Weight Training - Pulsing Lunges

The final segment of this weight training circuit is my favorite.  Do it long enough and you get a great burn.  To round out this series of weight training, what better model to show you what's what than a bad-ass chick.

This girl is not afraid to get in your face and make you train right.

For this exercise you want to start down in the lunge position.  Rest your weights on your shoulders.  Your back leg is going to be extended fully, toe planted on the ground.  Your bent knee should be at a 90 degree angle, your thigh perpendicular to the floor.
Keeping your back leg straight the entire time and both feet planted throughout, straighten your front leg, and then return back into a lunge.  Repeat 10-15 times and then switch legs and do another 10-15 reps.

I like to do five full circuits, so when all is said and done, each leg has pulsed 75 times.  It's the deep burn.

Natural Sweet Alternatives

image via Seattle Weekly

Last week I wrote a post about the scary findings in my sugar research. My friend Mina pinged me to ask if there was a natural sweetener I could recommend when you just have to have something sweet.  The short answer is, in the quantities that the average American eats sweets, nothing is really that great, but after looking into it, I determined raw honey and 100% natural maple syrup are the best.

Here's my disclaimer: my research is limited to reading studies and reports done by other people, so unless I find a way to do my own molecular experiments on food, what I know is subject to what other people say.  It's topical.  I'm not a nutritionist and I don't have a doctorate in this stuff - just a passion to find out for myself what's what, and share my discoveries with you.

Well, folks, I have a good read for you:  Kristen of Food Renegade posted yesterday a rundown of natural sweeteners (and impostors).  I consider her an authority on the matter and I highly encourage you to pop over and take a look.  It's a pithy and informative guide.  Also worth reading are the comments below and Kristen's responses.

Weekly Update: Oops! I forgot!

Sorry folks, I totally spaced this morning.  I didn't get out of bed until well after the alarm and it was a whirlwind from there.

4/28 Update:  I stepped on the scale today and there was literally no change.  Back atcha next week!

Makin' Bread

Recently, I've become hyper-vigilant about the ingredients in my food.  Since Lustig struck a panic in me, I've been suspicious of everything I eat.  The most recent development?  My favorite whole wheat sandwich bread is not as innocent as it looks.  I love the 90 calorie serving size, but I looked closer at the ingredient list and I'm pretty sure at least a quarter of those things listed are preservatives.  Conclusion: nope; I'm out.

More specifically, I'm baking my own bread from here on out.  There's something to be said for making everything from scratch: you know what's in your food.

There are a lot of reasons to bake my own bread, and not really any reasons not to.  Andrew's parents gave us a bread machine a couple years ago so there is literally no work on my part, unless you count scooping the ingredients into the baking bucket and pushing a button.  I just have to be willing to wait 5 hours for the magic to take place.

It's just one more step in my journey to living healthier.

Monday Night Dinner: Whole Wheat Spaghetti alla Carbonara for Two

I have a special place in my heart for spaghetti alla carbonara because my godfather, who lived for four years in Rome during the 1970s, would make it fairly often when our family would go to his house for dinner.  It's also fairly simple to make; it's just eggs and bacon and cheese - oh my!

Ingredients

• 4 oz (dry) whole wheat linguine
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2 slices bacon
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Directions

Boil water and cook linguine according to instructions on package.
While waiting for your water to boil, cook your bacon and set aside on a paper towel.
Meanwhile, turn your oven on warm (lowest setting) and place your metal mixing bowl inside. Alternatively, you can fill the bowl with warm water if your bowl is not oven safe. Just be sure to dump the water out before you throw the ingredients in.  When bowl is sufficiently warm, beat an egg in the (empty) warmed bowl. Add cheese and pepper.
Drain your pasta and add to the bowl, tossing to coat thoroughly with egg and cheese mixture. The egg will cook with the heat of the pasta.
Crumble bacon, and toss with pasta.
Serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Currently On My Workout Mix - 69 Boyz

Weight Training - Tricep Curls

This next exercise in the circuit works your triceps, which is the key to not having what my friend affectionately calls "bingo wings."  If you are feeling like the bicep curls and hammer curls are too much to do consecutively, you can mix this move in between the two sets to give those biceps a little break while you work the triceps.

