7 Substitutes for Picnic Diet Killers
Posted: 28th December 2010 by Lawrence McKay in Health and NutritionTags: AnteupFitness.com, Diet, Exercise, Fitness, Health, Healthy Eating, Lawrence G McKay, Nutrition, P90X, Team Beachbody
Written By Joe Wilkes
It’s almost summertime, which brings the incongruous collision of picnic season and swimsuit season. The weather’s perfect for hiking, camping, barbecuing, and days at the beach—lots of opportunities for outdoor exercise, but just as many opportunities to pig out at pool parties, luaus, outdoor festivals, and county fairs. Here are some foods to try avoiding during the dog days of summer and some ideas for substitutions for picnic favorites.
- Fried chicken. It’s not the K or the C in KFC® that’s the problem. It’s the F for fried. And if you have any hope of staying slim this summer, it’s time to tell the Colonel you’re kicking the bucket. One extra-crispy breast will run you 460 calories and 28 grams of fat, 8 of them saturated. That’s almost three times the calories of a grilled, skinless breast and almost ten times as much fat. So clearly, you’re better off cooking the chicken yourself. But if you’re grabbing something on the run, you might want to visit the rotisserie case at your local supermarket. Try picking a chicken that’s not slathered in sugary barbecue sauce. And if you throw away the skin, you’ll save yourself from eating most of the fat and calories.
Sandwiches. A picnic without sandwiches is like a picnic without ants. It just wouldn’t be the same. But of course, the sandwich is only as good as the sum of its ingredients. If you’re using white bread, you’re just eating empty carbohydrates. Make sure you buy whole-grain bread, and that it has the word “whole” in the ingredient list. Wheat bread is essentially the same as white bread, only with a little molasses added for brown coloring. It’s nutritionally the same, if not worse. Whole wheat bread, on the other hand, contains the fiber and the vitamins you’re looking for. For lunch meat, try avoiding processed meats like bologna and salami. They’re packed with extra fat and sodium. And when buying unprocessed meats like turkey or roast beef, make sure they really are unprocessed. The makers of some brands of turkey grind up the skin and dark meat and then press it into lunch meat form, so you’re really getting as much fat and sodium as you’d get from bologna. Watch out for flavored turkey as well. Most of the time the secret ingredient is salt. If you want to be really healthy, buy a whole turkey breast from your poultry section and roast it yourself, so you can control how much salt is added.- Brats and burgers. It’s always great to fire up the grill and start cooking up a mess of meat. And the good news is that grilling is one of the healthiest ways to cook food. It adds tons of flavor and doesn’t add fat. Of course, the best thing to grill would be skinless chicken, fish, or vegetables. But if you’re craving a juicy burger or brat and a portobello burger just won’t do, there are still some decisions you can make to keep it on the lean side. For burgers, consider a leaner option than beef, such as ground turkey or buffalo. But as always, check the label. Some grinds of turkey have as much fat as a fatty grind of beef. Ground turkey breast is usually much leaner than ground turkey. If you’re going to make beef burgers, try to find a grind that is under 5 percent fat. Ground sirloin is usually pretty close. If you can’t find a grind that’s low enough in fat, ask your butcher to grind a lean piece of chuck roast or top sirloin for you. In addition to being leaner, this will also reduce your chances of picking up foodborne illnesses like E. coli, since only one cow is involved in producing a steak, as opposed to potentially hundreds in ground beef. In fact, if you’re someone who likes to eat your burger rare, having the butcher grind a piece of meat for you is a must do. Bratwurst is another delicious summer fave, but watch the fat and sodium content in those as well. The chicken, turkey, and even veggie versions of sausage sound like they’d be lighter, but they’re often just as fatty as the pork versions.
Potato or macaroni salad. Mayonnaise is the culprit in these dishes. At 50 calories a tablespoon with 5 grams of fat, these side dishes can turn deadly for your diet in a hurry. But you can mitigate the damage somewhat. Instead of mayonnaise, consider using nonfat yogurt, food-processed nonfat cottage cheese, or nonfat ricotta cheese instead. You’ll get fewer calories, less fat, and lessen the risk of salmonella poisoning by going eggless. One way to make potato salad healthier is to leave the skins on the potatoes, as they have the fiber and most of the vitamins in the spud. For macaroni salad, use a whole-grain pasta to get extra fiber. Better yet, make a pasta salad with heart-healthy olive oil, vinegar, and lots of veggies.- Baked beans. Beans, beans, the musical fruit . . . well, you know the rest. Full of fiber and low in fat, beans are a great side dish that will keep you full. What you want to watch out for is the sugar that is added to most baked beans—sometimes as much as 3 teaspoons in a cup. Try plain pinto beans, or my favorite, beans canned with jalapeños. Replace high-calorie sweet with low-calorie fire, and you won’t even miss the sugar. Three-bean salad is another flavorful way to consume your legumes without a lot of added fat or sugar.
Trail mix. Summer’s a great time for checking out nature, and it’s always great to bring along a healthy snack. But check the trail mix ingredients. Some, especially those containing granola, can be loaded with super-unhealthy hydrogenated oils and fat. There are trail mixes on the market that have more fat than a large order of fries, so it’s definitely a buyer-beware situation. Also check out how much sugar is in the trail mix or granola bars you’re taking backpacking. Some bars aren’t much healthier than a Snickers®. If ingredients in your trail mix include chocolate chips and marshmallows, you may not have made the healthiest choice. Try making your own trail mix with healthy unsweetened oats, nuts, and dried fruit. Or take along a couple of P90X® Peak Performance Protein Bars.- Ice cream. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. And we’ll really be screaming when we try to stuff ourselves into our swimsuits after eating everyone’s favorite fatty, frosty indulgence. It’s hard to resist a cool ice cream cone on a hot summer day, and the tinkling of the ice cream truck bell can still send me bolting into the street. But that scoop of vanilla can have up to 400 calories and 25 grams of fat, 15 of them saturated. If you’re culinarily gifted, you might consider making your own sorbet. If not, check out some of the ones available on the market. Sorbets are usually low fat or nonfat, although they can still have tons of sugar. Try to find some that are mostly fruit. Speaking of fruit, for a healthy frozen treat, how about sticking some fruit in the freezer? Most fruits, especially berries, grapes, and bananas, freeze quite well. They’ll last longer and popping a few frozen grapes in your mouth can cool you off on a hot day; and you’ll still get all the vitamins, fiber, and health benefits that a Creamsicle™ just can’t provide.
