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Go For What You Believe In
Posted by: | CommentsIt has been a bummer of a day here in Austin thanks to the weather.So i was on YouTube looking for some cool videos to cheer me up when i found this one. Sometimes life is about more than what you have and who you know, it is more so about who you are and what you stand for that represent you. Check it out my friends.
I hope that we can all gather some important insight from this video. We are all different and unique in our own special ways, that is something we must never forget and should learn to shine in our own specific niche that we carve. Be you and do what you do.
Keep Goin’
DtLW
Are All Calories Equal?
Posted by: | CommentsAre All Calories Equal?
It is the age old question that is debated throughout the health industry. Some experts believe that the only way to lose weight is to simply consume fewer calories than you burn and in doing so you will then obviously have a caloric deficit eventually leading to weight loss. In essence they are saying that a calorie is a calorie none better or worse than the other. To counteract that theory there is a belief that you may consume as many calories as you burn but they need to come from the appropriate nutritional sources. The double edged sword of this theory is that the individual looking for weight loss must walk a fine line of not consuming too many calories, on top of really knowing what foods to consume to fire up the metabolism.
Let me first tell you why I do not agree with the first theory I stated above which implies that in order to lose weight all one must do is simply consume fewer calories in a day than they burn in that given day. Here is my example to disprove that theory, what if this person looking to lose weight gets all their calories from Twinkies, Pepsi and French fries for that day?
Yes they may consume fewer calories then they burn but in the process of that day their blood sugar was through the roof and their saturated fat consumption was most definitely over the limit. And all that is before we would even take a look at their fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals assessment came into play.This type of thinking has to go.Here is a video i made recently to help assess your diet. We must consume an appropriate amount of calories to fuel our day while never overeating and also making sure we take in the right amount of macro and micro-nutrients.
Here is a brief breakdown of the caloric content per gram of the macro-nutrient food groups. Carbohydrates have approximately 4 calories per gram; Protein has approximately 4 calories per gram; and last but not least Fat has approximately 9 calories per gram. So you see that if you consumed a high fat diet you could find yourself tipping the scales in the wrong direction rather quickly, however as we now know all fats are not created equal as well and that is something to be discussed another time. The key as I have said before is to consume a well balanced diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and complex carbohydrates.
On top of that though it must be understood to never overeat especially during the day when we need to be productive and as sharp as possible, and as we all know it is near impossible to do that after consuming a large meal.
So in conclusion I am stating on record that all calories are not created equal. I do believe that you can consume as many calories as you burn in a day and still have fat loss and even weight loss. Because remember if your body is in fat burning mode it will be burning more calories than if we were burning carbohydrates or protein 9 calories vs. 4 calories. So eat well eat fresh but never ever overeat and remember all calories are NOT equal.
Woman Wants To Be Fattest Female in The World
Posted by: | CommentsI was reading one of my fitness magazines the other day when i came across an article about a woman in America who wants to become the fattest woman in the world. When i first read this i had to re-read the headline and i was shocked and disgusted all at the same time. Here is an article from The Examiner, Donna Simpson is the lady with the lofty goal of becoming not only the fattest woman in the world but the heaviest woman in recorded history.
Here is a snapshot of her life. She consumes thousands of calories per day my estimate would be 5-8,000 each day. Donna spends $750 per week on groceries and supports that hefty economic toll from a website where people actually pay to watch her eat food during the day. On a side note i feel extremely sorry for Donna, but even more sorry for the individuals who pay to watch this woman eat herself to death; there is something wrong with that picture. She aims to weigh over 1,000 pounds or 1/2 ton at which point she will then hold the sad title of worlds heaviest/fattest woman.
And we wonder why the health of our country is falling down the tubes at such a fast rate. I talked before about the obesity problem in America Yet when we see people like this just wasting their life away on our dime (we pay for her healthcare and unemployment) we simply cannot be surprised at the health of our country’s people. It makes me wonder if she is doing this for fame or in order to be the heaviest woman in the world? I am not sure but i believe that if you are visiting this site and have read this post then you are the exact opposite of Donna Simpson in every way, meaning you have admirable goals of losing weight, feeling great, and living life to it’s fullest and experiencing everything it has to offer versus eating, sleeping and wasting life away in an apartment everyday and contributing alost zero to our society and humanity for that matter. You are not that person and i know it.
If you want to try a workout program that will guarantee weight loss and keep you from ever being like Donna Simpson then click here!!!
Also click here for a great diet program with proven results!!!
