Archive for January 2009

Top 5 Fast Food Meals for Dieters

My Best Leg Press: 990lbs

LEGS… LEGS… LEGS.. Holy crap!! Legs are a funny muscle group. They are by far the largest making them great for total body stimulus. Neglecting your legs will slow you down. I have definitely rekindled my love-hate relationship with leg day. All these months of “soft” training and I had forgot about this complicated relationship. I went HARD and leg pressed 990lbs, haven’t done this since college. We are definitely back together, and like any relationship, it is causing me a lot of pain.

But like any male ego in the gym, being the center of attention, even for a minute felt good. Playing basketball afterwards not so good.

Conclusion, every once in a while it might be good to blast your legs but I’m going to be sticking to box jumps, light squats and cycling to stimulate them. I’m not a football player and lifting this much serves me no practical use…I’m more interested in good functional athletic movements and more of a “Hollywood” body type. So I say “NO MORE HEAVY LEG PRESS”…at least for now, or until I need an ego booster.

Snack of the Week: Bolthouse Farms Smoothies and Drinks

Ok…this week my local grocery store had a sale and I went goo goo …ga ga because my favorite drink was buy one get one free. So this week I’m featuring Bolthouse FARMS smoothies and drinks. This makes getting your servings of fruits and vegetables a lot easier.

The Bolthouse Farms  line of fruit and vegetable juices at the grocery store are 100% all natural juices. They have all kinds of cool names like Blue Goodness, C-Boost and my favorite, Green Goodness. They are way better than Odwalla juices, no disrespect.

Here is a list of ingredients in Green Goodness…

Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness is a blend of wheat grass, de-odorized garlic, spirulina, spinach,broccoli, barley grass and blue-green algae with fruit including apple, pineapple, mango puree, banana puree and kiwi juice. There’s also a bunch of exotic sounding ingredients like jerusalem artichoke, Nova Scotia dulce, dragon fruit juice, open-cell chlorella and even echinacea purpurea extract.

Trust me its good. The carb count is a little high for me so I dilute this 2 parts Green Goodness one part water. Keep in mind the calories, especially if you drink the whole bottle. Use this as a full blown snack, NOT A DRINK AFTER YOUR SNACK!

Green Goodness or any of the other mixes will do fine, I would stay away from their coffee line which seems to be a gimmick sad to say. But overall have a drink and get your 5-6 servings!

Human Machine: David Goggins Inspiration, motivation and desire

In life there are two kinds of people those that can’t and those that can. This is for all my friends and supporters get tough and get in shape.

 To Tim, if you focus like you did for med school, then you got this! For my moms if you focus like you did for your masters degree, you got this! If you ever wanted to find out what your human spirit is made out of …you got this!

Honestly, I HATE RUNNING! Must be like broccoli…if it taste nasty then it’s probably good for ya! 

Discovery Health: National Body Challenge 2009

I was suppose to write this blog several weeks ago, there are many fitness and weight-loss challenges happening all over the web. The Discovery Channel has created the National Body Challenge, a program designed to get you fit and healthy. They have even included a free eight-week pass to a Bally Fitness Center near you.

The cool people at fitsugar.com and Discovery health put me on to this. They both are working hard to make fitness available to everyone not just for muscle-heads.

The benefits for registering for the challenge are great, along with the gym membership you have access to customized meal plans created from 1,000 kitchen-tested, nutritionist-approved recipes, plus progressive fitness plans so you don’t hit a plateau! As an added bonus for eight weeks you can try out Podfitness, which offers podcasts for workouts to listen to on your MP3 player. There’s is a lot to discover about this challenge, so head on over to the Disovery Channel Body Challenge, and check them out for yourself.

Better late then never check em out!

A fat Ass maybe good for your health?

angel lola luv

My fellow blogger Jimmy Moore from Livin’ La Vida Loca shared an article about a new study claiming people with big butts are healthiest and protected against Type 2 diabetes.

This is NOT a joke! Researchers out of Harvard published the results of their study in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism say the popular pear shape producing a large derriere in women may actually be protecting them against Type 2 diabetes because their bodies make better use of insulin. Lead researcher Researcher Dr. Ronald Kahn said he was surprised to learn that it wasn’t so much that abdominal fat was harmful to health, but that subcutaneous fat in the rear was healthy. He added, “I think it points to a special aspect of fat where we need to do more research.” WOW, who would have ever thought this? Of course, Dr. Kahn thinks this is great because it can lead to yet another new drug. UGH! Why don’t we just start playing Sir Mix-A-Lot everywhere to inspire bigger butts?