http://www.beachbody.com/product/newsletters/nl_410.do
Tailgating: 8 Tips to Survive the Football Season
Posted: 5th October 2010 by Lawrence McKay in Health and NutritionTags: Anteup fitness, eating right, football season, healthy snacking, Insanity, P90X, proper dieting Lawrence G McKay, tailgating
Are you ready for some football? Sure ya are! As the new season kicks off, we’re all rooting for our favorite team to make it to the Super Bowl, or the Rose Bowl, or the Whatever Bowl. But in truth, my fellow Americans, the celebration isn’t all about the sport. It’s about the pigskin, but it’s also about the potato skins. It’s about the Heisman, but it’s also about the Heineken®. In other words, it’s about tailgating. Is there anything more glorious than perching on the bumper of your Explorer, hot dog in one hand, cold beer in the other, telling everyone in earshot about the trail of destruction your team is about to make across the Pac 10? Well, that’s great and all, but where your fitness goals are concerned, tailgating leaves a little to be desired. So how do we capture all the fun of tailgating without destroying all the progress we’ve made during our hours of sweat? Let’s do some preparation for the game ahead.
- Work out first. A brand-new study by a team of Brazilian researchers (Public Library of Science, August 2010) concluded that exercise actually modulates feelings of fullness in the brain, causing us to reduce our intake of food. In other words, when you work out, you actually eat less. Which is good, because you don’t want to spend an hour and a half working out in the morning and then destroy it all with cravings for fried food and alcohol. Now that you’re doing P90X® 6 days a week, you’re a more efficient machine, and you’ll have fewer cravings. So before you hang out in that jersey that hides your six-pack, make sure your six-pack is intact and get a good workout in before the party. Working out will help reduce your cravings and decrease your appetite. (Besides, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll feel like working out after the game.)
- Don’t go hungry. Popular wisdom says you should never go grocery shopping while hungry. The same rings true for attending any kind of party. The worst thing you can do to your nutrition plan is wait until you’re starving, then descend upon an endless supply of low-quality carbs and not-so-lean meats. It’ll be 45 minutes before you realize you’re no longer hungry, and you’ve just consumed your weight in cheese curls. Eat a clean, high-quality meal before you arrive at the gathering. You’ll eat less garbage and you’ll probably be a lot more pleasant to be around as well.
Veggie it up. I know, I know, you don’t want to be that guy, but if you’re going to bring anything to the party, your first choice should be a veggie platter. Not only can you save yourself from tomorrow’s food hangover, you might actually do your body some good. Bite-sized pieces of broccoli, carrots, celery, bell peppers, cauliflower, and snap peas are all inexpensive, low in calories, and full of vitamins. Create a low-fat dip to accompany them, and you might just trump the team’s QB as MVP. Just use any onion or ranch dip recipe, with nonfat yogurt, nonfat sour cream, or nonfat cream cheese as the base.Also, try the 5-to-1 veggie trick: for every five bites of veggies you consume, you’re allowed one full-fat snack bite. You’ll end up having to chew so much for that one morsel of evil, it won’t really be worth it.
- Feeling fruity. Another great thing to bring tailgating is a fruit platter or fruit salad. Yes, I realize fruit has a lot more sugar in it than veggies do. But fruit is a lot lower in calories than potato salad, it’s loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and most people like it a lot. What’s more, it’s high in fiber, so you’ll stay fuller longer. Fruit skewers are a big crowd-pleaser, and counting the empty sticks will show you how much you’re actually eating. Aim for watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, apples, oranges, peaches, and nectarines.
- Pass (on) the suds. This is the section everyone’s going to want to skip, but reading on will only work to your advantage. Most of us enjoy an adult beverage now and again. There’s nothing more refreshing than a cold beer when you’re sitting in the hot sun. But, people, they call it a “beer gut” for a reason. The empty calories in beer have accounted for more spare tires than the Michelin® Man. But since many people can’t or won’t abstain, try switching to light beer. Sure, some taste like flavored water, but there are a few low-calorie versions out there that are actually pretty good, especially if you squeeze a little (or a lot) of lime into them. Or try a cocktail made with a low-calorie mixer, or one that mixes a splash of fruit juice with soda water and either an ounce of your favorite liquor or a few ounces of white wine.One cup of light limeade, 1 ounce of tequila, and 1 ounce of orange liqueur blended with ice is roughly 100 calories—and really tasty. Crystal Light® and vodka make for some pretty yummy low-cal drinks, and will still be under a hundred calories. And remember that both white wine and champagne come in at about 100 calories a glass. Remember, a couple of drinks in an afternoon is fine, but if you’re putting so much away that the dude in the body paint starts to look, well . . . sexy, it’s time to cut yourself off.
- Get your hand out of the bag. When you’re running late on game day, the path of least resistance is to run into a 7-Eleven® and grab a few bags of chips and maybe some dip. Everyone loves ‘em, right? Well, your waistline doesn’t. You can easily consume a couple of meals’ worth of calories by shoving your hand into a bag a few times. So plan ahead a tiny bit and replace those greasy potato chips, corn chips, and cheese curls with baked tortilla chips and salsa, seasoned air-popped popcorn, multigrain pretzels, and mini rice cakes. You’ll still get a ton of crunch and flavor, without consuming 13 grams of fat per handful.If you want to add a dip, try this low-fat/high-protein guacamole recipe: Take a 16-ounce container of plain nonfat Greek yogurt; 1 peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped large avocado; 4 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro; 2 teaspoons of minced jalapeño; and 1 small minced clove of garlic. Throw them into a food processor and blend until smooth. Chill before serving.
Main course, to stay on course. Most experienced tailgaters include a barbecue in the festivities. You can smell charcoal and propane for miles around any stadium on any given Sunday. And with the right food choices, a barbecue is a healthy way to prepare good sources of lean protein. Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to throw hot dogs on the grill. Look, if you wanted easy, you would have called for liposuction and never started INSANITY® in the first place. So forget the path of least resistance (and all those hot dog nitrates) and try a main course that’ll keep you on course.Replace a beef or pork hot dog with a turkey or tofu dog, a 20-percent-fat beef burger with a 99-percent lean beef one (or a chicken, turkey, or veggie burger), or a fatty pork sausage with the low-fat chicken variety. Place any of these on a multigrain roll, or stuff them in a pita pocket. Try a low-fat grilled chicken breast instead of those messy, fatty ribs. Skewer up some veggies for a tasty low-calorie main dish. Little pizzas made with prebaked crusts, tomato sauce, low-fat cheese, and veggies grill up brilliantly on a barbecue. You can make ground-turkey-and-three-bean chili in advance in a Crock-Pot® and warm it up on the grill. Just a little forethought and some lean meat choices can make a huge difference.
