Baby Back Ribs, Not For Babies

Some items that have baby in the title, (baby carrots, baby corn), are not for and can actually be harmful to babies.
Most of the equiptment you see in a gym is designed for building mass & strength not fat loss or lean muscle. Contrary to most peoples goals.

Also Trainers consistently try to build bigger, better, stronger. It's like the hair stylist that gives you her or his own hair cut.

For lean muscle and weight loss increase the frequency of exercise, increase repetitions, and vary your type. You may well need to lower your weight.

Appetite is a Unicorn

Myth: 'water will curb your appetite'
This is tricky because appetite and hunger is different. Water can expand your stomach. It also can speed nutrient delivery to the bloodstream which curbs hunger.

But a person who ate a big meal can still have an appetite. It can be a mental thing also a learned behavior. 'We always eat this at this time.' Smell can also trigger it. So can nutritional deficiencies. In fact appetite is so complicated it would be hard for anyone to say they have full knowledge of it.

*Different foods have Satiety Levels or satisfaction levels. Some sites have a satiety index you can download.

Here's the big question though. Do you really have an appetite? Don't answer so quickly. When thirst sets in your already close to dehydration. Sometimes the thing you need the most when you have an 'appetite' is water.

So here's the proven research:
-drink water first
-go for the good stuff next. Fresh, lean, clean, or green food in a small amount.
-wait 15-30 mins.
-give in to the craving, just a little.

Also don't sweat it, our appetite keeps us alive. It's how we know were alive.

Start a Fire

Ever try to start a fire with a large block of wood? You need an accelerant or kindling right? Trying to start your metabolism moving with a large meal is insane!
-Start your fire with water. In the body water helps everything move and work. Water is a metabolic accelerant.
-Next a small amount of fuel to get things hot. 300 calories or less then wait two to three hours before eating again.
-Later at lunch put some wood on the fire. Get hot, get warm!

What to eat? (AM)
-1 Egg white on whole wheat toast
-or a banana and apple
-2/3 cup of whole grain cereal
-yogurt w/fruit
-apple with peanut butter
-1 egg & veggie omelet w/salsa
(spinach, mushroom, tomato, etc)
-energy bar (clean, low cal, low sugar)
-2 oatmeal cookies (not daily)

Fiber, Fruit, Fish & Fat

Sounds like a Dr. Suess book right? Well if it was, it would be about a fat cat that lowered his stats.
Increasing fiber, fruit, and fish oil can have a profound effect on heart health and fat retention. Of course if we increase one area we should balance it with a decrease of fatty oils and fatty meats.

Diet Drinks and Weight Gain?

This is from WebMD. For full disclosure, they find this study inconclusive. Other studies found similar results. But you be the judge. --Matlock

Another study often cited in the news stories and blog postings followed people in San Antonio, Texas and showed that those who drank more diet sodas gained more weight over time.

Researchers analyzed data from the San Antonio Heart Study, which followed more than 5,000 adults for between seven and eight years.

Although people who drank both sugar-sweetened and diet sodas gained weight, diet soda drinkers were more likely to become obese. And the more diet sodas the participants drank the greater their weight gain.

The Framingham analysis included 9,000 middle-aged men and women followed for four years. Researchers found that compared to people who didn’t drink sodas at all, those who drank both sugar-sweetened and diet soda were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of symptoms often linked to obesity that increase risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Because both of these studies were observational, it is impossible to say if the diet sodas played a direct role in the weight gain.

It may be that people switch to diet soda when they begin gaining weight without addressing other aspects of their diet that are causing the weight gain.


My comments: Our bodies well know how to deal with Carbs, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals & water. Sugar is a (CHO) carbohydrate.
Chemical substances in food have to be filtered, dispose of or assimilated.
Can you feel satiety, or get a feeling of fullness from chemicals as you do when you eat natural food?

Experts do not have a monopoly on common sense.

Sweat the Big Things

We can't do it all. So our focus has to be on the most important lifestyle regimens for health and exercise. Make it a goal to focus on one or all four.

Principle (F. I. T. T)
-FREQUENCY how often do you keep your diet & exercise protocols?
-INTENSITY effort is usually a direct link to results.
-TIMING 30 minutes each day for fitness. Every 3 hours try small healthy foods with water.
-TYPE building strength, endurance, or lean mass calls for different protocols. Heart health, weight loss/gain, strength or immune support requires a variety of dietary approaches.

Of all these FREQUENCY is the most important. With good habits the others tend to fall in place.

On Diets

Don't waste time w/fad diets or in the gym doing unproductive & unsafe routines.

