Are Microwaves Dangerous?

I thought about this the other day. If we are not supposed to look into the microwave when it’s going because of the danger to our health, what is it doing to our food?  Are microwaves dangerous?  Let me say this;  With 2 young daughters, I am definitely in favor of convenience and saving time when preparing meals.  It just got me thinking and now I prefer to heat my meals up on the stove or in the oven.  Here is why I prefer to reheat my meals in the oven or stove instead to the microwave:

1. Food Quality:  Let’s take a slice of pizza for example (I am using pizza because it’s okay for us to enjoy pizza.  Just not eating 5 slices at a time).  If you typically reheat your leftovers in the microwave, I challenge you to reheat a slice of pizza in the oven at  400 degrees for about 5 to 7 minutes.  The difference in taste and texture will blow your mind in comparison to using a microwave.  You’ll get crispy and delicious instead of soggy and “meh”.

2. Nutrition:  Typically I try to eat as healthy as possible (when I am not eating pizza, of course..).  Getting healthy ingredients is one thing, but making sure your food retains its nutrients is another.  Now I am not an appliance technician, but I can imagine that if your food can go from cold to ready in just a minute, you’re “cooking” at some pretty intense temperatures.  When this happens (overcooking), you are killing the nutrients in your food.  By cooking on a stove top, grill, or oven, the process is slower and locks in the flavor and nutritional value of the meal.

3. Health:  I have seen the arguments that say it’s a “safe” radiation that come from microwaves.  I guess I am just not buying that.  I just know that it’s not natural to have full meal prepared in just minutes (although with a busy schedule it’s necessary sometimes).  It can’t be as healthy as preparing a meal on the stove, grill or oven without the radiation.  Here is a quote from an actual doctor:

“I *am* a medical doctor and don’t mind providing some free, evidence-based advice:  throw away your microwave.  Very briefly, here is some objective data.  I won’t even bother to list all the studies citing leakage of BPA and other carcinogenic chemicals into foods microwaved in plastic containers or covered with Syran wrap.  But there is also data that food loses 97% of its antioxidant properties vs. 11% by steaming (Vallejo et al, J of Sci of Food and Agric 15 Oct 2003, vitamin C content (Kidmose U and Kaack K. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica B 1999:49(2)), anticancer compounds (Song K and Milner J A. “The influence of heating on the anticancer properties of garlic,” Journal of Nutrition 2001;131(3S):1054S-57S), and can cause potentially harmful unfolding of proteins (George D F, Bilek M M, and McKenzie D R. “Non-thermal effects in the microwave induced unfolding of proteins observed by chaperone binding,” Bioelectromagnetics 2008 May;29(4):324-30). You have a simple choice here:  convenience of quickly preparing empty and harmful calories vs. waiting a few minutes longer to heat up healthy, healing food.  Hippocrates said “Let Food be thy Medicine.”  Why not love yourself and eat healthy?  Sean McCloy, MD, MPH, MA

I will not lie to you and tell you that I don’t use my microwave because I certainly do, but I do feel confident that a 5 to 10 minute investment of time spent reheating my food in the oven or stove will result in better health and nutrition for me and my family.

How To Get Muscle Definition

Weight loss is not the only reason some of us workout and stay active.  Some people just want to know how to get muscle definition.  I would fall into this category.  I don’t necessarily want to bulk up, so my goals are more geared towards maintaining muscle definition.  If you are not looking to lose or gain weight and you want to tone up, follow these steps:

1. More Reps, Less Weight:  When you are lifting weights, form is everything.  This is especially true when you are trying to get muscle definition.  Each movement must be precise in order to get the results you desire.  For best results, take whatever weight you would normally use and lower it.  To counter this, simply do more reps than you would normally do.  For example: When doing bicep curls, if you normally do 12 reps with 25 lb dumbbells, you would change it to 20 reps with 15 lb dumbbells (or something close). This will give you those “cuts” and definition that you are looking for.  Conversely, if you were trying to bulk up or build mass, you would lift more weight, but do less reps.

