how toxic are you?

Cancer is a new disease, so are diabetes, syndrome X, "heart disease" and host of other impediments that did not exist 1000 or so years ago.

Free Radicals, rancid fats, undigestable foods, irradiated foods, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and other toxic substances are prevalent in everywhere in our daily lives, from the toothpastes we use to the grass fed beef we think we are eating that is serving us.

Cosmetics:
Our skin is our largest organ, and it will pretty much start to absorb anything it comes in contact with, eventually some of that "stuff" will enter our body and our circulation. That said, isn't it interesting to see how many cosmetic products on the market today that are meant to be applied to the skin are not supposed to be consumed by mouth? What got me thinking about this was an excerpt I read from an upcoming book by Myra Mychelle Eby, founder of Mychelle dermaceuticals(www.mychelleusa.com). She brings the point to the table that we should be able to eat anything that we are going to put on the body - the sking, hair etc.
There is a host of "toxic" ingredients used by the cosmetic industry, some of the more problematic ones are EDTA, parabens and propylene glycol.

let's take a deeper look at one of them: parabens.
more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabens

basically anything that starts with a methyl, ethyl, propyl etc, these are "esters" of para-hydroxybenzoic acid. I'll save you the chemistry and get down to the problem.
These substances when rubbed onto your body have an estrogenic effect - they disrupt your endocrine system, more estrogen in your body will mean it will be harder for you to lose body fat, get pregnant as well as a host of other issues.

Environmental hazards....
There's a whole bunch of chemicals in your laundry detergents, dishwashing soap, carpets, car seats, etc etc. Now, we can argue that the effects of these chemicals is neglible in the big picture, but think about about the fact that for most hours of the day you are in contact with some for of clothing. Now think about the phosphates and other harsh chemicals in the detergent and maybe the dryer paper that are now sitting around on your clothing, which is touching your skin all day long.

Plastics we might eat from:
I know very vey few people who don't consume hot subtances from some type of disposable container. On occasion, when I get my grilled chicken breast for lunch, if there was cheese on it, I have often experienced the hot cheese burning holes in my styrofoam plate. Thankfully on the most part I have mitigated that problem either by placing the hot chicken on a bed of lettuce or eating the chicken at the salad bar. What about all that coffee and tea that is drunk from disposable plastic or paper cups?
FYI - starbucks: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/09/17/starbucks.ART_ART_09-17-07_A1_IF7U38O.html?sid=101
Even with most cups that appear to be paper based, there is a plastic (usually) polyethylene lining on the cup.

If you are heating a bunch of food up in your favorite plastic tupperware.... you're really asking for it, especially if the food is higher in fat.
The heat and fat litterly absorb checmicals into the food which you then ingest. Let's say per serving of tupperware-heated food we can add 3-5 points on the toxic scale.

Most other food packaging materials will leach some toxicity into you food, how much will be a function of the food, the temperature and the material used.

Now we get to the fun part... food that we cook...
If you aren't already eating "certified organic" then you really should, think of the extra cost as health insurance. There have been tales of conventional fruits and veggies, irradiated and frozen for up to year until the distributor decides they are in season and they appear in the grocery store.

So anyway, let's take a couple of conventionaly veggies for example. most likely,they have been genetically modified to look more colorful and lucious, had artificual nitrogen based fertilizers added to the soil to speed up the growth cycle, been sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides to ensure that little creatures don't get to it before you do, then possibly waxed to give it a slight shine.

Now you buy said veggies and take them home, slice them up, put a table spoon of olive oil in a pan and sautee them with some herbs or whatever.

What you think: "I'm getting a healthy seving of fresh veggies"

What is really going on:
unless you really washed the veggies real good before you cooked it, you are now mutating the toxins even more into a bunch of different substances. Then if you are cooking on your trusty non stick pan, there's some toxicity from the teflon coating on the pan that will enter your food.
Remember also that due to the fact that the veggies are probably not fresh, the enzymatic activity is really low, meaning it will put a higher than necessary burden on your pancreas and other digestive organs to produce extra enzymes to digest and absorb the food.


