Warrior Diet and Breast Feeding:
Why Nursing Mothers and Professional Fighters Both Instinctively Crave the Same Diet
By Ori Hofmekler
Author of The Warrior DietDiscover the secret driving force that allows a postnatal woman to lose 30 Pounds, while a champion martial artist gains extra muscle, greater strength and greater fighting power
Performance is the scale by which to best measure a human being. At one end of the human performance scale we have nursing, at the other end, fighting.
The two primal instincts that dominate our lives are the instinct to survive and the instinct to multiply. Therefore, the two most primal functions of humans are fighting and nursing. To be more specific, in order to survive and create new generations, ancient males had to fight and compete with other males for best mates that would carry their genes for future generations. A woman's main primal function was to give birth and to nurse. Males were primarily attracted to women who could be potential mothers for their offspring and women were primarily attracted to strong and tough males who could protect them and their children.
Nursing and fighting are the most elemental functions of humankind and as such, they are naturally controlled by human survival instincts. While pregnant women and fighters are positioned at the extreme opposite poles of humanity they have something in common and that something is the subject of this newsletter.
"Back in his suite at the MGM, Foreman polishes off his lunch - a plate of blueberries. 'I don't eat as much breakfast or lunch. But I do eat dinner!' Losing weight is sophisticated" - George Foreman, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion (Fashions of the Times, Sunday New York Times, August 2002)
"I (and my husband) have been following the Warrior Diet for almost six months now and have noticed exceptional results. I have always been active and had no weight problems until I tried to lose [weight] after my pregnancy! With the Warrior Diet, I lost all my pregnancy weight (25 lbs.) and an extra 5 pounds so far. The best thing about this health approach is the enormous amounts of energy I have." - Postnatal Woman, Peggy Pineiro, Harlingen, TX, 8/23/02
The One Thing That Unites Mothers and Fighters
Mothers and fighters have something in common and that thing is what I call "Feeling Life". Nursing and fighting are skills dominated by life instincts. Without these primal instincts, mothers won't feel this overwhelming urge to nurse and fighters won't feel this aggressive drive to win and dominate. It is my opinion that mothers and fighters represent the full spectrum of humankind actions and that all other human activities such as managing a business, creating art, writing a book or having a date are all related directly or indirectly to these primal human functions - fighting and nursing.
Fighting, conquering, dominating and competing were all driving forces that pushed humans to improve upon themselves. Nursing, protecting, nourishing and loving were all primal forces that enabled human civilizations to perpetuate and survive. As you can see, you can't have one without the other. From a biological perspective, nursing and fighting go hand in hand. In other words, it is our core survival that triggers the instincts to nurse or to fight.
Biologically, anything that triggers your survival instincts will force your body to adapt to more efficient instinctual reactions in order to better survive. We're taught to believe that we humans are different from each other and therefore we have different needs. It seems as if a pregnant woman who is soft and loving has completely the opposite needs of a lean and mean lone fighter who is rough with the skills to hurt and destroy.
In spite of my full respect for individualization and the uniqueness of humankind, I do strongly believe that there is one thing that unites all of us humans including mothers and fighters, and that one thing is our biological desire to survive.
It is my belief that any diet or lifestyle that triggers your survival instinct will force your body to instinctively redesign itself to be at its best potential to survive. Whether you're a nursing mother or a martial artist, triggering your survival instinct on a daily basis will unleash the power of your own inner wisdom that will guide you to your best performance. Life isn't as complicated as some health authorities want you to believe. Our bodies and minds were not meant to carry around charts of individualized diets, count calories or measure macronutrients! We're all predestined to live on the face of this planet. In the same way we are all subject to the law of gravity that pulls us downward toward the center of the earth, we're also controlled by a personal gravitational power that pulls us toward the center of our core existence.
Survival on earth is meaningless without recognizing these two primal gravitational forces that dominate and design the way we look and act. Acknowledging these forces is the first step in understanding the importance of a diet and lifestyle that unconditionally satisfies the needs of all humans.
