Category: Fitness

• 2 Years Later! How Being Plant Based Feels!

  It has been quite some time since I’ve written a blog but I felt this was the right time to do so. I’ve been working on my Youtube content slowly, especially since my videos, moving forward, will have self-produced improv recorded music — guitar, bass, drums, the works. It feels nice to put the art into Art & Fitness but like Fitness, you’ve got to put in the work.

  Having said that, I wanted to update you guys on how it’s been since pursuing a plant-based lifestyle. It’s been 2 years now & I admit that this is the path I have to take as consistently as possible from here on out. Some people hop on the train & after a year, they just drop because either lack of support, lack of willpower or because they determine that it’s not the life they want to pursue. For me, this has to be the path to stick with.

  To be honest, my health has found its way going upwards in pursuing this manner of eating — from a healthier digestive system, energy levels holding steady, a libido you’d expect out of someone in their early 20s & if time were not a restraint of any form, train for an extensive amount of time. Dropping body fat percentage points was helpful as it helped me become more comfortable in my skin again & fit into clothes that I would’ve never thought I’d fit in even 10 years ago.

  As for what has changed in relation to animal-based foods & my biology, I did begin to experience quite some changes. Usually when I have my non-plant based cheat meal of the month, it’s minor inflammation, groggy fogged head or constipation. After 2 years, whenever I have anything that has milk, not only am I constipated, I also find myself dealing with a lot of mucus. I also end up having what I call the “Fat Elvis Effect” — where the inflammation has my skin feeling swollen.

  In regards to weightlifting, which is my preferred method of exercise, I am now finding myself hitting higher numbers w/less effort. You could say that the extra water intake & glycogen are helping w/my energy being put to proper use! Last week, I managed to finish my Deadlift workout w/1 rep of 295 & the odd part was when I realized that although I did struggle, it wasn’t the, “C’mon Ron, put all of your soul into this! Lift it like it’s your last!” kind of lift. It felt more like, “This one’s a pain in the butt! I gotta pick you up & drop you like a bad habit!” kind of lift. It was then when I realized that, if time weren’t an obstacle, I could’ve done 315 w/maximal effort or, if giddy, 335 pounds, which is my PR from 2018.

  An important factor that I learned in these 2 years of being on a plant based diet was combining different sources of nutrition in order to get my body properly fueled for the day or in order to recover from the mowdown that the work week delivers. Being carb-deficient isn’t really a thing w/plant based but the combination of carb/protein or fat/protein is definitely a regular occurrence — from something as simple as rice & beans to avocado, broccoli & spinach combined w/farro or whole rolled oats put together w/chia seeds — it leaves room for creativity when using that which nature provides to us for nourishment. Do not be surprised if I end up posting recipes of my favorite go-to combinations to get through the day. This is only discussing macronutrients, which are the big players in providing caloric value to our bodies — imagine if we were to discuss all the micronutrients that come into play!

  02/19/2020

  and, Art, artandfitness, based, Fitness, gunz, Health, Life, living, Nutrition, plant, plantbased, put, putinthework, ron, rongunz, weightlifting, work, Writing

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• Practicing Eating Mindfulness! Dodging The Pitfalls Of Intuitive Eating!

  Intuitive eating. It’s a trendy phrase being tossed around these days. “Eat what your body tells you to! Listen to your body!” is “the wave” as my girlfriend says. It sounds nice at first, even budges you in a direction that appears fair & logical. Until reality hits.

  Let me put it in this manner — if I would’ve eaten based on how I felt, when I was 390 pounds, this blog would’nt be here. Ron Gunz would not exist at all. I would’ve eaten myself into 400-500 pounds, type 2 diabetes, a clogged artery or a simple heart attack, thus my parents burying another child whose time came before it should have.

  I get it — the body acceptance/fat acceptance movement want people to feel loved & appreciated by those around them but they are building that ambition on the premise of unhealthy behavior. Doctors, alleged fitness “professionals” & even psychologists are further enabling this. They aren’t considering the fact that the average adult, let alone children, are creatures of habit & do not practice mindfulness, intelligence or logic when it comes to diet. Most people don’t have the slightest idea of Basal/Resting Metabolic Rate and how that plays a factor into their health goals. Even something spoonfed to the public with ease these days, such as Macros, are something the general public do not seem to properly grasp unless coupled w/a personal trainer, a dietician or nutritionist who aren’t bought by various industry lobbyists.

  I’m going to be blunt and extremely honest here — the biggest pet peeve of mine is a personal trainer who eats crap all the time, with an externally healthy body, telling their morbid obese client to “eat healthy”. The principle of leading by example is being abandoned. More often than not, that trainer that “gets away” w/eating so much biological feces, when they get older, will have medical bills come to haunt them. It gets worse when you watch them speaking all this health & fitness stuff, while getting wasted or smoked out of their minds over the weekend, some of which I’ve heard them openly admit that they have cut years off their life with what they did.