And that's just from a little veggie, imagine how burdened and toxic your digestive system must get from conventional cooked meat full of hormones and antibiotics?

the problem is that the effects from toxicity do not occur overnight, it might take some months to develop some heartburn or become "intolerant" to something and then slowly as your body is degenerating at a cellular level, free radicals are bombarding you and causing mutations until you reach a point that the body capcity to fight off the free radicals is compromised enough to cause a mutation that will result in one of a bunch of degenerative, auto-immune or life threatening diseases.

A couple of nuggets that might help, most of which are common sense:
- eat organic as much as possible.
- use natural products on yourself and everything you will in contact with, check out Mychelle, Melaleuca and seventh generation
- cook food as little a possible
- take an enzyme blend, preferably from enrichinggifts.com
- take a bunch of anti-oxidants everyday, I take about 2-3g of Vit C, 800IU of Vit E, some grapeseed extract and some greens supplements. (this is probably the most important since you are continually being bombarded by radicals)
- use sunscreen.... unfortunately the ozone layer is damaged and the suns rays are not as therapeutic as you may think.
- Use an internal "cleansing" product every couple of months
- purify your water with a filter before drinking and drink your bodyweight in pounds divided by two in ounces everyday to wash soluble toxins out.

3X BW DL

Finally, the 3X body weight deadlift is mine!
I think the strong man training from the previous months helped tremendously with this.
The lift was done as part of a Crossfit Total trial run at Crossfit Seattle on August 14th.
Body Weight: 172 lbs
bar weight: 517 lbs (235 kg)

What's in your Multi?

I just came out of an amazing weekend of learning around the ingredients used in different supplements, the 2 primary Doctors I had the pleasure of hanging out with are: http://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/faculty/hackman.html
and
http://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/faculty/keen.html

2 astoundingly smart men.

So now on the meat of this post.... what is in you multi vitamin?
All multi vits are not created equal.
thing to look out for in your multi to ensure that you are putting the highest quality, most absorbable and potent nutrients into you body:

Vitamin E - the highest quality and bio active form is d-alpha tocopheryl succinate, ensure it is NOT "dl-alpha..." which is the synthetic form, or is not tocopherly nicotinate, acetate or anything else.

Magnesium - look for Magnesium as amino acid chelate or some other chelated form, citrate is the second best form, all other forms are not as good.

Calcium - again as amino acid chelate or some chelated for. Carbonate is the least well absorbed, citrate is a little better and then there are a couple of other forms somewhere in the middle of the ladder.

These 3 will give you a general idea of the quality of your multi vitamin.
remember that cheaper forms of micro-nutrients simply won't be absorbed and therefore will pass out of your body as they came in or worse, they will build up and cause toxicity in your body!

enjoy the summer! and make sure that if you are out in the heat, you are taking enough potassium or eating some bananas :)

Doctors Drive me Nuts.

Yes yes, my mommy is a doctor too and she sometimes drives me nuts too, but she's my mum so it's ok :)

I just got back from visiting a dermatologist and an allergist.

First the dermatologist:
I'm seeing him about acne and scarring on my shoulders, I've had pretty bad acne in my past and it's gotten better over the years through positive changes in lifestyle, diet and exercise. Some years ago I took a course of iso-tetronin (sp?) and it dried the hell out of my skin, my lips cracked up in massive pain, but my really bad acne subsided considerably.
So the Dermatologist had me on Doryx, a low dose antibiotic for about a month and he's given me a prescription for another 2 months. When I went in today I told him that I had ran out of the stuff for the last 5 days, but that I had noticed my energy levels were way higher when I wasn't taking the meds, even though I was taking pro-biotics.
"taking what?" he asked. He didn't know about pro-biotics, yet he was ok prescribing me Doryx for 2 years straight. I told him that the antibiotics were killing off my intenstinal microflora and that I could literally "feel" it, to which he said " you should probably go and check with a sports medicine doctor about that".(red flag red flag red flag). I asked him about the mechanism of action of the Doryx, he avoided the question and told me that I have 2 options: Doryx straight for like 2 years or more to keep my acne at "bay" or accutane, that that would take 2 weeks to get in due to some federal regulations... I told him I want the fastest most effective solution. He busted out of the room to "collect something" and sent in his assistant with some permits to fill out - i have to read the paperwork, I'm not sure what the permit is for, but I have to go submit some blood tests tomorrow and then go pick up the meds in 2 weeks.
hmm.......

