LiveFitStrong

When I was a kid my favorite thing to eat was what I called a “juice egg.” Really this is just a sunny side up fried egg with the yolk all runny so my piece of toast could be broken apart and dipped into it bit by bit. Somewhere along the way I was not allowed to eat eggs for fear of cholesterol and heart health risks, at least that is what my concerned mother said. So the years rolled by and the healthy low cholesterol egg white omelets slid down my throat, and coincidentally I stopped eating eggs during that time of my life. Then one day on the local news was a segment on why egg cholesterol was not bad for you and how it may actually help lower your blood cholesterol! As it turns out blood cholesterol is not dictated exclusively by what you eat but more about what you don’t eat enough of, and in this instance healthy (HDL) fats or Omega 3 fatty acids. These fats go through the blood stream like a vacuum cleaner and suck up all the excess bad (LDL) fats. It is only when there is too much of an imbalance that the good fats cannot take care of business and get rid of the excess bad fats. But eggs are so high in “bad” cholesterol how can they possibly be good for you?! Well as it turns out in one large egg there are 5 grams of fat, 2 grams are saturated (bad fat) the other 3 grams are unsaturated (good fat). So there are more “good” cholesterol lowering fats in an egg than there are bad.

There are many things you can do to naturally lower your cholesterol, but the most effective way to do this is through diet. There are many ways that I structure my diet to keep my cholesterol low and waistline trim, and one of these ways is with eggs.

My go to egg dish is an omelet with plenty of nutritious veggies, prepared in a delicious healthy way. First I start off with two eggs (if you are a diabetic you may substitute one or both eggs with egg beaters). In a dish with the two eggs I mix in some salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper and a little bit of milk to give the eggs a nice fluffy texture.  In a pan I heat up some olive oil with a dash of salt and pepper on the pan and add in some chopped asparagus and sliced mushrooms. Let them sauté for a couple minutes and add in a very small amount of butter letting the vegetables continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Then add in diced tomato and let it cook for a minute but not too much longer than that because tomatoes turn to mush very quickly. Add in the whipped eggs and cook until desired. When done add some sliced avocado on top and enjoy!

Other than these ingredients being delicious I do eat them because of their high nutritional content. Eggs are the most efficient source of protein we can eat other than insects, and I am sure you are about as excited to make a meal of the creepy crawlers as you are to drink expired milk. So let’s stick with eggs. Asparagus is one of the super foods being extremely high in Plant Sterols, vitamin A, C and Folate.  Crimini Mushrooms are good sources of Potassium, Selenium and Choline. Tomatos are high in Potassium, Lycopene, and vitamin C, and Olive oil, butter and Avocado are all excellent sources of healthy Omega 3 fatty acids. The amount of salt that is included in this dish is considered negligible and will actually aid in nutrient retention when cooking Asparagus. Cayenne pepper is helpful in digestion as well is black pepper. With all of this nutrition packed into a meal that is less than 400 calories that has almost a ZERO glycemic load, is guaranteed to fill you up, make you feel amazing, drop some pounds, and most importantly taste delicious. Eggsactly! 

Ingredients:

Salt – to taste

Pepper – to taste

Cayenne Pepper – to taste

1 Tbsp. Olive oil

½ Tbsp. Butter

2 Eggs

3-4 spears Asparagus (chopped)

Sliced Mushrooms (I prefer Cremini)

1 Roma tomato (lower water content makes for easier cooking)

¼ Avocado

Approximate total calories: 390 

Glycemic load: 10<

Hey everyone I hope you are having an awesome day! I have been seeing it a lot lately and am going to discuss what is going on with Diet Soda and weight gain. Here is what I discovered.

Over 40% of calories consumed are from soda pop, and the average American drinks 47 gallons of it a year! It is such an easy and seemingly harmless thing to drink and you don’t even feel full from it. It is no wonder that so many of us are gaining weight. “Well I drink DIET and it that has ZERO calories”, you might say. What you don’t know is that Diet soda is not helping you lose any weight; in fact it could be responsible for some extra pounds! There are two main studies relating to artifical sweeteners and weight gain, one done at Purdue with rats and another that followed two soda drinkers over time. The evidence to support that artificial sweeteners are responsible for weight gain is inconclusive and thin. So why am I even writing a post about this? Well as it turns out the reason that drinking diet or any non-diet soda can cause weight gain has to do with acidity.