Get Goin’
DTLW
7 Healthy Snacks At Work
Posted by: | CommentsHey Guys,
I just wanted to bring you some more easy foods that you can incorporate into your diet to trim down those unwanted lbs. It’s hard enough to think about preparing a lunch for work tomorrow, never mind a snack too! But what if you had a stash of healthy snack foods with you at work so you could snack healthy without having to prepare something the night before?
Snacks provide you with an extra little boost in the morning or late afternoon. When choosing a snack, make sure it contains both some protein and carbohydrates so that you are able to better maintain your blood sugar level and stave off your hunger until the next meal.
Here are a few examples of foods to have on-hand at work for snacking:
* Nuts: Although nuts are high in calories and fat, a handful goes a long way to keep you satisfied. They are power foods in that they also provide healthy fats along with some fiber.
* Apple and peanut butter: An apple is a classic example of a healthy food, Add some peanut butter for dipping, and you have a snack that is well-rounded with both healthy carbs and protein!
* Cottage cheese with 5 baby carrots: Cottage cheese is a powerhouse for protein, so combined with carrots (or other vegetables such as celery, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, etc.) it provides a nice light, balanced snack.
* Yogurt and Fruit: Yogurt comes in different fruit flavors, but a lower sugar plain yogurt combined with fruit (berries are always a favorite) or granola can provide a satisfying snack.
* Crackers and cheese stick: A few crackers (4-5) with a cheese stick will provide you with a nice snack to help curb your appetite.
* Jerky and a fruit or vegetables: Beef or turkey jerky is a very portable snack coupled with cut vegetables or a peach or dried fruit.
* Edamame with Crackers: Soy beans (edamame) are a vegetable loaded with protein. When you have them with a high-fiber cracker like Triscuits, you have a simple, easy-to-prepare snack that you can keep at work.
Two Simple Foods That Will Maximize On Burning Fat!
Posted by: | CommentsEat them with skins intact.
Superpowers: Building muscle, fighting food cravings
Secret weapons: Protein, monounsaturated fats, vitamin E, folate (in peanuts), fiber, magnesium, phosphorus
Fight against: Obesity, heart disease, muscle loss, cancer
Sidekicks: Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, avocados
Impostors: Salted or smoked nuts. High sodium spikes blood pressure.
These days, you hear about good fats and bad fats the way you hear about good cops and bad cops. One’s on your side, and one’s going to beat you silly. Oreos fall into the latter category, but nuts are clearly out to help you. They contain the monounsaturated fats that clear your arteries and help you feel full. All nuts are high in protein and monounsaturated fat.
But almonds are like Jack Nicholson in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest: They’re the king of the nuts. Eat as much as two handfuls a day. If you eat 2 ounces of almonds (about 24 of them), it can suppress your appetite–especially if you wash them down with 8 ounces of water.
For a quick popcorn alternative, spray a handful of almonds with nonstick cooking spray and bake them at 400 degrees F for 5 to 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven and sprinkle them with either a brown sugar and cinnamon mix or cayenne pepper and thyme.
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Including soybeans, chickpeas, pinto beans, navy beans, kidney beans, lima beans.
Superpowers: Building muscle, helping burn fat, regulating digestion
Secret weapons: Fiber, protein, iron, folate
Fight against: Obesity, colon cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure
Sidekicks Lentils, peas, bean dips, hummus, edamame
Impostors: Refried beans, which are high in saturated fats; baked beans, which are high in sugar.
Most of us can trace our resistance to beans to some unfortunately timed intestinal upheaval (third-grade math class, a first date gone awry). But beans are, as the famous rhyme says, good for your heart; the more you eat them, the more you’ll be able to control your hunger.
Black, lima, pinto, navy — you pick it. They’re all low in fat, and they’re packed with protein, fiber, and iron–nutrients crucial for building muscle and losing weight. Gastrointestinal disadvantages notwithstanding, they serve as one of the key members of the Abs Diet cabinet because of all their nutritional power. In fact, if you can replace a meat-heavy dish with a bean-heavy dish a couple of times a week, you’ll be lopping a lot of saturated fat out of your diet and replacing it with higher amounts of fiber.
How to get a body like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ dancers!
