Category Archives: Diet
You starve yourself!?!
This is the common reaction I get when people find out that I occasionally fast.
Sometimes I fast for 16 hours. Sometimes I fast for 24.
But either way…I’M NOT STARVING MYSELF!
Actually there are lots of good things associated with fasting, including looking super sexy!
I mean have you SEEN Leangains!?! Or the author of Eat Stop Eat, Brad Pilon?!?
Leangains – Before fasting…and after fasting. I’ll give you one guess which is which!
Eat Stop Eat’s Brad Pilon…He looks pretty darn good too!
I mean shoot! Do you really need any more reasons to try fasting than those pictures!?!
I DON’T!
But if looking good isn’t enough, can I also say that I got stronger and WON a powerlifting competition while doing intermittent fasting?!?
Yep that’s right! I did intermittent fasting the couple of months before the competition and increased my maxes enough to win not only my weight class but also Overall Best Female Raw Lifter.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself!
Still not enough to convince you to try “starving yourself?”
How about all of these benefits of fasting, which include:
- Weight loss! Yes this is kind of the same thing as those guys looking good, but it is also the reason most people first go on a diet! For most people, fasting is actually easier to stick to than calorie restriction. Plus you preserve more lean muscle mass by fasting than through calorie restriction!
- Fight cancer!?! Yep fasting may actually help our bodies not only resist but also fight off cancer. More rats who fasted remained alive when injected with cancer – 16 of the rats who fasted survived while only 5 who didn’t survived. In a human study, patients also felt better when undergoing chemo if they fasted before and after. They suffered fewer side-effects when fasting than when they didn’t prior to chemo.
- Live longer. We’ve all heard that calorie restriction can help us live longer. Well if that is the case than fasting will make us live longer too! Of course, fasting doesn’t have the same “side-effects” that calorie restriction does. With fasting you will prevent the loss of lean muscle mass and bone mineral density. Sounds like two great benefits of fasting besides just a longevity!
- Brain health. Mark Mattson, Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program National Institute on Aging and a professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, has released a number of papers that suggest fasting can induce neurogenesis and protect against brain injury and disease. There are also studies showing that fasting may reduce the trauma to the brain caused by stroke and may also help improve the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.
- Improved workouts. Ok I sort of already said this when I mentioned that I fasted to improve my performance for competition, but here are some studies to back it up! (Improved recovery and Leangains take on fasted training to just site a few!)
Here are some other great studies about the benefits of fasting that you should check out!
Fasting good for your health and your heart!
Fasting improved the long-term survival of patients who suffered chronic heart failure.
Dieting – The Perfection of Imperfection
Lots of people pressure themselves to never cheat and to stick 100% to a diet.
These people also never manage to stick to a diet for very long.
The belief that you can maintain a PERFECT diet is completely and utterly unrealistic especially if you plan to do the diet for any extended period of time.
This is what happens when you expect perfection out of your diet.
Instead I don’t plan on perfection. I plan on cheating.
I live by the 80/20 rule – I eat well 80% of the time and badly 20% of the time. Always have. Always will.
And I think you achieve the greatest success when you don’t expect yourself to be perfect. That frankly is just too much pressure and leads to failure.
You simply run out of self-control when you are working to maintain perfect. However, if you plan in a cheat day, you allow your self-control to recharge.
And if you PLAN in cheat days, not only do you recharge but you do DAMAGE CONTROL.
WHAT!?! By doing damage you are controlling the damage?
YEP!
When you plan in cheats and allow yourself to recharge, you prevent yourself from completely losing control and doing more damage than that one single cheat day would do.
I mean think about it…
When you feel super deprived, what do you do? You eat everything in sight and eat way too much because you’ve run out of self-control. And sometimes it takes you weeks or even months to get back on track.
On the other hand, if you plan in a cheat once a week, even if it is just a Primal cheat, such as dark chocolate and cheese, you quench your cravings enough that you don’t feel the need to stuff your face until you have a food baby! AND you also can go back to eating well the next day because you know you will get all that wonderful tasting food again in only a few days!
