Einstein's Brain (really!)

(taken from Mark Sisson's Daily Apple)

Nourish your noggin. Here are 10 excellent foods that enhance hormone production, brain chemistry, memory, mood, and cognition. Think of these foods as brainiac batteries. (Solutions to Sudoku not included.)

10. Omelet

Eggs contain choline, one of the superstar brain nutrients. Choline is necessary to produce acetylcholine, which plays a critical role in memory. (Studies have linked acetylcholine deficiences to memory loss and Alzheimer’s.)

9. Smart Oils: Olive, Walnut, Avocado, Flax

A no-brainer! Er, wait…

These oils are far superior to canola, corn and soy oils, which contain Omega-6 fats rather than the brainy Omega-3’s. Dunk and drench everything (edible) in sight.

8. Tempeh

Tempeh is a smart protein that helps stabilize your blood sugar. And because it’s fermented, you get an extra health boost!  Meatatarians can get a brain boost from grass-fed beef, which provides plenty of energizing and balancing B vitamins.

7. Flax Seeds

So they aren’t exactly truffles, but flax seeds are a true super food.  Use them sparingly until you adjust to the taste.  It’s worth it to cultivate your taste buds because flax seeds are literally made of nothing but fiber, vitamins, and Omega-3’s. (Flax seeds are a must for vegetarians!)

6. Beans

Beans contain B vitamins, “slow” carbohydrates, and plenty of fiber.  Fiber has been shown to improve cognition. Get some in that stomach!

5. Greek Yogurt

Yogurt – the really fattening kind – contains tyrosine. Tyrosine perks you up and improves mental alertness.  But avoid those sugary yogurts!  Can’t find Greek yogurt?  Look for “European style” yogurts (essentially the same thing).

4. Vegetable-Packed Salad

A big, flavorful salad is full of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.  Your brain really loves antioxidants C and E, so pack that puppy with nuts, seeds, olive oil, bell peppers, broccoli and fruit, too.

3. Strawberries and Blueberries

These fruits contain antioxidants that help boost cognition, coordination, and memory.  Eat some berries daily if you can!  They go great with that yogurt I know you’re already eating from above.  Yes?

2. Nuts

Almonds make a perfect smart snack. Not only will the sensible mix of fiber, protein, and fat stabilize flagging blood sugar, but the vitamins and minerals in nuts (B, E, magnesium, and more) are excellent for your grey matter!

1. Oily fish

This is probably the single most important element required for optimal brain health. The brain is 60% fat, but it doesn’t like processed fats, trans fat, or Omega-6 fats. Your brain needs those Omega-3’s! Oily fish like wild Alaskan salmon, mackerel, and tuna contain DHA (docosahexanoic acid), the best form of Omega-3.  Increased Omega-3 intake has been linked to alleviation of a spectrum of mental health concerns, from anxiety and irritability to depression and even schizophrenia.  Go fish!

From the Brain Food Pyramid: “Essentially, fats build your brain, and proteins unite it. Carbohydrates fuel your brain, and micronutrients defend it.”

Remember: the best source of carbohydrates is produce, not refined starches, sweets, and grains.

How often do you eat these smart foods?  If you're looking for more nutrition and exercise/fitness help give us a call:  (805) 440-0215 or email us at info@athlonelite.com.  We're here to help!

From Dr. John Berardi at Precision Nutrition

Forget The Milk – Got Fiber?

With the “Got Milk” campaign bombarding people with milk messages I kinda wish I had access to that milk money to promote some other stuff, stuff that actually helps folks get leaner and healthier. For example, fiber. If more people focused on fiber (instead of milk), overall health in North America would improve dramatically.

So, why am I so high on fiber? Well, first of all, let me tell you what fiber is all about. Fiber is basically an indigestible nutrient – the two main types being soluble and insoluble.  Since soluble fiber is the kind most beneficial, I’ll focus on that type here.

