Raven433ME’s BodyBlog

When I say “thermogenic,” many people think of fat burning supplements or exotic herbs, green tea, etc., which are designed to  ramp up your metabolism and burn off body fat.

Concentrating on tiny details (especially before you’ve mastered the basics of nutrition) is putting the cart before the horse. It’s like getting excited by the (misguided) idea that drinking enough ice cold water is “thermogenic” and is going to get you ripped because the body has to “warm it up” and that expends energy… when meanwhile, people are skipping meals, drinking beer on weekends and working out sporadically. This makes no sense to me. We need to look at the big picture.

ALL foods are “thermogenic” because the body must use energy to digest them. This is known as the “thermic effect of food” (TEF). When you say “thermogenic food” to me, I think of REAL, WHOLE FOODS.

The most thermogenic fat burning food is lean protein from solid foods, especially the following:

chicken breast
turkey breast
bison, buffalo
very lean red meat such as top round and lean sirloin
almost all types of fish
shellfish and other seafood
egg whites (limit the yolks)

Protein powders are conveneint and some - like WHEY - even have functional properties (as antioxidants and immune boosters), but powders aren’t as thermogenic as real food. They are easily broken down by the body.

Focusing on highly thermogenic WHOLE foods (and not a lot of shakes or powdered drink mixes) can really crank up your metabolism due to the thermic effect of whole food.

It’s commonly known that of all the macronutrients (protein, carbs and fat), lean protein has the highest thermic effect.

I believe the thermic effect of protein is even higher than most people realize.
When you combine thermogenic lean protein foods with the right amounts and types of essential fats, add in plenty of green vegetables and just the right amount of natural starchy carbs and whole grains, your body will literally turn into a turbo-charged fat burning machine. - without eliminating food groups (carbs).

Select a green vegetable or fibrous vegetable such as asparagus, green beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, salad vegetables, etc., and then combine that with one of the lean proteins (mentioned above).

That is the foundation of your fat burning meal (lean protein + fibrous carb). From there, add:
Starchy carbs or grains such as brown rice, oats, or sweet potatoes  Fruit is also quite acceptable (Nature’s Candy)  .. –>graemlin:;)–>

Make sure to focus more on the green and fibrous vegetables due to their lower caloric density.
Eat most of your carbs (starches and grains and simple sugars) early in the day and right after your weight training - the two times when insulin sensitivity is at it’s highest.

Follow these simple rules and reap the amazing benefits of the Thermogenic effects of food!

One goal…get better EVERY day!

Mike

NUTRITIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY ~ 29 APRIL 2008

Meal 1 ~ 4 Eggs (4 Whites/1 Yolk)(Small amount of Agave Nectar on top)
1 Slice 100% Whole Wheat Toast topped with Natural Peanut Butter and 1 sliced Banana
Vitamins/Minerals

Meal 2 ~ Protein Bar  (20 grams protein/30 grams carbs)
Fresh Strawberries

Meal 3 ~ Mixed Salad with Chicken topped with Virgin Olive Oil/Vinegar Low Cal Dressing

Meal 4 ~ 8 oz SILK Live Soy Yogurt topped with 20 Raw Almonds and a small amount of Agave Nectar
Banana
Vitamins/Minerals

Meal 5 ~ Mixed Salad with Chicken topped with Newman’s Own Light Basalmic Vinaigrette Dressing
Chicken Curry served over brown rice

Meal 6 ~  Whey Protein Drink ( 20oz Water, 2 scoops Whey Protein)
Fresh Blackberries

(7) 16 oz glasses of water

(Coffee throughout the day!  I use splenda)

Strength & Muscle Evolution (2 Weeks ~ 21 April – 4 May 2008)
Day 1 ~ 28 April 2008 ~ Shoulders & Arms (PM)
Day 2 ~ Kempo Cardio Plus/ AB Ripper X
Day 3 ~ 20 min EIFB (AM) Chest & Back (PM)
Day 4 ~ Yoga X (First 45 minutes)/Ten Minute Trainer Abs
Day 5 ~ 20 min EIFB (AM) Legs & Back (PM)
Day 6 ~ Kettlebells
Day 7 ~  REST DAY

**One Goal…Get Better EVERY Day!**

I am starting my VEGGIE QUEST! Tami has been after me for YEARS to eat more vegetables and I ALWAYS resisted her. This is one thing that Tami has not been able to sway me on, believe it or not.