2. Plyometrics:  By adding plyo to your routine, you will get the muscle definition that you are looking for.  The constant cardio, jumping, and isolating of body groups will get you ripped in no time.  It’s a great full body workout.   I have added the plyometrics routines of Insanity and P90X to my regimen and it’s become one of my favorite workouts of the week.

3. Nutrition:  If you follow my posts on a consistant basis then you already know what’s coming…muscles are defined in the kitchen as well as the weight room.  Eating healthy is such a major roll in building muscle definition.  Your body needs the proper nutrients in order to recover from workouts so that your muscles can heal and strengthen properly.  If you are killing it in the weight room and cardio, but you are not seeing results, check your diet.  It may be time for a tune up in that department.  Eat clean (mostly organic and cut out the junk) and it will compliment your workouts.

Sometimes it not about losing a ton of weight or bulking up.  You may just need to tone up and get some muscle definition.  These 3 steps should yield results rather quickly depending on where you are currently.  I hope this helps and keep pushing until you reach your goals!

What You Need For P90X

If people do not get amazing results with P90X, it is usually because they did not have the proper expectation of what they would need before they began the program.  In my opinion, P90X is one of the best workouts around, but even though you do save money since you do not have to go to a gym, you will need to spend some money if you do not have all of the necessary equipment.  Here is what you need for P90X:

Must Haves

Pull-up Bar:  You can buy one through Beachbody, but I got mine at Wal-Mart to save some extra money. It was about $15.  One of the best exercises you can do for your back are pull-ups.  This is a must have for the back portion of the video.

Free Weights or Resistance Bands:  Some people prefer dumbbells and some like resistance bands better.  Get whichever works for you.  They both yield amazing results!   You will need these for almost every disk.  I personally prefer weights so I can always increase.  You can always change the resistance on bands, but at some point you max it out.

Nice but not necessary

Push up bars: I have these and they really help with push ups on chest day.  You can get away with using dumbbells though so if you don’t have them, no biggie.

Yoga Blocks: I do not personally have these, but they add another dimension in some of the stretches in the Yoga video.  Again, a nice to have, but not a need.

Yoga Mat:  I was lucky on this one since my wife has one, but you can substitute a towel instead of purchasing a yoga mat if you are on a budget.

Shakeology:  I will scream this from the mountain tops from now until forever:  Great bodies are made in the  kitchen, not the weight room.  In order to get results, your nutrition needs to match your fitness.  I recommend Shakeology because it is a full, nutritious meal that is under $5/meal.  If your diet is outstanding, you do not need Shakeology. If you can’t stand vegetables, I would look into it.

Beachbody Meal Planner:  Again, you do not need to purchase this meal planner to be successful with P90X, however, if you struggle with what to eat and how to eat healthy, it’s a nice thing to have at your fingertips.

Anytime someone orders it from me, I like to be crystal clear on the expectations of what you need for P90X.  I run challenge groups each month with people doing P90X and other Beachbody programs to help everyone support and motivate each other.  If you would like to join one of my groups, please let me know.  If you know someone that would benefit from this post, please share it with them.  Also, please feel free to leave a comment if I left out anything or you would like to chime in.  I hope you have a healthy day!

How to Cure a Cold Naturally

It’s that time of year.  Cold and flu season!  Obviously we would all like to avoid being sick, but even those of us that are normally very healthy come down with something every now and then.  I got struck by the sickness bug last week and it inspired me to share some remedies with you on how to cure a cold naturally.  Usually I would take something like Zicam (which has been very effective for me), but we are on a really tight budget so I wanted to see what I could do for my health without having to spend that much money.  Here is what i did:

1. Sleep:  Yep, good ole fashioned shut eye.  My wife and I have 2 young, beautiful daughters so sleeping in is not really an option for us.  What we do to compromise is trade off who will get up with the girls and who will sleep a little longer.  When I was under the weather last weekend, I took full advantage of my “sleep in” days to ensure that I gave my aching body plenty of rest that it was lacking from earlier in the week.  This really helped cure my cold naturally because it helped give me some energy that was drained from the sickness.

2. Eat Oranges and Soup:  To help cure my cold naturally, I stopped by the grocery store and picked up 3 cans of generic chicken noodle soup and 3 oranges.  Total cost was around $3.50.  I figured instead of buying vitamin C, I could get it right from the source: The oranges.  When I got home those were my 3 remaining meals.  Soup and an orange….soup and an orange…then for my last meal, I had soup…and an orange.  My throat felt amazing from the soup and I was feeding my body the vitamin C it was craving.

