A Beautiful Combo

Chia!

A Beautiful Combo

A Beautiful Combo

 

You want to lose weight? Stop drinking crap (soda, diet soda, Monsters, etc.) and start drinking more water. Even try this beautiful combo: Green Tea and Chia seeds! Weight loss is ALL about Nutrition! Your workouts definitely speed up the weight loss process, but nutrition is 85-90% of the battle.

1 Tbsp. of Chia has 70 calories (40 from fat), very little sodium, 6 grams of fiber (makes you feel full longer so you don’t get hungry and eat more than you need to), 2.9 grams of Omega-3s (this is the ‘good & healthy’ fat that our body NEEDS, as opposed to the bad fat found at fastfood restaurants), 1 gram of carbs, and 3 grams of protein. I get my Chia from Trader Joe’s and my Green Tea from Target. I also put chia in my yogurt (the few times I eat yogurt), in my protein shakes, and other shtuff.

 

No more excuses fam, let’s get to work! Start paying more attention to your nutrition and you will start seeing the results that you work so damn hard for! Ch(ia)eers!!

 

“What you eat in private, you wear in public.”

 

Flaxseed

What the Flaxseed?

Flaxseed

Flaxseed

It reduces your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It may help protect you against breast cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer. It helps you lose weight and it helps clean your GI tract. You could add it to pretty much anything that you eat and it doesn’t really taste like anything so you wouldn’t even notice. And it doesn’t cost much. You can find it for less than $4 online or just get it at Trader Joe’s for a little more than that. If those aren’t reason enough to start adding flaxseed to your diet, I’ve added a few facts about it’s three main components (Fiber, Lignans and Omega-3s) below.

FIBER:

There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Flaxseed has both!

  • Soluble fiber is good for us because it attracts water and together they combine to form a gel. This gel helps slow down our digestion which means that we have that feeling of ‘fullness’ for a lot longer. Soluble fiber also helps lower our LDL blood cholesterol levels by interfering with the absorption of dietary cholesterol. LDLs collect in the walls of blood vessels and causes blockages and blood clots that may cause atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries) which in turn may lead to a heart attack, a stroke or even death.
  • Insoluble fiber is considered ‘gut-healthy’ because it has a laxative effect and prevents constipation. Because it’s insoluble (it doesn’t dissolve in water), it goes through our GI tract and grabs on to all the crap in our body and then we poop it out.
  • How much fiber do we need?
    • 35-40 grams a day for men
    • 25 grams a day for women

Lignans:

Lignans are a chemical compound found in plants and have antioxidant qualities. Just like fiber, lignans help lower our LDL levels. The lignans found in flaxseed help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke because they have been shown to reduce atherosclerotic plaque buildup by up to 75%.

Omega-3 Fats:

Omega-3s act as an anti-inflammatory by helping block the release of pro-inflammatory agents. This reduction of inflammation associated with plaque buildup in the arteries may be another reason that flaxseed helps reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. And because there is less plaque in our arteries, our heartbeat and blood pressure normalizes.

Give flaxseed a shot! What do you got to lose?

7 Mile - Lap Times

H.M.T. III – Week 7 Recap

HMT III: Week 7

HMT III: Week 7

Monday 12/31/12

New Year’s Eve!! I spent New Year’s Eve at my Sister’s place and kept it pretty low key because I had a New Year’s Day 10K the following morning. I did take 3 shots of Henny, but my brother-in-law was kind enough to make them half shots because he knew what I had planned that next morning. I didn’t strengthen this day because I wanted to rest my body for the 10K, BUT I did stretch (somewhat). On my way to my sister’s place, I stopped by a running store and bought this bad boy:

The Stick

The Stick

So I was rolling out my quads, calves and IT Band the whole day. After eating and playing with my nieces, I went to sleep around 9pm and asked my sister to wake me up for the countdown…. she forgot! But she did wake me up right after the countdown and I was able to wish all my family Happy New Year.

Tuesday 01/01/13

Check out my New Year’s Day 10K! post.

Wednesday 01/02/13

I was supposed to run, BUT I was still recovering from my 10K, so I just relaxed this day.

Thursday 01/03/13

I did strengthen my back, shoulder and triceps this day. After resistance training, I hopped on the treadmill for my 4.5-mile run and ended up only running half a mile; my legs still weren’t ready after that 10K (that hill was nuts, for me anyways).