Well, since Tami’s idea to post our nutrition accountability daily here, I have had a chance to really look at my nutrition in black and white. Tami and a good friend of ours, Traci Morrow, have both affectionately called me on the lack of fruits and veggies in my nutrition program. Here are the simple truths regarding my nutrition:

1.I don’t eat enough veggies
2.I don’t eat enough fruit
3.I rely too heavily on Protein Drinks rather than eating “Real Food”. (The kicker here is that there is a phenomenon call the “Thermogenic Effect of of Food”. Eating “Real Food” causes your metabolism to rev up because your body has to work harder to break down and digest food. How hard does your body have to work to break down a Whey Protein drink? Not very hard at all!)

We’ve all heard of the food guide and the different food groups - grains, dairy, meat and alternatives, fruit and vegetables, and fats and oils. Eliminating any of these food groups is never a good idea when preparing a nutrition plan that you will follow for the rest of your life.

Antioxidants
If you’ve heard about the food guide, chances are you’ve also heard about antioxidants. These are chemicals that prevent the oxidation by other substances on the body’s cells, and come primarily from fruits and vegetables.
Without these foods in your diet, you may find that your immune system is not as strong, your energy levels are not as high and that you start suffering from various ailments. By ensuring you are satisfying your body’s requirements by getting the recommended intake of fruits and vegetables, you will also ensure you are functioning at your best.

The most studied antioxidants are:
Vitamin C
Vitamin E
Beta-Carotene
Selenium
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is important for all the body’s cells as it helps in the first line of defense against invading organisms.

Vitamin C can be found in citrus fruits, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries, raw cabbage, and potatoes.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin and is used for a wide variety of functions, such as healing a sunburn. Fulfill the requirements of this antioxidant by getting green leafy vegetables along with nuts, seeds, whole grains and vegetable oil in your diet.

Beta-Carotene

Beta-Carotene is another good one and can be found in carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches and apricots.

Selenium

Finally selenium is thought to help fight cell damage from oxygen derived compounds. Selenium can be found in vegetables so long as they are grown in selenium rich soils.

Bulk & Fiber

The next reason why fruits and vegetables are important to include in your diet is because they provide you with bulk and fiber. Anyone who has ever dieted will know that the less calorie dense a food is, the better. This is because it means you are able to eat more of it, thus giving you a feeling of fulness along with increasing psychological satiety without significantly adding calories.
Have you ever tried to eat 5 stalks of celery? Chances are you didn’t make it all the way through, but if you did, you would have only consumed around 25 calories, compared to the 1000 calories you would have consumed had you eaten 5 chocolate chip cookies.

The additional fiber these foods provide is also very important, as it will keep your digestive system running smoothly and help to make you regular. Fiber will also aid in flushing out the body of substances it does not require.

So, does this give you the go-ahead to eat as many fruits and vegetables as your heart desires? Not quite. Vegetables, as long as they are prepared with minimal additional sauces or fats, can be eaten in abundance.

Take special note however that certain vegetables, such as peas, corn and potatoes are quite a bit higher in starch, they will add a much greater number of calories and carbohydrates to your diet, so be sure to take this into account.

Otherwise, add any of these excellent choices to any meal or snack:
carrots
broccoli
cauliflower
cucumbers
peppers
onions
celery
bok choy
bean sprouts
cabbage
mushrooms

Moving onto fruits, these are a slightly different story. Since they contain sugar, you need to be a little more careful on the timing of these when adding them to your diet. Don’t be scared just because they contain sugar, it is not the same kind of sugar as if you had eaten a tablespoon of white or brown sugar, since it is naturally occurring and offers much more benefits.

