You’ve heard of everything diet, but a soda that can actually help you drop weight?! This week Pepsi is introducing it’s new product to Japan: Pepsi Special. With a fat blocking substance called Dextrin, Pepsi promises us a new way to look at soda. Here’s everything you need to know about Dextrin–the so called magic bullet.
What is Dextrin?
Marketed in the U.S., Dextrin is sold as a supplement called
Sex. When I write about sex, I get 25k hits. So you can imagine that I’m all for Movember–the month we focus on Men’s Health–mostly because we get to talk about sex and your prostate.But I’m also here to share the top 3 ways you can reduce your risk. Yes, we’ll talk about sex first…..
1) Ejaculation. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests ejaculation, through sexual intercourse or masturbation, can reduce your risk of prostate cancer and can keep your prostate in check. But not just any kind of sex or masturbation;
You’ve probably seen it on professional athletes–those tell-tale tights; They are actually compression garmets.
Q) What do compression garmets actually do?
A) They compress the affected area creating a higher pressure of blood flow. Blood flow is really important as an aid for recuperation, but it can also be a good tool for preventing your muscles from fatigue.
Q) When can I wear compression garmets?
A) You can wear compression garmets as a tool during competition, activity or post exercise for a quicker recovery.
Ever heard of GMO’s? Our own FDA knows things we don’t. Headed by a lawyer for Monsanto Foods, the FDA food czar would like to prevent you from knowing that GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) are changing the way food is made, and the changes are affecting the health of American population.
It’s not just the rush of full threshold, no holds barred racing that makes CycloCross the hottest trend this season. CycloCross is a sport–part racing, part mountain biking, dismounting, carrying your bike over obstacles–that proves to be tough on even the most serious athlete.
Because you push yourself to 80-90% of your max, it gives you a tough workout in minimal time. And more and more athletes are moving towards sprint workouts; that is, sprinting through multiple types of exercises to get the full body workout you need. This preps your body to do pretty much anything.
CycloCross bikes, or Cross bikes are made like a racing bike--light weight with the ability to maintain high speeds--but with an off terrain tire, made for mud, climbing and high intensity maneuvers.
Enter your own personal CoreFitCross workout plan:
Get on your bike and push yourself to your lactate threshold–the threshold where your muscles start to burn. Hold it there for 30 seconds and then push to your max for 15sec. Drop it back down to your threshold for 30sec and drop down to 30% of your max for 3 minutes. Repeat this 6 times. You can try it going up a hill–it perfectly replicates what CycloCross is all about.
If you spend an hour a day at the gym and 23 hours dedicated to undoing all that good, you haven’t really made any leeway in the general direction of health. Consider this, the more you indulge your body in the little healthy maneuvers, the easier it will be at the gym. Check out The Perfect Fit Day and try your hand at a little clock work.
8am: Get 8 hours of sleep! Seriously. No I am not kidding. Sleep is one of the most under-utilized methods in training, mostly because you think you are some kind of robot that doesn’t need it. But guess what? Sleep is integral to reducing stress, losing weight and recuperating from the beating you gave your bod the day before.
8:30am: Have breakfast! A big one. Your diet should actually flow the opposite way you are probably used to; biggest meal is brekkie, lunch is second, dinner should be an afterthought. It preps your body for optimal calorie expenditure. Along with breakfast have a cup of coffee–the caffeine jolt amps up your metabolism.
9am: Don’t hang out by the coffee maker chatting, head over to the H20. Ideally you should be drinking half your body weight in ounces of water. Water flushes your system of toxins and hydrates you so you have more energy and as a bonus, you’ll feel more full.
11am: Get up and stretch for a minute. Stretching increases circulation in your body, allowing it to repair itself. Also, drink more H20!
12pm: Lunch! Make sure it’s healthy–something full of good fats (grilled salmon) and antioxidants (spinach). Your midday meal is when you should be taking in lots of leafy greens and bright colored veggies. And don’t wash it down with an alcoholic drink–opt for more H20.
3pm: More stretching and physical activity. Most people are the most productive during the stretch from lunch to 3pm, but this is prime time for your body to digest and utilize those cals. If you are on a roll with whatever you are doing, be a good example to those around you and make sure to get up every 30 minutes or so and stretch/move around a bit.
6pm: If you haven’t already worked out in the morning, this is your last opportunity to get a good 30-60min of physical activity in. I suggest working out in the morning is probably the best time to burn some energy, but anytime you can find the time to be physically active is the right way to judge what’s best for you. Try sprinting on the treadmill, pushups, crunches, planks, lunges, step ups, presses, and squats. These are all exercises that will keep your whole body injury-free.
