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JUL
29
2010


Couldn’t Resist

So I spent a good chunk of last night surfing the net looking for more cool ads and by far Nike had the best.  Miles ahead of the rest they sure work their marketing.

Anyway, I found a bunch more of the “Butt” ads for other parts of the female body.  I guess it was a whole campaign…who knew?  Some are a little hokey but cool nonetheless.  I also found a couple of others so dated no one has copies of the ads themselves but have written them out so I’ll put a few of those in too.

Here are a few of the ads just written out:

“Just Do It. Who the hell do you think you are? Are you an athlete? Because if you are, then you know what it means to want to be better, to want to be the best. And if you are, then you understand it’s not enough to want to be the best. You can’t just sit around all day and BS about how much you want it. Show me how much you want it. Stop just “thinking about it” and “wondering about it” and “hoping for it” and actually go out there and get it. Dare to do what it takes to be the best. And then, whether you win, lose, or collapse on the finish line, at least you’ll know exactly who you are.”

“There comes a time when you’d rather injure your body rather than injuring your pride.”

“All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you’re not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you’re the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. They will tell you no, a thousand times no, until all the no’s become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. And you will tell them yes.”

“The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t’ is you. And you don’t have to listen.”

“If you wanna get better, concentrate on the areas you’d rather not. Force yourself to work the weak link. Physically. Mentally. But most of all, repeatedly.”

“I don’t want fifteen minutes of fame.
I want a life.
I want to choose the best.
I know the best are selectively chosen.
I don’t want to work for a company.
I want to build one.
But the rest of my goals are long term.
The results of my day to day determination.
I redefine the word consistency.
Along the way there will be moments of brilliance.
I will be sure to make them all count.
I am sure the moments will add up to something greater.
A record of excellence.
A plaque in a hall.
I will always believe in the ideal.
Ideally, the best.
I hope to be remembered.
Not just recalled.
I hope to make a difference.
I hope that someday everyone would…
just do it.”

 

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JUL
28
2010


No Additional Post Needed

Don’t worry, if you can’t read it you can click on it to make the WORDS bigger.

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JUL
27
2010


Feeling Beat…Trapped?

One more!  Pick up the bar!  Chin over!  I don’t care if you’re pissing Coke!

Yeah sometimes I want to punch someone in the head when I hear that but really I know they’re right…except the Coke thing.

In all honesty I want you to blow gas, I want you to get better…fitter.  But I also want you to be better.  Demand more of yourself and your technique.  Not because you want to, not because you hurt BUT BECAUSE YOU NEED TO don’t be afraid to step back, take a couple breaths and then of course Giddy the F Up!  There is always more in the tank so dig deep.

By the way, if you are a little squeamish you may not want to watch this.  But before you pass it up, grow a pair and watch it anyway…might give you something to draw from.

Thanks for sending this to me Mom.  Love ya.

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JUL
26
2010


Do You Have A Mental Disorder?

No I’m serious.  I’ll bet most of you that try to live a healthy lifetstyle have a mental disorder.  More specifically, if you “focus on eating healthy foods” you may have a disease.

If this picture above is one of youe Mantras get ready to undergo some seriously lengthy treatment sessions and have your insurance in order so you can afford all the pills they’ll prescribe you.

From “naturalnews.com”

In its never-ending attempt to fabricate “mental disorders” out of every human activity, the psychiatric industry is now pushing the most ridiculous disease they’ve invented yet: Healthy eating disorder.

This is no joke: If you focus on eating healthy foods, you’re “mentally diseased” and probably need some sort of chemical treatment involving powerful psychotropic drugs. The Guardian newspaper reports, “Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder” and goes on to claim this “disease” is called orthorexia nervosa — which is basically just Latin for “nervous about correct eating.”

But they can’t just called it “nervous healthy eating disorder” because that doesn’t sound like they know what they’re talking about. So they translate it into Latin where it sounds smart (even though it isn’t). That’s where most disease names come from: Doctors just describe the symptoms they see with a name like osteoporosis (which means “bones with holes in them”).

Getting back to this fabricated “orthorexia” disease, the Guardian goes on to report, “Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out.”

Wait a second. So attempting to avoid chemicals, dairy, soy and sugar now makes you a mental health patient? Yep. According to these experts. If you actually take special care to avoid pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified ingredients like soy and sugar, there’s something wrong with you.

But did you notice that eating junk food is assumed to be “normal?” If you eat processed junk foods laced with synthetic chemicals, that’s okay with them. The mental patients are the ones who choose organic, natural foods, apparently.

What is “normal” when it comes to foods?