So what seems better?
I personally would rather plan to be good 80% of the time than plan to be good 100% of the time. Because I know that 80% is attainable while 100% simply isn’t.
Why set a goal that isn’t realistic when you can set yourself up to succeed and get great results while indulging 20% of the time!?!
Take a look at your diet? Do you always feel like you are falling off the bandwagon because you are expecting too much?
The Man Bicep Mom Visits Boston
My mom came to visit this weekend!
One of the few people I look tall next to!!! 😉
We ate lots of deliciously non Primal food. Walked around a ton (and went shopping!). Did an hour of cycling and lifted heavy weights.
The Man Bicep Mom took her first spin class and did 3 pull ups even though she never does them! AWESOME!
It was all in all – WONDERFUL.
A couple of “observations” from this weekend:
- We are killing our kids by letting them eat crap and be lazy bums on the couch.
- It is SUPER easy to eat Primally at almost any “nicer” restaurant. I mean honestly, you really have no excuse not to stick to your diet.
- Circuit training really does prepare you for any physical activity.
- Getting older shouldn’t mean just accepting physical decline.
Ok…so let’s start off with the first observation.
My mom and I went to Mike’s Pastry in the North End. It is sort of a tradition for us when she comes to visit. We get chocolate covered cannoli and cappuccinos and we sit and gossip at a table in the bakery for hours.
This last time when we were there, a hoard of 13-14 year olds came swarming in. They were probably on a field trip in the North End – seeing the Old North Church and some of the other landmarks in the area.
What surprised me was the fact that all of the kids were allowed to get HUGE pastries.
And the other thing that surprised me was that about 80% of the children were overweight.
I’m sorry if this sounds mean, but what popped into my head was “Why are these kids being allowed to eat this when they should be outside on this wonderful day running around?”
Why was eating crap at Mike’s Pastry part of this classes field trip? Was this really necessary? Why at least didn’t they take the snacks outside somewhere where they could also run around?
Am I the only one sort of sickened by the fact that the adults and parents didn’t seem to care that their kids were out of shape and really shouldn’t be eating all of the crap? Am I over-thinking this whole incident?
Ok observation number two…It is super easy to eat well at any nice restaurant.
I’ve found it to be very interesting that at nice restaurants they cook mostly Primal foods. Usually they don’t even cook things in vegetable oils, but instead use lard and butter and olive oil.
Also, unless you go to an Italian restaurant, there really aren’t even that many carbs on the menu. At steak houses, they generally serve potatoes. At seafood places, it is usually potatoes or maybe even rice.
And at this restaurant Clio that we went to, there were only even a handful of non-vegetable/fruit carbs served throughout the entire 7 course meal! There were only a few potatoes and parsnips served in a couple of dishes. No rice. No bread. No pasta.
No excuse to really cheat on your diet.
So if culinary tradition says we should cook with animal fats and barely serve any carbs besides fruits and vegetables, why do we load down every meal with carbs and vegetable oils? When did cooking with processed crap and carbs become the norm while only restaurants run by Iron Chefs cook with whole foods?
Don’t you think there is a reason that our culinary tradition avoids using a ton of wheat and vegetable oils? To me this is just more proof of how right the whole idea of eating more “Primally” is.
So my third observation has to do with the Man Bicep Mom. My mom does weight training and plyometric circuits. She never does pull ups and she has never taken a spin class. She also has never done any powerlifting. Yet today she did all three…pretty easily actually.
She survived an hour of spin that would be difficult for even an advanced cyclist (trust me I know…I had people who spin all of the time in my class today who looked like they were dying).
She then also did some powerlifting and busted out three pull ups even though she literally never does them.
Why could she do all of this so easily?
Her weight training and cardio circuits!
She does fast paced circuits that pretty much incorporate everything. She uses dvds from The Firm, which I might add are great for a home exerciser who doesn’t necessarily want to only do powerlifting moves.
