And this is definitely an area of vanity that both men and women share - even if they won't admit it. Most everybody has visions of a 'cut' torso and lean trim abs when they look in the mirror.

Guys visualize it because women swoon when a cut, muscular man takes off his shirt. Six pack abs are a chick magnet because it's a sign of virility and it usually makes a guy feel younger when women turn their heads.

And of course all guys turn their heads when a fit lady walks by…

Maybe it's the vision of how 'they used to look' or how they've always 'wanted to look' - either way six pack abs have a  pretty strong social appeal. So much so that abs machine manufacturers and late night tv abs machine guys have made a bucket of money selling the six pack.

Abs Machines Do Not A Six Pack Make

I know, I remember buying one of the first abs machines on tv. It appealed to me because the emphasis of that machine was on the obliques and kind of a combo choice of crunch or side to side swivel pivot motion. Little did I know that an abs machine would aggravate old elbow injuries.

Bummer - no six pack.

2000+ Ab Crunches A Day Are Not the Answer…

At the end of the 90's, I sat behind the wheel 50,000 miles a year - demoing and selling food commercially as a food service broker and living with a classically trained chef. Over several years, I put on 40+ pounds - a little here and a little there - and it was a gradual change because I am over 6 feet and carry extra weight well.

This was the first and last time in my entire life to put on that kind of weight.

In an effort to trim and tune my abs, I joined the gym. For more than six months I went to the gym at 4:30 am - before work - 3 to 4 times a week. Over a few weeks, I built up the number of reps on ab crunches to 2200+ a day. This was not an isolated exercise - because I did a full run on the machines along with the crunches - biceps, triceps, shoulders, legs, back and lower back. but I figured if 100 was good 2000 must be better. And my core strength was basically still there it just had a bit of fat on top of it.

Subsequently, I have lost quite a bit of weight. But it wasn't from abs machines or any machines for that matter. In fact, from my own experience, I have concluded that exercise is not the key ingredient to six pack abs.

It is a component and exercise is important. But food combining, diet and the right kind of exercise are also essential.

I remember a well known radio personality - who lost a lot of weight - contending that eating less was the best way to lose weight - not exercising. And that contrary to popular opinion at the time, aerobics was not the way to lose weight, strength training was.

There has been a lot of controversy about weight loss and fat burning over the last 20 years. Fat free diets, low fat diets, high carb diets, high protein diets, low carb diets, yadda, yadda, yadda…

Hundreds of diets and machines later, the fact remains that never in history have so many people been so fat as they are right now.

• So either the experts are wrong or maybe they aren't experts at all
• Or, the experts love it when people are fat and aren't telling us the truth.
• Or there's more to it than we thought when they started the weight loss industry

Injuries played a role in correcting my weight situation with multiple elbow dislocations on both arms, a severely broken wrist in 2003 and a partially separated shoulder in 2006. My upper body has taken a beating. So a lot of things I had always taken for granted were quite different. For several years, when I tried to do a push up - for example - my left wrist would just give out. Quite a change from the guy that always had incredibly healthy - strong arms and hands - his whole life.

Kind of demoralizing too…

Metabolic Typing and Nutritional Typing

Over the years there have been different programs and books and "discoveries".

More and more, I think a lot of what constitutes a discovery is a return to 'common sense' - rapidly becoming the greatest oxymoron in modern society.

Eating whole, fresh, natural foods is the best thing for the body. Always has been. We need carbs, fat and protein in our diet to be healthy. And we need the right kind of fat to lose weight. Just like we need to exercise, sleep right and drink lots of water. You don't need a PhD to know that and I've been following that protocol for most of my life because it just always made sense to me. I've never liked the taste of processed food and have rarely eaten it throughout my life. Same with fast foods.

I have never taken a 'nutritional' or a 'metabolic' typing test but the concept made sense to me the first time I heard it. And over the next few months, I'm going to take both tests to see how the results match up with my own understanding about my body and also to make adjustments as necessary.

Please note we are not affiliated with either Dr Mercola or metabolictyping.com.  But here are two links: Dr Mercola's blog and you can search here for "nutritional typing" to find out more about it. Also here are the guys that offer the metabolic typing test.