I told you this was coming. Years ago, I warned NaturalNews readers that an attempt might soon be under way to outlaw broccoli because of its anti-cancer phytonutrients. This mental health assault on health-conscious consumers is part of that agenda. It’s an effort to marginalize healthy eaters by declaring them to be mentally unstable and therefore justify carting them off to mental institutions where they will be injected with psychiatric drugs and fed institutional food that’s all processed, dead and full of toxic chemicals.

The Guardian even goes to the ridiculous extreme of saying, “The obsession about which foods are “good” and which are “bad” means orthorexics can end up malnourished.”

Follow the non-logic on this, if you can: Eating “good” foods will cause malnutrition! Eating bad foods, I suppose, is assumed to provide all the nutrients you need. That’s about as crazy a statement on nutrition as I’ve ever read. No wonder people are so diseased today: The mainstream media is telling them that eating health food is a mental disorder that will cause malnutrition!

Shut up and swallow your Soylent Green

It’s just like I reported years ago: You’re not supposed to question your food, folks. Sit down, shut up, dig in and chow down. Stop thinking about what you’re eating and just do what you’re told by the mainstream media and its processed food advertisers. Questioning the health properties of your junk food is a mental disorder, didn’t you know? And if you “obsess” over foods (by doing such things as reading the ingredients labels, for example), then you’re weird. Maybe even sick.

That’s the message they’re broadcasting now. Junk food eaters are “normal” and “sane” and “nourished.” But health food eaters are diseased, abnormal and malnourished.

But why, you ask, would they attack healthy eaters? People like Dr. Gabriel Cousens can tell you why: Because increased mental and spiritual awareness is only possible while on a diet of living, natural foods.

Eating junk foods keeps you dumbed down and easy to control, you see. It literally messes with your mind, numbing your senses with MSG, aspartame and yeast extract. People who subsist on junk foods are docile and quickly lose the ability to think for themselves. They go along with whatever they’re told by the TV or those in apparent positions of authority, never questioning their actions or what’s really happening in the world around them.

In contrast to that, people who eat health-enhancing natural foods — with all the medicinal nutrients still intact — begin to awaken their minds and spirits. Over time, they begin to question the reality around them and they pursue more enlightened explorations of topics like community, nature, ethics, philosophy and the big picture of things that are happening in the world. They become “aware” and can start to see the very fabric of the Matrix, so to speak.

This, of course, is a huge danger to those who run our consumption-based society because consumption depends on ignorance combined with suggestibility. For people to keep blindly buying foods, medicines, health insurance and consumer goods, they need to have their higher brain functions switched off. Processed junk foods laced with toxic chemicals just happens to achieve that rather nicely. Why do you think dead, processed foods remain the default meals in public schools, hospitals and prisons? It’s because dead foods turn off higher levels of awareness and keep people focused on whatever distractions you can feed their brains: Television, violence, fear, sports, sex and so on.

But living as a zombie is, in one way quite “normal” in society today because so many people are doing it. But that doesn’t make it normal in my book: The real “normal” is an empowered, healthy, awakened person nourished with living foods and operating as a sovereign citizen in a free world. Eating living foods is like taking the red pill because over time it opens up a whole new perspective on the fabric of reality. It sets you free to think for yourself.

But eating processed junk foods is like taking the blue pill because it keeps you trapped in a fabricated reality where your life experiences are fabricated by consumer product companies who hijack your senses with designer chemicals (like MSG) that fool your brain into thinking you’re eating real food.

If you want to be alive, aware and in control of your own life, eat more healthy living foods. But don’t expect to be popular with mainstream mental health “experts” or dieticians — they’re all being programmed to consider you to be “crazy” because you don’t follow their mainstream diets of dead foods laced with synthetic chemicals.

But you and I know the truth here: We are the normal ones. The junk food eaters are the real mental patients, and the only way to wake them up to the real world is to start feeding them living foods.

Some people are ready to take the red pill, and others aren’t. All you can do is show them the door. They must open it themselves.

In the mean time, try to avoid the mental health agents who are trying to label you as having a mental disorder just because you pay attention to what you put in your body. There’s nothing wrong with avoiding sugar, soy, MSG, aspartame, HFCS and other toxic chemicals in the food supply. In fact, your very life depends on it.

Thanks for the heads up Michelle Mac.

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JUL
22
2010


Lots Of Hard Work On The “Brains” Side Of Things

Some of you may or may not know Antigone - Tig as she’s known around the gym - as she is one of our loyal and consistent 6am crew.  Always early and always ready to go.  Now don’t get me wrong, she is tired like the rest of us and by far is the most mentally fried.  You see, for the past few months she has been pulling her hair out and bashing her face into her monitor staring at her thesis.  But now she is done (sort of…just finishing her revisions).  Thesis is defended, PhD granted and you can call her Doctor Oreopoulos.

