Artificial Sweetners a Mystery, better than sugar.

I found an article that concisely highlights the debate over artificail sweetners. Which ones are OK and which are risky to long term health.  The one conclusion is that while all of the research is inconclusive that the artificial swettners are deemed to be "safe" by the FDA and that all scientists agree that they are better than sugar when it comes to leading a healthy life.

Also, Aspartame is two amino acids with a methanol group.  It is not some dangerous "chemical" people make it out to be.  According to my medical nutrition textbook you would have to drink 25 2 liter diet soda's to experience side effects!!!!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/which-sweetener-should-you-choose/

ABS ABS ABS

That is the number one thing I hear from clients when they come to me.  "I want to get rid of the fat in my middle section."  To address this question I first have to address a couple different myths about FAT.  First myth is that you need to burn fat first to gain the muscle* Fat and muscle are two separate components to the human body.  If you lose all your fat you will look like a stick.  Just by losing fat by doing cardio for 60 minutes a day will gain you ZERO muscle.  You don't need to lose the fat first to start putting on muscle.  It's actually quite the opposite.  You need to gain muscle to help speed up your metabolism to lose the fat.  Losing just fat alone will actually slow down your metabolism and you will end up gaining back the fat, which is what you worked so hard to lose in the first place.  So please if you are trying to lose weight don't just do cardio to burn the fat first that couldn't be more wrong.  Second myth is that you can transform your fat into muscle.  This isn’t transformers.  That would be really nice if you could do that, but it is not true.  Gaining muscle comes from increasing your muscle cells not by transforming fat.

Back to ABS ABS ABS.  Your body doesn't simply take fat away from the area where there is the most fat.  It takes away fat throughout your entire body.  So in order to get those dream ABS and lose the middle section it is going to take A LOT of hard work.  This hard work consist of years of dieting with healthy high nutrient dense foods, and lots of exercise both lifting and cardio.  It is going to take time to get your total body fat percentage down in order to start seeing abs.  Ideally a male will see ABS around 8-12 percent body fat or lower, and a female from 12-18 percent or lower.  So next time you want to know how you get ABS and a "trainer" makes you do a thousand silly abdominal exercises PLEASE stop!  This is a waste of time.  Unless your body fat percentage is low you are not going to see anything.  You might even have the strongest abs on the planet, but if you eat like crap it doesn't matter how many sit-ups you do a day.  TO RECAP: the best way to get ABS is to eat healthy, lift weights, do high-intensity cardio (sprints) and low-intensity cardio (walking) and if you want to throw some ab exercises after your workout it won’t hurt.  All of the above will lower your total body fat percentage.  Make sure to measure you body fat percentage and see if it is decreasing every month by half to 1 percent.  This is a slow process so be patients and the only real way to see results is by HARD WORK.  

"The Paleo Way" (Menu from School Project)

Reference: "Everyday Paleo" by Sarah Fragoso Victory Belt Publishing Las Vegas

6,400 calories crazy right?

Before you read this post you must read http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/eat-to-burn-fat-and-calorie-loading-to-torch-body-fat.html article by Cory Gregory.  I found this article very interesting for a couple different reasons.  First off I have hard of calorie splurging before, but this one was different because of the foods Cory listed compared to foods I have seen from other sources.  Usually the high calorie day would consist of whatever you could get your hands on such as, high sugary snacks and "cheat meals".  Ok so heres the difference, in Cory's whopping 6,400 calorie day he was eating only eggs, cashews, beef, and cheese! That is it.  Albeit that comes out to being over 24 whole eggs in one single day!  Now this caught my eye because I have read books talking bout its not so much the calories you eat, but what you eat.  The article goes into talking about hormonal responses from food.  As we all know the more sugar and carbohydrates we eat the more we build up a insulin insensitivity, which can cause a rise in blood glucose levels.
Ok so what the hell am I saying???? Basically I am going to personally give something similar to this high calorie day from clean foods a try.  Clean I mean low sugar and carbohydrates.  I think Cory might be on to something.  He also talks about low-fat days as well, maybe to balance out all the fat from the calorie day?  I am going to post what I ate and how I felt from my personal experience with this later.  Until then folks :)

Exerising on an empty stomach not any better than a full stomach

I will put this in the Category of a "myth buster".  I recommend taking supplements prior to working out and so this is support for that recommendation. That said, I know many folks think that exercising on an empty stomach is good for weight loss. Turns out, through the data,to be a wrong assumption. 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/does-exercising-on-an-empty-stomach-burn-more-fat/

8 Reasons to Sprint to Greater Success

Charles Poliquin 8 reasons why everyone should sprint

Chalres Poliquin's editorial staff highlights 8 reasons why everyone should "sprint".  The article notes that a sprint doesn't have to be moving at your fastest possible speed, but can be a high-intensity training using alternating components of very intense activity with rest periods.  If you only have a half hour or so to workout in the morning before workout using sprints will not only work best for a shorter time period, but will give you just as much if not greater benefits then long periods of lower-intensity exercise, such as jogging.  