For example, I have always known that I am a grains guy. I love to eat organic whole short grain brown rice. I love organic steel cut oats, whole wheat and legumes. I have often said that if I could only eat one food it would have to be short grain brown rice. When I eat it, my body feels good.

I have believed for a long time that different people should eat different foods because I always observed how my kids responded to what I fed them - by watching what they liked to eat and their response to foods over a period of time - not just their physiological response, but also behaviorally. I observed their sleeping patterns, physical energy and behavior and learned to tune their foods to their needs without telling them. We always ate healthy foods.

So I think that portioning and "proportioning" are essential ingredients to health and maybe are at the root of metabolic rates and efficiencies.

The Truth About Abs - Really

Currently, I'm studying a book and course that I bought written by a guy named Mike Geary, a personal trainer and certified nutrition expert. Besides being smart and a very good communicator, the guy is in awesome shape.

I looked at Mike's course online for quite a while before I bought it. I'm about half way through it right now and I have to say that it is the first book that I have read in a long long time that makes sense to me about abs conditioning, the real facts. Based on my search and trials of different machines, training regimens and diets related to abs, I think I have adequate experience and background to make that assessment. Also I have at a times been in extremely excellent shape via martial arts.

This is a picture of Mike Geary.

Much of what he says corresponds to my own knowledge based on experience and observation over the years. I like Mike's information so much I want to include it as a component of my new course I'm creating right now because all the info I was going to include in that section is already in his course.

I am going to follow Geary's abs program for the next couple of months and I'll show you the results.

But he's so right on. What a great course.  I'm convinced I finally have come across the secrets to obtain my first ever - real set of Six Pack Abs. He discusses the causes of modern obesity, nutritional guidelines and how to eat properly during training - along with a bullet proof set of exercies that anyone can do. His program is set up on levels of skill from 1-8. What a cool course, I love this course.

In the near furture we plan to interview Mike and post the interview online. We are affiliates of Mike and completely support him. We think you will too after you get his stuff.

I highly recommend The Truth About Abs. You get tons of bonuses - and not just filler fluff either  - but that's not the reason to buy it. I'm telling you personally it is one of the best information resources I have ever purchased and I whole heartedly recommend it. You will not regret it. If you follow Mike's instructions, you will be able to get Six Pack Abs yourself.

How Come I Can't Get Six Pack Abs? Because you have had the wrong information.

You submit a winning 4 (four) minute organic recipe for a blender in one of four categories:

• Soups
• Sauces and Salsa
• Smoothies
• Desserts

Soups actually take a little longer in a Vitamix than four minutes - but not much - because they may take a little longer to get hot.

To submit a recipe, submit a comment to this post below - and include the recipe in the comment.

There will be four semi-finalists chosen, one for each category.

And one finalist.

Good luck…

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Saturate Your Cells with Water and Oxygen

Recently - after years of thinking that I knew something about nutrition and health - I learned that I really didn't understand the nature of water as it relates to essential health.

Boy was I all wet…

Articles about water and oxygen

What got me started was reading a very interesting article (one the best articles I had ever read actually) that really got me thinking differently about water.

Tim Ferriss

It was on the Tim Ferriss's Brain Quicken nutrition website (yes the Four Hour Work Week Tim Ferriss). When you go there, click on articles and then read the one on water, it's called The New Technology of Water. It's a good use of your time. I had never heard of the term "superhydration" before and Tim talks about it in a way that differs from many other authors on the same subject. He talks about achieving many of the same effects as superhydration using technology originally developed by Panasonic. He calls this hyperhydration.

The article talks about using technology that takes basic water and creates what is called 'microclusters' resizing the 'clusters' of water molecules to allow a much higher percentage into the cell:

Protein channels in the cellular membrane called "aquaporins" only permit single file influx of water molecules in clusters 3-6 angstroms in diameter. Unfortunately, 50-85% of purified water molecule clusters are 20-30 angstroms in diameter.

By scientifically hydrating and increasing arterial blood plasma volume, you increase blood pH levels (alkaline), increasing the ability of hemoglobin to bind to oxygen. The end result is that proper hydration increases oxygen delivery to body tissue.