I’ve watched her show up day in and day out and punish her body to get better.  She is one of the most critical judges of self I’ve seen as she uses every opportunity to hone her skills as a lifter.  Not new to a weightroom, Tig is a former Powerlifter and wrestler at the U of A and is now a full blown SPARKer.  While she seeks perfection on her skills I will continue to use her to hone mine.  She always has questions, always wants that next step and critique and I get answers to lots of my questions through her…I get her to ask her boyfriend stuff about lifts for me as he is a competing Powerlifter himself - and if I’m not mistaken also a doctor.  MD, not PhD.  You know, the real kind of doctor (HA HA, just kidding Tig, I tease my Brother in law like that all the time).

Anyway, Phd is done and she just got a little media play because of her research.  She just got some page time in a U of A newsletter and in the Edmonton Journal (thats where I got these pictures from so credit to them) as she is getting published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.  Tig did a little debunking on the good old BMI charts and has shown they are not the best determinant for body fat for heart failure patients - and in my humble opinion for anyone.

You can read the articles Here and Here.

Don’t let this go over your head, you all know what BMI charts are…they’re on the wall of pretty much every doctor’s office.  It’s the colorful chart that looks like a growth chart but determines if you are overweight or not.  I call Bullshit but insuance companies love it.  As a male at 5′9″ tall and 200lbs that chart considers me obese which means my life insurance premiums are higher than they would be if I stopped lifting and became a skinny bastard.

Congrats Tig!  Keep debunking all the crap out there.

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JUL
21
2010


20 Worst Drinks

Shawn Lywood sent this to me today (the article, not the picture) and as he said in his email it hasn’t been fact checked but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it is 100% accurate…especially because its done by our sue happy neighhbors to the south.  Click to read the “20 WORST DRINKS“.  It is a ’slideshow’ of sorts so you have to keep clicking “NEXT” to go through the whole thing.  Great follow up to the pop posts.

I guess the upside to drinking all these drinks by the case like many people do is that you can look like this guy.

And by the way, if you come across something that you feel is blogworthy please pass it along to me as I am always looking for more stuff to post.  If I don’t use it don’t get offended - I may have already done something similar or it may show up weeks down the road.  Then again, its probably because I don’t like you so get over it.  HA HA

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JUL
20
2010


Start Em Young

I’m all for getting your kids to try new things…hell, the younger the better but this is just ridiculous.  Not only is this boy smoking 2 packs a day, he’s fat.  Thats right, I said it…FAT.  Look at the other kids around him - not fat.  Smoking baby..FAT.  2 packs a day and in rehab.  Way to go Dad.

You know whats weird?  You have to have a license to drive a car or buy a gun but anyone can have a child.  Perhaps all perspective parents should have to take a course before having kids.  Lets call it “Open Your Ass And Remove Your Head”.

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JUL
19
2010


Fittest CrossFitters on the Planet

In case you missed it, the 2010 CrossFit Games were this past weekend and all in all it was a great event!  Lost of competitors, fans and hard work.  Got to give props to Rogue Fitness, the parent equipment company for Rogue Fitness Canada down in the US for getting the wickedest gear around to the Games.

If you want to check any of the action out there are archives from the entire weekend Here.

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JUL
16
2010


Working Out - Tracy & Gwyneth: You’re Doing It Wrong

So I went in to the gym on Wednesday to be absolutely floored by the video waiting for me.  I can’t put it here so you’ll have to click HERE

Four words for you Tracy and Gwyneth…

One writer referred to Tracy as “The future demise of health and fitness”.  Others weren’t so nice calling her a “liar”, “theif” and even a “bitch”.  I’ll get into all that later.

Apparently Gwyneth enlisted her to help her get back to her pre-baby shape and since she trained Madonna I guess she had some street cred amongst the stars.  Her is a pic of Madonna after working out with Tracy.

Hot eh?  Guess what Madonna…

Actually, I take that back.  Madonna has fired TA and no longer works with her.  Weird.

So back to our friend TA.  A former dancer, WITH NO EDUCATION OR BACKGROUND has “created” the “Tracy Anderson Method” with promises of creating a thinner you.  Well duh…bouncing around in a hot room for 12 hours a week while consuming a diet of less than 800 calories would skinny anyone up - and make them a useless twit in the process.

