Timeless Strength Training For Outdated Organizational Testing

After talking with a few of my friends and clients who are testing for positions such as police departments, fire departments, military, and other government positions it is quite evident by some of the physical evaluation drills they have them performing are very much non-functional and very impractical to the actual physicality of the daily job duties. This is also the case with much of the country's sports training- mainly football. They look at how much a prospective applicant and/or athlete can Bench, Squat, Situps, and Run for distance. Most of these are with a one rep to three rep max. Most of these movements are not even performed in the line of duty.

Football is notorious for performing a lot of bench pressing and squatting. When in football is anyone on their back pressing someone or something overhead? Well if they are on their back it is usually when the play is stopped. Additionally squatting needs to be done very explosively in most real-life and athletic events. Practicing slow or moderately paced squats with either both sub-maximal or even maximal weight will not transfer over very well into explosive power. If you want to be explosive you must practice explosive movements. Honestly it is very unfortunate that the tests even call for bench to be performed. That tells absolutely nothing for someone's overall strength. It uses some of the body's smallest muscles to perform that lift.

Besides when in your duty as a police officer or firefighter, or any job for that matter, are you lying on your back pushing something overhead? Alright, alright I'm sure we can find a suitable bench press simulating movement in the Las Vegas area, but let's keep this one clean in the sense of what jobs require that sort of movement and stay on track. Additionally you can be in very crappy shape overall and still have a good bench number. See what I'm getting at here?

If there is no way around not testing on the bench press then I would not focus so much on actual bench as in the supportive lifting that will accompany it. Of course you must practice benching to get better at it, but not so much to overtrain. Two to three times per week is adequate for the actual performance of bench when working toward the goal of testing and then simply work harder at the supportive lifting. Then after you reach your goal and pass your test forget practicing bench. It isn't life practical and functional fitness.

For these sorts of individuals, or any who desire to become overall stronger in natural raw strength where pressing movements are concerned, I would recommend to focus on practicing several variations of pushups including handstand pushups(against a wall if you need to). If you cannot perform a HSPU then bend your elbows and hold there for a given time. Focus on overhead pressing, push pressing, and jerking dumbbells or kettlebells if you have them. This will make you very strong, fit if done properly, and bring up your bench without ever directly focusing on bench.

Handstand Pushups or Inverted Pushups work the entire shoulder structure. Don't think in terms of what muscles does this or that exercise work. Think in terms of movement and how you can get your body to move more efficiently and get stronger in each movement.

The same muscles that perform a bench press perform in pushups, handstand pushups, and any kind of pressing movement. Muscle isolation training and body part separating need to be stopped and forgotten for this will never lead to real-life fitness. Your body should be trained as a unit because that is how you use it in life. When you exercise, go to the gym, or perform any weight resistant movements that is how you should imitate it. This is exactly why I call my training Synergy Kettlebell Training. We use the kettlebell as our primary resistance tool, but in the end it is just a tool that we use and the overall movement is what truly matters. Ask any of my clients and they'll tell you that I can care less how much weight you can lift or survive a grueling session, but the focus is on the movement even if it is without anything except your empty hand. I am a firm believer that if someone cannot properly perform a given movement with just their bodyweight many times over then they have no business using weight in that movement.

The following movements will produce amazing upper body, as well as core and lower body, strength by practicing them in your workouts regularly.

Press is moving a weight overhead with the use of the arm to a lockout position without the assistance of the legs.

Push Press is moving a weight overhead with the use of the arm to a lockout position with a little bit of assistance from the legs by performing a very slight knee bend(squat) to generate momentum in order to allow the arm to work less to get the weight up. This is great when the shoulder and arm is pre-fatigued.

Jerk or Push Jerk is moving a weight overhead with the use of the arm to a lockout position with a much more leg assistance by performing a coordinated double knee bend(squat) to generate a lot of momentum in order to allow the arm to work less to get the weight up. The Jerk is great for overall strength and core connectivity in synergy within your body. Combine the Clean and Jerk for both push & pull in one movement. This is the ultimate in strength training.

Peeling Away Conventional Produce

The question is always being asked and considered regarding budgeting for food cost. Should we buy organic or should we save a couple bucks and buy conventionally grown foods? My quick answer to that is how much do you value your health? We only get one chance to keep ourselves healthy and it definitely takes constant effort and a little bit more money, but every ounce of energy put forth and every extra penny is entirely worth the investment in yourself. Simply because you may not have any symptoms or be overweight does not mean you are healthy. You can get lypo to spot reduce body fat nowadays, but that procedure does absolutely nothing to increase overall health. Also there is no honor in paying for a procedure like that. The honor lies in putting in the time and great effort by being active and attentively adhere to healthy eating habits. If you cannot do that you are just being lazy- plain and simple.

