Sometimes when I take the bottles in I’m amazed at whats in the bags…pop, iced tea, weird things I’ve never seen before, sweetened fruit juice and even sugar water.  Sugar water?  Yes, sugar water.  Oh sorry, I mean “Vitamin Water”.  The empties of this have been quite plentiful as of late so I figured its time for some investigation as I’ve never had it myself.

Ok stop rolling your eyes, not everything you eat is bad for you and I know I slam a lot of things and here goes another rant, but I feel it is my job and even my duty as your coach and trainer to let you know about the crap thats out there…and yes a lot of times the good.

I’m gonna make this pretty short and sweet and then I’ll let you suckers read for yourselves…START READING THE F-ING LABELS ON THE THINGS YOU PUT IN YOUR BODY.  Whew, I feel much better now.  It really is quite simple folks - if you aren’t seeing the results you want and you’re at the gym regularly and you bust ass while you’re there I have four words for you that will probably fall on deaf ears but maybe it’ll sink in with one or two of you, and yes you can quote me:

“You eat like shit”.

Seriously, for all of you that eat “pretty good” and blah blah blah I have two more words for you “SUCK IT” (oh wait, sorry I had a flashback to my days when I watched WWF)  the words are, “You Don’t”.  Case in point, Vitamin Water.  You just aren’t paying enough attention.

Anyway, here is what I’m getting at.  Read this article and then start trying a little harder.  I PROMISE it will make a difference in how you feel, how you perform and how you look.  And just read than dang article…its not that long and clearly you aren’t working when you probably should be anyway.  You might just learn something.

The Dark Side Of Vitamin Water - John Robbins (no Jonny, this isn’t a Star Wars reference)

Now here’s something you wouldn’t expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company’s vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself?

In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”   (Yes, I added the bold, underline and italics…I wanted to make sure you saw it).

Does this mean that you’d have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named “vitaminwater,” a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?

Or does it mean that it’s okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?

In fact, the product is basically sugar-water, to which about a penny’s worth of synthetic vitamins have been added. And the amount of sugar is not trivial. A bottle of vitaminwater contains 33 grams of sugar, making it more akin to a soft drink than to a healthy beverage.

Is any harm being done by this marketing ploy? After all, some might say consumers are at least getting some vitamins, and there isn’t as much sugar in vitaminwater as there is in regular Coke.

True. But about 35 percent of Americans are now considered medically obese. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. Health experts tend to disagree about almost everything, but they all concur that added sugars play a key role in the obesity epidemic, a problem that now leads to more medical costs than smoking.

How many people with weight problems have consumed products like vitaminwater in the mistaken belief that the product was nutritionally positive and carried no caloric consequences? How many have thought that consuming vitaminwater was a smart choice from a weight-loss perspective? The very name “vitaminwater” suggests that the product is simply water with added nutrients, disguising the fact that it’s actually full of added sugar.

The truth is that when it comes to weight loss, what you drink may be even more important than what you eat. Americans now get nearly 25 percent of their calories from liquids. In 2009, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published a report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, finding that the quickest and most reliable way to lose weight is to cut down on liquid calorie consumption. And the best way to do that is to reduce or eliminate beverages that contain added sugar.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has invested billions of dollars in its vitaminwater line, paying basketball stars, including Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, to appear in ads that emphatically state that these products are a healthy way for consumers to hydrate. When Lebron James held his much ballyhooed TV special to announce his decision to join the Miami Heat, many corporations paid millions in an attempt to capitalize on the event. But it was vitaminwater that had the most prominent role throughout the show.

The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, alleges that vitaminwater labels and advertising are filled with “deceptive and unsubstantiated claims.” In his recent 55-page ruling, Federal Judge John Gleeson (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York), wrote, “At oral arguments, defendants (Coca-Cola) suggested that no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitamin water was a healthy beverage.” Noting that the soft drink giant wasn’t claiming the lawsuit was wrong on factual grounds, the judge wrote that, “Accordingly, I must accept the factual allegations in the complaint as true.”

I still can’t get over the bizarre audacity of Coke’s legal case. Forced to defend themselves in court, they are acknowledging that vitaminwater isn’t a healthy product. But they are arguing that advertising it as such isn’t false advertising, because no could possibly believe such a ridiculous claim.

I guess that’s why they spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising the product, saying it will keep you “healthy as a horse,” and will bring about a “healthy state of physical and mental well-being.”

Why do we allow companies like Coca-Cola to tell us that drinking a bottle of sugar water with a few added water-soluble vitamins is a legitimate way to meet our nutritional needs?

I can speak the truth when I say that 95% f the time I drink something it is water.  And yes once in a while I just want something with flavoe so what do I do?  I shoot a squirt of Pure Lemon juice into the bottle…gives it some zip.  ANd don’t ask about the little flavor packs, I’m likely to puch you in the back of the neck while you walk away.

Discuss.

No the title doesn’t make sense and no its not supposed to.  I do feel  however that that’s how we should all start expressing ourselves from now on.  Lets start a movement and follow our brother Steve Zwack by blurting out absolutely ridiculous sayings that actually make no sense at at.  Who’s in?

