Category Archives: Uncategorized
Fitness Magazines
So I used to read a ton of fitness magazines, but probably now haven’t bought one in over a year.
They do, however, come in useful when you need some packing material!
Why haven’t I bought one in over a year?
BECAUSE EACH AND EVERY ONE BASICALLY STATES THE SAME THING!
And in general I don’t agree with the diet and exercise programs prescribed in them.
They all try to seem like they have some “secret” to effortless weight loss and a toned, fit body.
But they don’t.
Maybe this will be a secret in next month’s issue! “Clean the lint out and drop 3 lbs in 5 minutes!”
They don’t have any secrets because THERE ARE NONE!
If an article’s title has one of the following words or phrases (effortless, quick, 15lbs in 1 week, blast belly fat), drop the magazine and run.
There are no secrets, people!
Let’s face it…If you want real results, you are going to have to work really hard.
There is no secret to TRUE quick weight loss, especially healthy, maintainable weight loss.
So how about you stop buying fitness magazines and go eat some whole natural foods instead of all the processed crap the magazines advertise!
Cali here we come!?!
So on July 18th, Ryan and I will be making a cross-country move from Boston to sunny Southern California.
It’s a big risk – a big change.
And there have been lots of sad good-byes.
I’m a Midwest girl who came out to Boston for college and stayed. I’ve been out here for seven years and I’ve been at this gym for two of those years.
I have a solid life here. One that is hard to leave behind. One full of clients who I’ve helped become stronger, more empowered individuals and who’ve helped me grow as well.
One full of friends and comfortable places.
One really without much “risk.”
Stability.
How often do we sacrifice our dreams for stability?
Too often.
But I refuse to do that. And I think this change, this move, will force me to really take a risk and pursue my dreams.
Despite how hard it is to leave the stability, to leave all of my WONDERFUL/EXTRAORDINARY/BEAUTIFUL clients, I know this is a change that I need to help me grow as an individual – to allow me to further pursue my passion for health and fitness.
This change will be good…but I’m freaking nervous as hell. (Sorry for the curse word but well it’s true!)
I’m a planner.
And at this point…I really have no clear plan.
For probably the first time in my life, I have no clear direction. Just a passion that I’m planning to follow.
Could this turn out badly?
Yup.
But heck…at least I tried!
Kombucha – Home Brewing It!
So Erin gave us a scoby, which I promptly named “Freddy.” Don’t ask me why, but I did.
Ryan on the other hand put the scoby to use. He brewed our first batch of kombucha!
Kombucha is a fermented tea that is believed to possess all of these great health benefits. Whether or not it is really THAT good for you doesn’t really matter. It isn’t bad for you and I think it is delicious. So even if it has one quarter of the health benefits people claim that it has, I’m drinking it!
Here is our recipe!
Makes 1 quart of kombucha
Ingredients:
You will need a glass jar to hold the liquid and a coffee filter or towel for a lid.
- 2 1/2 cups hot (not boiling) water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 black tea bags
- 1 green tea bag
- 1/2 cup already-made unflavored kombucha tea
- Kombucha culture (Scoby)
Heat up water to just before boiling and add sugar. Make sure it is all dissolved. Seep tea bags for 5-10 minutes in water that is hot but not boiling. Then let the tea completely cool to room temperature.
Then add tea to the scoby with starter kombucha (or already-made kombucha) in a mason jar.
Cover with a coffee filter and rubber band. Make sure nothing metal touches the kombucha or scoby. Make sure your hands are clean when handling the scoby.
Let sit for 5-30 days and enjoy!
If you choose not to follow this recipe, make sure to be careful in which one you select. Apparently you can brew a batch that is bad for you!
Do you really see yourself clearly?
People come to me confused about why things aren’t working. Why they aren’t losing weight. Why they aren’t gaining muscle. Why they aren’t getting stronger/fitter/faster.
The first thing I ask them is to take a closer look at what they are TRULY doing. What does your diet or workout program truly look like?
You know what I most often hear back?
Not the facts. Just excuses.
