nutrition

Fitness Nutrition For Faster Results (Fueling your workout)

Fitness Nutrition For Faster Results (Fueling your workout)

Published by on September 23, 2014 | Leave a response

Countless times a week, “Coach, whats a good, quick snack to eat before my workout?”

 

In todays world they’re are numerous supplemental  “pre-workouts” on the market. So which one is right for you? Don’t feel pressured by shiny labels and  mis-educated salespeople trying to make a buck at your expense. Now I’m not saying all these powdery substances are bad, is their a better way to obtain the benefits? perhaps. Is there a healthier way to retain the reward that these supplements produce? DEFINITELY. Educate yourself on these products before you buy blind.

Most people do not realize that very few products/supplements are FDA approved or any sort of banned substance free tested. While pre workout supplements are often effective, research has proven that none have been more or equal to as effective as naturally obtaining nutrients and the benefits from food. When picking a pre workout snack, try to consume something that will help increase “VASODILATION”.

But first… What is vasodilation?

Web MD defines vasodilation as…

Vasodilation: Widening of blood vessels that results from relaxation of the muscular walls of the vessels. What widens in vasodilation is actually the diameter of the interior (lumen) of the vessel.

Also meaning, widening the walls of the vessels to allow for more  oxygen rich blood and nutrient dense cells to be pumped through the body, ultimately allowing for a better performance.

What will vasodilation do to me?

Increasing blood flow to working muscle groups through increased vasodilation has the potential to increase work capacity during both aerobic and anaerobic performance.

What foods will help naturally increase vasodilation in you?

Foods high in Nitrates

What foods contain Nitrates?

Vegetables such as dark leafy greens, Beets, collard greens, lettuce, beets, carrots, green beans, spinach, parsley, cabbage, radishes, celery etc. Further, the longer fresh vegetable juice sits, the greater the conversion of nitrates to nitrites, so you should drink fresh vegetable juice as quickly as you can.

Beetroots are extremely high in anion, and nitrates, which is concentrated in the saliva and absorbed by the gut. Nitrate is converted to nitrite in your body almost immediately by bacteria on your tongue. As long as the nitrite is not converted to large amounts of harmful nitrosamines in your stomach, nitrite eventually becomes nitric oxide in your blood, which can relax your blood vessels.

How will the role of nitric oxide (derived from nitrates) enhance my performance

Increasing N.O. can be beneficial for individuals due to its role in regulating blood flow, neurotransmission, immune function, blood sugar regulation, calcium regulation and muscle contraction. Potentially, there could be additional for athletes and people whom perform regularly, as it may help to increase oxygen in contracting muscles decrease adenosine triphosphate (ATP, a form of energy) cost during exercise, increase tolerance to long term high intensity exercise and time to exhaustion.

When should I eat these foods?

These meals/ items are a great anytime snack, however to help enhance your workout 2 hours for maximum absorption and studies have shown even up to 30 minutes prior of your workout is in an ideal window to consume to allow maximum absorption of nutrients and energy from the goods. Consuming these nitrate rich foods just prior to high intensity exercise may help by increasing a workout by increasing the amount of time before lactic acid builds up. Note to self that everyone is different, trial and error is the best way to test results for yourself.

Also to help energize yourself for the day, these antioxidant rich foods are a great way to kick start your day and give you the fuel you need to last through those long hours of the day.

What if I don’t eat them?

Now not to say that not eating these foods will negatively affect your workout, however  certainly eating them will positively affect your workout.

Try these quick drink recipes for an even quicker energy and performance boost!

Quick Drink Recipes

Beet & Berry Smoothie

2 tbsp beet-juice

1 cup berries, of your choice

¼ cup orange juice, fresh is best

½ cup almond milk

Ice as needed

Directions

Blend in your blender until smooth and enjoy!

——-

The “Beet IT” Smoothie

1 banana

1 tbsp beet-juice

½ cup yogurt, vanilla

1 tbsp honey

Ice as needed

Directions

Blend in your blender until smooth and enjoy!

Sources:

NSCA: Journal Quarterly PTQ, Vol.1 Iss. 1
Debra Wein, Kelly Murphy
Beetroot Juice Supplementation and exercise

Written By Jackson Davis
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Beaufort SC Personal Training: Diet and Nutrition

Beaufort SC Personal Training: Diet and Nutrition

Published by on February 25, 2014 | Leave a response

Most people aim to have a well-maintained body. But some of them for various reasons are not willing to do any physical activity, and just prefer to lessen their food intake by partaking in off-the-wall diet food programs. Yet there are numerous people who do not know how to implement proper diet and nutrition. The long and short of it is that eating starvation diet food recipes or crash cleanses to lose weight would only work if you remain consistent. And no one can consistently starve himself/herself or go on a life long cleanse. The kicker is that diets work best if you accompany it with Beaufort SC personal training or a physical activity.

Beaufort Personal Training

Physical activity can come in the form of running, weight training or both. The EarthFIT Beaufort SC personal training programs offer Beaufort health and fitness programs including the right way to deal with diet food programs and plans. They will help you to understand how important eating the right food is in proper portions and the right timing for eating various foods; all this while keeping your body in great shape. No more yucky diet foods that lead you right off the wagon. The Beaufort SC personal training programs will teach you to how lose weight permanently without doing any cleanses, or taking pills, non-prescribed drugs or horrible diet foods. They have included appropriate ways cut or adjust meals, which will also give you ideas and tips on how to make new, tasty meals. This training center in Beaufort SC aims to deliver its top-notch fitness program not only to people who want to trim down, but also to properly maintain a sound body and mind and just want to stay healthy.

