Category: news

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Simple Squat Progression

If you’re a beginner lifter or if feel like your squat form could be better, read through this guide and consider following the program. I think My squat form could probably use some work so I’m going to try this out.

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Rising Food Prices – Grow Your Own Organic Garden

There are some great recipes for organic and non-toxic pesticides here that you can use for your own garden. I’m gonna try the Tobasco concoction.

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Nutritional Profiling: 6 Unhealthy Food Ingredients To Avoid

I really like this article because it gets straight to the point and explains exactly why you should avoid these foods, in an easy to understand way.

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LES MILLS PUMP – Sneak Peek! – YouTube

I hate when programs like this show tons of super-fit people who claim that their program is the best in the world to get in shape and to lose fat, and they say it as if this is the program that got them in shape. The reason I’m linking to it though is because the program actually does look fun, much like it’s Beachbody cousin, P90X. They aren’t efficient programs, but I think keeping things interesting is a good way to make sure you stay on track with your fitness goals.

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Fasting can help protect against brain diseases, scientists say

Just a few months ago, I would have been amazed by this news, but I’ve read so much about fasting recently, that I totally believe this is true. I haven’t fasted myself, but I would really like to give it a try sometime. When I do decide to fast, I’ll probably start with a 7-day juice fast, and perhaps a 3 to 7 day water fast sometime further down the road. The juice fast will likely come soon, because I found a cheap Juiceman II juicer at the flea market for only $5 just the other day. I have a nice expensive Breville at home, but I don’t want to take that one back and forth from work.

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YouTube Trends: Don’t Try This at Home: First-Person Perspective Puts You in the Extreme Action

This is a great set of first-person perspective sport videos. I don’t have the nerve to do any of these things, so it’s fun to at least watch what it might look like if I did. 😉

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How to Use Tech to Plan and Optimize Your Garden

I hope you read the article I posted earlier this week on getting your garden started by planting seeds indoors. If not, read it, then check out this great article from Lifehacker on getting a garden plan in order and figuring out how you to maintain it this gardening season.

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Chin-Up Progressions for Women (The One Rep Hump)

Pull-ups aren’t only difficult to women. Overweight men and men who are just getting started in working out might have issues too. Don’t be ashamed. We all have to start somewhere. This is a great guide to getting started. Here’s part II of the series.

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Surprisingly Effective Workouts You Can Do with a Towel in 20 Minutes or Less

Need a fun change to your workout? Throw one of these routines into your week. Judging by the faces of the people in the first video, it looks like you can get a pretty good workout using a towel.

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Zen to Fitness – Raw Foods for Athletes

Everyone can benefit from these fruits and veggies. Read about the 10 most important foods athletes should be eating (according to the author) and why these foods are beneficial to our bodies.

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The Real Way to Lose Weight Fast – With Pen and Paper

If you’re trying to lose weight and get in shape, you need to record it. I completely agree everything said in this article. I don’t keep a journal, but I can see how it could help someone who may have psychological issues in regards to their weight.

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RotatoReliever: An Effective New Option For Repairing Shoulder Injuries

I’ve had many shoulder injuries over the years due to lifting weights. Nothing ever serious, but it really sucks not being able to get a full upper body workout due to a strained muscle in the shoulder. The RotatoReliever sounds like an interesting alternative to expensive therapy or rehab, and it’s only $130. There’s a great review of the product in this article and an interview with doctor who created it.

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How To Train For a Marathon | Six Week Workout Program

Here’s a really simple schedule to train for a marathon. I’ve never run a marathon before. Even this schedule looks daunting to me. More than 40 miles in the first week makes my feet hurt just thinking about it. 6 weeks of training would probably fly by though. I might try this just to see how it goes.

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10 Foods to Make Your Intestines Happy

Having digestion problems? Here are plenty of foods you should consider adding to your diet to get better gut health. I hated sauerkraut as a kid, but it’s been so long that I might like it now. I’m going to have to remember to pick some up next time I’m at the store. I don’t know how to eat it though. Do I eat it plain? Do I season it? Does it go well with other foods?