- Just desserts. Most of the time, dessert at a tailgate party comes in the form of beer, with an occasional Oreo® thrown in. No one puts a lot of thought into making desserts for one of these events, and they put even less thought into how many cookies or brownies they’re shoving in their mouth. Instead of satisfying your sweet tooth with enough calories to fuel a defensive lineman, try replacing those high-calorie desserts with one of these ideas.Grill pineapple slices or spears for 1 minute on each side, baste with dark rum, grill for 1 more minute, and serve warm with mint sprigs. Make low-fat banana bread by replacing the butter or oil in the traditional recipe with applesauce. Buy a premade angel food cake, slice, and serve with fresh strawberries and either light Cool Whip® or one-third whipped cream with two-thirds drained plain nonfat yogurt folded in. In advance, bake apples stuffed with dried fruit and honey in a pan of apple juice, then heat up later on the barbecue. Make a low-fat batch of oatmeal cookies with whole wheat flour and vegetable oil. There are lots of sweet options out there that can also be sweet to the size of your gut.
Football season is long, especially if you’re a Buffalo Bills fan. In those 17 weeks, you could do a considerable amount of damage . . . or you could have the body of your dreams. Since the NFL rules the airwaves for roughly 5 weeks longer than it takes to do P90X, it’s well worth it to put a little effort into your tailgating choices. And although your friends might give you a hard time, consider how their faces will look at the end of week 15, when you have a rock-hard six-pack, and they have more of a keg. Yeah, it’s worth it.
Original article By Stephanie S. Saunders http://teambeachbody.com/about/newsletters/-/nli/188#72091486
29 Tips for Keeping Portions Under Control
Posted: 16th September 2010 by Lawrence McKay in Health and NutritionTags: AnteupFitness.com, Diet, eating right, Healthy Eating, Lawrence G McKay, portion control, snacking, Watch what you eat
By Debra Pivko
When it comes to food portions, size matters. In a world filled with “supersized” options, all-you-can-eat buffets, and extra-large pizzas, it’s no wonder people overeat. Have you ever found yourself in one of these situations?
- Eating snacks straight out of the bag while watching television, or even grabbing a second bag to munch on because your show is still on.
- Continuing to finish your food at a restaurant because others are still eating, even though you’re full.
- Arriving at a party starving, so your dinner consists of fried appetizers and mayo-laden salads.
- Eating an entire packaged item only to realize later that it actually contained multiple servings.
I know I’ve been there. Once in a while is okay, but doing this too often can supersize your waistline and your risk for medical complications, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. With just a little bit of preparation and planning, you can keep your eating habits and your portion sizes under control.
At restaurants
- Doggie-bag it. Don’t finish your food just because it’s there—or because you’re still at the restaurant waiting for others to finish. Most restaurant portions contain more food and calories than you need for one meal. Bring your leftover food home, or allow the busboy to take it away early. Even better, have the server pack half of it to go before bringing it to you. It seems like an odd request, but it’s not uncommon these days.
- Share with a friend. When you split a meal, not only do you cut the price in half, but you cut the calories in half too!
- Order the lunch or appetizer portion. Lunch and appetizer portions are cheaper and contain fewer calories than full-sized portions.
- Avoid buffets and all-you-can-eat specials. If you’re like me, you want to try everything when you go to a buffet. That’s why it’s better to avoid buffets when you’re trying to control the size of your portions. When you have no choice about where you go (like a large family gathering or party), find the smallest plate and fill it up with the healthy stuff like grilled chicken and vegetables first. If you must go back for more, allow yourself one trip. And only get what you really want. It’s such a common habit to take a bit of everything, but if you can savor one reasonably sized serving of your favorite item, you’ll enjoy it a lot more.
- Choose items with large portions of veggies. Or order salad or fruit on the side instead of fries. If you’re starving, you can fill up on high-nutrient, low-calorie food to keep full.
Eat your favorite “indulgence” foods every now and again. Totally denying yourself the foods you take pleasure in is a surefire way to set yourself up for failure. So go ahead and treat yourself once in a while to avoid feeling deprived. But eat a smaller portion, and savor every bite.
At home
- Hang up fridge visuals. Don’t swing the fridge door open mindlessly. Think before you eat. Hang up a picture of how you once looked, that one piece of clothing you wish you could fit into, someone who you want to look like, or even someone you don’t want to look like. Take a moment to think about what you’re really hungry for and about your weight loss/health goals before you grab something out of the fridge. I’ve gone as far as putting up a “closed after 9 PM” sign on mine, since I can’t seem to find a fridge lock with a timer.
- Preplan your groceries. Don’t shop when you’re hungry and you’ll be less likely to bring unhealthy food home. Stock your house with healthy foods and snacks that are easy to grab when you’re hungry, such as fruit, cut-up vegetables with hummus, or light cheese and crackers. You can also purchase single-serving snacks. I love The Skinny Cow® ice cream sandwiches (mint chocolate is my favorite.) They’re less than 150 calories and are preportioned so I know when I’m finished.
- Don’t eat straight out of the box or bag. If you do this, odds are you’ll finish everything in it—or at least eat more than one serving. Instead, fill a small container or baggie with a single serving and leave the rest in the kitchen.
- Break leftovers down. Instead of putting leftovers in one big container, break them down into single-serving meals or snack-sized portions before storing them.
- Hang wall mirrors. We tend not to eat as much when we see ourselves.
- Use smaller plates. If you can’t fit as much food on the plate, you’re likely to eat a smaller portion. Even better, use nonmicrowavable plates so you can’t heat up seconds—lay down a sheet of wrinkled-up foil, or use one of Grandma’s metal-glazed dishes; both are considered unsafe for microwave use by the USDA.
- Don’t put serving bowls of food on the table. Fill your plate in the kitchen and put your leftovers away promptly after they cool so it’s too much of an effort to go back to the kitchen to get seconds.