The circuits include weights and plyometrics, kettlebells, yoga and even Pilates. They really strengthen the entire body.
And because she is doing all of these different things to build her strength and cardiovascular endurance, she had no problem doing the spinning or the weight training.
I have people who attempt their first spin class after only doing hours of cardio who struggle. And you wouldn’t think they would, would you?
But they do. They aren’t prepared for the short bursts of high intensity sprints. They aren’t prepared for adding a ton of resistance as they climb a hill. They legs aren’t prepared for jumps or even isolation.
They aren’t prepared because they are only used to one thing – long, chronic cardio.
But the Man Bicep Mom? She was prepared. The plyometric drills included in her circuits prepared her for sprint intervals. Her weight training strengthened her legs and core so she could climb hills and easily stabilize her body in and out of the saddle.
Her body was used to variety and used to being pushed.
So if you want to be a renaissance fitness woman, you’ve got to do circuits and mix it up! Even if you love running, throw in some weight training circuits every once in a while! They will even help your running!!!!
This all leads to my fourth and finally observation for this weekend – Age isn’t an excuse for being out of shape PERIOD. End of story. That’s it.
I have clients that say to me, “Well I’m ____age. I’m not going to be able to do the same things I did when I was young.
Can I just say that the statement above is absolute HORSE SHIT!?! (Sorry but it honestly is.)
Yes your body is going to age. Yes some things may become more difficult and you may decide you don’t like doing certain exercises any more because they do bother your body more.
But you can still be fit and as physically able as when you were young.
Don’t believe me? Just go look at the Man Bicep Mom posts! Just read what I wrote above!
I mean even just today my mom said that she honestly didn’t feel any different from when she was younger except that sometimes she feels like she gets out of shape a bit faster when she takes time off.
So next time you think you can’t do a physical activity because of your age, think about hitting the gym a couple of times a week. A little hard work in the gym can go a long way toward better quality of life and renewed physical strength. You may even find that some great circuit training will make you stronger and help you move better than you even did when you were younger!
So age is no excuse! Workout and stay young!
Anyway, I hope all of you Man Bicepers out there had just as wonderful a weekend with someone close to you as I did. 🙂
I Love Bacon
So a bit delayed, but as promised…here are a few BLTs that I’ve made over the past couple of weeks.
Take Me Out to the Ball Game – BLT
(I amused myself coming up with some of the names!)
So I made this hot dog with a parmesan crisp bun, but next time I would put the salad in the crisp and wrap the dog in lettuce.
Ingredients:
2 Applegate Organic Uncured Hot Dogs
4 slices nitrite free bacon
1/2 yellow onion
2 tbsp Sir Kensington’s ketchup
Yellow mustard to taste
Grated parmesan cheese
Grass-fed butter
4 cups arugula
4 jalapeno stuffed olives
1 tbsp Mitchell’s queso
2 tsp heavy whipping cream
2 tsp Salsa Verde
Cook bacon in pan until golden brown. Once bacon is cooked, remove from pan and cook hot dogs in the bacon grease. Once hot dogs are cooked, saute onions in remaining grease.
Stuff hot dog, bacon, onions, ketchup and mustard into a lettuce cups.
While bacon and hot dogs are cooking, make the parmesan crisps. Melt butter on a plate or bowl. Spread out parmesan cheese into an even layer on the plate or bowl. Cook in microwave until cheese starts to brown. Cool on paper towel. To form into a bowl, take the warm crisp and use bowl to shape sides.
Make the queso dressing by combining cream, salsa and queso. Combine lettuce, olives and queso dressing and serve in parmesan crisp bowl.
A loose version of a BLT….the salad is the “L” and the ketchup is the “T!” 🙂
Southwest Steak BLT Salad
Ingredients:
1lbs shaved steak
4 slices bacon
Cumin, smoked paprika, pepper, onion salt
1/2 tomato
1/2 yellow onion
2 tsp olive oil
Salt to taste
1 avocado
1 tsp Salsa Verde
1 tsp heavy whipping cream
1 tsp garlic
1/4 cup red salsa
Iceberg lettuce
Cook bacon in a pan. Use the bacon grease to then cook the shaved steak with cumin, paprika, pepper and onion salt to taste.
