New Dr. Oz Magazine // The Good Life

While browsing the bookstore the other day, I happened upon a new magazine by Dr. Oz, The Good Life.  Of course I picked up a copy and, so far, I really like it!  If you aren't familiar with Dr. Oz, he's a heart surgeon and professor who became popular as a regular guest on Oprah and now has his own show, although he still practices medicine.  His credentials are stellar, but what most people love about him is how he puts health lessons into terms we can understand and implement in our own lives.

The first issue has great information about multivitamins

what Dr. Oz is eating now . . .

exercises for a tighter booty. . .

and how to lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks.

You can order The Good Life HERE and it also comes in a Kindle edition.

Oxygen is my other go-to magazine for fitness inspiration.  I keep all old copies as references for exercises and recipes.  You can order it HERE.

Muscle & Fitness Hers is also really good and is pretty inexpensive for a subscription ($1.66 per issue). You can order it HERE.

Do you read fitness magazines?  Which ones?  If you picked up Dr. Oz' magazine, what did you think of it?

Operation Get Lean - Week 1 Recap + TREADMILL SPRINT INTERVALS

Last week, starting Sunday, I began training and eating to get lean and add muscle with a goal of looking something like the photos below.  I'm crazy for those shoulders and abs!  I've never really had nice shoulders and arms like that and I want to see if I can get them.  

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Slightly embarrassing to post my pic, but I wanted to document my progress, so here's where I'm starting. 

I have been doing a lot of reading, researching, and remembering what trainers and fitness competitors I've known have told me throughout the years.  To get results like that, you have to lift weights, do cardio, and eat clean.  There's really no secret.   

A few days ago, I posted my current eating regimen and I'm happy to report I have stuck to it 100%.  I have planned a cheat meal for Saturday night, but plan to continue my clean eating Saturday day and on Sunday and the next week, etc.  I really want to see what eating like this COMBINED WITH the working out and cardio do for me in the next few months. 

I'm planning to workout 5 days a week (Mon-Thurs, Saturday, and off Friday and Sunday).  This week I'm taking off Friday (so that will be 6 days this week).  The cool thing for me is that I added 20 minutes of cardio to the end of every workout.  I've never done that before.  And I'm talking hard cardio, keeping the heart rate up the whole time.  (I'm not monitoring it with a device but can tell by the way I feel). 

Go HERE to see what I ate this week.  The big changes for me were giving up my afternoon coffee (I drank hot tea instead) and my late night bowl of cereal.  I used to always eat a bowl of something like Cheerios before bed.  Now if I'm hungry, I'll eat one serving of greek yogurt.  It's also challenging to eat every 2-3 hours, reminds me of breastfeeding.  It feels like as soon as you're finished eating, it's time to eat again.  But, I liked my meals, so it wasn't too bad.  I just keep thinking

THE WORKOUTS

I'm not following any specific program, just making sure I hit every body part hard each week.  For convenience, this week, I followed 5 workouts from the Jamie Eason Live Fit plan.  But, I also added 20 minutes of cardio on the treadmill at the end.  For 5 of the days, I just kept adjusting the treadmill to do my own made-up intervals.  For instance:

Minute 1:  4.0 mph at 0 incline

Minutes 2-4:  2.5 mph at 15 incline (don't hold on!)

Minute 5:  4 mph at 0 incline

Minutes 6-7:  6.5 at 0 incline 

and then repeat for 20 minutes total. 

One day, I did treadmill sprint intervals.  Since I've never done this before, I set the treadmill speed to 7.5 mph and did 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.  Basically, you crank the treadmill to your desired speed and run for 30 seconds, then grab the side rails and jump to the side, keeping the treadmill going at that speed and rest for 30 seconds.  Moving the speed up and down takes too long.  