- Look at the serving size listed on the package. You may not realize you’re actually dishing out a double serving of packaged food for yourself. Make sure you look at the nutrition label so you aren’t overeating without even knowing it.
At work
BYOL (bring your own lunch). When you make your own lunch, you get to control the portion and exactly what’s in it. Cook a big batch of food on Sunday, like pasta and veggies or chicken and brown rice, then refrigerate or freeze portions to take with you.- Keep healthy snacks at your desk. When you have healthy snacks at your desk, you won’t be as tempted to head over to the vending machine for candy or chips. I love Pirate’s Booty® Aged White Cheddar baked corn and rice puffs at 130 calories per serving, or Kashi® TLC Honey Sesame snack crackers. Make sure to divide them into single portions in baggies so you don’t overeat. And keep them tucked away in a drawer rather than on top of the desk in plain sight.
- Keep protein bars handy. Protein bars can be a lifesaver when you don’t have time to run out to get food, or a meeting postpones your lunch for a couple of hours. Watch out for bars that only have a few grams of protein and seem and taste more like candy bars than meal replacements. P90X® Peak Performance Protein Bars are jam-packed with 20 grams of protein. My favorite flavor is Chocolate Fudge. They save my stomach from growling louder than the speaker in meetings and can replace a meal in an emergency.
- Research healthy lunch places near work. A few minutes of research can save you calories in the long run. Some places have light menu options with smaller portions that contain fewer calories. Plus you can look up the nutrition information for many popular restaurants online even if they’re not posted on the menu. And, of course, remember to avoid those all-you-can-eat specials.
- Stock up on Shakeology® single-serving packets. I actually set reminders in my email calendar for 3:30 each day so I remember to have a Shakeology shake as my afternoon snack. It keeps me from raiding the fridge like a maniac when I get home for dinner. Shakeology single-serving packets not only contain protein and fiber that help you feel full, but also whole food ingredients to nourish your body—all with only 140 calories a serving. I know that whether or not I eat healthily throughout the day, as long as I have my Shakeology, I’ll be getting all the nutrients I need, and I’ll feel full so I won’t overeat.
Drink tea—and lots of water. If you’re filling up on zero-calorie water and tea, you’ll feel fuller and eat less when it’s mealtime.- Log what you eat. Hold yourself accountable for what you eat. If you’re a Team Beachbody® member, you can track your meals for free at you can track your meals here or keep a notepad handy if you’re not near a computer. Keeping track of everything you eat will help you take a closer look at your eating habits so you can make better choices.
- Don’t always have your cake and eat it too. There are about 300 people who work with me. If I ate cake every time there was a birthday, I’d have it almost daily. (Fortunately, Beachbody® discourages people from bringing sweets to the office.) It’s okay to treat yourself to some cake occasionally, but don’t always eat it just because it’s there. Make sure that when you do choose to indulge, you stick to your nutritious meal plan for the rest of the day, and just augment it with a small slice of cake.
- Bring healthy snacks to meetings. If you’re hosting a meeting, instead of the usual donuts and pastries, provide fruit, veggies, hummus, cheese, and wheat crackers. If you’re not in charge of food-planning for meetings, break room, or vending machines, request that healthy food alternatives be made available at your office. After all, a sugar crash thirty minutes after the morning meeting isn’t going to boost anybody’s productivity.
At parties
- Pre-eat. Before you leave home for a party, eat your own healthy, nutritious food. When you arrive at the party, you can focus on the people and the festivities instead of making a beeline for the buffet table. You can still enjoy tasting the appetizers, but you’ll be satisfied with less.
Be a healthy host. Hosting a party? Serve healthy food. Your guests will thank you—plus you’ll probably burn a ton of calories running around playing host!- Wait 20 minutes before going back for seconds. Sometimes, especially at extravagant parties, there’s an endless variety of delectable food you’d never make or buy for yourself. Make sure you sit down with your first plate and eat slowly. It’s okay to go for seconds, but before you do, take your time enjoying your food and conversing with fellow partygoers for at least 20 minutes while that first round of food digests. After you do, you may realize you’ve already had enough. And if you do decide to go back for seconds, don’t restock the plate with everything on the table. Just take a small amount of a few of your favorites.
- Don’t hover around the food table. This is a recipe for disaster. I’ve found myself picking up olives and crackers as if my hand had a mind of its own. Take a cracker and run—far, far away from the food table. If you’re still hungry, walk back over—but don’t hover. Your waistline will thank you.
- Treat yourself with nonedible rewards. It’s natural for people to associate events and personal accomplishments with food. Holidays, weddings, football games, movies, job promotions, housewarmings, school events, community celebrations—customarily, they’re celebrated with food. Instead, though, try treating yourself with nonedible rewards. Work out, watch a TV show, get a massage or a manicure, buy a new outfit, or phone a friend to share your excitement. Focus on the reason for the celebration rather than the food.
- Dress to impress. Don’t wear clothes that let you overeat without feeling or showing it. If you wear extra-loose, über-comfy clothes—or ones with an elasticized waistband—you might eat more. Instead, try wearing an outfit you look great in—if possible, one that’s a little bit formfitting. Then there’s less room to get away with eating too much. Besides, you’ll get deluged with compliments that’ll make you feel so great you won’t want to overeat.
Mastering portion control will give you more control over your body and your life. Whether you’re at a restaurant, at home, at work, or at a party, there’s no excuse. You have the power to set yourself up for success. Being mindful of your portions will help you feel better right after each meal, which will help you manage your weight more effectively. You’ll learn how to enjoy your favorite foods, boost your health, and even save some cash by eating less. Now isn’t that worth a little bit of effort and planning ahead?
Original article written by Debra Pivko: http://www.beachbody.com/product/p90x-online/newsletters/p90xnl_044.do#article1
Everything You Need to Know about the Glycemic Index
Posted: 30th August 2010 by Lawrence McKay in Health and NutritionTags: AnteupFitness.com, eating, Exercise, food for thought, Glycemic Index, good eating, Healthy Eating, Lawrence G McKay, P90X, Team Beachbody, training
Those of you who pay attention to your diet probably hear a lot about something called the glycemic index (GI) these days. It’s become another in a growing list of misunderstood buzzwords in the nutrition world. Today, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about the GI, which is going to take a lot less of your time than reading through an entire GI diet book.
That’s not to ding these books, by the way. If you’re bored you’ll probably learn something by reading any one of them. But in my experience, the glycemic index is not the be-all and end-all of your diet concerns. So I take the opposite approach and say that if you learn to eat properly, you can strike the phrase from your vocabulary entirely.