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Hey everybody. I hope all is well for you today. I for one feel great except for the very uncomfortable muscle soreness in my legs and core as a result of my workout yesterday. It was exceptionally difficult but i was able to push through it and now i am stronger today because of it. Well as i am sure you all know there is a lot of buzz going around right now as to who will be in the next ‘Dancing with the Stars’ lineup for the shows 10th airing that begins in about 2 weeks. Now obviously the celebrities that will be on the show will put in extreme amounts of effort and energy in order to win the competition. But i would like to focus on the dancers themselves. These individuals have incredible physiques. I am sure that a major part of their physical fitness can be attributed to there dancing 5-6 days a week, however i would be willing to bet my life that theses dancers are incrediblydevoted to their exercise routines consisting of both cardiovascular and resistance training. So with that in mind the workout i performed yesterday works on both resistance and cardiovascular fitness, and now i want to share with you this workout that will help begin to sculpt your body so you can look like one of the very gifted dancers of dancing with the stars. Okay so here it is….
First you must find a hill in your neighborhood that is approximately a 30-45% angle and anywhere from 20-40 yards long, (please try to find a grass hill, concrete is just so tough on the joints of the knees, hip, and back) second have plenty of water as you will need it, third wear proper shoes that can handle grassy terrain, fourth and most importantly get a proper active warm-up consistingof a light 3-5 minute jog or walking lunges or high knees or butt kicks before you begin this workout. Now that you are properly warmed up it is time to begin the workout. You will start at the bottom of the hill and sprint to the top of the hill for a total of 10 times. For the first 4 sprints you will progress your speed from 50% then 60% then 70% then 80-85%. Sprints 5-10 will be all out 100% sprints. This workout will be very demanding but the nice part of it is that you have the opportunity to catch your breath and get the heart rate lowered while you go down the hill backwards on your toes to exercise the calf muscles even more.
Tips: Drive arms and legs as hard and fast as possible on the way up the hill. When at top elevate arms above head to fully maximize your lungs ability to bring in fresh oxygen. Return down hill at a controlled pace going backwards and walking on toes for even more of a calf muscle exercise. If this workout is not difficult for you then next time perform 10 push ups,or 25 crunches, or bodyweight squats, or squat jumps at top of hill before returning down, this will really add the resistance training aspect into the equation.
Guys i hope you enjoy this workout aor at least the results as much as i have.
Get Goin’
Jeff
Obesity Epidemic
Posted by: | CommentsHey whats going on guys i am back today after a week since the last post i made on here, sorry…. but never fear for WE are going to get back on track. If you recall in my last post i discussed Body Mass Index and gave you all a link to go to and enter your height and weight to calculate your BMI in order to assess where you are currently with your weight status. Hopefully you guys utilized this tool to figure out where your at, if not here again is the link to the site http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/. Now go visit the site and calculate your Body Mass Index, i promise you it will take less than 30 seconds. As for today though i want to inform everybody about the current condition of obesity in the United States, we have backed ourselves into a corner and now find ourselves in a hot mess. Seriously, and i apologize in advance if this is to harsh but as a nation we are one of the fattest countries in the world and that is not something to brag about. Here is our state by state condition in America that i found the other day while doing some research. It should be noted that more than 1/3 or >33% of American adults are classified as obese.
After looking at this map it became evident that we have a problem in America. Take a look at this map, what state are you in? Did you calculate your BMI? Are you helping your state or hurting your state in terms of the obesity issue? We cannot run from the truth any longer, it has already caught up to us and now we must tackle this issue head on. We can and we will. In my next few posts in the coming days i am going to look into the obesity problem more in depth and explore some changes and habits that We can ALL use in our daily lives in order to turn this ship around. I am going to do this and i promise it will help you lose weight, it will help get your Body Mass Index in the right zone and it will help you feel better about yourself. Remember We can do this! One person at a time, one community at a time, one city at a time, one state at a time, then the whole country and world. So let’s get started today!
Get Going! Jeff
Our top 5 diet/lifestyle adjustments for weight loss
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Hey whats up guys, today we would like to go over our top 5 ways that you can adjust your diet/lifestyle in order to help you achieve your weight loss goals. These are going to be simple yet effective adjustments that anybody can implement into their daily routine and quickly see results. So let’s get to it!!!
1. Reduce your daily sugar intake –
As i recall , the last i heard the average Americans sugar intake is roughly 25% , now that is a problem when you consider that the daily recommendation is 10%. So the average person is consuming more than twice their daily recommended value, leading us down a path of degenerative diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and many more undesirable conditions. We recommend eliminating sodas such as coke and pepsi, also try to reduce/eliminate consumption of processed foods and unhealthy snacks.