Tim Ferriss is incredibly smart and he has learned to use nutrition strategically to his advantage physically. With his success as a measuring stick, if he says something works, I'm willing to try what he suggests whether we're talking about:

• using time and energy efficiently
• empowering the body energetically
• or superhydrating cell tissue

Aren't you?

You can become a Brain Quicken affiliate here - simple to do, takes about 3 minutes - or not…

Subsequently, I spent most of an entire day searching the engines for articles and research about water, hydration, superhydration and cleansing.

Dr Ellington Darden

Dr Darden has a great article here: Superhydration.

First off, he writes well. The premise is using superhydration - consuming 128 ounces of water a day of water (and we get even better results with cold water) - to stimulate weight loss and build muscle. Darden started formalizing this concept in 1985 and the concept evolved over 12 years while supervising studies with Nautilus and fitness centers in Florida and Dallas. He studied the results in large groups and the results have been published in several major books and publications.

His results validate the idea that this works effectively. It's a well laid out presentation, and after reading it, I can't think of a good reason not to try out his version of superhydration because the benefits are numerous and it is documented very well.

Aerobic Respiration

Think Quest has a great article about aerobic respiration.

It is a complex piece but offers a much better explanation than my Biology professor in 1973 did.

Cellular oxygen intake is what fuels aerobic respiration in the cells which produces energy (ATP) in the mitochondria through a complex process.

the electrons that are delivered to the electron transport system provide energy to "pump" hydrogen protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane to the outer compartment. This high concentration of hydrogen protons produces a free energy potential that can do work.

Bascially we need lots of oxygen at a cellular to power respiration and we need lots of water in the body to perform a whole host of beneficial functions. Without oxygen the electron transport chain stops and so does the release of hydrogen protons to create ATP. Diminishing the supply of oxygen will diminish energy output on a cellular level.

So in terms of physical performance, it makes sense that reduced supplies of oxygen will sigificantly diminish capacity. This is what happens when athletes start running out of gas, they are not getting adequate oxygen into the cells and tissues to maintain a high level of output.

One of the interesting things I learned from the Brain Quick article is that proper hydration actually increases the ph of the blood and enables the blood to deliver oxygen to the tissues more efficiently.  

So superhydration is a cool thing to understand and to put into practice.

We now know that there are many benefits to drinking lots of water.

Get started.

Related links:

• Superhydration to be healthy - loose weight and build muscle

- Superhydration to be healthy - loose weight and build muscle: Drinking lots of water referred to as…

• Mass Confusion: Which Supplements Are Worth Their Weight

- This “superhydration” of fluid in the muscle cells allows more nutrients to help repair and grow tissue. Try taking 3-5 grams pre and post workout with your whey shakes. Again, the pre workout dose will prime the muscles so they will be …

Keep your eyes open for the news…

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(Please feel free to listen to this recording if you prefer.)

There are three basic reasons I decided to write this post…

First: Lots of People Think Eating "Health Food" Is Like a Punishment

If things are fun people tend to do them - and vice versa. Many people have the perception that healthy food is not fun. There is some type of association with health food as being boring or tasteless or monotonous.

One reason is that many people think vegetarian fare is dull. When properly prepared vegetables and fruits offer a wonderful variety of flavors and textures. Over the years some of the healthiest people I have known are vegetarians, and they are rarely - if ever - overweight.

Another reason for this belief may be rooted in the many failed attempts in the food industry. Things like making potato chips with less fat that taste terrible. Or maybe from eating tofu raw the first time on a salad without seasoning it properly. Fat tastes good, low-fat does not as a rule - or at least not as good.

A lot of this stems from poor recipes and from diet habits that have been handed down to kids from their parents. Fewer families than ever enjoy cooking together and sharing their love of good food and interactive meals. Good cuisine is becoming a lost art and more and more families rely on fast food restaurants for many meals on the run during the busy work week.

These kinds of experiences do not reflect my experience - because I love healthy food. But I also have a fairly well developed palate and love good tasting foods. My experience is that - although it has taken time - we have learned how to eat foods we love that are: 

• balanced nutritionally
• provide all the energy our busy lifestyles require and
• really taste good

Second: Eating Should Be Associated With Fun and Feeling Good

Part of healthy eating - and a lifestyle of health and abundance - is tied to sharing good food and good times with family and friends. Laughing together and sharing companionship and enjoying the time and exchange in the repast - a modern day version of a feast on a different scale.

