ON "COUNTER-INTUITIVE"

People that have been following my writing for a while now know that one of the things that drives me nuts is being called a masochist.  It genuinely upsets me when it happens, because it cheapens everything that I am and everything that I do.  To call me a masochist is to say that I am “blessed” because I have a natural inclination toward pain, and, therefore, I naturally gravitate toward doing the things that will make me physically transformed.  In turn, I equally go crazy when I’m accused of “intuitive eating”, simply because I don’t count calories or macros.  The way I eat is completely NOT intuitive.  I ate intuitively as a kid: it resulted in becoming a fat kid.  And through this, I came to realize something: the idea of “intuitive training” or “intuitive eating” is bunk.  At least, as far as being successful goes.  If one wants success in the pursuit of physical transformation, one must engage in COUNTER-intuitive training and eating.

I KNOW this is giving you anxiety

What is getting lean?  Getting lean is the process of NOT eating when you are hungry.  And seriously: that’s ALL getting lean is.  Ok, sure: prioritize protein so you can spare muscle, and if you’re REALLY hardcore into it you can try to time your carbs around training so you have energy for your workouts while in a depleted state, but really: getting lean is simply the process of NOT eating when you are hungry.  “What do I do when I feel hungry?!”  You don’t eat: that’s what you do.  You eat COUNTER intuitively.

What is getting big?  It’s eating WHEN YOU AREN’T HUNGRY.  Note: I wrote “getting big”, not “getting bigGER".  Yeah, sure: you can put on some size just eating a little more than normal, but the dudes that are actually big?  They’re force feeding.  They are eating when they’re not hungry.  Eating is their job, and it’s a MISERABLE job.  The training is “the fun part” (more on that soon): eating is the work.  Watch Brian Shaw describe a day in his life, listen to Jay Cutler talk about how his favorite cheat meal is “nothing”, see the incredibly damaged relationship so many of these dudes have with food.  They are living a counter-intuitive life.

This is NOT the look of enjoying a cheat meal

And let’s talk about WHAT we eat in the pursuit of physical transformation, because believe me: it’s not intuitive.  What foods do you crave?  Most people are gonna answer with junk.  And honestly, junk food is typically some combination of carbs and fats put together.  Ice cream, nachos, pizza, etc.  And don’t get me wrong: carbs and fats CAN be crucial to the process of physical transformation, but we all understand that muscle is built with protein…and protein, pure protein…is not appetizing.  Stop kidding yourself: a plain chicken breast tastes like wet sawdust.  Egg whites taste like rubber.  Tuna tastes like tuna. Yeah, you CAN dress them up, but that’s the point: fruit on it’s own is delicious, macadamia nuts are a delicacy, honey is amazing, but lean protein, protein without some sort of fat to dress it up, is NOT something we want to eat…which means we not only must eat counter-intuitively as far as habits go but ALSO as far as nutritional CHOICES go.

 And that’s just discussing eating for gaining muscle: what about health?  COMPLEELY counter-intuitive.  Now, here, your intuition DOES make sense: just not for your environment.  Your big dumb dumb brain STILL thinks we’re in a scarce environment, so it prioritizes the most calorically dense foods and the pursuit of putting on as much fatty tissue as possible so we can survive “lean times”.  Problem is: those lean times AIN’T coming.  The majority of us exist in a state of constant ABUNDANCE, which means we to STOP eating if we want to be healthy.  There is TOO much food, and of that food that’s available, SO much of it is garbage that will kill us…and is engineered to appeal to our lizard brains and make us eat more.  You wanna be healthy?  You gotta eat the foods you DON’T want to eat in the amounts that you don’t want to eat them in.  You’re gonna be eating kale and lean protein and seasonal fruits and raw tubers, and you WON’T be eating until you’re full either…how counter-intuitive!

