Log Your Way to Fat-loss

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Food-log-sampleQuick: what did you have to eat last week Thursday? And I mean everything. Every drink, snack, meal, and mouthful throughout the entire day. Chances are, you can't recall, and that's fine...unless you're trying to analyze problems with your current dietary habits and improve upon them.

Tracking everything you eat is the only reliable way to detect unhealthy patterns and measure your progress in correcting them. (The same is true for fitness, but that's another story.)

But there's more to it than that.

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The Myth of Diet Myths

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salad-magnifierA high-ranking op-ed in today's NY Times (based on most-viewed and most-emailed) is titled "The Myth of High-Protein Diets" and was written by Dean Ornish, an outspoken proponent of a low-fat diet and critic of high-protein, low-carb diets like Atkins.

Headlines are usually written by editors, and this one was clearly written to be provocative. But the antenna-raiser on this one is that Ornish has an agenda, which makes me skeptical that the op-ed will be objective. To be fair, op-eds typically aren't objective, but when it's allegedly dispelling a "myth," it really shouldn't be filled with misinformation. And yet...

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Is There An App For That?

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yay-5641130-trainer-with-groupA recent article in the NY Times technology section had the author "seeing what provided a better workout: a real personal trainer or a personal training app." Obviously I'm biased. As a tech guy, I was rooting for the app! (Weren't expecting that, were you?) And her conclusion in this single-sample unscientific study was indeed that the app was better for her. (Although it didn't match her original thesis: the trainer actually provided the better workout.)

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Push-up or Push-down?

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(This post originally appeared in the September 4, 2012 StrongFast Planet Newsletter.)

pushupThe venerable pushup has long been a staple of exercise routines and for good reason. It's easy to do most anywhere (do not try them in pools of molten lava) and provides a good workout to the triceps, shoulders, chest, and core stabilization muscles. There are also hundreds of variations of the pushup, most to make it harder or work some part of the body more intensely, and some to make the movement easier for those not quite ready to do the real thing.

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Not So Fast Relief

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runner-leg-injuryA woman in a gym, apparently having just completed a workout, says, "Fast: that's just the kind of relief my muscles need." Or something like that. It was the beginning of a commercial, and don't ask me for what (other than some pain relief drug, obviously) since it was switched off after that line. Perhaps it was a good commercial, though, since it did get me thinking.

First of all, why is she sore immediately after working out? Sounds like she needs a new workout. (Or a good trainer!) Immediately after a hard workout, muscles experience fatigue, often in the extreme. As in "I can't get up" extreme. But that's different from pain, and no pain-relief product will put a stop to that. The muscular pain associated with a hard workout typically shows up 24-48 hours afterwards and is known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS.

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Recipe: Simple Stuffed Celery

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You have no idea how much I wanted to write "Simple Stuffed Selery" but search engines and all that.

Anyway, this isn't much of a recipe, but then I'm not much of a cook. I did a quick search on "stuffed celery" after making mine, and found there are many variations, pretty much all of them more complex than this one. But hey, whatever works.

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Macronutrients

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macronutrsWhen mingling at a party (or bash), I try to avoid talking about macronutrients. Despite my obvious passion for the subject, chances are people's eyes would glaze over (though they still would prefer it to me talking about cats). Yet you already know a fair amount about macronutrients: carbohydrates ("carbs"), protein, and fat. These help define the types of foods we eat to provide energy for the body.

There are other purposes for macronutrients, such as providing the necessary components for body growth and repair, but the primary purpose of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates (especially fats and carbs) is to provide energy. Energy for the body is measured in calories. While vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) are required in small quantities, macronutrients are needed in large supplies. Our bodies use lots of energy every day (even when we're not particularly active) and we get that energy from food.

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