Archive for August, 2010

The Low Down on Eggs

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Hey all, here is part I in a post about the truth about eggs.

eggsI was on a weekend trip with some friends down the coast  recently, and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for us. As always I was particularly hungry on this morn so I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of ham and eggs.

Well, to my shock, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and separating the egg whites into a bowl and throwing  the egg yolks out. I asked him why he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied…

 

“because the egg yolks are bad for you…that’s where all the fat and cholesterol is”.

And I replied, “you mean that’s where all of the nutrition is!”

This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation about nutrition, somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG!

By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you’re essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients… it’s not even worth trying to list them all.

In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolks.

Even the protein in egg whites isn’t as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid structure and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with healthy omega-3 fatty acids (the good fats).

Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids (EFAs).

And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg…

“But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof”

No, not true!!

When you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body regulates it’s internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.

On the other hand, if you don’t eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has dozens of important vital functions in the body.

And here’s where it gets even more interesting…

There have been plenty of studies lately that indicate that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.

In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.

So I hope we’ve established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body… instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.

The healthy fats in the egg yolks help to maintain a good level of fat-burning hormones in your body.

Overall, this means that the extra fats (healthy fats) and calories from the yolk are so nutrient-dense that they actually HELP you to burn off body fat!

Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Development

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Posted in Nutrition | 104 Comments »

Do you Need Cardio?

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Do You Really Need “Cardio” Workouts?

What is more effective?? Doing cardio workouts or weight training for losing fat…
 
In this post I am hoping to get you thinking differently, and trying new things.

Do you really need cardio training to get lean and in great shape?

Most fitness trainers, weekend warriors, or anyone trying to get in shape or lose body fat, consider it a fact that they need “cardio” exercise to burn up their fat and attain their these goals. They would never even question it.

In fact, you may be surprised to know that some of the leanest people I know (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio. And I’ve spent over 15 years working out in various gyms in Australia, and hanging out with athletes of all sorts, so I’ve seen it all.

I will say that there can be a place for low-moderate level cardio for really overweight or deconditioned people, but even in those cases, there can be more effective methods.

What do most see “Cardio” as?

Most people would consider cardio to be riding to knowhere on a bike, or running on a treadmill, or cruising on an elliptical strider, while watching the TV screen at their state of the art gym. This is what I call “traditional cardio”. No wonder the majority of people get bored with their workouts and give up after a couple months without seeing results. On Average about 70% of people that take out a gym membership never use it more than a dozen times in a year.

But, “cardio” exercise can be considered any type of exercise or activity that strengthens the cardiovascular system. To keep it simple, if it gets your heart pumping, and gets you huffing and puffing, it’s cardio. I don’t care if you’re holding dumbbells or a barbell and everyone calls it a weight training exercise…it’s still conditioning your heart.

Let’s take a look at a couple examples:

 Take a barbell  clean & press for example (of which many of you have seen me do plenty of), which involves lifting a barbell from the floor up to shoulders, then push pressing overhead. And listen up ladies, because even though this is usually seen as a manly exercise, it doesn’t matter if you’re not lifting 100kg; if 15kg is challenging to you, then you will still benefit just as much.

At first glance, most people think of the barbell C&P only as a weight training exercise or strength exercise. However, I challenge you to do a hard set of around 15-20 reps on the C&P. If you used a challenging enough weight, what you’ll find is that your heart rate is probably up to about 80-90% of your recommended max (get a HR monitor and try it), and you are huffing and puffing like you just ran a 100-meter sprint (which by the way, sprinting kicks the crap out of jogging any day if you want the easiest way to lose the flab).

Try the same thing for a set of 20 reps of one-arm swings with each arm with a kettlebell or dumbbell, and tell me your legs aren’t burning, heart racing, and you’re gasping for breath. How about trying 5 minutes straight of bodyweight squats, lunges, and pushups with no rest. Again, notice your heart pounding, sweat pouring off of you, and chest heaving for breaths!

Try and tell me you’re not conditioning your heart with this style of training!

Conventional trainers and thinking says that these are weight training or strength training exercises. However, they are fulfilling your cardio workout needs as well (saving you time!).

