It's all about the damn diet!

It’s all about the diet- seriously. Think about it. You bust your butt in the gym and you feel like you don’t get anywhere, or maybe you just don’t get the results as you expect.  You figure its your training so you add more cardio in, or maybe change the lifting a bit and add more cardio in yet again Pretty soon you are tired feeling and tired looking, and just as fat. So you meet your friends at the bar after work on Friday night and complain about your lack of progress. 

You order a couple beers, or maybe a few glasses of wine, share an appetizer and you all talk about how hard you work and just aren’t seeing results. It must be due to getting older and your metabolism is slowing down; or work is so stressful and busy that you cannot concentrate on your workout and sometimes cannot make it to the gym.

But it's about what you eat and drink- totally.

When you drink alcohol, your body must start and finish processing that before it can process anything else. People also tend to make poor food choices when they indulge in alcohol (myself included) so it's a double whammy.

Even if you don't drink alcohol, you really need to be conscious of your food and everything you put into your mouth if you are trying to lean out or gain muscle mass. 

I was at a party recently for 4 1/2 hours, I had one glass of white wine and then water the rest of the evening. I ate the food, and there was a catered taco bar and all sorts of side dishes. I ate one corn tortilla, a lot of chicken and beef and vegetables. I ate a quarter of a brownie.

It was the same old story, over and over I heard "Oh it's so nice to finally see you eating!" or "My goodness! I have never seen you eat!" "No diet tonight eh? Mu ha ha ha ha"

Really? I eat constantly, in fact 6 or 7 times a day, twice as often as other people do. But I make good choices most of the time.  That's why I look so fit and healthy, I eat the right foods.

Now, I am up in weight, you can see it in these pictures. I am eating more food and have expanded the choices to include some things I wouldn't typically eat. I prefer my lean body but  it's not practical to maintain year round.

I have people come up to me quite often and tell me they have been struggling to lose, and they want to ask me some questions, usually it is "What do you eat?" and I usually say:

"Chicken or turkey breast, fish, lean beef, egg whites, brown rice , sweet potatoes, yams, oatmeal, vegetables, lots and lots of vegetables."

"No bread? What about dairy? Do you eat fruit? Pasta? Have you heard of the <fill in the blank fad> diet?"

" I do eat fruit, after training. I am lactose intolerant so I don't eat much dairy. I rarely eat bread and then its usually Alvarado Bakery Essential Flax Seed bread, pasta is once in a blue moon and then it's a real serving- which is 2 ounces....not enough to fill you up so you need meat and vegetables too."

And I don't believe in fad diets. I also don't believe in hours of cardio. You should let the diet do the work. Bodies are designed to be lean, efficient machines, primed and ready to move and  function as the amazing works of art they are. Fuel your body so it can be what it was designed to be.

And drink water. Lots and lots of water.

When I diet to lose bodyfat, it is just a stricter version of what I currently eat year round. So I don't go on a fad diet but I do cut way back, it's easy really although not necessarily the most enjoyable thing in the world.

I have lots of people ask me questions and I am happy to answer them- Go ahead and ask away, but please remember, I am basing my answers on what has worked for me, I have years of experience and you gotta stick to the diet to see results, simple as that. You cannot expect to see results in a couple weeks.

Decisions

Decisions, decisions, we must face them everyday. Some are easier than others, like "the red shirt or the yellow shirt", or perhaps "toast or muffin"? Then there are the tough ones, the ones that cause internal stress.


Like "I want to be lean and ripped  or I want to drink wine and eat lasagna every night". These thoughts actually do run through my head, quite a bit. 


Now I am exaggerating (I tend to do that quite a bit), I really have no desire to drink wine every night as it interferes with my sleep and I just cannot attack the weights at 5:00 am if I do. And although I do enjoy lasagna quite a bit, every night is just too much, but I think you get my point.