Soluble fiber is the kind of fiber that dissolves in water and absorbs water.  Once you eat it, the body turns it into a kind of thick, viscous gel, which moves very slowly through your body.  This is a good thing as soluble fiber fills you up and keeps you fuller longer, providing that sensation of fullness we call satiety.

In addition to these benefits, soluble fiber also slows the absorption of glucose (sugar) into the body.  This means you’re going to avoid those nasty sugar highs and lows.  Last but not least, fiber inhibits the re-absorption of bile into the system.  Bile is a fat emulsifier and therefore if you inhibit bile re-absorption, your liver needs to get its cholesterol fix from your blood.  This means lower blood-serum cholesterol levels.

With its ability to lower blood sugar, decrease blood cholesterol, increase satiety, and improve colon health, the important question isn’t “Got Milk?”  The important question is “Got Fiber?”

Getting More Fiber In The Diet

How can you get more fiber in your diet?  Well, rather than using fiber supplements, which simply aren’t necessary, the easiest way is to eat fiber-rich foods such as oats, fruits, veggies, and, perhaps most importantly, legumes.  And I say legumes are the most important because they offer the most fiber per calorie when compared to other foods.

For example, lentils offer about 30g of fiber for every 60g of carbs.  That’s a 1g of fiber for every 2g of carbohydrate.  Oats, on the other hand, offer only about 10g of fiber for every 60g of carbohydrate.  That’s 1g of fiber for every 6g of carbohydrate.  From this it should be clear that if you want to eat a high fiber diet without overloading on carbs, legumes are the way to go.

No Longer The Magical Fruit

Of course, legumes have a bad reputation for producing both auditory and olfactory offense. Guilty as charged, the seemingly innocuous legume has been the source of many bouts of embarrassment, anguish, and undoubtedly the source material for some of the best movie quotes of all time. “I fart in your general direction” will immediately ring a bell for Monty Python fans.

What is the source for such noxious miasma? Beans pass very slowly through our digestive tracts while we try to break down the complex carbohydrates contained in beans – known as oligosaccharides. The problem is that we do not have the particular enzymes in our digestive tracts needed to break down these sugars, so they just sit there fermenting in our gut, thus producing the unwanted side effects.

Fortunately, proper soaking significantly reduces oligosaccharide content, as well as total sugars and starch.  In particular, soaking with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) causes remarkable reduction in these sugars and starches.

Although some people claim that soaking beans in a baking soda solution damages their nutritive properties, a study found that a  sodium bicarbonate solution reduced only antinutritional factors, while protein digestibility was actually increased. (It should be noted that lentils and split peas do not need to be soaked.) Also, most people experience much less flatulence with lentils and split peas than other varieties of legumes, which is a huge bonus since they lead the pack in the carb:fiber ratio.

To soak beans, first rinse them, then place them in a large pot and add water at a 4 to 1 ratio (water to beans). Allow the beans to soak anywhere between 12 to 24 hours at room temperature for the best results.  After soaking, drain and rinse the beans, pouring all of those nasty anti-nutrients down the drain.  Then you’re ready to cook them up.

Stay-tuned to the Athlon Elite blog-site for more strategies, tips and recipes that will assuredly improve your health, physique, and performance.

I read an interesting article yesterday by John Berardi, PhD on protein intake in your diet.  Now, as you all know from reading my blog and working with me in the past, I recommend a higher protein intake, up around 30%+ of our total daily food intake, for athletes as well as general fitness enthusiasts trying to lose body fat.

There are a number of reasons for this (which you can read below).  But, according to Dr. Berardi there have been two recently published studies on protein intake that have gotten a bunch of people arguing against high protein intakes.  For you research nerds (like me) here are the references:

• Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009.

• A moderate serving of high-quality protein maximally stimulates skeletal muscle protein synthesis in young and elderly subjects. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2009.

What these two research studies are saying, in a nutshell, is that protein synthesis in the muscles (building of muscle) was maximally stimulated at 20 to 30 grams of protein intake per meal.  And eating over 20 to 30 grams of protein in a single sitting did not increase protein synthesis any more than the lower dose… hence 20 to 30 grams should be the upper limit of protein intake per meal.

