Real Weapons of Mass Destruction

The WMDs that Americans should be concerned about are not hidden missile caches in the Middle East or nuclear weapons testing by North Korea. The real WMDs we should be worried about are those that we put inside our bodies every day.

Those people who eat out on a consistent basis instead of fixing natural, homemade meals, often end up eating as much as twice or three times as much of their daily caloric requirements. Sure, when you’re working out you need to refuel, but, unless you’re an elite athlete working out 6 or 7 hours a day, you should not be eating this much. Even the foods touted as “healthy” can greatly compromise your fitness efforts.

For example, take the Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. Seems healthy from the name, right? Don’t make assumptions until you see the facts. (You know what they say about assuming, right? It makes an ass out of you and me, and in this case, assumptions may lead to an unwanted increase in ass.)  Check it out:

1,145 calories
71 g fat
56 g carbs

1100+ calories in one sitting!

What about this food, which has “guiltless” in the name, implying that you can eat it without being concerned about your diet:

Chili’s Guiltless Grill Chicken Platter
2,780 mg sodium
590 calories
85 g carbohydrates

That amount of sodium is more than the recommended serving for an entire day (2300 mg)!

There are many more unhealthy foods listed here and here. However, you can find what is good for you to eat when you have to eat out. I personally stick to salads without too many toppings, such as bacon bits (sodium is insane) and too much dressing. Remember, you’re eating a salad, don’t make it into a soup with dressing!

Without diligence and discipline, we will destroy ourselves from the inside out. This does not affect only a select few number of people; an unprecedented 2/3 of Americans are reported to be overweight and obese. We all know that unhealthy habits lead to preventable diseases such as diabetes, and heart disease. Too many people are facing skyrocketing medical bills and even death due to the habits that characterize the average American (fast food eating, sedentary lifestyles, working too many hours at work). Because of these numbers, Americans will be destroyed by the weapons of mass destruction fed to us by the food industry.

*Disclaimer: Not all restaurants are bad; I just want you who are working towards a healthy lifestyle to be careful and know the facts before ordering your food

Tasty Tuesday!

As promised, here’s Tasty Tuesday! To start things off, this week’s recipe comes from Oxygen magazine. I actually made this a few weeks ago and it was delicious!

Roasted Chicken Breast w/Red Potatoes and Asparagus

What you need:

Cooking Spray

3lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped into 2 inch cubes

2 lb red potatoes chopped into 2 inch cubes (leave the skin on)

1.5 cups chopped Roma tomatoes (or you can used canned diced tomatoes; I used one with garlic and onion seasoning)

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into about 1 inch pieces

3/4 cup chopped fresh basil

8 cloves thinly sliced garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

ground pepper to taste

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray

3. Add chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, asparagus, basil, garlic and olive oil. Sprinkle with rosemary and add pepper if you want.

4. Bake for 20-30 minutes (mine took 30 minutes) and turn occasionally.

5. Eat it!

(Since I made this a few weeks ago, this picture is from the magazine. Future posts will have pics of my actual cooking!!!)

Enjoy! Let me know what you think if you try it!

Tasty Tuesdays

I’ve decided to share my love of food and healthy cooking with my readers, so beginning tomorrow, I will have a weekly segment called “Tasty Tuesdays.” I will share my personal recipes, as well as those sent to me by you!

If you are interested in this idea, leave a comment. You will be able to share your recipes with me via email (jlyoung23@gmail.com). I will try them out, take pictures, share my feedback, and all that good stuff.

Remember to keep your recipes simple (we’re not all world-class chefs) and healthy!

Oh, and check out this site: World’s Healthiest Foods. Very informative and easy to understand! Plus there are good, healthy recipes on this site

What I will do after I’m healed

So after I’m done healing, I will be doing a 40-mile bike ride in Philly to honor and remember my grandmother who died from colon cancer. The doctor said that I can start biking again either this week or next week, so I have plenty of time to train. The most I have ridden at one time is 12 miles, so I have a bit of training to do. Please support me with this goal; I’ve always wanted to do a ride like this and now that I don’t have to worry about soccer season, I am able to do this!

http://philly08.livestrong.org/jlyoung23

Thanks everyone This is certainly something to look forward to as a way to celebrate my healing, but most importantly, to celebrate my grandmother’s life and memory.

Cheap, effective way to burn fat and improve cardio

Thinking about my mother this morning fostered me to think about how she stays in shape. She is a very busy CFO, yet manages to stay in very good health without working out at the gym very often. Besides eating well (no fried foods, no sweets, etc.) and drinking a great amount of water and juice daily (I personally think she has an addiction to water, but that’s another story), she takes the stairs to her 6th floor office every day, every time she leaves the office. She has gotten a few of her co-workers to follow suit, and I hope that more will join the healthy lifestyle crew.

