Intakes for winter, ready when you are..

So you are struggling a bit about knowing what you can have on that shopping list for winter. This has seemingly been the coldest week of this winter. 

Nonetheless I have to be up at 4 to be at the gym at 5 and its kinda been too hard to get used to this. Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition..people cant seem to get this one right. I have been on a nutrition journey since I have been a fitness trainer and I must say the worst times of my career was when I did fitness competitions and I had to eat an egg white to control my body fat or whatever. Had no cooking clue what that was intended to do in my body but the fact was it was gross/still is.Very gross that I am grossed thinking about it right now as I write this post. 

There were all types of fitness fanatics around me vying to be the next miss Fitness, miss Bikini and miss Physique..I had no clue what I was doing but I had my cereal,bread and my well done eggs yolk and all. People were just looking at me funny. 

Not that I cared but I was a newbie and I was starting out so we learn from our mistakes right. Yeah right. But the thing is I have suffered the consequences of that era in my life until I started equipping myself with serious nutrition knowledge vis how much carbs, protein etc I can consume a day so its been a long time coming. Anyways I am not going to bore you with what to eat and what not to eat.

Yuuuuucccckkkkk 

Fact of the matter is, it is a conscious decision everyone has to take at some point in their life,either you will end up with the doctor telling you to change your diet because of cholesterol levels or sugar intake etc at some point in your life so why not now when no one has a gun to your head or better yet while your life is not cut short because of obesity and other ailments so read on..

Green tea is yucky and ewwwwww without sugar its the worst taste on my lips, but the one thing that green tea has that is good  for you is that is

maintains catechins which are antioxidants that help you prevent viruses and lessens the risk of getting sick in winter. I know we would rather have the milos and the hot chocolates and those skinny this and that so make sure that the next cup you reach for this week should be a nice cup of green tea..

Water -yeah right. I find myself drinking lesser water in winter than in summer because of reasons I would like to indicate as being obvious to you and me.Its colllllllllllllllllllllllddddddd why have water when I can have coffee..apparently cold weather stimulates urine production, and have you noticed that when you breathe there is a misty breath coming out of your mouth. You need your 8 glasses still a day in winter as you need it in summer to help optimize your bodily functions.

Protein- Still important??? When has it never been?Putting a bit or some protein in your daily intake of food is good to assist you with producing antibodies to help fight disease and infection in your body during winter.

Honey- Honey is kind of expensive. I am talking about the real honey where you are actually not paying the processor of the honey but the one sitting in his backyard being stung by bees trying to get

honeycombs to your watery mouth, yeahhhh look at your mouth watering..Wish those bees can come sting you..you are apt to get healthier results if you swap your sugar for honey when sweetening your food or drinks.

Honey has an anti-bacteria and healing contents that can fight any infection and soothe your sore throat..

Yoghurt- Yes good for you, super good for you in winter. Yoghurt is a good bacteria that helps decrease bad bacteria in your body that brings in sicknesses and indigestion. Get loads of that.

Just a weekly dose of what you can do to take care of yourself better this winter. In the end its choice, its a change of mind. Do the right thing, you only have one body unless you want to get cloned in the future or get BOTOX.. which is another topic for another day..

Fitness Workouts..To do or not to Do..

Ever wondered why everyone is trying to come up with a new type of workout all the time. Ever wonder if these ever work or not. Workoutholics google workouts all the time and its crazy how they try go from workout to workout trying to find the newest thing to do. And the other crazy thing is that the people that design workouts will always tell you this is the new thing and it does this and that..

I have been on a mission to find out about recent workouts that hit our market recently although some of them are maybe old and this is what I found out...Read on..

SWEAT 1000-

S.W.E.A.T. stands for “Specialised Weight Endurance Aerobic Training”, with 1000 representing calories burned in a one-hour workout.  

SWEAT 1000

The workouts were developed by Uria, who spent 22 years in the US and has trained movie stars locally and abroad for physically challenging roles. They are a combination of interval-style training incorporating specialised treadmills which incline to 30 degrees – as exercise at inclines of 18 degrees or more is said to burn three times more calories from fat – with floor work using resistance bands and other high-intensity exercises.

 

“It is taking the highest level of physical training and putting it into a one-hour dynamic, action-packed class that is different every time. Still, the impression watching a class in action is that it’s high energy throughout, spurred on by a great music selection played loud. At some point, a colourful pinpoint laser lights dance around in the dark, an inspired night-clubby touch. 



