Keeping your food fresh ‘n new and inspiring your taste buds to keep you dieting is hard. It’s hard to vary green vegetables to the point where they begin to look like hot fudge sundaes. That takes talent.

And who wants to troll around the produce section of a store, looking lost, while searching for new and exciting things like: vegetables? Umm…not I said the pig. Plus, what if it tastes bad or even worse, isn’t that good for me.

Alright, alright…pipe down, already. The following are some veggies that you may have forgotten all about or never really paid attention to that are not obscure or unheard of that will surely give your diet a kick in the arse:

Cabbage: Sure, I know what you’re thinking. Thanks Jo, I just emptied a small convenience store in one swoosh. Not only are you not helping my cause, but you are creating mass destruction in the mean time. Ok, sorry. But cabbage, specifically red cabbage, is yummy and is stuffed full of antioxidants for beautiful skin and shiny hair. There are a bunch of different varieties of cabbage to choose from so you don’t have to stick with the red version, but it is my fave.

Cooking it: Saute it. YUM!

1 small red cabbage
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 T Olive, flax or udo’s oil
2 T lemon juice, divided
Clove of garlic, chopped or pressed

Cut up cabbage and let it sit for a minute. Sprinkle with 1T of lemon juice to preserve color. Steam cabbage in a pan with the broth for about 5 min. and then transfer to a separate bowl. While it is still hot, toss with the rest of the ingredients and enjoy.

Shiitake Mushrooms: I know, your freebies are mushrooms of every kind alongside trough size amounts of onions and peppers. Bear with me, will ya? You most likely buy the button mushrooms which are great for you, but they’re not shiitake. These babies are high in nutrients (iron, cholesterol lowering compounds, immune building phytonutrients) and come in a few different varieties as well. Not sure which ones are good ones? Grab the ones that are firm, plump and dry.

Cooking it: Saute it! Another YUM!

Same as above minus the lemon. However, make it into a soup after and it’s to die for.

4 cups boiling water and a ¼ c of miso paste and some sautéed onions and you are good to go. Let that simmer for about ten minutes and enjoy.

Lastly,

Swiss Chard: If you’re anything like me you are thinking: What in heaven’s name is swiss chard. Well I’m glad you asked…it’s a leafy green. Mmm, Jo. Just what I need (rolling your eyes), another leafy green. Oh stop it. This one tastes different. Like earwax with a sweet flavor. But don’t take that from me, try it yourself. Good stuff!

Ok, all kidding aside. It is different in taste that it is a bit on the bitter side, but its texture is what gets you. It’s nice and crunchy and also juicy. Good stuff all around. Plus, it’s not spinach.

Cooking it: Saute it! How’d you guess?

Only this time, no chicken broth. Use olive oil only and sauté it up with everything else. THEN, add 1 diced tomato, 6 black olives, ½ c crumbled feta cheese and 1 tsp fresh or ½ tsp dried oregano. This is different b/c it is warm and cold mixed together and the tanginess of the recipe adds just enough kick. Have fun!

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****Warning: Language may not be suitable for those in denial. No sugar coating in this article at ALL.****

If you have recently lost a large amount of weight and find yourself with your own built in hammock on your tummy (no, I’m not being funny, I’m being serious here) and are wondering (translate that as ‘panicking while searching for answers’) if there is anything you can do about it there is…wait a while. In time, it will resolve itself. Make sure you are eating right and exercising and it will begin to tighten. However, if you have not recently lost a large amount of weight and have gone through the waiting period and that kangaroo pouch (again, if you have never seen this you need a visual to understand how upsetting this can truly be) is still there and now you are no longer fervently searching the web but instead slowly searching for a real solution because you are tired of the gimmicks…read on.

Excess skin on the tummy is unsightly and frustrating. When you first started out on your journey to being hot you honestly thought the only obstacle you had was being fat (however you want to dress that up, go ahead, and trust me—I can relate). Suddenly, you find yourself at your goal weight but now instead of being hot, you now have your dream body with parts of a shar pei stuck to it. Not fun.

Loose skin is a combination of dieting, muscle loss, genetics and deficiencies. You can do something about 3 of those issues, I’m sorry but I have no cure for who you have as parents, but you also have to realize that you may not be able to achieve all of what you would like so be ready for that.

