Archive for October, 2008

Nutrition Tip: 100 Calories a Day Can Mean the Difference Between Weight Loss and Weight Gain

Friday, October 31st, 2008
Lean Man and Woman
Sexy Woman and Lean Man

When you think about losing or gaining weight, you think about strict calorie deficient diets with bland food to lose weight, and sugary flatulence-inducing weight gainer shakes to gain weight. These ideas are not reality.

The average American gains 2 pounds a year, which is 7000 total calories. Divided by 365 days, that’s about 19 or 20 calories a day. It makes sense then, if you want to gain weight over the course of your lifetime, possibly to put on a couple pounds of muscle each year in order to stay fit and healthy, just eat 20 calories a day over your maintenance level.

It also makes sense that if you want to stay lean and trim for the rest of your life, with no major weight fluctuations, just eat 20 calories under your maintenance level each day.

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Olympic Lifting Video

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Olympic Athlete
Olympic Athlete

Hello everyone. I have been busy lately working my 2 jobs plus side projects plus weight training and kickboxing. Today my truck broke down and is in the garage, and my kid is in the hospital. I’m also sick with a nasty cold, didn’t even get out of bed on Sunday. All these things equal: I haven’t had time to write a decent post, so I’m just going to post this video demonstrating some Olympic lifts.

Olympic Lifting

Here we see this dude busting out a power snatch and a couple clean and jerks. These are great exercises for overall strength and conditioning, but not necessarily for specific strength or for bodybuilding purposes. If you are looking to be a powerlifter or a bodybuilder, chances are Olympic lifting is not for you, at least not on a consistent basis.

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Training for the Week of 10/13 – 10/19

Friday, October 24th, 2008

This was another solid 4-workout week: 2 kickboxing classes and 2 weight training sessions. Everything feels good except that I’m only getting about 6 hours of sleep per night on average. If I were to force myself into a healthier lifestyle, I would be getting 8 hours of sleep each night.

After 5 long nights of 5-6 hours of sleep combined with staying up late on the weekends, I’m pretty much beat on Friday. My only salvation is that I don’t get much strenuous exercise on the weekend, which helps me to recover.

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Why Do Fat People Eat So Much?

Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Overeating
Overeating

Initially, you thought fat people eat so much food because it gives them pleasure. Well guess what? You were wrong! In fact just the opposite is true.

Dopamine

Dopamine, a substance that makes us feel good, is one of the best-known neural chemicals. Though it is often thought of primarily as a manufactured substance it is actually produced naturally in the body. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that activates dopamine receptors, which makes us feel a sense of euphoria.

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Training for the Week of 10/06 – 10/12

Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Female Gymnast
Female Gymnast

A decent week in the gym and the dojo, I managed two sessions of weight training and 2 kickboxing workouts. In the middle of the week, my PC at work died and I struggled through trying to get it back online while simultaneously attempting to finish work on a software project that was due on Friday. This resulted in my missing my kickboxing workout on Wednesday.

Both kickboxing workouts were excellent, especially Friday’s, which is surprising because I lifted from 3:30-4:30 then kickboxed at 6. Somehow I had just as much energy for kickboxing as I did for weight training, and I think this is due to my post workout nutrition strategy.

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Training for the Week of 9/29 – 10/05

Monday, October 6th, 2008

A subpar week indeed, due to stressors at the office and at home, I was unable to make my workouts for Thursday and Friday. This was both good and bad. Good because I didn’t sleep much last week and was starting to feel sore. Bad for discipline and consistency reasons.

Kickboxing was good for the two days that I attended. My cardiovascular condition is improving with each high intensity thai kickboxing workout. Weight lifting was good for the one workout that I completed. Strength was up all around. Check out the stiff leg deadlifter at the bottom as today’s inspirational video.

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10 Healthy Food Breakfast Tips for You and Your Kids

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Healthy Foods For Breakfast
Healthy Foods for Breakfast

Check this out: in recent Consumer Reports news, we find out that some cereals have more sugar than a glazed Dunkin donut. The worst offenders are the sticky sweet cereals like Golden Crisp and Honey Smacks, and I tend to think that my beloved Cocoa Pebbles really aren’t that great either. I’ve mentioned time and again to stay away from food in boxes, especially sugary breakfast cereal.

So what are we to do? You know your kids are going to want something sweet and tasty for breakfast, and in all likelihood you probably don’t want to eat eggs, egg whites, or eggbeaters every day either. Here are some tips to make breakfast both tasty and healthy. I’m happy that I can promote another of my favorite cereals, Frosted Mini-Wheats… good stuff!

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