CROSSFIT



CROSSFIT:

 

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program with the aim of improving, among other things, cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. It advocates a perpetually varied mix of aerobic exercise, gymnastics (body weight exercises), and Olympic weight lifting.

CrossFit Inc. describes its strength and conditioning program as “constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity across broad modal and time domains," with the stated goal of improving fitness, which it defines as "work capacity across broad time and modal domains." Hour-long classes at affiliated gyms, or "boxes", typically include a warm-up, a skill development segment, the high-intensity "workout of the day" (or WOD), and a period of individual or group stretching. Some boxes also often have a strength focused movement prior to the WOD. Performance on each WOD is often scored and/or ranked to encourage competition and to track individual progress. Some affiliates offer additional classes, such as Olympic weightlifting, which are not centred around a WOD.

 

INSANITY-

 

When I created the INSANITY workout, I knew it would produce insane results in 60 days, but I wasn't sure if anyone was brave enough to try it(Shaun That guy from HIP HOP abs) Turns out...there are a lot of crazy people out there.

Crazy enough to actually enjoy doing the world's most insanely tough workout. To like the feeling of being drenched in sweat...of going balls-to-the-wall for a full 45 minutes of muscle-searing exercise. Is INSANITY hard?

 

Oh, yeah. It really IS the hardest workout ever put on DVD. It's totally crazy...but it's going to get you crazy-good results. If you've ever been to a Spin class, you know how that works. You motor along at a moderate pace for awhile – then all at once, you kick up your speed and heart rate – just for a minute or so. After that, it's back to a lower gear, giving you
plenty of time to catch your breath.

But with INSANITY, you do exactly the opposite. You work flat out in 3 to 5-minute blocks, and take breaks only long enough to gulp some air and get right back to work. It's called Max Interval Training, because it keeps your body working at maximum capacity through your entire workout.
You keep pushing your limits – so your body has to adapt. That's how you get in such insane shape in just 60 days.

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise, naturally, has been shown to raise a person’s metabolism.  High volume training adds muscle, and increasing muscle is highly correlated to increased metabolism. Yes, these programs will help a sedentary person speed up their metabolism..

 

Insanity and Cross-fit workouts run at a much higher intensity, near that of the anaerobic threshold, and thus anaerobic for most people.  As such, the preferred energy source is carbohydrates.  Sure, all workouts are catabolic , but strength training is the most catabolic activity.  Rest between sets facilitates energy utilization through an aerobic pathway. When muscle recovery is delayed—as is what happens in the P90X/Insanity/Cross-fit models—the muscle operates in an anaerobic state. In this state, as much as 15% of the energy used comes from protein.

Additionally, the lack of rest results in rapid fatigue and may increase the risk of injury, at a cellular and whole muscle level. With fewer amino acids available (because they got turned into ATP) the muscle cells are less able to repair local damage and build bigger (stronger) muscle cells. Lack of amino acids is also a strong trigger for hunger, resulting in an increased drive to eat in the post-recovery phase.

So although these high volume weight-training workouts will create a situation where a person can add lean mass, the intensity of the workout will lead to more muscle loss and decreased muscle repair when anaerobic. The stage is then set for high risk for overtraining and injury and in a nitrogen-negative (protein poor) environment will eventually lead to a loss of metabolism.

So if you compare these workouts what is really the point of having these many workouts bombarding us and having to pay all of that money for DVDs while you are already giving your local gym money? CrossFit is functional training with a twist. It has been proven that there are too many injuries in this workout.. Push your body then compete..Insanity-loads of cardio where you don't take breaks in between their 3-5 minutes blocks, most workouts I saw here are random workouts that you get in body-conditioning, yoga and Pilates also with a twist.

Sweat 1000- truthfully speaking what do I do there that I don't get in the gym or aerobics class except a tale twist in style and workout choreo..and maybe a plus the fact that celebrities do it..marketing strategy. People need to decide for themselves.. 

So its your take, every type of workout has a way of fading away as years go by with newer fads coming in, its a fact. Workouts remain the same though, you warm up, stretch, do the workout whether you want to lose weight or tone then you strengthen and stretch. What types of workouts how and what not remains yours to choose. I personally am not big on these, train smart bla bla..get thin in these many seconds, minutes, months or a year. The fact is know yourself, your body, your blood type, eat healthy, train 3 times a week and you off to a good start..

GO OUT THERE AND GO FOR GREEN...