If you don't know how to do that then educate yourself so you will know. There are many resources available to you, but allow me to encourage you to be very discerning and do your homework. Don't just believe everything you hear or read because the media and food industry does a very good job with propaganda according to their own financial agenda. Ok well of course if it comes from a good lookin bald headed kettlebell fitness coach, such as yours truly, then it's certainly fine. Just kidding... I would even encourage you to continue expounding upon what I write as well.

Now let's get back to the topic of quality food choices and purchases. In the U.S. we actually spend less of a percentage of our paychecks on food than many other countries. There was a recent study conducted on the Private Consumption Expenditure of food costs within a home.


The study examined 51 countries, home to 2.5 billion of the world's 5.8 billion people, to compare spending and consumption patterns and how they relate to income. International comparisons indicate that, in general, the richer a country is, the smaller the share of PCE its citizens spend on food. Of the countries included in this study, the United States spent the smallest share of its PCE on food at home, only 9 percent, while Tanzania, with the lowest per capita income, spent the highest share, 71 percent.

High-income countries consume larger amounts of costly meat and fish, dairy products, and processed foods. France consumes the highest share of meat and fish, which account for 19 percent of daily calorie consumption. In the United States, meat and fish account for 16 percent of daily calories. Annual per capita meat consumption is only 40 pounds in Algeria and 89 pounds in Mexico, nowhere near the 223 pounds in France or the 264 pounds in the United States. Meats are not the only dietary difference among countries. People in Algeria and Mexico, for example, consume almost twice the amount of cereals per capita that U.S. residents do, but only half the amount of vegetables. Milk consumption in the United States is 2.5 times that in Algeria and Mexico.

When thinking of regularly purchasing and consuming organic foods it is something many people pass up simply because they believe they will be spending too much. By saving a dollar here and there can actually negatively effect your health. Take this very, very serious because it IS very serious. I am not just some health fanatic ranting on about what I do. I could hoard all my secrets and just let the rest of you suffer and not be healthy, but I desire to keep everyone informed. There is much more to the food than simply being cheaper in cost. In reality many of the organic foods have come down in price which is similar to that of conventionally produced.

By choosing to consume conventional produce you are deciding to ingest very, very toxic chemicals. These same chemicals are spewed out of propaganda from agencies such as the FDA to be safe. If they were safe then why are there so many internal illnesses and hormonal imbalances among our population? Each of the conventionally produced crop gets a hefty sharing of pesticides, fungacides, herbacides, and fertilizers. All of which contain MSG which many of you already know is very unhealthy. All of these chemicals are very estrogenic which means your estrogen hormone gets extremely elevated after every time these foods are consumed and in doing so you suppress your GH levels alongside Testosterone as well. When estrogen is elevated you store more fat, retain more water, and are not mentally balanced.

Even by peeling the layers it will not prevent you from ingesting the chemical fertilizers that have been sucked by the plant roots and embedded into them while growing. The herbacides, fungacides, and pesticides also do penetrate much deeper than skin deep. All of them contain MSG and none of them are ever worth the risk.

The real question is: Can you afford NOT to regularly buy organic.

If you've read my blog long enough, have emailed, Facebook Messaged, and/or trained with me then you'll know the eating protocols I advocate. I don't want to get into all of it again here, but will be writing more in upcoming articles. I have put many folks on this sort of eating plan and have had success. The complaints I hear are the gasps to eating so much at night. Most people are fine with eating nothing or very little during the day. At first they THINK they NEED to eat during the day only because they have been doing it for so long. Once they try it the right way they see that it's not only possible to practice, but they feel amazing very quickly too. Then the only road block is getting them to eat exactly what they need to be eating in the evening. It all must be simply balanced. No case study or trial or clinical evaluation will every convince them of anything in that regard. Trust me I've shown them all, but the proof must be in the pudding of their own experiences.

If you drink the right amounts of water during the day your fast will be very manageable and you will feel amazing. That's the key.

Source of study: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3765/is_n3_v19/ai_19498742

7 Signs You Are Doing Too Much Cardio

Tis the season for folks to be hitting the cardio confessionals...

So today while I did my Turbulence Training style workout, I watched all those folks on the cardio machines and I noticed they go through some interesting rituals during their workouts.

This got me thinking, and I came up with "The 7 Signs You Are Doing Too Much Cardio". (Updated with help from the comments below!)

#1 - You have to spend 5 minutes before your workout flipping through all the magazines in the gym to find one you haven't read before.

#2 - You know the other cardio addicts on the machines beside you (that you talk to everyday) better than you know your own friends.

#3 - You know exactly how many calories you burn per minute on every machine in the gym. (And you use that information to justify every calorie you eat.)

#4 - You simply hate doing it and dread your workouts more than a trip to the dentist.

#5 - The only thing you are losing is precious time - and not belly fat.

#6 - You go to the gym to watch your favorite television shows while doing cardio.

