Dr. John Berardi's 7 Nutrition Tips

We all know that there is a huge amount of nutrition information out there - we see it everyday! Here is one of the best Nutrition Tip Lists that I have seen. I personally try to follow these and continue to challenge myself each day to ensure that I follow these 7 rules that are on this list, especially as the New England winter months approach. The list was created by John Berardi, PhD. who has done some great research out of Canada.

Read the The 7 Rules of Good Nutrition

SummitOnTheSummit.com Climb Tracker

Some Interesting Nutrition Books

While at Border's tonight I picked up three books to take a look at while drinking a cup of Chai Tea. My three books were:

The End of Overeating by David Kessler

A review by Louis McReady of the Huffington Post states: "In The End of Overeating, Dr. Kessler explains how humans, much like Pavlov's dogs, become hardwired to anticipate foods with fat, sugar, and salt. The food industry has learned what humans want, and is only too happy to give us what we crave. We quickly become trapped in a vicious cycle of dopamine-fueled urges when we want food, and opioid releases when we eat it. If dopamine and opioid sound familiar, it's because they play a major role in alcohol and drug addiction. Dr. Kessler draws a direct connection between food's power over people, and the pull of alcohol and drugs."

The New Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford I particularly liked this book because of the nutrition assessment that it offered but did not like the fact that it was first published back in 1997 and was last updated in 2004. **You can actually purchase this for 1 cent + s/h at Amazon.**

The Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain

I'm not a diet guy but some of the philosophy of both the Paleo and Mediterranean Diet books that I've seen make sense to me. I found parts of Dr. Cordain's book interesting (other than the pages on the effect of exercise and diet on caloric expenditure that is) while other claims seemed to be pushing it in my mind. The book was highly referenced and had great, easy ideas for meals that include more lean protein (I did not agree with the % above USDA recommendations however), less carbs and moderate (good) fats. I also saw on Amazon they had the same title geared towards athletes that was published with Joe Friel who I like.

Football Injury Talk at Brigham and Women's

For those of you who are interested and who live in the area - there is a series of great talks starting next week (Nov. 4th) at the new Brigham and Women's /MGH Health Care Center in Foxboro. The event: Four Days of Healthy Tips and Techniques Maximize Your Fitness Potential and Reduce Injury will run from November 4th through the 1oth. I plan on attending the Wed. night on Football Injuries: High School to the NFL Presenters: Thomas Gill, MD and James Zachazewski, PT, ATC Time: 6:30 - 8 PM

In Memory of Jasper Howard

I did not have the pleasure of knowing Jasper "Jazz" Howard the Jr. cornerback at UConn who was fatally stabbed last weekend following a dance on the Storrs campus. The team had just beat Louisville earlier in the day and Jazz was a starter in the win over the Cardinals. Fast forward a week and another game (28-20 loss to West Virginia on Sat.) and the memory of it all is still very strong.
My heart goes out to Jasper's family, his girl friend (he was going to be a Dad) teammates and all who had the pleasure of knowing the student-athlete from Miami, FL. Having personally lost a child I know the pain and sorrow that the Howard's will go through. But through prayer and time, the loss will become less raw and more manageable. Our blessings and prayers go out to you all!
Some of my best memories were as a coach (asst. strength & conditioning coach) and graduate student at UConn back in 2001-02. I know the student body and the UConn athletic family will come together during this difficult time. The team will fly to Miami on Monday for Jasper's funeral service. The Boston Globe had a photo this morning of Japser's teammate, Robbie Vaughan, who had had the following written on his taped wrists: "LIVE 365"

Can Running Marathons Be Harmful?

I came across Arthur DeVany's blog site that had an interesting top 10 list...on why you should stay away from running marathons - check out his blog. Any marathoners out there want to chime in? Sorry but my longest race is only a 10k.

Cooling-Down After Exercise...Is It Really Necessary?

I have always had an interest in the warm-up and cool-down phase as it relates to exercise. I was reading the NY Times online today during lunch and came across an article by Times writer Gina Kolata on exercise cool-down. She has quotes from researchers who have opinions that are on both side of the fence - pretty interesting - check it out here.

A Few Performance Enhancing Foods and Drinks

A recent paper from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition caught my eye today about the positive effects of drinking green tea and the effect it has on stress reduction. A 20% decrease in psychological distress was reported by the group of researchers from Japan. For this stress reduction to occur, simply start drinking 5 cups of green tea each day.

