REVOLUTION SELF DEFENSE

Healthy Eating Tips

2009-04-30T22:57:00.003-04:00

Last post I talked about the fact that by making a small diet change I was able to kick start some weight loss. I keep the plan very simple and mostly avoid a few key things. Everyone knows that you should not stuff your face with cheeseburgers and the like so I try not to state the obvious. Below is a list of the items that I avoid:

Anything with added sweeteners (real or artificial). In place of any sweets I keep my house stocked with fresh fruit. I eat apples, oranges and bananas mostly and I have 3 to 4 pieces of fruit a day.

Any white bread, white rice or products made from or with these things. I have at least one slice of bread daily, typically it is 3 slices daily. I only eat wheat bread.

No cooking oil except extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil also is used instead of mayo on tuna sandwiches. Not only does it taste better than mayo (trust me) it has a longer shelf life and is actually good for you.

Limit Dairy to one or two servings a day. A glass of skim milk instead of cheese on a sandwich would be the wiser option.

Also, have a healthy supply of nuts and veggies on hand for snacking. I eat until I am full at all three meals and snack on fruits, nuts and/or veggies before exercise and at night.

Diet

2009-04-21T23:26:00.003-04:00

I read somewhere recently that some experts believe that physical performance depends on nutrition more than training. I do not know if that is true or not, but more and more I tend to agree with it.

A couple of months ago I started to reduce the amount of diet soda that I drank. I used to have at least one diet cola a day, typically it was a couple at lunch and one in the evening at home. I stopped buying diet soda at the store because I realized I was spending a fortune on the stuff. Sooner or later, I stopped ordering them while I was at lunch. There was no real reason, I just was a little tired of them. What I noticed is that I began to feel a lot less tired during the day, and I was getting to bed earlier each night. I used to get 5 to 6 hours of sleep at night because I was a night owl. After I kicked the soda habit, I was going to bed at a much more reasonable hour. In addition, I later read more scientific evidence that consuming artificial sweeteners actually causes you to consume more calories per day. Your body expects a sugar rush when it tastes the sweetener, since it is then deprived of sugar it will kick your cravings into overdrive. the result is that you will gorge on other sweets or items like refined breads, pastas etc to get the glucose.

A friend of mine recently gave me some nutritional tips from a scientific perspective. He confirmed the research behind artificial sweeteners and also shared with me some other best practices. A little over a week ago I decided to clean my diet up even more and I have actually lost about 8 to 10 pounds. Most of it is probably water weight due to the fact that my sodium intake has dropped dramatically, but nonetheless I feel better. The best thing about it is that I am not counting carbs, calories, fat or following any strict plan. I also am not walking around feeling hungry all of the time. This is not a fad diet that is supposed to last a couple of weeks, it is a lifestyle diet. In my next post I will share some of the keys to the plan.

Leg Strength

2009-02-16T12:20:00.003-05:00

This video gives a quick introduction to Hindu and Pistol squats. Both will help build different types of strength in your legs and hips.

Physioball leg curl

2008-12-11T19:48:00.003-05:00

In my opinion the physio-ball (or swiss ball) is an underrated piece of fitness equipment. The attached video demonstrates a great way to build strength in your hamstrings and core. I feel that this exercise is better than weighted leg curls because you activate more muscles and reduce the risk of cramping your legs. Enjoy.