second, the allergist:
I came to see this guy about a year ago when I suspected having an allergy to some sort of pollen. I worked with him for a while since he got a bunch of blood tests done for me including the testing of homocystene levels, anti-oxidant levels and C-reactive protien. I went to see him today because I'm doing an in depth investigation into food allergies, specifically, delayed-onset IgG type food allergies and how they affect weight loss, water retention, depressed energy levels etc etc. He doesn't test for them becuase he claims "there isn't enough scientific evidence to prove the efficacy of these tests" - he knew he just opened a massive can of worms right there and followed up with "maybe you should go see a naturopathic doctor, they believe in this stuff more than I do" - I then asked him for a referral and he is going to get back to me with a contact. The good thing is that he was open to me going to see someone else and was open to finding out about new things / approaches that did work.


so why do doctors drive me nuts?
what did these 2 men have in common? They were both in their forties or early fifties and so have probably been doing this for a while. The problem is that I don't believe they are current in the scientific breakthroughs and/or discoveries that are occuring in the medical world. It seems intuitive that the older a doctor is, the more "experienced" he is. I argue otherwise - that's its probably safer to assume that the older a doctor is the older and more obsolete his knowledge is. One of the first times I came to this realization was just over a year ago when I was back home in Kenya and went to see one of the more famous cardiologists in nairobi. He had put my grandmother on some diuretics in order to reduce her blood pressure, he was also the doc who had treated a bunch of my late uncles who died of heart attacks. (what's wrong with this picture?).
so anwyay, we got into a conversation about heart disease, cholesterol and drugs like Lipitor. I asked him if he had heard about Co-enzyme Q and how statin drugs affect endogenous production of Co Enzyme Q10, which in turn could lead to cardiomyopathy. He had nothing to say.

So just remember that what doctors tell you is NOT THE WORD OF GOD. Most people treat it that way. Get a 2nd opinion, get a 3rd opinion, go to a different country and get an opinion. Definitely talk a doctor in a different age group / generation.

In terms of cholesterol, I'm not going to delve into the details of it in this post, all you need to know is that if you are taking statins and not supplementing with Co Enzyme Q10, you are messing with your hearts oxygen supply at a cellular level and your heart muscles could very well be slowly dying away - a condition that you won't feel or get measured until you drop dead some day on the golf course.

REMEMBER:
The pharmaceutical companies make millions of dollars every year, they give incentives and kick backs to doctors that prescribe their drugs. Moreover, the majority of "prescription" medication is not curative, it holds symtops at bay or masks them in some way. eg. statins go in and mess with your normal cholesterol output whereby dietary changes are a safer and longer term fix.

Cheers to your health!


CoQ10: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenzyme_Q

Air Squat!!!!

My aunt from kenya asked me about un weighted squats the other day.
here'a a link to a video from Crossfit that does a fabulous job of explaining the key points of the air squat:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_AirSquats.wmv

when you can do 50 full depth air squats, start doing tabata squats!!!

example tabata squats:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/sample2tabata.wmv

You should use a medecine ball or some other soft surface if you have an issue with not going deep enough on each rep.

the squat...

If you're going to go to the gym and do one movement only. Let that movement be the Squat.

- Bar is resting on traps
- hands are gripping as close as possible
- elbows tucked back
- back is arched, butt is back, hips are NOT forward
- feet are positioned around shoulder width apart, toes pointed out slightly.
- get full range of motion and come up fast.

here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYddZUIzJ9g

weight on the bar = 325 #


The squat is the king of functional movement. Tight core, full body, full range of motion, etc etc.
There is NO other lower body based movement that comes close.
The leg extension, leg curl and... god forbid... the leg press are all great tools to rehab from injury and they all have a place.... in the physical therapy department.

for example, I hear all sorts of stuff like people trying to "save their back" or "not compress the spine" or whatever, what these people do not realise is that they are increasing their chances of future injury from using machines because for example, the leg press is designed so that the core does not have to remain tight in order to push up the weight (well not compared to the squat anyway) and you your legs may get stronger while your core remains weak, furthermore if you don't develop your body as a UNIT, you will never reach your athletic potential.

start squatting! with weight, without weight, with someone on your shoulders etc, your body will thank you for it.