My  body here is fairly closed to being "ripped", super low bodyfat, vascular, and all muscles, just the way I love it. But it isn't easy getting here, nor is it particularly "fun" and lord knows STAYING here is very difficult.


I made a decision to eat the correct foods, at the right time, and lifted the weights it required and put in the cardio time to burn extra calories. It took a lot of work. What I miss mostly is the wonderful food. 


Once my competition is over (in 16 days as I write this on Friday night), I am faced with another decision. Do I keep doing this, do I completely revert to sloth like eating habits (not that I ever had those), or do I enjoy a little and still strive for a fit body?


The choice is really easy for me actually, I am more interested in health than anything so I tend to eat very well; healthy choices are the norm, and I don't drink much because I love weight training more. But I will enjoy life and the fantastic foods that I have missed, and I will not look like this a few weeks later, simple as that. Don't get me wrong, I will still look great- but not "ripped".


I know that I cannot have both so I make the decision that will make me and my family happiest in the long run.


I talk with a lot of people who want to know how to achieve the "ripped" look, how to lower bodyfat, how to look amazing. And they want to drink and eat everything as usual too.


The answer is simple, but you alone need to make the decision. You cannot have both. Period. Ripped: You must eat properly and it needs to be consistant. Not Ripped: eat whatever you like with that beer.


I actually talk with people at parties or social gatherings and they are holding a cocktail in one hand, chips in the other and they tell me how healthy they eat, they don't understand why they cannot drop those last 10 pounds. And me, being the outspoken individual I am, point to their drink and food and tell them "that is why you canot lose the weight". Typically they say this is not "normal", this is a "special occasion" or "I had a super stressful day". 


We go back and forth about it, they typically offer more excuses, I sip on the liter bottle of water I brought with me. 


I am not being holier-than thou, and I do have wine on occasion, but I am trying to make a  point. Look at your typical weekend, what aren your typical meals?  Do you snack? Do you exercise regularly? Are you consistant?


I like the 90% rule. If you can choose to live "clean" 90% of the time, and that means proper food, no alcohol and regular, strenuous exercise), that leaves 10% to enjoy life's indulgences, and you can still look pretty darn good.


Ultimately, it's your decision though. 

Alcohol and Major league Baseball

Drugs, alcohol, sports, they seem to always go hand in hand and it always amazes me! I guess because an Athlete should better understand their body, so they shouldn't be abusing these "devils of mankind".


But, athletes are also people who push the limits, push the envelope, always looking for that edge.


This was a very interesting article on alcohol abuse in major league baseball.


NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Baseball and its players' association are considering a formal plan for dealing with alcohol-related incidents in the next collective bargaining agreement.

Two baseball officials confirmed the negotiations to The Associated Press on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are considered confidential.

Alcohol use has become a hot-button issue in baseball, following a spate of six drunken-driving incidents involving high-profile players already this season.

The current CBA, which expires Dec. 11, has provisions for dealing with "drugs of abuse" such as cocaine and marijuana, but does not provide Commissioner Bud Selig with the authority to discipline players for alcohol-related offenses.

Instead, players arrested for DUI and other incidents are typically offered confidential counseling and treatment on a case-by-case basis. According to one baseball official, the league and the players' union simply want to "codify" the current process.

The plan could mirror the one already in place for players who test positive for drugs like marijuana -- they face mandatory counseling and possible suspension if they refuse to cooperate.

The officials said the union is not opposed to including alcohol in the next CBA.

"This is something we have planned to discuss, alcohol in general," league spokesman Pat Courtney said Friday. "It's been brought up and will continue to be brought up."

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Friday night that alcohol abuse should be treated in a matter similar to drug abuse.

"It really is pretty much the same thing," he said. "There should be a program for that."

USA Today and the Daily News have reported on the talks previously.

On Monday, Cleveland Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo became the latest player arrested when he failed field sobriety tests in Sheffield Lake, Ohio. Choo was released without bond and was driven home. He made the Indians' trip to Oakland, and after apologizing to teammates and the fans, he was in the starting lineup Tuesday night.