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Sneaky Sources of Omega-3s

Omega 3 fatty acids are important to have in our diets. I used to eat fish to get my omega-3’s, but since going vegan, obviously I don’t consume fish anymore. Now I get my Omega 3 from avocados and flax, which I consume daily in my large salad. I just purchased a bag of chia seeds too, so I guess I’m covered.

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Vegan Nutrition 101 with Jack Norris – YouTube

This video covers the basics of vegan nutrition and just a small portion of what Jack Norris, a vegan RD, covers in his book. The video is basic, but I actually learned about the importance of iodine in vegan diets.

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Buy it now: Cold weather running gear

Here’s a good list of things you should buy while they’re cheap. The link they added to the Runner’s World “what to wear” tool is really cool too.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Q&A: Is Static Stretching Good?

Here’s a very detailed post about the different types of stretching and when you should do them. I almost always do dynamic stretches, but I think I’ll start trying to work in static and even some EQI’s, which I’ve actually never heard of before.

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Vegan Dieting

Here’s a great follow-up to the interview that FitBodyHype did with Channa Serenity a couple of weeks ago. Channa makes two claims that I’ve never heard before, and I read a lot when it comes to nutrition. She says that you should never eat fruit with other foods and you shouldn’t drink water during meals. Interesting.

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Plant-Based Diet For Athletes

This article provides a lot of information a vegan athlete should think about when it comes to their diet and what they should and should not be consuming. I’ve been a huge fan of Ben Greenfield for a while, but some of my respect has been lost after reading one of his comments in this article. He says one of his reasons for not going vegan is that he “likes meat.” What a fucking terrible and selfish excuse.

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Weight Training Program – Why It Should Be Part Of Your Routine

This one will cater more to the ladies. I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard a woman tell me that they don’t want to lift weights because they don’t want to get huge and muscular. Well, it doesn’t work that way. Building muscle burns more calories and can get a female body into great shape, without causing bulk. There are plenty of other benefits too, as you’ll find out from reading this article.

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The 50 Best Free Health & Fitness Courses on the Web (Voting Open!)

This is one of the coolest curated resources I’ve ever seen online. I wish there was a way for me to print out every single program with one click. There are so many great programs here, it’s not likely you’ll ever get bored in the gym. I can’t believe Stronglifts isn’t in this list though!

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Ways To Burn Fat: 1 Insanely Powerful Dietary Change

It took a looooong time for this article to get to the point that we should cut wheat and gluten from our diets, but once the “secret” is finally revealed, there really is a lot of good information here about the negative effects that gluten has in our bodies and why we should remove it from our diets. With all of the research coming out about gluten and wheat these days, I’m thinking about cutting it out of my diet too.

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Easy Ways to Give Any Meal a Powerful Nutritional Boost

This is great stuff, because these are foods that most people don’t even know about. What’s funny is that when I went vegan, these highly nutritional foods seemed to be in just about every vegan cookbook I own. If you want to take your nutrition to an even higher level, check out Thrive Foods from Brendan Brazier.

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Pullovers: Bodybuilding’s Most Controversial Exercise

I’ve seen lots of articles for and against the pullover. I don’t currently do pullovers, but not for any reason specifically. I really like this move. If you need to be coerced into adding it into your routine, read this article.

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Highly Effective Old School Back Training

Here’s another article talking about a classic exercise that we should be including in our weight lifting routines. I wish I had a better bar to do this one, but a straight bar will have to do. I can feel this exercise just by looking at the photos.

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How To Breathe When Working Out

This is one of those things that a lot of us forget – breathe out when pushing or pulling the weight and breathe in when releasing. Even if you forget when to breathe in and out, it’s better than holding your breath. Don’t hold your breath when lifting! Read this article to learn why.

