Author Archive
It’s a straight rush
Posted by: | CommentsI haven’t blogged about how I’ve been exercising lately so I thought I’d let you all in on the secret. I’m a quarter of the way through a workout DVD program from one of my favourite UFC fighters called RushFit.
Now I’ve never been a huge fan of workout DVDs, mostly because I think most of them just gather dust on the shelves after that initial enthusiasm has worn off but I decided to give it a go. There are three 8 week programs, beginner, intermediate and advanced and the only difference is which DVDs are done on which days. It also has a couple of free cardio days where you can do what ever you like, just for at least 30 minutes.
Each of the DVDs targets a different area of what they call “functional fitness”. There strength and endurance, strength and conditioning, abdominal and core and fight conditioning. There’s also an explosive power training DVD but I don’t do that until week four.
All of them have one thing in common: they are all very difficult but still achievable. If a particular exercise is too hard for you, there’s frequently an easier alternative to prevent you from struggling. Each workout is broken into five 5 minute “rounds”, like an MMA championship fight and these rounds increase in difficulty. Usually at the end of the fifth round, I fall on the floor, drenched in sweat and in pain, but it’s a good feeling knowing that you got to train with a world champion.
So far in the past week I’ve had three people ask me if I’ve lost weight, and I’ve noticed the jeans that I bought at the end of last year now slip down to the point that I find myself standing on the back of the cuffs.
The other change that I’ve made over the past six weeks is I’ve gone completely Straight Edge. Giving up drugs and smoking isn’t a big deal, I’ve never tried either, but giving up alcohol is something a little more difficult. I like beer, vodka and absinthe (not at the same time) and have sometimes used them as a bit of a crutch after a hard week’s work but I’ve come to the conclusion that drinking alcohol is incompatible with my health goals so it’s got to go.
Does it make life less fun? Not really, I can enjoy life with a clear head and not worry about potentially spoiling any of the progress I’ve made.
Recipe: Satay chicken and vegetables
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a recipe that I’ve been working on for a few weeks and think I finally have it perfected.
- 300g of chicken cut into small slices
- 1 can of light coconut milk
- 1.5 desert spoons of peanut butter
- 1 desert spoon of soy sauce
- 1.5 cups of frozen vegetables
Brown the chicken in a non stick pan with no oil. Once chicken is cooked, add coconut milk, soy sauce and peanut butter, bring to the boil, then add the frozen veggies and simmer for 20 minutes. I like to use an organic whole nut peanut butter and reduced salt soy sauce.
While it’s simmering, cook up some brown rice or brown quinoa to serve with the satay chicken. When the rice or quinoa is five minutes away from cooked, I also like to cover the satay mixture with baby spinach, stir and leave it until the rice or quinoa is ready. This makes the baby spinach wilt just a little and adds a nice flavour to it.
As a vegetarian or vegan option, swap the chicken for tofu which also makes a delicious satay.
Book review: Skinny Bastard
Posted by: | CommentsI quite enjoy reading and often read books about nutrition so I figured I’d start posting a review or two on my site. I picked up this book, Skinny Bastard by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, from my local library after hearing UFC fighter Jon Fitch recommend it in an online video.
Supposedly this is a straight shooting book aimed at men and getting them to clean up their diet after the success of Skinny Bitch by the same authors, unfortunately it’s nothing more than a mixture of vegan propaganda, half truths and outright lies.
Some examples, the authors claim that we simply aren’t designed to eat meat because we have alkaline saliva and have lower levels of hydrochloric acid in our stomach when compared to carnivores like lions or tigers, therefore we must be designed to be and descended from vegetarians. Never once do the thought that lions and tigers are exclusive carnivores (eat nothing but meat) while we are omnivores eating meat and plants. Then again, this wouldn’t fit their agenda and narrow world view so they construct this false dichotomy.
An entire section is devoted to aspartame, the artificial sweetener found in Equal and Nutri-Sweet, and how it’s linked to various diseases. Unfortunately most of that information is pulled from a hoax email. Then they also make the claim that aspartame is metabolised into methanol, a deadly poison. This claim is in fact true, however the metabolism of natural substances like ascorbic acid, vitamin C, produces more methanol and our bodies are quite well equipped to deal with it.
