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The sedentary lifestyle vs. the active lifestyle: an endomorph’s perspective

Why is it so easy to be a couch potato and just hang around doing nothing? Let me rephrase: why is physical activity, especially vigorous physical activity, perceived as painful? Is perception the main problem? What if we could rewire the neural pathway in our brain to associate pleasure with intense physical activity (I’m not necessarily talking about hard work) and pain with inactivity and physical laziness?

There are many reasons why I bring up this topic. First of all, the body type. It has been documented that humans can be categorized physically, based on metabolic rate, among other significant factors. These categories are: Ectomorph-hypermetabolism; usually of a scrawny disposition; you find it difficult to gain muscle; Endomorph: The opposite of the ectomorph, which has a slow metabolism; have a predisposition to store body fat; looks round in appearance; you can gain muscle quite easily. The mesomorph: This body type falls between the ectomorph and the endomorph. The mesomorph has the optimal metabolism; you can gain weight easily, unlike the ectomorph, or lose weight quite easily, unlike the endomorph.

Regarding body type, an endomorph cannot afford to live a sedentary lifestyle. The endomorph needs to be physically and mentally active. Also, the endomorph has to be very careful about their diet, unlike their ectomorph and mesomorph counterparts. I speak mostly from personal experience, as I have experimented with different fitness regimens and diets.

I followed the passive, vegetarian lifestyle, practicing yoga and pilates; nothing intense. Sure I became flexible and could do a headstand, but there was no improvement in my physique regarding cardiovascular fitness. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but it’s as if practicing passive, slow-moving exercises lowers one’s ‘personal fire’. More on that later. In the lacto-vegetarian lifestyle, I ate lots of carbohydrates, but no animal sources of protein, with the exception of eggs and milk. My main source of protein then was soy chunks, soy burgers, soy links, and tofu. In retrospect, I would only stick with tofu, as the Japanese have used it throughout their history, being a fermented soy product, compared to the other commercial soy meat alternatives.

Having no significant results, except for increasing my body’s supply of estrogen (which is definitely not good for a man who considers himself a man), I switched to a more active regimen, both in diet and physical activity. I started practicing karate; shotokan karate to be exact. It was twice a week, but that vigorous activity got oxygen flowing to my body and brain. My diet included meat then, but was limited to fish and chicken; absolutely no pork or beef (that was strictly by preference). Imagine, just two days of two to three hours of intense, vigorous activity, and my metabolism was already kicking in.

So, being ambitious, the next step was to increase physical activity, which would translate into higher caloric expenditure. This was done, with some interesting results.

Eventually, it all comes down to choice. We all know the benefits of exercising regularly. (We’re not talking about making an appearance at the gym and pretending to be working out—no, we’re talking the kind of exercise to get your heart rate up, which would increase your cardiovascular fitness.) But it’s very easy to get distracted and put it off. I used to make excuses. For over 4 years I made excuses saying that I would go to the gym the following month. 1 month became 2, then 2 became 4 and so on. Every month that I fell behind, I became even more demotivated. I ate more shit. It’s a vicious circle, because you don’t make the decision to go, and you see people who are physically fit at the gym, and you use that as a reason not to go.

That’s where willpower comes in. You make the decision and go ahead. You don’t have to do it alone. You can always get motivation from a friend or family member who wants to exercise and shed some extra body fat. In addition, you can cut out images from magazines or print images from the Internet of a person (athlete, celebrity, etc.) whose body is the definition of fitness for you. I use images of bodybuilders from the Universal Animal supplement. I also have a poster of this 27 year old bodybuilder named Brandon Curry. Also, I have a photo of sexy fitness models in bikinis, who I would love to date. Trust me, as a man, a picture of a sexy girl in a bikini, with a flat stomach and toned midsection makes you want to suck your gut automatically.

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