#7 - You're getting overuse injuries from repetitive motion because you keep doing the same activity over and over again everyday.

Listen, cardio is not the be all and end all of exercise for fat loss.

Most of your fat burning results are going to come from your nutrition when starting a weight loss program. So focus on whole, natural foods, and avoid foods that come from a bag or a box. If it's been modified in any way, you don't need it.

Once you've taken care of your nutrition, look for workouts that you enjoy that allow you to build strength, mobility, and fitness. Just don't do the same cardio workout over and over again everyday.

Beware the 7 signs you are doing too much cardio!

Anyone got any others?

Craig Ballantyne of Turbulance Training
Original Post Here

For Fat or For Fuel? What Is Food Used For?

Let's think about this logically for a moment. A lot of "breakfast" & "lunch" foods and "breakfast & lunch information" is based off of what the food industry wants everyone to think. They must sell their products. Many people do not understand the power of the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry. They control a great deal of what information gets out to the population and consumers on a regular basis. Take a look at the pic above and notice all the typical "breakfast foods" and their colors. Most people's diets consist of browns, tans, and grays. There is very little to no nutrients in foods with these colors. The nutrients, anti-oxidants, and good health comes from having a diet that is very colorful and vibrantly bright.

Anyway with that said, and if you've been reading the Synergy Kettlebell Training Blog long enough you will know that, I am a firm believer- out of personal trial and error experience, client experiences, the research that I read, and simply the FACT that the typical 'grain and starch eating' American Diet just doesn't work- that we need to engage our Sympathetic Nervous System by practicing a daily water fast and then allowing only one insulin spike(one potential fat storage time instead of several during the day) by eating one balanced, but staggered meal in the evening.

Water Fasting is just that- NO eating during the day. It is NOT to eat as much protein as you want during the day because you believe that you cannot convert protein to fat, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In essence overeating of any and all kinds of foods, without calorie expenditure, will result in weight (fat) gain. When you eat any type of food, insulin is secreted and thus some fat is stored. When you don't eat glucagon is secreted and fat is burned.

It is best to water fast during the day. Heck you don't actually NEED a post workout recovery meal and continue the water fast until the evening. Then you rotate your days of high fat and high carb(aka starches and/or grains).

True exercise as we know it has only been around for about 100 years or so. It is a supplement for actual work- for labor. People used to labor all day long and be active throughout the entire day which burnt calories and kept them healthy in a physical sense. Now that we sit in cars, cubicles, couches, desks, etc we must supplement for that all day long labor. So that is where working out comes in. For most people the only activity they get is their exercise or their gym time. This might only be 3 days per week for 30 minutes. So for an entire 7 days they only have about 1.5 hours of actual work, labor, activity that is above and beyond their normal daily affairs. That doesn't sound like much at all and in fact it is not. That is why it takes people months or even years to get healthy and in any kind of shape.

Ok long story short, the body only needs food for 2 reasons: FAT or FUEL and that is exactly what it will use it for. After a workout your body will compensate to get it back in a balance when cortisol levels elevate because it is not normal for cortisol to be high. This will happen much more efficiently the more healthy and the more in shape a person is. Food is not needed to do this. A hormonal balance can take place without food for the short period it takes between completing a workout and beginning the evening main meal.

So this leaves us again with the FAT or FUEL notion regarding how the body uses food. If you are not eating then you have no reason to have it store as fat so a post workout recovery is not necessary in that respect. An evening main meal will sufficiently provide your body with every adequate bit of fuel that it needs in the sense of ultimate necessity. That is precisely how we need to view eating- necessity rather than convenience. We have refrigerators and cupboards that provide us with ready food at any time we desire. Too many desires lead to too much fat. Break the desire and realize when you need food instead of want food. Break the desire and realize that your body only needs it in the evening based upon how it uses it when it breaks it down into digestion and absorption which is the necessity rather than the convenience.

Synergy Kettlebell Kamp "Team Ladders Day"

Synergy Kettlebell Kamp

 

I try to have my Kampers relying on each other as a team as often as I could. Normally they're all wheezing in pain half way through, but this one just flew by cause of how fun it was. This was a great Kettlebell Kamp filled with a lot of fun.

These guys and gals are truly the strongest of the Kamp Warriors and Warrior-ets.

For More Fun Keep Visiting: http://BobGaronTraining.com

Through these challenging, BUT always overcoming times never lose your healthy eating habits and in fact strengthen them. This is usually the first thing most people lose or toss out the window when they either don't workout for a time or stop working out. For whatever reason they believe that they need to workout and eat well together, when in fact yes that's very true, but the most important is the eating which should never ever be changed.

Disclaimer: Some people don't care if they're working out or not, they'll still eat lousy regardless.

So continue being healthy and eating healthy. If you slipped on that don't fret. Today is a great day to get back on track. We like being part of a strong team so let's do this together!

