Recipe - Shakeology Breakfast Bars - Asylum 2

I received my Asylum 2 program and, as always, I flipped through the nutrition guide.  Honestly, most of the recipes don't appeal to me, but there was a picture of Shakeology Breakfast bars that, for some reason, really appealed to me.  I think I had gotten into a rut with breakfast so I wanted to give it a try.
What I liked most was teh small number of ingredients, the healthfulness of the ingredients, and it was super quick to make.

Recipe - Salted Pumpkin Seeds

If you're going to carve up a pumpkin for Haloween, you might as well make use of the seeds.  Sure, they're a little gross to clean up and work through, but the results for a little bit of work is a great tasting, healthy snack.

Pumpkin seeds are loaded with fiber, vitamins and minerals, and even antioxidants.  They're also high in protein.  A 1 oz serving has nearly 10 g of protein.  Be careful though, pumpkin seeds have alot of calories.  A 1 oz serving is about 160 calories.  You wouldn't think that eating seeds is bad for you, but like anything else, you have to stick to your serving size and remember moderation.

Body Best - Build Phase Review

The Body Beast program has two schedule options, each with 3 phases, Build, Bulk, and Beast.  I chose to do the Lean Beast schedule. Today I'm going to discuss the Build Phase of the Lean Beast schedule.

The purpose of the Build Phase is to get your body used to overloading your muscles and to know what you are getting yourself into.  By no means does the Beast take it easy on you.  By day 2 you will know that the program is no joke and the real deal.

My Body Beast Supplement Stack

Getting the most out of your workouts means giving the most in your workouts  You also need to fuel your body the right way.  That means eating the right foods and taking the right supplements.  Beachbody has supplements specifically targeted for Body Beast and I used some, exchanging and adding others to fit my needs and budget.

Leaving It All on the Gym Floor

The one thing that I have learned in the last several months of going through various exercise programs is that you get what you give.  To burn fat, you need to burn calories, you need to sweat, you need to push your workouts to the edge.  To build muscle you need to lift to failure.  You have to lift enough weight for enough reps that you literally can't do anymore.  Then, you rest for a couple beats and you do it again.

Making Small Changes

Entering the world of fitness doesn't have to mean that you give up eating and hit the gym for 3 hours a day.  Small changes can make all the difference in the world.  Some people can handle a radical change, many can't.  If you do too much, too fast, you might end getting off the track and end up right back where you were or worse.  If you make small, incremental changes, they can be easier to handle and to become a permanent part of your life.

Reflecting on Getting Older, er...Better

Flash back to each of my birthdays between when I turned 25 and 3 years ago.  Each time, I felt older, weaker, fatter; like I was breaking down and everything would be downhill. 

Flash back two years. I was about a month into Power 90 and 3 months into trying to eat less.  I was down 20 lbs and feeling better, but I knew I had a long way to go.

Flash back one year.  I'd been at the exercise thing for a year and had good results.  For the first time in over a decade, I was feeling pretty good about my age going up a year.  I was a graduate of P90x and I was about to finish Insanity, I was down about 35 lbs from my high and my motivation was high.

What is Junk Food

I always suggest you eat clean. I'm not perfect, but I try to avoid junk. Everyone's definition of junk food is a little different, but I wanted to talk about what I consider junk.

We all have a general idea of what junk food is; candy, cookies, chips and the like. Basically those really salty or really sweet things that you can find in the convenience store or the gas station, or near the checkout of your grocery store.   It also comes out in fast foods like super-sized burgers, fries, sodas, and shakes.  Again, those things that we might crave, though in the back of our heads we know it's probably a poor choice.

Calorie Density

The problem with those junk foods is that they are calorie "dense". That means that the number of calories per gram of food is high.  The range of calorie density is 0 - 9. You may have read that water is 0 calories and a gram of fat is 9 calories, so that defines the range.  The mix of macro-nutrients defines the range.  Fruit and vegetables are very low is density.  They are mostly water with some fiber and minimal fats.  On the other end of the spectrum, an ounce of vegetable oil is a 9; it's all fat.  If you can stay closer to the low range of density, you can get fuller faster on fewer calories.  Try saying that fast 5 times.

What is Junk Food

Junk food is about more than just the calories. It's also the chemicals, additives, preservatives, fillers, etc that go into processed foods. If what your eating came in a package, it's probably junk food. If what your eating doesn't resemble something that came out of the earth or straight from an animal, or you didn't make it yourself, it's probably junk. Pay attention to labels. If the ingredients look like a chemistry experiment, it probably is. The more ingredients, the more likely it's junk. The more ingredients are processed, the further they are from the original thing they were.  Ingredients are processed to improve texture and make them less expensive. Flavor is removed, nutrients are removed. They are replaced with chemicals and artificial colorings and flavorings to make you think they are the original product.  Chicken nuggets start as chicken, but are processed so far down that they need artificial chicken flavor and coloring to make them once again look like chicken.  Many juices have to have coloring and flavor packets added to them to make you think you are drinking the juice of the intended fruit.  Pure fruit can be expensive.  Adding some fruit to a bunch of water and some man-made mass-produced chemicals can make a huge batch of juice for a fraction of the price and it will taste and look like what your brain imagines the juice should be like.  Have you looked at what's in a can of soda?  Do you recognize anything on the label?