On the same topic of absolutely ridiculous things…lets talk about people that don’t eat meat.  No, its true!  There are people out there that don’t eat meat.  They have in their heads that they can actually get all the protein, amino acids and all the other great stuff in meat from plants.  I know…CRAZY!

Whats that old saying?  Oh yeah…You are what you eat!  Lets reverse that a little…you eat what you are!  Thats right folks, you are made of meat.  You NEED meat for proper nutrition and to repair what you damage when you workout.  Yup, working out damages muscles and as they repair themselves they get bigger and stronger.  More muscle means more caloric burn and that means a leaner you. 

I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of the body’s physiological processes and all that.  I know what I know and I’m not out to prove anything because its already been proven.  Stop following the trendy bandwagon and do a liitle research.  And if you feel the desire to prove me wrong bring me the PEER REVIEWED scientific research.  After you’ve stumped yourself go get a nice big steak.  You’ll have earned it after all the education you’ve just received.

I am also getting a little sick and tired of the argument that killing animals isn’t right.  It really frustrates me when I start tuning out their bullshit because I start to notice their leather shoes and leather seats in thier car.  Double standard.  Its as bad as those idiots that drive to the rally to protest against oil companies.

I am a hunter, I eat what I kill and I try to put them down as quickly and painlessly as possible out of respect for them.  And for those of you that think hunting is wrong I would encourage you to visit a slaughter house and a farm where they raise your meat to be killed and tell me that is more humane than hunting.  By the way, bow hunting season starts in about 33 days!

Thats enough of that.  I believe my rant has got my point across so let me say this:  You can eat how you want…goodness knows I do.  All I am saying is that in order to achieve proper nutrition and fitness you need a combination of lean meats and fruits and vegetables.  Your body cannot run optimally without the stuff it is made of.

Truth be told - and you may find this hard to believe - I could really care less if you eat meat or not…its your choice and I can live with that.  So why is it so hard to let me have mine. 

So please, stay out of the playgrounds and stop handing kids anti-milk trading cards.  Take your billboards down and do something constructive with your money like sheltering the homeless.  If your point was valid would you need to use naked women to make it?

Totally unrelated to any of this…The blog post I did about Tig was featured on CrossFit’s Affiliate blog today.

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So I was thinking today about the purpose of this “blog” and what I’m trying to accomplish or whatever.  Truth be told, I’ve NEVER really thought about it before.  I didn’t really come to any definative conclusions so I’ll just leave it at this…

I’m not out to change the world with my posts, I’m not trying to get the attention of some bigger entity so I can be on a larger scale and I sure as hell am not out to impress anyone.  This ummmm, shall we call it “daily” posting is merely a collection of my thoughts, random rants with any topic I feel at the time and of course some good mindless entertainment.  If I can open a few eyes or educate a few people I suppose thats just a huge bonus.

In other words, if you, my readers simply come and read and actually come back I guess I’m doing ok.  I will admit that it does feel good to see some people posting.  I could probably go so far as to say its pretty much the only reason I’ve been keeping it up so Thanks.

On that note, some brilliant work by K Swiss with none other than…Kenny Powers!

Some pretty inspiring stuff eh?  Makes me want some Tubes!  I really get Kenny and if one day I am lucky enough to meet him I would like to think he would get me too.  His words go right to my soul and in honor to him I think I should paint one of his quotes on the wall at SPARK…maybe in the new gym.

“Do yourself and the rest of the people that have to look at your disgusting body a favor and get training”

- Kenny Powers        

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Instant gratification has really gone up a notch here eh?  I mean, we’ve all heard that anything worth getting is worth working your ass off for right?  But not taking 1 minute out of your day to make a sandwich?  COME ON! 

Now I know everyone at SPARK eats totally clean and never cheats and even the mere thought of a PB&J sandwich is like acid on an open wound.  BULLSHIT!  There are few things in this world that are as tasty and comforting than a fresh bread PB&J.  Thank goodness we have no bread in the house or I’d probably be stuffing my face right now. 

This is absolute blasphemy…not to mention that it sounds totally disgusting!  But I must say that I am totally intrigued.  I would also bet that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU would have a go if I brought in a case.  Perhaps this should be the new birthday treat…hmmmmmm, canned cake.

Here is the sales pitch:

- Candwich is the perfect product for people on the go such as students, construction workers, soccer moms and outdoor enthusiasts.

- Unique packaging offers convenience and protection while backpacking, camping, biking and other activities.

- (My personal favorite) Does not require refrigeration.

- Candwich has a long shelf life that is perfect for emergency food storage needs in the event of natural disasters.

- These great tasting products are available as single can, four-pack or by the case.

And soon to be released…Pepperoni Pizza Flavor.

I tried to find the Nutritional Information on this stuff but I was not able to.  So if your Google-Fu is better than mine (which I’m sure it probably is) help me out and post it up. 

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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.”

Post Thoughts to Comments…or any I missed that you like.

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

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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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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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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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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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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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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.