Food Allergies

Vicky doing box jumps

The foods that we develop allergies to are the ones that we do not chew well. For example, some of the most common food allergies are eggs, peanuts(peanut butter), milk, protein powders, and beef(ground beef). These are all foods that people tend to swallow without letting the digestive process start in the mouth. This leads me to the quote "you should drink your food and eat your water." World renown fitness expert Paul Chek likes to use this quote. This quote means that you should chew your food so well that it is liquefied and you should swirl your water around in your mouth before swallowing. By doing these things you will allow the enzymes in the mouth to begin to break down the food, so that it can be absorbed. What good are all of these nutrients that we eat if we are not absorbing them. Of the the common trends I find with people who need to lose weight is that they all eat quickly. The trend that I find with people who are naturally lean is that they eat really slowly. So the take home message today is to eat slowly and chew your food well.

Workout of the Day

Body Composition Routine

7 min 5 two handed db snatch + 10 burpees

Fruit

Chris and Rich getting up onto the 20 in boxes

Many people talk about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, but often times there is no distinction made between fruits and vegetables. Fruit and vegetables are not the same thing. We are not made to consume large quantities of fructose and therefore it is important not to have too much fruit. Fructose is digested in liver and the liver can only hold so much. Any excess fructose will be converted to triglycerides(fat). This is one reason why high fructose corn syrup is so dangerous. Vegetables on the other hand are fine in large quantities. The one thing that I have found is that when you tell people to eat fruit and vegetables they often times eat way more fruit than vegetables and it should be the opposite. Aim to get a minimum of six servings of vegetables per day and one or two pieces of fruit. Ideally you would consume 4 servings of vegetables for every serving of fruit. When choosing your fruit you first choice should be berries.

Workout of the Day

30 reps of clean and jerk for time

Carbs

Donna doing pushups on her toes with great form

What determines how many carbs you can eat. There are two factors 1) how lean are you 2) how active are you. The leaner you are the more carbs you can eat. Leaner people are better able to utilize carbs because they are more insulin sensitive. When you are more insulin sensitive it means that more of the carbs go to muscle instead of fat. How lean do you need to be to begin to add more carbs back into your diet. According to Charles Poliquin men should be 10% bodyfat or under and women should be 14% -12% bodyfat. The other factor that determines how many carbs you can eat is your activity levels. When you are active you deplete your glycogen stores and can afford to eat more carbs. Just be careful not to over consume carbs if you are active because many people overestimate how many they really need.

Workout of the Day

Slam Ball

Sprint

Waiters walk

Burpee

Jump rope

45 seconds of work/45 seconds of rest

4 rounds

Soda

Stay away from soda(even diet soda). One of the biggest reasons that we have so much osteoporosis today is because of soda. The phosphorous in the soda steals calcium from the bones in order to keep the body in balance. In our society today we are actually seeing a lot of kids with brittle bones. The biggest reason for this is the amount of soda that kids consume. Soda is also extremely acidic. Acidic foods set the stage for a number of disease processes such as cancer to start. When our body is too acidic it provides a perfect environment for many diseases. In order to keep your body from being acidic you need to eat your vegetables. Vegetables are the most alkaline foods and they will help to neutralize your body.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine
DB complexes

Make meal prep easy

Bill working on L sits

People are always complaining that they are too busy to cook or that they don't cook. I have not had very much success getting people to lose weight who do not prepare their own food. It is very important that you prepare your own food so that you know exactly what goes into it. One way to make meal prep easy is to keep frozen vegetables in your freezer all the time. Frozen vegetables are a great way to put together quick dinners. Often times I will throw a bag of frozen vegetables into skillet with a little olive oil and some precooked meat. In ten minutes dinner is ready. All you have to do is stir. So for those of you who don't know how to cook it doesn't get much easier than this.

Workout of the Day

21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3

Double under + db swing + pushups

What is for Breakfast

Theresa working on her L-sits

Since I don't recommend eating cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, french toast, or any other traditional breakfast foods people want to know what to eat for breakfast. Eggs and fruit or vegetables are a great choice. Eggs can be prepared a number of different ways to keep them from being boring. Consider making a vegetable omelet. The other thing that I often eat for breakfast is left over meat and celery sticks. This makes for a real quick breakfast that does not require any preparation. Breakfast is really not as hard as most people think, you just have to break free of the mentality that you must eat cereal for breakfast. It all comes down to habits.

Workout of the Day

Body composition routine

Bottom to bottom tabata squats

Procrastination

Chris M doing handstands

Yesterday I talked about the importance of putting action to your ideas. I really do feel that this is one of the biggest keys to transforming your body. Procrastination is an evil thing. If you need help with procrastination there is a book that may help. The book is the The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino. The book contains ten scrolls that are to be read for 30 days each. One of these scrolls is a great chapter on procrastination and how to avoid it. If you read the scroll for 30 days it will help you to take action towards your body transformation goals. All of the best fitness and nutrition information in the world will not help if you do not have the mindset to put the information to use.

Workout of the Day

5 rep thruster + 5 rep sumo high pull

Max rounds in 10 min

Rest 5 min

5 rep R hand db snatch

5 rep L hand db snatch

10 pushups

10 min max rounds