The opposite of this

Training in all capacities is counter-intuitive.  Our intuition has us SEEK comfort.  We hide from pain, from discomfort, from anguish and agony, because, once again, it’s helpful from a survival standpoint to do those things.  But as far as THRIVING goes?  As far as adapting and overcoming goes?  As far as physical transformation goes?  We have to SEEK discomfort.  We have to lean INTO the pain.  Getting stronger is all about pushing the body far enough that it becomes stressed to the point that it adds muscle as a necessary adaptation.  We break ourselves down and rebuild stronger.  Conditioning is all about experiencing the horrible sensation of your lungs being on fire and your heart beating out of your chest…by your own volition!  You INFLICT that feeling upon yourself.  And this isn’t just about physical transformation: the best fighters have to overcome their intuition to move FORWARD against an aggressor, the best distance runners have to learn how to pace, the best athletes have to learn the mechanics of the game which go AGAINST intuition.  Training, at least for those wishing to succeed, is counter-intuitive.

Can we talk periodization for a second?  How counter-intuitive!  What is periodization?  It’s doing things we’re BAD at so that we get BETTER at those things.  Why?  Because when we make our weaknesses strong, we get strong all over!  “Only as strong as it’s weakest link” and all that.  Left to our own devices, we’d ONLY do the things we’re good at.  The naturally fat, short, stocky dudes would just mash the big 3 for heavy singles, the long and lean folks would run distances, etc etc, BUT, instead, if we wish to reach our MAX potential, if we wish to achieve a significant physical transformation, we train those things we are bad at.   THAT is periodization: some phases accumulating, some intensifying, some focused on conditioning, some on max weight, some on volume, etc.  Inevitably, you’ll be bad at ONE of those things…but when you play to your intuition and neglect it, you just STAY bad.  In order to succeed, we must buck intuition.

You only WISH you could be this

And let’s say, in the pursuit of this physical transformation, we get injured.  Wanna heal up?  Don’t listen to your intuition: it wants you to REST.  That’s a fancy way of saying “die”.  I’ve seen so many dudes that tweak or hurt something and spend months babying it…just to STILL be hurt.  Why?  Because the muscle/joint/whatever ISN’T being used, so it has no REASON to heal.  When we want to heal, we KEEP USING the hurt thing.  We get blood flowing to it to help it recover and restore, and we impose demands on it so that the body knows that atrophy and death are NOT viable options.  Back hurts?  We hit up the reverse hyper and some band good mornings.  Sore biceps?  Poundstone curls.  Hell, even just basic soreness is treated with MOVEMENT, NOT rest!  Our intuition has failed us yet again.

And what’s telling of all of this is that, day to day, we SEE the results of intuitive living…and it’s awful!  I’m not here to judge people for living how they want to live, because that’s exactly what I am doing: I’m just saying I can’t understand WHY one would want to live this way.  I see the men my age with spare tire guts that GREATLY overlap their waistline and flop on top of non-existent glutes that are straining to counter-balance the gut on the front end, forcing them to walk with a backwards tilt.  I HEAR these people LABORING to breathe after getting up off the toilet in the men’s room, lumbering to the sink to wash their hands, wheezing from the effort.  I see them co-opting a shopping cart as a walker at the grocery store, leaning their weight onto the handles to get relief.  I observe them always taking the elevator and never the stairs, always parking as close as physically possible, always refusing an opportunity to engage in the physical.  THIS is the product of “living intuitively”.  Meanwhile, we, as a species, ADMIRE the counter-intuitive.  Their efforts are OUTWARDLY reflected.  A strong, solid, lean physique is the byproduct of CONSTANTLY defying one’s intuition.  It is waking when sleeping is preferable, to go train when rest is the call of intuition, to then go feed on the foods that intuition tells us to avoid in the quantities that does not satisfy our intuition.

This looks otherworldly because it defies nature

Be not a masochist and engage not in intuitive eating.  Do all things against intuition, so you can be something greater than what your intuition compels you to be.