Anyway, my mom does something every Friday that most people would overlook as a way to stay in shape. She is a member of a double-dutch team, and she manages to stay fit by reliving a childhood favorite of hers. Here’s a video of her that was shown last September on the local news in DC. She’s the one with the Nike shoes that looks kind of purple/blue with white stripes going across the shoe. She’s also the one who says something about friends coming together to do what friends do best.

I’m not suggesting that you go out and join a double-dutch team, but I want you to know that jumping rope is a cheap and very effective way to reach your fat loss goals and to improve your cardio. All you need is a jump rope, which you can get for as little as $4-$5 at Walmart, or about $10 at sports stores. There are leather ropes, weighted ropes, and speed ropes. I am a fan of the speed rope because I can jump faster, and I like to focus on anaerobic fitness due to my sports.

To get started, start out slow. Like any other exercise, you want to get the form correct before you perform at speed. The most simple movement is turning the rope and jumping with both feet. Once you get that right, you can add many other variations, like alternating feet, jumping in a triangle figure, double jumping, jumping from side-to-side etc.

Trust me, jumping rope burns fat at an amazing speed. It’s hard, but it doesn’t cost much, you can do it just about anywhere and anytime, and it works. Adding jump ropes to your circuit routine is also a guaranteed way to blast through any fitness plateaus you have encountered. Your body will thank you for it later! I will post video demonstrations on variations of jump rope exercises later.

As usual, leave your questions and comments for me! Give me something to do while I rest my leg.

So I had a personal trainer interview today…

My first personal trainer interview was today at One World Fitness on 14th Street NW,DC. I love the small, intimate environment of this fitness studio and the eclectic nature of the patrons and trainer, and the owner has a wealth of business and training knowledge that I just want to absorb for my own benefit.

The interview was short, fun, and non-traditional. I had to give the usual responses to questions such as why do I want to be a trainer, why I no longer want to pursue a career in politics, etc. But the fun part was when the owner pretended to be a stubborn, overweight prospective client that I had to convince to sign up for sessions with me. I never practiced marketing myself as a trainer, but apparently I did a pretty good job. The owner especially complemented me on my persistence. However, the exercise proved that I have a lot to learn about business. Although I know my stuff when it comes to training, I need to focus on the business side of personal training not only to become a successful personal trainer, but to eventually own and operate a successful fitness studio. That is my career goal in case you didn’t know that

Anyway, at the end of the interview, I was offered the job! I begin with a training session to learn more about the business and policies next Saturday, and I hope to be certified by July. I still haven’t decided which certification I want to get, but right now, to get me started, I’m choosing between ACE and NCSF. These two seem like the best certifications to get rolling; once I become established, I can go for the more costly and recognized certifications if I feel the need to.

So if you know anyone who wants personal training in that area, let me know! Better yet, just let your friends in the area know and get in touch with me. Also, feel free to leave any tips that you have for a personal trainer just starting out! I appreciate learning from others’ experiences.

I’m very, very excited to get started with this new stage of my life

Here’s one to add to your ab routine

I’m always looking for the next grueling, painful, soul-testing exercise to add to my routine. Variety, even the most challenging change, is good, right? Just nod your head and keep reading.

So I have recently become a fan of using the decline bench for ab exercises, such as for Roman Twists and Medicine Ball Toss. Well, why not mix those two together and see what you get?

The Decline Medicine-Ball Twist and Toss is something new that I’ve added to my routine. If you want to bust your gut, follow my example and add it!

Get on a decline bench that is set between 45-60 degrees and hold the medicine ball in your hands as you secure your feet under the pads. Lean back as far as you can hold it, and hold the medicine ball extended from your chest. Twist to one side as you keep your core tight and your arms in front of you.  Then slam the ball against the floor and then catch the ball. This may take some practice for those less athletically-inclined.

After you catch the ball, twist your body back to the starting position, holding the ball in front of you and pause for a second. Then do the same thing to the other side.

DO NOT rush through this exercise. The important thing to remember for this exercise is to have control of your motion and to keep your abs tight! I see too many people in the gym rush through their exercises, especially those for their abs. If you go slowly, you will challenge the muscle and keep your form correct!

Surprisingly, there’s no videos demonstrating this exercise on YouTube; maybe I’ll borrow my mom’s camcorder to show those of you who are visual learners this exercise. Give this one a try and let me know what you think!

What I’m doing while I heal

So, per the advice that some of my readers (and the doctor too) have given me regarding my hamstring, I am actually taking time off from training. This is actually a first in my life. While playing competitive soccer, I think the most time I’ve taken off is about 3 weeks, and even during that time I would go for short runs. Now that I can’t do absolutely anything except walk to class and to work, I’m having a difficult time figuring out what to do with myself. I’ve actually become a bit antsy and grumpy because exercise is my stress reliever.