Simply put, the glycemic index is a way to measure how carbohydrates react in your blood. It’s measured on a scale from 1 to 100+, where products with a GI of 55 or under are classified as low GI, those with a GI between 56 and 69 are classified as medium GI, and those with GI of 70 and above are classified as high GI. A high GI number means that a food is quickly converted to glucose in the blood (in layman’s terms, a “sugar rush”). The lower the number, the slower the food is converted to glucose. The scale was invented for people with diabetes, but the advent of processed foods becoming a cornerstone of the American diet and the rise of type 2 diabetes have given the average person a good reason to pay attention to the GI index of foods.
Essentially, if we ate nothing but natural whole foods, the GI scale would have little meaning for anyone who didn’t have diabetes. Even then, the highest GI foods have low numbers in their natural state. It’s the cooking and processing of food that alters it so it breaks down much more rapidly. Eating too much food that is converted to glucose rapidly can lead to type 2 diabetes over time. Pretty much the highest of high GI foods are processed junk foods. There are a few exceptions, which we’ll get to, but essentially if we eat a balanced healthy diet with very little junk food, the GI index is far less important to us.
Sugar is the big villain in the GI world. In nature, sugar comes from plants, where it’s surrounded by fiber. Fiber in foods slows digestion, lowering the GI number of even foods that are high in sugar, like bananas. Processing, as well as some types of cooking, break down or strip these plants of their fiber. This makes them sweeter to the taste, but it also makes them less healthy. And along with the fiber, processing usually removes a lot of the vitamins and minerals.
The main problem in the American, as stated above, is that we’re eating too many processed foods. Although we seem to understand that desserts are mainly sugar, crafty advertisers have been pulling the wool over our eyes by hiding the fact that most American processed foods are not much better for us than sugary desserts are. Breads, cereals, some potatoes and pastas, some rice, crackers, chips, fruit juices, sodas, and condiments, plus almost anything that’s ever received a “no fat” label or comes in a box or bag, is high in sugar and probably low in fiber and nutrients. When these processed, packaged foods are all you’re eating, you cause your body’s insulin response to work overtime. Do this enough, especially without exercise (the great equalizer in the sugar game), and you can wind up with type 2 diabetes.
Of course not every food in the categories I listed above is bad. There are companies that make healthy versions of pretty much everything. But marketers can be tricky. As a consumer, it can be hard to know what you’re getting. Even reading food labels can be misleading, which is why every diet that comes with a Beachbody® program consists mainly of whole, natural foods.
So the very simple rule is to make sure your diet consists mainly of whole, natural foods and you will no longer have to pay attention to the GI index. There are some variables worth mentioning, especially since eating nothing but natural foods can be challenging in today’s hectic world. Here are ten quick tips to help you understand the GI index:
- Desserts. These tend to be mainly sugar and/or fat, and as such, they generally don’t try to fool anyone with health claims. If we could keep our desserts small and make them a once-a-day indulgence, we’d have no problems. My tip is to do just that: with desserts, keep a close eye on portion size and frequency. Also, fatty desserts lower the GI influence of the sugar, meaning that, especially if you’re insulin sensitive, a richer, fattier dessert might actually be preferable to a “no fat” dessert that’s all sugar. But either way, unless you’re diabetic or borderline, if indulging in desserts is the only way you stray from your diet, it’s not going to cause much harm in the big picture.
- Sports. When you’re active, and especially when you’re operating at your physical limit, your body burns up its stored carbohydrates (known as blood sugar) very rapidly. During and after hard or long bouts of exercise, sugar isn’t bad for you—in fact, it’s actually good for you. This is the only time this is true. Unfortunately, we often like to eat sugary stuff at the opposite times, like when we’re watching TV, and no Wii Fit® game has yet been designed that’ll burn off blood sugar unless you do it all day long. When you’re not active, you should severely limit your sugar intake.
Sports drinks are for sports. This may seem redundant, but Gator/Power/Acceler-ades et al areonly good when you’re playing sports that make you sweat. This is also true for things like P90X®Results and Recovery Formula®. These are not your standard foods. They’re formulated for when you’re playing sports vigorously. The difference between the “-ades” and Results and Recovery Formula is that the former only give you sugar and a small amount of electrolytes you lose when you sweat, whereas the latter uses its sugar (which gets absorbed rapidly when you’re out of blood sugar) to transport all sorts of other nutrients to help repair your body after exercise. Oh, and also that the “-ades” market themselves as things you might want to drink all day long, exercising or not.
- Salads are your friend. Not only are they loaded with fiber, but many of the things we tend to put on salads, including vinegar, lemon juice, and lime juice, as well as pickled vegetables, etc., tend to have acids that lower the GI index of other foods.
- Add protein to all your meals. Like fats, proteins slow absorption rates of high GI foods.
- Use semolina or whole wheat pastas. These have a much lower GI number (around 30 to 55) than pasta made from refined, enriched white flour.
- Use long-grain or brown rice. All rice is fairly high in the GI index, but long-grain rice can be fairly low (50 to 60), whereas white short-grain rice can be as high as 130.
- Eat crisp fruit. Fruit is not a real concern unless your diet has an inordinate amount of it. If so, the mushier—and sweeter—a fruit becomes, the higher its GI number. But even the sweetest fruits, like ripe papaya, are only around 60.
- Beware of fluff. Fluffy and puffy foods tend to have a high GI number. Cereals are a good example. When a cereal is chewy, that generally means it has more fiber and is less processed, as opposed to soft, fluffy cereals that have been excessively processed and injected with air (and sugar). Potatoes, especially white, fluffy ones, can have extremely high GI numbers, often in the 90s. Fortunately, we tend not to eat potatoes plain, and, as stated above, adding meats, fats, and acidic ingredients will bring the number way down. Oddly enough, sweet potatoes, despite the deceptive name, have a very low GI number. Yams, too.
Some sugar can be OK. If you see a trend here, it’s that sugar speeds itself into your system, and if this is your primary mode of eating, it’s bad. However, sugars can also speed other nutrients into your system, so you’ll sometimes see sugar as an ingredient alongside a lot of healthy nutrients to serve this purpose. A good example is Beachbody’s Shakeology® meal replacement shake. It has around 10 grams of sugar (40 calories) in a serving that also contains a lot of protein and 70 other healthy ingredients. In lab tests, Shakeology scored a 24* on the glycemic index, as low as a lot of vegetables. So while sugar is generally the GI villain, you need to look at the entire profile of the foods you’re eating before you pass judgment.