Well I had only a little bread. Oh well I couldn’t come in on Wednesday for an hour because of work. Oh I was tired. Oh I didn’t feel 100%. Oh well I was hungry. Oh well someone brought in snacks. Oh well….
Oh well nothing!
Seriously I’m sick of excuses. I’m sick of whining.
Freaking just do it people! Stick to the diet. Don’t just have a “little” bread. Stick to the workout program. Don’t go easy because you are a “little” sore or you have too much work that day.
There will always be excuses – there will always be things that can get in the way.
But if you want results, you need to work to get them.
I was inspired to write this post because of all the whining I’ve heard recently and this old Nike ad.
Next time you whine, think seriously before you do it!
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.
Support – The Sappy Version
So every once in a while, not too often of course, you catch the nice, sappy side of me. Today is one of those days. Lucky you…NOT!
Five years ago to date, I met the love of my life.
BAM! Didn’t expect to see those words on a health and fitness blog did you? Well now you have!
And Ryan, the love of my life, has supported me in every endeavor since the day we met – through the good times and the bad.
He even loved me when I had orange hair...which was actually partially his fault!
He’s a big part of the reason why I committed 90 days of my life to the most awful low-fat, low carb diet. I swear I’ve never once LITERALLY salivated because of food on the TV since that diet.
He’s also a big part of the reason why I went Primal and finally became a personal trainer. He helped me discover the lifestyle I want to lead!
Every time I’ve said I wanted to try something, Ryan encourages me to pursue it (of course he only encourages me to follow GOOD ideas).
He’s never let’s me give up on myself and that has made me a better, stronger, more confident me.
I’ve tried things just in this past year that I never thought I would try. I’ve tried them partly because of Ryan’s direct encouragement and partly because he has made me way more confident in myself.
His SUPPORT has been essential to not only my diet and fitness but also to my personal development.
He has been there right beside me every step of the way. For two months, when I wanted to really fully develop the Man Bicep diet program, he followed the exact same diet that I did. It was pinned to our refrigerator so neither one of us would be tempted to cheat. He kept me honest then and he kept me honest when I wanted to cut a bit of weight after the holidays to guarantee I could compete in the 123 weight class.
When I started lifting heavy and decided I wanted to do a powerlifting competition, he fully supported me. He wasn’t there lifting with me but he always asked how everything was going. He supported me by always being interested in my training. And he committed a full day off to come to my competition and document everything. He even made a video for me afterwards and encouraged me to share my story!
Anytime I throw out ideas he discusses them with me and encourages me to pursue my passion. I mean shoot, he freaking spent 3 hours taking fitness photos of me at 4 am on a Saturday morning! If that isn’t love I don’t know what is!
And he has never stopped supporting me. He has supported me through every major decision I’ve made in the last five years and played a huge roll in me starting up this blog…At the beginning, he was sometimes even my only reader. (Then I told my mom about it and I had two readers!)
But anyway, the point is, he read it…every day. And now, he listens to me talk about it just about every single day. (And trust me…boy can I talk his ear off!)
Anyway, that is enough sappy-ness for now. Happy 5 years Ryan. You are the Type B to my Type A.
He puts up with me even though I'm psycho and way too full of energy sometimes!
(I know you are probably reading this about two seconds after I post it and I love you all the more for it!)
WTF- Meat is the new tobacco!?! Continued…
So yesterday I just couldn’t stop thinking about that article claiming that meat is as bad, if not worse, than tobacco for you.
I came up with a bazillion more reasons why that article is just plain old wrong, but there was one reason in particular that I felt the need to post about today because her claim really pissed me off since it was inaccurate.
In the article, the author claims that the meat industry is powerful because there is as much money in it as in big tobacco.
EH WRONG!
Actually, a VEGETARIAN advocacy group is closer to having the same power as big tobacco. There are actually no meat-eaters advocacy groups with near the power that the vegetarian group CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) has.