Nonetheless, it is still a simple sugar and is best eaten around times when you are most active and early in the morning. Bananas are a great choice right after a workout as they also provide your body with potassium, which is crucial to muscle function.

Generally, add fruits into your diet as carbohydrate sources the same way you would oatmeal, whole wheat bread, rice or pasta.
Keep in mind that as the day goes on, you will likely want to switch to slower-burning types of carbs, such as as oatmeal and potatoes, while adding in more and more vegetables to help keep the total carbohydrate count under control.

If you are currently wanting to lose fat you might want to limit your total fruit count to 1 or 2 two pieces and if you are trying to gain some weight, they can be perfect for helping you to add additional calories as they can easily be blended into shakes for increased taste.

One point with fruit, however, is to try and eat fresh whenever possible, and if not, turn to canned or frozen without any added sugar. Pay special attention to this, you want the can to say, ‘in water’ or ‘canned with light syrup.’ If it says ‘heavy syrup,’ don’t pick it up - this will have many more calories and nutritionally void sugars added.

While mostly all fruits and vegetables are healthy, there are some that are better choices than others. For fruit, ones that are very brightly colored, mostly in the orange and red spectrum are going to be your best bets. This includes ones like cantaloupe, oranges, strawberries, and raspberries, which are all rich in vitamin C.

On the vegetable end, again, brightly colored ones are great options, like red peppers, carrots, romaine lettuce, asparagus, and spinach.

Vitamin Content In Fruits And Vegetables.
Food/Amount/Vitamin
Cantaloupe/32 mg/Vitamin C
Oranges/49 mg/Vitamin C
Strawberries/60 mg/Vitamin C
Raspberries/26 mg/Vitamin C
Red Peppers/80 mg/Vitamin C
Carrots/312 mg/Vitamin A

Obviously other vegetables such as celery, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and iceburg lettuce are good as well, but they don’t have quite as many nutritional benefits.

Serving Sizes

Veggies
With vegetables, so long as they are not the few that are more starchy (potatoes, corn, and peas as mentioned above), you shouldn’t really limit yourself. Generally 1 cup of raw or 1/2 cup cooked is considered a serving.

These are so low in calories and carbohydrates that they will make very little different in your daily total counts. You want to get at least 4 servings of vegetables a day, with preference moving towards the higher end of 6 or 8.

One note with vegetables, that if you are trying to gain weight or require vast amounts of calories a day, you may want to limit yourself to the lower number of recommended servings and possibly even try blending them and adding them to a soup or something so that they take up less room in your stomach and don’t interfere with your appetite.

Fruit
With fruit, the total number of servings will depend on your total calorie and carbohydrate allowance, those who require more calories or who are bulking being able to eat more servings than those who aren’t.

At the minimum, try and get at least one serving of fruit in your diet, with the max probably somewhere around 5 or 6 (then for the rest of your sources of carbohydrates turn to whole grains products and sweet potatoes).

Some tips to help you get your vegetable count up is to buy a bunch on the weekend and cut them up into bite-sized portions so they are easily reachable during the week. They then can be eaten raw, added to stir-fries, soups or other canned or frozen mixes without creating any additional cooking time.

So, next time you go grocery shopping, make sure you take a trip to the produce aisle and stock up. Don’t skimp out on this food group or you will be shortchanging your body of good health and reducing the chances you will meet all of your health and fitness goals.

Not only is it the healthy choice, you will see that after eating these foods on a regular basis, you just won’t feel good without them. Your body will start naturally craving them and you won’t believe that you once lived without them in your daily diet!

My eyes have been opened! Thank you Tami and Traci! 

Who is with me? I have NEVER backed down from a challenge and I am not about to start now! 

Remember, only one thing matters in the end: How healthy we are, and how long we live!

Best,

Mike

200 reps ~ 2 Hand Kettlebell Swings (53 pound KB)

10 reps ~ Full Get Ups (5 each side)  (53 pound KB)

100 Calf Raises (53 pound KB)

200 Flutter Kicks

Full Body Stretch

One of the biggest mistakes many people make is that they don’t pay attention to their muscle building nutrition with the same detail, desire and determination with which they pay attention to their weight training program.