10K Elevation Chart

10K Elevation Chart

Friday 01/04/13

Rest Day!!!! Yes please!!!!

Saturday 01/05/13

My lady and I started off this Saturday by volunteering a food bank with a few of my staff from the Y. It was a great experience and we had a lot of fun doing what we were doing. After the food bank we had lunch and after lunch I KTFO!! My body, my legs still needed some good rest.

Sunday 01/06/13

Today was my 7-miler. I wasn’t too sure how this run would go because I haven’t really ran since my 10K and my legs still felt a little tired. Here’s my run:

Lake Merced

Lake Merced

7 Mile - Lap Times

7 Mile – Lap Times

My legs felt really heavy today and I think its because I have been eating way too much Quinoa! I just started eating that shtuff and I have fallen in love with it. I spoke to my buddy about my run today and he told me that Quinoa definitely makes you feel a little heavier. So after I spoke with him, I went to Chipotle and got me a Chicken Fajita Bowl with EXTRA RICE! I think I haven’t been consuming too much carbs this past week (because of Quinoa) and that’s why this 7-miler was a little tougher than usual.

I you haven’t noticed yet, I have posted something every day this year! This is one of my goals for 2013: to post something on my blog everyday! I hope all of your running is going well! Cheers to 2013!!

Hungry for Change

15 Minutes of… “Hungry for Change” Part II

Hungry for Change

Hungry for Change

I want you all to know that it it takes me a good 60 to 90 minutes to watch only 15 minutes of this documentary because I am constantly pausing it to research and truly understand some of the shhhtuff that they are talking about. Here are my takeaways:

  • “the food companies engineer addictions, I believe, into many of the foods”
  • “MSG and free glutamates are used to enhance flavor in about 80% of all processed foods.” – Raymond Francis M.Sc. MIT
  • MSG and free glutamates can be hidden behind over 50 different names
  • a processed, refined, sugar-food or soda will deliver a biochemical change in your brain and make you momentarily uplifted and happy. People get used to that feeling and want to get that momentary feeling back again and they will, but then that feeling will soon drop off and they are left empty, with their bodies and brains looking for the nutrients and the other things that they need to function properly.
  • the food industry wants you to buy more food, that’s what their main goal is. They’re not thinking about your health and wellness; they’re thinking about what they can do to make you buy more of their product. So they manipulate the chemical structure of  the food, so that it gives the impression that it is the most fulfilling thing that you ever had.
  • diet cola has a combination of aspartame and caffeine; these 2 together create a very unique blend of excitotoxin that kills off brain cells, but before they die they have this “excitement” this “buzz.” So what you find with diet cola addicts, they’ll drink Liters of cola a day to get that “Excitement” and “buzz” again; just like drug addicts.
  • Aspartame causes formaldehyde buildup in the brain, frontal lobe inflammation, migraines, visual disturbances, symptoms that mimic multiple sclerosis, headaches, neurological problem, cognitive problems, and seizures (in more serious cases); formaldehyde is put in foods to extend their “shelf life.”
  • when a food additive (like aspartame or any other artificial sweetener) is manufactured, the process of getting approval is: (1) the manufacturer wants creates a new additive, (2) the manufacturer funds (controls) the studies that of course will show evidence that their new additive is safe , and then (3) these studies are submitted to regulatory agencies (ie., the FDA) for approval.
  • The FDA doesn’t have their own scientists that do food analyses. They just evaluate the studies that the manufacturers submit.
  • food companies are just like the tobacco companies, but instead of using nicotine to get their customers addicted, they use MSG, processed sugars, aspartame and other chemicals.
  • many food labels are deceptive; it’s like these major food companies are naming these products based on what they hope you might imagine you’re eating, rather than what is really in the box. And then there are stuff in that food that they don’t want you to know about, so they don’t put it on the label (or they come up with a name that doesn’t sound as bad as the real name.)
  • when you see “Fat-Free,” on a label, it normally means that it is loaded with sugar; you could get a 2lb bad of sugar, label it “Fat Free” and it would be allowed to be put on shelves. Technically, there is not fat, BUT once the sugar is ingested, it will turn in to fat in the body because it sends the sugar levels sky high and the pancreas needs to secrete insulin in order to bring that down so that you don’t die. And insulin [can be] is a fat producing hormone. >> the reasons I, JR, say it can be a fat producing hormone is because insulin allows glucose to go from our bloodstream into our individual cells. And once its in our cells, we either use it as energy OR we store it and those cells become “fat cells.” The issue is that people intake so much sugar, but they are not moving enough to use it as energy; so most people store this sugar in the cells which eventually become “fat cells”
  • fat is really good for you, if its the right type of fat. we need the correct fats and proteins to feel satiated.
  • the worst kinds of fats are the partially hydrogenated fats. These are the hydrogenated oils in baked items, crackers, cookies, butter spreads, margarine, etc.
  • healthy fats are the natural plant based fats like in avocaods, chia seeds, flax seeds and even healthy fat from salmon