Here are some additional food/drink choices that were in the November issue of Runner's World (always a great mag). The article talks about coffee, milk, beets and apples. Lets talk about beets and apples first. A published report in the Journal of Applied Physiology states that drinking beet juice can help you exercise 16% longer. Did you know that apples could boost performance? See this paper in the Int J of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism that tells you how and why. The article goes on to say that the Am J of Epidemiology reported people that drink four or more cups of coffee/day have better pulmonary function than those who do not drink coffee on a daily basis. As for milk, a paper in the Am J Clinical Nutrition reported that drinking milk instead of a fruit drink (at breakfast) reduces the number of calories that you will eat at lunch.

Finally Back in Flow with Yoga

I had been doing yoga consistently for two years as a small part of my weekly workout routine leading up to my February 2008 climb. Even though it was just once a week (on a rare occasion twice-weekly) it without a doubt helped increase my range of motion in my low back and hamstrings not to mention my lower legs (calf, achilies tendon). I believe all the downward dog poses we were doing at Open Doors Yoga in Hanover at the time were a big part of why I was successful with my climb. I have not done much yoga however since the climb. That all changed this morning at a 10 am yoga class. I ended up going to a great class this morning with my wife who goes to a cool studio on the East Side in Providence called Eyes of the World. As all the Yogis out there already know - it's not just about the movement (flow) but rather the breath and being in the moment. I need to get better at remembering that though - but I would definitely give it a try if your not already into it. It was great hour and half class and I look forward to getting back into the flow!

Bolt Breaks World Record in 100M Sprint

How can you not love this guy - check out this video - pure athleticism - his time of 9.58 seconds comes out to more than 23 mph at top speed in the 100 meter sprint. For a complete breakdown of Bolt's split times in his 100m race see one of my favorite blogs at the Science of Sport.
Addendum: Later in the week Usain Bolt went on to set another world record in the 200m in 19.19 seconds in addition to being part of the gold medal relay team.

New Study Shows Nitrates Improve Performance

Two recent studies show that of all things, nitrate-rich beetroot juice, increases stamina during exercise and also lowers blood pressure . The two groups of researchers are not sure of what the mechanism behind the benefit is but they think it has something to do with the nitrate from the juice turning into nitric oxide which in turn reduces the O2 cost in exercise.

Source: Journal of Applied Physiology, “Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans”, S.J. Bailey, P. Winyard, et. al.

Hypertension, Mar 2008; Vol. 51, pp. 784-790).

The Skinny on Dieting (Part 1)

Diets simply do not work when looking for long term results. Yet millions of people are dieting every day. You may lose weight initially because of caloric restriction. But what you need to understand about DIETS are that they will slowly destroy your body and reek havoc on your metabolism. Anyone that starts a diet ends up eventually going off the diet because it's too hard to maintain long term. By taking in less calories via any diet and not exercising you will lose weight but the question you need to ask yourself is - what type of weight? Do you actually think if you lose a lot of weight - it's all body fat. Wrong! People that are involved in yo-yo dieting will actually end up losing more muscle than body fat and that has a drastic effect on their metabolism. Remember muscle is "active" and burns more calories than "inactive" adipose tissue (fat). So, with all this dieting, you may lose weight initially when you stand on your bathroom scale but remember your also losing a high percentage of muscle too. Research has shown 30-50% of the weight lost can be from muscle tissue when dieting is performed long term in the absence of of strength training. Here in lies the problem. You can't afford to lose muscle especially as you age and with the loss of muscle your metabolism will not "rev" as high. Following a lifetime of dieting your body becomes inefficient at burning calories. You will eventually come to the realization that your able to gain weight more easily even though you may be consuming less calories on a daily basis.

Over the next few weeks forget about dieting and start thinking about becoming more active. Work on adding strength training (a few times a week) to your routine if you have not already done so. Eat smaller meals more often, cut down the alcohol and forget about eating after dinner. Your first step is to record your weight and %body fat and check back on August 16th for part 2.

How to Survive a Summer Party

We were at recent July 4th beach party that included fantastic food, friends and some fun on the beach. I mention the food because our friends included a husband and wife team who have a reputation of putting out a great spread. He just happens to be a fantastic chef and his wife is a teacher who is also known for making wonderful desserts. With all that great food is it possible to come away from this type of day/evening event without adding anything to the waistline? For me, it can be difficult. I have a saying "I exercise, so I can eat/drink what I want." The key this time (and anytime) was activity spread throughout the day. A walk on the beach with my daughter, some beach activities (horse shoes, paddle ball etc), no alcohol and multiple walks to and from their beach house to the beach did the trick. My new bathroom scale (that also computes %body fat) was actually down in both categories the next morning, and I even had dessert!

Great Quote from Forbes.com

Just came across this quote while looking at Forbes.com

"Energy is the natural byproduct of certain lifestyle decisions."

