Interview Time AGAIN!!! This week is one from my dear friend and teammate, Brent Weedman. This guy is brutal in the ring. I'm inspired by his dedication and proud to call him friend. He's is another who has a career reliant on health and fitness. Helps keep the entire team, at Real Fighters, and all competition on their toes.
Amos:Tell the readers who you are/what you do/ location/etc.
Brent: My name is Brent Weedman and I'm a prize fighter currently employed with Bellator Fighting Championships on MTV2.
A:How did you started as an athlete and coach?
B: My father has always been active and athletic, and so growing up my younger brother and I were in love with sports and other physical activities. My father also ran a Karate school when I was young, so martial arts were ubiquitous at our house and I really took to it. When I was 8 or 9 I started competitive Judo, and my family would load up a big van every weekend to drive to another tournament! I'm still focusing primarily on my own career in fighting, but my long term goal is to teach fulltime and share with other people all of the benefits of martial arts!
A:What' your advice to those beginning their fitness lifestyle?
B: My advice is to those just starting on the fitness path would be not to focus on the *fitness* part. When you're at the bottom of a long flight of stairs, and all that's at the top is your "goal weight," that makes for some psychologically challenging workouts! Exercising when you're tired and hungry sucks, and if all you have to concern yourself with is "fitness for the sake of fitness" you won't be able to distract yourself. Instead if you choose a sport or activity that interests you (and preferably is brand new to you!) then the activity becomes the focus and weight loss/health the side effect! Grab a local newspaper and find a sport/martial art/cycling club to join! That way you have the friendship, accountability, and most importantly enduring motivation to continue for the long run! (Oh, and one day you'll remember to step on a scale and realize you've 'accidentally' lost weight)
A:A lot of people look for quick fixes, fad diets and such, what is your outlook on changing and maintaining a healthy diet?
B:Most diets and fitness plans are worthless for one simple reason: they aren't realistic for the long haul. I'm reminded of my wife's coworker who is on some rehashed version of the ultra low carb high protein diet. Her lunches will be egg whites and protein bars, and all I can think is "That's cool. Talk to me in 6 months." Look at what you're doing RIGHT THIS MINUTE and assess the following: "Is this lifestyle sustainable? Can I do this next week/month/year?" I'm not saying there aren't times when you buckle down and get more strict with yourself, but that's different than doing the same difficult diet and mind numbing exercise day after day. As for my diet, I try to make the foods I eat as high quality as possible. What I've learned thru experience (and there seems to be some emerging research backing this idea up) is that when most people eat foods that have a low nutrient density they tend to eat more. Just look at how many people we all know that just seem to eat and eat and eat but are still clearly unhealthy and malnourished! When you eat nutritionally dense foods and your body has the micronutrients it needs, it will send out less hormones to signal hunger. Of course will power is still needed, but let me be the voice of experience in saying that focusing on nutrient density makes this MUCH easier!
A:How do you keep yourself healthy?
B:Well the most obvious answer is my job keeps me healthy!! When I'm training for a fight I will exercise everyday, and 5 or 6 of those days are 2-3 sessions. This sounds like a lot, but remember mine is a very rare case. I don't have another job, and so I see it as my responsibility to train as much as possible while paying special attention to my recovery time. But before somebody cites my earlier answer and cries "Unsustainable!" let me clarify by saying I disagree! The Dept of Health and Human Services, Mayo Clinic, and myself are in agreement...exercise everyday. Now exercise doesn't mean run a marathon, but the habit of doing something active every single day of your life is a good one. When I started trying to create a streak of workout days in a row I used a technique I learned about from an interview with Jerry Seinfeld. Find a large desk or wall calendar and choose a task you want to complete everyday (EG 30 minutes of something sweaty!). Each day you complete the task, you mark a big X through that day with a black marker. Soon you'll have a very conspicuous chain going, and the longer it goes the harder it will be to break! So when you're tired from work and you thing you'll just skip one, you'll see that chain with all those Xs, and all of a sudden 30 minutes against weeks of hard work seem a little less intimidating.
A:I can speak personally and say that there have been spells of lack of motivation, what keeps you motivated to maintain and progress?
B: Motivation is the big problem for all of us, it seems! I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but here it goes...
Because my love is martial arts, and martial arts is a rabbit down a whole you will spend your whole life chasing and never see 1% of the total, motivation isn't a huge issue for me. I'm won't say there aren't individual sessions that I don't have to talk myself into when I'm exhausted, but I love more than anything putting my Jiujitsu gi on and practicing the theories I've dedicated my whole life learning. This is why I recommend a "hobby" over simply seeking fitness. A little tip, though, for those days when you look at the clock and say "well, I'd have to leave now to make the gym...and I don't really feel like going..." Somebody once told me that you will never regret a workout you decided to do, but you'll almost certainly regret one you skipped. So when I'm on my couch, I just tell myself "Suck it up for 2 hours, and then when your done you'll get to sit back down here having accomplished something!" Works for me!
A:What other words of wisdom can you give our readers to encourage their growth and success in this type of lifestyle change?
B:Changing yourself physically is one of the deepest experiences I think you can have in this short life. It's such an intimate process dealing with your own body, what goes into it and how it works. But to me it feels like moving a large stone: at first you are going to lean into that boulder with all your might, gritting your teeth with tears streaming down your face as the seeming inevitability of the task seems to creep over you. But then that rock will move a little (5 lbs)...then a little more (3 lbs)....then your getting your feet moving, little choppy steps at first but it's moving (6 lbs)...then the momentum comes. And when the momentum comes you're going to see firsthand that some of the happiest and healthiest chemicals known to humans are produced by your brain when you exert yourself to exhaustion. The momentum...the free brain drugs...it's awfully addicting after a while!!
*** He also recommends :
www.drfuhrman.com
Only by eating an assortment of natural foods that are nutrient-rich, can we access these compounds and protect ourselves from the common diseases that afflict Americans. Our modern, low-nutrient eating style leads to an overweight population with common diseases of nutritional ignorance and medical
1 comment:
Your=you're. I'd like to be the first person to point this out.
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