At least that’s what a bunch of people on the internet are now saying as a result of these two studies.

Well…

Does This Make Any Sense?

Let’s do the math.  If I were to eat 20 grams of protein per meal (5 meals per day) that would give me 100 grams of protein in a day and hence 400 calories worth of food.  Since, my diet regularly needs to be 3000 to 3500 calories per day to fuel my basic job and fitness activities that would mean that protein would only make up about 12% of my total intake.

That’s not very much!

Where would the other 88% of my diet come from…

Carbs or Fat???

Carbohydrate and fatty foods are far less "thermogenic" than protein (meaning they don’t burn as many calories to digest and hence don’t raise your metabolism as much).  And, they tend to affect your body fat composition more negatively than protein (hence more frowns in the mirror).

Typically, protein rich foods are also very rich in other vitamins, minerals and compounds which are very beneficial to your health and performance, (see below).  Plus, building muscle and losing fat is not the only reason to consume protein in every meal.  There’s satiety and the positive effects it has on your immune system.

And, there’s probably a few other reasons too that science hasn’t yet figured out how to measure.  There’s no doubt that our hunter/gatherer ancestors, whom had to be very healthy individuals just to survive, ate a bunch more protein than a measly 20 grams in a sitting.  And I know from being in the sports performance and fitness industry for over 15 years now that when a client trains hard and they up their protein intake they do better.  Simple as that.

Other Benefits of Protein Intake:

Here’s a more comprehensive list of the positive benefits of eating protein (lots of protein) taken from an article Dr. John Berardi wrote a while back:

• Increased Thermic Effect of Feeding — While all macronutrients require metabolic processing for digestion, absorption, and storage or oxidation, the thermic effect of protein is roughly double that of carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, eating protein is actually thermogenic and can lead to a higher metabolic rate. This means greater fat loss when dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding/muscle building.
• Increased Glucagon — Protein consumption increases plasma concentrations of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for antagonizing the effects of insulin in adipose tissue, leading to greater fat mobilization. In addition, glucagon also decreases the amounts and activities of the enzymes responsible for making and storing fat in adipose and liver cells. Again, this leads to greater fat loss during dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.
• Metabolic Pathway Adjustment – When a higher protein (20-50% of intake) is followed, a host of metabolic adjustments occur.  These include: a down regulation of glycolysis, a reduction in fatty acid synthesis enzymes, increase in gluconeogenesis, a carbohydrate “draining” effect where carbons necessary for ridding the body of amino nitrogen is drawn from glucose.
• Increased IGF-1 — Protein and amino-acid supplementation has been shown to increase the IGF-1 response to both exercise and feeding. Since IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone that’s related to muscle growth, another advantage associated with consuming more protein is more muscle growth when overfeeding and/or muscle sparing when dieting.
• Reduction in Cardiovascular Risk — Several studies have shown that increasing the percentage of protein in the diet (from 11% to 23%) while decreasing the percentage of carbohydrate (from 63% to 48%) lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations with concomitant increases in HDL cholesterol concentrations.
• Improved Weight-Loss Profile —Research by Layman and colleagues has demonstrated that reducing the carbohydrate ratio from 3.5 – 1 to 1.4 – 1 increases body fat loss, spares muscle mass, reduces triglyceride concentrations, improves satiety, and improves blood glucose management (Layman et al 2003 — If you’re at all interested in protein intake, you’ve gotta go read the January and February issues of the Journal of Nutrition. Layman has three interesting articles in the two journals).
• Increased Protein Turnover — All tissues of the body, including muscle, go through a regular program of turnover. Since the balance between protein breakdown and protein synthesis governs muscle protein turnover, you need to increase your protein turnover rates in order to best improve your muscle quality. A high protein diet does just this. By increasing both protein synthesis and protein breakdown, a high protein diet helps you get rid of the old muscle more quickly and build up new, more functional muscle to take its place.
• Increased Nitrogen Status — Earlier I indicated that a positive nitrogen status means that more protein is entering the body than is leaving the body. High protein diets cause a strong positive protein status and when this increased protein availability is coupled with an exercise program that increases the body’s anabolic efficiency, the growth process may be accelerated.
• Increased Provision of Auxiliary Nutrients — Although the benefits mentioned above have related specifically to protein and amino acids, it’s important to recognize that we don’t just eat protein and amino acids — we eat food. Therefore, high protein diets often provide auxiliary nutrients that could enhance performance and/or muscle growth. These nutrients include creatine, branched chain amino acids, conjugated linoleic acids, and/or additional nutrients that are important but remain to be discovered.  And don’t forget the vitamins and minerals we get from protein rich foods. (And lest anyone think I’m a shill for the protein powder industry, this last point clearly illustrates the need to get most of your protein from food, rather than supplements.)

