Mixed Fitness

Every weekend I publish a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. Here are my favorites.

The Kettlebell Experiment: Bring One To Life For $10

I saw this video when Tim Ferris’ book, The Four Hour Body, was just released and I immediately went out and bought the supplies to build my makeshift kettlebell. It actually works very well. I just came across the video again and wanted to share it, so here you go!

The Biggest Loser Diet

This article doesn’t go in-depth about the Biggest Loser diet, but it does offer some of the fundamentals. The pros and cons section provides some interesting thoughts.

How to Deadlift Like a Pro

Despite being such an obvious sales page, this article and accompanying video have some great tips on doing deadlifts correctly. This info comes from Andy Bolton, who was the first man to ever deadlift 1000lbs in a powerlifting competition so he must know what he’s talking about.

10-Year-Old ‘Workout Kid’ Has Grade Schoolers Sweating And Football Coaches Drooling

Here’s a wild story about a 10-year-old kid, C.J., who has an addiction to fitness. It’s recommended that kids don’t lift weights until at least the age of 15 but he does only bodyweight exercises and cardio. He eats well, has tons of muscle and even trains older kids at the gym, all of his own will. His parents are actually trying to get into better shape because C.J’s work ethic has shamed them into it. Inspiring kid!

For Runners, Soft Ground Can Be Hard on the Body

Have you ever been told that running on softer ground can protect you from injury? I’ve heard it many times. It’s common advice, and it’s wrong.

How Alcohol Is Harming Your Body

It seems that alcohol, no matter how much, can eventually lead to cancer. Why does everything fun cause cancer! 🙁

5 Nutritional Hacks to Ease Your Headaches

I know you hate getting headaches, so read this article for tips on getting rid of or preventing headaches in the future. With the heat wave we’ve been having over the past few weeks, make sure you stay hydrated and maintain your electrolyte balance.

Gym Etiquette: 11 Common Faux Pas

I absolutely hate when someone takes a 5 minute break on a machine and won’t move to let other people use it. My next biggest pet peeve is when people don’t put weights back after using them. Interestingly, it seems the biggest offenders in my gym are regulars who have been there for years. I guess they think they get special privileges.

Ten Best Running Locations in the U.S.

I probably won’t visit any of these spots other than the one in Colorado, but it would be awesome to be able to run all ten of them.

Every weekend I publish a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. Here are my favorites.

Meatless Grilling at its Finest

These aren’t the everyday recipes you come across on the internet. These look like they were made by professional chefs. I’d really like to make these to show my friends and family how good food can be when eating vegan.

You, Only Bigger: 5 Principles for Greater Hypertrophy

These 5 tips are exactly what I’m working on right now to gain weight and mass. Excellent advice.

Lightened-Up Banana Bread

Here’s a recipe for a lighter (and vegan) version of banana bread. I’ve already made this and it came out delicious. I’ve also calculated the nutritional information. If you slice it up into eight proportional pieces, each slice contains 229 calories, 5 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbs and 3.4 grams of protein. Not too bad.

8 Reasons to Include Soy in Your Diet

Soy seems to be major target of negativity in the nutritional industry. I think this might be the first article I’ve ever read about actual benefits of soy. Interesting!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch ‘Blizzard’

Being vegan, I didn’t think I’d ever eat a Blizzard again, but thanks to Angela Liddon over at “Oh She Glows,” I can now make my own. I’m super excited for this one.

Why I Soak Dried Beans for 24 Hours

So it seems that soaking your beans for 24 hours before cooking can reduce the amount of gas they create. Sounds like a win to me. I cook 1-2 lbs. of beans every weekend (to the displeasure of my fiance ;)) so this tip will be put into effect immediately.

Recipe: Rainbow Salsa

There’s nothing better than fresh salsa. I’m not a big fan of bell peppers, but I’ll still give this one a chance because it has mango in it 😀

Is Canola Oil Bad For Me?

I was wondering this exact thing last weekend. I don’t have any canola oil because I always use extra virgin olive oil for cooking, but I was making some banana bread last week and the recipe calls for it. I read not to use olive oil in the banana bread because it can overpower the taste so I had to use some old leftover corn oil I had in the cabinet. While I wasn’t able to use canola oil that time, I was thinking about buying some for the next time I make banana bread when I have bananas that are going bad. Now I know that canola oils is perfectly fine.

New Method for Making Human-Based Gelatin

Did you know that gelatin is made by using the bones and skins of animals. Gelatin is found in lots of the food people eat such as Jello, candy bars, gummi bears, marshmallows and it’s often the dissolvable shell of drug capsules found on medicine pills and supplements. Well now it looks like human gelatin genes can be inserted into a strain of yeast to produce a form of gelatin that won’t result in harm to animals. Weird, but good news!