The authors also seem to misunderstand many basic concepts. The define the pasteurization of milk as “boiling the hell of out it”, which is blatantly false. Pasteurization is heating milk to a certain temperature (below boiling point as this causes the proteins to denature), then rapidly cooling it, killing harmful bacteria. This process does remove some beneficial proteins and enzymes but protects us against nasties like Lysteria.
Finally an overarching theme of the book seems to be that everyone in the production of food is motivated entirely by money and therefore untrustworthy. Logically this follows that anyone motivated by money is untrustworthy and with that I’d like to ask the authors how much they got paid for this book, because their reasoning clearly applies to them too.
In summary, this book is nothing short of vegan propaganda and will tell you nothing about losing weight. In Defense Of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilema and Good Calorie, Bad Calorie are far better books on nutrition and actually contain real factual information.
My yummy breakfast
Posted by: | CommentsSo I’ve been experimenting with my winter breakfast this week, trying to find the right balance between nutrition and taste. This morning I think I hit the jackpot.
So the basis of my winter breakfast is wholemeal oats, cheap, tasty and nutritious. Instead of making it with soy milk, this morning I used water and added a little soy milk on top for flavour and protein.
The other thing I changed was swapping a processed sugar for a more natural sweetener. I used to use golden syrup, this morning I used agave nectar and it not only tastes better but I feel it kept me fuller longer.
Finally the other constant in my breakfast is a handful of dried cranberries. I’d like to use fresh berries but at this time of year that isn’t practical so dried will have to do.
It’s looking like this is the breakfast for me for the winter now and I must say I’m looking forward to waking up to this each morning.
The accidental vegan
Posted by: | CommentsFirst things first, I’m NOT going vegan. I did, however, cook up a fantastic vegan chili on Saturday night which made enough to feed three adults, plus enough for lunch today and at least tomorrow for me. It wasn’t until after lunch today I realized my first two meals of the day had been completely vegan. For breakfast I have oats cooked in soy milk with dried cranberries and golden syrup.
For dinner we had some lovely vegetarian ravioli with a homemade tomato sauce. Ok, so I did deliberately avoid the cheese to keep my day entirely vegan so it wasn’t entirely accidental, but you know what? It was actually pretty good and I really enjoyed it. Could I be a vegan full time? No way, I like my meat and dairy far too much but I think I’ll make an effort to include one vegetarian or vegan meal in my week.
Some quick tips to achieve your weight loss goals
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s been a little over a year and 22kg since I decided to take hold of my diet and exercise and make some positive changes. Over that time I’ve tried quite a few different things and figured out a few simple things that anyone can do to improve their overall health.
- Avoid added sugar. This one is probably the most obvious but also the hardest to stick to. There are plenty of foods out there that contain naturally occurring sugars which are fine to eat, such as fruit or milk. Obviously you don’t want to over do it, but these foods are fine to eat. It’s the fizzy drinks and sweet treats that we need to cut back on, Coke Zero is a good starting point, but eventually water is where you want to go when thirsty. Unfortunately many of us don’t realize how addicted to sugar we are. I can also tell when I’ve avoided sugar for about four days because I have this overwhelming craving for it. A craving that Coke Zero or a banana won’t satisfy, that’s where will power is important.
- Eat whole grains. Here’s a nice easy one, switch that white toast to a nice whole grain bread. Swap the white rice for brown. White flour was originally a sign of status as it took considerably more labour to remove the husk and germ from the flour, but unfortunately your body burns it faster than whole grain, meaning it gives your body a burst of energy and is then gone.
- Cut down the portion size. There seems to have been a great deal of portion inflation over the years. What’s the right amount of meat or protein to eat for dinner? About 150-200g, yet many of us eat around double that. Your lamb chop or steak should be around the size of the palm of your hand, and don’t go back for seconds.
- Short term pain for long term gain. There are days when it’s tough, days when you’d just like to sit down with a packet of Tim Tams and a six pack of cream donuts but you need to remember what the long term goal is. The occasional slip up will happen and you shouldn’t chastise yourself too hard for it, but you need to get back into the routine as soon as possible. Remember your dietary sins and let them motivate you towards your goal.
- Remember, eating right is not a temporary solution. There is no such thing as a diet, there is only lifestyle change. If you go on a diet and lost 10kg over 10 weeks, then go back to your old bad habits, I almost guarantee you that you’ll gain 12kg in the next 10 weeks. There are plenty of wonderful tasty meals you can eat that are also good for you.