My bulking blue print

I've been getting some questions about bulking up lately. So here's what I did earlier this year to gain some new (~15 lbs) of muscle.

- I started out eating a lot ... about 3500 calories a day. I then found that this was too much.
- my sweet spot was somewhere between 2500 and 3000 for putting on size, I did put on some fat, but not much (since I was on catalyst)
- I was doing standard bodybuilding type workouts with mostly 5x5's. I was lifting as heavy as possible on most days and ending workouts with some high rep light work to remove the lactic acid and stimulate some Growth Hormone release.
- After Every workout I took Advocare's Post workout recovery shake, I could feel a huge difference on the days that I didn't take it.
- I was eating a lot more carbs than I usually do, around 200 grams a day. For you zoners out there, all I did was make sure that I hit 25 blocks and then I'd eat more if I felt like it.
- Sleep and hydrate more than usual - your body needs more water to get really anabolic, also the extra sleep will help you make superior gains. TO soop up my sleep even more, i was taking 1000mg of Vitamin C at night to buffer cortisol release, and NightTime recovery and some GABA when I remembered.
- Take a BCAA blend. This is probably the most important part of your supplement program in addition to ensuring adequately high levels of protien intake. I shot for at least a gram per pound body weight.
- DO lots of heavy squats. If you don't you won't grow. Period. Oh and you probably want to do some max deadlifts once every 2 weeks or so.
- Every 2 - 3 days I increased my fiber intake and took a fiber drink to help move along all the extra food I was eating.
- Stay active and get in a short run every 3-5 days to ensure that all the extra food is moving smoothly through the digestive system.
- Take a good pro biotic every morning and a digestive enzyme supplement before very large meals. This will help your body actually ABSORB the nutrients you are taking in. Otherwise you could be wasting your time in the gym and in the kitchen.

that's what worked for me. stick to all the points and it will work for you too.
It's been almost a month since I finished my bulking phase, and I've lost about 4 pounds, of which I think is mostly fat. I haven't been doing much lifting in the past couple of weeks and have re-started up on more yoga, gymnastics, dance and ruby to get the new muscle functional and strong through full ranges of motion.

It was interesting, i stopped bulking when I "biceps" and chest started "coming in the way" - seriously it's funny shit when you have to put some noticable extra effort to bring your hands to yoru face and compress the bicep. Also, reaching over behind the shoulders gets a little more challenging when the pecs are larger :)

have fun and post questions if you have any!

Advocare - "White Box"

This post is in progress.... my aim is to cover one product a day :)....

The reason for writing this particular post is that I thought I had supplementation down. I used jarrow's alpha lipoic, Primal Defense from Garden of Life, Bio-K, Juice Plus, Jay Robb's egg protien powder etc etc...

So when you switch all your products to a different suppplement line and then see MASSIVE results, you have to wonder why. So I started to investigate....

When I first tried Advocare I was skeptical. I dilly dallied with the products for while and thought they were so so, I still had my "old" supplements to use up. Then I started to like how I felt and began to do more research. The turning point was when I saw that one my Olympic weightlifting coaches was an endorser for the product (can anyone say burpee!!! LOL). So I emailed him and he told me that his kids and athletes are on it and that he loves the company and the products. Bam... I was sold and ordered a bunch of products for me and my family.

When the results started to appear, I started investigating the products more deeply to figure out why they were working. Below I'll outline the products that have had the most noticable and measurable impact on me and why. Then I'll talk about the results from combining multiple products and how they work synergistically and complement each other.