The Take Home Message

Clearly from the list above it’s apparent that we eat protein for a number of reasons and not just to build muscle.  People that eat a higher, lean protein intake through natural foods (not just protein powders, which do come in handy at certain times of the day) have a better health profile than those that live by the minimums… 20 grams per meal or 0.8 g/kg/day.

If you’re concerned about your diet and whether or not you’re getting adequate protein to reach your fitness and health goals call us for a FREE consultation.  We’ll discuss your current nutrition habits and show you how you can alter those to be more successful at losing weight and gaining lean muscle…

and being really healthy like we were intended to be!

Call (805) 440-0215 or click here to set up a FREE consultation.

www.SLOPersonalTraining.com/consult

Until next time,

Ryan

More reading on protein for athletes: 

http://www.athlonelite.com/2008/10/the-secret-of-optimal-sports-nutrition/

  Posted by Amy Kistler, Certified Personal Trainer at Athlon Elite

Yes, it is Halloween and candy is everywhere.  Just because you decided to get bags of those small candy bars doesn’t mean you tricked yourself into eating any less than a whole candy bar. At an average of about 100 calories a pop, these popular fun-size treats can really add up quickly!

The bars that hide the most calories are those that contain peanut butter, coconut, chocolate, caramel, and nuts, say’s Registered Dietitian Sarah Haan.

Hmmmm, that pretty much sounds like ALL OF THEM!!!

When these "insulin poppers" are present and you’re anything like me… you find yourself saying, "just one more, or one extra won’t hurt, or my kids aren’t going to eat all of these."

Well, don’t do it.  These babies will sabotage your fitness goals (and health in general) so fast and will completely frustrate you and your efforts toward that lean, thin, sexy body… as well as…

Just don’t do it!  Read the fun-sized candy labels before throwing out the wrapper so you’re not just eating them blindly; first, these calories count…

Example:
Two Mini-Snickers
90cals
4g Fat
12g sugar

It would take about 40 minutes of brisk walking just to burn off the two tiny candy bars.  Is it worth it??!  As they say… "a moment on the lips, a life-time on the hips!"

 Secondly, these little corn syrup nightmares will:

• cause energy spikes and dips,
• increase your chances of diabetes and metabolic diseases
• rot your teeth
• decrease your bone density and muscle performance due to increased acidity in your body
• make you even hungrier
• distract you from getting your work done because you keep being pulled toward the candy dish, over and over and over again
• waste your money (on the candy and the medical/fitness services you’ll have to spend extra on because of the above reasons
• etc., etc., etc.!

Artichoke Dip with Carrot Fingers (carrot sticks with almond slivers)

Take time this Halloween to be aware of what you are putting into your body and come up with some better alternatives.  Like:

Drinks

• Spooky Fruit Spritzer (a touch of fruit juice in sparkling water with floating blueberries or black grapes… or plastic spiders frozen in ice-cubes!)
• Tomato juice with "carrot fingers" (see above)

Main Dishes Fit for a Monster

• Monster meatballs (find a recipe without sugary sauces)
  
• Monster vomit (Chicken or Egg Salad in small bibb/endive leaves)

Spooky Sides  (children are not for the faint of heart or stomach)

• Veggies & Monster Snot (guacamole)
  
• Eyeballs (olives)
  
• Monster fingers (see above) and artichoke dip

Treats

• Keep it to dark chocolate
  
• Trail mixes
  
• Fruit related snacks like fruit leathers, raisins or real fruit roll-ups
  

Consider dollar store items to help decorate and make the "healthy" food fun for the kids.  Fill ‘em up on this stuff first then set them loose on the neighborhood if you must.