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Vegan Diets, Critical Thinking, and 9 Blogs You Need to Read

If you haven’t heard of “The Vegan R.D” blog by Ginny Messina, you’re missing out and should definitely subscribe. She promotes an evidence-based approach to vegan advocacy and this great post links to nine other blogs which take a similar approach. I’ve subscribed to all of them!

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The myth of the eight-hour sleep

There are lots of articles on the internet about hacking sleeping patterns, many of which I’ve read, but I’ve never come across something that explains this part of our history and sleeping. This is great stuff! I have problems with sleep myself, often waking up in the middle of the night, laying in bed and then falling asleep again. Maybe it’s not a problem after all, and it’s just the way my body is meant to work. I don’t know how much I believe that though, because it seems like it would be difficult to reach REM sleep within only four hours.

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Antibiotic Use Causes Superbugs

It’s been long argued that antibiotic use could result in drug-resistant infections, yet farmers continued to use antibiotics anyway. Now a drug-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus is in nearly half of all meat in the U.S. Nice…

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Wellness Symposium | Learn It Live

This is going to be huge! Register for free to get access to watch the top experts and authors in the health industry speak all next week, from Feb. 20-26. I can’t wait for this. I’ve registered to watch all of the featured speakers and then a few presentations from some of the others.

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Drug quickly reverses Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice

Wow, this is amazing! A possible cure for Alzheimer’s would be one of the biggest breakthroughs ever to happen in science. Just think of all of the families that could be reunited with a cure.

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How Do You Know If You’re Gluten Intolerant?

I don’t have any of these symptoms, except for possibly fatigue. I keep reading articles about gluten and they always make me want to try giving it up. One of these days, I’ll try to put together a simple 7-day gluten free meal plan so that I can see if I notice any differences.

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How to Be a Vegetarian Bodybuilder

I’m not usually a fan of posts like this when they are written by someone who is not a vegan and doesn’t have actual personal experience being vegan, because they often don’t understand the whole story. I get that feeling from this article too, but I think many of the points made are generally correct.

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Bill DeSimone on Congruent Exercise – YouTube

This is an hour and a half, but is a must watch. You’ll learn about being aware of how your body moves and operates. There are some very interesting things about common workouts most of us do, such as the barbell squat, and how they cause damage to our bodies. This will definitely help me think more about my form while lifting weights and which exercises are forcing me into unnatural states.

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Why Running Drills are Bad for You

As soon as I saw this title, I thought “Damn! and I was just going to start trying out running drills,” but after listening to the interview, I learned that they are only bad if you’re using bad form. Check out this interview to learn running drills that will teach you to run without putting strain on your joints.

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The 21 Most Innovative Gyms in the U.S.

All of these gyms look amazing. It would be awesome to travel the country and visit each one. Too bad there aren’t any in Colorado. Well, there are some Curves, but since I’m a guy, I’m not welcome there 😉

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Figure Out Which Oils to Use for Your Cooking Needs with The Cooking Oil Comparison Chart

I think most people tend to stick with canola, corn and olive oil, but if you like to cook, you’ve probably got many more. I’m a good example. In addition to the three I just mentioned, I also have hemp, flax, coconut, and grapeseed oils in my cabinet. I didn’t realize there were so many others though. Download the PDF chart to learn more about each oil and how they should be used.

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Top 17 Dietitians You Can Count On in Social Media

Excellent list. Too bad there are only two vegans though. I still decided to follow them all on Twitter, but I also subscribed to the blogs of the vegans. The vegans get more love from me 😉

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Weightlifting Academy

I haven’t listened to this podcast yet, but the description sounds good and it’s put together by some really smart people in the industry. If you want to learn more about olympic lifting, this looks like the place. I’ll probably listen to this over the weekend. Should be good! I hope they put the podcast on iTunes soon.

