaned about needing to eat less of this and not eat ANY of that on Thanksgiving. Those same people expressed legitimate regret after enjoying a huge, satisfying meal with friends and family. I can’t fathom dealing with such negative feelings towards a holiday meant for indulgence with the people closest to us.

I’m thankful that I live and train in such away that allows me to eat to my heart’s desire without sabotaging my goals. Whenever I talk to someone who wants to start lifting, I always mention what I consider the greatest benefit of strength training – it completely changes the way your body reacts to food. A quick (and largely incomplete) list of metabolic benefits of strength training:

• Improves insulin sensitivity (you can eat more carbs without getting fat)
• More muscle increases glycogen storage (hence, those extra carbs go to refueling muscles)
• More muscle increases metabolic rate (so you burn more calories at rest)
• Heavy lifting and sprinting increases caloric expenditure for several hours post-exercise

That’s part of why intermittent fasting appeals so much to me – it allows for nightly feasting and eliminates the negative consequences (nutritional AND social) of overeating. And a good bloat does wonders for your next-day lifting performance, to which many a powerlifter will attest.

A FAMILY THAT UNDERSTANDS

I would be completely lost if my family and I weren’t on the same page in terms of food, fitness and health.

I’ll admit, we weren’t health nuts when I was growing up (I ate a lot of chicken nuggets). It wasn’t until I started suffering from frequent migraines in middle school that we started to look at food as a means for manipulating health.

Then, when I fell in love with lifting as a freshman in college, I came home and insisted on eating nothing but chicken and brown rice six times a day. It’s hilarious to think about now, but my sudden fitness fanaticism sparked a mutual interest in nutrition among all of us. My family has given me countless gifts. I got my love of music (and lack of height) from my mom. I got my passion for baseball (and baldness) from my dad. But fitness was the one thing that I discovered purely on my own, and I’m happy I could help pass it on to my family.

The two most important women in my life – my mom and my girlfriend – are both localvores who love eating and cooking local food. They both have a knack for finding hole-in-the-wall shops and restaurants that serve up incredible eats. And they both have to deal with my ridiculous appetite. And while she won’t flaunt it, my girlfriend writes an entertaining blog documenting our quest for local food and fun (and lots of doggy cameos).

My younger sister and I have rekindled our relationship over a mutual love of training. I’ll confess we weren’t all that close in high school and college. Four years apart, she was just starting high school and college as I was just finishing, so we were always pulled in opposite directions. Besides being decent students and athletes, she and I had totally different interests. I was always consumed with hobbies like playing guitar and video games while she was off being a social butterfly with her friends (i.e. not being a black heavy metal t-shirt wearing weirdo like her brother). But over the past two years, we’ve grown closer than ever thanks to fitness. Now, we meet every weekend to train together at Total Performance Sports in Boston. I write her programs and she runs the monolift when I squat. And we always finish each session with some grueling Prowler pushes. A couple years ago, I never would have imagined she’d join me for Thanksgiving morning hill sprints, let alone beat me up the hill on the last one.

Never was I more thankful that we prioritize health than when my dad had a minor heart attack this year. He had two stents put in, suffered no irreversible damage and is doing well now, but I am so grateful that my dad made some serious lifestyle changes in recent years. He was heavy for a long time but lost over 50 pounds and completely retooled his approach to nutrition and exercise. He’s the kind of guy that when he discovers something new, he dives headfirst into it and soaks up as much knowledge as possible. Now, he’s got the know-how to eat right and walks nearly six miles a day most days of the weeks with our dogs. I believe walking those silly pups saved his life.

I’m fortunate that my family understands the importance of health and supports my mission to maximize my own health. But the most important message I can provide in this post is this: you cannot force your family to accept/adopt your views on health if they’re not ready.

I’ve seen relationships torn apart because of arguments over health. No unhealthy person gets there because they want to, but at the same time, nobody wants to be told that what they’re doing is wrong. So don’t lecture and criticize. Instead, lead by example. Without opening your mouth or pointing your finger, live a life dedicated to health and well-being, and those around you will take notice. When they’re ready, they will ask for help.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

So I guess I was pretty unoriginal after all. I’m thankful for family, food and health. But I like to think those last two things bond the first thing. Our motivation to be our best selves brings us closer as a family. I couldn’t imagine it any other way.