Meal Replacement Shake:

- Holy crap what an awesome awesome awesome product. This one makes the "Top Five" in terms of impact
- I first didn't like the stats on it since I've been so anti-carb, but it has a brilliant blend of complex and simple carbs so that your blood sugar stays stable.
- Theres also 5-6 grams of Fiber in each shake which is awesome for digestive health
- There's no Soy, just whey protien concentrate, milk protien isolate and Calcium Caseinate
- There's a bunch of BCAAs and L-Glutamine built in.
- 500mg of calcium!!!
- Here's the kicker though..... they freakin put freakin' put acidopholus, bifidus and Bromelain and Papaim into the mix. So not only are you getting high quality protien, you're taking it in with pro-biotics and digestive enzymes so that you absorb more of it.
- The first day I tried it, I felt "runbly" in the stomach since I was dding in the acidopholus and fiber, that's great because it means my digestive system was NOT in top shape.
- Start your day with this shake and your blood sugar will stay stable for a very very long time. All this for 220 calories.... that's just freakin' amazing.


Catalyst:
- I'm not going to go too deep into the science of BCAA's here, you can search MSN for it :)
- what I will say is that this product does an absoulutely awesome job of preserving lean muscle mass WHILE cutting fat due to a calorie deficit. This product is what will prevent you from yo-yo dieting, since you won't lose lean muscle.
- When I'm in my leaning cycle, if I'm not too hungy, I'll have a couple of catalysts and a spark and miss a meal or two.. or three.... the spark revs up the metabolism and suppresses the appetite, the water you take with it hydrates you, the Catalyst keeps aminos floating around in your blood stream in case your body decides it wants to burn protien. It also keeps a positive, anabolic nitrogen balance so that you're building muscle while starving.
- This one defintely hits the "Top five"

- it's funny I go through a bottle a of this stuff about every 8-10 days. I finances actually even out and I sometimes end up saving more money. Think about it, 3 catalysts and spark cost a little under $2 whereas a meal would be costing me anywhere from $5 - $10 easy.

- Alright, moral of the stroy, you wanna get lean, reduce your calories, skip some meals and up the catalyst.. comprende?

Spark:
- The best energy drink I have had.
- it has L-carnitine that transports fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane so that fat is more easliy used as an energy store.
- It has a Co-enzyme Q10 for energy production and cellular anti-oxidation. I could write a book on the positive virtues of Co-Q10 - it has so many positive effects on the body.
- GABA, L-Tyrosine, L-Phenylalanine --> all pre-cursors for neuro transmitters, they help with mental focus and clarity (honestly, I get so much more work done, uncle Bill should send Advocare a thank you letter....)
- B complex - all used for energy production at the cellular level.
- Vit C (180mg), Vit E (30IU), Vit A(1000 IU) --> anti-oxidants
- Chromium -> helps with insulin sensitivity
- Caffeine (120mg) and Taurine (200 mg) -> synergyistic stimulants
- basically, this energy drink is the bomb because unlike red bull, coffee, etc it has the regular stimulants, but without the high doses of sugar and it's packed with all these vitamins and co-factors. So what? so that means that you aren't going to experience the all too familiar caffeine crash that I always get from drinking too much coffee or other stimulants.
- My workouts are better on Spark, I take one every morning when I wake up, on an emtpy stomach with my Thermo and catalyst, then I wait 30 mins before eating. I also have another one in the afternoon as a pick me up instead of coffee.
- If you are a coffee addict or energy drink addict, try switching to spark for a couple of days and see how you FEEL. You'll have more energy that lasts for longer, with vitamins and a mild appetite surpressant. So your blood sugar will be stable and you'll make better choices all day in terms of activities and nutrition. As you can see I'm a fan :).
- oh yeah, this makes the "Top 5"