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20 Minutes of Exercise a Day Is Enough to Get You Fit

According to a study from the Journal of Physiology, 20 minutes a day might be all the time you need to get into shape. 20 minutes per day? Count me in! Actually, I like to train for a lot longer than that, but this is good news for people who find it difficult to find time to workout. There’s no reason you can’t carve out 20 minutes of your day for a simple, but strenuous, workout.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Vegan Girl Scout Cookies

I didn’t think I would be able to eat any Girl Scout cookies, but as it turns out, as longs as they don’t carry tagalongs, they are selling from one of the two commercial bakeries that doesn’t put whey into the Thanks-A-Lot and Thin Mints cookies. If they do carry the Tagalongs, you’re out of luck.

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Food PH Chart – Most Alkaline and Acidic Foods

A lot of the foods that we grow up thinking are healthy are actually acidic in the body, for example chicken, grains, rice and peanuts. This handy chart will help you modify your diet to include more alkaline foods.

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At the gym: who is looking at whom

A hilarious comic strip about what everyone at the gym is thinking about each other.

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Denny’s Vegan Burger – Pretty Darn Good

I didn’t know Denny’s had a vegan burger. Another restaurant I can eat at with my friends.

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Deadlifting From Blocks

I don’t currently have the need for deadlift blocks, because I’m still seeing good progress from the floor, but this is definitely good stuff to know. Check out the comments too. Paul gives some great answers to his readers.

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The Five Kings Of Intermittent Fasting

I thought there was only one king of intermittent fasting, Martin Berkham, but it turns out there are several other gurus in the IM field that I should be following. I haven’t tried intermittent fasting personally, but I hope to find time to put together a meal plan one day.

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Losing Weight with Wolfram|Alpha

I think it’s really cool that Wolfram|Alpha put together an entire post on using their super-nerdy tools to help you lose weight. I’m a nerd myself, so I have a great appreciation for amazing research tools like what these guys have built.

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The 6-Week Sprinting Solution

I keep coming across sprinting articles lately and I think it’s a sign that I should give it a try. This program is perfectly laid out and I think I’m going to give it a try sometime soon. I don’t have access to a treadmill right now (but I’m thinking about buying one), so I’m going to have to wait a month or so until the weather gets a little nicer.

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How To Stoop And Reach Without Hurting Yourself

Bending and lifting properly seems so simple, but this instructional video is a great reminder of how we should all be doing it to prevent damage to our bodies over our lifetime.

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5 Steps I Used to Take 104 Minutes Off My Marathon

It’s getting closer to the season of marathons, and if you’re planning on doing one yourself, you should consider downloading this 15 page report from Matt Frazier, the No Meat Athlete.

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5 Myths About Intermittent Fasting, And Why They’re Not True

Intermittent fasting doesn’t seem to be a topic that many traditional health advocates understand, because once they hear about it, they’re shocked that anyone would do something like this to their bodies. There’s a science at work here. It just needs to be understood. By the way, I only counted 3 myths here, but maybe the other two were accidentally edited out.

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Exercises Saved From the Dumpster

It’s not often that a health professional will admit to being wrong about something. Many are hard-headed and stick to their guns, even when evidence has been provided. It’s awesome to hear that Michael Boyle has changed his mind about not teaching his athletes the “get up,” loaded carries and the deadlift. Read the article to find out why.

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Knee Joint Stretches with Kevin Cornell of California Strength – YouTube

Great stretches for improving your position in the lower part of the squat exercise.

It’s snowing like crazy here in Colorado, so I’m working from home today. I love being able to watch the snow from my home office window, knowing that I don’t have to drive in it. I’m guessing I’m going to be snowed in all weekend, but I might make the trip to my Mom’s house to watch the Super Bowl. She’s only 10 minutes away, anyway, so I’ll probably go if the family decides to get together. It should be a great game. Have a good weekend!