Bad News For Big Ag — GMO Crops Don’t Increase Yields

You’ve heard of GMO crops, haven’t you? GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are crops which have been substantially altered using genetic engineering. They’re unnaturally modified foods whose safety is dubious at best. (Many European countries have banned their use completely.)

And unfortunately, they’re quite pervasive here in America.  90% of the soybeans grown in the U.S. are GMOs, as is 63% of the corn.  These expensive crops were sold to farmers around the world by a handful of mammoth biotech corporations with promises of radical yield increases.

According to a recent report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, those were empty promises.

While it’s true that we’ve seen crop yield increases in the fifteen years since the use of GMOs became widespread, the report argues that other factors led to those increases. In fact, when they contrasted yields of genetically engineered soybeans to low-input, organic yields for soybeans, the low-input crop outperformed the GE crop by 13%. 

Why should you care?

Because if you’re an American and you consume corn and soy products that are not explicitly labeled “organic” or “GMO-free,” chances are you’re eating these foods!

Not only is that potentially hazardous for your health (for reasons we’ll be going into over the next month), it’s downright nasty for the environment.  GMO crops rely heavily on pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and other high-energy inputs that not only decimate the soil, but also drown farmers in a sea of debt as they struggle to pay for these costly inputs. 

There are a host of reasons to avoid GMOs, and over the next month we’ll be looking at them.
Why? Because next Wednesday, April 22nd (Earth Day), the folks at Real Food Media will officially be launching a No-GMO Challenge.

Our goal? To go 30 days without consuming any GMOs!

It’s an Earth Day Challenge worth taking, and it shouldn’t be terribly difficult for any of us to do. But if we do it — and we encourage enough other people to join us — we may actually turn the tide for GMOs in this country and spell their doom.

How do I know this?

Because in the parts of the world where GMO crops are a marketing liability, they’re not used. Period. Just last week, Germany became the latest country to ban GMO crops completely. If they can do it, so can we!
Here in the U.S., our biggest problem is awareness.

Anne Marie at Cheeseslave had this to say:

According to Jeffrey Smith, leading expert on GMOs and bestselling author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, GMOs or genetically modified organisms are in about 75% of the foods at the supermarket. Most processed foods contain either soybean oil or soy lecithin, or high fructose corn syrup.
According to a 2001 poll:

• 52% believe GM foods are unsafe
• 13% are unsure about them
• 93% say the government should require labels on food saying whether it’s been genetically modified

(Source)
The majority of Americans don’t trust GM foods and we want labels on our food. The sad thing is, there’s so little information about genetically modified food. Most of us are eating it every day and we don’t even know it.

That’s why we’re launching the No GMO Challenge!

We believe that if we can get just 5% of consumers to avoid purchasing GMO foods, the food industry will buckle and GMOs will effectively be purged from our food supply. 

Guys, this is going to be HUGE

 I could say more, but I’ll save it for our official launch date. I just wanted to whet your appetites and encourage you to get ready to join us.

This is our chance to UNITE, to fight back against the dominant food culture with every forkful of food we eat, to say NO to GMOs, and to make real and lasting change!

Original post and for more regarding the challenge visit: Food Renegade,  (photo by thomas.merton)

Biological Value of Protein

BV = Biological Value.

It's really the only measure of protein quality that is meaningful for athletic types. It's an index that represents how efficiently protein is retained by the human body. When the BV system was first introduced, since all other foods scored lower than the whole egg, the whole egg was elected as the "standard to beat" ? 100%. All other foods, whose protein content was not as efficiently absorbed, earned lower percentage values. Here are some BV values that are earned by different foods (in descending order):

110-159 - Whey Protein isolates blends
104 - Whey Concentrate (lactalbumin)
100 - whole egg
91 - cow milk
88 - egg white
83 - fish
80 - beef
79 - chicken
77 - casein
74 - soy
59 - rice
54 - wheat
49 - beans

As an example of how this affects your food choices, imagine that you need 25g protein for you post workout recovery meal.

-Since each raw large egg supplies 6.25g of protein (ref: USDA). Four whole eggs would then fill the bill. Now, since whole egg has a BV of 100%, you body will get the absolute most out of its 25g of protein.

-Since raw chicken breast supplies 6.60g of protein per ounce (ref: USDA), you would need 3.79 oz of raw chicken breast to equal 25g of protein. But since chicken has a BV of 79%, the body needs more meat in order to provide an equal amount of absorbed protein (specifically, 4.80 oz).

The lower the BV for a particular food, the more you'll need to eat to hit your protein target, BUT just keep in mind your total caloric consumption as well.

I should note that since this efficiency scale was adopted, protein sources have been created that offer higher levels of protein absorbability than whole egg. As a matter of fact some of these newer sources offer as much as 150% the protein quality that whole egg boasts (giving it a BV value of 150). Whey concentrate has a BV of about 104 (Optimum Nutrition's 100% Whey only has a BV=100). Whey peptide blends start at about BV=110, and run as high as 150 or so.