Find yourself wandering off the beaten path of health and exercise? Consider this: it’s a digital world and we’re relying more and more on mobile devices to keep us in line. These 6 apps are the best solution to keeping on track with your health and fitness goals.
Fooducate
Unless you did a minor in nutrition, fooducate is a great alternative to keeping a personal nutritionist on staff. It lets you scan barcodes at the grocery store, suggesting healthier options and comparing and contrasting different brands. It may even help you to put down those lucky charms.
Walkmeter
Map out your walks, runs or rides with this app through a geo tracking device. It records time, location, distance, speed and elevation–plus it will map it out in Google maps and lets you share it via Facebook or Twitter so you can show off daily to all your friends.
Fit Friendzy
Competitive? Social accountability is trending for fitness. This app lets you share more than 100 challenges ranging from walking 30 min per day to running a marathon with your friends. And hey, when you can beat your friend at staying fit, you both usually win. No pressure.
PostureScreen
Easiest way to look like you’ve lost weight? Improve your posture. Posture Screen uses a few pictures and analyzes your posture, showing you where you can improve. It’s designed primarily for medical professionals, but it’s so intuitive, you’ll be standing up straighter in no time.
Instant Heart Rate
Wouldn’t it be awesome to get a heart rate reading instantly and accurately without the added “bonus” of that annoying strap across your chest? Personally I think those sensors are wonky anyway. In the Instant Heart Rate App, all you have to do is hold your finger over the camera for ten seconds and it gives you an accurate reading. No fuss, no muss.
Sleep Time
On trend for 2013 is sleep; say what you will, but a good nights rest, is and always will be the best way to recover your body from injury. Sleep Time rests peacefully next to you while you count sheep, detecting subtle movements, dutifully counting the minutes you go through each sleep cycles. letting you know, for example, how much high-grade deep sleep you get.
Many of my patients, clients and friends have common aches and pains and want the easy fix from their doctors. And, who can really blame them? It’s much easier to alleviate pain in your body by taking an Alleve, or getting a steroid injection. That’s why a meningitis outbreak caused by steroidal injections is so important to discuss.
I’m definitely all for using medication when appropriate, but seeing the doctor these days means shorter amounts of time discussing the fine details of the symptoms. Many times, a prescription gets handed out just to appease the patient. In fact, there have been several articles recently in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding the misuse of patient medicine–63% of people on prescription drugs strayed from their doctor
NFL trainers use sport specific exercises to strengthen stabilizers for goal line success
Ever wonder how NFL pro-athletes avoid injury? They practice sport specific training. But even those highly paid professionals have physical issues and anyone who typically practices some form of cardiovascular exercise has experienced it. One of the most prevalent issues that affect regular exercisers is the nagging numb tingly that occurs sometime in the middle of your workout. You try to shake it off and assume it’s a circulation issue, but there is another culprit at play here; nerve damage.
Nerve damage is a common sports injury that sometimes gets overlooked because it can be sporadic or only prevalent during the actual exercise and then may subside after.
This weekend I was over at my friend John’s condo and he was showing me The Man Who Can Fly–Dean Potter. Dean potter is a phenomenal athlete, mostly known for his free ascents, base jumps and slack lining all over Yosemite National Park and Patagonia. In the video Potter base jumps in a bird like suit off a plank suspended probably thousands of feet into the air without knowing whether or not the flight suit will allow him to descend into a clearing far below. He does not hesitate at the end of the plank, he simply jumps.
What I loved about this video is that Dean Potter is so capable physically of allowing his mind to clearly focus on shutting his intuitive muscles down and allowing for the natural process of movement to occur. He is able to quiet his mind of what he should or should not be doing.
Fast forward today and I am reading an article in the NYTimes called Rethinking Sleep. The author talks about the importance of shutting down our mind in order to get a restful nights sleep. It’s not the hours you get, but the quality. Most people do not get the 8hrs their body requires in order to allow the body to recuperate physically and mentally.
“It seemed that, given a chance to be free of modern life, the body would naturally settle into a split sleep schedule. Subjects grew to like experiencing nighttime in a new way. Once they broke their conception of what form sleep should come in, they looked forward to the time in the middle of the night as a chance for deep thinking of all kinds, whether in the form of self-reflection, getting a jump on the next day or amorous activity.”
Dean Potter has the ability to shut down his intuitive active mind. We should all take this as a cue as to why exercise and conscious physical challenges are important to our sleep cycle which allows our brain to do more deep thinking, self reflection and the important rest it needs to recuperate our body for tomorrow.
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