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Power Plants: Feast On These Vitamin-Dense, Cancer-Fighting Veggies

I didn’t know what cruciferous meant, so I had to look it up and basically, cruciferous veggies are simply those that come from the Brassicaceae family of vegetables. These are the best cancer-fighting vegetables you can eat, but this article claims that not cooking them can lead to thyroid gland problems. I’ve never heard of that before. I guess I should limit how often I eat raw cruciferous vegetables from now on.

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Why Running Drills are Bad for You

I’m sad to say that I’ve never even done running drills, but my new goals this year consist of doing more cardio-based activities, such as 5k runs and military-style mud runs, so drills will probably become a new part of my routine.

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How To Make The Perfect Guacamole

I love guacamole, but I’ve never been able to find a really good homemade recipe. My favorite guacamole comes from the pre-mixed stuff that comes in a packet near the avocados in the grocery store, but it isn’t vegan, so I can’t use it anymore. Next time I make some guac, I’ll try the recipe and the tips in this article.

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How to Make Rice Milk and Horchata

Ooh, this looks so easy. I’m actually not a big fan of rice milk, but I am a fan of horchata. I can’t wait to make this.

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A Beginners Guide to Biking

This is such a fun and entertaining article that I was sad when it ended. If not for the great writing, you should read it because you’ll probably learn something along the way too 😉

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Power Rack Fun Time! | DIY Power Rack and other stuffs

If you’ve got $400 laying around and have the time to build your own power rack, this post is for you. I would rather just buy a nice used one on Craigslist for that price, but this is still pretty cool.

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Recipe: Blueberry Buckle

Mmmm, this sounds tasty and it’s nice and healthy.

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The Best Nut Milk Recipe Ever {Really!}

Yep, this certainly sounds like the best nut milk recipe ever, based on those ingredients. Personally, I would rather drink plain almond milk without the sweetener and salt, but I’m still probably gonna try this one.

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Pull Pause Clean Press Dip Power Jerk Drill

I’m way too scared to try anything like this myself. I don’t have the right weights or space to do this anyway. I’m fascinated by lifts like this though.

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Swole.me – The automatic diet planner

This is a great idea for a dieting tool. It’s completely free and you don’t even need to create an account to use it. Simply enter the amount of calories you want to eat, in how many meals per day and that’s it. You can remove options containing dairy and meat for vegan/vegetarian meal plans too. You’ll probably notice that it still needs some work. Sometimes the meal plans seem a little wonky, for example, one plan suggested eating 3oz of ground beef and cup of oranges for breakfast.

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My 56 Day Juice Fast Summary – How I Lost Weight Every Day! – YouTube

People say that juice fasting is extreme, but as long as you do it right, I don’t see it that way. It’s super-healthy, you get plenty of calories and tons of nutrients and your body doesn’t waste energy by digesting food. Difficult not eating food, yes, but I don’t think it’s extreme. Check out this guys amazing 56 day juice fast transformation.

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12 Reasons You’re Not Losing Fat

In my own experience with the amount of fat I’ve placed on my body while trying to bulk up, I will agree with a lot of the advice here. I plan on creating some lower carb meal plans for myself to get some of my current body fat off, and I hope to replace more of the nuts and fruits in my diet with vegetables. It’s hard making changes like this as a vegan, but even eating more carbs, in my opinion, is healthier than putting animal fat, cholesterol and cancer-causing foods in my body.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Channa Serenity: Raw Vegan & Fitness Model

Channa Serenity is a gorgeous raw-food vegan athlete who takes her health very seriously. She doesn’t even partake in cheat meals!

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Grocery Sale Cycles – When Do Things Go on Sale?

This is helpful month-by-month guide for purchasing all kinds of things at the grocery store, but the most useful for me are the lists of seasonal vegetables.

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The FitDesk is a Space-Saving, Apartment-Friendly Exercise Bike and Laptop Desk

I would love to have one of these. At $229.99, they aren’t too expensive either. The article mentions that resistance can be set with dials, which could be a bit of let-down. I’d be interested in seeing how it actually feels on various resistance levels.

