31
Mar 14

Post #17: Women Athletes

Girl Athletes

Last week I talked about the incredible fitness of two famous male athletes. However, there are plenty of women who practice clean eating and great physical fitness as well.

 

Kara Goucher

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For those of you who do not know who this is, Kara Goucher is a world-famous distance runner. She is also a mom of a four year old as well as a wife to professional runner Adam Goucher. In 2012, GOucher won the USA Half Marathon Championships in a speedy time of 1:09:46. Goucher eats “whatever she wants” but looks at food as fuel for her body to recover and revamp her for workouts. When you loook at food and look at how it is really going to affect your body, it is easy to tell why Goucher is so fit because she knows everything she puts into her body has a consequence on her new workout. When training for the half marathon, Goucher was putting in about 130-135 miles per week. To put that into perspective, that is about 19 miles per day! Goucher not only focuses on running, which she does a whole lot of, but she does a lot of core training and flexibility exercises. In order to be able to successfully compete and be the best athlete you can be, stretching is crucial. Goucher incorporates a lot of stretching before and after every workout.

 

Serena Williams

serena-williams-1024x798Most of you proabnly recognize this athlete. Serena is an incredible tennis player and has won 17 Grand Slams throughtout her carreer. In the 2012 Olympics, Serena won the gold in both singles and doubles. Williams, unlike Goucher has an incredible amount of muscle mass. While Goucher represents a typical runner’s body, Serena is a powerhouse. Her workout routine consists of three to four hours of tennis daily, followed by strength training and cardio. Her powerful serves and hits show highlight how strong Serena truly is. She also practices yoga and pilates multiple times per week to gain flexibility and balance. As for her diet, Serena recently became vegan, eliminating all meat from her diet. This is a very bold move considering most professional althetes  not only eat meat, but require it for them to stay on top of their game. However, Serena remains a powerful athlete embodied physical fitness at its finest.

 

Although these athletes take excersining and healthy eating very important, as their athletic performance is their job, we can learn a lot of applicable lessons from them. Do you idolize any female athletes? Are you a fan of the two ladies I just discussed? Share your thoughts about female athletes!

 

 

Sources:

http://serenawilliams.com/about/

http://health.india.com/fitness/how-2013-us-open-champion-serena-williams-stays-fit/

http://karagoucher.competitor.com

 


26
Mar 14

Post #16: The Ultimate Fitness People

For my blog today, I am going to focus on those who have embodied the true meaning of physical fitness in their work. Meaning, I am going to be talking about two very famous yet different athletes and their strict diet regimens as well as their insane workout routines.

 

Michael Phelps

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Swimming is known to burn more calories than any other endurance-based exercise activity. So, that means that a lot of eating must be done in order to replenish the body. Michael Phelps eats three fried-egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise, as well as: Two cups of coffee, one five-egg omelet, one bowl of grits, three slices of French toast, and, yes, three chocolate-chip pancakes. This is not what Phelps eats over a span of one day or even two days. The foods I just listed are what Michael Phelps eats for breakfast! Yes, soak that in. But how can he possibly be able to consume so much food and still not have an ounce of fat on his body? Well this is because Michael Phelps spends about six hours under water six days a week. He also spends a lot of time weight training as well. If you ever want to maintain a trim physique while being able to eat an absurd amount, pick up swimming…Michael Phelps style.

 

Albert Pujols

pujols

A less physically demanding sport then swimming is baseball. Albert Pujols, first basemen and one of ESPN’s top ten baseball players has been playing in the MLB since 2001 and is an incredible player. Although he needs less fried egg sandwiches than Michael Phelps, Pujols still requires a lot of time in the gym. While most people who lift weights do about 2-3 sets of a particular exercise, especially very demanding ones, Pujols does up to eight reps. That is about four times as many reps as the average person does. And he is probably using much more weights. Pujols spends most of his time in the gym, whether it is on the treadmill or lifting weights. Unlike Phelps who spends a majority of his workout performing his actual sport, Pujols only spends about 60-80 minutes in the batting cages.

 

Looking at these fitness plans for these athletes, how do their plans compare to yours? How do they differ? Would you ever want to be able to lift as much as Pujols? Or eat as much as Phelps?

 

 

I’m not making this up I swear!

SOURCES:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/13/the-michael-phelps-diet-dont-try-it-at-home/

http://espn.go.com/mlb/feature/video/_/id/8652210/espn-hall-100-ranking-all-greatest-mlb-players

http://www.therippedathlete.com/train-like-a-pro-albert-pujols-workout-routine

http://workoutinfoguru.com/michael-phelps-workout/


19
Mar 14

Post #15: Weird Weight Loss Fads: Do They Work?

 

Does the seven day fruit and veggie cleanse actually work? Does the smoothie cleanse actually work? Does fasting really help you lose weight?

 

Today I am going to examine all of these “get thin quick” diets and see if they have an effect on weight loss.