I did that for 20 minutes.  The first 9 minutes weren't too bad, and the iPod helped.  Minutes 11 and 12 felt super hard.  Minutes 13-15 I was like, "Why am I doing this f*#k*ng thing?"  But the last 4 minutes, I'm thinking, "I'm almost done, I can do this, I AM doing this! I'm strong!"  I swear working out is such a mental and physical sport.  I never thought I could consistently do cardio after a hard weight lifting workout and now I've done it 5 times in one week.  I learn that you have to train your mind and your body at the same time.  

For weight training, I did: 

SUNDAY- back

MONDAY - legs 

TUESDAY - biceps and triceps 

WEDNESDAY - shoulders + planks (3 sets, 45 seconds to 1 minute)

THURSDAY - back and biceps + planks (3 sets, 45 seconds to 1 minute)

SATURDAY- legs 

Go HERE for the exact workouts with pinnable images, except I added one more not shown.

I have been tired at a reasonable time at night (thank God, sometimes I get a "second wind" right before bed and can't sleep) and woken up so SORE every morning that I was immediately taking 2 Advil.  I just ordered a nighttime recovery supplement that is supposed to help with soreness- it's by Advocare.  I haven't taken it yet, so I can't tell you if it helps or not, but I'm crossing my fingers! 

You can follow my Pinterest FITNESS inspiration board for more motivation and fitness tools. 

Have a great weekend!

Mysteries of Energy Balance and Weight Loss

How to Lose Weight Effortlessly

 

You've probably seen this claim many times: a pound of fat contains 3,500 kilocalories (kcal).  A slice of toast is 80 kcal.  All you have to do is forego one slice of toast per day-- just a few percent of your total calorie intake-- and you will lose 8.3 lbs of fat per year.  Fat loss is so easy!

 

This reasoning is extremely common both in the popular media and among researchers.  Here's an example from the otherwise excellent book Mindless Eating, by researcher Brian Wansink:

...the difference between 1,900 and 2,000 calories is one we cannot detect, nor can we detect the difference between 2,000 and 2,100 calories.  But over the course of a year, this mindless margin would either cause us to lose ten pounds or to gain ten pounds.  It takes 3,500 extra calories to equal one pound.  It doesn't matter if we eat these extra 3,500 calories in one week or gradually over the entire year.  They'll add up to one pound.

This is the danger of creeping calories.  Just 10 extra calories a day-- one stick of Doublemint gum or three small Jelly Belly jelly beans-- will make you a pound more portly one year from today.  Only three Jelly Bellys a day.

According to this reasoning, if I reduced my calorie intake by 80 kcal per day, I'd become skeletal in two years and vanish in a puff of smoke within 10 years*.  All from a meager 3 percent reduction in calorie intake! 

 

What's wrong here?

Read more »

NutriScience Seminar in Lisbon with Lindeberg, Fontes, and Bastos

My friend Pedro Bastos has asked me to spread the word about a seminar he's organizing in Lisbon titled "Evidence and Evolution-based Nutrition".  It will include Staffan Lindeberg, Maelan Fontes, and Pedro Bastos-- three quality researchers in the area of evolutionary health-- I'm sure it will be interesting.  Here's the flier:

 

 

Before & After with Andrea from Worley House

Andrea of Worley House is sharing her weight loss success story with us today.  I'm super proud of this girl.  She lost 68 pounds by eating healthy and working out AT HOME.  If you have weight to lose, take heart, Andrea saw big improvements in just three months!  She's got two kids (one my son's age) and a younger one as well.  Please leave Andrea a comment on this post so that she knows she has inspired you.  It's brave of her to share her story!  Also, check out her blog- I think you'll like it! 

Hi Honey We're Healthy Readers! My name is Andrea Worley, I blog over at my little slice of the Internet called Worley House! I'm so honored that Megan asked me to share a bit of my story here, on a topic I never thought I'd ever share about; weight loss and becoming healthy. 

I had my second baby in December 2012, my pregnancy with #2 was much harder on my body, I gained about the same amount of weight that I did with my first but I was already over weight and not very healthy when I got pregnant the second time around. So I think that those things combined with a difficult pregnancy added to my discomfort. 