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PaleoVeganology: Speciesism = Creationism; Treat It That Way

This article brought up some very interesting points about being vegan. Why should I have to explain myself for being vegan? Why don’t omnivores explain themselves for eating eat?

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Markus Rothkranz: The Power of Raw Foods (1/2) – YouTube

I’ve never heard of Markus Rothkranz, but it seems that I should. I’m becoming more and more interested in raw foods and Markus looks to be well known in the community.

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Make an Impromptu Heat Pad

If you don’t have a heating pad nearby, but you have a sock and some dried rice or beans, you’re good to go!

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10 Tips to Help You Find the Right Doctor

There’s one tip that caught my eye in this article – find a doctor who shares your beliefs. I’ve been looking everywhere for a list of vegan-friendly physicians, but no directories seem to exist.

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How to make FAST Fake Bacon from coconut meat – YouTube

After finding Markus Rothkranz, I started following his YouTube channel and I came across this great recipe. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will. I miss bacon, but I don’t like any of the fake bacons I’ve had so far, so hopefully this will be the answer.

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The Science and Practice of Low-Carb Diets – YouTube

I find it very interesting that Dr. Eric Westman from Duke University suggests that it’s ok to eat the Baconater, a nearly 1,000 calories sandwich from Wendys, as long as you remove the bun. I’m sure there are many other health professionals that would disagree with that. If you have time, listen to the entire 40 min. interview to see what you think. I admit that he makes some compelling arguments, but I don’t believe all of his claims.

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Quickie Vegan Cookie Dough Ice Cream at Home

Before going vegan, my favorite item from Dairy Queen was the cookie dough Blizzard. This recipe sounds so easy, I think I’m going to be making it soon.

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Squat Exercise Builds More Muscle, Burns More Fat

These are the reasons you should be doing the squat in your workouts. It’s such an important exercise!

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Interactive, motion-sensing walls to motivate gym-goers

I guess this is cool. Seems gimmicky to me, but the idea of seeing what your body could look like if you continue to work out sounds really cool.

I just got over a cold a week ago and then I got an ear infection which has left me dizzy and nauseous for the past week. I haven’t worked out for about two and half weeks! I think I’m finally getting over the ear infection and I really can’t wait to get back to the weights. Even if I’m not completely better, I’m gonna try to at least get a small workout in this weekend.

At least I’ve still been able to read! Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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How Can I Quickly Recover After a Tough Workout?

If I do a really tough workout and I know I’m gonna be sore, my normal recovery routine consists of consuming hemp protein, creatine, and glutamine right after my workout and another before bed. Then the next day I try to fit in some sort of workout. This article has many more tips than just that. I’m pretty sure I’ll never try a contrast bath though.

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Hat + Ball + Elastic Cord = DIY Reaction Trainer

I don’t box, so I’ve never seen a device like this, but this DIY method seems like a really good idea for people who do box. I’d be too afraid of it hitting me in the eye. I want to try one though, just to see how tough it is. I’m guessing it’s pretty difficult.

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What’s In Your Food? Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA)

I definitely need to learn more about the ingredients in my food. BHA is harmful if swallowed or touched with bare hands. It comes with a warning that it can cause cancer, yet it’s used as a preservative in foods that we eat?

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How many lives could a soda tax save?

This study estimates that adding a penny-per-ounce tax on soda could prevent 100,000 cases of heart disease, 8,000 strokes and 26,000 deaths in the next 10 years. I say do it!

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Jimmy Pena’s Power Rack Training Series, Part 3: Isometrics

This is really cool. I would have never thought to use an empty bar in the power rack to do isometrics.

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Metabolic Resistance Training: Build Muscle And Torch Fat At Once!

This is one of those magazine-style articles that are very hard to believe. Personally, I’m a bit skeptic. I thought the idea behind this training is interesting though. I was planning on doing a routine similar to this just to break up my normal routine, so I’ll probably give this one a shot for a couple weeks.

