So today I was having an off day after having to leave the wilderness - though it was only just east of Barrie I was still surrounded by trees, water and wildlife. I always have trouble coming back to the city after being in such a peaceful place it seems. Not to 'toot my own horn',as one of my grandparents would say, but I rarely have a day where I don't actually WANT to work out.
Today was one of those days, sadly. I did, however, push myself to work out and that's what this bloggg is about! I even had trouble getting motivated through my warm up which is even more rare, but I pushed through anyways. When I finished the workout I felt great: accomplished, happy, proud that I had worked so hard (and sweat so much), and just had an overall better feeling emanating from myself. I then wondered why this was? It didn't take me long to find out, it seems.
I usually read up, blog and research about physical benefits of nutrition and exercise so my foray into the psychological aspect of it was a new one. It also took me in a direction I didn't expect: depression. I am by no means a depressed person, but like I said earlier everyone has off days. Anxiety also comes into play, but though that was contributing factor today as well, the following works to improve both problems.
Key Components: Endorphins & Anandamide
Endorphins have long been known to be the body's natural pain reliever and antidepressant and are released as a result of exercise (and can actually be found days later in the body after you stop exercising). Anandamide is synthesized in the body from essential fatty acids (which I wont get into here) and being up at the cottage I of course didn't have my Omega 3-6-9's with me nor did I eat any fish while I was there, so this could be partly to blame for my bad mood. Endorphin production occurs during long, strenuous workouts and production is increased more when muscles use up their stored glycogen - which is after about an hour of high intensity training (care of Insanity ;]). This creates what is called the 'runners high' or the happy sensation once you finish.
Sooooo many people use the excuse that they are having a bad day, feel crummy or plain just don't feel like exercising. I guess now those excuses won't fly with me anymore - hah! One more excuse down you fat world of ours.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Nutritionist vs. Dietician
Far too many people use the words Nutritionist and Dietician interchangably and it drives me bananas. On on hand, it makes the Nutritionist sound pretty damn awesome, but on the other hand it makes the Dietician's years of school, credentials and accountability seem meeningless.
To put it bluntly, my 16 year old cousin working at GNC could be called a Nutritionist. Oftentimes they have no damn idea what they are talking about, and most of the time they should not be giving advice to people - especially when those people think they have some accreditation.
Dieticians: Have a Bachelor in something related to health & nutrition coupled with practical training in a supervised University or Hospital setting, are registered professionals (aka can have a designation after their name such as R.D.) and are accountable to provincial regulatory bodies for their professional conduct and the care they provide - just like doctors, pharmacists, lawyers...
Nutritionists: May have some - or all - of the credentials a dietician has. A dietician is a nutritionist but a nutritionist may not always be a dietician (a square is rectangle but a rectangle may not always be a square) . The picture at the top is of Connie Diekman (President of the American Dietetic Association) and her dog Eddie. The cirtificate in front of Eddie is a certificate making him a nutritionist from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants.
Would you take nutrition advice from a dog?
To put it bluntly, my 16 year old cousin working at GNC could be called a Nutritionist. Oftentimes they have no damn idea what they are talking about, and most of the time they should not be giving advice to people - especially when those people think they have some accreditation.
Dieticians: Have a Bachelor in something related to health & nutrition coupled with practical training in a supervised University or Hospital setting, are registered professionals (aka can have a designation after their name such as R.D.) and are accountable to provincial regulatory bodies for their professional conduct and the care they provide - just like doctors, pharmacists, lawyers...
Nutritionists: May have some - or all - of the credentials a dietician has. A dietician is a nutritionist but a nutritionist may not always be a dietician (a square is rectangle but a rectangle may not always be a square) . The picture at the top is of Connie Diekman (President of the American Dietetic Association) and her dog Eddie. The cirtificate in front of Eddie is a certificate making him a nutritionist from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants.
Would you take nutrition advice from a dog?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Guess What This Is?
So can you guess what this is? Ice cream? Frozen Yogurt? Some type of industrial foam? Nope, it's chicken.
Huffington Post
This is the meat that is left over on the bones after it is cut off. Why not put it through a high pressure sleeve to get a bit more of chicken, turkey, pork or beef out of your animal, right? In the US beef can no longer be eaten like this, but the other three still are. Oh, and it is treated with ammonia because of the ridiculous amount of bacteria. And artificially sweetened. And artificially coloured. Awesome!
Obesity Epidemic
This 'epidemic', as they call it, drives me bonkers. I put the word epidemic in quotes because I believe that no epidemic should be self-inflicted. What brought this on was a link in the news today:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/04/26/obesity-legislate.html
The Canadian Medical Association Journal has some great points on how to curb the obesity problem, but I have a couple of my own. You may think that these are fiscally irresponsible, but bare with me for a minute.
