Tag: special food

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The Real Truth behind Organic Foods

Many people are unaware of what organic food really is.  It seems that everywhere we go now, someone is promoting something that is “organic”.  Are these foods worth your time and money?

It almost seems like some people are afraid of organic food. Could this be possible? Are people afraid that eating one morsel of organic food is going to somehow instantly initiate them into the organic food cult where you’re only allowed to wear sandals made from tree bark and deodorant is prohibited?

I swear I have had people say to me “Well, you can’t be that organic because you wear make-up and you don’t smell.”

What? That’s not what organic means at all!  All it means is that the food or the product has been grown the way mother nature intended: without the use of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. In other words, naturally!

Are some people afraid of the price? Organic does not automatically mean “break the bank”. Many times when I compare the price of the organic food versus the conventional food, they are only a few cents different. In the case of the bag of organic carrots I bought today for my lunch, they were the exact same price as the conventional ones. Imagine that!

If anything about the word “organic” makes you want to jump and run the other way, be sure to read my previous blog post “Is there such a thing as Cheap Organic Food?”

It will help you understand exactly why organic food is all the rave these days and what you can do to make organic living easy, simple and not so scary!

Get started on your own fat loss and health goals right away with these Simple and Easy Healthy Meal Plans.

Stay up to date on the most current nutrition and health information here:  The Best Diet Info.

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Get Big Muscles In 3 Simple Steps

Do you know what it really takes to build big muscles? Do you think it’s as simple as buying a gym membership, training each body once per week, slamming back some protein shakes and trying to eat as much chicken and tuna possible? Viola, you are big enough to enter a bodybuilding contest. Can you imagine it was that easy to build big muscles? Unfortunately, your monthly gym membership, regular weight training workouts and casual eating habits, isn’t going to cut it. Here are five simple steps to getting big muscles fast :

Squat and Deadlift

Squatting and Deadlifting are known as two of the Big Three exercises that are responsible for power and mass muscle building. Consider these two animal exercises the kings of the jungle! Without them, you do not have a chance of survival. These two exercises alone, work out about 75% of your entire musculature, including your traps, shoulders, arms, back. Gluts, hams, calves and core muscles.

Not to mention the degree of intensity, squats and dead lifts force your body to release greater volumes of growth hormone, which results in bigger muscles all over your body. This spillover effect results in strength gains in all you other lifts which translates into a more muscular you! Squatting and dead lifting are especially critical for hard gainers because of the hormonal spikes affecting the entire body.

Stick to Compound Exercises

What is going to isolate more muscle fibers? A bench press or cable cross over? A military press or lateral raise? A chin up or bicep curl? A dip or tricep kickback? If you ever hope to get big muscles than compound lifts are not optional, they are mandatory. Stick to squats, leg presses, deadlifts, bench preses, barbell rows, pull ups, chin ups, over head presses, and dips.

If all you do is concentrate on building your puny muscles like arms and calves, then you will end up with exactly what you focus on – puny muscles!

Keep Your Rest Periods Honest

When was the last time you were in the gym and you watched the average guy time his recovery with a stop watch? Stop watches are not just for endurance athletes but should be used by every person who is serious about building big muscles.

Generally, the closer you lift to your one rep max, the longer the rest period and the higher the number of reps, the shorter the rest period. This is a crucial variable, which is often overlooked, yet will determine whether you create the correct training response.

For example, if you are training for maximal strength which requires at least 3-5 minutes rest between sets and you are only taking 2 minutes, you are not giving your nervous system an honest workout. If you are training for muscle size which requires shorter 30-90 second style recoveries but are gazing at the cute girl on the elliptical letting your rest periods carry over these ranges, you are not giving your metabolic system an honest workout.

Lastly, how do you know if you are truly stronger if you do not monitor your rest period? For example, let’s say last week you bench pressed 135 pounds for four sets of ten. This week you bench pressed 145 pounds for four sets of ten. Assuming the rest period was identical for both workouts, this is a tremendous improvement and a measurable sign of improvement! However, what if you took an extra minute or two between each set on the recent workout? This means that you did not actually become stronger. You just had a longer rest period!

Conclusion

You now know that building big muscles is not easy as showing up at the gym and throwing back a few protein shakes. Apply these three simple steps in your next program and I promise that you will start building brand new muscle all over your body!