Our model today is a gold medalist, has a killer bod, and knows what weight training is all about.

An important thing to note:  see how Michael is keeping his elbows right next to his ears, even when he lowers the weight behind his head?  Make sure you're paying attention to that in your own training.

Thanks, Mike, for being such a sport!

Weekly Update: Plateausville

I think I might be at a plateau.  I'm dying to break through the 150-lb mark and I have less than 2 lbs standing in my way.  I'm hoping that over the next month we're going to see the numbers go down as I regularly start running 8 miles (4 each direction of my commute to work) and cutting waaaaay down on sweets.

I feel good, but it's very frustrating to not see results.  Then again, I've never been a very patient person.

Running - Going the Distance

I ran 12 miles today.  It's a 4 mile run between home and the office, and then at lunch I joined two other runners for a mid-day 4-miler.  I wasn't sure I could pull off running all three legs of the twelve miles, and I had my car at the office just in case.  I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it before I lose my "crutch" (meaning my parking space, which I plan to release at the end of the month).  Mostly, I'm concerned about my joints.  There are some pretty serious hills on my commute, so I've started walking down the steepest declines in order to save my knees.

I have to say, it's kinda nice to worry a little less about the calories I've eaten today.  When I got home I made whole wheat pasta alla carbonara for two.  Basically, it's a bacon/egg/cheese comfort food, but much lighter than you'd expect.  If the calcs are right, one serving is under 350 calories.  Definitely MND worthy.  I'll try to remember to post the recipe Monday.

Sugar: Your Frienemy

image via CBS News

Sugar is like those mean girls in junior high and high school; they're sweet and seemingly harmless, then one day you learn how hurtful they can be.  You think sugar is your friend - she makes everything you eat sweeter and more fun.  Then you make the mistake of crossing her and suddenly she makes it her personal mission to destroy you.  There's that day when your eyes are opened and you suddenly realize sugar is not your friend.  My day came April 13, 2011.  That was the day I learned what a bitch sugar has been to me and to my fellow Americans.  And we let her.  For years.

Last Wednesday the New York Times published an article by Gary Taubes titled, Is Sugar Toxic?  I read and reread it.  I sent it to friends.  I talked about it to co-workers.  It's like a light bulb suddenly went off in my head.  All the pieces fit together, like that moment in Usual Suspects when Kujan discovers he'd had  Keyser Söze in front of him the entire time.

Then I watched the video lecture by Robert Lustig referenced in the Taubes article titled, Sugar: The Bitter Truth.  Sugar isn't just about empty calories leading to malnutrition and a calorie excess (though it's that too), it's about sugar actually actively poisoning your body.  Here's how Lustig and Taubes broke it down for me: sugar comes with an evil ring leader and a side-kick.  Fructose is your true adversary.  Glucose, the other component of sugar, is just along for the ride.  While glucose is metabolized by every cell in your body, fructose is sent straight to your liver (your poison processing center) where, if it's over-inundated, it basically goes into survival mode and the excess poison (fructose, this case) is turned into fat.  Visceral fat, actually - the stuff that clings around your organs and clogs your arteries.

100 years ago we didn't eat nearly the amount of sugar we do today, and it's no wonder our nation has seen a spike in heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes.

image via Perfect Health Diet

Today we eat over 45 lbs of sugar a year.

image via NYT

This is in addition to four gallons of high-fructose corn syrup.

image via NYT

Want to know something else interesting?  The difference between the harmful effects of HFCS and regular table sugar is negligible.  It's true.  Sugar is 50% fructose, 50% glucose.  HFCS is 55% fructose, 45% glucose.  This does not mean that HFCS isn't as terrible for you as you thought.  This means that sugar is worse for you than you ever imagined.  Gives me chills.  How 'bout you?  I, for one, am feeling sick just thinking about how I've been unwittingly slowly killing myself for years.