With a litmus test we can see that the pH (Acidic 0-14 Alkaline) of soda is 2.5 placing it quite far in the acidic territory. The cause of this is Phosphoric Acid which is in all sodas and by its self is right next to battery acid on the pH scale. Constantly flooding the body with acid forming foods like sodas, meat and carbohydrates causes our lungs to work harder to expel carbon dioxide, the kidneys increase the acidity of the urine and minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Iodine, Potassium and Sodium are leeched from the body to restore pH balance in the body. It is no surprise that with our Standard American Diet (SAD) loaded with sugar, meat, saturated fat and carbs, that our nation who consumes more calcium than any other has comparably poor bone health. One of the major culprits is the over-consumption of acid-forming beverages like soda, coffee, energy drinks, and alcohol.

Our body’s metabolism is regulated by our Thyroid  gland, producing hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and  thyroxine (T4) which are both synthesized utilizing Iodine and Tyrosine. We just learned that Iodine is one of the minerals that the body uses to balance pH when it becomes too acidic. So by constantly forcing the body to use its Iodine reserves to balance pH it can cause the thyroid to become deficient in Iodine thus making it more difficult for the thyroid to produce hormones T3 and T4. When the thyroid becomes deficient Hypothyroidism occurs slowing down the metabolism, causing fatigue, weakness, and rapid weight gain. Granted this is at the more extreme end, but constantly forcing your body to deal with inadequate or even ‘slightly inadequate’ mineral levels will only make it more difficult to lose those extra pounds.

When the early explorers returned from their travels and introduced new fruits and vegetables into Europe, the Europeans often didn’t know what to call them. To them, the name “apple” symbolized all fruits and was at one time bestowed upon melons, avocados, cashews, cherimoyas, dates, eggplants, lemons, oranges, peaches, pineapples, pine nuts, pomegranates, potatoes, quinces, and tomatoes. Poet Robert Frost found this rather amusing and penned this poem:

The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose.

We all know the famous 19^th century quotation “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. Before the 20^th century there was no food guide to inform us to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, it was just good sense. Eating an apple a day is a good nutritious snack that will provide many great benefits like vitamins A, C and lesser amounts of Calcium and Iron. Most importantly it is an excellent source of pectin, a compound found in many fruits, but Apples contain one of the highest amounts. Apple pectin is high in fiber and its anti-inflammatory properties and beneficial bacteria make it an excellent choice for treatment of digestive disorders, and can be found in products like Kaopactate. Doctors may even recommend Apples as a low cost alternative of maintaining digestive heath, especially for people suffering from coronary artery disease and diabetes. Apple pectin is also an antioxidant and in this day and age of processed and fast food, every source we can get antioxidants from – the better. Good stuff.

How an apple a day REALLY keeps the doctor away…

In my earlier less informed days I used to eat sporadically and indulgently. My day consisted of fast food and processed packaged snacks to eat and coffee, Soda pop, and alcohol to wash it all down. Occasionally I would get some veggies in there and maybe a piece of fruit or two (usually buried in ice cream), but for the majority of the time it was non-existent. Unsurprisingly during that time of my life I would get sick a lot too. My immune system weakened from poor nutrition and lack of respect it was an obvious sign that I ignored like a street barker -saying something but I don’t want to hear it. One day I got really sick. After three courses of antibiotics and forced bed rest, I was ready to NEVER be sick again. I replaced all the fast food with home cooked meals, and soda pop with water. I began to read labels and stopped eating foods out of a package and I hit the gym and got better sleep too. I replaced the assortment of bottled digestive aids with apples and oranges- eaten in between meals.  Food was my medicine.

Soon after that decision I stopped eating oranges so frequently ‘due to the high aciditycontent it was not agreeing with me so much’. So I began to eat apples everyday. At first because I told myself that I NEEDED to but then something interesting happened. My constant taste for sweets, cookies and candy practically disappeared. What I did not know was that little piece of fruit was regulating my blood sugar and leveled out my insulin. In plain English it stopped the highs and lows that I was getting from eating processed sugary snacks.

While an apple a day alone is not enough to keep you healthy and out of the doctor’s office, it certainly is a great start.

French Fries vs. Chips and Salsa

Hey there! I hope you are having an awesome day!
I want to talk to you today about something most of us love to eat a lot… French fries and chips and salsa.
Unsurprisingly, french fries have been getting a bad rap these days. These hot, delicious, and salty snacks, on average, hold inside of them roughly 400 calories, 22g of fat, and 50g of carbs. AND… It is usually just the side dish. Mucho grande!