3. Drink Water:  Without getting too much into bathroom talk, I greatly benefited from the end result of drinking a ton of water.  I basically flushed my system by drinking about 10-12 tall glasses of water to rehydrate myself.  My reward of curing my cold naturally was well worth the many trips to the bathroom.

4. Rest:  The last thing that I did that can help you cure a cold naturally is to do nothing at all.  That’s right. I basically put my feet up and rested.  I am usually a busy body and love to stay active and workout, so this was difficult for me.  I am not going to lie though, it was nice to just take a load off and watch some tv for a change in order to feel better.

Like i’ve said before, I am not a doctor.  That being said, I do believe, based on my experiences, that there are things that we all can do naturally to feel better without having to spend a lot of money.  If, however, your symptoms do not improve, please see a physician.  If this helped, or you think it could help someone else, please share it with them.  Have a healthy holiday season!

Can Your Health Help You Save Money?

Being healthy today just isn’t about how we feel anymore.  It can actually effect our bank accounts now.  Health and money are linked together like peanut butter and jelly.  Day to day and over the long run, people that are healthy save more money than people that are unhealthy.  I came up with a few reasons on why I believe this about health and money based on my personal experiences.

1. Health Care:  This is a very touchy subject currently so I will not attempt to dive into the Health Care Reform Act, but everything that I read does indicate that the healthier we are the more money we will save on premiums (compared to unhealthy individuals).  Of course there are health issues that we cannot control, but eating healthier and exercising could help in reducing risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and other problems that would lead to more money out of pocket.  You can also save money by being healthy, simply by…well… being healthy.  Copays, prescriptions and over the counter medicine can really add up.  Not to mention when you are sick, you cannot work, and therefore, cannot earn money.

2. Life Insurance:  I can only speak on my experience as I am not an insurance agent or expert, but your health can determine how much your monthly premiums are.  Since I was in good health, I qualified for lower rate than someone my age that was in poor health.  My health saved me money. How cool is that?  Maybe I should think my mom for reminding me to always eat my veggies and to get some exercise

3. Food: I have had this debate before with many people, but I stand firm that eating healthier saves you more money than eating junk.  Please let me clarify that I consider junk to be fast food, soda and processed foods and I consider eating healthy to be organic fruits, veggies, and meats (basically eating clean).  Now, I am not saying that I eat healthy all of the time or that you should, but if the majority of the time you are cooking your own food, drinking water and eating fruits and vegetables instead of fast food, you will spend less money and feel better. The average fast food meal costs about $6 now.  If you were to prepare your own healthy lunch, I would imagine it would cost much less than that per meal, and the nutritional benefit would be far greater.  If time is a crunch, you can take a meal replacement shake like Shakeology. It is $4 a meal and all the nutritional value of a healthy meal.

4. Overall Production:  When we are healthy and active and full of energy, we tend to be happier and more productive as well.  Being more productive at your trade usually translates into making more money.  Think about it. When is the last time you saw someone that was truly successful (not in entertainment) that did not take their health seriously.  They go hand in hand.

“The first wealth is health.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

How to Avoid Thanksgiving Overeating

I love this time of year!  Cool, crisp weather.  Spending time with family. Football and food!  It must be time for Thanksgiving!  That being said, this is also the time of year where the holiday pounds start packing on.  It can very tough for those of us that are trying hard to eat healthier and have a healthier lifestyle.  I wanted to share some tips that have worked for me on how to avoid thanksgiving overeating.

Portion Control:  Thanksgiving and overeating go hand in hand.  Like it or not, the norm is to pile your plate as high as possible with as much as possible, then cover everything with gravy.  Right?  You can avoid Thanksgiving overeating by simply utilizing portion control.  Make sure you get a little of everything.  Just that…A LITTLE.  You can still enjoy all of the turkey and fixins, just be sure serve yourself smaller portions than normal.  You will eat great and feel better than the rest of your fam that is in a food coma.