While steak is cooking, make the pico de gallo and guacamole. Dice tomatoes and onions. Combine in olive oil with a pinch of salt. Set aside to top salad.
To make the guacamole, mash up the avocado, cream, salsa verde and garlic.
Place lettuce leaves on plate to make a “bowl.” Top with shaved steak, chopped bacon, pico de gallo, guacamole and some of your favorite red salsa. YUM!
Deconstructed Cheeseburger BLT
Ingredients:
1lbs ground beef
4 slices bacon
Cumin, chili powder, Adobo seasoning, garlic to taste
1/2 tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1/2 tbsp organic ketchup
1 tsp olive oil
Pinch of onion salt
Parmesan cheese
Grass-fed butter
1 cup arugula
Cook bacon in pan. Use the remaining grease to cook ground beef. Season the ground beef with cumin, chili powder, adobo seasoning and garlic.
While ground beef is cooking, make the parmesan crisps. See directions above in the Ball Park BLT recipe.
Once parmesan crisp bowls are made and cooled, top with arugula. Add cooked ground beef and crumbled bacon on top.
Combine mustards, ketchup, olive oil and onion salt. Top bacon and ground beef with sauce.
I served this deconstructed bacon cheeseburger with brussel sprouts and onions cooked in grass-fed butter.
Anyone else make BLT’s during National BLT Month!?!
No? Well you still have time!
“Ego Depletion”
You know when you feel down on yourself and you just can’t stop yourself from stuffing bad food into your mouth?
LOVE IT!
It may be caused by Ego Depletion.
I’ve mentioned before that self-control is like a tank of gas – each time you exert self-control, you draw from that tank and if you take too much out without giving yourself a “break,” you will lose all control and do something like stuff your face with bad food.
Recently, I’ve been desperately craving bad food. I even gave in and cheated last weekend because I just couldn’t resist.
I think it is a combination of working a lot, being sick and also getting a few negative comments that were blows to my ego that just made me lose control.
And that is probably exactly what it is based on a post that Candy set me yesterday. The post, called “Ego Depletion,” discusses facets and factors contributing to ego depletion.
I love the experiment discussed at the beginning of the post. Scientists have two different groups go and mingle at a social gathering. After the gathering, the scientists tell one group of people who people wanted to work with them while the other group was told that they needed to work alone since no one wanted to work with them.
Both groups were then asked to taste test some cookies. The group that had people who wanted to work with them ate fewer cookies than the group that had just been told that no one wanted to work with them.
On average the rejects ate twice as many cookies as the popular people. To an outside observer, nothing was different – same setting, same work, similar students sitting alone in front of scrumptious cookies. In their heads though, they were on different planets. For those on the sunny planet with the double-rainbow sky, the cookies were easy to resist. Those on the rocky, lifeless world where the forgotten go to fade away found it more difficult to stay their hands when their desire to reach into the bowl surfaced.
Why does this happen? Why does our self-control just seem to vanish when we suffer blows to our ego?
I like how the post tries to come up with some answers to this question:
The researchers in the “no one chose you” study proposed that since self-regulation is required to be prosocial, you expect some sort of reward for regulating your behavior. People in the unwanted group felt the sting of ostracism, and that reframed their self-regulation as being wasteful. It was as if they thought, “Why play by the rules if no one cares?” It poked a hole in their willpower fuel tanks, and when they sat in front of the cookies they couldn’t control their impulses as well as the others. Other studies show when you feel ostracized and unwanted, you can’t solve puzzles as well, you become less likely to cooperate, less motivated to work, more likely to drink and smoke and do other self-destructive things. Rejection obliterates self-control, and thus it seems it’s one of the many avenues toward a state of ego depletion.
So rejection and ostracism deplete our self-control.
I would fully agree with that.
We’ve all heard the term “emotional eater” and maybe there really is something to that!
