The first was earlier in 2006.  The Second was recent … revenge.

Then …

Man, I love this stuff.

I’m convinced that going through an extreme period of fat loss causes cellular changes that make it easier to get lean with each subsequent diet. I think of this as the body’s “fat loss memory.” So, I make sure that every two years my body gets reminded of its ability to drop fat successfully by dieting down really low. That way, in the future, I’ll always be able to successfully manipulate my body composition without the typical complaint: “It’s just harder to get lean as you get older.” It doesn’t have to be that way!-Dr. John Berardi

Remember — it doesn’t matter what you eat or how you exercise between Christmas and New Years. It matters how you eat and exercise between New Year’s and Christmas !–Alwyn Cosgrove

Holiday Diet Tip:

On Christmas Day … eat ANYTHING you want.  Really.

Then, when the 26th comes, get back on the horse.  I am a big believer in one day a week of cheating … just let Christmas day be that day.

So long as you are good about your diet durring the week lead up, and the week after … you’re golden.

Dieting isn’t supposed to replace your life, but rather, help you structure it for the better.

Merry Christmas,

enjoy.

Here is a page from the Weightlifting Encyclopedia:

The truly remarkable abilities of Olympic style weightlifters are certainly due in part to genetic qualities of these athletes and to their outstanding physical condition. However, they’re also due in no small measure to the kind of training that weightlifters do: performing the snatch and the clean and jerk (C&J).

Almost any form of resistance training can improve an athlete’s strength, but the snatch and C&J are unique in their ability to develop strength and explosive power at the same time. And the benefits of practicing the Olympic lifts are hardly limited to developing strength and power. Here’s a partial list of other added benefits:

1. The mere practice of the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete how to explode (to activate a maximum number of muscle units rapidly and simultaneously). Part of the extraordinary abilities of the Olympic lifters arises out of their having learned how to effectively activate more of their muscle fibers more rapidly than others who are not so trained (in addition to having developed stronger muscles).

2. The practice of proper technique in the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete to apply force with his or her muscle groups in the proper sequences (i.e., from the center of the body to its extremities). This is a valuable technical lesson that can be of benefit to any athlete who needs to impart force to another person or object (a necessity in virtually every sport).

3. In mastering the Olympic lifts, the athlete learns how to accelerate objects under varying degrees of resistance. This is because the body experiences differing degrees of perceived resistance as it attempts to move a bar with maximum speed through a full range of motion. These kinds of changes in resistance are much more likely to resemble those encountered in athletic events than similar exercises performed on an isokinetic machine (which has a fixed level of resistance or speed of resistance throughout the range of motion).

4. The athlete learns to receive force from another moving body effectively and becomes conditioned to accept such forces.

5. The athlete learns to move effectively from an eccentric contraction to a concentric one (through the stretch-shortening cycle, which is the cycle that is activated and trained through exercises that are often referred to as plyometrics).

6. The actual movements performed while executing the Olympic lifts are among the most common and fundamental in sports. Therefore, training the specific muscle groups in motor patterns that resemble those used in an athlete’s events is often a byproduct of practicing the snatch and C&J.

7. Practicing the Olympic lifts trains an athlete’s explosive capabilities, and the lifts themselves measure the effectiveness of the athlete in generating explosive power to a greater degree than most other exercises they can practice.

8. Finally, the Olympic lifts are simply fun to do. I have yet to meet an athlete who has mastered them who does not enjoy doing the Olympic lifts. While making workouts enjoyable may not be the primary objective of a strength coach, it is not an unimportant consideration in workout planning. Athletes who enjoy what they are doing are likely to practice more consistently and to be more highly motivated than athletes who do not enjoy their workouts as much.

(Excerpted from The Weightlifting Encyclopedia by Arthur Drechsler. For more info see: http://www.wlinfo.com)

Most of the time, Turkey is dry, and absolutely worthless without that gravy. Now, don’t get me wrong … I love gravy. But, I’d like it if my Turkey tasted as Juicy as it always looks on TV.
Turkey is a great meat. It’s lean and just a versatile as chicken. I’m surprised people don’t eat it during other parts of the year.

Well, I’m here to tell you that Turkey doesn’t have to be bland. And this way, you won’t have to slather it with so much of that high fat gravy.

I’m talkin’ about a Brine. It ain’t a 30-minute meal, but it’ll be worth it, I promise. (I adapted this recipe from Alton Brown … that brother knows food).

A brine is basically a solution of water, salt, and possibly sugar and spices that you drown your bird in. The water on the outside of the bird has a large amount of sodium (salt) in it. The bird itself doesn’t. When the bird has been sitting in the solution for long enough, the salt, and along with it, the other spices and sugar move down the sodium’s concentration gradient into the Turkey’s meat.