The most common place for loose skin to appear is on the tummy, in the gluteal fold or on the back of the arms. (For all intents and purposes in this post, we’re going to tackle the skin on the tummy.) Usually I see a woman frantically performing hundreds of crunches in the gym in an effort to change the appearance of loose skin and I am always amazed at where this myth came from. If you want to rid yourself of that skin, doing crunches isn’t going to do anything for you so please stop thickening your waist and wasting your time. Instead focus on your food choices, supplementation, water consumption and attention to detail. The girl who can dot her I’s and cross her T’s is going to cross the finish line faster than anyone else in this race. Let’s pick apart what you need to do and why:

1) Give it more time: What? Girl, if I am reading this then I have qualified myself as one who has “gone through a waiting period” so stop yanking my chain! Well I beg to differ. Have you really been patiently waiting? Have you been on point the entire time and have seen no change? Are you tracking your body fat percentage accurately? Did it take you 3 months to lose 70 pounds and now 2 months later you think you should look amazing? Has it been longer than 6 to 9 months at your current weight with steady changes in body fat levels? Are you dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s? Do you know what you are eating daily and do you track what you do in the gym? No? Ok, take a ticket and step aside. I’m serving #2 right now and your number is 1015. It’ll be a small wait.

Honestly, changing body composition on a level such as this can take upwards of a year of consistent dieting and exercise. Not weight loss dieting, just healthy maintenance eating.

2) Lose more body fat: Are you kidding me? I look like an accordion was fastened to my stomach and you want me to increase that more by losing more fat? Yes. And notice I said body fat and not weight. Big difference and also why I said above that you had to wait some time before you really had exhausted all of your avenues. Losing body fat takes time and the leaner you are, the more resistant your body is to giving up the last little bit. It can take months for your body to re-compose itself and during that time, you will see your skin slowly but surely tightening. You cannot control where your body loses fat so if you want a particular area to have less body fat, then you must lose it overall. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Your best defense: increase your lean body mass. Who wants me to go through this rant again? I didn’t think so. Get to liftin’, girl, and you will see your body comp change magically—but not overnight.;)

3) Something’s fishy about this article: Yeah, it’s printed on salmon colored paper with olive colored ink. You know where I am going here and if you are new to reading my blog (welcome, btw) you will soon find out that I am obsessed with good fats. Why? Because they are the fountain of youth! Our skin is composed of layers and as we age the fat cells in some of the layers begin to thin out causing wrinkles, drooping, loss of elasticity, etc. EFA’s fill in the gaps and help skin to have a smoother, tauter appearance. Want that dewy skin we had when we were kids (some of us had; some of y’alls just didn’t wash regularly therefore lacked a dewy look but we can bring that up another time), then start throwing back flax oil like it was Zarex in black plastic bottle and you’ll be on your way.

If you are severely lacking in EFA’s (and many of you are), you will notice a difference when you eat more than the normal 1 serving per day of omega 3. Some of you will see great results just going up to two servings in a day. Some of you may need to put a piece of salmon in a bong and smoke it like crack because you need so much. Make sure it’s Wild Alaskan when you stuff it in the jar…

4) Supplement for success: Again, you may not know how I feel about calcium (and if you go here and throw in your email addy, you can pick up my free report on it) because you are new, but if not you know in my past life I was married to it. Calcium, fish oil, magnesium, BCAA’s and multi vitamins are your best secret weapons in the fight against stubborn body fat. All of them in some way, shape or form increase your metabolism—some of them on the cellular level way down deep inside. That’s some good stuff right there and when you are talking about losing more body fat, needing your body operating at optimum levels or requiring top conditions for cell production/skin regeneration, you need all the help you can get.

Hold up, though! Do not go to the Vitamin Shoppe, pick up a ton of vitamins and start popping them like candy. No, find out from your doc what’s good for you and what’s not first. From there, do your homework and be responsible.

5) Exfoliate and massage the skin regularly: This is number 5 for a reason. Although worthwhile, it’s not a deal breaker. But exfoliating and massage cause your skin to have to regenerate at a faster rate. If you begin to be incredibly regimented about the amount of water you drink, the fat you consume and the overall healthy diet filled with endless variety while scrubbing and rubbing yourself silly, you will be on the right path to a smoother belly and should truly see some progress within 3 months or so.