The Battle of Bacteria in the Colon

Most of the bacteria in your colon is good and you need this bacteria to be and remain constantly healthy.  Most people do not have the adequate amount of "friendly bacteria" and diet and medications throw the body's good and bad bacteria out of balance.  One great way to remain in balance is to eat Greek style yogurt as well as organic fruits and vegetables.  I also recommend a great probiotics product from New Chapter called: Immunity.  Keeping a healthy colon is essential to having a healthy body.  This is not an option as it is vital.

 

Strand, Roald M.D.

Dr. Michael Shahani

Healthy Vegan Chick Pea Burgers & Bonus Black Eyed Pea Soup Recipes

As I posted on my FaceBook Profile a couple nights ago, and received several requests for the recipe, I now present to you my wife's famous super yummy Chickpea Burgers.

If you are not familiar with where my Facebook Profile is and want to be my friend go here: Bob Garon's Facebook Profile

Chickpea Burgers
2 cans drained and rinsed chick peas
2 carrots finely chopped
2 celery stalks finely chopped
1/3 onion finely chopped
Garlic powder to taste
1/4 c tahini
2 T coconut oil
2 T walnut oil
2 T water
2 T teff flour
1 T curry seasoning


Take all ingredients and blend up very fine

Place on large sheet to bake until brown on one side then flip. Top with almond cheese and sauteed onions.

*Pictured is one chickpea burger, vegetable casserole, and sauteed onions.
_______________________

And as an added bonus for being one of the best Synergy Kettlebell Boot Camp blog readers here is a great healthy soup recipe just for you.

Black Eyed Peas & Sunflower Soup
All Organic Ingredients
2 Carrots- sliced
2 Celery- sliced
Onion and garlic powder
Walnut Oil(unrefined)

Sautee the above ingredients until veggies are soft

Add 1-2 cups of raw(not dry roasted and unsalted) Sunflower Seeds and cook for about 5 minutes

Add 2 cups low sodium vegetable broth, 1 cup water, and 2 cans drained and rinsed Black Eyed Peas.

Simmer until sunflower seeds are soft(about 20 min.)

The Amazing Hempseed

The Origins

Hemp was cultivated in China more than 6,000 years ago, from a wild plant that grew in central Asia. The Chinese recognized hemp's amazing nutritional value, and used it as a food source long before soy foods. About a thousand years ago, hemp traveled to Europe, where peasants used the plant in several ways, one of the most popular being the making of hemp butter by grinding the tasty seeds.

A Nutritional Powerhouse

Hempseed is considered by leading researchers and medical doctors to be one of the most nutritious food sources on the planet. Shelled hempseed is packed with 33 percent pure digestible protein and is rich in iron and vitamin E as well as omega-3 and GLA. A recent report funded by the Canadian government states that hemp protein is comprised of 66 percent high-quality edistin protein, and that hempseed contains the highest percentage of this of any plant source. Hemp also contains three times the vitamin E contained in flax. Unlike soy, hemp is not genetically modified, and it doesn't contain the anti-nutritional qualities commonly found in soy.

Got Your EFAs today?

Because the human body produces no Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), it is important that EFAs be consumed on a regular basis. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of Americans take in too little of one of the most important EFAs--omega-3--which is found in flax, walnuts, deep-water fish, and hempseeds. EFAs are the "good fats" that doctors recommend as part of a healthy, balanced diet. The quality of omega-3 is vital, and can be diminished by oxygen, heat, and light. Thus consume the freshest seeds possible and store them in a dark, cold environment such as a refrigerator. Nutiva obtains its seeds exclusively from Canada, and we date all our products. Great nutrition never tasted so good.

Q & A:

Q. What is the difference between hemp and marijuana?
A. Marijuana and hemp both come from the same species of plant, Cannabis sativa L., but from different varieties. There are different varieties of Cannabis, just as Chihuahuas and St. Bernards are different breeds of dogs, Canis familiari.

Marijuana is the flowering tops and leaves of psychoactive varieties of Cannabis that are grown for their high THC content.

Hemp, also referred to as industrial hemp, are low-THC varieties of Cannabis that are grown for their seeds and fiber. Hemp is grown legally in just about every industrialized country except the USA.

Q. What is the recommended daily intake of hemp seeds?
A. Health practitioners suggest three to five tablespoons of shelled hempseed per day.

Q. What is the recommended daily intake of hemp oil?
A. Health practitioners suggest one or two tablespoons of hemp oil per day.

Q. Why is hemp so nutritious?
A. Hemp oil contains the most essential fatty acids (EFAs) of any nut or seed oil, with the omega-3 and omega-6 EFAs occurring in the nutritionally optimal 1:3 ratio.

