Page 68 - Winter2017

LW: It is so true. We go into these grocery care about is your musculoskeletal system, but your body doesn’t get that
stores where their whole brand is about healthy memo. Unless you have perfect nutrition, your body is taking all of the
food, and yet when we start reading the list of nutrition you eat and giving it to the organs. Let’s say you are getting 50
ingredients that is a mile long, we very quickly percent of the nutrients you need. That will go 100 percent to the organs
realize that this was not made on a farm but in your body prioritizes, and zero percent to the muscles and tendons that
a lab. That is not what we should be eating. as an athlete you care about. As soon as your nutrition falters, it is your
musculoskeletal system that takes the biggest hit because it seems su-
HG: We really need to pay attention to what we perfluous to the body’s survival, despite what the huge checks that NFL
are putting in our bodies and to the wisdom of players are bringing in would like to argue.
the past. But also, we need to pay attention to
how our bodies are responding, because your HG: That is such a good point. I’ve never thought about that before.
body told you as a young person in your second
year playing lacrosse in college, “Something’s LW: It is not something we think about. Instead we think, “You are an
not right.” athlete, you are a high-performance machine and need high-performance
fuel.” But we don’t talk about why that is so important and the biology.
LW: And I had the benefit of knowing how I hate to be blunt, but the body doesn’t care that you need your knees.
my healthy body felt. Not a lot of people know
that. They just know how their body has felt HG: It is going to save what is most important, the internal organs, the
their whole life and, therefore, they think that is heart, the liver. The other stuff is gravy. But if you had your gravy, that
normal. We are always told that our temperature injury wouldn’t have happened?
is unique to us. We are all biochemically dif- LW: Exactly. If you had had your gravy, that is the difference between a
ferent people. So yes, your temperature runs a season in which you’re injured and a season in which you play the entire
little high, but it is not the case that you “just season and get brought up to the next level of your sport, where you get
have cramps.” You don’t just “get injured easily.” the accolades, you score the touchdowns, you score the winning goal.
These are things that we take as temperatures That is the difference. It is that 95 percent to 100 percent, and those are
for ourselves. We say, “It has been like that the inches in which professional athletes function and fight over and fight
forever” and totally disregard the fact that it just for. It is that last bit of nutrition that is going to make that difference.
means that you’ve been sick forever. I had the
benefit of going into college knowing what my HG: I think that this conversation is really going to appeal to those who
healthy body felt like, so when it broke down, are trying to improve their athletic performance, but also to the everyday
I was very aware. And I knew that this was Joe who is stuck on this sugar roller coaster and is having insulin resis-
not a normal thing despite what the trainers tance. If people could do only one thing to improve their health, what
were thinking. “People injure their MCLs all would you recommend they do?
the time” or “People tear their meniscus all the
time,” no problem, no big deal. Okay, but why? LW: Okay, if I can fudge and say two things, first is always to pair your
That is what we need to figure out. sugar with fats and eat more fat. That is going to get you off of the blood
At the end of the day, our body is fit for sugar roller coaster. The second suggestion is to move. If you don’t like
survival. If our lungs and our brains and our to run, lift weights. If lifting weights intimidates you, go for a walk, surf
heart are working, we survive. The body doesn’t or do yoga. Go do something. Move your body like it is meant to move
care about your meniscus. As an athlete, all you and eat your food in proper combinations.

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68 Wise Traditions WINTER 2017