The following steps are what you need to be doing for at least 3 to 6 months religiously before you can even say you have done all that you can and throw in the towel. What’s missing in this article? What NOT to eat when you are trying to tighten the tummy and/or any other kind of loose skin and we will get to that soon enough. Woop woop!!:o)

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It’s winter time here in New England and we begin to look forward (it’s that the word?) to snowy days, warm living rooms, Snuggie’s on the couch (what? You don’t have one?) with a good Life Time movie starring Jaclyn Smith (yes, I’m dating myself again).  It’s a perfect time to begin trolling the cabinets for things you shouldn’t be eating.  Your mind is on fire racing through all possibilities:

That jar of peanut butter.

The bag of almonds.

The rice cakes—wait, they’re not open, yet. Whew.

I know what you are thinking.  Just a few nibbles.  No one will know and they won’t count because you promise not to chew.  What could be the harm?

You and I both know this could get ugly up in here but before I tell you how this drama concludes, let’s get into defining what really constitutes a cheat meal…

The “In the Beginning” Meal

I think all of us remember when we first started dieting.  It seemed so simple then.  You ate right—you lost weight.  Cool stuff.  But the average woman has been on at least 4 major diets (I say major because aren’t we all on a diet at some time during the day, every day?) by the time she hits 30.  That’s crazy and the body does not instantly respond like it did before.  But the beginning is the best time.  You’re a dieting virgin and you can get away with so much so why not take advantage?  If you love something, have it–please.  This also applies to the person who has a good amount of weight to lose (30 plus pounds).  Keeping your diet super clean is not prudent and it causes you to become a bit psycho—and I mean that literally.  It really is all about transition, moderation and being in it for the long haul.  

This means that extreme measures this far out will never work.  If you have been eating a slew of junk for years and then decide to clean it up (first, good for you! Yay!), don’t try to go cold turkey here.  Food is habitual and you will be good for about 2 to 3 weeks and then cave to the pressure, “cheat”, feel guilty and then throw it all out the window.  Let’s avoid all that.  What’s a good cheat for you?

The back room of a Wendy’s.

The first row of the ice cream display at Baskin and Robbins.

Any pizza—the whole pizza—at a Bertucci’s restaurant.

Everything in the cabinet at home.  You know, THAT cabinet.

Now am I serious?  No.  And I am sure you figured that out real quick but I am making my point here which is, have what you want.  Do not put any restrictions on what you eat but do restrict how you eat it.  Keep reading.

YOUR GUIDELINES

One meal.

One serving—no seconds.

It must fit on one plate.

If it’s a meal, no dessert.  If it’s a dessert, the meal must be clean.

You may NOT stuff yourself.  

Do not try to plan your day around it.  Just have it.

Don’t look back and don’t feel guilty.

Do describe it in detail and email me b/c I love to live vicariously through you.

The Blue Pill Vs. The Red Pill

Oh boy. 

You went for the red pill.  

Now you have the knowledge of good food vs. bad food.  You follow rules.  You pack your lunch.  You read labels.  You may do one of the following:  limit your fat intake, your carb intake, overall caloric intake, dessert intake and etc.  You have entered the Diet Matrix. 

There is no turning back.  You know too much now.  Your mind is forever tainted with too much information and you can no longer eat pancakes with bacon on a daily basis (which is a shame because bacon really does make everything better.)  You now know how far that rabbit hole goes.  But what does that mean really? 

It means you have been dieting long enough that you no longer have seismic weight drops when you begin a diet or you are within 15 to 20 pounds of your goal.  You have enough clean eating under your belt that your tastes should be changing and you no longer need to revisit the overly processed food gods to tame your palate.  Things like…

A good pasta dish at a restaurant.

Any meal that is not fried.

A yummy dessert but not the Jim Dandy size.

A healthy version of pizza.

A full sugar soda—16 oz or less.

You, my dear, have a different set of rules.

YOUR GUIDELINES

One meal, not overly processed.

One serving, no seconds

Should be same portion size as most of your meals. Same for desserts—no gorging.

Move away from fried food or overly cheesy meals.

Plan it into your day.