People should not take their physical health for granted. EarthFIT takes its role in getting you fit very seriously and does not promote dangerous diet food for consumption. Beaufort personal trainers will guide you through the things you will need to do in order to attain and maintain your physique. They will also give you tips and advice about healthy foods that you will enjoy eating without worrying that you will gain the weight back. But it all starts with you.

Beaufort SC Personal Training

The EarthFIT team believes that spending time working out is great, but it is not enough to lose weight and keep it off, especially if you just work out to eat. That’s why EarthFIT clients don’t work out. They train. They train themselves on how to eat right without starvation diet food, as well as exercise properly using the proper form (a rare quality in Beaufort SC). Most gyms don’t care whether you achieve your fitness goals even if you’ve been a loyal patron for years, as long as you pay the bill. That is the main reason why EarthFIT, in Beaufort SC, encourages you to participate in their fitness program – it’s a great opportunity to start doing things right. One of the great parts about the EarthFIT program is that they will assess each participant before they begin. Every client is different and special, so why do some generic workout, or alternatively, starve on diet foods, and any other weight loss and diet food programs that don’t really work? It’s time to MAKE THE RIGHT MOVE. EarthFIT’s trainers are all capable of helping you reach your fitness goal, even if it was something that you thought impossible without the yucky diet foods.

Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.

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Beaufort Health and Fitness: Importance of gut health

Published by on February 7, 2014 | Leave a response

Hey EF Fam,

The last email should have gotten the message across about the importance of gut health. The great news about all this is that gut health can be improved fairly easily.

It comes down to diet and nutrition. Today’s foods are ladened with:

  • Preservatives,
  • Additives,
  • GMO’s,
  • Antibiotics,
  • Gluten,
  • Pesticides,
  • Sugars and artificial sweeteners
  • Sugar substitutes, and
  • Other chemicals

that absolutely wreak havoc on not only gut health but our overall feeling and well-being.

Also, so many people are treated with medication that destroys gut health and only mask the symptoms of what the meds are supposed to be fixing.

To qoute Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a Russian-trained neurologist with a medical practice in the UK:

“The trouble is that in our modern society, we live in a world where a growing proportion of the population damaged gut flora, because they have been exposed to repeated courses of antibiotics; women are taking contraceptive pills, which damage the gut flora quite profoundly, or any other prescriptive long-term medication. People are taking in toxic substances through their food and drink, and other… environmental influences damage the composition of their gut flora.

As a result, when they are exposed to mercury, lead, other toxic metals, or other toxic substances in the environment, their gut flora is unable to chelate it, and cannot remove it.

It floods into their bloodstream, and settles in the body. Unfortunately, toxic metals have a particular affinity for fatty tissues in the body, so they get stored in the brain, spine, and in the rest of the nervous system. They also target your bone marrow and the rest of the high fat organs in the body… Of course, when they’re stored in there, they would cause leukemia, lymphoma, other immune abnormalities, and other problems… “

Your gut health is directly connected with your mental well-being and mood. In fact probiotics are much more powerful anti-depressants than over-the-counter meds with no side effects. Your gut has been called the second brain…

Dr. Mcbride states,”In terms of Gut and Psychology Syndrome, we are talking about the functioning of the brain of the person,” Dr. McBride explains. “Any dysfunction of the brain is usually connected to what’s going on in the digestive system. In Gut and Physiology Syndrome, we’re talking about the functioning of the rest of the body. Hippocrates… made a statement that all diseases begin in the gut. The more we learn now with all our modern scientific tools, the more we realize just how correct he was.”

This brings me to my first solution:

Increase your probiotic intake. Pro-biotic means “for life”…

Probiotics stimulate the growth of good microbes. You will know your gut is out of balance when you intake pro-biotics for the first time and have a healing reaction like:

  • diarrhea,
  • cramps,
  • gas, and
  • bloating

This is because there is a war going on in your gut, the good vs the bad microbes and the healing process means you are purging the evils of bad microbes and allowing your body to restore balance and heal.

You can purchase probiotics at the store, but nothing will comes close to restoring your gut health better than organic raw fermented foods like:

  • kim-chi
  • sauerkraut
  • kefir (coconut milk or raw grass fed milk)
  • fermented soy (Miso or Tempeh)
  • Kombucha

Secondly, we want to eliminate all the foods that promote and feed the bad bacteria like the ones listed above and then eat pre-boitics which are foods that stimulate good bacteria growth, like:

  • Raw chicory root
  • Raw Jerusalem artichoke
  • Raw dandelion greens
  • Raw garlic
  • Raw leek
  • Raw onion
  • Cooked onion
  • Raw banana

List taken from http://www.marksdailyapple.com/prebiotics/#ixzz2saTpJuYS

Because rebalancing the gut flora is something that anyone and everyone can benefit from we are launching a 21-Day Detox program in the near future. Be on the look out for more info

shortly!

Committed to your health,

Ian

P.S. The 21 Day Detox will be offered to both current EFers and Non-EFers. If you know a non-EFer who may be interested in joining the 21 Day Detox, make sure they respond quickly as we are only opening a few spots since we only have a few spots left open for training total.

Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.

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