Eating Green

With the popularity of the “go green" movement, many people are choosing to eat green as well. People may choose to eat green for different reasons: (1) environmentally friendly (2) animal friendly (3) food of a higher nutritional quality (4) many believe it will help them lose weight. Whatever the reason, eating green certainly is "sheik", and it appears to be a trend with a bit of staying power.

As we walk through supermarkets, we are bombarded with green food lingo like organic, natural, free range, etc. All of this green lingo can be awfully confusing, and, often times, misleading. It is important consumers understand common green food language in order to make informed decisions, not waste their money, and actually receive value from their green purchases.

Let’s analyze some of the green food labels:

1. Organic (the gold standard)

This is a USDA regulated label that says no pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, or growth hormones were used. Produce, meats and dairy products with a USDA Organic seal are 100% organic, while other types of foods may use the designation if 95% of their ingredients are organic

2. Natural or “All Natural”

This label is only regulated for meat and poultry and signals that no artificial ingredients have been added. However, don’t necessarily confuse this term as nutritious when, for example, reaching for the “all natural” cheese puffs.

3. No Hormones Administered

This is an unverified certification that a cow was never given hormones in its lifetime. However, this stamp on either pork or poultry is entirely irrelevant since, by federal law, chickens and pigs cannot be given hormone injections.

4. No Antibiotics Administered

Another unverified term that purports to tell you that meat or poultry has not been given any antibiotics…don’t count on it.

5. Cage Free

This egg carton label means absolutely nothing nutritionally and not much ethically either. Cage free hens can still be packed wing to wing in a windowless indoor space.

6. Free Range

This is USDA defined, yet unregulated, term. It means a bird has had outdoor access for more than half its life. However, many free range chickens live in crowded barns, with access only to a cramped yard.

7. Grass Fed

Indicates only that a cow ate grass at some point during its life. This is misleading, as even cows raised on big commercial farms will eat grass at some point. Look for the “100% grass fed” label instead.

One last thing...

I mentioned above some people eat green because they truly feel it will help them lose weight: THIS COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. Once again, it's primarily about calories in vs. calories out. I'd rather see people eat non-organic and processed food in the correct amounts than green foods in the incorrect amounts. I can't tell you how many times I've had prospective clients tell me they eat free range this and natural that, but still can't seem to lose weight. When I then ask them if they've been quantifying all this "healthy" food, they look at me like I have grass fed cows climbing out of my eyes! People just don't get it: it's not about green food, high fructose corn syrup, eating after a certain hour in the evening, eating certain types of foods together, or avoiding entire groups of foods....IT'S ABOUT CALORIES!

Now, ideally, yes, it would be great if people a diet appropriate in calories AND ate green foods, avoided high fructose corn syrup and fast food, etc. But, 99 times out of 100, people fail to establish their calorie needs, do not quantify how many calories they take in each day, and instead worry about secondary nutrition matters like eating green foods and the like. If we are talking strictly about weight loss-and not about the nutritional quality of the diet-it doesn't matter one bit.

To sum up, I'm all for green eating. Just don't think eating green is the magic weight loss bullet you've been waiting for.

The 200 Lunge Workout

In the real world, things don't always go as planned or anticipated, and you have to make adjustments on the fly and adapt. This is true in every area of life, but particularly so when it comes to getting workouts in. I was scheduled to train lower body today, and was looking forward to devoting a full hour to my workout, which would include a 15 minute dynamic warm-up prior to hitting the heavy strength training. However, my client training schedule fell apart, I had to fit in a couple more clients already this morning, and I have a few more later on today who asked to come in at different times. Bottom line: my anticipated 1 hour workout later on isn't going to happen.

Instead of saying "screw it", I adapted my workout and fit it into a 20 minute window I had open between clients about an hour ago. If you value something and prioritize it, you find a way to make it happen. Anyway, I needed a quick lower body workout with a built in warm-up. Here is what I did:

Body weight walking lunge: 20 steps (10 each leg)
Rest 30 sec.
Walking lunge holding 10 lb. dumbbells: 20 steps (10 each leg)
Rest 30 sec.
Walking lunge holding 20 lb. dumbbells: 20 steps (10 each leg)
Rest 30 sec.
Walking lunge holding 30 lb. dumbbells: 20 steps (10 each leg)
Rest 30 sec.
Walking lunge holding 40 lb. dumbbells: 20 steps (10 each leg)
Rest 30 sec.

You get the picture. I continued in this format through 80 lb. dumbbells and then finished with 10 split jump lunges for 10 reps on each leg. 200 reps total. About 22 minutes to complete. Was this an ideal and perfectly balanced lower body workout? No. Did it get the job done and allow me to get some work in? Yes. I actually really liked this because the first 3-4 sets served as warm-ups, and, by the fifth set, my knees were "lubed up" and I was really in a groove. The last 3-4 sets really challenged me. Give this workout a shot (and adapt it to your own fitness level) if you are ever strapped for time.

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Strength Training Set and Repetition Protocols

Received this question from a blog reader regarding strength training set and repetition protocols:

PJ,

Hey, I've been performing one all out set of 8-10 reps on all of my exercises, going as heavy as I can on each set for that range of reps (8-10 rep max weight). Typically, what I'll do is rest about 60-90 seconds, reduce the weight by about 25-30 percent, and then perform a 2nd set, trying to get the same number of reps I got on the first set with the heaviest weight.

I've made pretty good progress like this over the last 5 months, but I feel like I'm ready for a bit of a change. Can you recommend any alternative strength training set and repetition protocols?

James from Erlanger, KY

James,

Sure thing. If you've been performing single set to muscular failure protocols, I great way to change things up is to perform multiple sets of lower repetitions. My favorite multiple set protocol, which you can easily apply because you already know what your repetition maximums are for a number of exercises, is the one half your rep max + 1 protocol. Here is how you might apply this over a 4 week cycle (rest 2-3 minutes between sets):

Week 1: 4-5 sets of 6 reps using a 10 RM resistance
*you are using a 10 RM here, so one half of your 10 RM (5) + 1=sets of 6 reps

Week 2: add 6% to your week 1 weights and perform 4-5 sets of 5 reps (this is your theoretical 8 RM)

Week 3: add 6% to your week 2 weights and perform 4-5 sets of 4 reps (this is your theoretical 6 RM)

Week 4: add 6% to your week 3 weights and perform 4-5 sets of 3 reps (this is your theoretical 4 RM)

At this point, you could either take a deload week before going back to a single set to muscular failure protocol OR start again at week 1 using a weight that is 5 lbs. heavier than your first cycle. Also, I should point out that you wouldn't want to use this type of multiple set protocol on every exercise in your workout, unless you are only performing 3 or 4 total exercises, which, in this case, would be fine. What I typically like to do both personally and with my clients is to use this type of multiple set protocol for 1 main exercise at the beginning of a workout, and then use 1 or 2 sets of moderate reps (6-10) for the remaining exercises in a workout, but, keep in mind, I am usually implementing 8 or 10 different exercises. Like I said before, if I was only performing 3 or 4 exercises in a workout, I very well might use the multiple set protocol for each exercise.

Hope this helps James!


http://www.personaltrainerscincinnati.com