On diets;

-Diets should be easy to remember & follow.

-Diets should be inexpensive or free

-You should see results every two weeks. (inches, energy, appetite or lbs)

-Also they should allow for foods you actually like to eat.
(changes you can live with)

-They should include recommended daily allowances whole grains + vegetables.

-skipping meals is not a long term beneficial strategy

-Lastly you should have a dated goal.

One Week Vegetarian for the Dolphins

I usually refrain from meat at breakfast and most dinners. Still a full vegetarian diets have lots of benefits:

-you can eat a lot of food! As long as it's not processed, fruits and veggies are low calorie and high in water. They make you feel full with less.

-their Multi-Vitamins with flavor. There are substrates in natural foods that science has no idea how they work or how they benefit us. Among these are phytochemicals and phytonutrients.

-you claim the high moral ground. Cows and chickens smile as you walk by. And every time you order a salad somewhere deep in the ocean a dolphin smiles.

-vegetables are cheap. This leaves more money for the new wardrobe you'll need.

So I like many of us I also need to increase my whole grains and vegetables. Really to change our numbers we need about a month of healthy eating. Going without meat for a while does help us become aware to the other options out there.

The take away is we need more than twice as many carbs as protein. And animals protein also carries with it lots of fat. Vegetable Proteins have fiber and very little fat. (caution: supplement with B12, Iron, Vitamin C and D to be safe)
There's a lot of sad unhealthy vegetarians also, their eating highly processed and generic chemical foods. Vegetarian doesn't equal healthy.

If your going to try this remember, you have to eat a lot. A 150lb person need to eat 200 cups of field greens daily to meet their minimum daily caloric requirement. That's about 20 baskets!

Because your a good person

What's the reward for doing good? The opportunity and ability to do more good.
Exercising and eating well if only done in self interest is not the most beneficial way to motivate yourself or anyone else. In fact answer this question, why are you too busy to exercise anyway?
Likely you fill your day in doing things for others. Your a Giver, a busy one at that. And in all your generosity you cannot afford any down time.
The truth is that we all are Givers in varying degrees.
So what is your best gift? Yourself. Yes you want to give the best 'You' that you can give. A shower, perfume, shined shoes, and brushed hair is all you preparing you to give the best of yourself that you can muster today.
Exercise and healthy eating is the same. It's helping you to continue to have the oppurtunities and abilities to give' the best possible you for a long time. You are your best gift!

Running Steps

Step rate increases results in less injury to joints according to a study in Sports Medicine from Wisconsin. 3 steps per second or nearly 200 per minute seems optimal.

Two ways to achieve this:
-run faster or take smaller strides

This seems logical since less weight rest in the joints with increased steps. Forward momentum reduces downward pressure.

2008 Sports Med Research Published

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2008 (vol2#5) revealed that integrated exercises produces better results in all fitness parameters.

What does this mean you say? Well the guys lifting massive weights in the gym and the treadmill, jump rope, high rep people should meet.

Basically progressive increases in weight, high repetition and cardio is the perfect marriage.

Breakfast Not Your Most Important Meal

Eat a big breakfast. Get your Metabolism going. Be less hungry throughout the day. (Bogus!)

The idea is that you will eat in the form of a right triangle. Biggest meal to smallest. Is that really how anyone eats? Is it how you eat? No!

Most people eat in a straight line averaging 800-1500 calories each meal. (including beverages)

You've heard of the Food Pyramid & My Pyramid eating. Their made to make eating simple, but I doubt anyone really remembers their contents except nutritionist. Here's an easier one.

Pyramid Eating.
-Breakfast small. You only need enough fuel to get you to lunch. Too much is extra weight. Unless your a lumberjack using hand tools you only need a few calories at this time.

-Lunch top the Pyramid. Here is your most active part of the day, fuel it. You have 4-6 hours to dinner. Eat now and smaller later. The best points here is that you usually have better self control at this time. Also lunch menus are cheaper! If you take your lunch with you usually make better choices.

-Dinner at the bottom: Your next job is sleep. Here you don't need a lot of energy. In fact you don't want a lot of food or energy if you ate well at lunch. Try to eat 3-4 hours before bed.

Ideally you will snack after breakfast and lunch. This way of eating gives you fuel when you need it not when you don't.

Breakfast Not Your Most Important Meal

Eat a big breakfast. Get your Metabolism going. Be less hungry throughout the day. (Bogus!)

The idea is that you will eat in the form of a right triangle. Biggest meal to smallest. Is that really how anyone eats? Is it how you eat? No!