15 Minutes of… “Hungry for Change” Part I

Hungry for Change

Hungry for Change

Here are my takeaways from the first 15 minutes of this documentary:

  • we are not eating foods anymore, we are eating “food-like” products and they are adorned and made to look better and smell better so that people are attracted to them. They are made to have a long shelf life and the main objective is not really to give us a healthy product, its to give us a product that will make a lot of profit for the company that is producing it. 
  • we’re moving less and we’re consuming so much nutrient-less calories; these two things combined is the issue. these things combined create an obesity epidemic, a low energy epidemic, a fog in cognition, and we begin to lose the will to take self-responsibility. When we lose the will to take self-responsibility, we turn it all over to a doctor who is only able to prescribe a pharmaceutical pill that doesn’t address the real issues, which are buried and complex.
  • “the average American consumes more than 150 pounds of sugar and sweeteners each year.” – US Department of Agriculture
  • “we are overfed, but we are also starving to death”
  • as a species, the big challenge is to find calories and our body is biologically adapted to this; we seek calorie sources, particularly fats and sugars
  • when we taste something fatty or sweet, our bodies want more of it because for our hunter gatherer ancestors, fat and sugar meant survival
  • our bodies are programmed to “store up” for the “winter,” but the “winter” doesn’t come because we have so many sources of “food” today.
  • hunter-gatherer “gardeners” have an extremely HIGH amount of nutrition and an extremely LOW amount of calories in their food. Compared to our society: we have a high amount of calories, but a low amount of nutritional value
  • we have so many calorie sources, but our body still has the same signals that are ancestors had. so when we eat sweets and fatty foods, our body wants more because it is programmed to behave in a “feast or famine” environment. The problem is that we have FEAST, but there is no famine.
  • we could eat 10,000 calories a day, but if we are not getting the specific nutrients we need, then we are starving on a nutritional basis. and if we are starving on a nutritional basis, our body will remain hungry to get those specific nutrients. man-made foods (like bread and sugar and table salt) trick our body into thinking we’re getting those nutrients.
  • the biggest cause of obesity is addiction
  • we know we shouldn’t eat bad foods, but we don’t know WHY we continue to eat those bad foods

Is Carbonated Water Healthy?

I recently started drinking Natural Sparkling Mineral Water (from Trader Joe’s) and I love this shhhtuff! I always thought that sparkling water was just another unhealthy soda that had tons of bad shhtuff in it that would make you fat and rot your teeth, but not anymore! Although I began drinking more of it lately, I still had some doubts and some questions about sparkling/carbonated water. So I did what all people would do when they have questions: I Googled it!

I will list all the articles that I’ve read at the end of this post, but I want to share my own conclusion from all my “research.”

1) Carbonated water will NOT rot your teeth like that Coke that you were drinking earlier today 😉

2) Carbonated water tastes good: I’ve done research

3) Carbonated water is not boring, like regular water

4) Carbonated water still hydrates you, just like regular water does

5) Carbonated has SOME Sodium, but not so much that its unhealthy. Make sure you choose a carbonated water that doesn’t have too much Sodium!

6) Carbonated water has ZERO calories!

I don’t think that carbonated water is harmful. I think that having 1 or 2 a day is perfectly fine. I do believe that regular/boring water is still the best way to go. The main thing though, is to remain hydrated, whether you do this through carbonated or regular water is up to you.

What are you thoughts on Carbonated/Sparkling water?

Articles I read:

Nutrition Diva: Is Carbonated Water Bad for You?

Is Plain Water Healthier Than Sparkling Water? SPARKLING WATER VS. PLAIN WATER

Carbonated Water Facts

Carbonated Water: Wikipedia