Other players involved in alcohol-related incidents this season include Choo's teammate, Austin Kearns; Adam Kennedy of the Seattle Mariners; Coco Crisp of the Oakland Athletics; Derek Lowe of the Atlanta Braves; and Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers.

None of the players has been suspended by their respective teams.

Kearns' case shows how far removed teams presently are from the alcohol issue.

The outfielder was arrested on Feb. 12 in Kentucky and chose not to tell the Indians about it on the advice of his attorneys. That left the team in the awkward position of addressing the situation weeks later without knowing many of the facts.

"The Indians organization takes these issues very seriously and we are disappointed in the matter," general manager Chris Antonetti said in a statement following Choo's arrest. "We will continue to monitor the situation and we will not have any further comment."

There have been other alcohol-related incidents in recent years, including a pair involving the St. Louis Cardinals, that have trained a spotlight squarely on Major League Baseball.

The first involved Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who was charged with DUI in 2007 after falling asleep at the wheel of his vehicle at an intersection near the team's spring training headquarters in Jupiter, Fla. La Russa eventually pleaded guilty.

Two months later, relief pitcher Josh Hancock died when the sport utility vehicle he was driving struck a truck parked on Interstate 64 in St. Louis. Police said Hancock was speeding, talking on a cell phone and had a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit.

Five days after his death, the team banned alcohol from the clubhouse.

1 in 12 pro sports fans drunk

I drink alcohol, although I don't drink much. In fact, I will go months without a drink if I am dieting, and then when I am not, well, I am finding that I just don't like how it makes me feel these days.

Here is a picture of me and my younger brother in Paris, I went to stay with him last year right after my July competition. We did an awful lot if this! I had a wonderful time, but it was vacation and the most strenuous event was climbing the Eiffel tower.

I don't have much enthusiasm for anything once I have a few glasses of wine, I guess that makes sense because it is a depressant. And I also find it difficult to wake up at 4:00 am and hoist heavy metal over my head several times after having a few glasses of wine.

There certainly are occasions when I love to join friends and have a couple though. Or perhaps when I am laying on the beach on vacation and have nothing to do but read a good book. Or, like in the picture above, stopping at a bar every few feet as I wander through Paris on a hot day in July.

I do notice that after consuming any alcohol, my skin is not as tight as it was, and that doesn't go away for a few days. I am sure there is a logical reason, and it doesn't matter why, I don't care for the effects it has on my body.

I read this article and it was pretty alarming. I think had I ever sat down just to think about how many people get "drunk" at sporting events, I would have guessed this, but what alarms me about it is my son, your son, friends or family could be involved in an accident with any one of these people, just be being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Keep your eyes open for drunks, or better yet, get pay per view!

January 18, 2011By Dawn Rhodes, Tribune reporter


This is for anyone who has ever encountered a drunken fan at a sporting event.
 

University of Minnesota researchers tested the blood alcohol content of 362 people to see how much folks drink when they go to professional baseball and football games.

In their study, released Tuesday, they determined that 40 percent of the participants had some alcohol in their system and 8 percent were drunk, meaning their blood alcohol content was .08 or higher.

"Given the number of attendees at these sporting events, we can be talking about thousands of people leaving a professional sporting event who are legally intoxicated," lead author Darin Erickson said. The study did not address what percentage, if any, of those fans intended to drive.

To collect the data, research staff waited outside 13 Major League Baseball and three National Football League games and randomly approached fans as they left. Those who consented took a breath test and answered questions about when, where and how much they drank on game day.

The study also found that some groups were several times more likely to be drunk after a game, such as fans age 35 or younger and those who had tailgated before the game.

Erickson said more research is needed but that the results warrant a closer look at alcohol-serving policies and police patrols during and after games.


"People just need to be aware of their alcohol consumption," Erickson said. "This is not just an issue where people are putting themselves [at] harm, but it's really an issue where we're putting others at harm too."