Keep a Food Diary!
Hey, do you know what you had for dinner last Thursday? I bet you don’t, but you probably should if you’re trying to lose weight. A study was recently done by several scientists at clinical research centers in the U.S. and Dr. Sanjay Gupta (yep, from CNN) sums it up with this:
The senior investigator, Victor Stevens of Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., told me that "hands down, the most successful weight-loss method was keeping a record of what you eat." In the six-month study, participants who kept a food journal six or seven days a week lost an average of 18 lb. (8 kg), compared with an average of 9 lb. (4 kg) lost by non-diary keepers.
That’s right. Those who kept a food diary lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t. Not to mention, you only need to keep the food diary six days so you get a day to relax too. This should be hardly surprising. Have you been watching the Olympics? Heard the story about how Michael Phelps has accomplished every single goal he has written down for himself. When you write stuff down and look at it every day, it gets implanted into your subconscience and you’re bound to see results.
Now, as you’re reading this, I’m sure you’re thinking you are going to do this food diary thing. It sure sounds like a good idea, but, believe me, you won’t do it unless you do it NOW! Get up for a minute right now, grab a notebook, grab a pen, set up a table or list or however you want to organize it and put it on the dinner table (or wherever you eat). Better yet, can you remember everything you ate today? If you can, get your food diary started right now!
Don’t drink Red Bull!
Hah, what’d I tell you . Ok, I’m sure you knew Red Bull was unhealthy for you, but it could be worse than we even thought:
Study: Red Bull Causes Heart Problems
Those students who took part in the study showed a cardiovascular profile of someone with heart disease, again after just one can of Red Bull. After one, sugar-free drink, the study found that the participants’ blood increased in stickiness, raising the risk of blood clots forming.
My heart isn’t something I want to mess around. Now, it’s been known for years that regular caffeine intake isn’t the best for the heart, but it isn’t gonna necessarily kill you so what gives here? Why is Red Bull so bad for you? Well, it is not clear at the moment, but one theory some scientists are tossing around is that the combination of caffeine and taurine is a wild mixture that we probably shouldn’t be ingesting. Red Bull says its drinks only contain about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee and that’s not bad, but when you throw in some taurine, you are enhancing those effects as taurine does similar things to the body. I’d stay away from the Red Bull.
Be careful with the energy drinks and don’t say I didn’t warn you!
The 7 Principles of Highly Successful Athletes Like Michael Phelps and Dara Torres
Michael Phelps has been truly amazing at the Beijing Olympic Games. 8 gold medals. 7 world records. It doesn’t get much better than that. Dara Torres has been nearly as impressive, winning a silver medal in the 50m freestyle at 41 years of age and being a key part on several medal-winning relay teams . Phelps and Torres have 1 thing in common. They both worked extremely hard to get where they are today. You may or may not ever compete in the Olympics, but you can maximize your potential by following these 7 principles :
- Train Hard - Top athletes like Phelps and Torres know that they can’t take shortcuts during their workouts. When you are in the pool, the weight room, on the field, or wherever you train, you
need to give 110% every single time. - Train Consistently - Training hard is worthless if you only do it once every blue moon. It’s very important to pick a schedule and stick with it. While it may seem like a good idea to pick an extremely difficult schedule, it’s a better idea to pick a schedule that is more reasonable for your ability to avoid getting discouraged.
- Perfect Practice Makes Perfect - Now that you are training hard and on a regular schedule, make sure that you are training correctly! When Phelps and Torres are training in the pool, they are working on the same form and technique they use when they race in the Olympics. If you’re not practicing the way you want to play, you’re wasting your time.
- Study Your Sport - If you want to see regular improvements, you need to stay up to date on the latest techniques and strategies in your sport. In between training sessions, you should be analyzing what you can improve on. Talent alone is not enough as you should have learned from the failures of the US Basketball Team. Now, that Team USA has taken the time to study international basketball, they are looking much stronger in Beijing.
- Stay Focused - Have you taken a look at Michael Phelps before his races? He’s 100% focused on the race and nothing can distract him. For him, listening to his iPod gets him focused. For you, it might be something else, but when you are training and when you are competing, you need to be 100% focused on what you are doing.
- Learn from your mistakes - Michael Phelps wasn’t winning gold medals when he first competed at the Olympics as a 15-year old in 2000, but he learned from those disappointments and became the best swimmer in the world. If you’re a sports fan, it isn’t hard to think of athletes who first felt disappointment before they were champions. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team. Kobe Bryant choked in his first playoff appearance. There are countless examples. If it happens to you, don’t hold your head down. Learn from them.
- Believe in Yourself - If Dara Torres had told you 4 years ago, she’d be competing in the Olympics at age 41, would you have believed her? Very few would. No matter who counts you out, don’t count yourself out.
Follow these 7 principles and you will be a highly successful athlete no matter what your sport is.