Hey TA…

A “woman should NEVER lift more than 3 pounds” is laughable at best.  Some women’s boobs weigh more than 3 pounds.  I guess women should just count on a man to do everything for them then?  How are they going to shop…good luck picking up groceries or bags of clothes and shoes!  (oh come on now, don’t take offense…you know you love shopping!)  How about your kids?  Maybe you’re having a tough time lugging around your 30lb baby Gwyneth because you don’t train with anything heavier than 3 EFFING POUNDS!!!

Ladies, you are not going to “bulk up”.  True, some may have a genetic potential to gain more muscle than others but for the most part you don’t make enough testosterone.  BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE TESTICLES.  So the next time I hear a woman say she can’t / won’t lift heavy weights (and yes I realize that HEAVY is a realtive term) because she’ll get big, she better be ready to drop trow and show me her nuts.

Hey Gwyneth…

Her are some more “Facts” TA is parading to convince the women out there:

- “In your 20s your hips and thighs start to change so you need to spot work them with some truly challenging exercises”.  Oh I see, thats why 80 to 100 butt pulsey thingys are warranted.

- “In your 30s the abs naturally start to separate”.  Clearly she has years of anatomy and physiology under her belt.

- “In your 40s as your body starts to weaken, you should target your arms”.  Oprah should offer a public apology to her watchers for having this IDIOT on her show.  Target your arms?  Why because those massive muscles will then spread to the rest of your body?  So your “tone” can help burn excess calories?  MORON!!!  And even better, she essentially says that UNWEIGHTED arm circles are best for that!

HEY TA…ONCE AGAIN…

But who am I?  She claims to have worked alongside the New York Knicks’ Strength and Conditioning Coach to help the NBA stars.  Pretty sure thats a bunch of BS.  As is her claims for all the studios she has started - or should I say stolen money for and ran.  I found lawsuits against her for three different instances of selling memberships to a studio under construction only to bolt with the money.  Hell, her former partner is suing her because he claims HE came up with the “Method”.  Crap just follows this lady.

At present everyone is awaiting the openning of her New York Studio that will cost you a measly $900.00 a month to attend her classes.  Oh and thats on top of the $1500.00 a year Membership fees.  I wonder why she is having trouble getting people to sign up. 

Uhhh, TA…

Newsflash people…Losing weight and losing excess pounds is easy…thats right, I said it…its easy.  Just go ask Dr. Bernstein.  Being successful is hard.  Really hard.  But its better in the long run and you’ll look better and feel better as a result.  Let me prove that to you…after another pic of course…

It has been reported the Paltrow has Oseopeonia.  Early onstage osteoporosis.  Brittle bones.  Yep, she’s on her way to having the bones of a freaking 80 year old at 37!  Number one way to reverse this: lifting weights!  I hope that Anderson idiot is exposed for the fraud she is.  I also hope our culture wakes the hell up and stops the insane notion that skeletor physiques are sexy.  Diet and exercise are important but you need to do more than wave your arms around and lift your leg a few times.

I mean how embarrassing is it that you could get your ass whooped by a little old lady?  Unless its Betty White of course…she’s the Chuck Norr…er, I mean Graham Hannah of old people.

Hey Phony Fitness Morons…

Ok, one more to finish off…

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JUL
15
2010


Pop Part II

Sorry this is a bit late today…at least its here.

I had a different post planned today (that has now become tomorrow’s) but I just couldn’t leave this alone as a follow up to yesterday.

From Reuters:

“Men who drink about a quart or more of cola every day could be causing harm to their sperm, results of a Danish study hint.

On average, these men’s sperm counts were almost 30 percent lower than in men who didn’t drink cola. While most of the sperm counts would still be considered normal by the World Health Organization, men with fewer sperm generally have a higher risk of being infertile. The link is unlikely to be due to caffeine, the researchers say, because coffee did not have the same effect, even though its caffeine content is higher. Instead, other ingredients in the beverage or an unhealthy lifestyle could be involved.”

That being said, I sure hope a bunch “not-smarts” won’t turn to Pepsi as their primary birth-control method, otherwise Mike Judge’s theory will come to pass - that morons will take over the Earth simply because they have more babies than smart people.

I bet these guys would rather drink a coke.

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JUL
14
2010


Pop (Or Soda to you Americans)

Chris Rock said: “Actually, I think all addiction starts with soda.  Every junkie did soda first.” 

I have to say that I’m not a big pop drinker…its not in my fridge at home, I’ll buy water or a V8 before I buy a pop but every once in a while I’ll have one.  The bad part is that after I have one, five days will go by and I’ll be sucking it back like no one’s business.  Then I just stop and for a day or two I keep thinking I need one then I don’t and a few weeks go by without it it and I don’t miss it.  Is that just me?