Before having learned the breakdown of exactly how sugar destroys your system at a cellular level, I knew it wasn't great and was looking for ways to cut back, mostly for vanity reasons: I want to be thinner, I want to have nicer skin, blah blah blah.

A friend suggested agave nectar as an alternative to refined sugar, the philosophy being it comes from the agave plant and is a natural substitute.  So I bought some, and I loved it.  I was replacing any call for sugar with agave nectar.  I even went out and bought it in bulk.  I imagined the plant being tapped much the way we tap maple trees to get maple syrup.  I felt good about making the change to get away from sugar.

Then I got educated.  After reading up on sugar I thought, "hey, I wonder what the molecular makeup of agave nectar is."  So I did a little research.  There are no hard numbers, but I did come across a lot of product-sponsored websites praising the stuff, and several health-centered (non-commercially-motivated) websites debunking what the perceived health benefits are.  The most thorough article I found was written by Kristen of Food Renegade.  (Her blog is fantastic, btw.  So glad I stumbled upon it.)  What I discovered in this research is not only is agave nectar 70-90% fructose (depending on which product website is reporting), but it's also highly processed.  Basically it's what we thought HFCS was to sugar - it's much much worse.  Just great.  Now I have a giant jug of a veritable poison sitting at home.

So to conclude this rather depressing post on a lighter note, I'm going to take this new information and use it as a tool of empowerment to further research nutrition.  Being active is a huge part of staying healthy, but holding control of how we fuel ourselves is key as well.  I'm not saying I will never eat sugar again, but I will be making better-informed decisions about my food and be more aware of what's going into it than I ever have before.

Monday Night Dinner - Katie's Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

My friend Katie has a great blog, The Well-Fed Newlyweds, that I love reading; part of the reason I love it is I get to catch up a little with what's going on in her world (we haven't seen each other since we were both 21 and studying in Paris), but a bigger part is she chooses stellar recipes to feature.  I made her Thai honey peanut chicken recently and let me tell you, this one hit it out of the park.  I made just a few tweaks, not that it needed any; I'm just that way.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

Ingredients:
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
lime juice - yield of 1 lime
3 cloves minced garlic
2 Tbsp (heaping) natural peanut butter
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp Sriracha
2 tsp fish sauce
1-1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks


Directions:
Whisk all ingredients except chicken together in a bowl.
Add chicken pieces to sauce and coat evenly.
Cook in a large skillet on med-high heat until chicken is just cooked through.

Another 170 calories gets you 3/4 cup rice to go with it.

Currently on My Workout Mix - Ludacris

I love Luda.

Weekly Update

This is gonna be a shorty because I don't have much to report.  I'm still hanging around 151 lbs, but I'm bloated so my everything is puffy.  This inflates my body fat percentage number.  I feel doughy, but I know it's temporary.  I'm trying to do some diet tweaking to help break through the 150s into the 140s, so we'll see.  Next week will be better.

Monday Night Dinner: Lemon and Dill Cheese Tortellini with Asparagus

This dinner makes me feel like the sun is shining and birds are chirping, even when it's gray and depressing here in the ol' Emerald City.  I timed this one, and from the time you put your water boil it's 20 minutes to the table.  I like eating it cold the next day as well.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 lb asparagus spears, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp dill
• 2-1/2 cups three-cheese tortellini
• 1 Tbsp shredded Parmesan

Directions

 You can either boil 2 separate pots of water for this one, or do what I did and use the same one for both the asparagus and the tortellini.  It all depends if you have a wire mesh strainer like this one:

Have a medium bowl of ice water ready.  Fill a medium pot fairly full of water, add a little salt, and bring to a boil.  Rest your mesh strainer on the top of the pot and toss in your asparagus.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, then lift your strainer out and place it in the bowl of ice water, making sure all the asparagus pieces are submerged in the ice water, to stop the asparagus from cooking any further from its own endothermic heat.