And voila! Flavor.

Here’s the basics.

take
~1 gallon of water (or better, 1 gallon of Vegetable Stock)
1 cup of Kosher Salt (or sea salt … don’t use Iodized)

1/2 cup brown sugar

and then add in some spices, example:

1 Tbsp black pepper corns

1/2 Tbsp alspice berries

1/2 Tbsp candied ginger

(you can try all kinds of flavors … so long as the salt and sugar are right, you can experiment with the rest).

Take all of the above and place in a large pot. Boil. Stir to dissolve solids. Remove from heat, and let cool. Refrigerate overnight. There’s your brine.

Next day:

Place Turkey into a 5-gallon Bucket (sterile of course)

Combine Brine and 1 gallon of iced water and pour over Turkey

Store either in the fridge (if by some miracle you have the space) or in the Garage or some other cold place. (Hint: A cooler works great. Set 5 gallon bucket in the cooler, fill rest of the cooler with ice. Bingo bango … instant Fridge)

Let sit for 5 hours.

Take the Bird out, and let drip dry for a bit. Paper towel dry the rest.

Set Turkey into Roasting pan.

Preheat Oven to 500 degrees

Meanwhile, cut up

-1/2 onion

-1 apple

-a few sprigs of Rosemary

-a few Sage leaves

-and some parsley

stuff them into the cavity along with

-1 Cinnamon stick

cover Turkey liberally with Smart Balance Oil

Here’s what Alton says to do next:

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven,

reducing temperature to 350 degrees F.

Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting.

Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

And there you have it. Good for you, tasty, yummi-ness.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.–Woody Allen

If you can make it to the gym, even if you don’t feel at your best, your body will thank you.

Have your morning Shake even though you REALLY want a muffin and coffee.

Goto bed on time, and skip that last show on the tube.

Your small decisions, made durring those small moments of your life, will determine your success or failure.

The Bugs that Bite

The human gut is home to trillions of bacteria that help to break down food and fight off invading pathogens. Researchers are now considering the possibility that some of those have an effect on Obesity.

There is some reason to believe this. According to the resent research, Obese people have higher levels of a type of bacteria MORE efficient at breaking down food, than do thin people.

We humans need these bacteria to break down food, and Obese peoples guts seem to do a better job at it.

And because Obese people are more efficient at breaking down their food, their bodies are receiving more Calories (read: energy) from their diet, than an equivalent amount of food fed to a thin person. In turn, those calories are deposited on the waists, thighs, hips, chins, etc of the obese.

This is what scientists call a positive feedback loop (ironic, as more often than not, the effects of a positive feedback loop are decidedly not positive).

But hold on.

“If they are right, this could really be a significant advance,” said Dr. Richard Atkinson of the Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, Va., who was not involved in the research, “But I am not sure they are interpreting their data right. Correlation is not causation.”

(A common problem in data interpretation.)

Another scientist who was not involved in the research, agreed. Neurobiologist Hans-Rudolf Berthoud of Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge said, “This doesn’t show that the bacteria cause obesity … This is another excuse you give people to get obese, and that is really the wrong signal to send.”

There are major environmental (diet, lack of exercise, fast food) and other factors at work. It is more likely that the Weight gain itself is what caused there to be more of the bacteria, than than the other way around.

An article in Nature has this to say:

“And it is unclear whether gut microbes are really a significant contributor to the ballooning obesity epidemic, or whether other factors are far more important.”

Exactly. I and plenty of other personal trainers will tell you that the vast majority of obese clients we’ve worked with had unhealthy eating habits, and virtually no workout routine, when they first came to us. And if the Trainer is worth their salt, then once these problems were taken care of, the person lost weight.

Key points of dissent include:

1. The bacterial differences were too small to explain the obesity epidemic.

2. Maybe your weight changes your bacteria, instead of the other way around.

3. The misinterpretation of the results in this study may lead to another excuse not to diet and exercise.

From Slate:

We’ve learned so well, in fact, that we’re getting fat. Not just the United States or Europe, but the whole world. Egyptian, Mexican, and South African women are now as fat as Americans. Far more Filipino adults are now overweight than underweight. In China, one in five adults is too heavy, and the rate of overweight in children is 28 times higher than it was two decades ago. In Thailand, Kuwait, and Tunisia, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are soaring.

There may be a correlation between obesity and these eating bacteria. But, that doesn’t mean a miracle drug is on the horizon that will save you from your fat.

It is still in your best interest to adopt a solidly healthy diet, and have a well structured work-out routine.