We know its not good for us, we know its just liquid sugar but yet we can’t deny that its just so damn good!  The taste, the fizzy burn, the fantastic belch…I could go on but I won’t. 

Anyway,  I found an essay by Steve Edwards on reasons to give up soda.  Its pretty long and some of it a little dry so I’ll abridge some of it here:  Feel free to “Read For Time”…

“If you’re looking for a scapegoat in the obesity epidemic, look no further than soda. It’s the single greatest caloric source in the world, accounting for somewhere between 11 and 19 percent of all the calories consumed worldwide. It’s cheap, addictive, and readily available, which generally means that it will take some willpower to avoid.”

“It’s not just about calories. Calories grab headlines, but recent science is showing that diet soda users are still in the crosshairs. A 2005 study by the University of Texas Health Science Center showed that there’s a 41 percent increased risk of being obese—and a 65 percent increased risk of becoming overweight during the next 7 or 8 years—for every can of diet soda a person consumes in a day.”

“BPA: not just for water bottles anymore. Nalgene® and other water bottle companies took the heat when the dangers of bisphenol A (BPA) were made public a couple years back. While these companies went to great lengths to save their businesses, the soda companies somehow flew under the radar and continue to use it in their products. A recent Canadian study has found that BPA exists “in the vast majority” of the soft drinks tested. Most of these were under the national limits set for toxicity, but some were not. And remember how much soda the average person consumes, meaning odds are most soda consumers are at some risk.

“Out of 72 drinks tested, 69 were found to contain BPA at levels below what Health Canada says is the safe upper limit. However, studies in peer-reviewed science journals have indicated that even at very low doses, BPA can increase breast and ovarian cancer cell growth and the growth of some prostate cancer cells in animals.”

“The Frankenfood factor. Whether you consume diet or regular soda, you’re getting all of the genetically modified food you need and more, via high fructose corn syrup or aspartame. Both of these are under plenty of scientific as well as anecdotal scrutiny. Findings aren’t pretty but, so far, this multibillion-dollar industry has kept these sweeteners on the shelves while alternative sweeteners meeting cost requirements are explored. Since it’s almost impossible to read health headlines without finding one of these ingredients in some type of controversy.”

“Diet? Um, that’s just like your opinion, man. When it comes to soda, treat the word “diet” as a slogan. A study at Boston University’s School of Medicine linked diet soda with increased risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. To be more specific, the study “found adults who drink one or more sodas a day had about a 50 percent higher risk of metabolic syndrome,” which is a cluster of risk factors such as excessive fat around the waist, low levels of “good” cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other symptoms that lead to heart disease and/or diabetes. And, for those of you only concerned about how you look in the mirror, “Those who drank one or more soft drinks a day had a 31 percent greater risk of becoming obese.”

“Soda outkills terrorists. A study out of the University of California, San Francisco, shows that soda has killed at least 6,000 Americans in the last decade.

From ABC News: The new analysis, presented Friday at the American Heart Association’s 50th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, offers a picture of just how horrifying the damage done by excess consumption of sugary drinks can be.

Using a computer model and data from the Framingham Heart Study, the Nurses Health Study and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers estimated that the escalating consumption between 1990 and 2000 of soda and sugar-sweetened beverages, which they abbreviated as ‘SSBs,’ led to 75,000 new cases of diabetes and 14,000 new cases of coronary heart disease.

What’s more, the burden of the diseases translated into a $300 million to $550 million increase in health care costs between 2000 and 2010.”

“It’s the “real thing” . . . not exactly. Should having the number one caloric source in the world come from something that’s entirely manmade be a metaphor for a dying world? It doesn’t have to be this way. After all, there’s nothing in soda that we need. In fact, there’s nothing in soda that even comes from the earth except caffeine, and that’s optional. It’s a mixture of altered water (injected with carbon dioxide gas), artificial flavors (yes, “natural flavor” is artificial), artificial color, and phosphoric acid, along with its sole caloric source that is a by-product of genetically modified corn production and offers virtually no nutritional value.”

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JUL
13
2010


Dana Cummings: “To Still DO”

I’ll bet at least 95% of everyone that reads this has no idea who Dana Cummings is…neither did I until I stumbled across this video.  Its pretty hard to get much cooler than this guy but I’ll let the video speak for itself.  Its about 6 minutes long so if you can’t sneak a peak at work wait till you get home - its worth it.

