AITank: Fitness Explained

I have to tell everyone about this page because no matter who you are, it will help you make ridiculously easy and unbelievably good food. Mind you, CHEAP. The Pioneer Woman Cooks is brilliant! Their are countless recipes to choose from and everything is made so simple and easy to follow that you would have to be a little sore round the grey bits in your head to not produce what the recipes show.

Ree as the author calls herself, is a “desperate housewife. I love to cook delicious, abundant, satisfying food using the simplest of ingredients.” Where have you been all my life?!?! Everything from the lasagna to the chocolate sheet cake is superb. She provides amazing pictures for each step of the process so if something does not look right you will be able to figure it out soon enough. But really, take some time to browse around the offerings she has posted for us all. In college and need help keeping variety in your diet on a short wallet, this is your answer. Get home late and still need to whip something up for yourself before bed but do not want microwave tv dishes, this is your answer.

Nothing is overly flamboyant, there is no black truffles, no fruits from Rangoon or flour made in some small province in Italy. Just stuff you can find easily, make easily, and enjoy immensely.

Tell me what your favorite recipe is. Always looking to try new ones!

Don’t gulp down a huge meal right before a workout.

So it’s about 9 pm, and the gym closes at 10:30. I still haven’t eaten and my mom has cooked some sausages and she wants to know if I’d rather eat before or after my workout. They smelled so good that I decided to eat them before.

Let’s just say pausing multiple times in the middle of sets to burp isn’t exactly beneficial to your lifts.

A lot of people are under the impression that doing crunches will get them a six-pack. In reality, this is not true. We recently received a question from Greg of Akron, OH regarding this topic. Greg writes, “I am trying to find the fastest way to get back my 6 pack before summer comes and swim team arrives! Do you know anything that would help?”

Well, sculpting a six-pack pack is all about body fat, regardless of how much cardio or how many crunches you do. Cardio just aids in getting there because it burns calories, and weight loss is when calories burned is greater than calories eaten (we covered this in more detail in a previous post). However, diet is by far the most important aspect of getting your abs to show. Crunches will help to define them and make them stronger, but if you have a bunch of flab over them they’ll never show anyway.

If you need some diet suggestions, we talked about various ideas in this post. Another important thing to point out is the “spot reduction myth.” It is impossible to actively target a specific area, such as the stomach, for fat loss. You cannot simply choose what area you want to lose fat in and work out that area.

Hope this helps, and if you have any further questions don’t hesitate to ask.

If you are like me and still in school, then eating right is slightly harder for most of us because we either do not have the time to cook large meals or are restricted by a cash flow that well… might not exist. This does not mean that you cannot eat well, you just have to be more selective on what you buy. Or if you have access to a cafeteria or some sort of meal plan, pick the most nutrient dense foods you can to maximize your intake of protein/carbs/fats. Let’s take a look at some healthy choices.

Eggs are a staple of the hard eating college student. One will not do much for you so you will have to pick up a couple. At most eat 2 to 3 yolks and up to 7 whites to go with it. So lets say 3 whole eggs and four extra whites. The yolks are packed with calories and cholesterol which is why we want to limit how many we eat. To make your life easie look for hardboiled eggs so that you can separate the two parts easier. Slice them and throw them down or crumble one or two over a mixed salad with some light dressing. It makes for a good lean meal packed full of protein and calories.

Next is chicken breasts. Always opt for chicken over burgers at the cafeteria as the meat they use for the burgers is most likely anything but lean, giving you more fat than you would otherwise want.

With spring break and summer fast approaching, the number one question that will start to circulate is how do I tone up to get a swim suit body or get that mythic six pack so I can show the world. It starts with knowing how to plan a lean diet. Rule number one: never skip meals. Dropping the number of meals you take in per day lowers your metabolic rate and increases the level of nutrient oxidation. This means you will feel lethargic and what fat you have, your body will fight to keep as long as possible based on a primal survival instinct. Rule number two: eat 5 to 6 meals per day. This will kick start your metabolism leading to a higher basal metabolic rate, or BMR, and will stabilize your level of nutrient oxidation making your body more efficient at utilizing food you put in it.