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Enjoy low sugar fruits!

Fruits are healthy, but they also contain sugar, which isn’t a good thing if you’re trying to keep the fat off. Eat fruit with lower amounts of sugar instead.

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Dr. Doug McGuff on the Benefits of Exercise

This is a fantastic interview about exercise. You will definitely learn something if you take the time to listen to the whole thing. It’s long, but it’s worth it. You should also read the accompanying article. Dr. McGuff’s blog is now in my RSS feed. I don’t want to miss anything this guy says.

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The New Raw-Food Diet

I’ve been considering going to an all raw-food diet, but after reading this interview, I’m having second thoughts. According to Victoria Boutenko, a 100 percent raw diet is effective for healing, but a 80-95 percent raw diet is a better choice for sustainable living.

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Omega-3 Fats in Vegan Diets: A Quick Primer

If you’re vegan, you need to make sure you’re getting the Omega 3s you need. This article opened up my eyes to why flaxseed and other types of oils are so important, even if you’re already taking Omega 3 supplements. Lucky for me, I already consume flaxseed oil daily in my salads.

The Broncos are in the playoffs and they’re up against the Patriots tomorrow. I usually do my cooking on the weekend so that all my meals are ready for the upcoming week, but I’m dedicating this Saturday to hanging out with friends and watching the game, so I did a bunch of cooking last night and I plan to do a bunch more tonight. This week I made the Ginger “Chicken” from the cookbook ‘How it All Vegan’ and it came out absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to eat it next week and I can’t wait for the game tomorrow. Have a great weekend and see you next week!

GO BRONCOS!

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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WHY I CHOOSE TO STARVE MYSELF ~ WATER DIET DAY #9 – YouTube

I’ve been watching Dan (liferegenerator on YouTube) for a month or so now and I really enjoy his videos and the information he provides. He’s currently doing a water fast and this video goes over the process with one of his doctors. Very informative if you plan on fasting.

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Diesel Crew – Equipment Review: Instant Fat Bar Handles

In last week’s article review I had mentioned that I wanted to get some fat bar grips and then with perfect timing, here came an article reviewing three different brands of grips. The Fat Gripz seem to the be the best option for me, which is why they are now sitting in my Amazon wish list, waiting for me to buy them 😉

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Don’t Let Sickness Derail Your Progress

Sadly, I came across this article right after I had a bad cold. Interestingly, I did many of the tips recommended in this article without even thinking about it. I got plenty of Vitamin C from my normal diet and I take glutamine every morning as part of my supplement regimen. I get vitamin D everyday when I’m beat down by the sun by working in an office that has huge glass garage doors. I also took naps immediately after work, which is the first time I’ve ever done that during a cold, and I will forever do that in the future from now on because it helped me tremendously. I’ve never tried hydrogen peroxide in my ears though, but I will next time.

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The Post Punk Kitchen 100

A great post of the top 100 things for vegans from The Post Punk Kitchen. This list includes tips, websites, recipes, gadgets and other things. It’s random, but very cool. I think the best one out of this list is the vegan cadbury eggs. I hope to get some of these for Easter this year!

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How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body – NYTimes.com

People who do yoga regularly probably won’t be happy to read this article, but it completely makes sense. Despite the beliefs of yoga having healing effects, unless you’re athletic and in great shape, it’s more likely to lead to injury. Even if you’ve never had a bad experience with yoga in your life, that’s not to say something won’t happen in the future. Personally, I’ll continue to do yoga, but I pretty much stick to the basics.

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Avocados: The Super-Fruit

Avocados are definitely super healthy. I usually eat one avocado every day in a kale salad. Mmmmm.

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10 Stubborn Body Myths That Just Won’t Die, Debunked by Science

Here’s a fun one to read. Did you know peeing on a jellyfish sting is a bad idea? And did you know that obese people tend to have higher metabolisms than do lean people? Yup, it’s not the metabolism, it’s the sedentary lifestyle.