In many respects, we have taken the fun out of eating by taking the communication out of the experience, by being in too big a hurry to relax and enjoy the food and by relying so heavily as a culture on FAST FOOD.

There is no reason why fast food has to be junk food - with "CHEAP FILLER CALORIES" and very little nutritional food value.

We owe it to our kids to have fun with healthy food.

Third: A News Article in the New Milford Times: Healthy Food: a Tough Sell

This is a disturbing article in a way because it's pretty demonstrative of the culture we have created in our kids about food. I wrote about this article on Newsvine healthy-food-a-tough-sell. But at least somebody is starting to address the issue publicly.

Why not create the association in children's minds that having fun with healthy food:

• is what cool kids do
• feels really good to feel really good
• makes you smarter (brain food)
• makes you happy
• makes people like you

Mc Donalds got this right a long time ago…

At least the happy part.

They created Ronald McDonald and "Happy Meals".

The first version of the origin of Ronald McDonald involves Willard Scott , who performed using the moniker "Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown" in 1963 on three separate television spots. These were the first three television ads featuring the character…

We know this concept works because we now several generations of "fast fooders" that were kids in the 60's who grew up knowing they'll be happy if they eat enough McDonald's food. In 45+ years, I think I may have eaten maybe 12 burgers from McDonalds personally. I ate the fries quite a few times. Almost always it was when I was traveling and there was nothing else open late at night.

Since we know this template works, let's apply the template to having fun with healthy food.

Let me give you examples…

When my first daughter was about to be born, I sold my house in California and drove to Summertown, TN to Steven Gaskin's Farm to have the baby naturally without hospitals or drugs.

At the time, the midwives at The Farm had already delivered over 2500 babies with less than 3 % c-section.

Children and Fresh Organic Fruits

While we were there, I used to drive from Summertown to Nashville (about 60 miles away) and bring back fresh organic fruits for the kids who lived in the house where I was staying as a guest.

Talk about having fun…

As soon as the kids would hear my van coming down the drive, they all got excited and came out to greet me. I felt like the Pied Piper…

I'd pull out a ripe organic watermelon and take it to the picnic table behind the house. In no time there would be 8-10 kids stuffing their face into and slurping a big piece of watermelon.

Now this was fun. There was joy and laughter and happy kids - this was truly having fun with healthy food.

(This picture is not an actual picture from the Farm but seemed to convey the message quite well.)

Baking Fresh Organic Wheat Bread

Another example was baking organic whole wheat bread (using the double rise recipe from Laurel's Kitchen) on Sunday mornings before my kids got up and watching them walk down the hall rubbing their eyes saying, "Dad can I have some bread ?" as the smell of fresh baked bread wafted through the house. They loved that bread and usually consumed a loaf or two - hot with butter - before the eat-fest was finished.

Learn how to cook healthy recipes, which of your local restaurants serve a healthy menu and find out about using a Vitamix for natural raw food fruit desserts, enzyme rich soups and refreshing health drinks of all kinds.

Get involved. Start learning how to prepare and learn about having fun with healthy foods - and share what you find out with your friends and family. Start holding your school district and politicians who represent you accountable for child nutrition in your schools. Suggest healthy recipes for your church functions and athletic events.

Here are some other links about having fun with healthy food:

• Market Bounty

- Farmer’s Markets are a healthy cooking lover’s best friend. So much fresh, healthy food it’s hard to avoid super healthy meals! My parents are big market people so I’ve gone all my life and have been surrounded by yummy market produce. …

• Xbox 360 Sponsors National Family Fitness Day [Fitness]

- If ingredient contents sound too complicated, it is probably not a healthy choice. Get the whole family involved in meal preparation. It can be fun time spent together, and it is certainly healthier than fast-food alternatives. …

• 100 Simple Ways to Change Your Life for the Better

- Cut down on junk food: Junk food has a nasty way of bringing your health down, so avoid it whenever possible, opting instead for healthy food like fresh fruits and vegetables. Practice good dental hygiene: Researchers have found that …

• Developing Healthy Eating Habits Amongst Kids

- Activities like shopping for food and preparing meals are fun time for children. Both, parents and children learn about each other’s food preferences and enjoy the time spent together. what do you eat on the fat smash diet. …

• Life Extension By Eating Blackberries?

