By day one most people don’t know where to start and they begin to do everything…literally everything. Every cardio machine must be used and by the end of their workout, every weight machine will be tried and most likely poorly executed. They’ll do this for about two days straight until they find each muscle in their body is twitching in agony. I’ve seen people work out for two weeks straight until the excitement wears off because the have not seen the results they wanted.

So who’s to blame? Is it the gym for convincing people to sign up with their amazing deal? Or is it the people that wait for January 1^st to make a life altering decision that have to be planned and then executed?

Well you’ve guessed it; it’s the people’s fault of course.  If your one of these people that I’m talking about then here’s what you can do. Sit down plan, write you’re food plan and workout plan. Give yourself time to rest during the week. Be patient and have fun. Find a dance class like Zumba or belly dancing. Grab a partner that will keep you motivated and is serious about this as much as you are.

There is no better resolution than to be happy, to help others and to love who you are in side and out.

Happy New Year!!!

A better way to stimulate serotonin is with regular exercise.  Exercise stimulates serotonin production with no carbohydrate hang-over. Instead of gaining winter weight, you might even trim down.  Overcoming your Fall fatigue and getting yourself moving may take some self-discipline at first. But the rewards, in the form of more energy and a brighter mood, come quickly.

Try this:  Design your own customized workout video!

For the past few months, a lot of you have been following my Deadpool Workouts.

In particular, you have been following version #4 – designed to build strength & power while melting off body-fat at a ridiculous rate. 

Simply put, it’s a powerful workout.

But…with great power comes great responsibility.

And 2 months ago, I “responsibly” told you that how you spend your time away from the gym depended upon your needs & how your body was recovring from these workouts.

But then I watched this video…and literally kicked my own ass for not thinking of this first.

Neural Activation Workouts

In an attempt to:

• eliminate nervous system fatigue,
• recover from workouts faster,
• improve workout performance, and
• see better results

Strength coach Christian Thibaudeau started having his client perform these very brief workouts each & every day.

And for the past few weeks, I have been beta testing these mini-workouts on myself and a few selected human lab rats.

The Results

Fantastic.

Keeping in mind that our results are mostly anecdotal, I am pretty psyched about adding these mini workouts into the mix.

And because I realize that most of us don’t have the time, interest or resources to head to the gym 1-3 times per day to workout, I have focused on bodyweight, band & dumbbell/kettlebell exercises.

As well, because these 5-10 minute workouts utilize low reps & low weights, you probably won’t even sweat. In fact, one of my clients does his afternoon session in his office while wearing a suit & tie – jacket off of course.

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Neural Activation Workouts

• eliminate nervous system fatigue,
• recover from workouts faster,
• improve workout performance, and
• see better results

1. The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout – Part Five
2. The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout – Part Six
3. Health Habits Workout -Week 35/Day 2 – The Deadpool Workouts
4. Health Habits Workout -Week 36/Day 2 – The Deadpool Workouts
5. Health Habits Workout -Week 34/Day 2 – The Deadpool Workouts

According to Gabriel Filippelli, the soil in urban areas may be high in lead and other heavy metals, either from automobile exhaust, industrial activity, or paint from older structures.( Even though the buildings may be repainted or long gone, the paint may linger in the soil.) YIKES!

Filippelli recommends that home gardeners have an inexpensive soil test to determine whether their soil contains any harmful metals. Good advice--especially if you're feeding young children with the fruits of your green thumb. The test will also tell you whether your soil is in need of any nutrients or other amendments, which can help make your garden more productive.

Bonus: Seasonal Recipes Fresh from the Farm

If it turns out that your soil contains contaminants, it doesn't mean your gardening days are over. Building raised beds or growing in large containers can minimize the risk.

Contact your state extension service for information on soil testing.

Health Habits is waving the white flag of surrender.

Because today, I learned that Celebrity Trainer to the Stars Perez Hilton has launched his own health / fitness / weight loss / celebrity gossip website – FitPerez.com

And just how is tiny little Health Habits supposed to compete against Perez and his vast knowledge of health & fitness?

I’m screwed.

And it’s not just me.

After speaking with Drs Oz, Mercola & Weil, all three have confirmed to me that they will also be shutting down their practices, their websites and their tv shows.

It’s like when WalMart opens a store in a little town and all of the local stores end up out of business.

You can’t compete against WalMart & you can’t compete against uber-Fitness Guru Perez Hilton.

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sigh.

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• Grains are still promoted as the foundation of a healthy diet
• Saturated fat and cholesterol are to be avoided
• Low-fat diets are recommended for disease prevention and weight control.