Keep in mind these are guidelines.  Everyone is different and you have to find what is right for you.  But you are no longer taking a stab in the dark, you have a starting place. This is just a tip of the iceberg for cheat meals.  I have not discussed the diet pro, yet, because they are getting their own post.  Way too much to cover there.  And I will qualify the statements above such as ‘plan it into your day’ and ‘not overly processed’ in another post. 

Much more to come like alcohol, functions, restaurant vs. eating at home and etc. so keep checking for more posts.

But what happened to the scenario above?  She realized the harm could be how she would feel the next day, so she opted for a cup of herbal tea and finished watching the movie.  What did you think she would do?:o)

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Oh boy.

Did you go crazy last week and exceed your sanity limit?

I don’t mean this in just food either. I mean everything. Did you shop too much? Drink too much? Do too much? Was it just a ‘too much’ time for you? Were you always on the go?

Now for the most part, I am sure you tried to keep it clean with food while your ran around like a chicken with your head cut off. And in those moments of trying to be good, you may have been tempted to turn to a protein bar or two.

Stop.

Don’t do it.

Although convenient, if your desire is to look good naked then they are not an option for you. If your desire is to reap the benefits of all that you sow, then they are still not an option for you. If you want to tighten a little bit here, lift that somewhat up here or eliminate this thing over here then they are definitely not an option for you.

Fake foods (bars and powders), as I describe them, do not make a beautiful body. Food makes a beautiful body. And although you will be tempted to rely upon them in busy times, try not to make that a habit.

Now out of the two evils, powders are the much lesser of them both. They have plenty of worth post workout and really can get you out of a pinch (if you said to me it’s either a shake or a trip to the drive thru, I’m going to tell you to make sure you lick the shaker bottle, lol)—it’s more bars that I am referring to. Those delicious fake candy bars that have more junk in them than my hair after two weeks of not washing it. Side note: Was that too much info right there? Did that make you sick? Sorry about that—try to remove the image and move on.;) But honestly, do me the favor and read the label of those things. Tell me what you can pronounce. If that was packaged food you would never eat that. So why is it acceptable as a bar? It’s not! You have somehow told yourself it was because you can rationalize it more than a Snickers bar.

So now I know what you are going to say, “What can I have then when I am crazy and running around and I have no time to eat?” Lots of things! You can make your own bars:

Home-made Protein Bars

4 scoops chocolate whey protein powder

2 cups Quaker Oats (old fashioned or quick)

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup Whole Foods natural peanut butter

3/4 cup water

For top: 1/4 cup Whole Foods Honey Roasted natural peanut butter

Mix all ingredients in bowl (except for the honey roasted pb, that is spread on top). Spread mixture evenly into square pan lined with aluminum foil or wax paper. Spread thin layer of honey roasted pb over top.

Put in freezer for 30 minutes and then cut into eight bars.

Calories = 300; Fat = 16; Protein = 18; Carbs = 24; Fiber = 4

Got this recipe from a favorite lady of mine!

Or you can have a myriad of things that are convenient to carry in your purse (nuts, dried fruit, fruit, tuna packets and etc.) including a shake. Whatever you choose, just make sure it is not taking away from all the hard work you are putting in right now. It’s hard enough to stay on track during the holidays, why make it harder with bars?

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Last week (and some of the week before) I was hit with a bug that nearly took me out.  It has been a long time since I have been sick and it made me sit down and analyze my diet and sleep patterns to see if there is a “whole in the bucket” somewhere.  While no one can live completely sick free, there are ways to boost your immunity enough that sickness is a rarity.  For the most part, I feel pretty confident about nutrition and sleep because I almost never get sick (honestly cannot remember the last time I was) but knowing that no one is perfect, I brought out my check list to make sure I was covering all my basis.

Fruits and Veggies

If you do not know by now, I am a true advocate for variety in the diet.  Eating the same foods every day assures you that you have only those nutrients covered in your diet while leaving you hopelessly deficient in others.  It goes without saying that you need to get out there in vast landscape of the supermarket called the produce section and move past the apples and berries.  Find some foods that will help you make it through this season like garlic, onion and leeks.  All 3 of those are high in a sulfur-containing compound called allicin which is a no-joke antibacterial and antiviral agent that hugs up on Vitamin C to get the job done.  Not only will it keep you healthy, but it will make your breath so nasty that no one else (who may be sick themselves) will want to get close to you thereby keeping you healthy.

