A Sweet Truth, Sugar, Fat and Obesity.

We Americans weigh on average 30lbs more than we did 30 years ago. Our fat intake has actually went down over the years as obesity has risen. Since Calories in > Calories out = weight gain, the extra calories must be coming from our carbohydrate consumption. Many will tell you that sugar(fructose) is the main culprit. Most of the fad diets (atkins, japanese, etc) cut out fructose.
1 can of soda contains 150 calories x 365 days/yr x 3500 cal/lb(3500 unspent calories is 1 lb weight gain) =15.6 lbs a year!
So drinking a can of soda per day without burning off those extra calories will make you gain over 15 pounds in a year. And that's only the can, drink just one bottle of soda a day and it's good for 26 lbs of fat in a year.
What happens when you take away the soft drinks? Well in england they did a study where they removed the soda machines from some schools, while leaving the soda machines in other schools.

 The kids with soda machines kept getting fatter, the kids without access to soda at school stayed the same, the girls even lost some weight.

 UCFS Center of Pediatrics Professor goes as far as to call fructose a poison in the amounts we consume.
 The video is long but good if you're interested and have a free hour and a half. I'm basically giving you my cliff notes version. There's a lot of biochem in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
*warning-if you watch this you will probably hate yourself if you ever drink soda again!*
Lots of low-fat processed foods are pumped with sugar because low-fat processed food tastes terrible. So adding tons of sugar makes these foods palatable, and they can put low or no-fat on the label, yet they are terrible for weight loss or a healthy diet. All the sugar we eat is mostly converted to fat in our bodies, so a "low-fat" diet that is high in sugar is actually a high fat diet. Fructose IS a carbohydrate, but it is metabolized like fat
Here is what they do at UCFS to help the overweight kids lose weight and it works:

For this program, cutting out the sugared liquids is the single most important and effective factor in dieting or losing weight. When you do eat sugar, eat it with fiber. It helps your body to process the sugar and not turn it all into fat.

Do you drink a lot of soda or fruit juices? Do you think it's a form of child abuse or neglect to let our kids get obese?

Hangover Fixes

Just woke up had a hell of a night last night. A hangover is natures way of telling you "hey dumbass, you drank too much last night!" good thing it's not a gym day. Today its hangover remedies:

1. Sleep. Rest is your best friend at this point to give your body a recover. It is best to stay in bed so call in to work if you have to, tell them you have the stomach flu. You will sound so horrible on the phone they may believe you (unless they saw you at the bar, not a good idea then).
2. Replenish your body with fruit juice and water.
3. Avoid caffeine. A weak cup of coffee may be okay but a lot of caffeine will continue to dehydrate you, the opposite of what you want right now.
4. Drink orange juice for Vitamin C.
5. Drink a sports drink like Gatorade or Powerade.
6. Eat mineral rich food like pickles or canned fish.   

Just basically work on rehydrating and replenishing vitamins. I also love excedrin and aspirin to help alleviate the pounding in my brain.                           
      
You guys got any useful tips for dealing with a hangover?

Deer velvet sports supplement with IGF banned in NFL?

Has anyone heard about this? supplements containing deer velvet, which is harvested from deer antlers, is supposed to have IGF in it, similar to HGH, to promote better anaerobic and aerobic performance and is now banned in the NFL! Think this is real? or a carefully crafted PR scheme? Here an article from USA Today.
Thats crazy if there's steroids in deer antlers!
here's another link that has a link to a study at the bottom of the page

Daily Motivation

  Paraphrased from someone smarter than me:

    You are destined for greatness. You have it inside of you and you know it. You have always known it; felt it thumping in your gut, clawing, scratching, struggling to get free. It needs your help. As long as you hold yourself to the standard of average, that is all you will ever be. In your dreams you aren't average, so why settle for it now? What are you not doing right now that's eating at the back of your skull? Go Do It!

    The time to act is now. You will burn. You will feel pain. You will suffer. Your demons will not be defeated easily. Every step of the way they will whisper in your ear that you aren't good enough. That you're not meant to succeed. "just give up. you'll never be the best." they will mutter. "NO!" you will reply. You will embrace the suffering, finish that last rep, claw through the agonizing pain. You will destroy that mediocre pussy in your head. You will break your boundaries. You will rise above the rest. You will realize your potential.
    You are not an average man. Now go and do what you are destined to do. End of story.

What are you not doing because you fear failure?