*Shakeology was tested by Glycemic Index Laboratories, Inc., a premier facility for testing the metabolic responses to foods and ingredients. GI Labs is the only lab in North America recommended by the Glycemic Index Foundation. GI Labs follows a Determination Standard protocol of testing in vivo with ten human subjects. GI Labs’ protocol exceeds the standards set by the World Health Organization.
Original post by Steve Edwards: http://www.beachbody.com/product/newsletters/nl_421.do
Just Eat This: Eating for Exercise
Posted: 12th August 2010 by Lawrence McKay in Health and NutritionTags: AnteupFitness.com, eating, Exercise, food for thought, good eating, Healthy Eating, Lawrence G McKay, P90X, Team Beachbody, training
I’m what’s called a periodizational dieter. This means that I eat in different phases that are based on my goals and the exercise I’m currently doing. My standard level of fitness and weight never varies that much because I’m pretty active most of the year. However, once I target an event I’m going to train for, I’ll go into a phased diet plan. First, I generally decide that I need to lose some weight (read this article if you haven’t already). During this phase I will eat less than I need for optimal performance. The trade off is worth it because I’ll lose some body fat. Once I’m down to my desired weight, I begin adding more calories, with the goal of optimizing what is everyone’s most limiting factor: the ability to recover from exercise.
My diet
Water. I make sure to drink water all day long. I drink a glass when I wake up and keep going. Most people are chronically dehydrated.
I don’t eat the same things every day. This is just an example of the types of foods and the timing:
I like to wake up slowly, drink coffee, and read the news. Contrary to what most nutritionists advise, I don’t eat breakfast right away. I prefer to allow my body some time to warm up for the day. Since I work in the morning, I just go with how I’m feeling. I may eat breakfast within an hour, but also within three or four. My body does well functioning on its fat storage and I can easily go long periods without eating. This is not true for everybody, though it can be improved in everybody.
Breakfast. Generally a large bowl of cereal or two. I only eat natural-ingredient cereals with whole grains and no sugar. They tend to have a fair amount of both protein and fiber. I often add fruit and use either organic nonfat milk, rice milk, or soy milk. Generally, it’ll be regular milk, but if I’m close to the time I’m going to work out, I’ll use rice milk because it digests faster.
Lunch. I usually eat lunch two or three hours after breakfast and a couple of hours before my workout. It’s generally a similar-type meal as breakfast because I like to eat light carbohydrate-rich foods prior to exercise. If I eat a large protein-rich meal at lunch, my workout will usually suffer.
Afternoon. I prefer to train during the late afternoon to early evening. If it’s a one-hour session, like P90X, I don’t eat anything. If it’s a longer session, like a run, bike ride, or climbing session, I begin fueling about 30 minutes into the workout with sports foods that are mainly carbohydrates with a little bit of protein. These vary depending on the exercise but are usually things like Exceed, Hammer Gel, energy bars, and fruit. In a pinch, I may use Gatorade, but it’s pretty lowbrow from an ingredient standpoint.
Dinner. An hour or two later, I’ll eat my main meal. It’s generally a large meal and always varies. A common dinner is a large chicken, bean, and rice burrito with heaps of different salsas and a salad that has as many veggies as I have around the house. No matter what this meal is, it’s always similar in that I don’t use sauces, dressings, oils, and such that aren’t made of all-natural ingredients. Meat is always very lean. Starch is always whole grain. The only oil in my kitchen is olive oil. The only dressing is balsamic vinaigrette. The only cheese I have is parmesan or cotija. I rarely cook veggies and if I do I steam them. Mainly, I just cut ‘em up and toss ‘em in a salad. Lettuce is always something other than iceberg.
When I eat at home, I eat very plain food. I do eat in restaurants, where I’ll indulge in fancier fare, but I’m quite happy eating for performance most of the time. And while this probably sounds boring, I actually prefer plain foods. A steady diet of restaurant food leaves me feeling sluggish and craving “boring” food.
Late-night snack. When I’m training hard I’ll often get hungry late at night. Since I don’t want to eat too many cals before bed, I’ll often have a protein shake (just water and protein). If I’m still hungry, I may then opt for some microwave light popcorn, another beer (if it’s a social evening), or, if I think I’ve had enough calories, some herbal tea.
Questions you might be asking yourself
What about carbs? As a sort of general guideline, the amount of fats and proteins you eat should stay around the same all of the time. The main variable in your diet is carbs. The more exercise you do the more carbohydrates you will burn. If you aren’t getting enough carbs to support your exercise program your energy level will fall. If you are eating too many, you’ll feel full and, perhaps, bloated. If you are eating the proper amount of carbohydrates you should feel light and energetic.
What do I drink? I try to drink water all day long, especially before, during, and after exercise. I don’t drink much with my meals. Maybe a few sips of wine. I try not to drink many calories unless it’s in the form of a supplement. Most caloric drinks—sodas, juices, etc.—are very poor uses of calories.
This is the way I eat most of the time. If I feel I need to gain weight, I’ll just add some calories (this is rare because I’m a gravity sports guy). Eating this way allows me to maintain my performance weight and increase my fitness.
Original article written by Steve Edwards: http://teambeachbody.com/about/newsletters/-/nli/26#18286
Interval Training: The Best Way to See Quick Results
Posted: 12th August 2010 by Lawrence McKay in Training TipsTags: AnteupFitness.com, Exercise, interval training, Lawrence G McKay, P90X, Team Beachbody, training
There are a lot of misunderstandings about the best way to reshape your body. This is because there are a lot of trainers out there who espouse different fitness philosophies. In general, the various regimens touted all have some merit. In this article, we’ll take a very simple look at various training strategies, bust a myth or two, and explain why interval training is the most efficient way to change your fitness level.
We’re just about to launch a program called Insanity™, featuring Shaun T, which is a high-intensity conditioning program that’s based on something we call MAX Interval Training. While it’s the most intense workout program we’ve produced, it’s not the first to use interval training to create fast results. In fact, every Beachbody® program uses some type of interval training.
What is interval training?