Buy Local and In Season

Right now you may be tempted to add variety to your diet by eating the latest and greatest food that has been shipped in from North Kalamazoo.  While I encourage you to open your diet with new stuff, I want to try and discourage you from eating foods that might have sat on a truck for more than 3 days.  The longer that fruit or veggie has been sitting on a truck, the less nutritious it is.  Try to find your local produce market if you can and buy what they have on display.  I live in MA and we have a store here by the name of Lambert’s.  Their produce comes from local sources so you can be assured that it still has most of its nutrient profile in tact. 

Holy Crap!  Is That Normal?

Another temptation we all have is to buy the biggest or best looking fruit or veggie in the market.  Umm, don’t do that.  I know you are thinking that it looks amazing, but I betcha ten bucks it doesn’t have as many nutrients in it as the small guy next to it.  Big mumbo jumbo perfectly looking fruits and veggies tend to be grown with fertilizers that are higher in nitrogen count.  These fertilizers cause the fruit or veggie to take up more water making them look bigger and better—but they aren’t.  They are just bigger and more water logged.  They still have the same amount of nutrient in them as the small ones do but now they come with more nitrogen—and that can’t be good for you!  Nitrogen can reduce the body’s ability to carry oxygen and as an athlete, there can’t be much worse than that!

Honestly, You Make Me Sick.

Lastly, when you look at your diet and start to switch things around, look for items that may also cause you to have sensitivity to them.  There are some more notorious than others (dairy, eggs, wheat, nuts and shellfish can wreak havoc on your life more than spinach, tomatoes and oranges) but nonetheless, they are harmful to you in that they keep your immune system so busy that little buggies have a chance to sneak in.  Try to be cognizant of how foods make you feel when you put them in your diet.  Since you are not eating the same thing every day (cough, cough), make a note if you become tired, queasy or irritable after eating certain foods.  This info is vital to your success because you could be wearing yourself down day after day with foods that you think are good for you when in fact, they are hurting you little by little.

It was a long 2 weeks for me that I was sick.  It was not a flu, more like a head cold on crack but it took me out regardless.  I will be doing the nutrition overhaul starting today to make sure there was nothing missed because I would rather be dragged down the street by wild horses than go through that again.  Make today a healthy one!

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It’s the fall right now but winter is around the corner in New England.  We will go from balmy and 70 degrees one day to dry and 30 degrees the next.  When that happens, the first thing on your body to “complain” is your skin.

I’m going to let you in on a secret:  my skin is a source of stress for me.  There is very little in my life that bothers me quite like my skin does.  Now you know I am going to tell you it is all my fault—because I am my own worst enemy.  So I am a sun lover for sure!  Nothing I love more than lying out in the sun…in Aruba…on the equator…with oil on me…and a meat thermometer to make sure I’m not overcooked. Hehe.

Yeah, I know, read me the riot act.  But I am now paying for my over indulgence of the big fireball in the sky with age spots.  Now truth be told, it could be worse.  I could have a whole host of things cropping up left and right for as much as I abused the gift of the sun, but I do not because of my insatiable love of omega 3 fatty acids.  Besides keeping my wrinkles at bay and smoothing out the texture of my skin, EFAs provide the structure necessary for skin with “snap”.  You know, non saggy skin.  So let’s get right into it and talk about what you might be going through this winter:

Dry skin:

Ignoring the fact that you want to shower with molten lava and wash your skin with heavily perfumed soap, you may find that no matter what you do you cannot rid yourself of dry skin.  The first place to look is your diet.  Are you hydrated and are you eating fats?  You want to have at least ¾ of a gallon of water per day and at least 3 to 5 servings of a good omega 3 rich fat source preferably in the form of an oil.  A long time ago I was told by a well known naturopath that you should have as much oil as you can tolerate that leaves your skin moistened after coming out of the shower.  I can tell you right now, none of y’all will try that, so let me ease your burden a bit with this recommendation:  if one serving of good fat per day does not help, add a ½ serving per day until it does.  Give it as much as a week to kick in before going up in the fat and cut a little bit of something else out during the day to make up for the extra cals.