Most people eat in a straight line averaging 800-1500 calories each meal. (including beverages)

You've heard of the Food Pyramid & My Pyramid eating. Their made to make eating simple, but I doubt anyone really remembers their contents except nutritionist. Here's an easier one.

Pyramid Eating.
-Breakfast small. You only need enough fuel to get you to lunch. Too much is extra weight. Unless your a lumberjack using hand tools you only need a few calories at this time.

-Lunch top the Pyramid. Here is your most active part of the day, fuel it. You have 4-6 hours to dinner. Eat now and smaller later. The best points here is that you usually have better self control at this time. Also lunch menus are cheaper! If you take your lunch with you usually make better choices.

-Dinner at the bottom: Your next job is sleep. Here you don't need a lot of energy. In fact you don't want a lot of food or energy if you ate well at lunch. Try to eat 3-4 hours before bed.

Ideally you will snack after breakfast and lunch. This way of eating gives you fuel when you need it not when you don't.

Breakfast not Your Most Important Meal

Eat a big breakfast. Get your Metabolism going. Be less hungry throughout the day. (Bogus!)

The idea is that you will eat in the form of a right triangle. Biggest meal to smallest. Is that really how anyone eats? Is it how you eat? No!

Most people eat in a straight line averaging 800-1500 calories each meal. (including beverages)

You've heard of the Food Pyramid & My Pyramid eating. Their made to make eating simple, but I doubt anyone really remembers their contents except nutritionist. Here's an easier one.

Pyramid Eating.
-Breakfast small. You only need enough fuel to get you to lunch. Too much is extra weight. Unless your a lumberjack using hand tools you only need a few calories at this time.

-Lunch top the Pyramid. Here is your most active part of the day, fuel it. You have 4-6 hours to dinner. Eat now and smaller later. The best points here is that you usually have better self control at this time. Also lunch menus are cheaper! If you take your lunch you usually make better choices.

-Dinner at the bottom: next job is sleep. Here you don't need a lot if energy. In fact you don't want a lot of food or energy if you ate well at lunch. Try to eat 4 hours before bed.

Ideally you will snack after breakfast and lunch. This way of eating gives you fuel when you need it not when you don't.

Internist Myths

One of the news stations had an Internist debunking diet myths. The segment looked like it was filmed nationally.

Internist are excellent doctors but their not Dietitians or Nutritionist. Doctor doesn't mean diet guru it means doctor. The nature of the work is more reactive than proactive.
Here's the rub:
-Myth, 'calories consumed at night are worse than at other times of day.'
This is misleading. It would fit better under truth. Here's why.

-Metabolic Economics. All body functions slow at night. If you go to bed with a calorie deficit your body will breakdown muscle and fat to fill the glycogen stores in the liver and muscles.
Going to bed with a calorie surplus after energy stores are full will lead to fat storage.
During the day glycogen stores are constantly being depleted and replaced. Energy is being used and metabolic rates are higher.
It takes about 4 hours to refill energy stores. Within 1 hour food is being converted to energy.
This is why bodybuilders eat within an hour after exercise. During sleep there's less conversion and more storage.
Nutritionist call this Carb Timing. Athletes are not to eat a big meal within an hour of activity. There's no time to convert and they just become sluggish.

The same calories can be stored and used very differently based on timing.

Like an airplane just carry enough fuel till your next destination.

Self Test: Eat a big meal and go to bed. Wake up hungry. Where did the food go? Eat a very small portion before bed. No hunger in the morning? Where did the body get the energy?

You likely need MORE salt.

How do you know if your not getting enough salt?
If your eating fresh, clean, lean, and green you could be at risk for a salt deficiency.
In the 80's the increase in Chronic Fatigue was mainly due to people cutting too much salt from their diet.

-add salt to your water if your experiencing muscle twitches during exercise.
-add salt to your water if you lose more than a pound of sweat during exercise.

Most Americans get too much salt. But if your reading this blog, your likely not like most Americans. Your likely a defined hunk of fat free mass. You may need a little salt for all that beef.

You likely need MORE salt.

How do you know if your not getting enough salt?
If your eating fresh, clean, lean, and green you could be at risk for a salt deficiency.
In the 80's the increase in Chronic Fatigue was mainly due to people cutting too much salt from their diet.

-add salt to your water if your experiencing muscle twitches during exercise.
-add salt to your water if you lose more than a pound of sweat during exercise.

Most Americans get too much salt. But if your reading this blog, your likely not like most Americans. Your likely a defined hunk of fat free mass. You may need a little salt for all that beef.