Finally, do not be tempted with any of these fad diets that promise “guaranteed results”, or “lose weight without diet and exercise” because there is no way to shed excess flab without hard work. Exercise is hard work, eating right is hard work, but the pay off is worth the sacrifice. I feel better than I’ve felt in 10 years, I’ve been able to handle two natural disasters, increased pressures at work and becoming a dad all with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. You can do it too, if only you put in the hard work.
I’ll leave you with the words of Lance Armstrong that often inspire me as I run that last km, finish that last heavy set or say no to my favourite comfort foods: “Pain is just weakness leaving the body.”
Quake mince
Posted by: | CommentsThey say that necessity is the mother of invention, and with the recent earthquake here in Christchurch I had to get a little creative with my cooking using what I had on hand to make a tasty and nutritious dinner that I labelled “quake mince”.
Ingredients
- 500g beef mince
- 2 cans of baked beans
- 250g frozen veggies
- 1 cup of rice
Brown mince, add baked beans and veggies, then leave to simmer for 20 minutes. During this time, cook the rice then add to pan and simmer for 5 minutes.
Tasty, healthy and made from items you’re likely to have around the house most of the time. Just try not to spill it during any aftershocks.
Slacking off
Posted by: | CommentsSo lately I’ve noticed that my workout routine has been anything but routine. In fact, my schedule has been all over the place with a laundry list of excuses. “I’m too tired”, “Don’t have time”, “Gotta cook dinner”, or the old classic, “I’ll do it later”.
Starting now, I’m back to my alternating regime of weights one day, cardio the next. I managed to get in a run last week, something I really enjoyed and hope to do more of. Not quite sure how I’m going to balance slow cardio with HIIT training yet, but I’ll figure something out.
One thing I’ve noticed lately is that I’ve lost a little bit of muscle tone. When I was working out every day last month my arms were noticeably firm, while they’re by no means soft, they’ve certainly gone backwards in a month. And that’s something that only hard work can fix.
Changing the routine
Posted by: | CommentsSo I’ve been doing largely the same routine with weights for over six weeks, so it’s time to change it up. After six weeks your muscles adapt to the movements you put them through and it’s when you are likely to hit a plateau, both in terms of fat loss and muscle gain.
I’ve been steadily increasing the amount of weight I use and am currently at 9kg on each dumbbell, but I’ve changed almost every exercise in my routine to avoid the plateau. With my calf healed up too, I’ve included some lower body moves and added in some compound moves as well.
- Lunging squat to military press – replaces flat chest press
- Kettlebell swing (12kg kettlebell) – replaces knee ups and back extensions
- Squat to bicep curl – replaces/supplements bicep curls
- Tricep kick back (2.5kg dumbbell) – replaces overhead tricep extension
- Upright row – only unchanged exercise, suggestions welcomed
- Reverse dumbbell flies (2.5kg dumbbell) – replaces bent over row
- Wrist extensions (2.5kg dumbbell) – new exercise
Overall I’m enjoying the new routine, it makes for a good change and with the compound movements, I work a lot of major muscle groups at the same time. I’m going to stick to this one every other day for the next six weeks, although I may replace the upright row with something else.
In terms of the way I look, I am now quite happy with how my arms and shoulders look, but my chest and stomach need a little more work. Actually, they don’t need that much work as I can feel there is some good muscle mass there, there’s just a layer of fat covering them that I need to burn off.
Surprisingly, rugby season isn’t that far around the corner so I’ll need to build a bit of an anaerobic base for that but I’m confident I’ll be in the best shape I’ve ever been in for a rugby season, hopefully that will help with my decision making on the field.
I’ve been a bit slack with my workouts this week just gone, mostly due to the fact that work’s been crazy and I just couldn’t find the motivation to workout after a hard day. It looks like that’s settled down now, so I can’t wait to get stuck in again this week.
In the deep end
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the most effective methods of training it to keep your body guessing, so today I changed up my cardio regime to an activity I haven’t done in over eight months: swimming.
My lovely wife gave me a new pair of togs for christmas so it seemed a good idea to try them out too.
When I used to swim, I would do 400m and often felt dreadful afterwards. Clearly I’m in better shape than I used to be because today I did 500m without too much trouble. In fact I would have gone further had it not been for aching triceps and lats.
Tomorrow I’m back on the weights, have added an extra kg to them and feel like I’m maybe a week away from adding another.