Before you have even ordered, a basket of chips and salsa sits on the table and you chomp away because they are small and salsa is made of healthy tomatoes. They are just a little something to tie you over until your dinner comes. Little do you know, this innocent and delicious appetizer has between 400-500 calories a basket. Add in the salsa, while not too significant calorie-wise, sodium wise it brings the whole thing up to about 40% of your Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA ). Bring on the blood pressure!

Unfortunately, most of us are completely in the dark about the nutritional value of our food, eating enough for two or three in one sitting and doing it three times a day. Yes, we all know about obesity in our culture. It might surprise you to learn that a calorie is a measurement of heat, or energy, that the body must burn. Just because you are eating something small in size, does not mean that it does not have a lot of calories. The relationship between actual size of the food and its caloric density are not directly related. Just because it may not LOOK like a lot on your plate doesn’t mean that it is not.

The truth is that most of us don’t need very many calories during the day. Around 1500-2000 for women and 2000-2500 for men is right for most common daily activities. This amounts to a value meal at your favorite fast food restaurant, or three to five well-balanced meals and snacks, with plenty of high quality proteins and veggies. So, basically you get a lot of good stuff or a small amount of bad stuff.

Weighing the differences of fries or chips and salsa reveals that they are pretty much the same thing nutritionally. But… if you choose to follow the ‘whole lotta’ good stuff’ diet, either choice can be a fun and indulgent treat. So grab some salsa or ketchup and have some fun!

Hey there, I hope you are having an awesome day! This is Lorin here at LiveFitStrong with some more great insights of fitness for the modern man. Today I want to share with you a story that taught me a lot and more or less shaped my approach to almost everything concerning my body.

My whole life changed when I learned to implement Wu Wei into my life.

Wu Wei is the Chinese Taoist philosophy of active stillness and patience. It is like a praying mantis waiting for the precise moment to strike and seize the opportunity. Just as our planet revolves around the Sun, it just does- its action is just there. Not thought out or premeditated, just ‘thoughtless intelligence’ and ‘action without action’. Wu may be translated as not have or without and Wei as do, act, or without action. It is often included in the paradox Wei Wu Wei, or action without action.

You are probably asking yourself right now, why is this guy giving me a Chinese philosophy lesson? This effortless action, or action without action is what ideal fitness is. The place where you can do the things that you want to do without consciously “pushing” yourself into it.

I used to spend a lot of time in the weight room lifting and pushing myself INTO pain, injury and risking SERIOUS injury because I was working out from my need to have an idealized result. If that was not enough to set unrealistic expectations upon myself, added with my compulsive personality to perfect things. This created an ongoing scenario where I made it difficult for myself to achieve, and one where I felt hopeless if I was not perfect, so I pushed harder.

Then one day it happened…

While doing my fourth set on the military press, fatigued and lifting my max weight, instead of the bar coming nice and evenly down, it moved back and pulled my arms and shoulders back to the bar yanking me back and forcing my arms behind me like a bad night with a cop, and made my back bend in a manner that it was not created to do. Six weeks later and almost daily visits to my Uncle’s chiropractic clinic, with treatments of heat, manipulation, acupuncture, acupressure, and everything else in his arsenal, I regained enough mobility to put on and take off my seat belt with out crying in pain.
During that time of forced inactivity, I was left with nothing more than the thoughts in my mind (which were NEGATIVE about my situation). Which for me being a really POSITIVE person, was not much fun. I just had to accept the recovery time, where I was at and what I was going through. There was no way around.

With my new found free time I began to study the body and my injury, different lifting techniques, and other forms of exercise that I had previously written off. My forced inactivity became an opportunity for growth. For the remaining time of my physical incarceration I learned to breathe, meditate, and move my body all over again. That was one of the best workouts I have ever had, and it lasted six weeks. From that moment on working out was not a ‘push and grind’, ‘No pain no gain’ experience. It became a relaxing time that I got to check in with my body and “workout” stress and tension, and “work in” correct and efficient movement that made me feel super GOOD and reach my fitness goals too.

Your ideal level of fitness will take your body where you want it to go, so you can enjoy all the other things that have nothing to do with working out.

No matter what your body does, biking, surfing, running, power lifting,  martial arts, yoga, or just a nice walk. Being present and allowing your self to slip into it and not push right through it, makes what once seemed impossible…effortless- Wu Wei.