Q. Why are essential fatty acids (EFAs) important?
A. Essential fatty acids cannot be produced by the human body; they must be obtained from your diet. As the name implies, they are essential to your health and well being. Seventy percent of adults who eat a typical Western diet do not get enough omega-3 fatty acids, and at the same time, they get too much omega-6 fatty acids. This imbalance can cause a wide range of health problems.

Q. What are the benefits of hemp vs. flax?
A. Shelled hempseed is more easily digested than ground flax seed, while whole flax seed passes through your body undigested. Hemp seed and hemp oil also contain higher-potency omega derivatives, GLA and SDA, which flax seed lacks.

Q. I would like to know more about hemp and hemp foods. What are some good sources of information?
A. To learn more about hemp food, please read the article: "Hemp and Flax Seeds and Oil in Modern Nutrition" by Gero Leson, D.Env. (PDF file 305k)

For an excellent overview of hemp and hemp foods, please read "Hemp is Hip, Hot and Happening" and the series on hemp at Innvista.

Source: http://nutiva.com/hempinfo.php

New Synergy Kettlebell Training Blog Author- Adam Farrah

I would like to welcome a new author to the Synergy Kettlebell Training Blog. He is a fellow IKFF Teacher Adam Farrah.

Adam has been weight training ever since he first saw Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan The Barbarian and The Terminator as a kid. For the past 16 years, Adam has trained seriously with weights in powerlifting and bodybuilding and he’s spent the last 5 years training extensively in martial arts. Currently training in Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he focuses on functional strength, kettlebells, health, training longevity and Paleolithic nutrition.

I know he will offer some great insight to all of our blog readers. I hope you enjoy his posts and articles.

How To Lose Weight Fast With Coconut Oil

Everyone these days wants to lose weight fast. Perhaps it’s those extra pregnancy pounds that just aren’t coming off despite all the nursing in the world. Maybe it’s the midlife spreading waist line. Or maybe you’ve always just been a little bit overweight.
One of the best things you can do to easily drop pounds without radically changing your lifestyle (besides going ultra-low carb and ditching grains altogether) is to eat coconut oil.

In America’s recent past, coconut oil got an undeserved bad name.
Why?
Because it’s high in saturated fats, and they were unjustly demonized. Cutting-edge research has pretty much shredded most of The Lipid Hypothesis — the theory that there is a direct correlation between saturated fat and cholesterol intake in the diet with incidence of coronary heart disease. We now know, for example, that most of the studies which showed dietary intake of saturated fats (particularly those using coconut oil) were bad for you were actually proving that trans fats are bad for you.
(If you’ve got time, you can watch an 18 minute video tutorial I created called Good Fat Bad Fat.)
But unrefined, virgin coconut oil is an excellent and traditional fat and contains no trans-fats whatsoever.
How can Virgin Coconut Oil boost your metabolism and promote weight loss?
A few things:

1. It’s high in medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs). A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found patients lost weight when they included MCFA’s in their diet. In fact, when you compare a diet including olive oil or MCFA’s, it was found patients lost more weight using MCFA’s.
2. It’s high in lauric acid. Lauric acid is an MCFA so it will help you lose weight, but it’s also documented to have amazing antiviral, antibacterial, and antiprotozoal properties. In other words, it fights everything from the common cold to serious lipid-coated viruses such as HIV and herpes!
3. It will reduce your food cravings. When you add coconut oil into your diet, you’ll feel more full and eat fewer calories over all.

Still Don’t Believe Me?
Check out the amazing progress these two ladies had when they eliminated the junk fats (vegetable oils like corn, soy, and canola) from their diets and switched to healthier fats (coconut, hemp, and olive oil).
PLEASE NOTE: This is all these ladies did! They switched to good fats, period.

Finding Good Quality Coconut Oil
If you’re looking for a good source of coconut oil, you’re not very likely to find it at your grocery store. Fortunately, there are several decent sources online.

• The least expensive unrefined, virgin coconut oil I’ve been able to find is from Mountain Rose Herbs. It’s $41/gallon.
• The best tasting organic extra-virgin coconut oil comes from two places. The first is Nutiva. It’s $50/gallon and well worth the cost! The second is Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil (not to be confused with their other labels, which I’ve found have inconsistent flavors). It’s $70/gallon and just about the BEST tasting coconut oil I’ve put in my mouth!
• Wilderness Family Naturals sells a good quality coconut oil, but it’s neither the best tasting nor the cheapest. But if the other online retailers are out of stock, or if your taste buds vary from mine, or if you just want a good middle ground between cost and flavor, they’re worth trying. It’s $65/gallon.

NOTE: All these retailers also sell smaller (& larger) sizes. I listed the price by the gallon because it’s often the best value.

Original Post by: Kristen Michaelis, The Food Renegade, BLOGGED HERE.

High Fat Eating Menu

Here's just a quick post about what we had for our evening meal last night.  It was a great high fat day and I want to share it with all of you so that you can add it to your menus.