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JUL
12
2010


Let The Eye Rolling Begin

Take notes guys and gals…some of your friends secretly want to punch you right in the junk!  Have a read and take heart because not everyone is ready to change their lives.  Dare I say there is more to life than SPARK?  True, it is awesome and that means everyone that comes here is awesome but that doesn’t mean you have to tell everyone you’re awesome…after all, they’ll see it on their own ;) 

 

10 Signs You Might be an Annoying Fitness Freak - Paige Waehner

If you’re into health and fitness, you probably want everyone in your life to be into it too. That’s an honorable goal but, going about it the wrong way may do more harm than good. Learn about the 10 signs that you might be an annoying fitness freak.

1. You Nag Too Much

Most of us have the best intentions when we nag - we want the people we love to live healthy, happy lives - if they would only just do what we say! Naggers tend to:

  • Never let up - Asking, “Are you going to workout?” is one thing. Tweeting, Facebooking, texting and sending smoke signals all day will send them running for cover.
  • Be controlling - “Here are the workouts you should do each day - this PowerPoint presentation explains everything.”
  • Make everything about exercise - “Why don’t you jog as you’re taking out the trash? Maybe you’ll burn a few calories.”

Stop the Nagging

Realize that nagging may actually backfire. Encouragement and praise for the healthy things they are doing may make more of a difference than badgering them.

2. You’re Self-Righteous

Back in college, my roommate and I were digging into some chips when my friend, a fitness freak, walked in and gasped, “Oh my gosh, I would never eat those.” We looked at each other like we’d just discovered we were eating a handful of dog poop. 

Fitness freaks can make others feel bad about their choices by pointing out our perfection:

  • Using the word ‘always’ - As in, “You didn’t workout because you forgot your shoes? I always exercise, even if my feet bleed.”
  • Using the word ‘never’ - As in, “I would never eat anything with sugar in it, even with a gun to my head.”

Get Off the Pedestal

Pointing out how perfect you are only creates distance. Sharing your struggles may encourage friends to open up as well, giving you an opportunity to help.

3. You’re Judgmental

Being judgmental is another trap we sometimes fall into. Some things a judgmental fitness freak might say:

  • “Should you really be eating that?”
  • “Oh, you’re ordering that? I call that a heart attack on a plate.”
  • “You mean you never do any high impact workouts? How do you live with yourself?”

Back Off

We sometimes shame people into making better choices, but no one likes to feel bad about what they’re doing. Some gentle nudging (e.g., “I had this salad last week and it was phenomenal.”) without harping on calories may be enough to get them to think twice. If it doesn’t, there’s not much we can do about other people’s decisions. Focus more on being a good role model and offering support when it’s appropriate.

4. You’re a Know-It-All

As fitness freaks, we have a huge database of fitness knowledge inside our brains. The knowledge helps us make good choices, but it also may encourage us to force those choices onto others. You might be a know-it-all if you:

  • Toot your own horn: “Do you know about the effects of fatty acids on metabolic function in ischemic myocardium? Because I do.”
  • Use big words - “You should dorsiflex as you abduct to work the vastus lateralis.”
  • Give unwanted advice - “I noticed your legs are kind of skinny. Have you thought about doing more squats?”

Zip Your Lips

While fitness freaks know a lot, we don’t know everything. Wait for someone to ask for advice before giving it and don’t be afraid to say you don’t know something. People respect honesty.

5. You’re Inflexible

Some fitness freaks have an all-or-nothing approach to living healthy. Take it too far and you not only annoy others, you may not be enjoying life as much as you could. You might be inflexible if you:

  • Bring carrot sticks to every party - If you’re on a special diet, that’s fine, but turning up your nose at every dish might offend others.
  • Are the resident calorie counter - At a birthday party, you’re the one who shouts, “I read that one piece of birthday cake has 947 calories.”
  • Refuse to eat anything you haven’t had analyzed in a laboratory.

Bend a Little

Being healthy means making healthy choices most of the time. However, allowing some indulgence from time to time can enrich your life and make you more approachable to others.

6. You’re One-Dimensional

As a fitness freak, I love talking about exercise, sometimes to the point of annoyance. Sharing enthusiasm is fine but, if it’s all you talk about, other people may avoid you like the plague. Some signs to look for:

  • When someone asks about your weekend, you have no idea what you did besides workout.
  • You dominate the conversation - Steering every topic back to your marathon training or your deep love of flaxseed oil may cause instant eye-glazing.
  • The last 8 books you read included the words “exercise,” “health,” “workout,” or “training” in the titles.

Branch Out

Fitness is important, but trying other things, like photography or travel, is invigorating and makes you more interesting. Finding balance is something we all have to work at.