On delivery day I weighed in at 190 pounds. I knew that some of that weight was baby, excess water and fluids. Couple weeks after having my second baby I weighed myself, 168 pounds on my 5'2'' frame. At that point I knew that I needed to change a lot of habits if I wanted to lose the weight and become healthy. 

I started working out and changing what I was eating. I don't have a gym membership, I'm just a woman and a mother using what she has to make her life healthier and better. I dusted off my DVD of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and used it daily. Well past the 30 days. It was 20 minutes, but certainly not easy for me. It was a great starting point, and I knew I needed to make time for myself if I was going to reach my goals.

I set small goals for myself when I first started losing weight. I also started tracking everything I ate through My Fitness Pal. This was a good visual for me to see the calories I was consuming. To learn portion control and because I was still breast feeding as well I needed to make sure I was eating enough calories to still produce and not reduce my supply. 

After three months of eating well and daily exercise.

After three months of eating well and daily exercise I started to see some major results. It gave me to motivation to keep going and set new goals. My healthy lifestyle change has spilled over into every area of my life and to my family. 

I started drinking tons and tons of water. I believe water intake is huge for weight loss and flushing out your system. I omitted all dairy from my diet as well, started cutting out sweets and sugary drinks. I also eat five small meals a day. My diet is mostly clean, and when I say that I mean I am human. I have a cookie sometimes. I strive for consistency in this- not perfection. 

Once I started making changes to my eating habits and working out I noticed right away that I was sleeping better and easier at night. The headaches that I was getting often were gone, and over all I had a better outlook on life and on myself. 

I also believe that my lifestyle change also helped get me out of my post baby funk. My whole outlook changed. 

The picture on the left is my "before" picture taken in May 2013, and the one on the right was taken at the end of October 2013. I'm down 68 pounds now and have reached the goal weight that I wanted to be at.

I believe in always setting new goals for yourself, stretching yourself and making your body work for you and not against you. I still work out daily, I do videos from the comfort of my own home and have now added running into my workouts. I've learned that food is fuel for your body. It's not supposed to make you feel good about yourself, or make you happy. The purpose of food is to nourish our bodies and allow it to do what God created it to do. I really believe you have to change your outlook on food as well.

Almost a year into my fitness journey, I've met some of my original goals. It's time to make new ones and always continue to thrive in living a healthy life. I'm looking forward to running my first 5K ever this March. Don't give up if you don't see results immediately, change takes time. Your body didn't get where it's at over night, so give yourself time to makes the right and healthy changes.

If you're wanting to make a change I encourage you to just start, there's never going to be a "perfect day" to start or a perfect month. Once you start you will never regret it. Once you start to see your body change you won't regret it either. It's easier to not work out, I believed this for far to long but once I started making changes in my habits it gave me a new outlook as well. And, I won't lie it feels pretty great to have nothing that fits and your pants be a little looser than before. It's a great perk!

Thanks Megan for letting me share today! If you're looking for more tips, encouragement and motivation visit me over on my blog, find me on Facebook ,  Twitter or Instagram @worleyhouse.

Beef heart

I have posted here before about the nutrition value of beef liver, nature’s “super-multivitamin”. I have even speculated that grain-fed beef liver could be particularly nutritious (). What I should have done also was to post about beef liver’s equal in terms of nutrition value – beef heart. In this post I am correcting the omission.

Contrary to popular belief, not all organ meats are inherently fatty. The fat that is attached to an animal’s heart after slaughter, even if from grain-fed cattle, can be easily removed. The resulting cut will have a very low fat-to-protein ratio; often significantly less than fat-trimmed non-organ muscle cuts.

I don't say this because I consider fat to be unhealthy. In fact, dietary fat is necessary for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, and can thus be uniquely healthy. However, fat also is the most calorie-dense macronutrient. Even though the caloric values of macronutrients vary based on a number of factors, excess calories tend to be stored as excess body fat.

A 100 g portion of cooked beef heart, as in the photos below, will have 28 g of protein and only 5 g of fat (see this link, you may have to reset the serving size field: ). The photos below show two different beef heart dishes I have prepared. In the first the beef heart was barbecued. In the second it was simmered in a pan with vegetables for about 8 h.