Alternatives to Junk Food

The best thing you could do is grow all of your own produce and grains, and raise your own animals. Then prepare all of your own meals. I realize that's fairly impossible for most of us, but you can get close.  Check out farmers markets for your produce. Talk to the farmers so see what chemicals they use for fertilizer and persticides (hopefully none).  Find a local farmer or organic market for your meats.  Make your own breads using organic whole grains.  That might still be difficult depending on where you live and budget, so at least, start making your own meals using stuff from the outer aisles of the grocery store.  But fresh veggies, fresh, unprocessed meats, and whole-grain breads. Some meat, lots of veggies, and a few herbs and spices can go along way to making a great, healthy meal without all of the junk.

We've all grown accustomed to convenience foods.  You can go to a fast food place and get a burger, fries and a soda for a family of four for $5/person, and about 1000 calories each.  You can go to the grocery store and buy a pound of ground beef for $4, a pacakge of whole-wheat buns for $3, and bag of potatoes for $5.  Add in a head of lettuce an onion and a tomato for another $3.  For $15 and about 30 minutes of cooking time, you can get the same meal, sans the sods which you shouldn't be drinking anyway, for less money and alot less calories and chemicals, and it will have actual flavor. Plus, you'll have some potatoes, buns and veggies left over for another meal. See, cooking your own food doesn't have to be more expensive.

Recipe - Cauliflower Pizza Crust

If I can replace a high-carb grain with a lower-calorie, unprocessed ingredient, that's a plus in my book. Building on the success I found with cauliflower rice, I set out to see what else I could do with it. I came across cauliflower pizza crust.  It seems like a reasonable possibility, so I wanted to give it a shot.  Whenever I find a recipe concept, I research as many recipes as I can to find the ones that I think will work best and then use what I beleive are the best pieces of each to come up with my recipe.

DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

Some time in the past few weeks Beachbody put out an article about DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness, and since I'm living it, I wanted to write about it.  If you've ever lifted weights and been sore the next day (or week) then you've experienced DOMS.  Many of us, when we first hit the gym feel invigorated, like we can move the world; and we try.  The downside is that eventually your adrenaline wears off, but not after you've thrown more iron than you have in the last 2 years combined.  The result, you wake up the next morning and can't lift your arms, walk without hobbling, and your back hurts.  That's DOMS.

The Rumble Roller

One of my favorite things that I was introduced to in P90x2 was foam rolling.  I saw the potential in it so quickly that I had to go out and buy a travel size foam roller after one session to keep with me on the road.  But, I wanted to take it to the next level and I got the Rumble Roller.

The Rumble Roller is a lot like a regular foam roller, a cylinder made of foam, but covered in one inch nubs.  It’s kind of like a spiked rolling pin, but you use it for your muscles and fascia.  Regular use of a foam roller can help reduce muscle and joint pain and enhance athletic performance.  Foam rollers are designed for self-myofascial release; an intense form of sports massage that you perform on yourself.  It’s basically deep-tissue massage that you can use to loosen tight fascia and reduce some of the stiffness and soreness of muscles.

Recipe - Cauliflower Rice

I don't know how I never saw this before, but cauliflower rice is a bit of a revelation for me, nearly to the magnitude of roasting vegetables. It's something that I had never seen or even imagined, but it's a great way to deliver whole vegetables and the nutrients and vitamins inside without adding a bunch of extra junk. You can also trick your kids and other loved ones into thinking they have a "normal" side dish while getting them to eat something that I'm sure isn't a part of their normal diet.

It Takes Many Small Steps

As a part of my journey to become a better person, coach, mentor, employee, father, I have been reading The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson; great book by the way.  One of the themes that keeps recurring is that you can't just magically jump to the finish line.  If we could, we'd all look like fitness models, be running multi-billion dollar companies, and be taking month long vacations around the world whenever we chose.  There's no reason any of us couldn't be there someday, but it takes work to get there.  Everything you put in motion today and keep moving forward tomorrow and every day after will put you closer to your goals.

Coach Mike - Checking In

Summer is coming to an end, kids are getting ready to go back to school, autum is just around the corner.  For me, that means earlier mornings and working even harder.  What does the end of summer mean to you?  I'm just about to wrap up the Build Phase of Body Beast.  I'm excited to check my progress and see how it's been treating me.  How are your workouts going?  Do you need a boost or some pointers?  Let me know.  Be sure to keep the questions and feedback flowing.  If you have a good story to share, send it to me and I can share it with the team.

Failure

There should be no failure.  The only time you fail is when you don't give it another shot.  I know many people, myself included who haven't been very successful at various workouts or diet programs in the past.  If I quit the first time that I thought Power 90 was hard, I'd have quit on day 1.  If I through in the towel the first time I succumbed to the alluring aroma of a waffle cone filled with ice cream, I wouldn't be where I am today.  If I quit after not being able to keep up with the cast of the Insanity Fit Test the first time out, I wouldn't have made it through the warm-up.  If I would have said, "I can't do a pull-up so I'm not going to do P90x", I'd still be watching the infomercials thinking that what these people are doing is way beyond anything I could ever do.

It doesn't have to be that way and it shouldn't.  If you're reading this today, you are probably on some part of your fitness journey.  You might be flying high right now, you might be feeling like giving up.  Don't!!!