Everything you need to know about muscle building

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9 Easy-To-Make Muscle Building Growth Recipes

Think putting yourself on a muscle building diet has to be a painful process?  Whether your goal is fat loss or muscle building, getting proper nutrition is at least 80% of the game. If you don’t have that figured out, you are going to be a long time away from seeing results.

The good news is that your tastebuds don’t have to suffer if you don’t want them to. There are plenty of ways to get in your proper nutrition while keeping things interesting. If you think gaining muscle means suffering through can of tuna after can of tuna or pounding back a protein shake as fast as humanly possible, you need to think again.

Give one of these recipes a try and you’ll be surprised just how easy it is to eat right, achieve your goals and actually ENJOY your food at the same time.

Protein Fudge Nuggets

These are great to take to the gym as a post-workout treat or just for a snack to eat between meals. When you are trying to gain weight many of you really need to packing in the calories so you need calorie dense foods. These chocolate treats have it all. 

8 scoops chocolate protein powder

1 cup oatmeal (can be ground depending on the consistency you’d like)

1/3 cup natural peanut butter

3 tbsp honey

½ cup milk

3 tbsp crushed peanuts

First mix together the protein powder, oatmeal, peanut butter, honey and milk. Form into small balls and then roll in the crushed peanuts to finish.  Note that these can easily be frozen in plastic bags and consumed on a later date.

Nutritional Info (1/10 of the recipe)

234 calories

6.7 grams fat

18 grams carbohydrates

25 grams protein

Pumpkin Pancakes
When you’re craving a good home-made pancake breakfast, give these a try. They are filled with slow digesting carbohydrates that will keep your blood sugar steady throughout the morning.

¼ cup oats

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

5 egg whites

1 tbsp ground flax

½ tbsp cinnamon

Splenda to taste

First heat a frying pan until hot and then reduce to medium temperature. After mixing together all the ingredients drop by spoonful onto the plan, flipping when bubbles start to form.

Makes about 5 – 4″ pancakes.

Nutritional Info (per recipe)

217 calories

23 grams protein

26 grams carbohydrates

4 grams fat

Protein Jell-O
When you’re craving something sweet but are on a very low carb diet, there often is not a lot of options. This recipe is the perfect dessert that will give you plenty of protein and not much else.  Great for those on a very strict diet.

1 package sugar-free Jell-O (any flavour)

1 scoop Syntrax Nectar protein powder (any flavour – to match Jell-O)

Mix 1 cup boiling water with the Jell-O powder then stir in one scoop of the protein powder until dissolved.  Once that’s finished, mix in one cup of cold water and allow to set. Serve with low fat Cool Whip if desired.

Blueberry Cookies
Everyone needs a good cookie now and then but not everyone needs the damage to their diet. Luckily with these not only will you be getting a great dose of protein, you will be getting plenty of antioxidants from the blueberries.

2 scoops vanilla protein powder

4 egg whites

½ cup oats

1 cup blueberries

First combine all three ingredients so they are blended well. Then mix in blueberries and drop by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degree Celsius for approximately thirteen minutes.  Makes 10 cookies.

Nutritional Info (per cookie)

54 calories

6.5 grams protein

0.7 grams fat

5.5 grams carbs

More healthy food recipes here

Intramuscular Buffering Capacity

Finally, the last adaptation that’s seen with sprint training is the buffering capacity of the muscle. During glycoglysis, various byproducts are created such as lactic acid, and when these accumulate, it causes the extreme feelings of fatigue in the muscle tissues.

This then forces you to stop exercising as the fatigue sets in and often will be the end of your workout.

Overtime, sprint training will increase your ability to buffer these byproducts so that you can then workout for a longer period of time while maintaining that intensity.

So, next time you’re debating about whether to do a sprint training session or a moderate paced cardio session lasting for 40 minutes or so, opt for the sprint session.

The benefits you’ll receive are far more numerous and fat loss will be kicked up a notch as an added benefit. Keep in mind that for these type of benefits to occur, you want your sprints to last somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 seconds to 40 seconds, with a work to rest ration of about 1:2. Repeat this process a total of 6 to 8 times and begin and end with a five minute warm-up and cool-down.

For more tips on healthy eating read here