With the basics out of the way lets talk details now. The goal for a leaning or cutting diet is to be high in protein, low in fat and have a decent amount of carbohydrates. If you wanted to talk ratios it would be approximately 42% carbs, 38% protein, 20% fat with the fats being primarily healthy sources such as olive oil, flax oil, fish, peanuts, fruits and veggies like avocado. Look for good carbs to come from items such as, oatmeal, whole grains, yams, beans, and pasta. For good clean protein look to chicken, turkey, egg whites, seafood like tuna, low fat or fat free yogurt, soy products and 2% and lower milk.

All too often I am asked, “What should I be taking to help me get bigger ” and just as often to lose weight or get leaner. These people often times come prepared with a list of pills and and powders as long as a textbook. I sit there and wonder, can they really be serious. Often times they are, convinced by the marketing madness thrown at them by the major supplement companies out there. Well to those people whose breakfast looks like a bunch of pills and various powders, I want to hear this: have you seen any measurable progress towards your goal that you can attribute to this pseudo pharmacy you take in every day? If you can say yes to that question, please email me or leave a comment, I want to hear from you. Now to the majority that will have answered that question with a no lets start talking real sense.

There is one thing that almost all amateur fitness buffs forget to incorporate into their diet strategy and that is to take a good multivitamin. If you are active, you need more than the recommended daily allowance of almost all vitamins and minerals, and because of this multivitamins are essential. Having sufficient levels of vitamins and minerals promotes a strong immune system, steady metabolic processes, hormonal balance and mental alertness. They allow the food you eat to be utilized more effectively giving you the most out of each meal as many vitamins function as cofactors in the digestion of amino acids and carbohydrates. So what should you look for in a multivitamin? Mainly look for a complete pill that has all your vitamins minerals and anti-oxidants along with being low in iron. Two of the best out there are AST Multi Pro 32X and Twinlab Daily One. NOW also makes a very good multi-v, one for men and one for women named Adam and Eve respectively.

In later posts we will go in depth, and talk about individual vitamins and minerals, their effects on you, and then start talking specific supplements such as protein, glutamine and creatine.

A lot of people have been under the very ridiculous impression that eating as much protein as humanly possible will make them stronger. This is not how it works. You don’t have to gulp down 5 servings of whey at a time. You don’t have to eat protein bars before, during, and after your workout. In fact, EXCESSIVE protein will HURT you more than it HELPS you. The human body can only absorb a certain amount of protein before it starts going to waste (the cutoff is usually about 2 grams per pound of bodyweight, for serious bodybuilders - and in actuality is probably less, depending on your level of intensity). “But the more protein I eat, the bigger I’ll get!” This is true, but only up to a point, and after that point it just goes to waste. Apples are healthy but you wouldn’t sit around and eat an entire orchard in one sitting. Gulping down protein bars every hour is like staying up all night studying a subject you aren’t even taking.

Now that you know HOW MUCH you need, let’s talk about what KIND you need. There are different types of proteins as well as different qualities, and you want most of your protein intake to be high quality proteins. The BEST sources of protein are real foods, not manufactured products with sugar and fat thrown in to make them taste better. Peanut butter, chicken, turkey, salmon, nuts, eggs, milk: these are all great sources of protein. Rather than buying your groceries at GNC, grill up some chicken breast or boil some eggs.

It is 5:30 in the morning and the sun has yet to come up over the city. The wheels on this plan of mine have been set in motion and that means I have to feed the animal growing inside. A bowl of Bob’s Red Mill oatmeal, 4 egg whites and 2 yolks scrambled in olive oil, two slices of toast, a cup of yogurt and a tall glass of milk. Yah that sounds good; a meal that will stick to my ribs as my mom used to say and provide all the energy I need and then some for the morning workout. Clean carbs and some good protein thrown into the mix, oh and some good fats as well. Take my AST MultiPro vitamin and I am primed, ready to get under the iron. Contrary to what many believe, you cannot accomplish anything really without feeding yourself properly. Can’t lose weight, gain muscle, be mentally alert - nothing. That is of course unless you are in a state of ketosis and your body has rewired itself to operate in the most primal of survival modes. Want to lose weight, well listen here; there is no magic diet, there is no magic pill. If you have a medical condition that causes you to be over or under weight then that is a matter all unto itself. But for the rest of the people out there that are constantly looking for this lazy man’s out, you are not going to find it.