If you neglect (or ignore completely) one or the other, whether it be your training or your nutrition, your results will only be a fraction of what they could be!

Look, you work extremely hard on your workouts. Don’t screw it up by neglecting to be as dedicated to your nutrition program.

So let’s talk about the importance of nutrition.
The truth is, no one will ever gain muscle without food. Nutrition for building muscle is simply a matter of eating. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to learn.

The Best Muscle Building Supplement

So here’s the question every dedicated Fitness enthusiast  wants to know.

What’s the best muscle building supplement available today?

You might not like the answer. It’s not sexy, it’s not new, but it works.

Your number one supplement should be a high quality protein powder.

I know you probably already know this. But it’s worth repeating because I get a ton of questions from people wanting to know what is the best new miracle supplement they can buy. And they aren’t getting enough quality protein.

Before buying any other supplements, make sure you are always taking in a high quality protein powder.

If you want to make outstanding muscle building progress, you must put together a solid weight training program, train with a high level of intensity, add poundage to your exercises as often as possible, eat six high protein meals every day, and make sure recovering from your workouts so that your muscles have time to grow.

Protein powders make it extremely easy and convenient to eat six meals a day and to get enough quality protein into your body.

Using protein shakes will make it easier for you to consume enough calories and protein each day, as well as making it much more convenient to have 6 meals a day. Who has time to prepare six meals a day? Not anybody I know, that’s for sure.

You may need to add or subtract ingredients based on individual taste preferences and number of calories needed.

When I was younger, more active, and had a metabolism like a furnace, I needed all the quality muscle building calories I could get. And protein shakes like this were the only way to get them.

You should eat every 2 or 3 hours.
When you have your post-workout muscle building protein shake, throw in a serving of creatine as well.

High quality protein, aka, “the real muscle building supplement” should be the center point of all your meals.

Intense exercise increases demand for protein, which support muscle repair and growth.
When you train with weights and you’re looking to pack on pounds of quality muscle, you should try to eat a minimum of 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. If you weight 150 pounds, try and take in at least 150 grams of protein each and every day.

You don’t have to have carbs or fat at every meal, but you must have protein. When I say protein, I am referring to high quality protein derived from animal sources.

For getting more fit and stronger, the only protein you need to be concerned with are those found in whey, casein (cottage cheese), eggs, beef, poultry, and fish.

Throw in a high quality creatine product (Beachbody Men’s Strength & Health Formula) and you are good to go. Stick with the dual muscle building protein/creatine stack for awesome muscle/Fitness gains.

A crucial time to get a lot of high quality protein is right after your intense weight training session.

One thing I’ve found that has helped my progress is to add a few more calories than I normally would and then drink part of the smoothie right before my workout, or even sip some of it during my workout so my muscles are constantly getting the nutrients they need, both to power my workout and to recover from it.

If you want to push your muscle/Fitness results forward and do it as fast as possible, you have to get your protein. There is no excuse to skimp in this area. You need plenty of protein. Nowadays, most protein powders taste great and many are pretty inexpensive when compared to food.

Mix your protein powder in Soy/Skim milk or water. Why? Quick muscle building!

The Importance of Post Workout Supplementation

I cannot overstate the vital importance of the post workout meal, or more specifically, the post workout drink.

You see, after a hard training session, your body is primed and ready to absorb all the nutrients it needs to help your body begin recovering from the muscle breakdown that has occurred during your training session.

Why a drink? Because your body is craving nutrients immediately following a hard training session and it needs them quickly. Your body will digest the nutrients in liquid form much more quickly than a solid fool meal.

During this time your body is ready, willing and able to quickly and completely absorb the protein that it needs. This will help to optimize protein synthesis, leading to a positive nitrogen balance, gains in muscle and strength, and the loss of body fat.

Of course, you need to constantly supply your body with the protein it needs to maintain and build muscle mass. However, the time right after a hard training session intensifies your body’s ability to absorb the protein it needs.