Below is a simple recipe for the barbecued beef heart, which I recommend cutting into steaks. For the simmered beef heart I suggest cutting it into chunks that resemble cubes; then you can just add the dry seasoning powder mentioned below to the water, some vegetables, enough water to last about 8 h, and leave it simmering.

- Prepare some dry seasoning powder by mixing salt, garlic power, chili powder, and a small amount of cayenne pepper.
- Season the beef heart steaks at least 2 hours prior to placing them on the grill.
- Grill with the lid on, checking the meat every 10 minutes or so. (I use charcoal, one layer only to avoid burning the surface of the meat.) Turn it frequently, always putting the lid back on.
- If you like it rare, 20 minutes (or a bit less) may be enough.

Beef heart is a very good source of vitamins and minerals, and is one of the least expensive cuts of meat (in meat sections of grocery stores, not in paleo restaurants). Many people prefer beef heart over beef liver because of beef heart’s texture.

While I have restricted my comments in this post to “beef” heart, the hearts of most animals that are eaten by humans (e.g., chicken, duck, deer, turkey) are fairly nutritious, and they seem to have that uniformly meaty texture that many people like.

Here is an interesting factoid. The largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times was the now extinct Tasmanian tiger. It was an elusive and solitary animal, and the subject of the beautiful film "The Hunter (2001)" (). The Tasmanian tiger was known to frequently eat only the hearts of prey. I hope this is not why it became extinct!

Lean Body Meal Plan

Despite my valiant efforts to finish 2013 healthy and strong, I find myself here in February a good 5 pounds heavier than I'd like to be.  Five extra pounds on a barely 5'1 woman makes a difference.  I notice it most in that my pants are too tight, even my next-size-up jeans.  I spent last weekend in Las Vegas and I'm sure that didn't help things.  So, I'm back at it determined to shape up this month.  It's my birthday  month too, so that's a perfect time to hit it hard!

I figured I need to get back to basics with my meals and I'm doing a typical lean body meal plan, which consists of eating 5-6 small meals every 3 hours, with 20-30 grams of protein per meal.  The Jamie Eason Live Fit training program recommends the following:

(via Jamie Eason Live Fit Trainer/Bodybuilding.com)

* * * * * * * * 

I started Sunday and for this week, my meals look like this: 

7:00 a.m.  1/2 cup OATMEAL with raisins, sliced almonds, cinnamon and milk.  Coffee and creamer (gotta have it)

10:00 a.m.  Protein shake 

12:00 p.m.  TEX MEX with fresh pico de gallo (but I'm using chicken this time)

3:00 p.m.  Celery or apple or rice cake with peanut putter

5:00 - 6:00 p.m.  TURKEY CHILI

8:00 p.m.  Greek yogurt or egg white omelet 

That's it.  All day every day for a week.  I'll have a "cheat meal" on Friday and probably Saturday too.  Then, back to it the next week and all of February, just switching up the meals with different lean proteins and veggies.  I eat every several hours anyway, so that's not difficult for me.  I have also seen really good results when I've stuck to this kind of eating, so I'm excited to get going again! 

I find it's actually easier (time wise) to follow this plan because I just do one grocery trip on Sunday and make a big batch of chili and Tex Mex and portion it out for the week.  I'm not staring into the fridge wondering what to make each night.  Plus, once the meals are cooked on Sunday, it's just popping them into the microwave to heat up.  Super easy.  People always ask, "But what do you feed your family?"  My husband wants to lose weight too, so he's on board.  If he wants more variety, he'll eat out for lunch.  My son still mainly eats grilled cheese and a side of something like yogurt or an apple for dinner.  

For my workouts, I'm pulling some of the Jamie Eason Live Fit Training workouts being sure to work each body part every week and adding 20 minutes of cardio at the end of the workouts.  Right now, I've been doing my cardio on the stairmaster, alternating the speed to keep it intense.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I'll answer them there.  Have a great week!