From Fluffy to Ripped, Sans the Obsession: Chris Brown’s Transformation

I really like success stories like this one. A lot of people, even me, worry that losing a lot of weight will result in dropped numbers on exercises like bench press, deadlift and squats, but this guy cut fat and lifts heavier than before.

Why Do Protein Shakes Cause Bloat and What’s Better, Soy Or Whey

This is an excellent article about protein shakes with answers to common questions from four experts in the healthy and fitness industry. The article goes through the types of protein powders you should look for, and other questions you may have such as the difference between concentrate and isolate protein powders and why protein shakes can cause gas.

Every weekend I publish a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. Here are my favorites.

My First 5k

I just set up a new website for my fiance because she wanted to capture her journey on becoming a competitive runner. This is her first post about running her first 5k.

The Aquaman

My fiance was so excited about her new site and having a place to share her journey, she put up another post only a day after the first. This one’s about the upcoming Aquaman race, which I plan to attend to cheer her on and take pictures 😀

Chewing Ice: A Sign of Iron Deficiency?

It’s weird how the brain and body works sometimes. If you’re deficient in iron, you might have a strange desire to chew ice. Some people even have been also known to want to smell things such as gasoline, ammonia or body odor.

Why Do Most Vegetarians Go Back To Eating Meat?

It seems that one of the biggest reasons vegetarians return to meat is because of health reasons, commonly anemia due to a lack of iron. As a new vegan, I can’t speak on experience, but would guess that most of these vegetarians were not eating properly and weren’t taking vitamins. Some of the more disappointing reasons from people in the study are things like getting tired of the lifestyle or social acceptance 🙁

Can Biking in a Skirt be Considered a Crime?

This is one of those stories that is so ridiculous that you wonder how some of these people become police officers in the first place.

Pumpkin Protein Bars Recipe

Sounds delicious, but I’ll have to replace some of the ingredients with vegan alternatives. High protein, low calories. I can’t wait to make them.

Twin Study Shows Lifestyle, Diet Can Significantly Influence Course of Macular Degeneration

Articles about macular degeneration always interest me because my Grandma has it. She has lost her vision completely in one eye and the other seems likely to be lost too. This new study shows that a diet high in vitamin D could help reduce the risk of macular degeneration. This is good stuff to know now before you lose your vision too.

What’s in your food? 1500+ possible food additives

This huge list is the reason you shouldn’t be eating processed foods. It’s hard not to eat processed foods sometimes, but I try to keep it to a minimum as much as I can. Eat foods that only contain a few ingredients and ones that you can pronounce.

Same Ingredients, Three Meals – Italian

This is a neat idea. Here are three different Italian meals you can make using the same basic ingredients, each with only a slight moderation. And they are all vegetarian too!

Every weekend I publish a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. Most of the articles are new but some might be older, which often come up during my own personal research. Here are my favorites.

Have a great 4th of July weekend!!

Happy 4th of July from VegWeb

One of the funniest misconceptions about being vegan is that the only things we can eat are salads and berries. My family thinks this way too, no matter how many times I try to tell them, so that’s what they serve at family get-togethers for me and my fiance. So it’s up to us to bring foods for ourselves, which is where this excellent list of recipes will come in handy for this 4th of July weekend.

Attention Scale Addicts, part 2

This is a fantastic article explaining exactly why you shouldn’t become obsessed with the scale. Check out Deb’s before and after results, both at a weight of 155 lbs. She eats 3900 calories per day right now too. That’s more than I eat!

Photoshop Disasters – AB Exercise Ball

You won’t learn anything from this article, but it’s certainly funny. This company just took workout photos and photoshopped the Ab exercise ball into the shots terribly.

How to Select Fresh, Ripe Produce

I suck at picking out fruit, especially bananas and avocados. I always have to wait days before I can actually eat it because it’s so under-ripe that it won’t even peel. This article has some great tips. I never thought about smelling my fruit before buying it before 😉

tigroo //Unbreakable//

Tim Ferris tweeted about this video and couldn’t pass up mentioning it here. Watch this B-boy show off his skills. You’ve gotta have lots of strength and balance to pull moves like this off.

5 Reasons that I Think Treadmill and Elliptical Machine Workouts are a Waste of Time

I agree with almost everything said in this article, but won’t deny that using the elliptical helped me lose 25 lbs. in three months. While I did find it extremely boring at first, I eventually grew to like it, especially after setting up Netflix on my iPhone.