So what do we do to try to prevent ego depletion?
The hard truth is…sometimes we can’t.
BUT we can try as often as possible to give ourselves some “me time” – to give ourselves some breaks so we can recharge and refill the self-control tank.
As the post says:
The only way to avoid this state of mind is to predict what might cause it in your own daily life and to avoid those things when you need the most volition. Modern life requires more self control than ever. Just knowing Reddit is out there beckoning your browser, or your iPad is waiting for your caress, or your smart phone is full of status updates, requires a level of impulse control unique to the human mind. Each abstained vagary strengthens the pull of the next. Remember too that you can dampen your executive functions in many ways, like by staying up all night for a few days, or downing a few alcoholic beverages, or holding your tongue at a family gathering, or resisting the pleas of a child for the umpteenth time. Having an important job can lead to decision fatigue which may lead to ego depletion simply because big decisions require lots of energy, literally, and when you slump you go passive. A long day of dealing with bullshit often leads to an evening of no-decision television in which you don’t even feel like switching the channel to get Kim Kardashian’s face out of your television, or sitting and watching a censoredJurassic Park between commercials even though you own a copy of the movie five feet away. If so, no big deal, but if you find yourself in control of someone’s parole or air traffic, or you need to lose 200 pounds, that’s when it’s time to plan ahead. If you want the most control over your own mind so that you can alter your responses to the world instead of giving in and doing what comes naturally, stay fresh. Take breaks. And until we understand just what ego depletion really is, don’t make important decisions on an empty stomach.
Have you ever suffered from ego depletion?
“The Tube Diet”
Have people gone insane!?!
Seriously, using a FEEDING TUBE to lose weight for your wedding?!
Why do people spend years planning their wedding, but only give themselves 10 days to get in great shape? If you want your wedding to be perfect, you spend time planning and working on it. If you want to look perfect for your wedding, why wouldn’t you spend the same amount of time planning and working on that!?!
And on top of that…why would you ever go to such drastic measures that you stick a FEEDING TUBE up your nose!
It uses a nasogastric tube (a tube that goes through the nose and down the esophagus into the stomach) to provide all nourishment, with nocarbohydrates, for 10 days. Dr. Di Pietro said body weight is lost quickly through ketosis, the state in which the body burns fat rather than sugar. Patients at his office are monitored during the 10-day period for things like constipation, bad breath and dizziness.
And there are other potential side effects of this extreme diet besides constipation, bad breath, dizziness and the fact that you look ill because you are walking around with a feeding tube up your nose!:
“Any extreme low-calorie diet is associated with side effects,kidney stones, dehydration, headaches,” Dr. Aronne said, “and if you lose muscle mass and water, what’s the point of that?”
There are a lot fewer side effects to healthy diets AND you will probably be able to MAINTAIN the weight you lost.
Even the doctors that do it admit that patients could get the same results with a healthy diet. Heck, I’d even argue people would get better results if they didn’t do something as stupid as stick a feeding tube up their nose:
“I don’t want to tell a bride she shouldn’t look good for the wedding,” Dr. Aronne said. “But we tell them, ‘You can get to the same place if you started earlier, instead of waiting until the last-minute and doing something drastic.’ ”
Seriously, why would anyone do this!?!
Bikini Season Calls
It’s getting warmer outside and stores are advertising all the summer fashions.
You can tell people are starting to get that “get in shape for summer” itch.
Of course, do people start eating well and working out for bikini season now?
NOPE!
They wait until it’s no more than a month before they are going on vacation/wearing a swim suit/buying summer clothes to start working toward “their ultimate beach body.”
When really they need to start working toward their bikini body months in advance! I know it sucks, but guess what!?! IT’S TRUE!
I hate this crap. Really!?! Two weeks till my ultimate beach body!?! OMG!
While it is possible to drop quite a few pounds in just a month, your results won’t be as good (or as easily maintainable) as they would be if you started NOW.
Actually, I take that back. I would even recommend starting earlier than now if you want to be in tip-top shape the second the pools open Memorial Day weekend.