Is this serious? and how much money was spent on this study? Finally is this big wide asses or just fat round ones?

Snack of the Week: Fage Greek Yogurt

So its Sunday night, what am I doing hopefully the same thing as you. Prepping my meals for the week. Grilled chicken, tuna, salads, sweet potato fries, my emergency protein bars, fruit and veggies. This week I am adding a new treat FAGE ZERO%

FAGE’s Total 0% will give you a new benchmark to what yogurt is suppose to be. I don’t care if you don’t like yogurt give it a try. The flavored versions i.e. honey and blueberry bring this over the top. At 120 calories per serving with 20 grams of protein you can’t lose.

The 0% is so thick, rich, and creamy that it’s hard to justify upgrading to more calories.

Not convinced? Not only is this delicious and creamy, but yogurt is one of the SuperFoods we all should be eating regularly. Plus, yogurt is also ranked as one of the World’s Healthiest Foods.

This is official an alternate for my 10 o’ clock protein meal. You are cheating yourself, if you don’t at least give it a try.

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Foods for Living Longer and Better

By Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com

These food and drink options will help your body fight off the damage caused by aging (see exotic anti-aging foods for some odder longevity foods). Just work them into your daily and weekly meal plans and you’ll be getting extra vitamins, antioxidants and other substances that will help your body fight age-related illnesses. Start today!

1. Avocados

Avocados lead my list of anti-aging foods because that are just so delicious. Of course, avocados are loaded with healthy fats to help improve your cholesterol, but the main reason to eat avocados is because they taste so good.

2. Walnuts

I know I need to eat more omega-3s and that fish are a great source, but I have to admit that possible mercury contamination of fish has got me a bit scared off. That’s where walnuts come in. Turns out that walnuts are a great (and mercury-free) source of omega-3 essential fatty acids. Eat a handful or two a day for all your omega-3 needs.

3. Green Vegetables

I know, it’s pretty boring to talk about the need to eat more vegetables — but here’s the thing, we all really need to do it. In fact, if the country could get 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day, we’d see a huge decrease in heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and more. So find some way to eat one more veggie or fruit this week, then add another next week until you get to 9 servings. Focus on leafy or deeply colored vegetables for the most benefit.

4. Water

Water is good for you. This seems pretty basic. There is some disagreement in the medical world whether drinking TONS of water is really a good idea, but while they sort that out stay focused on water. Your goal should be to make water your primary drink. This way, you’ll be drinking a no calorie, no chemical drink all day long instead of the many, many high-calorie, high chemical alternatives.

5. Berries

Berries are packed full of antioxidants and other chemicals that your body can use to make repairs and prevent some of the damage caused by aging. Best of all, berries taste really, really good. Be sure to eat your berries without any sauces or sugars. Just enjoy them plain for their goodness.

6. Green Tea

Green tea has been a longevity supplement in Asia for thousands of years. It is a great thing to work into your daily life. Green tea contains high concentrations of just the chemicals your body needs. Green tea is also inexpensive, delicious and gives a mild (and gentle) energy boost from its caffeine.

7. Red Wine

Red wine is good for you — it contains a substance called “resveratrol” that help your body fight off age-related illnesses. At the end of your day have a glass or two to relax and unwind. You’ll get the benefits of a delicious drink along with the anti-aging properties of resveratrol.

8. Beans

Beans are a great source of healthy protein and antioxidants. Really, beans are a wonder food. Some researchers (like T. Colin Powell) believe that animal protein may cause many of the illnesses we face as we age. Switching to a (healthy) vegetarian diet certainly will help improve the health of your heart and arteries. Beans are a necessary part of any healthy vegetarian diet. If you don’t want to go all the way to vegetarianism, then just start by substituting a few meals a week with bean-based entrees.

9. Melons

When I think of fruit, I don’t always think of melons. That’s a shame because melons have some of the best nutritional profiles of all the fruits. They are pulpy (so they fill you up) and contain lots of vitamins for your body. Work melons into your daily/weekly diet and you’ll be reaping health benefits as you enjoy them.

10. Chocolate

I put chocolate last in this list only because it doesn’t need to be higher up to get your attention. Chocolate (dark chocolate, that is) is good for you. It has a balance of fats that don’t harm your body and tons of healthy chemicals that your body needs. The only draw-back is that chocolate also has calories. Have a little square every day, but don’t overdue it.

Get creative and incorporate these foods in your diet and see your body change. Trust me…berries will become sweet and replace candy, beans will fill you up and make you reconsider heavy meats and water…I can’t say enough about water…WATER IS LIFE!