-Firstly, I agree with the CMAJ to tax junk food (plus fast food) to the point where healthy food is less than this crap. -Second, every time tax season rolls around everyone gets their bodyfat percentage taken (NOT BMI as it is antiquated and useless in my opinion) and if you are obese, you get taxed 10% your annual income. If you are overweight, you get taxed 5% your annual income. Obviously people with legitimate health problems NOT caused by their obesity would not be included (ie. thyroid problems)-Lastly, ban genetically modified foodsAnyone reading this must think I am insane, especially with point #2 thinking it isn't fiscally feasible.
-If everyone at healthy food (organic/local fruits & veggies and mostly lean meat), there would be muuuccchhh less digestive, cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes problems. How you say? Antacids are one of the fastest growing over the counter medicines and are so popular because our acidity levels in the crap we eat are through the roof! This is just one example of how it would fix digestive problems, though there are many others. Consuming more 'good' cholesterol (HDL) that is naturally present in many healthy foods and decreasing the amount of 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) that are present in tons of junk crap is a pretty easy cure, and heart disease goes hand in hand with this as well. By having fibre in most (read: all) of our daily meals we will regulate our blood sugar better, leading to less cravings for more food (continual daily eating leading to obesity) as well as helping prevent us from becoming insulin resistant. This is all just off the top of my head, by the way.
-Hitting people in their wallets is how you will get this obesity epidemic to stop. If you tax people a large amount (as proposed above) they will for damn sure try and fix it. If you are wondering how much these bodyfat calculators will cost the foot to hand machines (which are the best of the electronic ones) are relatively cheap and measure most of the fat in the body (whereas the scales you stand on only measure the bottom 1/2 of your body and the hand held ones measure only the top half). The taxes would more than pay for these in the first year alone and could be reused. Even if you were to hydrostatically weigh people in dunk tanks all over the country it would still be fiscally feasible. This isn't even taking into account the healthcare savings!
-Banning GM or GE foods, even though evil big business says they're 'reasonably safe', will save us a ton of money down the line in health care costs. The studies that have been undertaken have shown some frightening results (google it if you don't believe me). Cancer, decreased testicle size, loss of hair in labs rats, etc. are some of the 'reasonably safe' outcomes of GE food. The KEY thing in here is that I am going by bodyfat percentages and not BMI. You would be surprised how many thin people are overweight when it comes to bodyfat percentages, the 'skinny-fat' population if you will. Usually these are people who eat very little and never exercise. These people will not be exempt from the taxes! If you are wondering what the percentages are for normal/overweight/obese here they are:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/04/26/obesity-legislate.html
The Canadian Medical Association Journal has some great points on how to curb the obesity problem, but I have a couple of my own. You may think that these are fiscally irresponsible, but bare with me for a minute.
-Firstly, I agree with the CMAJ to tax junk food (plus fast food) to the point where healthy food is less than this crap. -Second, every time tax season rolls around everyone gets their bodyfat percentage taken (NOT BMI as it is antiquated and useless in my opinion) and if you are obese, you get taxed 10% your annual income. If you are overweight, you get taxed 5% your annual income. Obviously people with legitimate health problems NOT caused by their obesity would not be included (ie. thyroid problems)-Lastly, ban genetically modified foodsAnyone reading this must think I am insane, especially with point #2 thinking it isn't fiscally feasible.
-If everyone at healthy food (organic/local fruits & veggies and mostly lean meat), there would be muuuccchhh less digestive, cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes problems. How you say? Antacids are one of the fastest growing over the counter medicines and are so popular because our acidity levels in the crap we eat are through the roof! This is just one example of how it would fix digestive problems, though there are many others. Consuming more 'good' cholesterol (HDL) that is naturally present in many healthy foods and decreasing the amount of 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) that are present in tons of junk crap is a pretty easy cure, and heart disease goes hand in hand with this as well. By having fibre in most (read: all) of our daily meals we will regulate our blood sugar better, leading to less cravings for more food (continual daily eating leading to obesity) as well as helping prevent us from becoming insulin resistant. This is all just off the top of my head, by the way.
-Hitting people in their wallets is how you will get this obesity epidemic to stop. If you tax people a large amount (as proposed above) they will for damn sure try and fix it. If you are wondering how much these bodyfat calculators will cost the foot to hand machines (which are the best of the electronic ones) are relatively cheap and measure most of the fat in the body (whereas the scales you stand on only measure the bottom 1/2 of your body and the hand held ones measure only the top half). The taxes would more than pay for these in the first year alone and could be reused. Even if you were to hydrostatically weigh people in dunk tanks all over the country it would still be fiscally feasible. This isn't even taking into account the healthcare savings!