In short, you are interval training any time your workout includes a set wherein you perform at your maximum level, which is then followed by a lower-intensity set, which is then repeated to achieve a cumulative effect. An interval can be a set of curls, a dance move, or anything that tires you out over its given interval of time. The intervals can be short and hard, or long and easy, but they’re all intervals, just so long as there is some cumulative effect (you get more tired as you go). All interval workouts aren’t the same, though; the duration and intensity of the intervals are what define the workout.
Conversely, aerobic training is when you maintain a steady output at a low intensity level over the course of the workout. We do offer some workouts that do this, but they are generally either for recovery or for the second daily workout of a doubles program. This type of workout helps your aerobic efficiency but does very little for changing your body.
The myth of the fat-burning zone
Here’s a quick explanation of the fat-burning zone. At an aerobic pace (see above), your body utilizes stored body fat as fuel to save its preferred fuel (stored blood glycogen) for more pressing matters. It sounds great because you’re burning body fat. And while this is true, you’re burning it at a very slow rate.
During higher-intensity work, your body turns to a limited supply of blood glycogen (often called blood sugar) for energy. While your body’s burning glycogen during this more intense period, and not fat, it’s breaking down more body tissue. Breakdown is a bad word for a good thing, because your body produces more hormones and increases its metabolism to repair this breakdown. As the tissue repairs itself, it builds more muscle so that next time you do a stressful workout it won’t be so taxing. This process of adapting to intense exercise is where your body makes rapid change.
Continually building on this process is called progressive overload. By continually adapting to stress and then adding more (either with weight or speed or programs like Insanity), you increase your body’s fitness so that it’s actually burning body fat for fuel as you rest. Interval workouts should be a key component in every phase of your training.
Techie science made simple
Interval levels can change dramatically. For example, HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts are very short, sometimes only lasting seconds, and completely anaerobic. Marathon runners will often run for 1- or 2-mile intervals, which can take many minutes and are obviously somewhat aerobic. The reason for the varying intensity of intervals is to train different energy systems in the body. These are defined by terms you may have heard of, AT (anaerobic threshold), VO2/max, etc. For our purposes, you don’t need to know these terms. Here’s the 101 version.
- LSD. Not the hippie drug from the 60s, but rather long slow distance. This is not an interval; it’s a term you’re likely to hear especially if you know or are a runner or cyclist. Its purpose is for base-level aerobic conditioning. As I said above, it’s not very applicable for making significant body changes, unless you do it for a very long time. Yet many trainers still recommend it. I think this is primarily because their clients won’t complain about doing 30 minutes of easy exercise.
- Sports-specific intervals. These can be anything, like the 2-mile example above. Interval training exists for all athletic endeavors. Since it’s targeted for sports performance, we won’t discuss it. You’ll learn plenty about it when you join a local group to train for a triathlon or something else.
Weight training intervals. All weight training could be considered interval training, but traditionally, you rest so long between sets that you don’t get a cumulative effect. All Beachbody weight training is done interval-style, which we call circuit training. During these workouts, you move from body part to body part without much rest between sets so that the workouts don’t just target muscle building but also improve your cardiovascular fitness. Power 90® and Slim in 6® are good examples of this kind of training.What defines these circuits is your targeted number of repetitions. A low target using more weight will create muscular hypertrophy, or growth. A higher number limits muscle growth (you get somemuscle growth) and gives you more cardiovascular improvement.
- Cardio intervals. These are what most of you probably define as interval training. First, we must define the difference between cardio and aerobic. Cardio means heart, while aerobic means oxygen. Aerobic training is most easily defined by the word “easy.” It’s really defined by training below your anaerobic threshold, but we’re dispensing with science talk. Cardio, however, is all training that affects the heart. So it can include aerobic training but also all the high-intensity training associated with intervals.High-intensity cardio intervals are performed in something we call heart rate training zones. Cardio intervals target these heart rate training zones for various periods of time. When you design your own interval workouts, you must do this yourself. When you have a trainer, he or she does it for you. This is why we at Beachbody always have test groups to make sure our workouts train you in your proper zone. That way, all you need to do is follow along.
MAX Intervals ‘n’ stuff
In general, the longer the interval, the easier the workout. Some interval sessions have long and moderate intervals with short aerobic breaks. Others have short, difficult intervals with long aerobic breaks. What makes Insanity’s MAX Interval Training unique is that it combines long, hard intervals with short breaks.
Conversely, a more traditional approach to interval training, like Turbo Jam®, that relies on various intensities of intervals (mainly moderate) can be done for very long periods of time before you need to change workouts. Your fitness improvements won’t be as drastic, but they’ll be steady.
With MAX Intervals, we lowered the intensity of HIIT just enough to keep the high-intensity format but to also increase the time during which you can make rapid improvements before needing a break. The result is a high-intensity interval training system that keeps yielding results for a long time before you need a transition.
How to incorporate intervals into your workout program
Like every other aspect of fitness, your starting point should be based on your current physical condition. If you aren’t very fit, you’ll want to start with a very basic interval program, which will still feel hard. Workouts like Slim in 6 Start It Up! or Power 90 Sweat Cardio 1–2 are perfect introductory interval sessions. If you’re in doubt, start slow. It’s easier to increase your workout’s intensity than to go backward.
You never want to begin with HIIT or MAX Intervals, unless you’ve got a solid fitness base. This style of workout is so intense that you won’t even be able to finish each workout, negating the whole interval aspect. And even if you do finish, training this hard out of the gate increases the risk of injury.
Intervals are the most effective way to see quick results from a workout program. If you’re not doing them, add them right away. If you’re already doing intervals, perhaps it’s time to step up to the next level.
Original article written by Steve Edwards: http://teambeachbody.com/about/newsletters/-/nli/123
10 Ways to Avoid Injury When Resistance Training
Posted: 14th July 2010 by Lawrence McKay in Training TipsTags: AnteupFitness.com, Exercise, Fitness, Health, Lawrence G McKay, P90X, Team Beachbody
You may have noticed at your local gym that weight lifting is becoming tres a la mode among the spandex and sweatband set. Unfortunately, this upswing in resistance training also means an upswing in injuries. An article in the New York Times1 recently reviewed a study of weight lifting injuries over an 18-year period, which showed there were almost one million Americans who visited an emergency room, injured, as the result of weight lifting. Ninety percent of those injuries were attributed to free weights. While women were more likely to drop the weights, resulting in fractures, men were more apt to create strains or sprains. Either way, as fantastic as it is that people are realizing how much they can alter their bodies with a couple of dumbbells, it makes you feel like a dumbbell when you drop one on your foot.
