Dont Get IT Twisted

So we all know that the big thing right now is food that is "sugar free." Well unfortunately most of the products saying "sugar free" are lying to you. (I know! Who would-a thunk it?) Basically the company tells people like the FDA who over see their product, that whatever they are selling is sugar free. What they are really saying, is that they removed the "table sugar" and replaced it with another kind of sugar OR are using another name for sugar. Clever little bastards....
Those of you who love your protein drinks, let me guarantee you, it has sugar in it (all most all of the time =). So we know, because I have said it a thousand times, SUGAR UPS YOUR INSULIN! INSULIN IS A FAT STORAGE HORMONE. If you dont like fat then you may want to, just a suggestion, its really based on science and not my opinion control your F**KING SUGAR AND INSULIN!! So if you are going to ask me in the next few days, "chris, how can I loose some weight?" You better be able to recite back to me about what you need to control.
So, anywho, if you think your unnatural, packaged product in your hand is sugar free, look for anything on the list below and become instantly disappointed if you see any of the names (i cant pronounce) on your product.

Here are 20 other names for sugar:

Barely Malt - Brown rice syrup - corn syrup - dextrose - evaporated cane juice invert syrup - fructose - fruit juice - galactose - glucose - granular fruit grape juice concentrate - high fructose corn syrup - honey - lactose - maltodextrin - maple syrup - molasses - organic can juice - sorghum - sucrose - turbinado.

Ah...bummer.

Good luck trying to find a clean product!......Im not being sarcastic, seriously good luck, its hard as hell even for someone like me but just remember....no one really loves love handles .......=)

Go Paleo for Summer

Some of you already received this email, but I thought I would share it with the rest of you just in case. This is basically a real easy (Paleo) way to drop weight. If followed accordingly you could shed fat and fast. But! There is a catch. This is pretty much for form not function. Meaning it is only for how you look not how you will preform. If you intend on doing this and not sucking at the WODs then you are mistaken =( Though, a few of you might just perform better. This is the amazing "tinkering" process you hear so much about. Nothing works exactly the same for everyone. If I cut carbs (another article on that later) then I lean out, but I cant perform worth my power animal (and she doesn't like it. She likes the way I look but thinks I'm a bitch). If I have just the right amount of carbs, I can tear it up (like some of you saw bright and early on Saturday=) So without any more rambling; here it is.

What’s going on inside:
Ok so this whole weight loss, weight gain issue is basically determined by a fat storage hormone called insulin. If we can become masters/controllers of our insulin we will become dominate over our appearance.
The deciding factor of what goes where (i.e. energy going into muscles or things being stored as fat) concerning insulin regulation is carbohydrates. So let’s break it down:
Carbs = insulin.
Carbs have the most influence on our insulin, way above protein and fat. The more carbs you eat the higher your blood sugar and insulin rise. Insulin ultimately determines how much your fat and muscle cells grow.
So when you eat more carbs then your body can burn and the body can not use the carbs to boost muscular growth, then those remaining carbs are automatically stored as fat.
When we keep glycogen levels and insulin levels low enough, we basically are telling our bodies to build muscle and burn fat. Your body would rather work off, and will work off, of the sugar (glycogen) in your muscles first, before it gets to the fat. If we keep the insulin levels low enough, we will train the body to use stored fat as an energy source once the sugar in the muscles is tapped/used. With insulin levels low enough, and exercise in the proper form, we can force the body to store carbs in the muscles rather than covert it to fat storage.
So counting overall calories becomes less as important as being aware of the total amount and the time in which carbs are consumed. If we eat carbs at the wrong time, our body stores them as fat. Eat them as the right time and the body stores it as energy in the muscles to be used as fuel.

Warning:
For the first few days there can be some complaining because basically the body is detoxing. Having your body switch over and making it start burning stored fat as a fuel source takes time, depending on how much damage you have done to your insulin levels over time. Basically if you are addicted to carbs, because they are addicting, your body will have to adjust and learn to not be addicted; this part of the process can cause issues with the body, mainly mentally. Crankiness, irritability, fatigue and tiredness are all common. BUT THEY WILL GO AWAY. Once your body adapts, and it only takes a few days, you will operate better than you ever have in your entire life. Eventually you will have more energy, be more clear-headed, have less carb cravings and have less gastrointestinal issues.