7. You’re Self-Important

Some of us fitness freaks are so proud of what we’ve accomplished, we may come off as a little full of ourselves. We all need a pat on the back for our hard work, but forcing compliments can turn people off. Some things to avoid:

  • Bragging - “I did 76 pull-ups today and I barely broke a sweat. Man, I am awesome!”
  • Showing Off - At every party, you challenge everyone to a one-arm pushup contest.
  • You Repeat Yourself - You always tell the same story about how you wrestled a grizzly bear into submission with your own strength.

Toning it Down

There’s nothing wrong with being proud of our accomplishments and telling others about them but, sometimes, actions speak louder than words. Being healthy, strong and confident shows who you really are.

8. You May Be Insensitive

“You’d be beautiful if you lost weight - You have such a pretty face!” We’ve all heard that cliche, and fitness freaks can be just as insensitive sometimes by:

  • Oversimplifying - It’s not helpful to say, “Why don’t you just eat less?” to a person struggling with the scale.
  • Condescending - Saying, “You can’t keep up? You really should work on your endurance,” to your friend will not inspire more workouts.
  • Dismissive - If you get what you consider a silly question (”How do I use a treadmill?”), dismissing it (”What? Everyone knows how to use a treadmill!”) ensures they won’t ask another one.

We fitness freaks forget what it’s like to be a beginner. Remembering our own struggles can help us empathize and give encouragement when needed.

9. You’re Intimidating

Many fitness freaks have been exercising for so long, we forget that other people don’t have the same knowledge or the same stamina we do. That may creep into the advice we give, sometimes without us realizing it:

  • “I think you’ll burn the most calories doing a 90-minute spin class. I do it three times a week, along with my marathon training, and it rocks!”
  • “My favorite exercise is handstand pushups - they really work your shoulders!”
  • My workout schedule?” (Checking your watch) “How long do you have?”

it’s great that people come to us for advice, but we don’t always know what other people can handle. Remind advice-seekers that they may need different workouts when they’re just starting out and that what you do may not work for them.

10. You’re You

Sometimes you annoy others simply by being the healthy, fit person you are. It can be hard being around someone who has it all figured out and your very presence may remind them of that fact. There are some people who will be annoyed no matter what you do but, if there’s someone who constantly picks on you because you’re a health nut, you may feel like you have to defend your position. 

Remember that being healthy, fit and strong isn’t something to apologize for. If you’re engaging in some of the behaviors listed above, you may have some things to work on. However, if you’re simply living your life the way you like and you feel good about yourself, then that’s what matters. Keep up the great work!

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7 Comments »
JUL
8
2010


Still Think Magazines, Ads and Infomercials Are Legit?

Think again.  99% of the time they are total BS.  Click on the pics to blow them up.  Thats why when you read the fine print it says things like “Results Not Typical”, “Results impoved with proper diet and exercise”. 

Translation:  Just send us your money you lazy idiot!

Give this video a look and you’ll understand.

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10 Comments »
JUL
7
2010


New Workout Craze!

As silly as this video is it would proably be a better workout than most of the crap out there.  Now don’t offended, its all in fun.  Its not like I made it up either - just passing it along for a couple of laughs.  There are a couple curse words in it too so be careful where you watch it…or just turn the sound down.

Mind you, I don’t think it would work on guys…however, if he looked like this you could even get ME to run!!!   YIKES!!!

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14 Comments »
JUL
6
2010


Fitness Fallacies

Sometimes its just so obvious that what “fitness” people are peddling is BS it almost laughable…almost as bad as the pic above.

However, some arguments have stood the test of time - although COMPLETELY devoid of any truth - and have really put certain stigmas on fitness, health and weightlifting.  I found a short list online the other day that I felt summed up a lot of the crap that keeps people out of the gym and off the path of a healthy lifestyle.  Unfortunate of course because although there are a lot of fat lazy buggers out there, there sure is a lot of people struggling and trying with no results.  I hope some of them read this…By all means, if you know one of them, send this to them.

10 Fitness Facts That in Reality are Fitness Myths

1. Lifting lighter weights will make your muscles more defined and toned. FALSE!

Muscle responds to overload. If you lift heavier weight with sufficient intensity, you will create more microscopic tears in the muscle. When the muscle recuperates, it will become tighter and stronger.

However, your supplemental nutrition must support your workouts. Reduced body fat is what creates the “lean and tight” look, not high reps (15 plus reps). Reduced body fat is a result of efficient weight training, proper amounts of cardiovascular exercise and nutrition that places one in somewhat of a calorie deficit (less than maintenance). That’s how you get defined and toned!