Back to the science.  The first reason highlighted in this article is to lose fat.  A group of steady aerobic exercise and a group of 15 sprints for 30 seconds participated in a 1994 study.  The group who did the sprints lost 9 times more body fat!  You didn't read this wrong I said NINE times more body fat!  The article highlights a couple other studies that showed similar results as this one.  

Second reason highlighted was to build muscle.  If you have been reading some of my blogs you should already know the importance of muscle.  Muscle improves your resting metabolic rate, aka your metabolism, and improves insulin sensitivity among other things as well.  Another huge benefit for women is an increase in bone density, which greatly reduces after age 50. 

I am not going to go over the 6 other reasons because frankly the article linked above does an amazing job of doing so already.  I just want to stress the importance of SPRINTING.  Whenever I walk into the gym I see people walking on the treadmill, using the elliptical, doing the bike, jogging, and lifting.  It is only on a rare occasion that I see someone spiriting; in fact I hardly ever see it.  I am not sure why because sprinting not only shows better results, but also is shorter time duration to complete a full workout.  Maybe it is because the general population at the gym isn't educated enough to know the importance of sprinting?  Well then I hope this article will give you that knowledge to start a sprinting program in your gym today.  

Sample sprinting program for beginner

Make sure you warm-up for at least 5 minutes before your workout

Sprint (85%-95% effort) 20-30 yards 15 times rest 45-60 seconds in between 

Advanced sprinting programs (each one is a separate workout)  

Sprint 400 yards x 6 rest 2:00 minutes 

Sprint 200 yards x 12 rest 1:15 seconds 

Sprint 100 yards x  16 rest 45 seconds take a break after 8 for 2 minutes 

Sprint 50 yards x 30 rest 30 seconds take a break after 15 for 2 minutes 

5 Reasons to Take Fish Oil

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/964/Five_Reasons_Fish_Oil_Will_Make_You_Stronger_Leane.aspx

If you are not taking fish oil you need to read the above article by Charles Poliquin.  There are numerous ways fish oil can help benefit your life immediately.  Like building muscle, enhancing body composition, losing body fat, and improving insulin sensitivity and metabolism.  For me fish oil has helped raise my HDL levels and lower my LDL levels.  (HDL the good cholesterol and LDL the bad)  Although I don't know this to be 100% true it is a good theory because I started taking fish oil pills that I got prescribed by my doctor (2-4 grams a day) and I didn't change any of my life patterns from eating to exercising.  I took my yearly blood tests and my cholesterol levels improved greatly.  The first thing I thought was it had to of been the fish oil because I couldn't think of anything else I have changed.  Fish oil is composed of omega-3 fatty acids, which Americans are greatly depleted in.  Unless you are eating a ton of fish (something I don’t do) you will not be able to get your omega-3 fatty acids because your body cannot make them.  If you are not taking fish oil I strongly encourage you to do so it will not only make you healthier, but it will give you more energy throughout the day to do the things you love doing!  

High Protein Breakfast Rules All!

More and more research is coming out that a high protein breakfast is key to weight loss.  A study from the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, took 20 overweight or obese subjects and had them eat three different breakfasts, either skipping breakfast (like 60% of most americans), eating 35 g protein breakfast, and a normal breakfast.  The high protein breakfast led to increased fullness and reductions in brain activity that is associated with food cravings.  Also, the high-protein breakfast reduced high-fat and high-sugar foods consumed later that evening.  If you are one of the many people who skip breakfast in the morning try and eat breakfast for at least three days in a row because most habits take that long to develop and get use to.  I am also posting the reference to Charles Poliquin's meat and nut breakfast which has gotten very high prasises from NFL athletes to the average joe.  I myself eat a high protein breakfast every morning and I find that it helps curb my appetite, keeps me energized throughout the day, and makes me crave "junk food" a whole lot less.  It is also the first meal of the day so you want to start out with the best meal for your body that you can to set yourself up for success.

Study found from: 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130326151127.htm

Meat and Nut breakfast:

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/270/The_Meat_and_Nut_Breakfast