Harmful or Harmless: Carrageenan
I purchased the Artisan Vegan Cheese recipe book by Miyoko Schinner a few months ago and just recently decided to finally make something out of it. One of the common ingredients is carrageenan so I went to Natural Grocer’s Vitamin Cottage to see if they had it. The worker couldn’t find it so she looked it up on the computer. She came back and told me that they don’t carry it and that there have been claims of carrageenan being bad for the gut, which is probably why they don’t carry it. Interesting.
Nicolas Cole: How to Gain 80 lbs. of Muscle, Celiac Disease, and Why World of Warcraft Gets you Jacked
Being a hard-gainer myself, this is a really inspiring interview. I was so skinny growing up that I was often called “toothpick” and “chicken legs.” People don’t realize how hurtful those words are and what sort of psychological damage that can cause. I got so tired of being skinny that I “dirty bulked” like crazy for about a year. I ate everything I could think of, whether it was canned chili and hot dogs or $20 worth of Taco Bell and McDonalds. Every single day I ate to the point of feeling like throwing up. Finally when I got up to about 170 lbs. I learned about healthy eating and weight training. I cleaned up my diet and managed to keep my weight stable ever since. I would still like to be bigger though and that’s still a major challenge for me.
How to Lift and Live with a Herniated Disc
I was talking about back injuries with a coworker the other day and he told me that he’s had a bulging disk since 2011, which makes it difficult to do many things, even riding a bicycle. I mentioned that when I started lifting weights, my back problems almost completely went away, but he said that he can barely lift weights either. This got me interested in looking into what bodybuilders do when dealing with bulging discs and I came across this article. It’s pretty interesting and makes complete sense. Stretch your muscles (not just in the back), focus on single-leg exercises (squats & deadlifts) and reduce the weight if your body tells you to.
What methods help improve recovery?
It looks like all of the generally accepted methods of muscle recovery can be beneficial – massage therapy, foam rolling, electric stimulation, compression clothes and even several not-so-common methods – whole body vibration, water immersion and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the time and/or equipment to utilize all of these methods?
Fred Peterson 607 Dead Lift @ 75 ! – YouTube
I hope I can still lift heavy weight when I’m 75 years old. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do 600 lbs. though.
Foodpairing – Creativity for recipes
I discovered this site by reading Tim Ferris’ book, The Four Hour Chef. This site is designed to help mix and match foods based on similar characteristics. For example, if you run out of an herb such as sage, did you know that you can replace it with rosemary and the meal will come out mostly the same?