Protein Much?

 Whether you are trying to add muscle or burn fat, one thing you may want to take into consideration is your protein to carbohydrate to fats macro-nutrient ratio.  You may have the hang of eating more nutrient dense foods, and truly, that is key.  You certainly wouldn't want to replace the vegetables that you eat with other protein sources. Honestly, you wouldn't want to even replace the fruits with them, well, other than unless you had more than 2 or 3 servings of fruit as even Tom Venuto, in his book "The Body Fat Solution" suggests that fruit is a perfectly fine source of nutrition, let alone Dr. Fuhrman.  But, something important to remember is that lean meat sources, fish, white meat chicken, poultry, and the leaner beef/steaks and wild game, are ALL very thermic (thermogenic) foods. Meaning that they will take TWO to THREE times as much natural energy to burn as carb sources do and protein has TEN times the thermic effect of fats.  So, even though lean meats aren't very full of phyto-nutrients, they sure can act as natural catalysts to a leaner, healthier body!  Not to mention, we can also actually get our protein needs through legumes, beans, peas and nuts! Be sure to include within most meals a nice protein source.  This is particularly important for those who are insulin resistant which is often undetected and tough to beat without a much higher protein intake.  Your daily percentage of protein grams, all foods included, for optimal performance should be equal to at least 30% of your overall diet but no more than 35% for the healthy adult.

Whatever you do, remember that proteins are only building blocks for tissue, no more, no less.  So, if you figure that just electively dumping an extra truckload of wood onto the lawn is helpful to a builder who is trying to repair a home in good time, then perfect, add in about 50 or 100 extra grams of protein into your daily diet! Just keep two things in mind, first, you're by far overloading your system and slowly destroying your liver which will only have to work to rid the body of all the excess and second, your body will not repair the damaged tissue any faster at all as a result of all that extra protein. I might also add that when Lou, Arnold and Stallone were on the rise and building muscle fast, they were using about 30/35 grams a day back then, total! If it worked for them, it would work for you too. Extra protein is completely senseless. Too little is not good either.

"Warmup? Pfff, What a Waste of Time!"

When you perform your resistance workouts, be sure you add in at least a "moderate to intense" 3-5 minute cardiovascular warm-up before hand. This helps prep the body for both burning calories and getting great lifts that your body will be "impressed" with!  Studies show that starting a workout off, whether cardio or resistance, more intensely rather than mild or moderate will cause a greater calorie burn through the entire workout.  The heart, lungs and vascular network can be thought of as our body's personal engine.  When that engine is primed, a greater efficiency and better performance is the result.  This goes pretty much for any athlete in any event, so then it most certainly goes for everyone else, barring any health limitations.

Next, you'll want to be sure, and this is strict, to get at least one good exercise specific warmup prior to the FIRST resistance exercise that you are to perform.  The reason for this is similar to the cardio warmup, yet it will  lend greatly in reducing the risk of injury! As a matter of fact, it may just determine whether or not we are to get injured on a given workout day.  As a bonus, the exercise specific warm-up also hyper-surges performance enhancing, oxygen carrying blood flow into the individual muscle fibers creating an optimal environment for our absolute best while also greatly reducing risk of injury to tendon and cartilage tissues! Basically, it's much more important than we typically realize. So, get those cells pumped full of blood before giving it your all! You'll not only get a better lift, you'll build more muscle through fiber tearing.

Artificial Sweeteners are Killing You.

Don't want to eat deadly Chemicals like Aspartame? Look for things labeled, "Diet" and "Sugar free"... I'm sure there are more. But, the idea is that if it does not use sugar but it's supposed to be sweet... then it's a reason to read the label, for sure. Nutra-sweet and Equal are also aspartame.

While it's actually included in many things, most people just don't pay attention. It's included Breath Mints Carbonated Soft Drinks Cereals Chewing Gum Flavored Syrups for Coffee Flavored Water Products Frozen Ice Frozen Ice Cream Novelties Fruit Spreads Gelatin, Sugar Free Hard Candies Ice cream Toppings Ice Creams  No Sugar or Sugar Free Iced Tea, Powder Iced Tea  Ready to Drink Instant Cocoa Mix Jams & Jellies Juice Blends Juice Drinks Maple Syrups Meal Replacements Mousse No Sugar Added Pies Non-Carbonated Diet Soft drinks Nutritional Bars Powdered Soft Drinks Protein Nutritional Drinks Pudding Soft Candy Chews Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup Sugar Free Cookies Sugar Free Ketchup Table Top Sweeteners Vegetable Drinks Yogurt drinkable Yogurt  Fat Free Yogurt  Sugar Free...

And, get this, there are about NINE different major artificial sweeteners and they're used all over the place as well! This is only ONE! And, they're all bad.... You want natural sweeteners, such as Stevia herb and Agave Nectar(personal favorite as it's actually low glycemic though it tastes quite sweet).

Lastly, there are a few things that we can actually look for at the store that give a darn... i.e. Xing Tea sold in the cold drinks section is 100% all natural and actually uses pure cane sugar to sweeten but not too much. It tastes great and has a good variety of flavors!! Yet, MOST of the other teas will sneak in the Aspartame or Sucralose, if not high-fructose corn syrup, somewhere.