For one, if you are looking for great results in just a month, you are going to have to do something drastic. Drastic to me usually means UNMAINTAINABLE.
And when something is unmaintainable it means that the second people reach their goal, they will start backsliding and potentially backslide to a point that was worse than before.
They haven’t created a habit or taught themselves to live a healthy lifestyle. All they’ve done is stressed out their minds, bodies and self-control for a month.
But I’m not saying you can’t diet intensely to reach your goal. There is a difference between that drastic one month diet plan and a “cutting phase” or an intense month of dieting.
From January 1st until March 1st, I did a cutting phase. I dieted INTENSELY, but it wasn’t DRASTIC. I still gave myself cheats. AND while it wasn’t something I could maintain forever, it built a base that I could then MAINTAIN.
Also, those two months weren’t that extremely different from what I was doing previously. I didn’t go from eating fast food every day to eating an apple, oatmeal and plain chicken breast.
Yes it was a change. And no at points it wasn’t fun (especially with the low carb flu at the beginning), BUT it wasn’t a SHOCK.
I cut out indulgences and was more regimented than I would be during a maintenance phase, but again IT WASN’T DRASTIC.
It wasn’t a “depriving myself of everything that I love for a month so that I could barely stand it and couldn’t wait to binge for the next three months” diet.
It was more of an “ok I can’t have the foods I like whenever I want and I wouldn’t want to do this forever, but the slight sacrifice is worth the results” diet.
Don’t get me wrong…when you are cutting it isn’t necessarily fun and it is more intense than you would want to diet on a normal basis, but it gets you results quickly in a realistic fashion – it helps you create a base which you can then maintain!
And it isn’t a one month process. I had to spend at least two months (and I had a solid base before) to get truly great results that could be maintained
Anyway, the point of all of this is that you can’t really get the results you want in one month. Even if you reach that goal weight, I guarantee you don’t look near as good at that weight after one month of dieting as you would if you spent two or three months working to reach the same weight. And you will be way more likely to gain all the weight back after that one month crash diet than after the two or three months of cutting!
So next time you want to drop a few pounds or tone up for bikini season, don’t wait till the last minute! Actually this goes for any event that you want to look your best at!
I recommend this same thing to all of the brides I work with. Don’t decide the month before that you want toned arms in your strapless wedding dress! You should have a workout/diet program mapped out for the entire year you spend planning your wedding!
Tomorrow, I’ll post some great recipes that you can eat during a Man Bicep cutting phase (And guess what!?! Two are BLTs!)
And below is a workout you can do to help you get a great beach body!
Strength:
Deadlift 5×5
Auxiliary lift circuit:
30-25-20-15-10-5 (Complete the set number of reps for each exercise before moving to the next rep range. Ex: Do 30 reps of all exercises then 25 of all the exercises.)
RDLs (Straight leg deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts)
Burpees (chest hits the ground)
Split Squat jumps (Lunge, jump up and switch legs..Also it is the rep number per leg..ex: 30 per leg, 25 per leg…)
Ab roller (ouchie!)
P.S. I haven’t forgotten about the foam rolling video. I apologize I haven’t gotten one up yet! It will be up by next weekend!!!!
Getting Back into the Groove
Rebeca…this post is for you!
So you’ve gotten into a great rhythm. You’re eating well and going to the gym numerous times a week. You are so in the groove that it isn’t a challenge to keep your healthy lifestyle going – it has become a habit.
But then, you go on vacation.
And when you come back, your rhythm is gone.
You can’t drag yourself into the gym and you’re not sure you even know what healthy foods look like anymore. You’ve undone the habit in a quarter of the time it took you to create it.
So how do you get back on track?
It is by no means easy, but you did it once before and you can do it again! Remember that!
Also, remember that the quicker you get right back into it after vacation, the easier it will be. The longer you wait, the more you will regress. Just think about how hard you worked to make all that progress in the first place! You don’t want to lose it all!