-Banning GM or GE foods, even though evil big business says they're 'reasonably safe', will save us a ton of money down the line in health care costs. The studies that have been undertaken have shown some frightening results (google it if you don't believe me). Cancer, decreased testicle size, loss of hair in labs rats, etc. are some of the 'reasonably safe' outcomes of GE food. The KEY thing in here is that I am going by bodyfat percentages and not BMI. You would be surprised how many thin people are overweight when it comes to bodyfat percentages, the 'skinny-fat' population if you will. Usually these are people who eat very little and never exercise. These people will not be exempt from the taxes! If you are wondering what the percentages are for normal/overweight/obese here they are:
I do realize that these are obviously never going to come into play - there are too many fat voters - but one can dream can't he?
The thing that got me on this entire rant were the some of the comments saying that it wasn't their fault they were overweight/obese. This is just ridiculous. Your health is in your own hands and I am tired for paying for your health care costs already! I did it and so can you.
/rant
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Don't Trust Advertising. Ever.
An interesting link I picked up from the Fooducate Blog:
http://www.fooducate.com/blog/2011/04/21/campbell-soup-has-a-math-problem/
http://www.fooducate.com/blog/2011/04/21/campbell-soup-has-a-math-problem/
Pretty much showing how screwed up marketing is. The above picture are two different 'types' of campbells soup. Or are they really? One says 25% less sodium as you can see... what what does that mean?
Absolutely dick it seems. Shame on Campbells! If you read through the whole comsumerists blog article (linked via the fooducate blog link) the can goes to say in fine print that the sodium is 25% less than other regular tomato soups. Craziness!
The best foods to eat are always the ones with little or no information (aka fresh fruits and veggies!)
Monday, April 25, 2011
Exercising on an Empty Stomach
I am one of the lucky ones who was able to score Monday off (yay!) so I woke up at around noon and decided to workout then. I think it was the combination of the lack of glycogen stored in my muscles and the fact that Insanity Max Interval Plyometrics was voted the hardest workout of the series that made me sweat puddles onto my floor. Literally. I had to mop the floor after Insanity mopped the floor with me! What I am getting at is that there are plenty of pro's and very few con's to working out in the morning before you've had anything to eat
Con's - Time
This is the killer for me. I already wake up at 5:30AM to get to work for 6:30-6:45 so waking up at 4:00AM every day just isn't realistic. Sadly, this is the reason I usually don't do it in the morning
Pro's - Increased Ketosis, Less Blood Glucose, Speeds Up Metabolism
Ton's of pro's for working out in the morning. Due to low blood glucose (as you have just fasted for - hopefully - at least 8 hours) and lower glycogen stores in your muscles your body will turn to Ketosis earlier for energy. You may find that you 'bonk' quite quickly in morning workouts, but if you push through it will be worth it! Your body will turn to fat to make energy for your muscles to use while it conserves most of your blood glucose to fuel your brain. Faster ketosis = more adipose tissue lost during a workout (and afterwards) which is what everyone wants, right? It also has the effect of jump starting your metabolism for the rest of the day which is nothing to scoff at.
Fastest way to get a 6 pack is to work out on an empty stomach!
Con's - Time
This is the killer for me. I already wake up at 5:30AM to get to work for 6:30-6:45 so waking up at 4:00AM every day just isn't realistic. Sadly, this is the reason I usually don't do it in the morning
Pro's - Increased Ketosis, Less Blood Glucose, Speeds Up Metabolism
Ton's of pro's for working out in the morning. Due to low blood glucose (as you have just fasted for - hopefully - at least 8 hours) and lower glycogen stores in your muscles your body will turn to Ketosis earlier for energy. You may find that you 'bonk' quite quickly in morning workouts, but if you push through it will be worth it! Your body will turn to fat to make energy for your muscles to use while it conserves most of your blood glucose to fuel your brain. Faster ketosis = more adipose tissue lost during a workout (and afterwards) which is what everyone wants, right? It also has the effect of jump starting your metabolism for the rest of the day which is nothing to scoff at.
Fastest way to get a 6 pack is to work out on an empty stomach!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Drinking Sucks.
After just sluggishly finishing Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning at 10:15PM and hating every second of it I am determined to NOT go through that again. This isn't me saying 'I'm never drinking again' but just that I am not going to drink as much. I got absolutely demolished and wasted most of my day away in bed recovering from ridiculousness.
But even a wicked hangover cannot stop me from working out, so I finished one of them and will be doing another in an hour (at about midnight). It sucks working out hungover. Your body is still trying to recover from the poison you put into it. Alcohol also stops your body from burning fat: it turns into acetate and your body uses that as fuel instead of turning adipose tissue into energy.
Why, why did I do this to myself?!?!
But even a wicked hangover cannot stop me from working out, so I finished one of them and will be doing another in an hour (at about midnight). It sucks working out hungover. Your body is still trying to recover from the poison you put into it. Alcohol also stops your body from burning fat: it turns into acetate and your body uses that as fuel instead of turning adipose tissue into energy.
Why, why did I do this to myself?!?!
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