And for you…

Well if you do decide to indulge in the delicious chocolate…

come into Athlon Elite & LET US HELP YOU BURN IT OFF!!!

Here’s an example of a "Spooky Halloween Workout" that I guarantee will BURN it off.

 The Freaky Fat Loss Workout
(do Saturday morning before Halloween indulgences)

Perform each of the below exercises 8 times for :20 seconds on, then :10 seconds rest:

• Box jumps or body weight squats
  

• Sit-ups
  

• Lateral Lunges
  

• Push-ups
  

Then go for a 20 minute moderate-paced walk or jog

 Work hard and have some fun!!!

 Click here for a private fitness & nutrition consultation with an Athlon Elite Lead Trainer

The world of health and fitness is constantly changing as new research and technology is released, and we at Athlon Elite are always testing and improving the services and products we offer based on this.  It is our mission to continually strive to make things simpler, easier, faster and better for you, our clients.  This is how we can offer a money back guarantee on everything we do.

As you all SHOULD know by now, you get out of your body what you put in to it!  So, you should be puting the best possible nutrition into it, including nutritional supplements.  After a long and tedious process of sampling and researching the best products out there we have decided to change Athlon Elite’s supplement line to Jarrow Formulas.

There are a few reasons for doing this but a big one is independent laboratory testing.  Jarrow Formulas’ products have been backed by an independent testing laboratory, people that are not affilitated with the company that test the products for:

• Content  (it has what it says it has in it),
  
• Purity (it has good quality of content), and
  
• Additives (it doesn’t contain illegal or banned substances).
  

  Posted by Amy Kistler, Certified Personal Trainer at Athlon Elite

I have to admit, I love sushi. Back on Labor Day a group of my friends and I got together and went out to dinner at a local sushi restaurant.  And it was painfully obvious that sushi is my… "WEAKNESS FOOD."

Once I start, it’s VERY difficult for me to stop!

   If you’re trying to lose weight or just keep your body fat down you have to be very careful about your "weakness foods."

Here are nine strategies from Sarah Haan, registered dietitian, to help prevent you from over-eating and sticking to your calorie count… even if it’s your "weakness food!"

1. Enjoy every bite – SLOW DOWN RELAX AND ENJOY YOUR FOOD. Set a timer and see how long it takes you to eat your food. It should take you at least 20 minutes to finish a meal.
   
2. Use smaller plates, cups and bowls – DON”T LET YOUR EYES BE BiGGER THAN YOUR MOUTH!  Research shows this to really work. You’d be surprised by how much we Americans let external cues govern our eating habits rather than internal cues like, "I feel full!"
   
3. Pre-portion your food – DON’T EAT STRAIGHT FROM THE BAG, you’ll almost always over eat.  Put one serving on a small plate or bowl and then proceed to eat.
   
4. Know Your Pitfals – WHAT IS YOUR FOOD WEAKNESS? Make a list of your "weakness foods" and where you come across them. Write down solutions to avoid these foods and how to deal with them.
   
5. Keep a food journal – WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING YOU EAT AND PORTION SIZE.  Athlon Elite sells a very easy and useful log that will definitely help you keep your eating down to the exact science!  Even if you don’t list protion sizes, calories, proteins, fat, etc., at least list what foods you eat.
   
6. Use the proper plate method – Fill half our plate with disease fighting vegetables, a quarter with lean protein and a ¼ with whole grains… and make sure it’s a small dish!
   