Immediately after my weight workout I take my post workout drink. For this meal you want fast acting protein and fast acting carbs. This is one of those times you gladly want your body to release insulin, to help shuttle the much needed carbs and amino acids into the muscles.

Another great way to do it is to use a drink specifically designed to take advantage of the post workout opportunity as I mentioned earlier. (Beachbody’s Recovery Formula)

One goal…get better EVERY day!

Mike

There is a mindset that moves you closer to your Fitness goals. Its a positive, aggressive mindset and we need to try and cultivate this mindset every day in regards to making progress towards our Fitness goals.

NEVER use the word  CAN’T. If you think you will never achieve six pack abs or do 10 pull-ups, guess what? You never will! Focus and visualize your goals until you SEE them happening in your mind. Concentrate so hard on succeeding that you can actually FEEL what it will be like to achieve them. Then GO OUT AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!  

You know who determines your Fitness success? You do! No one else! Not your Wife/Husband, children, Family, NO ONE BUT YOU!! Don’t blame anyone but yourself if you eat something that sets you back. YOU control your Fitness destiny!

One of the greatest motivators in the world is proving someone wrong that doubts you. It happens everyday. “You will never have a six pack.” “You can’t eat like that for the rest of your life.” EVERYONE has someone like this in their life. It might be a co-worker, a best friend or the person that is most important to you in the world. Internalize that doubt and turn it into FIRE !

Use that negative energy as fuel for your workouts, nutrition, and supplementation.
Who cares if you get funny looks or comments because you brought your supplements and a protein bar to a Family gathering. When the Office is having a pizza party and you are drinking extra water and eating chicken breast and brown rice, look at them and smile. They are taking time off their lives, and you are adding to yours!

Take the attitude that NO MATTER WHAT, you will not quit on yourself. U.S. Navy Seals cultivate this attitude. It doesn’t matter how difficult the task, they are going to accomplish it.
We need to do the same. How difficult is eating clean all day? How difficult is working out HARD  for 50 minutes?   ITS AS DIFFICULT AS YOU MAKE IT IN YOUR OWN MIND!

Would you rather eat clean all day and reap the Fitness benefits or weakly eat a “Little something” that ruins your entire days nutrition in less than 2 minutes?

Am I saying NEVER eat treats? Of course not! 
The difference is in the choice. If we choose to
have a treat because we EARNED one from a TON of hard work, that is fine because we made that choice. When you give in to eating a slice of cake or “just a couple of cookies” on impulse just before bed time, that is where you have an issue.

Get “ANGRY” folks. There is nothing wrong with using properly channeled anger to push your Fitness forward. Just before I climbed the 25 foot rope at Santa Monica Beach Beach with Tony Horton, he said “Mike, get angry and GO!”
The anger needs to be controlled and focused. When you can let it loose in your training in a focused manner, you have an energy that can be described! Its like you drank a Keg of expresso!   Its an amazing feeling and near magical things can happen when you let it loose! Its happened to me, and I’ve seen Tami use it too.

Is Plyo on the schedule for your workout? Get ANGRY! Think to yourself “Ok PLYO, its you and me today! I’m not backing down from you! Give me your best shot because you are going to get mine!” Conquer your workout! Don’t be apprehensive or think, “Wow, this is going to hurt.” Attack your workout! CHEST & BACK? Tell yourself “Is this the toughest workout you could come up with Tony? I OWN this workout and I’m going to use it as a tool to MAKE ME BETTER….TODAY!”

Have a confident swagger in regards to your Fitness and nutrition. Tony looks at meals as an athletic event. Its inspiring to see. He makes proper choices and then eats ALLOT of the foods that push his Fitness forward. Same with his workouts. He aggressively pushes as hard as he can. He fights self doubt, insecurity, and fear with every rep. Do the same!

Its all a choice Team. You can use some positive, motivating ANGER and push your Fitness forward or you can be someone on their “6th Round of the X” that looks like they still need to complete their first. Which is it going to be?
One goal…get better EVERY day!

Mike