2. Alcohol consumption
Lets be honest with ourselves in saying that we all like to have a good time, and with that comes alcohol. This is an area that we can all benefit from greatly. If we are going to go out and have a good time lets keep it to a minimum. It has been proven that 1-2 drinks a night for women and 2-3 drinks for men is ideal, but anything beyond that becomes detrimental to your health. But if you are going to drink then try this, this is something that we can do and that is to try and keep a low carb attitude about drinking alcohol. For example drink low carb beer when you are out, but if you are more a liquor/mix drink kind of guy or gal then try and mix it with soda water or one of your favorite diet drinks with no sugar. Doing that alone will greatly reduce the amount of carbs/sugar you consume while drinking alcohol.
3. Fast food
It is well known to us and the rest of the world that America is a fast food 
nation. There is no pretty way to put this, fast food needs to pretty much be eliminated from our diets completely! We do realize that we are all in a hurry and that makes the fast food free diet nearly impossible, so we go through our local burger joint here and there. Our advice to you, and it has shown in our diet, if you go to these places you need to make a couple of changes on how you go about eating there. First you need to cut the fries. I kn0w there good and I love them too, but they are killing us as americans. Simply substitute them for a yogurt or a fruit cup. Also if you grab a burger (We recommend the grilled chicken) take off one piece of bread(open face or European style) or remove both pieces of bread altogether and be done with the white bread that contains absolutely zero nutritional value. And lastly, if you are going to order a drink please get the unsweet tea or a sugar free beverage that is offered at the particular establishment in which you are dining.
4. Late night eating habits
I feel very strongly about this one, as it is understandable that as your day comes to a close energy use begins to dwindle and your body is preparing to shut down for the nights rest. When you are asleep your body is in a repair/recovery mode and your metabolism is almost at a standstill. Really watch the carbohydrate intake during the final 3-5 hours before you go to sleep, usually most of those carbs will end up being stored as fat because your body will not require their use for energy at this point in your day. Attempt to get your calories in these final hours of your day from lean meats, veggies, and maybe a slower digesting protein such as casein protein.
5. Begin an exercise routine immediately
If you work on points 1-4 a healthy, positive and more energetic lifestyle awaits you. But if you really want to complete the lifestyle adjustment then a minimum of 3-4 days of exercise per week is absolutely necessary. In fact the American College of Sports Medicine recommends adding a cardio/strength training program to your daily regimen. Anywhere from 3-5 days a week of cardio training for a minimum of 20 minutes and 5-8 strength training exercises will do wonders for any individual looking to lose or maintain their current weight. For exact recommendations check out this link http://www.acsm.org/
So guys and girls implement these adjustments into your diet and lifestyle and i know you will be on your way to a better you.
Jeff
Resistance band training and its “benefits”
Posted by: | CommentsOk guys we know that Terrel Owens has always found himself in the middle of controversy, but despite all of that his performance on the field speaks for itself! This guy is 37 years of age and still performs at an all pro level. He gives all the credit towards his dedicated diet plan and the implementation of resistance band training over the last 5 years. During this time span he was able to increase his speed when most players have already began to slow down, as well as increased his strength and flexibility helping him prolong his great career well into the future!
In fact backing up T.O.’s claims, a recent study found that when resistance bands were added to a strength training routine, the control group increased strength by 10% and gained more muscle mass than those training without resistance bands. Also it showed that through the mechanics of using resistance bands the load on your joints is lessened greatly. Here is a great look at some of the many exercises that can be done from the comfort of your home or local gym.
We have recently incorporated Terrel Owens resistance band training routine in our workouts for the last couple of weeks and have certainly felt the benefits! So next time your at the gym give it a shot and let us know what you think.
If you want more information on an intense training program click here!
Until next time, Matt and Jeff
Usain Bolt amazes us yet again!
Posted by: | CommentsWell guys it seems that the record broken a year ago by Usain Bolt has been shattered again. By himself! “Lightning” Bolt ran an amazing time of 9.58 seconds in the 100 meter race! I would like for you all to check out this article I came across regarding his diet.
It is no coincidence that Michael Phelps, also a gold medalist, uhm 8 might I add, also sticks to a regiment when it comes to diet and nutrition! Every athlete in the world that we admire so much all have one thing in common and that is their nutrition intake. Check out this link to see a little about how Usain Bolt nourishes his “temple”
It is absolutely amazing what these great athletes can do these days. But what is even more amazing is that we can all share the same principles by watching what we eat and how we eat. It is all up to us to have the discipline to stick to it and strive to be knowledgable in what we put into our bodies. And here is the best part! They are not perfect either! We all want that slice of pizza every once in a while, and guess what? So do they! So lets keep striving for the lifestyle guys!
Until next time, Matt