Starter: Humongous Greek Salad

*25 min. staggered wait until next course for adequate digestion and enzyme release.

Black Bean Soup:
2 tomatoes stewed with unrefined walnut oil, cumin, garlic and onion. Add 2 cans of black beans. Bake till bubbling. Top with raw mild cheddar cheese, avocado, organic sour cream, and fresh squeezed lime juice.
*25 min. staggered wait until next course for adequate digestion.

Vegetable Casserole:
Sautee onions, baby portebello mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and some garlic with some unrefined walnut oil. Add fresh spinach on top at the end. Put in large casserole and top with raw cheese. Bake just till brown.
*25 min. staggered wait until next course for adequate digestion.

Wild Caught Halibut and Bay Scallops:
Cook over medium heat with unrefined walnut oil, garlic, and onion.
*25 min. staggered wait until next course for adequate digestion.

Greek Style Plain Whole Milk Yogurt:
This was my "dessert" with 4 large strawberries mixed in.

Celebration of Hope 2009: Hunger and Thirst

Celebration of Hope 2009: Hunger and Thirst

We live in a land of plenty. Despite economic events of the past year, most of us still have a place to live, a car to drive, and food to eat. And that’s just the beginning.

We’ve got computers and cell phones, back yards and barbecues, closets near capacity, and store after store ready to sell us more.

That changes our perspective.

Surrounded by abundance, housing becomes a matter of status, not shelter. Clothes are deemed unusable because of style, not wear. Water flows freely in long hot showers or summer slip-n-slides. Food becomes entertainment, consumed as a backdrop to social gatherings.

But there are many places in our world where morsels of food and sips of water are a matter of life or death. Every day, hunger claims the lives of 16,000 children. Another 5,000 children die from water-related illness—every day.

Hunger. Thirst. Life. Death.

You can bring hope.

What Can We Do?
During Celebration of Hope 09: Hunger and Thirst, we have an opportunity to come alongside people who live with hunger and thirst by participating in three challenges:
We Stand: 5-Day Food and Water Challenge
We will take a stand against global hunger and thirst by participating in the 5-Day Food and Water Challenge.
We Serve: Meal Packing
We will join with others to pack 4 million meals, and serve children in Zimbabwe who are in desperate need of food.
We Give: Solutions to Hunger and Thirst
We will give to those who hunger and thirst by providing funds for food and clean water solutions.

Support for 5-Day Challenge

Sign up for email updates HERE.
Or visit our Facebook page to interact with others about your experience during this challenge.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty
and you gave me something to drink...

Matthew 25:35(NIV)

The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides

The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides ranks pesticide contamination for 47 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 87,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 2000 to 2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Nearly all the studies used to create the list test produce after it has been rinsed or peeled. Contamination was measured in six different ways and crops were ranked based on a composite score from all categories.
The six measures of contamination we used were:

• Percent of the samples tested with detectable pesticides
• Percent of the samples with two or more pesticides
• Average number of pesticides found on a sample
• Average amount (level in parts per million) of all pesticides found
• Maximum number of pesticides found on a single sample
• Number of pesticides found on the commodity in total

The philosophy behind the guide is simple: give consumers the information they need to make choices to reduce pesticides in their diets. In this spirit, the Guide does not present a complex assessment of pesticide risks, but instead simply reflects the overall load of pesticides found on commonly eaten fruits and vegetables. This approach best captures the uncertainty of the risks of pesticide exposure and the value judgments involved in the choice to buy food with less pesticides.

Pesticides cause many adverse effects in well designed animal studies, from cancer to nervous system damage to reproductive effects. Rather than assign more weight to cancer than birth defects, we simply assumed that all adverse effects are equal. There is a significant degree of uncertainty about the health effects of pesticide mixtures. This ranking takes this uncertainty into account in the most defensible way possible, by simply ranking fruits and vegetables by their likelihood of being consistently contaminated with the greatest number of pesticides at the highest levels.

The produce listed in the Guide was chosen after an analysis of USDA food consumption data from 1994-1996. The 47 selected were those reported eaten on at least one tenth of one percent of all "eating days" in the survey and with a minimum of 100 pesticide test results from the years 2000 to 2007. An eating day is one day of food consumption reported to USDA by one individual, some of whom were followed for three days.

Conventionally grown food is also typically tainted with a multitude of chemical residues, including chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides.

These chemical concoctions can cause a wide variety of health problems, including:

1. Neurotoxicity
2. Disruption of your endocrine system
3. Cancer
4. Immune system suppression
5. Male infertility and miscarriages in women


The Full List: 47 Fruits and Veggies

Here is a ranking of 47 different fruits and vegetables, but grapes are listed twice because both domestic and imported samples were reviewed.