Although Americans have dutifully and steadily reduced their intake of fat and cholesterol and increased their consumption of grains, obesity and other diet-related diseases have steadily increased.

What if the dietary guidelines are wrong?

In this month's Nutrition Journal, a consortium of scientists and nutrition researchers make the case for abandoning both the guidelines and the process by which they are generated. Instead of hide-bound conventional wisdom, they say, it's time to starting basing these recommendations on the evidence. The stakes are high

These guidelines have enormous influence on health and nutrition policies. They inform what we feed our kids in school lunch programs to what we teach them in health class. They shape health care policy and standards of care. They affect what gets reported in the media and what gets researched in universities.   They appear to be failing us.

Rather than gather the same group of agency insiders to polish the chrome on this Edsel every five years, the authors suggest "an impartial panel of...biochemists, anthropologists, geneticists, physicists, etc., who are not directly tied to nutritional policy....Recommendations issued by this group would be more likely to be...[based] on a complete and accurate assessment of available science rather than a narrow perspective of accepted nutritional practice."

I suspect that many readers of the Nutrition Data Blog abandoned the Dietary Guidelines long ago. But I agree with my colleagues: It's time to bring our national nutrition policy into the 21st century.

Your thoughts?

Canada’s healthcare system may be on the verge of a massive change.

Instead of continuing to spend billions of dollars simply treating the symptoms of disease, Canada’s health ministers have agreed that:

the promotion of health and the prevention of disease, disability and injury are a priority and necessary to the sustainability of the health system.

They also agreed that the main causes of death, disease and disability in Canada today are chronic diseases and injuries, and that a large proportion of chronic diseases, disabilities and injuries can be prevented, or at least delayed.

They continued by saying that more emphasis needs to be placed on the promotion of health and on preventing or delaying chronic diseases, disabilities, and injuries.

Doing this will improve the quality of life of Canadians while reducing disparities in health and the impact these conditions have on individuals, families, communities, the health-care system and on society.

OMG

A healthcare system that focuses on health.

Fingers crossed people.

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Reference

• A Declaration on Prevention and Promotion from Canada’s Ministers of Health and Health Promotion/Healthy Living

The pair I have here are the cutest sneakers I have ever bought, but I got them online, more for fashion’s sake, and they are for hiking. The the lack of padding hurts my feet when I run. Then I remember the insoles that came in the mail yesterday.

The box reads “OrthoLite Insoles” and they say they the same material built into the best running shoes on the market. Hoping they will get me through my jog in the park, I slip them in and go.

I start moon walking through Central Park. Not Michael Jackson moon-walking, but moon walking like the astronauts when they are weightless, bouncing from one step to the next with no effort. The brick in my belly seems to disappear and the humid, soupy air breezes past me as I jog around the reservoir. My feet feel cool, dry, and like they are bouncing on springs. I practically fly through my run.

Thinking that I just got a new favorite pair of running shoes, and they look a lot better than my ugly super-stability shoes in my locker, I dig out and re-read the insole box:

“OrthoLite, already found in over 100 million pairs of shoes every year, recently expanded their business to consumers with a retail launch on Amazon.com. OrthoLite insoles are an easy and affordable way to upgrade the quality of your shoes and extend their shelf life, offering enhanced comfort and solutions to many common in-shoe problems with long-lasting cushioning, high-level breathability and wicking, a patented biocide and unrivaled durability. Unique spring-back technology ensures that your insole won’t flatten out and it will retain over 95% of its thickness over time.”

So they keep your feet dry, clean, and they won’t flatten out!

What they don’t say is that they are the closest man has come to flying. Only problem I see is that flying might not burn as many calories as running does.

A. When you toast bread, a couple of things happen.  Some of the water in the bread evaporates, making the bread dryer and a bit lighter.  Also, carbohydrate molecules on the surface of the bread undergo a chemical reaction with proteins that causes the food to turn brown.

That reaction--called the Maillard reaction--doesn't significantly change the nutritional value of the carbohydrates. It can, however, reduce the digestibility and quality of proteins. Seeing as toast probably isn't your primary source of dietary protein, this is probably not a big issue.

There is one other thing to take into consideration, however. Toasting bread also creates a compound called acrylamide.  Although acrylamide can be toxic in large amounts, there's no evidence that the amount of acrylamide you would typically get from food is a problem.  Nonetheless, if you're concerned about acrylamide, you might want to set the toaster on "light."  (For more on acrylamide in foods, see this episode of the Nutrition Diva podcast.)