Masquerading as a group that is supposed to be the “organized voice of the American public on nutrition, food safety, health and other issues,” CSPI is actually pushing their own agenda…And it’s a vegetarian one. They are actually even part of the reason why the American public fears saturated fat so much!
The Center for Science in the Public Interest(CSPI) ran with the lipid hypothesis and deemed the term “artery-clogging” fat. The CSPI has been advocating a plant-based diet since they were formed in 1971…One of the founders, Michael Jacobson who is also the executive director is a vegetarian and sits on the national board of the animal-rights oriented “Great American Meatout.” On the CSPI website they have a section called Eating Green, which advocates consuming more plant-based foods and less meat and dairy to extend you health. All though the CSPI considers themselves to provide useful, objective information on food, alcohol and health I feel their main goal is to spread their vegetarian agenda. (Healing through Nutrition)
And guess what one of the “healthy” changes CSPI has caused is….
In 1989, they got major hamburger chains to stop using animal fats for frying french fries. Guess what these restaurant chains then started using?
Trans-fats!!!
Uhm aren’t trans-fats bad for you? YEP!
CSPI later changes its stance and fights to eliminate trans-fats from restaurants and asks the FDA to label all foods that contain cholesterol-raising trans-fats.
Great job CSPI!
So next time you try to claim that the meat industry has SOOOO much influence, check your facts. CSPI has way more influence and it looks like it’s definitely using it to make us healthier.
NOT!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I’ve always liked Valentine’s Day.
Oh yea!
Weird? Probably.
But I’ve always liked the idea of a day to appreciate not only yourself but also your loved ones.
I’ve always been lucky enough to have family and friends around who love and support me – who help bring out the best in me.
And I like to think of Valentine’s Day not as a commercial holiday where you buy lots of stupid flowers and chocolates, but as a day when you reflect on how many wonderful people you are lucky enough to have in your life.
Hey, I don’t do cheesy posts too often so bear with me.
Anyway, I just feel so lucky today to have such great people in my life.
There are my friends (who are essentially family)…
I’ve made some great friends over the past year. Two great friends to be exact – Candy and Brian. They challenge me every day to work hard and push myself. They are the best support network a friend could ask for. It’s amazing to go to work every day and know that you are hanging out with two of the nicest and most caring people in the world!
And my family…
There is the Man Bicep Mom, who has always supported me and pushed me to go after what I want in life. She raised me to be a very strong, independent woman and is one of my best friends. She also inspired my love of health and fitness and is a big part of why I’m such an advocate of women lifting heavy weights!
And my sister, Drew, who has always been my other best friend. She is so close to me that sometimes people think we are twins! She was my first ever gym buddy and the person that made me realize how much I loved training.
And then there is Ryan…Ryan makes me a better me…period. He’s made me feel like the sky is the limit. Any time I feel any self-doubt he wipes it away. I honestly, am the best Cori I can be because of Ryan.
A big ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ to all my loved ones!
AND a big ‘Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you wonderful Man Bicepers out there!!!!
P.S. Some wonderful Primal Valentine’s Day recipes to come later!!!
Calories In vs. Calories Out
Weight loss isn’t simply calories in vs. calories out.
If you want to lose weight not only on the scale but also improve your body composition, the type of calories you consume not only matter but matter MORE than how many calories you eat.
I never count calories anymore. NEVER.
I used to count calories when I ate junk – I needed to. I needed to count calories so that I didn’t eat more than like 1,200 a day and gain weight on the scale. I needed to count calories because I wasn’t eating the right foods.
AND on top of the torture of counting every calorie each and every day, my body composition wasn’t very good. I was doing all this work to just be skinny fat. YUCK!-
Not anymore!!!
I don’t need to count calories anymore because I know that the foods I’m putting into my body are healthy foods that my body needs. I honestly eat closer to 2,000 calories a day now and have a better body composition than I did when I was counting calories.
I’m sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but it just isn’t as simple as calories in vs. calories.
When you are eating the right foods, it is sooo much easier to achieve great body composition. You also feel soooo much better eating the right foods and eating A LOT of them!
Man Bicep 