I know how hard it can be to get back into the groove. When I come back from vacation feeling like a slug from bad food and inactivity, I don’t want to workout or eat well. But I remind myself of how great I feel once I start…and how crappy I feel when I continue my sluggish ways.
It’s all about the mindset! Your mind is the strongest muscle in your body so use it to push yourself to get right back into healthy habits!
For more great tips, check out my post about how to change your lifestyle and stick with it!
If you need more motivation to get back into working out and eating well after a vacation, email me. I’ll keep harassing you until you do!
You’ve been warned Rebeca!
Ingredients – Where are yours coming from?
A little bit ago I wrote a post about what the U.S. could learn from other countries about staying slim and being healthy. One of the big points I brought up is the fact that so many other countries eat “farm to table.”
Local farms produce the food in natural ways and that food goes straight to people’s tables. In other countries, people don’t buy a whole lot of processed crap or get all their animal products from conventional farms. Even the grains consumed in countries such as France, are in the form of freshly baked bread – not bread that stays good for weeks because it is baked full of preservatives.
But that really isn’t how we operate here in the U.S. We rarely eat farm to table. And, in general, people don’t worry about our farming system.
But slowly, things are changing. (YAY!) And last night I watched a great movie about the importance of caring where your ingredients come from called “Ingredients.”
A documentary film, “Ingredients” is all about eating local, naturally raised food. It talks about the dangers of our current food system with its monocrop production system and unnaturally raised animals.
Attention being paid to the local food movement comes at a time when the failings of our current industrialized food system are becoming all too clear. For the first time in history, our children’s generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan than our own.The quality, taste and nutritional value of the food we eat has dropped sharply over the last fifty years. Shipped from ever-greater distances, we have literally lost sight of where our food comes from and in the process we’ve lost a vital connection to our local community and to our health.
I don’t know about you, but this film made me really wish there were more farmers markets around. It also made me super excited about the fact that a client of mine knows a few farms in New Hampshire that ship products!
But even if that doesn’t workout out and I can’t get food straight from the farm, the least I can do is try to buy as locally as possible and get animals raised in the most natural way possible.
Watch the film. Do you care where your ingredients come from?
Suckers for a “Quick Fix”
DISCLAIMER: This post is kind of mean.
Seriously sometimes people are pathetic.
Dr. Oz calls Raspberry Ketones a fat-buster and “the number one miracle in a bottle” on his show and suddenly everyone goes out and buys them.
We are suckers for a quick fix. People go out and buy it because Dr. Oz says it works “miracles.”
Here's a quick fix for you...
They don’t even care that there are really no scientific studies substantiating this claim!
When I searched for studies this is basically what I came up with...
And here is a quote from the ABC News article linked above:
For now, the reputations of products like Raspberry Ketone Plus and Raspberry Ketone Ultra rest on anecdotes and two studies conducted on mice put on a high-fat diet. Japanese researchers reported in 2005 that raspberry ketone “prevents and improves obesity and fatty liver,” by boosting the breakup of fat cells. Korean researchers reported in 2010 that raspberry ketone increased fat cells’ secretion of a hormone called adiponectin that regulates the processing of sugars and fats in the blood.
Dr. Robert H. Lustig , a neuroendocrinologist and UC San Francisco pediatrics professor who is among top experts in the nation’s obesity epidemic, said that animal studies alone are insufficient for scientists to say how raspberry ketones work in people.
“Until there are human studies I won’t weigh in,” he said.
“People are willing to take chances. It’s amazing how many people look for a miracle instead of looking at what they’re eating and how much they’re moving and fixing whatever is broken,” said Mary Hartley, a registered dietitian and clinical nutritionist in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Who cares about studies though!?! I mean Dr. Oz says it works. And so does some trainer with a line of supplements, which includes raspberry ketones! I mean she wouldn’t just be promoting a product to make money, would she?
GEEZ! Seriously people!
You’d think by now people would be smart enough to resist the temptation of a “quick fix.”
But nope! Who wants to work hard!?!
Man Bicep 