FRS Healthy Energy Drink Review
If you’re like me, you like energy drinks and maybe have even gotten a little hooked on them, but you know they aren’t good for you! Let’s face it, most energy drinks you are going to find at the store are loaded with sugar and caffeine. It’s hard to find a healthy energy drink ! There’s nothing wrong with a little sugar and caffeine, especially from the right sources, but most energy drinks have way too much.
I used to drink Monster and RockStar energy drinks quite often before giving them up. I tried the Low or No Carb versions which does cut out the sugars, but they’ve still got way too much caffeine. I’ve also tried Red Bull energy drinks, but I was never a huge fan of the taste. The same holds true for Red Bull though…it’s loaded with sugar and caffeine and the low or no carb version is no better. Stay away from these energy drinks! None of them qualify as healthy energy drinks or natural energy drinks.
Fortunately when there’s a demand for something, somebody usually starts fulfilling that demand and we are starting to see some healthy energy drinks on the market. In fact, somebody at Whole Foods today was giving out free samples of a natural energy drink called Haldi which I tried and decided to buy one, which I drank this afternoon. It wasn’t really an energy drink, though, but more an antioxidant drink with green tea. Those are definitely health drinks, but they don’t give you the kick you’re looking for in an energy drink. If you want a true energy kick, you’re probably going to have to be willing to take in a little caffeine and sugar. There’s just two things to watch for:
- Moderate amount of caffeine. If it’s got more than a cup of coffee, that’s too much.
- Sugar from fruit. Did you know fruits like strawberries, apples, etc. are very high in sugar? It’s true they are, but it’s the right kind of sugar and that’s what we’re looking for in a healthy energy drink.
Also, it goes without saying to avoid high fructose corn syrup like the plague!
One healthy energy drink I’ve been checking out lately is FRS Healthy Energy. The fact that it’s sponsored by a famous athlete made me take this product pretty seriously as its clear they are focused on the healthy energy drink market as opposed to a company like Monster that seems to associate more with music stars. If you’re reading this, I’ll bet you want a healthy energy drink that you can take before or after you work out. This is not a protein shake at all, but if you need some work out energy, it fits the bill.
You can get FRS Healthy Energy in a couple different varieties: cans, concentrates, powder, and soft chews. The cans are for if you want something ready to drink, concentrate comes in a bottle and you can either drink a small amount of the concentrate of mix it with something else, the powder you mix with something, and the soft chews are obviously in tablet form. They’ve got enough flavors to satisfy anyone no matter what form you prefer: orange, wild berry, peach mango, lemon lime, and pomegranate blueberry.
The nutritional facts vary depending on what which form you get your drink in, but the good thing is the sugars come from fruits. Additionally, the caffeine content is only 48mg per serving, which is equal to only 1/2 a cup of coffee. The key ingredient in FRS Healthy Energy is Quercetin , which has numerous health benefits. According to wikipedia, "Quercetin has demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory activity because of direct inhibition of several initial processes of inflammation. For example, it inhibits both the manufacture and release of histamine and other allergic /inflammatory mediators. In addition, it exerts potent antioxidant activity and vitamin C-sparing action." FRS Healthy Energy also contains green tea catechins and a slew of B, C, and E vitamins. Sounds like a good healthy energy drink to me 
All and all, I give this product a thumbs up. It’s a very healthy energy drink and one of the best energy drinks out there today. Keep in mind there is some caffeine and some sugar so if you strictly want an antioxidant drink, look elsewhere. FRS Healthy Energy gives you both health, natural energy and antioxidants.
FRS is offering a 2-week free trial right now so feel free to try the product for yourself. Of course nothing is free so just make sure you’re aware shipping & handling is going to be from $3.95 to $9.95 depending on your location and of course you’ll need to cancel within 2 weeks if you are unsatisfied with the product. Just click the graphic below to check it out.
Quit Making Excuses
Attention, soldiers! It’s The Fitness General here and I’m here to whip you into shape. I don’t care if you are trying to lose weight, gain weight, or stop drinking so much darn coffee. If it’s bad for you, I’m on it, but you better listen because The Fitness General doesn’t tolerate excusers.
That is your first lesson from The Fitness General:
Quit Making Excuses!
I’m tired of hearing them. Oh, so you work a lot? Make time to work out and eat healthy. I don’t understand your cravings? Give me a break and lay off the ice cream.
The Fitness General is not Dr. Phil. I don’t tolerate excusers. The #1 key to getting in the best shape of your life is picking a schedule and sticking to it. I’ll get into the details later about what you should be doing to optimize your health, but the basics are the most important. That means you need to get the junk food out of the house and work out at the same time every time you work out. Getting in shape needs to be your priority. Make it a priority and the rest will follow. A great way to make it a priority is to hit the Subscribe button on this site and get updates from The Fitness General. The Fitness General doesn’t have the time to remind everyone to work out, but if you subscribe you’ll get reminders all the time. It’s a small investment with a big payoff.