2. A lot of cardio is the most efficient way to lose body fat. FALSE!

Excessive cardio will strip muscle and body fat. This is definitely not the most efficient method to lose body fat. Once you begin stripping muscle tissue, your body becomes less efficient at burning body fat. Muscle is metabolically active, which simply means it stimulates the metabolism.

For each pound of muscle you put on your body, you will burn up to 50 additional calories per day. If you strip muscle tissue, all you accomplish is sabotaging your efforts to efficiently reduce body fat. The PROPER amount of cardio to accomplish your goal is what’s necessary!

3. A woman will get muscles as big as guy if she lifts heavier weight. FALSE!

This myth never seems to die. A woman has approximately one third of the testosterone of a man. Unless she is on anabolic steroids, growth hormone or other enhancing drugs, a woman will never achieve the muscular size of a man. However, she can get a degree of muscularity that makes her lean, toned and tight.

4. Calories are the only thing that counts when trying to lose body fat or gain lean muscle. FALSE!

Ratios of protein, carbohydrates and fats are also important. The key in losing body fat and getting lean is controlling and manipulating insulin levels. In simple terms, when we consume excessive calories or excessive amounts of high glycemic carbohydrates at one meal, the body’s blood sugar rises. When this happens, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin to lower the blood sugar levels.

One of the many drawbacks of this happening excessively is, along with putting you at risk for diabetes, the body also holds onto stored body fat! A balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats works most efficiently in losing fat and gaining lean tissue. However, this too becomes tricky, because each of us tends to respond best to certain dietary programs. You may experience great success with our Atkins plan, or The Zone, possibly our own eDiets nutrition program. Some of our members have experienced good success with one program only to change programs and experience even greater success due to the ratio change!

5. Muscle weighs more than fat. FALSE!

If I place one pound of muscle on a scale and one pound of fat on a scale, they will both weigh one pound. The difference is in total volume! One pound of muscle may appear to be the size of a baseball; one pound of fat will be three times the size and look like a squiggly bowl JELL-O.

6. There is one perfect workout routine. FALSE!

There is no “best and only way” to workout. I receive a multitude of questions concerning what is the best cardio machine, the best exercise tape, the best routine to work the butt and so on. In reality, it’s all good if it works for you, but you don’t want to stay with any of it for too long. The body will adapt to any exercise routine in 4-6 weeks and the mind will experience boredom if you stay with the same routine for too long of a time. Vary volume of sets, time between sets, reps, exercises, cardio, dance tapes, videos, etc. Manipulate your routine every 3-4 weeks and view CHANGE as the key constant that will lead you to success.

7. The best way to lose fat is to eat very few calories. FALSE!

Always consider your body from the inside out. Your body’s main objective is to survive. It doesn’t care if you want to lose body fat. In fact, it would prefer to increase fat in case of famine. Internally, the body has no idea that it’s the year 2003. It could still be 10,000 years ago for all it cares. Survival is its number one objective.

If you eat very little (less than 1,200 calories), the body perceives an emergency and will accommodate you by holding onto stored body fat. As well it should, because it has no idea when it will be fed again.

8. The best way to reduce the hips, glutes or abs is to perform exercise to isolate the area. FALSE!

It is physiologically impossible to spot reduce. You can’t lose only in one area of the body because body fat comes off all over the body. Typically, the first place you tend to gain is the last place you lose. Doesn’t Mother Nature have a wonderful sense of humor? Again, the route to success for those stubborn hips is resistance exercise, cardio and supplemental nutrition.

9. The best way to lose fat is to eat a lot of calories. FALSE!

Just as you don’t want to eat too little, you don’t want to eat too much. Duhh! I know this is a no-brainer, but the big message in the nutrition and personal training world today is that most people need to eat more to stimulate the metabolism. The truth is you need the CORRECT AMOUNT of total calories to lose body fat, not simply more food!

10. The infomercial that has that cool looking, easy-to-use abdominal machine will help me to get a flat stomach. FALSE!

If you only knew how much those late-night infomercials frustrate me! The infomercials barely mention nutrition when attempting to sell their miracle ab machine of the month. Nutrition is a huge component of attaining a flatter stomach!  The key to a flatter stomach is proper nutrition, resistance exercise to increase muscle tissue and cardiovascular exercise to burn additional calories. Sensing a theme here? Its all about balance and consistency.

                                           - Raphael Calzadilla

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Kim knows a lot about the body - how it works, how to push it and how to get the most out of it. He has worked with professional athletes and knows what it takes to be successful at that level. If you want to be faster, stronger and more powerful go to SPARK."

Ethan Moreau
Edmonton Oilers Captain

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