Triggering the Survival Instinct
For thousands of years humans have engaged in social events that trigger their survival instinct. Ancient sport games originally mimicked war activities. Greek dramas played life situations that involved love, death, murder, betrayal, courage and adventure. Since early times, humans have had the innate urge to be in a survival mode. We love sports, we exercise, we gamble, we watch movies and while we engage in these activities subconsciously, we're playing the survival game.
Every time that our survival instinct is triggered we react accordingly. Males' testosterone level fluctuates as a result of watching a boxing match or a football game. Humans feel sadness or happiness, fear or comfort by simply watching movies or theatre. It is this primal urge to trigger our survival instinct that makes us be aware of what we really are. Without it, we have no ability to judge between right and wrong.
The survival instinct is like a gravitational force that constantly pulls us toward the center of our primal being. The point is that we're all compelled to be in a survival mode, whether virtually or in reality, on a daily basis. Triggering the survival instinct is more than just a primal urge. It is indeed a biological necessity.
The Human Archetype
In his most intriguing book, "The Great Mother", psychologist, anthropologist and researcher Eric Neumann tries to prove that our human archetype is predominantly feminine. According to Neuman, female Goddesses outnumbered and dominated male Gods in early human mythologies. There is a feminine gravity pulling force that is in the center of our human archetype, says Neumann. Masculinity is the outer layer of the human archetype and the masculine force tries to escape from the hold of the gravitational feminine center. We're living today in a predominantly male society "in which the younger male Gods revolted against the oldest archaic female Goddesses", concludes the author. Erich Neumann and Carl Jung dedicated their lives to human mythological research. Anthropological evidence led these people to the conclusion that there is indeed a human archetype with an identical structure and impact on all of us.
The True and Natural Human Diet
The human archetype is still just a theory. Nevertheless, there is enough anthropological evidence to conclude that we humans have adapted through thousands of years of evolution into certain biological structures that dictate the way in which we must live. We do have this ancient wisdom within each of us to improve upon ourselves in order to better survive. Any factor that triggers our survival instinct will unleash the power of this wisdom.
The Warrior Diet is about doing just that. Cycling between periods of undereating and overeating mimic the way that humans are biologically meant to live. By following this cycle, you give your body the natural stimuli to trigger your survival instincts. It is the undereating phase of the diet with its real sense of hunger that triggers your body's survival mode. With a virtual absence of food, our body will do anything in its power to improve upon itself to better survive. That is when detoxification, the removal of toxins and the recycling of old cells and damaged tissue, occurs. That is when your body activates the most efficient metabolic pathways to burn fat.
During the undereating phase you are alert and focused. That is when your Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is dominant. The SNS regulates the fight or flight mechanism that enables you to react to stress. During the waking hours, you are in your best shape to burn energy and perform. You are also preparing your body to eat as much as you want later on -- at night. Overeating at night and relaxing, close this daily cycle with a great sense of freedom and satiety. A nursing mother can lose dramatic weight for exactly the same reason a champion martial artist can gain in muscle strength and endurance.
The human body will redesign itself according to its personal needs. If you're a postnatal mother, your body will take advantage of the Warrior Diet to lose weight during the undereating phase (on a daily basis) until your body reaches its own ideal biological weight.
If you're a fighter, it is the undereating phase that, surprisingly, triggers the most powerful anabolic state. In order to best survive, the body's protein utilization significantly increases and so does your ability to build lean tissue while burning fat.
Daily detoxification and overeating increase the body's metabolic rate. Both mothers and fighters will enjoy this metabolic acceleration. This is indeed the human diet. It may go against current popular diet rules, but it does follow the rules of your own natural destiny.
For more detailed information on this subject read Ori Hofmekler's The Warrior Diet.
NOTE FROM CHET: It's not for everyone, but if you're an unconventional health thinker, you'll enjoy the assumption-challenging ideas in The Warrior Diet.
Click here to learn more about the Warrior Diet
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