Eat all day:  Yep, that’s right.  Your metabolism is much higher when you eat several small meals per day instead of 2 or 3 giant ones.  This goes along with portion control above. Overeating can be avoided by simply turning Thanksgiving into an all day affair instead of a midday gorging of food.  You can have turkey and stuffing 3 to 5 five times instead of just once!  Sounds like a plan to me!

Eat breakfast:  This goes in line with eating all day.  The eating must start in the morning and give your body some fuel so it’s starts burning calories early and often.  On Thanksgiving we tend to overeat because we show up to the table famished, pile up our plates and end up putting a days worth of calories away in about 20 minutes.  Start turkey day of with a small breakfast to get your metabolism going. Maybe some turkey sausage…:)

I hope everyone has some great food and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Healthy Alternatives to Energy Drinks

You hit the snooze button about 3 or 4 times, zombie walk to the shower, get ready, stop by the convenient store and pick up your favorite energy drink to make it through the work day. Does this sound familiar? I knew this scenario all too well.  About a year ago I started looking into healthy alternatives to energy drinks.  There were 2 main reasons for this:  1. save money- Buying energy drinks daily adds up. 2. I was noticing that my body was becoming immune to the artificial energy and it had a counter-effect. The drinks were actually decreasing my energy level!  Not just that, but about 3o minutes afterwards, I felt terrible.  It was time for a change.

How could I change my morning routine?

I didn’t do a bunch a fancy research for this post.  This is just based on my own experiences.  When I started looking for healthy alternatives to energy drinks, I wanted to keep it as natural and inexpensive as possible.  I found that for me, starting my day with a tall glass of water to help hydrate and “wake up” my body.  I also moved my workouts from mid afternoon to mornings to give me a boost of energy to start the day.  I am a firm believer that it does not matter what time of day that you exercise, just as long as you exercise.  For me, however, getting an early morning workout set the tone for my entire day.

Nutrition

When I started paying more attention to my nutrition, I noticed a spike in my energy.  Eating clean foods (not processed) was actually giving my body the nutrition, vitamins and nutrients that it craved. The end result was I had more energy and had found a natural alternative to energy drinks.  More importantly, I was not experiencing the “crash” since I was achieving energy organically.  The only problem I had was keeping up with the diet.  Preparing veggies and fruits and other organic foods on a regular basis can be time consuming and expensive.  My solution?  Shakeology!  I love Shakeology because it contains 70 all natural ingredients, gives me energy, and best of all:  I can make a shake in about 2 minutes.

Sleep

I know, I know…easier said than done right?  Hear me out though.  I don’t know about you, but I can tell a BIG difference when I get 7 to 8 hours of sleep as opposed to 5 to 6 hours.  When I am well rested, my energy level is through the roof.  Considering I have 2 young daughters (6 and 1 years old), it is not always easy.  As silly as it seems, sometimes I just simple schedule sleep (basically make sure I’m in bed by 10:00 or 11:00 to ensure that a good night’s sleep becomes one of my healthy alternatives to energy drinks.

What are some things that you do get energy throughout the day?

Gym vs Home Workout

More people are evaluating their expenses and weighing exercising at a gym vs home workout.  I am a formal gym rat.  It was one of the highlights of my day and I would spend at least 2 hours at the gym.  When my income was decreased a few months ago, I looked closely at the money I was spending at the gym and made a decision.  I was giving up my membership to save money.  Gym lost in the battle of gym vs home workout.  This was one of the best decisions I have made because it saved me money and so much more.  I am not telling you to cancel your membership today, however I will explain why it may be worth it to consider a home workout.

Fees:

Gym: On average you’re going to pay about $30/month ($360/year) for a gym membership

Home Workout:  Free! You may however need to invest in some equipment or workout dvd (the difference is, you own it)

Time:

Gym:  Everyone is different, so I will use my own experience:  10 minutes to get ready at home, 10 minutes to drive to the gym, 2 minutes to put my belongings away, 1 hour to workout, 15 minutes of mingling, and 10 minutes to drive home (1 hour and 47 minutes total so let’s just say 2 hours).