Not only do you save time, but you strengthen and condition almost every muscle in your entire body with these full body functional movements if you do them with enough intensity…some thing that can’t be said for that boring stationary bike ride or treadmill jaunt while reading or watching TV.

Gone are the days of the boring 90 minute gym sessions. Doing one set and talking to your mates for three minutes before you do your next set. If you can sit and talk you are not training hard enough!

Work hard, get in, get out and see the fat just melting off you..

So what do I recommend??

Group sessions like: Boot Camp, Crossfit, Boxing, or find a very experienced trainer in your area to help you out with a program.

For those in Canberra that have never tried a session, you can come for FREE to one of our Boot Camps and get a feel of what it is really like. For the month of August we have $50 off our Boot Camp program so why not make it NOW to make the change?

Simply go to the contact us section above and leave your email and location.

Scott Williams

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Posted in Bootcamp Questions | 99 Comments »

Never Doubt Yourself

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

If I would leave any thought with someone I would say never doubt yourself. No matter what people say, no matter what you may think sometimes, never doubt yourself. If you believe in yourself you will succeed far more than you will fail. He who possesses a quiet kind of faith in his ability to perform a task already has the task half completed.

Believe in yourself despite setbacks, despite the seemingly immovable obstacles, despite the cold and dark, despite the woe and pain, and eventually your faith will come to fruition, and you will find all those troubles behind you.

The simplest thing in the world is to knock ourselves because we made a mistake, to give up and say, ‘I’m no good’, but the more difficult thing is to believe in ourselves and constructively continue our life. The greatest error in life is to downgrade ourselves. The most horrible tragedies in life have occurred from a lack of faith in one’s own self, one’s own ability, from a belief that one cannot succeed and that failure is their sole lot in life.

There seems to be a self uncertainty that builds up in the mind every time one makes a mistake or fails to accomplish a task, and with every successive blunder the uncertainty grows stronger until one doubts one’s ability to do anything right. Being human we are host to a number of frailties, each one of which can disturb and depress us, and makes us doubt our worth. We are not a mechanically precise machine, we are a bundle of nerves which often tangle and get jangled, but are capable of amazing performance.

We have more strength than we believe, there is more fight within us than we know and far more potential than we could ever call forth or even dream of being possible.

Author Unknown

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Posted in Awards | 78 Comments »

Are you Sweet Enough?

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

A blog by Scott Williams on sugar vs honey

 honey

Most of you already know my stance that artificial sweeteners are pretty much one of the most evil things you can put in your body.

I have been offering quite a bit of nutritional guidance recently and people  seem to be confused about what to use to sweeten their coffee and other food and drink.

The less of any sweetener you can use, the better… consider how much work has gone into making a little tablet to make something sweet… it has been very heavily processed. If you can slowly over time adjust your taste buds to enjoy the natural taste of foods and drink without the need for heavily sweetening them, you’ll see many benefits for your body.

However, this leaves the question… If I really want to at least use a little sweetener, what should I use?

The easy answer is that a natural honey source is better for you than refined sugar. Keep in mind that they are both calorie dense and eating large amounts of honey will still make you deposit body fat, but at least it is natural.

However, refined sugar is devoid of nutrition and using it actually makes your body use up stored nutrients to process it.

Honey on the other hand has many beneficial nutrients, enzymes, and antioxidants… raw honey is best (find a bee keeper in your area) or you can find raw honey at certain health food stores. Stuff from Woolies or Coles has generally been processed and typical honey from these stores, processing destroys most of the enzymes and antioxidants that give the benefits.  I won’t use any honey other than raw honey.

In fact, I don’t use refined sugar for anything at all. It’s either raw honey, pure maple syrup (not fake corn syrup), or stevia for all of my sweetening needs.  Those are better choices than processed sugar or artificial sweeteners.

You can find Stevia located in the Sweetner section of your local supermarket. It is a complete natural product.

Check out this post I did with some scary facts on suger:
http://www.succeed.com.au/2010/01/can-you-handle-the-truth-about-sugar/

Scott Williams
CEO, Succeed Personal Development
Canberra, Australia

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Posted in Nutrition | 78 Comments »