What to eat: A majority of your eating should come strictly from protein and fat. Both will make you feel full and give you plenty of fuel to operate effectively on a day to day basis. Protein, fat and veggie will only spike insulin levels ever so slightly. Anything outside of those three can cause insulin levels to rise, possible causing your body to store the carbs as fat.
Your daily numbers should look something like this:
Protein 30-40%
Carbs: 20-30%
Fat: 40-60%

Protein: Good sources of protein in the general sense consist of:
Beef – Eggs – Poultry – Fish – Pork

Carbs: Good Sources of carbs in the general sense should consist of:
Mushrooms – onions – spinach – broccoli – celery – zucchini – cucumbers – cauliflower – tomatoes – asparagus – artichokes – brussel sprouts – apples – grapes – strawberries – blueberries.
The fruit listed about should be LIMITED. Maybe a serving a day…maybe. For now. Figure it this way; the fruit will spike insulin levels higher than veggies. So if you eat more fruit, you could potentially, store more fat. If fat loss is your goal, then you decide. Abuse this and I will step in and intervene.

Fat: Good sources of fat will consist of:
Nuts and seeds – olives – olive oil – coconut oil/ coconuts – butter (natural butter) – avocados.

Meals:
All of your meal will consist of Protein and Fat. This is a great way to start breakfast. Lunch you can add in some veggies. Snacks should consist of Protein + Fat + (up to you) Carbs.
Protein is the essential followed by fat. If you are way too hungry, way too tired and overall just not liking the diet then you aren’t eating enough fat. Fat basically becomes important for controlling how your body craves and needs calories.

Things to stay away from: Grains, sugar and starches.

How long:
It should take about two good, clean weeks for results to be very noticeable. Worst case scenario an entire month to balance out the system. What it really comes down to is your goal and how serious you are to get there. If you want to loose weight and quickly you will do everything exactly stated as above and not deviate from the plan. Any time you go off the plan you have to basically restart. This isn’t something that goes on forever. We need to get to where we want to go and then maintain, but we will be allowed room to play. It’s not hard it’s easy. Its not expensive, it’s cheap. It works and it works the best. If you have any questions, email me.

What are you really eating??

One of the common ways we describe to eat healthy, especially when we try to clean up eating habits (meaning going Paleo) we talk about ingredient labels. This is often an over looked part of the food or beverage being purchased by the consumer. Usually the food label is checked for carb, protein, fat (if you don't know what you're doing) and sugar percentages. Although these are important, the ingredient label is either as or more important.
If the product says "sugar free" but contains sucralose or fructose then it contains sugar and a lot of it. In fact most of the sugar free products get away with saying they are sugar free because they remove the sugar, add a chlorine mocule to the sugar molecule, and then reintroduce it back into the product. Yes, I said chlorine, the same chemical you put in your pool to clean it. Yummy :)
When we tell people to go Paleo we usually suggest that when they are buying a product, if it has an ingredients label DONT BUY IT CAUSE ITS NOT FOOD!! If they have to tell you whats in it, which means you dont know just by looking at it, there is a problem with that. No one should not know whats in an apple, or chicken, or water, or turkey, or lettuce. Get my point. If its natural, you should already know what it is. But if you pick up a product and it says things like: hydrolyzed collagen, sodium caseinate, glycerine, polydextrose, maltodextrin, guar gum, cyanocobalamin, D-Alpha tocopherylacetate etc etc then its not food. I dont even know what the hell most of that is or how to say it. (By the ways I got SOME of those ingredients off the back of an Atkins bar) We also suggest that if it has a shelf life longer than 2 weeks, DONT BUY IT CAUSE ITS NOT FOOD. This is also a reason we dont really suggest "protein powders." We dont really know whats in them.
When it comes to foods in general, these rules can apply to everything. For instance I have posted about what to look for when buying meat. Free range, non hormonal, no additive meats. Why? Well here is a breakdown from an article in the LA Times about tasty healthy chicken:
"Overall the birds we liked best for their meats flavor and texture were generally organic or fed special diets and almost all were free range.
According to the USDA requirements, organic chickens must be fed additive-free diets, be raised under specific conditions and not be treated with antibiotics. Generally, the organic chickens we sampled were fed diets almost entirely of corn and soy. Conventional chickens can be fed diets that include animal by products and fat.
Free range chickens are allowed to roam outside of the coop (though the amount of room is not specified); because then can move around, their muscles are allowed to grow more naturally."
Want to know what else is in your foods, check this article out:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/10-ingredients-fast-food.htm