“Compound Exercise Overload” to Force Muscle Growth and Gain Strength

Feel like pummeling one specific muscle group over and over for a week? If so, you might want to consider compound exercise overload. I’ve never heard of anything like this, but I really like the idea. I’d love to try it out.

Tips for Running with your Dog

These are some really good tips that I can agree with based on experience. We’ve been taking our dogs out on runs recently and had to learn this stuff the hard way. One additional tip I’d recommend would be to carry along a foldable water bowl to pour water into during your run.

Eat Before You Work Out to Burn Fat Without Losing Muscle

New studies show that not eating before your workout will leave your body with no fuel. The fat burning process will stop quickly and your body will begin to burn muscle instead. Eat before you workout!

9 Ways To Improve Your Body As Quickly As Possible

Some of these tips might seem basic to you, but this is an excellent guideline to follow if you’re just getting started on improving your body.

TO SOY OR NOT TO SOY???

Finally an article against soy that isn’t using out-of-date nonsense such as how soy supposedly causes man-boobs. This information comes from a certified vegan dietitian and makes some great points. I will still continue to consume soy for now, but I’ll be keeping this in the back of my mind.

Every weekend I publish a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. Most of the articles are new but some might be older, which often come up during my own personal research. Here are my favorites.

Japan scientist synthesizes meat from human feces

I suppose this is a good thing, but will something like this ever take off? I don’t think anyone will ever accept the fact that this “meat” was created from human feces. Interesting though, lol.

Eccentric Training for Athletes

Eccentric training is the act of resisting the weight, instead of simply push-pull. You might also know eccentric training as negative reps. Resisting more weight than you can lift as long as you can is an awesome way to train if you’re looking for something new and this article has plenty of workouts that won’t require a spotter.

Olympic Triathlon Nutrition Plan

This article isn’t as thorough as I was hoping it would be when I read the title, but it’s still got some useful tips for anyone considering participation in a triathlon.

Healthy Iced Raspberry Mocha

Damn, this sounds good. I just bought a package of raspberries that I need to use too.

Chocolate Mousse

This chocolate mousse is made with silken tofu, which doesn’t sound so appetizing, but after tasting some of the vegan recipes made with tofu as an ingredient over the past couple of months, I have no doubts that this isn’t delicious.

Bodybuilding The Vegan Way

In my quest to become vegan, I’m so happy that my fiance found and sent this article to me. There’s a complete nutrition plan too!

Get Drunk Not Fat

Alcohol is one of those things that lots of people worry about giving up when they want to get in shape. The Get Drunk Not Fat website will help you figure out which drinks you can have that will have the lowest amount of detrimental impact on your body.

Every weekend I publish a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. Most of the articles are new, but some might be older, which come up during personal research. Here are my favorites.

Recipe: Blueberry Buckle

Another awesome recipe from the good people at Beachbody putting out the P90X newsletter. This is probably going to be my breakfast for the entire next week.

Vegan Lemon Curd

Mmmm, I love lemon treats. I definitely want to think of something to make with this lemon curd soon.

10 Reasons to Control Your Salt intake, Right Away!

If you don’t already manage your salt intake, you should read this article. Salt seems to be in everything. You’d be amazed at how much excess sodium we consume on a daily basis when you actually track it. I do my best to manage it, but it seems nearly impossible to stay below the daily recommended intake.

Tasting! Whole Grain Brown Rice Krispies

I had to post this because I freakin’ love Rice Krispies and now they are made with brown rice! I’ve never compared cereal nutritional values, so I have no idea how much healthier brown rice makes Rice Krispies, but it sounds like an improvement to me.

From Fit to Fat to Fit Again: Man Gains Weight On Purpose

Drew Manning set up an experiment to go from fit, to fat, and back to fit again. The goal is to show people that it’s possible to get fit and stay fit.

Is Late Night Eating Better for Fat Loss and Health?

Martin Berkhan is the king of intermittent fasting info on the web. Everything he talks about on his site is backed up either by science or personal experience. This time he takes on the myth that eating late at night will cause fat gain.

Ronnie Coleman’s Get Huge Program

Ronnie Coleman is well-known in the professional bodybuilding world and for good reason. The man is huge! This program requires working out 5 days straight with two days of rest and about 5500 calories of food per day. Wow. I actually think I might do this one starting in two weeks.

How to eat when you’re really broke

If you maintain a very healthy diet, you probably already know most of this. Foods like oats, grains, brown rice, beans, etc. are cheap. There are plenty of other good tips in this article if you need to save some money.