So let’s look at 10 ways to avoid upping your insurance premium while still obtaining the physique of your dreams:
- Warm up. Yes, you’ve heard “warm up before exercising” since junior-high PE class, although most of us looked at it as a way for lazy instructors to burn up class time. But are we really aware of the benefits of warming up before resistance training? Increased muscle and body temperature reduces the risk of strains and sprains, and also allows the muscle to contract more forcefully. Warming up creates less overall stress on the heart and activates your body’s natural cooling system, a.k.a. sweat, to prevent overheating. Warming up creates greater range of motion around a joint and helps us get mentally prepared for the task at hand. So take 5 minutes, jump on a treadmill, and give your muscles a chance to wake up.
- Use your thumbs. What gives us greater dexterity than most animals on the planet? Yes, it’s our opposable thumbs. And yet, a great number of people do not include this strongest of digits in their weight lifting routines. It’s similar to the way the British upper class sips their tea, only no one needs their pinky to stabilize a teacup. Without your thumb, your fingers cannot create a complete circle, which in turn means a dumbbell could go flying. So stop trying to look pristine and actually grip the weight with all five digits.
Get by with a little help from your friend. Asking for help in the gym, or even from someone you live with, is often as painful as asking for directions on a road trip. Yes, you want to appear like the superman or superwoman who’s strong enough to handle it alone, but sometimes a spotter can make all the difference between success and a squished pinky toe. They don’t need to spend all day with you, and in fact, you can politely thank them and offer to return the favor if needed, while simultaneously walking away. But asking for 30 seconds of their time could save you a lot more time in an emergency room.
- Record your progress. If you’ve done P90X®, Tony has drilled into your head the importance of recording your weights and repetitions, every time you work out. This is extremely important not only to create consistent change in your physique, but also as a safety measure to keep you from overdoing it. Since most of us cannot remember our mother’s phone number, how do we expect to recall every single weight of dumbbell we used over the last several days, weeks, or months? And if we aren’t sure where we left off, how are we to know where we are going? It’s pretty common for someone to confuse the number, try to go too heavy, and end up knocking themselves in the head with a dumbbell. (At least I would like to think it common, since I once gave myself a concussion.) Start where you left off, and make small increases according to your workout plan.
Have lighter weights/bands available. Yes, you can use those 20-pound dumbbells for bicep curls, and yes, you can get through 6 repetitions very effectively. But as your form starts to fail, an injury is more likely to occur. So, as opposed to throwing in the towel and watching that TurboFire® video from your couch like it’s an episode of One Life to Live, have lighter weights or resistance bands available to continue your set. Or consider investing in dialing weights like the Bowflex® SelectTech® Dumbbells, where making the weight lighter or heavier is one click away. Whatever the case, do not assume that one pair of dumbbells is going to be enough to work your entire body safely.
- Consistently check your range of motion and momentum. It’s really easy to go a little bit farther than we should, which can cause all kinds of problems. This is the original intention for mirrors lining the walls of gymnasiums. Yes, it was actually to check your form, and not just to stare at your big, beautiful biceps. But since most of us don’t have mirrors lining our living rooms, make sure you are using the appropriate range of motion for every exercise you do. In other words, don’t let your elbows go beneath you in a chest press, don’t let your knees go out over your toes in a squat, and don’t hyperextend your back in a lat pull. Should you be unaware of the proper range of motion for an exercise, ask for some assistance.
- Slow down, Turbo. Be slow and controlled about every movement. This is not an exercise in momentum. And although there are amazing cardiovascular benefits to weightlifting, it’s not like you are trying to sprint around the track with a vampire bat chasing you. You can keep a good pace without letting momentum take over. Not only is it much safer, but much more beneficial to your overall progress.
Accessorize appropriately. This isn’t a suggestion to wear a rhinestone weight lifting belt—although that’d be kind of cool—but to use some basic innovations in resistance training equipment in order to stay safe. Weight lifting gloves can be an inexpensive and invaluable tool in helping maintain grip on free weights, barbells, and pull-up bars. Tony Horton’s PowerStands®can take strain off wrists, forearms, and elbows when doing push-ups. The P90X Chin-Up Barcan change your grip to accommodate a more comfortable or versatile pull-up. Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells can take strain off your upper extremities and back by only requiring you to use one set of dumbbells to do everything, and not bending over to pick up 10 different sets. A plyometrics mat can take strain off your knees, ankles, and hips by creating extra cushion while jumping. And using a Beachbody Balance Ball or Squishy Ball to assist in core work can make your spine more comfortable, while working your abs. Using the right tools can sometimes make a huge difference in results—and safety.
- Assume the position. One of the most horrifying things to observe as a fitness professional is how people actually get into position with their dumbbells. Lying down to do a bench press and reaching down with your arm behind you to pick up 30 pounds is way too common—and dangerous. Or how about the diving forward, as if you were entering a pool, to pick up dumbbells for a set of squats? From my perspective, watching that is scarier than Friday the 13th falling on Halloween. So to avoid strains as the result of bad pick-ups, use the following rules:
- When picking up dumbbells for a standing exercise, try to start with them on a rack or chair at waist height. If they are already on the floor, pick them up one at a time, with bent knees, and put them someplace higher.
- When using dumbbells for a seated exercise, or lying-down exercise, put one on each knee to begin. As you lean back, lift each knee one at a time to help you get the weight into place.
- If you are using dumbbells for a prone or kneeling-on-one-knee exercise, make sure the weight is already within arm’s reach and maintain a flat spine as you lift it up.
- Clean up after yourself. Not to sound like your nagging mother, but don’t be a slob, even in your own home. Many injuries happen as the result of someone tripping over that weight or medicine ball someone left lying on the floor. As my mother used to say, it takes just as long to put it where it belongs as to throw it on the floor. We know this isn’t really true, but if it keeps you from slamming into the ground, a couple extra seconds is worth it.
If you’ve spent any time with P90X or ChaLEAN Extreme®, you know the transformative power of resistance training. And with a bit of preparation and thoughtfulness, it can be an injury-free endeavor as well. Just remember that getting injured will derail your training faster than a visit to Hometown Buffet®. It’s worth a little extra energy to avoid it.
- 1Nicholas Bakalar, “Weight-Lifting Gains Bring Pains, Too.” New York Times, June 14, 2010.
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