Now I understand and am fully aware of improvements in modern foods and nutritions. But some of these are false improvements that are actually potentially harmful additives. A large portion of the things we buy will have an ingredient label on it and contain things that have been added to the product to improve quality or shelf life, I understand this. BUT it doesnt mean that we need it. If the product can be harmful, why buy it. Analogy: If the stove is red and hott, should you touch it? So, if your potential product is dangerous to your health, should you buy it? (And I know from one of you Im gonna hear the old "OH!! But its soooo tasty!!!) In this case I would agree and say yes, it is, its very tasty in fact, and a once in a blue moon induglance hopefully wont kill you, but dont go nuts and have it when ever you fracking want. Our foods are evolving and have had certain things added to them, some of which even could help our general health. Just be catious about what you are buying and what your are putting into your system. This is simply a warning. Why am I warning you? Because I dont want to hear a complaint of why you cant loose weight, stop eating a certain food because its "soooo tasty" or have recently been diagonsed with a disease. I know I may be sounding brash or even like an ass, but I have the potential to help you and you dont want it, then I dont want to waste my time, or yours.
So join my cult and eat healthy. You will look sexier, feel better, preform great, live longer, have healthier children, be smarter, etc etc. My cult is awesome. We even eat ice cream. If you have a problem with my cult, talk to my power animal. PEACE!

How to Make a Diet Effective..

Well, first, don't think of it as a diet. Mentality is key in almost everything we do with fitness. If you approach a lift or a workout with the mind set of failure, that's pretty much exactly what will happen. If you do the same thing with eating you will get the same result. A lot of what we hear about eating from other sources is BS but we hold it as truth. Someone says "oh man, low carb diets, you just feel like sh*t. You will have no energy" I ask you to drop carbs and what do I hear from you "oh chris this is so hard I feel like sh*t. I dont have any energy" (this is just an example.) My response is going to be a smile. I'm smiling because you arent making an original observation or statement. Some things take some getting used to, yes. Some adjusting, balancing, shifting does take place, but if you have the mind set of something negative you will usually produce, at the very least, a negative feeling. You can come to realizations that things will be easier. There is a certain meditation that takes place in fitness. If you will it..it will be.....kind of thing...Hunger, pain, fatigue they are all states of mind. States which can be overcome, challenged and perceived to elicit different feelings and results. Be positive and everything else will follow with the same positivity.
There are also some other good eating well tips. Here are some sites to look over:

Most Effective Diet:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080111210350.htm

How to Get an Effective Diet:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4453055_get-effective-diet.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

How to Get an Effective Diet (different source)
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-the-Most-Effective-Diet

Most Effective Diets: (take this with a grain of salt, there isnt a 1 Diet cure for everyone)
http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/diets/diet-reviews/

By the way: You are now able to post comments and questions. Just fill out the comment portion and when asked to select "comment as" just choose the option at the bottom for "Name/url"
Take care!

Find your POWER ANIMAL

"And you open the door and step inside;

We are inside our hearts.

Now imagine your pain as a white ball of healing light.

That's right your pain.

The pain itself, is a white ball of healing light.

I DONT THINK SO!"

Sometimes you can see that light. A little glimmer.

A sparkle out of the corner of your eye.

A star.

You will see it if you push yourself hard enough. If you empty the gas tank. If you burn your last carb in your stomach. As your body is sucking sugar from your muscles like a fat kid with a Jack in the Box milkshake.....you can see it.

Its healing you.

Its breaking down your muscle fibers; fast twitch, slow twitch, twitches and fibers you didnt even know you had.

That little sparkle is ripping things in your body, its flooding your legs and arms with acid. It burns.

Its healing you.

You dont know it, but it is. Its making you stronger. Its making you faster. Its making you suffer so you can become something better than you were 46 seconds ago.

Some will foolishly assume its an angel, or a dead relative looking over them.

Its not.

Its your pain.

Everyone needs to realize this. Everyone needs to accept the hurt, learn to love it, to lust after it, to be greedy for it.

But your pain can not operate by itself. It needs a companion. It needs a friend. Someone to feed off of, something for you to feed off of and use as motivation when you get to that panic breathing-stomach turning moment where you get weak and think theres no way you can lift the weight again. No way you can do another burpee. No way you can do another pull up. That you need to stop, and let go of the bar. Stop and catch your breath. Stop and let the clock keep running. In moments like these you need to find your power animal.

I dont like sharing all my information with people, because I am in some competition with a few of you, so some of my cards are tight to the chest. But this one, I will lay down. Below is a small snap shot of my power animal before a workout. I told her we were going to do Fran this week..and this is the look she gave me.