- Having that colorful plate also helps our children learn the importance of eating a variety of foods. And discovering which foods they like in each part of the color pallet can be an adventure ? and fun ? for them. …

• Eating Healthy in Wisconsin with Nutritious Sauerkraut Pork Chops

- Because of its nutrition and long shelf-life, sauerkraut has been a staple food of peoples in northern climates for centuries. From Germany to northern China our ancestors survived and prospered with fermented cabbage. …

Having fun with healthy food can be a family experience, a school experience or a personal experience. Personally I prefer all three.

Read the article here: Healthy Obsession

This is great and I applaud Andrea for such dedication and clarity of purpose. It's great to see the martial arts move into the Boomer arena.

This should be the model of the 50+ generation instead of those images projected by the media of illness instead of wellness. A fit 63 year old female martial artist in a Karate gee is a much better picture to me than the projections of advertisers of people:

• in pain or
• in wheelchairs or
• waiting in line to buy "long term health care" insurance before it's too late

Frankly I think working out at the Dojo several times a week is the best long term health care insurance she could probably buy anyway.

Great job. You get my vote as Healthy Boomer of the month.
 
A big thumbs up - keep it up Andrea!

What a great healthy obsession.

Watch this video and see how you feel afterwards? This video is a hoot.

Have you ever wanted to make mince meat out of a telemarketer? Check this out.

This came to me via a post on Facebook from Dov Baron - who has a great sense of humor and actually does some really interesting work you may want to check out.

This reminds me of the comedian (forget which one) who was staying in the hotel where they were hosting a telemarketer's convention. This guy stayed up most of the night randomly calling telemarketers staying at the hotel trying to sell them something.

Every once in a while it feels good to laugh.

My Sifu always used to say, "If there is no laughter, there is no truth."

Humor is a key ingredient for health.

A friend of mine is starting a new blog starting up about cookware at:

Cookware Reviews

and I really like topic because I am fond of cooking and Stainless Cookware. About 6 months ago my lovely and I bought an 18/10 Stainless Steel 5 Qt Tramontina pan from Brazil and we love this pan. One of the finest cooking experiences of my life. We got it at Costco and when we went back to get a second, they had been removed from stock. Fabulous pan though with a beautiful stainless lid too.

I love Copper Chef - bought my first set in 1977 on lay away - took six  months to pay for it.

The blog reminded me of the cooking shows form the 60's which I haven't thought about about in a quite a while.

And I learned how to cook omelets from Graham Kerr when I was 11 (sick home from school one time) on the Galloping Gourmet. Definitely a baby boomer thing.

The blog reminded me of that show…

Also another wonderful Chef is Jacques Pepin who I used to watch on PBS regularly with Juliet Child. His cook books are nice - but mostly I like his cooking style and his approach to food.

Good pans make the food better. My fiancee and I had a discussion about Feng Shui and Wealth this morning on the phone which was triggered by a pdf file I got from Mercola.com today.

The pans make a difference in the way the energy is brought out in the finished food. This is something I have been aware of for many years and I think it plays a big role in how satisfying the food is and how enjoyable the meal becomes. We regard food and food preparation as a spiritual event and we are conscious of gratitude and nourishment both as we prepare food and partake in the meals. This definitely plays a role in a healthy lifestyle and the creation of healthy food.

Stainless steel cookware and copper clad cookware are really awesome.

I have tried a lot of stuff…

But automation and systems seem to be the way to get this done most effectively. Don't try to learn it all - like I have since 1997.

You must learn to:

• delegate
• automate and
• systemitize

How would you really like to get internet marketing explained so you could figure out how to really be a success? A complete step by step internet marketing package that anybody can make sense out of.

I'm not sure of al the details here yet because I just found out about this, so check out this video and see what you think. It's about two minutes. But I trust the source…

Let me know and there will be a pdf that goes with this soon.

