Wednesday, March 17, 2010

St. Patrick’s Day Tips

March 17, 2010 by Jenn



Happy St. Patrick’s’ Day! To celebrate, we’re drinking beer (in moderation, of course). And we’re continuing to celebrate Fit Bottomed Dude’s Week by featuring three nutrition tips and five fitness tips from Anthony Farmer and Glenn Hicks Jr., owners of The Lab, a fitness boutique facility in San Diego, and Optimal Nutrition, an organic custom meal-delivery company. Basically the idea is that you get what you put in.

Top 3 Nutrition Tips

1. Be consistent. Just because you eat well during the week, doesn’t mean you can go blow it during the weekend eating pizza and burgers with alcohol and expect to lose weight. If you put 100 percent into destroying your body, what makes you think 80 percent trying to rebuild it will work?

2. Read closely. When going out to eat, just because the menu says chicken doesn’t exactly mean it’s healthy! What is put into preparing it as well as what’s on top of it makes all the difference.

3. Treat your body like your car. Eating no food all day and then drinking a protein shake does not mean your body is ready to handle a full-blown workout. You wouldn’t try to drive from San Diego to Los Angeles with less than a quarter of a tank and make it. So why should your body do it?

Top 5 Fitness Tips

1. Be realistic. Rome was not built in a day. So if you are one month from an important date and you need to lose 20 pounds, then you need to give up the fantasy. And if you do lose 20 pounds in a month, then the damage that you will do to your system will be long-lasting and the results short-lived.

2. Stop watching infomercials. Get off your butt and research what you really need to do for yourself. Those commercials have disclaimers for a reason. Ninety percent of the people who start these programs fail because they get caught up in the hype of the commercial.

3. Do not start with a Gatorade bottle. You have to expel nutrients before you replenish them. Gatorade and power drinks are not substitutes for water!

4. Seek help. Would you do heart surgery on yourself? Being successful in this weight-loss, muscle-gain race is tricky work. Hire a professional to help you.

5. Be skeptical. If the health and fitness professional that you have hired seems like a nut job, then he or she is. Remember this industry is not regulated, so anyone can get out of prison and take an online course and call themselves a personal trainer and run you through their very own prison-yard workout, and you can hurt yourself. Be selective and find the professionals.

There you have it: 8 stellar tips to keep you lads and lassies healthy and grouned. Erin Go Bragh! —Jenn

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