Dont F*k with my power animal. I dont and you shouldnt either.

And because Im not such a serious guy, here are some funny picture (some with inapproriate language, but I didnt write them so dont be offended.) Enjoy. Always be seriously joking; you will live longer.

Anyone every done this before? Show of hands :)

Dont worry guys, they wont make you look like that.

Yes. Round is a shape, but I dont think anyone wants to be that shape.

This could be your Power animal.

This is how some of you look at me after a workout.





Or this could be your power animal.

I dont think you want this as your power animal.

Interesting News

Recently I have come across a lot of interesting articles and other important information that I will post on later. But for now here is some cool reads:

Shocking Sugar Facts:
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/user-post-sugar-8-shocking-facts-454190/

Quick Zone:
http://www.zonediet.com/tabid/130/itemid/1142/How-to-do-the-CanDo-Zone.aspx?CATAdReferrer=20090412ZLN

Want to live longer? Don't eat like an American!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103744881

Hopes and Dreams

See, this is what happens. If you think that any freaking time soon we are gonna make perfect health into a pill your an idiot; plain and simple. I'm not trying to be rude but for f's sake.
If you think we are so advanced, so tech savvy, so head of our time, you are too in love with your iphone. Paleo means going natural. Eating things that we have always eaten, things that our bodies have evolved over more than several days to eat since we started this journey with the dinosaurs. Then we started making chemicals and we thought they would help, we thought that they would make things better, even easier. Well Ive got news for you; it ain't gonna happen. If you decide to read these Muscle and Fatness or Huge Guy or Sexy Girl "fitness" magazines you should notice that there are more advertisements then there is informative information. Promises by products, by companies, by "scientists", by people, that we want so badly to believe. (When you see fantastic claims — that's generally what they are.") How bad? So bad we will experiment with our bodies and foreign chemicals that can screw things up for the rest of your life. How bad? So bad we will die for it.
http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/us_med_diet_pill_recall.html

Here is another good look at it from Mark Twights perspective of not only supplements but globo gyms and hard work.
During a recent trip Maximus and I visited a supplement store to marvel at the various OTC products promising a variety of results. One assured the user of "skin-tearing muscle pumps and road-map vascularity." While I am certain I don't want my skin to tear, I know that one consequence of consistent hard work and attention to dietary detail is increased vascularity - when muscular contraction shuts down blood flow within the muscle the pipes move to the outside to maintain a constant supply of oxygen, nutrients, etc. But if one isn't willing to do the work or pay the attention he (it's usually a male that falls for this shit) could simply buy a product to "achieve" the "same" result.






---Josh V was willing, did the work, and the fat pipes are a consequence of fitness -- not the objective.

Rest Day

Hey Every BODY!
I got so caught up in the Cheat Day/Rest Day post talking about wonderful (terrible) delicious (unhealthy) food that I totally forgot to talk about the rest part of the day.
Usually I try to keep cheat meals on the same days as WOD days and eat clean when I rest. Why? Because thats how youre suppose to f*ing rest. Your body cant recover correctly on a rest day if you are just craming Ihop specials down your throat. The body needs proper sleep, proper exercise, proper recovery and of course proper food (duh!) So I usually workout and then have my nasty meal. Is this counter productive? Yes! Do I care? Yes!/No! Not really all the time. Its psychologically necessary and as previously explained physically necessary to a point. Now do you think cavemen spent their cheat days throwing back beers and stock piling Ben and Jerry's? Hell no! But, we have evolved (actually de-evolved)(But that is besides the point.) In todays wonderful new age we think we need this. But lets use a little of Tylers Wisdom to have a better look at this:
You are not your iced latte.
You are not your large stack of blueberry pancakes.
You are not your Jack and Coke.
You are not your Ben and Jerry's.
You are not your 5th Tequila shot.
You are not your protein shake.
Your Gatorade does not define you.
You are not your Angus Bacon and Swiss.
You are not your diabetes.

So what to do on a rest day? Well most would actually recommend that we rest; take the day off, kick back and relax, keeping physical activity to a limit. But the more "Fit" we get, the more we want to do. But the more we actually do, the more we need to consume to fuel this "doing." Do you see the cycle? Do more, you eat more. Eat properly=you do more and see improvement. Do more and eat badly=doing a little less but look and feel like nasty. So below is a link to what I do on rest days. Enjoy!
http://vimeo.com/3466413
(Its no Darren video but it was my first try.)