Toss your tortellini in the boiling pot and cook according to the package instructions (probably about 7 min).
While pasta is cooking and asparagus is icing, grate the zest of 1 lemon (about a tablespoon) into your pasta serving bowl.  Add olive oil, dill, and salt to the zest and stir in the bottom of the bowl.
Drain the pasta and asparagus and toss with your lemony-dill olive oil.  Sprinkle with the parm and serve.

Serves 4

Currently on My Workout Mix - Def Leppard

This came on during the end of my run and helped me get pumped back up for a strong finish. Let's get rocked!

Weight Training - Hammer Curls

Ok so you've gotten down the Arnold Press, the squats, and the bicep curls.  Now it's time to move on to the next exercise of the circuit:  hammer curls.  These are simple to transition into from the bicep curls because it is basically the same exercise - you're just rotating your wrists in for the transition.

In order to make sure you do this exercise correctly and "don't hurt 'em,"  our model today is taking his duties very seriously.  Who better to demonstrate hammer curls than Hammer himself?  Are you feelin' his power?

It really is exactly the same as bicep curls - fancy jacket not required.

A couple things to remember while you're doing this:  keep your abs tight and your knees bent ever so slightly.  Don't lock your knees - it's not good for anything except poor form.

Weekly Update - Silver Lining

Ok so I was about to be all, "waa waaaa" about having gained a pound and a half since last week (and I'll be honest, I did eat a lot), but then I started taking my measurements in order to report my body fat, and I actually lost inches and went down in fat.  For reals.  I don't usually report the measurements I have to take in order to get my number, because they're boring: neck, arm, chest, thigh... who cares?

Well, today I do care.  waist and hips are still the same, but I am down to 33 inches at my chest, and have lost an inch and a half off my thigh since last week.  So even though my BMI has gone up slightly, I think the more important numbers here are body fat and inches.  Looks like I'm smack in the middle of the fitness range:

I do feel like I need to step it up a little bit, though, because this next 15 lbs isn't going to lose itself.  Last night I left my car at the office and ran the 4 miles home.  Then I had no choice this morning but to suit up and run into the office.  It was cold, but at least it wasn't raining.  The sun came out at lunch today, so a co-worker and I grabbed the opportunity to run at lunch.  That was another 4 miles.  So I've done 8 miles total today.  Awesome.  Toot toot!  That would be the sound of me tooting my own horn; but hey - I think I'm allowed today.

Monday Night Dinner: Marinara Baked Eggs

This is a fantastic flavorful meal that bakes up quickly

Ingredients

• 4 cups marinara sauce
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup mozzarella shredded cheese
• 4 slices French bread

Directions

Preheat your oven to 300.
Pour marinara into a pie pan and place in the oven for 5-10 min.
After 5 minutes, crack your eggs and gently nestle them in among the marinara.
Sprinkle your cheese evenly over top and bake for 15-20 min.
Meanwhile, toast you bread slices.
Spoon 1 egg and 1 cup marinara over each bread slice

Serve with a green salad.

Serves 4.

Currently On My Workout Mix - Ginuwine

Great pace for lifting weights - 2 counts down, 2 counts up.

Thoughts On Running

I've been doing a little reading up on running these days, since there seems to have been a lot of buzz around barefoot running.  I wanted to know more.  My friend Nate, a writer and runner in Oakland, put out a well-researched article last year on the matter, and other fitness sources, such as Shape Magazine, are also advocates.  What I took away from the research is I'm not convinced barefoot running is my thing, but I have adjusted my stride and am more conscious about how I land on my foot.

I've found that shorter, quicker strides help me run faster with less effort, and I expect that landing more on the middle of my foot rather than my heel will help lessen the sensitivity I've felt in my joints over the last ten or so years.

I want to be able to keep running as a lifelong fitness tool, so being careful now when everything on my body still works is important.