Greasy skin:

You have a sweet tooth, girl.  Knock it off.  Too much sugar and fat helps the body to form a layer on the skin that is shiny.  If you replace those sweets with EFAs, you will fair much better.  Feel free to share those sweets with the rest of us so we may help you to move on from your bad habit.  Hopefully it was brownies you were eating…I’m just sayin.

Bumpy skin:

Increase the amount of orange foods in your diet (Vit A) and ease off the dairy a bit.  These occur more as an allergy to a food and typically dairy is the chief offender.  I know you love your greek yogurt, but 2 in a day is a bit much.  Let’s diversify a bit, shall we?

Acne prone skin:

Just like the greasy skin, walk away from the processed fats and the refined sugar.  They are killing you.  A clean diet with adequate hydration should begin to give you some relief although it is not always the full answer.  Also, a vitamin deficiency will also cause your acne to come out more and you know how I feel about vitamins so this should already be handled! [giving you a hairy eyeball]  If you are an athlete, or as active as one, you will not get all that you need from food alone and then your body begins to give you a hard time.  Listen to it when it talks to you, it knows more than you do.;o)

Nutritionally there is more to it than just EFAs if you want to survive a rough winter.  Vitamin E, Vitamin C, zinc, Vitamin A and selenium all aid in keeping your skin soft and healthy and are abundant in a clean, varied diet.  If you can venture out of your zone and eat more than just the same two veggies and one fruit that you eat every day, you should be well ahead of the game.  Another thing to note is, all those vitamins and minerals also do well for you topically.  So if you can find a good moisturizer with any of those added, grab it.  The more back up you can provide your skin with, the better.

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I love this time of the year for one thing and one thing only: Squashes!!

Now let me prep you first by saying, “I have zero recipes!” But my girl Joanna from Fitness and Spice has plenty so go check her site out. In the mean time, I just want to take 2 min. to talk about how divine these veggies are when they are used as a starch and how underrated they are in your diet.

First, I am really referring to winter squashes (acorn, butternut, pumpkin and spaghetti) not summer (zucchini, summer, pattypan) squashes. Being of many colors and depending on the variety, they are chock full of vitamins and rich in fiber and oh so yummy! Butternut squash is my favorite and it blows the roof off of Vitamin A content and beta-carotene content. It is smooth on the palette and divine when roasted. But the most important of all is it provides a nice energy boost (ST) without the worry of holding excess water.

So what does this mean? Two days out or maybe even 3 days out from an event, switch your oatmeal, bread, rice and etc. for a nice squash. You’ll still be getting all of the carbohydrate you need, but you will be avoiding all the water gain that comes from the traditional starch servings.

Think about the fun you can have with these guys. Roasted butternut squash, baked acorn squash, spaghetti squash and etc. all sound outrageously yummy and are very easy to prepare! Each one also contains much less starch in one cup than what sweet potato has in a ½ cup. All of this yummyness without the subcutaneous water retention or any unsightly bloat…NICE!

So go buy a gourd and then head on over to Joanna’s site so you know how to cook these marvels! YUM!:o)

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Food.  Sleep.  Supplements.  Are they important?  You bet they are!  But they take on a whole new meaning when they are wrapped in to your training program and you are actually trying to elicit an effect out of them.  What you find a lot these days are people who read a good amount of information regarding particular topics and then take the pieces that resonated the most with them and incorporate them into their program.  This is not necessarily a bad practice and many good things can come of it until the pieces you are putting together no longer blend together to produce the training effect that you want.  This happens simply because you lost focus and began trying the latest supplement fad or you adopted the “amazing” food plan of your buddy and neither of these had anything to do with your ultimate goal.

When you know what you should be focusing on with your sport, it makes it so much easier to tailor your food plan and gym life to reflect those goals:

BASKETBALL, SOCCER, TENNIS AND ETC.

These sports are power sports.  At some point in the game (mainly from beginning to end, haha) you are going to perform short, powerful moves that require a major shift in direction or some other form of speed/agility.  You need to be strong, quick, alert and fast to be able to be competitive here.  You also need to have endurance as these games last long.  So you need to be able to come back hard and fast time and time again.  This is no easy feat when you are doing it with the steak and cheese sub you had the other day washed down with two beers.  That’s not going to work so let’s try something else:

Performing:                   2 days/week (maybe you’re in a league)

Eating:                          45% more than baseline

Macro Breakdown:         25 to 35% protein

                                    45 to 55% carbs

                                    Fats round out the remainder

Training:                        3 days lifting—powerlifts abound in here!