As far as a 'burn' goes in a workout, I get results very quickly with a Total Gym.

Chuck Norris's Workout Equipment Choice

You know the machine that Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley have endorsed for a long time.

By the way, I read Chuck Norris's book, "Against All Odds" a couple of years ago. Not a literary masterpiece - but a really interesting story - having been a Chuck Norris fan since 1971, it was nice to learn more about his life, his integrity and how he grew his own success story.

But I mention this here because in the book, he tells the story of how he became a Total Gym enthusiast. At the time, Norris was scheduled for shoulder surgery. He was approached by the manufacturers of the Total Gym. They asked him to try working out with their machine prior to the medical procedure. He agreed, postponed the operation and got such good results he never did have the need to get shoulder surgery. He has sworn by the Total Gym ever since.

He offered to endorse the product for 'no compensation' because he liked the product so much. Instead Total Gym made him a spokesperson - and he still is today.

John Carleo - The Ultimate Role Model For Baby Boomer Workouts

John Carleo is pretty amazing. He is the trainer in the instruction video that came with my first Total Gym. I found out later that at age 50, he broke the World Power Lifting record. But he didn't use free weights for training and his only training equipment was the Total Gym.

From his website we learn that  a couple of years ago, he did something even more amazing, at age 60 he set another world record:

"On February 12, 2005 in Oklahoma City I set new American and World  power lifting records and actually lifted more weight than I did 10 years ago at age 50. Once again I used my 6 to 8 minute a day training program exclusively."

And more specifcally John Carleo says:

I believe 6 to 8 minutes of exercise a day on Total Gym is all that is needed by any one including professional athletes. I'm in my sixties and pound for pound I'm stronger than most 300lb professional football players. My total weight lifted at age 62 at the Nationals was 1003 pounds, 6.27 times my body weight. A 300 pound football player would have to lift 1,881 pounds (6.27 times his body weight) to beat me. I don’t think there are many, if any, that could and that’s why I believe Total Gym and my video should be in every home in America.

Now that's saying something. By all standards that makes John an expert by my way of thinking and I hereby commit to fully implementing his training regimens back into my daily schedule by January 31, 2008. There's something else that's really cool too. If equipment is not in your current budget, John created a video for a superior workout using only a chair and a towel. So he's got something for everybody. If you'd like more info about John Carleo's training videos or would like to get your own Total Gym, go to John Carleo.

The thing I like about John's training videos is that his program meet my criteria for physical training to enable the greatest number of people to benefit and burn fat. And he's just so straight forward and easy to understand in the videos.

The Total Gym workout is a subtle and yet very comprehensive process. When I followed the instruction videos that came with the machine, I felt a good solid burn in about 5-7 minutes consistently.

In addition, I like this machine because it is very effective for creating limber muscle tone and a really comprehensive stretching and flexibility. I think this machine can be calibrated to almost any physical body type to create an effective program for each individual.

Another benefit I really like is that it creates useable strength like Gung Fu practice does.

I’ve never understood the advantage of 30 inch biceps if you can not effectively scratch your own shoulder.

Relax guys – just a joke…

Here are some related links about the total gym…

• Wesley Snipes Prison Workout

- You might have seen him on TV informercials selling the Total Gym. Now, I know about 90% of the fitness stuff on TV is pure garbage, but I happen to like the Total Gym. In fact, I own one. It’sa great way to work the pulling movements …

• Phase 3 Complete

- The weather was so good I pulled out the Total Gym on the roof and did some exercises in the sun. I couldn't believe how quickly and easily I burned. No, I didn't use any sunscreen at all, like a fool. But I was only up there for around …

• Total Gym

- I see the commercials for the Total Gym all of the so I decided to try it. It was a good idea. I tried it for the first time yesterday and I must say I was impressed. The movements were smooth and it provided an excellent workout. …

• The Wall Street Journal Gives Exercise Equipment A Workout

- The Total Gym- Next the folks down at the Journal tried out the Total Gym. I thought this test was unfair. Apparently they found a bottom of the line Total Gym at Wal-Mart and tested it. They found it to be flimsy but said it did …

The Total Gym Is a Fun and Easy Way To Be Healthy