May 9, 2012 | Filed Under Food, workouts | No Comments
Do your workout goals include building strength and/or adding muscle mass? If so, you’re probably spending plenty of time on resistance training and lifting heavier weights in shorter reps. But there are also some of steps you can take outside the gym that can support your training goals and help you build the powerful guns you’re looking for.
For example, let’s talk about food. Try adding these proven muscle-builders to your diet every day and see what happens.
Muscle Building Foods: Lean meats
Lean meats provide an excellent source of healthy, low calorie protein. But take note: by “lean meat,” we mean chicken, turkey, and fish (especially wild caught salmon). We don’t mean beef or pork, which can add excess unhealthy fats and set your progress back. When you’re hungry for a burger or chili, choose ground turkey instead of beef. And eat a serving of fresh fish at least three times a week.
Muscle Building Foods: Coffee
Coffee is one of the most misunderstood and also highly researched foods in the world. Even though we don’t know everything about how it works, coffee appears to increase endurance, especially during anaerobic activities like lifting and short-distance running. This means that after a cup or two, we can complete more reps. So the benefits are indirect, but clear.
Muscle Building Foods: Eggs
Eggs are packed with vitamin B12, B6, Iron, phosphorus, and choline, which are all essential to strong muscles and connective tissue. But don’t skip the yolks. That’s where the most powerful benefits lie.
Muscle Building Foods: Nuts and Legumes, Especially Almonds
A handful of almonds a day will help you stock up on vitamin E, and vitamin E contains powerful antioxidants that help damaged muscle tissues heal after intense workouts. The vitamins and phytonutrients in almonds are also great for your brain.
February 29, 2012 | Filed Under Advice, Food | No Comments
These days, many of us barely glance at or taste what we are eating, since we are usually either driving, working at our desks, or in front of the TV. Research suggests that our culture of quick consumption, along with poor food choices, is the reason why our waistlines keep increasing. Chances are, if you sit down at a table, you’ll most likely eat at a much slower, relaxed pace, allowing your body and brain the time to savor the food and experience the act of eating. Making time for meals is an important, yet often overlooked, aspect of healthy eating.
Eat mindfully. Establishing a mind-body connection while eating will improve your awareness and satisfaction of your meal. Research shows, cultures that take time to sit and eat with others have less obesity. If you look at your food, and take the time to really taste it, you will be more aware of what and how much you are actually eating.
Eating mindfully allows the body and the brain to synchronize, sending messages that you are full. When you are distracted or stressed, you eat quickly, and the stomach doesn’t have time to send the message to the brain that you are full, resulting in overeating. Even if you only have a half-hour lunch break, try to make the time to sit down, away from your desk and all distractions, and really enjoy your meal. Eating slower and with more consciousness may also improve digestion and relieve any digestive issues such as gas and bloating.
There is overwhelming evidence that unprocessed foods and organic fruits and vegetables are a means to better health. Due to the high nutritional and antioxidant content of many whole foods, this type of diet is linked with increased antioxidant activity, improved digestion, healthy inflammation response, healthy glucose metabolism, healthier lipid profiles and increased immune activity among other benefits. A whole foods diet can help support your insulin levels and metabolism, as well as support management of metabolic syndrome or diabetes.
November 25, 2011 | Filed Under Advice, Benefits of Exercise, Benefits of a Regular Workout, Food, Healthy Lifestyle, effective workout changes, hydration, nutrition | No Comments
Getting and staying in shape requires dedication, patience, and a willingness to push the limits of your comfort zone. It also requires a few adjustments to your lifestyle that carry beyond the borders of the gym and the weight room. To get the most out of the time you spend weight training and working on your cardio health, you’ll also need to make sure you’re drinking plenty of water, getting adequate sleep and making wise decisions about healthy, balanced eating.
A healthy diet may represent a change from what you’re used to. But contrary to what fad diet proponents would have you believe, healthy eating isn’t terribly complicated. A few general basic tips can help keep you on track. First, green leafy vegetables are never a bad idea, and there’s no such thing as too many of them. We only have so much room in our stomachs each day, and the more you maximize vegetables as a component of your calorie intake, the healthier you’ll be.
But we can’t quite live on vegetables and fruit alone. We also need carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy fats. Find the best carbohydrates in whole grain breads and cereals, and get your protein from nuts, beans, eggs, and lean meats like fish and poultry. Try to keep your meat choices as lean as possible, since too much beef and pork can undermine the gains of an otherwise healthy diet. And make an effort to steer clear of sugary soft drinks, corn syrup and other calorie sources that offer energy but no nutritional value.
Balance your eating habits with your workout routine. Don’t skip breakfast, but if your workout goals include weight loss, recognize that you may feel hungry as you burn more calories during the day, and resist the urge to add those calories back into your routine by eating more.
September 16, 2011 | Filed Under Advice, Food, workouts | No Comments
If you’re planning on beginning a workout routine to bring your athletic performance to the next level or just to stay in shape and feel great, your routine at the gym should be just one part of an overall plan. You’ll also need to pay attention to what you eat. Choose the foods that can boost your health and help you get the most out of every calorie, and avoid the ones that can slow your progress and put a drain on your health and well-being.
In addition to the right gym, the right workout routine and the right gear (don’t forget your Gripads!), you’ll need the right foods to keep you focused, fueled, and on track. The following foods have been identified as “superfoods” by professional nutritionists and trainers. Consider snacking on these at least a few times a week. And even if you don’t choose superfoods at every meal, try to steer toward green leafy vegetables, lean protein and whole grains. Avoid foods that are high in fat or corn syrup. Lean away from highly processed options and toward fresh, unprocessed foods like fruit, veggies, fish, nuts and eggs.
Meanwhile, try these for an added boost to bone, muscle, nerve and heart health:
Bananas
Serious athletes already know that bananas have a calming effect and a powerful amount of potassium that can help with tissue recovery after an intense workout.
Broccoli
This cruciferous vegetable can have an amazing effect on health and well-being. Just one cup a day can provide calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron and several important vitamins most of us don’t get enough of, including A, C, and K.
Chili peppers
Just half a chili pepper per day can provide noticeable benefits. Most important for serious athletes, these little peppers provide powerful amounts of beta-carotene which can help fight infections and reduce inflammation.