                                    2 endurance cardio days recommended

                                    1 day functional SAQ type training

Supplements:                One that supports immune function

                                    One that supports recovery

                                    A few that harness alertness and proper cell function

Hydration:                     Critical

MARATHON, TRIATHALON, IRONMAN, CYCLING, ADVENTURE RACING

These sports are all about the endurance factor.  You must be able to go for long periods of activity without losing speed or effectiveness.  You need staying power here and that’s not going to happen with you eating goos and gels like they are breakfast.  Save those for long runs and race days and focus on a plan that’s going to give you all the food you need to be able to perform time and time again.  The take home message for you:  recovery. 

Performing:                   5 days/week

Eating:                          55% more than baseline

Macro Breakdown:         50 to 60% carbs

                                    25 to 35% fat

                                    Protein round outs the remainder

Training:                        2 days lifting—short, full body romps

                                    1 day functional with lots of BW training

Supplements:                Many that support immune function and antioxidant properties

                                    A few that support recovery

                                    One that supports proper cell function

Hydration:                     Crucial

WRESTLER, MMA, POWERLIFTER, RECREATIONAL LIFTER

These sports are all about muscle and strength.  You need to be able to move your weight around here and it needs to be fast for whatever size you are at the time.  This is where you hear terms like “pound for pound” or “powerful for his size” and etc.  You do not need the same type of endurance above; you need to maintain strength for a long time.  See below for a snap shot of your requirements.

Performing:                   3 to 5 days/week

Eating:                          45 to 60% above baseline (depends on weight class and etc.)

Macro Breakdown:         30 to 40% protein

                                    20 to 25% fat

                                    Carbs round out the remainder (high on ST side)

Training:                        4 days lifting—powerlifts, olympic lifts, BW

                                    1 day support lift that nurture grip, neck, rotator function

                                    3 days/week moderate cardio

Supplements:                Many that support proper cell function/growth

                                    One that supports recovery

                                    Some that support immune function

Hydration:                     Important

What you see here are 3 very different programs for 3 very different sports.  What I normally see are the same nutrition and supplement programs for the very different training programs.  Men tend to take care of their training first, nutrition second.  They try to fuel their needs based on “an as needed” basis and that is a huge mistake.  Again, if you want this vessel to perform for you in the manner in which was meant, you need to give it what it needs when it needs it.  You cannot have a one size fits all type of food/supplement mentality when your training is so vastly different.

Next, I’ll show you how women are a bit different.  We want to mother all over our food and what/how/when we eat but do whatever for training but hope to have a different training result every time.  That’ll be fun!  See you tomorrow when I have a recipe treat for you!  WOOP WOOP!:o)

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That’s a cute way of me saying, “Did you miss me?” 

I missed you!

Honestly, I try not to disappear and soon it will not happen at all but when it does, know that I am thinking of you too. 

I think things like:  I wonder if they would like this, or this?  I wonder how I could talk about this without offending someone or better yet…could I offend someone? hehe

But I have been absent for a great reason:  I have a huge teleseminar series coming on Nutrition and I have been doing many things behind the scenes to prepare for it.  Beginning Thursday night, and for various nights per week for the next 4 weeks, I will be conducting 1 hour long teleseminars on the nutrition topics that clients always ask me about.  Everything from menu planning to pre and post workout nutrition.  Each hour will be packed to the rim with the latest information and tricks of the trade in the diet industry.  I canNOT wait!

This Thursday is menu planning and it is already off to a great start because it is sold out!! WOOP WOOP! Get ready to open up your food choices, add up your macros, stagger your foods throughout the day and manage your fats.  Learn how to eat outside of the sport of dieting. 

The full schedule is as follows:

7/16  Menu Planning

7/20  Pre and Post Workout

7/22 Supplements

7/26 Industry Expert

7/30 Week of Event

8/10 Eating for Performance

8/13 Dieting Year Round

8/16 Dieting with Conditions (PCOS, IBS, etc.)

If you are interested in listening in on any of these topics, you can check out the full description and register here:

http://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ws.asp? studioid=2948&stype=-8

I would love to “see” you there.  If you join in, hit me up here and let me know what you think! 

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