 

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FRUIT FLUSH/ALL FRUIT DIET

This diet consists of eating only fruits for an extended period of time, usually a week. After looking up some research, I found multiple sources telling me this diet does not promote weight loss and an increased metabolism. Shocker. If you wish to live a normal functioning life with adequate energy levels and the ability to exercise or go out to eat with friends or family, this diet wouldclearly hinder you from doing such a thing. It is also costly. Fruit is not cheap.Especially for this diet when you are only eating it and nothing else you probably want to buy different fruits besides cheap bananas or apples for at least some type of variety in your diet.  The benefits of this diet are a loss in water weight temporarily. However, this diet has not been shown to increase metabolism levels, nor has it been proven to burn large amounts of body fat.

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SMOOTHIE CLEANSE

Similar to the all fruit diet, any type of smoothie cleansing diet consists of strict regulation of anything you eat. This diet allows for vegetables, however. Adding vegetables into a diet is very important because they contain much less sugar than fruits. Simply eating fruits is consuming a lot of sugar andif an objective of going on such a diet is to kick a sugar habit than the smoothie diet is much more ideal. While I am not supporting this diet, or any type of restricting diet in anyway, I think that this diet allows for a little more flexibility and adding vegetables reduces sugar intake as well as increases the variety of nutrients being consumed. A draw back of this diet is a lack of protein and fats which are essential to live. Another negative repercussion of this diet would be extreme digestion problems. Eating foods extremely high in fiber, like the fruit diet as well, one can assumethat they will be spending large amounts of time in the bathroom.

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FASTING

The research I found out about fasting is completely different than what I initially thought. While fasting for a day or two will not fatally harm most people, fasting for long periods of time is bad for one’s health. When fasting, you first lose water weight, like any other type of low calorie diet. Then, your body understands that you are fasting and tries to conserve all body fat, dramatically slowing down your metabolism. In addition to the body going into “conservation mode,” muscle loss is also experienced when fasting. The part that I did not know is that when someone goes back into normal eating habits after fasting for a long period of time (more than 3 days) not only is their metabolism still slow and is not burning much fat, but the weight they gain does not replace that lost muscle tissue. The calories then consumed turns into fat. The muscle lost from fasting is not recovered. So, as you can fasting is not a good long term decision at all. It can also be very dangerous to one’s health, degrading their immune system, thus making them more likely to attract sickness.

 

As you can see, these weight loss ideas are fads and do not promote permanent weight loss. Nor are these ideas applicable to normal living or healthy for you overall well being in any way.

 

Have you ever tried one of these fad diets? Have you ever heard of anyone who has? What were his or her or your experiences? Do you think they work?

 

http://www.smoothie-bar.com/smoothie-diet/

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-myth-truth-fasting-effective-weight-loss

 


05
Mar 14

Post #14: The good, the bad, and the ugly

This blog is going to focus on what foods to eat and not to eat.  I am warning you now that many of these foods that you absolutely love are going to be on the “do not eat” list, so, while I am not asking you to part ways forever with your favorites, I am telling you that you may want to limit indulging in these sweet treats.

 

Let’s begin by discussing the GOOD foods.

-Avocados: a personal favorite of mine, this fruit has nearly double the potassium as a banana, and has very healthy fats including mono-saturated fats. Don’t be scared of eating fat, this is the good kind!

 

-Almonds: an extremely protein packed nut, almonds are extremely healthy, loaded with fiber and have been proven to help reduce extra fat build up in the stomach area.

 

-Whole Grains: Rather than eating refined processed white breads and rice, whole grains are filled with fiber with keep your digestion system working properly.

Whole-Grains

-Greek Yogurt: This popular snack has been getting a lot of attention lately. But, why? Well, non-fat or low-fat Greek yogurt not only fulfills dairy requirements for the day, but is also low calorie, packed with protein, and helps to aid in digestion.

 

-Sweet Potatoes: Another favorite of mine, sweet potatoes are the perfect combination of delicious and nutritious. This vegetable is packed with many beneficial nutrients and is a healthy alternative to the traditional white potato.

 

BAD foods: Try to stay away!

 

Condiments (non-refrigerated): Although this doesn’t seem like a type of food that would be harmful to your health, the ketchup at McDonald’s or room temperature salad dressing is actually bad for you. Because these condiments are kept at room temperature, they are stripped of any nutritional value and are loaded with preservatives.

condiments

Processed Meats: The turkey on your sandwich, the hot dog meat, and bacon are all examples of highly processed meats. Here’s the problem: they are not only packed with ridiculous amounts of sodium, nitrate preservatives, and fat, but they also can greatly increase the risks of being diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.

 

Anything fried: Yes, we know that frying foods diminishes any nutritional value that food once had as well as increases the caloric amount in the food, but eating fried foods can lead of many different cancers. Think about that before you order a side of fries.

SOURCES

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/10-absolutely-worst-foods-to-eat.htm#page=5

http://www.cspinet.org/nah/10foods_bad.html

 

 


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