When Sweet goes bad
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Hey… its Superbowl Sunday!!!!! I know most of you will be sharing this day with friends and family, and consuming lots of food and drinks! If you remember, I discussed consuming sodas in a post a couple of months ago. You can read that here. In that article, I made a comment regarding diet sodas and how people think they are better than regular sodas. This is a myth! Diet sodas and even nutritional supplements contain a artificial sweetner call Aspartame. Aspartame has been linked to brain tumors and other ailments. Have a look at this documentary done by a woman who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after years of aspartame consumption. If you are a consumer of diet sodas, please consider not drinking them anymore. See you on the lean side… and enjoy the Super Bowl.
Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing SpecialistCertified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Nutrition Education and Weight Management Special
Do you unravel when you travel?
By · CommentsI am traveling this week! A few thoughts came to mind so I wanted to ask, “what do you do when you are traveling”? What do you do when you are thrown into an environment and its not what you are use to? Do you adapt or do you just let yourself sink and give up on your healthy eating habits and exercise?
In the past when I traveled on business, I was at my own mercy. I would fall prey to all the meeting snacks they put out during break which would include pastries, cookies, and even ice cream. I”m not sure what it is about meetings but the thought of sitting there listening to one person for an extended period of time made me sleepy. In order to combat the sleepiness, I would eat just to try and stay awake. That was the wrong thing me for me to do! It gave me a sugar rush and it would temporarily keep me awake, but within a few minutes I would have to fight to stay awake even more due to the sudden rush of insulin. Once the meeting was over, I would run to my room feeling exhausted even though I didn’t exercise. Why wasn’t I exercising? It was probably because I thought I needed a gym at that time. I had fooled around in hotel gyms before and alot of them were ill equipped . What do I mean? They usually had one raggedy treadmill, no dumbells, and very few had any cardio equipment. So… what to do, what to do? I would usually go back up to my room kick up my feet and watch TV. Is that what you do now?
I think most of us give up when we are traveling because its easy to do. Its easy to eat all the bad food and skip working out because you are traveling isn’t it? What if you made the sacrifice to continue your exercise and eat healthy foods? Here’s what I did to make sure I didn’t skip my exercise routine and make sure I ate properly. I brought along my bodylastics resistance bands. I can attach those to my hotel room door for back exercises and also use them for a variety of other exercises. In addition, I packed some trail mix consisting of almonds, raisins, cranberries, and pistachio nuts. I ate that for a snack in between my regular meals. I bypassed the pastries in the morning, skipped the afternoon cookies, and told the ice cream goodbye with the evening meal. It made it easier that I prepared in advance and didn’t fall prey to self sabotage. Are you falling prey to self sabotage? See you on the lean side!
Weight vs. Fat… Do you know the difference?
By · CommentsI had an interesting epiphany the other day…. it came at a crazy time. I am training a client and she happened to ask me why she isn’t seeing her weightloss on the scale? I told her not to pay attention to the scale. She gave me a crazy look as if to say, “What do you mean, don’t pay attention to the scale?”. It sounds odd to tell someone this especially when their primary goal is to lose weight or is it? I think there finally needs to be a clear line drawn between weightloss and fatloss. Follow me… I am going somewhere with this!
In case you didn’t know, there is an obsession with weight loss. I would be willing to bet you can’t watch TV for an extended period of time without seeing an ad for some pill or potion to lose weight. Companies capitalize off this, and implant in the mind weight, weight, weight. Am I correct? What about fat? Few if any of these commercials attack fat loss! I wonder why? It’s probably because the money is in the disease and not in the cure. What do I mean by that? All of these weightloss companies are out to make a buck and not necessarily to educate the consumer. Don King, the boxing promoter, says it best when he says, “ Only in America” because only in America can ignorance be capitalized on to make a quick buck. They want to make money and won’t tell you the truth, but I am going to tell you the plain truth about weightloss right here and now! weightloss is a myth, it is fatloss you want to shoot for if you want to look and feel better. How could that be?