Home Workout:  2 minutes to throw on shorts, t-shirt and shoes, 40 minutes to workout. Done.  I save at least an hour a day by working out from home.  I don’t know about you, but my time is valuable.

Variety:

Gym: Most gyms offer a variety of weights, machines, and classes that is hard to duplicate at home.

Home Workout:  The variety of exercises you can do are only limited by the space in your home and budget that you have.

Results:

Gym:  Since most people have a hard time staying consistent in their gym routine, results seem to suffer or plateau. Also many people aren’t quite sure what to do at the gym or which weights/machines to use and often give up if they cannot afford a personal trainer.

Home Workout:  There is less money, time and steps involved in working out from home so it is easier to stay on track.  You can literally roll out of bed, throw on some old clothes and bust out a quick 30 minute workout, then hop in the shower.  If you have no clue what to do, you can invest in a workout dvd where a professional trainer will tell and show you exactly what you need to do.

I have done both, but in the debate of gym vs home workout I will have to say that the home workout is best for me.  Try them both and see what works better for you.  We are all different.

Best Meal Replacement Shakes For Weight Loss

Time is very valuable these days so more and more people are trying to find healthier ways to eat on the go and lose weight.  Meal replacements are becoming a staple of the everyday diet and in my opinion, Shakeology is on the best meal replacement shakes for weight loss.  Of course I may be a little biased, but here are some reasons to support my opinion.

Taste:  Most meal replacement shakes (in my opinion) taste like powder or cardboard and it’s hard to choke them down.  Also, the ones that taste too good are loaded with artificial sweeteners that defeat the purpose.  Shakeology, on the other hand, is all natural and tastes great and every order is accompanied by a recipe book to match just about every taste.  I love mine with a banana and almond milk.

Cost:  Another reason that I believe that Shakeology is one of the best meal replacement shakes for weight loss is the cost.  When you buy a bag of Shakeology at the retail price and not the discounted price, you pay about $120.  Sounds expensive right? Well, when you look at the numbers, it’s actually one of the cheapest meals of the day.  Here’s the breakown:  There are 30 shakes in a bag of Shakeology so a bag breaks down to $4.00 per meal.  Most people that I talk to spend about $6 a day at lunch.  If they go to lunch 5 days a week (20 days/month), they are spending $120 a month as well.  The difference is you are probably getting much more nutritional value out of Shakeology.

Calories/nutritionals:  There are only 170 calories for a Shakeology shake. Try doing that at lunch! Not only that, Shakeology is full of probiotics, nutrients, super-foods, vitamins and antioxidants.  I can only speak from my experience, but since i’ve been replacing 1 meal a day with Shakeology, I have not been sick. Not even close (I stopped knocking on wood months ago once I realized that eating healthier was leading to me avoiding sickness). My energy level has been through the roof as well!  When you put good things into your body, it performs at optimum levels.

Again, I do realize that there are other meal replacements out there and I am biased, but I challenge anyone to find a better meal replacement shake for weight loss than Shakeology.

The Dangers of Diet Soda

Many people that are trying to lose weight or become healthier will choose a diet soda over regular thinking that they are making the healthier choice.  Sadly enough there are many toxins in diet drinks that actually lead to weight gain and other health problems.  My obvious advice is to steer clear of soda altogether, but I do understand that it’s not that simple (like quitting smoking) to just stop drinking so cold turkey.  Just be aware of the dangers of diet soda when selecting your beverage.

What dangers? 

According to Men’s Health Magazine, drinking fructose and artificial sweeteners causes bacteria to build up and actually slow down your metabolism.  It’s never good to “trick” your body when it comes to sugar because it doesn’t know how to break it down properly.

What about Aspartame?

Diet drinks are full of a chemical called aspartame.  There are several sources on both ends stating it’s deadly and that it’s safe.  All I know is that introducing something into your body that was created by a chemist can’t be as good for you as something that is natural. Right?

So Drink Regular? Simple answer: yes.  If you have a choice between original and diet, the regular will have more naturally ingredients than diet.  This being said, many of the same dangers of diet soda are found in regular. The original is merely the lesser of 2 evils.

When it comes to soda, it can be difficult to avoid altogether.  Try your best to at least cut down your soda consumption and avoid “diet” drinks as much as possible.