RANK	FRUIT OR VEGGIE	SCORE
1 (worst)	Peach	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apple	93
3	Sweet Bell Pepper	83
4	Celery	82
5	Nectarine	81
6	Strawberries	80
7	Cherries	73
8	Kale	69
9	Lettuce	67
10	Grapes - Imported	66
11	Carrot	63
12	Pear	63
13	Collard Greens	60
14	Spinach	58
15	Potato	56
16	Green Beans	53
17	Summer Squash	53
18	Pepper	51
19	Cucumber	50
20	Raspberries	46
21	Grapes - Domestic	44
22	Plum	44
23	Orange	44
24	Cauliflower	39
25	Tangerine	37
26	Mushrooms	36
27	Banana	34
28	Winter Squash	34
29	Cantaloupe	33
30	Cranberries	33
31	Honeydew Melon	30
32	Grapefruit	29
33	Sweet Potato	29
34	Tomato	29
35	Broccoli	28
36	Watermelon	26
37	Papaya	20
38	Eggplant	20
39	Cabbage	17
40	Kiwi	13
41	Sweet Peas - Frozen	10
42	Asparagus	10
43	Mango	9
44	Pineapple	7
45	Sweet Corn - Frozen	2
46	Avocado	1
47 (best)	Onion	1 (lowest pesticide load)

Sources:
http://www.foodnews.org/methodology.php
http://www.mercola.com

Food - Not Nutrients - Is The Fundamental Unit In Nutrition

The title of a 2007 article in the journal Nutrition Reviews says it all: Food, Not Nutrients, Is The Fundamental Unit In Nutrition.
We need to shift our focus away from “nutrients” and towards “food” in order to understand the effects nutrition has on health. Why? Because whole foods are so much more complex than nutritional science can understand.
Focusing too narrowly on nutrients has obscured the true value of eating Real Food.
And, as Michael Pollan argued in his latest book, In Defense of Food, nutritionism (the reductive way we’re tempted to think about food in terms of nutrients) is a boon to Industrialized Food:

“No idea could be more sympathetic to manufacturers of processed foods, which surely explains why they have been so happy to jump on the nutritionism bandwagon.  Indeed, nutritionism supplies the ultimate justification for processing food by implying that with a judicious application of food science, fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing.”

In the opening chapter of her newest book (Real Food For Mother And Baby), Nina Planck makes a similar point:

“Nutritionism has been good for the food companies and supplement sellers ready to profit from government-approved health claims. Orange juice with added calcium and chocolate with added probiotics would not exist if not for the nearly universal acceptance of nutritionism. But it has not been noticeably good for our health….

She then takes it a step further, to show just how ridiculous nutritionism can be when we jump on that bandwagon.

“However, you don’t have to count calories, grams of saturated fat, milligrams of vitamin E, micrograms of folic acid, or jillibeters of anything else. I never do. It would be downright wacky to create shopping lists of nutrients. (”Sweetheart, I’m pregnant! Don’t forget complex carbohydrates, lauric acid, and betanine.”) As a nutrition geek, I have a basic understanding of the major nutrients and a few minor ones, but I am still firmly in favor of the tangible material formerly known as food. In our house we call it real food. It’s good for you. It’s good for babies. It’s good for everybody.”

Why should we focus on whole foods as they’ve traditionally been eaten? Because if the scientific study of nutrition has taught us anything, it’s that whole, real foods have a complex relationship of nutrients both within themselves (a  carrot is more than beta-carotene, a tomato more than lycopene) and with the other foods we serve them with. Nina makes this point in Chapter Two — The Fertility Diet:

“Another reason to eat whole foods is that many nutrients work together. Sperm health improves dramatically when vitamins A and E are eaten together, probably because E prevents oxidation of A. You need vitamin C to absorb iron, and saturated fats extend the use of omega-3 fats. There are countless relationships like this in nutrition. There is no need to remember them. Just eat whole foods in their natural state and in classic combinations, such as leaves with olive oil, or fish with butter, and you’ll get everything you need.“

I couldn’t agree more. Even though I study nutrition and am forced to speak about the wonders of certain foods in terms of nutrients, I don’t want any of you to get the wrong idea.
Although I’m glad that nutritional science can help me understand exactly why coconut oil is a great fat, or why grass-fed beef is a healthy food choice, that’s not why I eat these foods.
I eat these foods because they’re Real Food. They taste great. I loved how Nina Planck defined Real Food for us in yesterday’s interview:

“It’s old and it’s traditional.”

So simple, really! This is food that your great grandmother would have recognized as food. This is food that has been eaten or prepared this way for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
This post was inspired, in part, by a recent post of Rob Smart’s called Experiencing Food v. Thinking Nutrients.
This post is also part of Kelly The Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesday carnival. For other interesting articles, anecdotes, and stories on Real Food, go check it out!

(photo by femenistjulie)

Original Post by:  Kristen Michaelis, The Food Renegade, BLOGGED HERE.