Well, since cardio is out for a couple weeks, I am still weight lifting, but not as heavy because I do not want to compromise my training by becoming too big. I am small, but for some reason I build muscle and strength very quickly. I guess I get that from my parents, who were both athletes in their day and still very active.

I’m still working on pull ups, especially towel pull ups. If you haven’t tried this variation of a pull up yet, I suggest you give it a shot. It is very helpful in developing not only upper body and back strength, but also forearm and grip strength. I will definitely need to begin developing grip and forearm strength as I plan to begin martial arts once I’m healed. I have also improved my 1RM max in the bench press to 105#. I am 10# away from benching my body weight, and I hope to get there in a few weeks.

I have been improving my strength in essentially every body part except for my lower body. It’s pretty upsetting for me to be losing mass in my legs and seeing my pants sag off of me; as a sprinter, most of my power came from my quads and hamstrings (which apparently weren’t strong enough, although I focused on them twice a week…probably will need to fix that once I get better). Anyway, needless to say, I’m getting BORED and it’s killing me to have this gorgeous weather and unable to even walk beyond my classes. But, then again, I am thankful that I’m alive and that it’s just a hamstring injury that will probably heal sans surgery.

I should be doing schoolwork, but we all know that procrastination is a college student’s best friend. I have been reading a good book on the history of the ideas of muscle physiology; basically what we know now and how we came to find all this stuff out beginning with the ideas of Aristotle. If you’re a nerd like me, check out Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle by Steven Vogel. I am looking forward to my interview to be a personal trainer tomorrow though.

Any ideas for things I can do while I recover? Blog posting ideas count too, especially since I have more time to write! Exercise for me today

Mmmmm…Recipe I stole

I got this recipe from my best friend/teammate/roomie last night and decided do give it a shot tonight. For dinner, I made pita pizzas. There was another posting on this recipe earlier today here.

I used whole wheat pita bread, Newman’s Own marinara sauce, pepperonis, chopped red and green peppers, and a few pinches of mixed cheese. I spread a thin layer of sauce on the pita, topped it with a few pinches of cheese, chopped peppers, and 4 pepperonis. I baked it for about 10 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet at 400 degrees.

It was delicious!

On another note, I went to the doctor today and I won’t be running for a while, and I won’t be able to cycle for about 2 weeks Hamstring injuries are no fun.

How did you get those abs?

Perhaps the number one myth in the fitness world, especially those who are new to the healthy lifestyle, focuses on how to get that much coveted 6-pack abs. If you watch television or flip through non-science-based fitness magazines, you would probably assume that you can’t get nice abs without paying 3 payments of 19.99, plus shipping and handling, for some new contraption that guarantees* 6-pack abs for only 4 minutes a day. Or you might think that you have to do thousands of crunches in order to look like the models in the magazines.

You’re smart, you know that this stuff isn’t true. But it may surprise you to find out that the most important factors in getting sexy abs are actually nutrition and cardio. What? You mean to say that the crunches aren’t what gives me the 6-pack abs? Indeed.

You can do as many crunches or other ab exercises that you can squeeze into your day; your abs will indeed get stronger, but they may not pop out how you want them to. Why? Because if your abs are hidden behind a layer of fat, you’ll never see them no matter how many crunches you do!

That’s where cardio comes in. Doing intense cardio 3-4 times a week will help burn off body fat. I don’t believe in doing long, boring cardio; see my articles on interval training to learn about cardio that trains your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems and blasts away fat. Once you burn off that fat, you will start to see the definition that has been hidden there all along.

To get your abs to pop, you also have to watch what you eat. But of course you’ve already been doing that, right? Be careful of eating foods with high fat content, as well as sugars. I remember reading something about which foods are ab-friendly, but I’ll have to post that in a follow-up since I can’t remember right now. I know that fruits and leafy vegetables, as well as lean meats, are ab-friendly.

To help your ab strength, you can do ab-specific exercises. I am a fan of Russian twists, V-ups, reverse crunches, lunge and twist, and floor wipers. However, those exercises where the abs are acting as stabilizers, such as push-ups, planks, rows, and even squats, are more effective than ab-specific exercises. That is because your abs are working hard to protect your spine, engaging them in a better way than ab-specific exercises do. Personally, I do a mixture of both, and I keep my abs tight during other exercises, such as when I do bench presses, one-arm rows, and deadlifts. I would suggest doing ab work 3-4 times a week.

So cardio and good nutrition will help you get the abs that you want. Please feel free to leave your suggestions, tips, and ideas that have worked for you!