Tabata Method Revisited

I have written more than one post in the past that discussed Tabata training. A colleague at work just sent me a great story in the New York Times that talked about high intensity exercise using short work:rest ratios. The article was in Tara Parker-Popes Well Column and this specific article was written by Gretchen Reynold's. I enjoyed reading it, let me know what you think?

Looking to Lose a Few More Pounds Before Summer?

Are you still trying to get rid off those last 10-15 pounds before summer begins? Well, we all know it's about the amount of calories we consume versus the amount of calories we expend on a daily...weekly...monthly basis. I have been following a blog by registered dietitian Cristin Dillon-Jones, who has for two years been showing the world what her every meal looks like (on Self magazine's "Eat Like Me" blog). "Nothing fancy here: Dillon-Jones simply snaps a shot of whatever she's put together for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack and posts it, along with a brief description and some nutrition data, on the blog." Check it out - it will give you some good ideas on some food choices for the day...like today!

Advantage of Having Active Teenagers

Obviously, having active children benefits the child first, but I am putting my selfish hat on for this post today. I went trail-running with my 14 year old daughter this morning. We ran and hiked a trail in the Blue Hills (Milton, MA) that we have done before but this time I "unleashed the beast" (personal joke I have with her). I told her to run ahead and "I'll try to keep up." Well, that was not the case. She kicked my butt. One of the many benefits of having active children, especially teenagers, is that they can help keep you active too. Case in point, she finished the course in about 57 minutes while I came down the final hill clocking in at 63 minutes. But as she reminded me - I did stop and talk to another hiker (who also happened to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro) that ended up adding a few additional minutes to my time. Lesson learned - you can always get a workout in with the kids but as they get older there is a chance that it may humble you a bit (photo of Julia by Terry Tarantelli-Louison).

ParCourse: Still a Good Workout

You have probably seen a ParCourse fitness circuit around at some point. I came across one last night in Wrentham, MA situated in between the state hospital and all the sports fields. It has 12 stations and enables you to get a pretty good workout even though it is has been around for a while. I walked the course last night - while I waited for my daughter to finish a hoop workout with Missy Traversi. A few of the stations that I liked were station 8 (abs) and station 9 that involved a push-up station (see photo). After completing a set of 20 push-ups on the "lower" bar, I then tried 20 inverted rows (think modified pull-up) on the "higher" of the three push-up bars. It worked out great - on my way back I tried it again. You can obviously run this course and it would make a nice circuit to mix in most of these 12 stations. If you happen to be in the area, or have a similar course in your location, give it a try...you can always improvise! Of course I had to find a research paper on the subject. Finally, if you happen to live in WA check this out - it has some locations of the ParCourses in the area, hard to imagine there were more than 4500 of these courses built starting in CA back in the late 70's.

Aging and the Importance of Regular Exercise

If your an aging baby boomer (born between 1946 and 1964) like me you probably at times feel the adverse effects that aging can have on the body. If your looking to feel better as you age and help prevent what is known as "boomeritis" - you simply need to exercise but be smart about what your doing and how your doing it. The piece that most people don't understand is the volume aspect. When your ready to increase your volume of work, do so in a safe, progressive manner (i.e. 5-10% per week) and your body will return the favor by feeling more energized come next workout.

With aging, comes the onslaught of body fat. As you age you lose muscle (known as sarcopenia) and add body fat (it's like death and taxes). Exercise - consistent exercise that is - will help retard (slow down) the process. Why exercise? Because the average person between age 30 and 60 tends to add about a pound of body weight/year if exercise is not in the picture. It does not seem like a big deal, I know, but that's an additional 30 lbs of weight that puts more stress on the body, heart and so on. Couple that with the loss of muscle at a rate of about 1/2 pound per year (5 lbs./decade) and you have a real uphill battle taking place. The magic pill available is exercise, especially strength training. Building strength as you age will not only fight off sarcopenia but will also keep your metabolism elevated and improve functionality and balance. If your not currently involved in any of this...start now...start slowly...be progressive...and most importantly - be consistent. Here is a paper I recently read on sarcopenia (also see R. Roubenoff and Roubenoff).

Hiking and Trail Running Combo: A Great Workout

Are you looking for something different for your next workout? Try going for a hike or do some trail-running to change things up a bit. Last week I got in my first hike/trail-run in of the season over at the Blue Hills in Milton. My goal was to do one of the short courses involving the Blue Hills Skyline Trail. I had a goal of getting to the top in <30-minutes. I managed to get to the top in 26 min. and back down in about the same time (total time = 53 min.) Following the hike/run I then completed a strength workout on the Koko Smartrainer that took about 0:25 minutes. For me, hiking/trail running is a great way to get outside - you can do it with family or friends - and burn a good amount of calories without the stress of pounding the pavement...give it a try!