 Someone smarter than me wrote:

  I don't know you. I don't know anything about you; where you're from, where you're going, or what you do. I don't know if we would get along if we met. I do know one thing: You are capable of much more than you believe.
     There are over 6 billion people on this planet, and the overwhelming majority of them pass through life unnoticed and scarcely remembered.
     Tommorrow, as you go about your life, take time to look around and notice the people. What do you see? You see mediocrity. Average. Good enough to get by. You see everything about yourself that you hate, that you fear, but you have been taught that good enough is acceptable. Fine. Good job.
    I'm here to tell you that you will NOT settle for what is fine. You will NOT settle for a good job. Fine is for the losers. Fine is for the person who skips his workout because he 'just didn't feel like it'. Fine is for the person who accepts their mediocre relationship with someone they really don't love. Fine is for the one who cheats on his diet because they just couldn't stick with it anymore. Fine is for the one who got the job, but not the job they wanted. Fine is the one who did not finish first. The one who has never experienced the fulfilling pain of personal sacrifice, never thrown themselves headfirst into the fires of dedication. Most importantly, starting today, fine is NOT YOU!


So everyone, What do you want to change about your life?

Obvious Dieting Information

You can improve your health a great deal by changing your eating patterns and the types of food that you eat. The EXTREME dieting stuff is for idiots, eating right is no big deal, it's relatively simple and painless...
   First of all, cut out fast food. It is terrible for you, very calorie-dense, high in saturated and trans fat, and should be avoided by pretty much everyone. Now an occasional burger probably won't hurt, but if they know your name at McD's or BK, cut it out or you will never accomplish your fitness goals.
  Also soft drinks should be cut out or at least drastically reduced. It is also calorie dense with no nutritional value, and there are multiple reasons we shouldn't be dumping simple sugars into our system. Diet soda should be avoided also. Stick to water, coffee, and tea. After a little while you won't even miss soda. Sweets should also be limited as they are full of sugar and calories.
   Tune in later to learn about some tasty foods that are good for you!

So what are your fitness goals for 2011?

Keeping Track of Calories

A great website for tracking your daily caloric intake is FitDay
Another good one is Livestrong's Daily Plate
A little tip is that people tend to Overestimate the calories they burn, so time your workouts and keep track of them. People also tend to Underestimate the calories they eat, so make sure you pay attention to the actual quantity of food you are eating, not the generic serving sizes that you see on nutrition labels.

Basic for losing or gaining weight

Something 80% of Americans are overweight or obese. And according to a study I made up for this post, 95% of them would like to lose weight. So to start simple, here is some basic information.
Diet is probably the most important single factor in your health, body composition and overall appearance.  Food determines how big you are. If you consume more calories than you expend, you will get bigger. If you consume fewer calories than you expend, you will get smaller. If you meet your maintenance needs, you will stay the same. Regardless of your metabolism, body composition, genetics, or whatever, your body must obey the laws of physics and biological imperatives. Now, your calorie needs can change over time. But in the end, The reality is calories in and calories out. Everything else is just fiddling around the edges of this basic fact!
So if calories in> calories out, you will gain weight
if calories in < calories out, you will lose weight.
Exercise plays a huge role in what these calories will become, muscle or fat. To figure out how many calories you need for your lifestyle, a good start is this basic metabolic rate calculator. Next we will learn about diet specifics.

Day 1

Hey I'm Jay. Here's some motivation from someone smarter than me to kick this off.
  I don't know you. I don't know anything about you; where you're from, where you're going, or what you do. I don't know if we would get along if we met. I do know one thing: You are capable of much more than you believe.
     There are over 6 billion people on this planet, and the overwhelming majority of them pass through life unnoticed and scarcely remembered.
     Tommorrow, as you go about your life, take time to look around and notice the people. What do you see? You see mediocrity. Average. Good enough to get by. You see everything about yourself that you hate, that you fear, but you have been taught that good enough is acceptable. Fine. Good job.
    I'm here to tell you that you will NOT settle for what is fine. You will NOT settle for a good job. Fine is for the losers. Fine is for the person who skips his workout because he 'just didn't feel like it'. Fine is for the person who accepts their mediocre relationships because they are to scared to put themselves out there. Fine is for the one who cheats on his diet because they just couldn't stick with it anymore. Fine is for the one who got the job, but not the job they wanted. Fine is the one who did not finish first. The one who has never experienced the fulfilling pain of personal sacrifice, never thrown themselves headfirst into the fires of dedication. Most importantly, starting today, this is NOT YOU!