Dawn MacLear
Interview January 20, 2009
Edition 2, No. 1

1. What is your idea of adventure?

A load of challenges, strung together, often in quick succession, with a great goal.  
Stand-up Comedy is a great Adventure.  So is landscaping.  So is lecturing.

2. You’re a bit of a fitness ‘guru.’ How did this happen?

Mom started me in dance class when I was 2. So, it might be said that I have been in group exercise since I could walk.
I hurt my back over the course of several years in the ‘70’s and ’80’s. Researching what happened to me force me to learn what works for all bodies.
THAT is one of the greatest joys of my life!

3.  What is ‘healthy’ aging?

Great question and one of my favorites.
Here is my answer:  Healthy aging from child to teen, from teen to adult, from adult to older adult is a matter of doing ALL the things that the body needs every day.

4.  You’re 50 years, but your body is ripped like someone half your age.  What is your secret?

   No secret!   Exercise, food, sleep, water!

5.  Yoga, martial arts, dance and aerobics.  Is there a different recipe of fitness success for different age brackets?

None what so ever.  We all have the same body-style. It’s as if we are all Chevy or all Honda. OK! It’s as if we are all the same model of Rolls Royce. We all have the same clavicle.  We all have the same heart pumpiness. We all have the same style of knee ( to start with ).

People – really – only want to talk about what they like or who they like – not what works. Bottom line: ANY exercise is better than no exercise.

6.  What do you eat (or don’t eat)?

My answer for this question is VERY long because, as soon as I give one answer,
 a slew of questions rise up.
What I want to say instead of answering this question is this:  MOST people make food choices based on wives’ tales and marketing.  FEW people do ANY research on the subject  AND ‘breakfast/lunch/dinner is an idea that will NEVER work and isn’t working now.     The body has burned or stored all that was eaten within 3-4 hours and begins to wane into hunger.
We are taught that only people of low caliber refuse to wait for dinner.

As a result of the foolishness of breakfast/lunch/dinner, most shoplifting happens from 3-6 in the afternoon and most men steal food! ( I can hear the people – now – forming sentences of how perfect they are about their, personal, eating.  Irrelevant.  Shoplifting is a solveable social problem AND this worship of WAITING from noonish to sixish also brings on the foolish worship of alcohol.  Oh!  Go ahead! Rant and get it over with!  Fine! You LOVE wine! Big YAY! Now, go out and stop all drunk drivers!)
I eat a whole meal every 3-4 hours and, no, they are NOT smaller meals. I eat no snacks ever – only meals. Here is what you really need to know:

1. The brain burns 5x  more carbohydrates that all of your other tissues put together night and day for a life time.  Atkins was a fool who hurt people’s brains.

If you too, want to be a fool, limit carbs and starve your brain.

2. Carbs first on an empty stomach makes people sleepy because of a brain chemistry chain-reaction.  NOT, I repeat, NOT because of sugar-burn-and-crash.

Humans do NOT burn off 200 calories of sugar in 20 minutes AND that sugar would not even be in the blood stream yet. 
( the lack of fact-checking is appalling!)   
Eat a bite of protein or two first and do not start your day with orange juice.

3. Proteins, other than milk, break down better with vitamin “C”. 

Many recipes reflect this already.    When in doubt, serve fresh tomatoes or lemon juice and NO grapes do not contain vitamin “C”.
Nor does/do  spinach, green beans, apples, carrots, celery or lettuce. ( Again, the lack of fact-checking is appalling!)

4. Too little protein in-take will give you wicked sugar and/or fat cravings.

Too much protein is poisonous.  ONLY exact protein will work. How much is exact?   ~ one gram per LEAN body weight – NOT body weight.

No, your hair and nails have NOT gotten weaker as you have gotten older. 
Hair and nails are only made by protein.
Again TOO MUCH PROTEIN IS VERY BAD.
ONLY eat your, personal, exact amount of protein.  ( PS. Starting with about 20 grams per meal NOT per day is pretty safe.)
And, NO, you do not have salt cravings.
No one takes the salt shaker and carries it around. What is perceived as ‘salt cravings’ is fat-cravings. Many fatty foods are salted and bagged for ease-of-consumption.

5. Fat, in the diet, NOT fat on the body is the number one killer in America today

AND  the number two killer.  Your body DOES NOT care if chocolate and ice cream are your religions. Heart attack and stroke are PREVENTABLE!  CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW????
(Do you see how I worry??? Do you see why I worry???)

7. Many people begin the New Year with a resolution to lose weight or get fit.  What is your advice for long-term success?

Do the exercises as a new habit first and fix your diet next year. Quit smoking the year after that. “One-thing-at-a-time” is much more successful

8.What is the most exciting thing you’ve ever done?

Hmmm, starting and staying with karate was a big big thing to me. So was all the travel that I did with my mom. So was learning to ride off-road motorcycles. So was being brave enough to defy the church and end a marriage. So was riding a bicycle up South Mountain in Phoenix, AZ. So was getting a Group Exercise Certification. So was getting Yoga certified. So was daring to question Yoga. So was my first time doing Stand-up  Comedy. So was being given my own Comedy Room to manage.

9.You traveled internationally as a child with your mother.  How did those experiences influence your life?

 DRASTICALLY!  Those trips were some of the most amazing things that I have done – ever!  …a GREAT gift! Knowing that what I feel as “Totally” inside me matters NOT to billions of people, that my needs and styles are not part of the ideas of so many people,
that distance is amazing AND surmountable, and that America is a pretty darmed good place to be a woman are paradigm-changers that have allowed me to be able to see each experience without the prearranged ideas of others clouding up the facts.
I am very thankful! I was preteen for most of the trips – truly a time to roll-the-eyes at mom for any girl.  But, even then, I knew that the trips were special and that I should pay attention and roll my eyes at my mom when she wasn’t looking  ;)

10. Where would you like to travel next?

…Ireland and a few sentimental journeys around the USA.

11.  What is happiness to you?
     
  Things that make me happy AND make other people happy too – often involving vigorous physical activity, music, food and/or helping animals.

12.  What do you want to achieve in 2010?
       
        WHEW!  Short answer:  Finish all my DVDs. Move to a new place.
 Find great homes for thousands of animals and end oil and coal use.
      

13.  Name your favorite female book character.  Why?
     
  Eowyn in the Tolkien Trilogy because she was just a regular gal, not the books’ hero, couldn’t read, wasn’t allowed to help and yet, did one REALLY important thing that needed to be done that it was said that no ‘man’ could do. So, she pulls off her helmet and says,  “I am no man…!” and kills the big bad guy that no one else thought could be killed. I was 13 when I read that and it inspired me to do more and be more no matter the challenges or lack of perfection that I found in myself.

14.  What is the best advice your mother ever gave you?
     
 “Dawn, pick your nose over the sink so that you can wash your hands right away!!”
( I was four at the time )

15.  Who is your female role-model?
     
  Mrs. Peel from   “The Avengers” TV show.
She had MANY skills including Karate. 
She was elegant and seemed not to care for the approval of others.

16.  What is your motto?
   
   I never really think that I have one but,I say this all the time and find it to be valuable: “…little by little…step by step…”

Website address:
www.dawnmaclearfitness.com
www.evolvedyoga.com

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