7. Pack in the protein – Protein helps increase feeling of fullness because it takes longer to digest. It also burns a lot of calories digesting it. A good rule is to eat at least a "palm-sized" portion of complete protein EVERY time you eat!
   
8. Doggy bag it – Almost every restaurants serves you more than one serving. It’s true we aren’t going ot eat every meal at home. Ask your server to put half the meal on your plate and the other half, in a to-go box!
   
9. Eat Breakfast – Studies show that people who eat breakfast have a lower BMI and consume fewer calories compared to people who don’t eat breakfast. If you aren’t hungry in the morning at first, start small (Yogurt, grapefruit, banana, half an avocado, etc.).

Follow these tricks and I guarantee you’ll eat less. I dare you to try it!

And if you’d like more help figuring out your diet, click the link below and sign-up for a FREE private consultation with a Lead Trainer at Athlon Elite and we’ll point you in the right direction…

CLICK HERE

(and if you hurry you’ll be able to take advantage of some super cheap special deals we’ll be having this weekend for our Client Appreciation Party!)

from Dr. John Berardi’s kitchen

In Athon Elite’s most recent Elite Newsletter I talk about calorie density and how most people don’t realize how dense with calories their daily food favorites are, (i.e., your typical fast food value meal vs. 18 apples… both 1300 calories but I bet you can’t eat 18 apples in one sitting)!

How dense is the calorie content in your meals?  Are you eating very calorie dense foods like hamburgers and chili-cheese fries or less dense stuff like stir-fry’s, apples and carrot sticks?

According to Dr. John Berardi most humans eat around 3-5 pounds of food per day, (compared to an elephant which will eat about 360 pounds per day).

Pictured above is about 3.7 pounds of food… a full day’s worth.  Clockwise starting in the upper right he’s got:

• 2 lentil burgers, steamed broccoli
• Peaches & blueberries
• Raw buckwheat granola with hempseeds and flax
• Roasted garbanzos & goji berries
• Sprouted grain bread with peanut butter
• Lettuce & kale
• Celery, carrots, zucchini

As we reach around 4 pounds of food in a day, we start feeling satisfied, and not really hungry any more.

Now, this can be 4 pounds of celery… or it can be 4 pounds of candy bars!

You see, it’s not the calories that count for making you full and satisfied, it’s the total volume/poundage that counts. But obviously there’s some pretty big nutrition differences between 4 pounds of celery and 4 pounds of Snickers bars!

So, as Berardi says…

what’s in your 4 pounds?!

For more discussion on this read up on the Elite Newsletter this week.  And, if you don’t already get our regular bi-monthly Elite Newsletter subscribe by filling out the information below:

   Posted by Travis Harwood, CSCS, Lead Personal Trainer at Athlon Elite

Many of us love our Starbucks, but did you know that a vente’ café’ latte’ runs you around 300 calories with almost half of those calories coming from saturated, nasty fat; WHAT A WASTE!!!

   Well, our very own Kristen Longcrier (who, by the way, showed a decrease of 5% body fat in her last evaluation) has come up with an amazing combination we have now coined “the Longcrier Latte’.”

The recipe is simple:

• - 16oz of your favorite home-brewed coffee (hot or cold)
  
• - 1.5 scoops of your Athlon Elite whey protein isolate (chocolate or vanilla, whichever you prefer).
  
• - If you are drinking it cold put the whole thing in a shaker and shake it up!!!
  
• - If you are drinking it hot, mix the protein in a few ounces of coffee or water first then dump it in and stir!!!

I also like to add a little coffee mate French Vanilla Creamer (fat free 5g of carbs) to give it a little extra sweetness!!!

The whole drink yields 102.5 calories of "thermic" metabolism-boosting high quality whey protein…

and less than 1g of sugar!!!  (unless you add the creamer which bumps it a little)

NOW THAT’S WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT!

AND IT’S DELICIOUS I MIGHT ADD… IN FACT THIS WHOLE BLOG WAS "FUELED" BY ONE OF THOSE BEAUTIES!!!

Thanks Kristen, and keep up the good work!!!