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Wi-Fi Smart Scale Records Fitness Goals Over Time

This is sweet! This scale from Fitbit can track weight, BMI and body fat percentage, and then send the information to the Fitbit website. This would be a great way to track progress over time. I currently do this by writing it down in a notepad, which kinda sucks. I want one of these scales! $130 is a little steep for me though.

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How to Keep and Reheat Your Leftovers for Long-lasting Tasty Meals

I make it a habit of never wasting any food unless I absolutely need to, but my fiance is the exact opposite. She hates reheated food. If you’re anything like her, you should probably read this article to learn some tips on how to reheat food for the best taste.

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5 Healthy Facts about Spinach

I think we can probably create an article like this for every single fruit and veggie in existence. Spinach is definitely a super-healthy vegetable and all of us should be eating it regularly. Since getting my juicer, I’ve been trying to consume spinach more regularly.

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Anatomy of a Vegan – Infographic

You know that veganism has made it big when someone creates an infographic about it. There are lots of interesting stats here. Did you know that 46% of vegan households spend $51-$100? I spend about $20 per week, but that will probably go way up if I go raw vegan, which I’m strongly considering.

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The Different Juice Fasting Stages of Detoxification

I would like to juice fast for 30 days someday, but it doesn’t sound like a fun process. It seems very beneficial to the body though, but you need to keep in mind that this isn’t science-based medicine (as far as I know) so a lot of this information is based on claims not backed up by scientific studies.

I checked all the same blogs and feeds that I do every week, and I guess everyone is still out on vacation for the holidays, because there really wasn’t much to read this past week. There were a few good articles I felt worth mentioning though.

Happy New Year! Stay safe and I’ll see you in 2012!

image courtesy of BluEyedA73

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Rusty Weight Restoration

I don’t have any rusty weights, but I see them at the flea market all the time for cheap. I might have to pick some up when summer comes back around.

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Creatine for Teenagers

If you’re a teenager consider creatine use, there are some good questions here that you should ask yourself. I think most people would agree that while your body is still developing, refrain from supplements.

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How Creatine Supplements Affect Muscle Growth

Here’s another article about creatine from the same site as the one above. It’s a quick read and a simple explanation of how creatine works.

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Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead – Watch the full movie

This is a must-watch film. My fiance watched it sometime last week and immediately ordered a juicer. I figured that if it impacted her that much, it must be pretty good, so I watched it too. Fantastic movie! The full movie is available on Hulu for free. It’s also on Netflix Instant.

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Rawfoods’s Channel – YouTube

After telling a coworker about how my fiance bought a juicer, he suggested I watch the videos on this YouTube channel. I definitely recommend you do too. I’ve learned a lot between masticating and centrifugal juicers. Masticating (auger) juicers squeeze the hell out of the plant and get just about everything out of it. Centrifugal-style juicers shred the plant and then spin the juice away from the pulp. A word of caution after watching these videos though, the guy in the video is an authorized dealer of the Omega, which is a masticating juicer and he does an excellent job at subtly persuading you away from centrifugal juicers. In my own opinion, I think the masticating juicer probably does a better job, but it has lots of negative reviews around the internet for breaking often. I absolutely love our Breville (centrifugal) right now. It’s fast and it doesn’t do so bad with leafy greens as longs as you bunch them up.

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No Meat, No Dairy, No Problem – NYTimes.com

I liked a lot of things about this article. Good points, great advice and it’s summed up shortly.

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Milk Does A Body Good, Huh? So Which Kind Of Milk Should I Drink?

The author of this article did a good job of quickly reviewing the various types of milks, but I’m always disappointed when someone claims that milk is a great source of calcium to help build strong bones. I doesn’t take a lot of research these days to learn that our bodies struggle to absorb the calcium from cows milk and because of the acidity of milk, our bodies actually have to pull calcium from our bones to neutralize the acidity. Milk is worse for our bones! Outdated knowledge dies hard.