  We need to Make People Great Again by looking at their eating habits & how it stimulates or barricades them when it comes to activity & productivity. We need to embrace the adding of biological value in our lives through eating foods that enhance our gut health, that provide vitamins & minerals that optimize our immune systems & movement. Restore intake that isn’t further taxing our arteries w/dietary cholesterol that, quite frankly, not necessary, particularly those whom have total cholesterol levels at 200 or higher. Let’s get to understanding that Fats, when poly/monounsaturated, are good for you & that it’s Saturated/Trans Fat that will come to claim you in the long run. Let’s embrace the fact that Carbs, when consumed from sources nature provides that are rich w/fibers, macro/micronutrients & proteins, will bless your muscular function & performance. Let’s embrace the use of dietary protein w/more priority directed after your long days of work/workouts or during your breaks between sessions of labor instead of just gushing it down first thing before stepping outside. Let’s also start engaging the reality that for most of us, we have no business being at a gym 2-3 hours/day, 5x/week if our programs are designed around our lifestyles & our daily eating is abundant in nutrients that help your body glow w/vitality.

  11/24/2019

  again, and, Art, artandfitness, diet, eating, Fitness, great, gunz, Health, healthiswealth, intuitive, intuitiveeating, Life, make, mindfulness, mindset, Nutrition, ron, rongunz, wellness

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• Reassessing Goals — Training Shift.

  Oh well well, I have returned, my beloved Gunz Crew. The days have been so run/gun busy that I haven’t had the chance to think clearly without some random wrench being thrown in my equations. Thankfully, with a slight change in rhythm, I’ve been able to do so & in the process, revamp and reassess the things I’ve wanted to achieve w/my body & health.

  Some of you already know that I managed to turn around from 295 in 2017 to a current 244 as of this writing, along w/a transition from 33% body fat to 15.5%. Additionally, since February 2018 under guidance from Remson of Tribe By Noire, I have been on a plant-based diet. Then there are those you that know that back in 2008, I used to be a walking mass of 390-395 pounds w/likely near 40% body fat. Now, while I may not be at the goal weight of 235 again, I am within striking distance & not a hard thing to accomplish.

  However…seeing my age of 34 & despite finally being at a weight I am comfortable with, with reading more on BMI (something trainers & fitness community folk love to occasionally dodge because you know, “gains”) & the health risks associated w/being quite above recommended BMI of 22-24.9 (considered a healthy range, linked to news link down below), I sat down to re-assess. I have decided, therefore, to pursue dropping down to at least 202. Sure, it may be slightly above recommended BMI, but it’s a start.

  The roadblock I’ve sometimes seen my friends or past few clients run into when it comes to dropping weight usually would wire down to eating too much, eating the wrong kinds of foods or inconsistency w/training. In my case, however, it has been boiling down to not eating enough. Normally w/labor-intensive work in a 2 floor building 5 days/week, which consists of being on-the-go 20 miles/day of walking 4 of those days, 10-12 on the 5th day. When dialing that in w/my usual 3 day training split, while my body, just to cut, may need slightly below 2,000, my body instead has been needing over 3,000. If you use Cronometer or MyFitnessPal to input your activity or if you sync up the Fitbit app, you’ll know exactly how this works.

  Thankfully, w/a current change of pace, I’ll only be hitting 80 miles a week instead of almost 95. Additionally, I have split my training to 4 days in order to avoid that extra wear. My previous training consisted of Pull/Legs/Push or Pull/Push/Legs but currently I’ve adopted Push/Pull/Legs/Shoulder routine, where the Push/Pull exercises that have shoulder-dominant exercise have been put into a separate day. In addition to that, instead of a uniform rep/set format for all exercises, I’ve made it intentional to undulate — where some exercises will be for hypertrophy, some for maximal strength & others for muscular endurance. I do, however, maintain a progressive intensity increase for 3 weeks & deload on the 4th as a means for the body to recover & recalibrate.

  Due to the extra rest that I’ll be seeing with my new schedule arrangement, my eat for my caloric & nutritional goals won’t be as severe either, which is a welcome change, thus making everything I want to accomplish simpler without being neurologically taxed in the process.

  https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-identifies-ideal-body-mass-index

  11/11/2019

  by, endurance, Fitness, goals, gunz, Health, hypertrophy, Life, maximal, maximalstrength, noire, Nutrition, personal, personaltraining, Remson, ron, rongunz, shift, strength, training, tribe, tribebynoire, undulation, weightloss, Writing

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