Have you ever seen someone who has loss weight at a rapid pace? I have and I can tell you they still looked unhealthy! When you lose weight at a rapid pace, chances are you are also losing muscle. Muscle is something you just can’t have enough of because it keeps your metabolism humming along so you can burn calories. You need to burn calories in order to lose fat. If you replace fat with muscle, you’ll look damn good… more shapely, more toned, and then you’ll have something in the bank that will keep your fat burning furnace revved up. You could settle for plain ol’ weighloss where you lose weight only to gain it back. If I were you, I would pick up a barbell, a dumbell, or resistance band and start building some muscle today. What do you think? See you on the lean side…Dee
Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing SpecialistCertified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Nutrition Education and Weight Management Specialist
“LongEye”
By · CommentsLongeyed- To have or want something just because you see it!
I wanted to give you a definition for something I am going to discuss today. It’s what I called “LongEyed” syndrome or wanting something just because you see it. I am unsure of the origin of the word but my Mom used it a lot when I was growing up. When would she use it? Why would she use it? It was usually used to describe me whenever I asked for something just because I saw someone else with it. That something it was usually attached to, had to do with food. As a child growing up, I couldn’t stand to see anyone with food and I couldn’t have it. If I saw you with ice cream, guess what? I had to have it too! If I saw you with candy, guess who had to have it? That would be me (lol). I wouldn’t eat everything when I got it but it made me content to have it, because you had it! Now… fast forward to my adult life. I’ve matured and no longer suffer from the “longeye” but I am noticing some adults still suffer from this terrible affliction!
I attend social gatherings throughout the year and they always involve food. I am not sure what it is, but parties and food good together. If they don’t, then chances are it “ain’t” a good party! In the past, I would indulge in unhealthy food and inevitably pay for my bad choices later. Those bad choices would end up in having a upset stomach, or worst yet being sick to my stomach from the bad food I ate. It wasn’t until I started asking myself internal questions that I started to make wiser decisions relating to food. How did I do it? For instance, if there was a party and cake was involved my first impulse was to want cake because everyone else had a slice. Sound familiar? I didn’t really want the cake but there was my “longeye” syndrome creeping back in the picture. I’ll admit before I started taking some time to ask myself a question or two, I would fall victim to the “longeye” on a constant basis. I grew to be a bit more mature now so I ask myself, “ How would that cake make me feel” or what would be the result if I ate the cake without really wanting it? Hmmm… chances are I’ll gain weight. In order to make better eating decisions, don’t follow the crowd. Why not? If you haven’t taken a look lately, most Americans are obese and unhealthy. In some cases, there are medical reasons for this, but in most it is just being “longeyed”. If its there, it doesn’t mean you have to eat it! See you on the lean side….Dee
Darren McDuffie
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Certified Fitness Testing Specialist
Certified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Nutrition Education and Weight Management Specialist
Be an Exercise Chameleon!
By · CommentsWhy are we so afraid to change? Its the question I ask myself whenever I go to a “commercial gym”. What is a commercial gym, you might be asking? Its the gym you pay a monthly fee to use. I don’t do commercial gyms often but when I do, I always see the same thing. I bet you have seen this and if you haven’t you probably will at some point. Hell… the person I am going to describe might even be you! Here goes… I almost always see the same person doing the same workout they have been doing for months sometimes even years. This same person will inevitably complain about not seeing any results. I usually think “duh”… you are not going to see any results until you change your program and do something different. Why is that?
In case you didn’t know it, your body Will start to adjust to a workout the very first time you do it. This is why your workout actually starts to get easier unless you add more weight, more reps, or sets. I don’t care who you are, this is going to happen. This just doesn’t happen with the weight you lift, it can also happen with your diet. You may need to “tweak” your diet depending on caloric expenditure. You might try to rotate carbs, cutback on carbs, or even add more protein to your diet depending on what you are trying to accomplish. I guess you are getting the picture now, right?
Boooorinnnggg is what I call the same gym routine everyday! Mix it up a little bit. Did you know there aren’t just barbells and dumbells for exercise? You can use resistance bands, sandbags, and tractor tires. All of these methods are unconventional and require your body to adjust and in turn, you get better results. You don’t even have to use barbells or dumbells… what about bodyweight? Yup… those pushups you did in your high school gym class can help you shape a lean frame! There is so much which exists in the fitness world its ashame to waste it on a boring bench press and a barbell curl. I always change my routine and am always looking to challenge myself with something harder and the results are always good. Don’t be afraid to “switch your pitch up” every now and then. Have you changed your routine and got good results? I would like to hear about it. See you on the lean side….Dee
Darren McDuffie
Certified Fitness Testing Specialist
Certified Exercise Foundations Specialist
Certified Nutrition Education and Weight Management Specialist
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