Rehydrate:
- what's the best way to test a a rehydration product?.......
- Fly to mexico, play in the sun for 8 hours, drink very little water, eat a light dinner, have 5-10 shots of tequila (or hard liqour of choice) until you cannot walk in a straight line, then go home and have a serving of the product before going to bed.
Wake up in the morning and check for any of the following:
- body aches
- head ache
- stomach pain
- joint pain
- low energy
- stiffness
- etc.....
--> I'm happy to report that Rehydrate passed with flying colours and became the staple late night, post party drink for me and my buddies... how else can you sustain 2 weeks of non-stop partying? haha :)
- Ok so moving on to science.....
- L- Argnine and L-Glutamine!!! yay aminos... find me a reydration product that has those?
- 1:1 sodium:potassium ration for optimal inter and intra cellular hydration.
- low glycemic carbs so that you don't drink it have have blood sugar spikes.
- Co-Q10 and L-Glutathione --> both potent anti-oxidants to stave of post exercise free radicals.
- btw, did I mention that this product just tastes amazing?
- If you're a parent, don't be buying your kids sugar laden juices and drinks, give them re-hyrdate, it's cheaper and much much more healthy for them
- I think it's the NFL or some other major league whereby the kegs on the sideline have re-hydrate on the inside, but a massive "gatorade" sign on the outside since Advocare does not Pay for any endorsements.
- I started playing around with rehydrate about 3 months ago and I have to say it does do an awesome job of keeping you hydrated. This in turn helps with appetite control, internal cleansing and weight loss, since if you are sufficiently hydrated, your body will be less reluctant to hold onto it's fat stores.
- Ok, so this is a great addition to your regimen for post workout electcrolyte replacement, which btw, will improve recovery, general drinking etc etc. it's miles ahead of gatorade, powerade and any of that crap - plus it's CHEAPER



Muscle Fuel:

Muscle Gain:

NightTime Recovery:

MNS Max Energy:

Herbal Cleanse, Probiotic Restore and Fiber Drink:

CorePlex and Omega Plex:

Protein Plus Bar:

Weight loss tools: Crave Check, Fibo Trim and Carb Ease


Product Synergy

Advocare - "Black Box"

In software Testing we have "white box" and "black box" testing.
In white box testing we figure out how a program works and and create tests appropriately
def: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/White_Box_Testing.html
In black box testing we simply throw a bunch of inputs at a program and then see what happens :)
def: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/Black_Box_Testing.html

I started using Advocare products in August 2006 and here are my black box results:
- I never crashed using Spark energy drink and my workouts got better
- My workouts got even better on adding in Muscle Fuel and Muscle Strength
- My Recovery improved on adding in Post workout recovery and Nighttime Recovery.
- I started the MNS Max Energy kit and dropped down to about 9% BF while maintaining muscle
- I went on Vacation and was intructed to take 12 catalyst a day. I did. I worked out 4 times in 2 weeks and came back from vacation in better shape than when I left.
- I then decided to "bulk up" and ate a lot of food, worked out less, took lots of CATALYST, post workout recovery and Muscle Gain --> I put on 15 lbs of new muscle.
- Now I'm leaning out again using the "Lean in 13 program" I've already lost a couple of pounds of fat, my perofrmance is getting better and I hit a 500# deadlift!! woo hoo!!!

The case for sound nutritional supplementation

It's a busy and hectic world out there, we wake up early in the morning for work, then are up late at night socializing or working and somewhere in the middle of that we need to fit in time to execrcise, vacation and eat. In a perfect world we would all be shopping at an organic market buying wholesome organic produce and meat on a regular basis and using it as a mainstay of our diet on a regular basis.
Unfortunately very few of us live in this "perfect world".
Is it doable - yes. Does it take a bunch of planning and preparation? yes.

Sadly, the majority of people out there knowingly or unknowingly subject themselves to sub par nutrition, either from making poor food choices in general or from shopping at stores that don't ensure a high quality in the produce and meat.
To make matters worse, people will hit up the closest Bartells/CVS and buy some random "one-a-day" multi-vitamin to remain healthy.
The result is that they generally have low energy throughout the day, have the tendency to put on weight, often have mood swings, get sick more frequently and recover from illness more slowly.

I only eat organic grass fed beef, free range chicken and pastured eggs. I buy my produce only from whole foods or from independent farmers. I don't drink milk and I don't eat bread, rice and pasta. Despite all this I still feel like I fall short on a micro-nutrient level.

I haven't found a convenient way to get 5000IU of vitamin A, 30mg of Co-enzyme Q10, 300mg of Alpha lipoic acid etc etc only through "sound nutrition".

Enter supplements......

Think of Diet as "building material" for a house.
Exercise as the actual action of putting the material together.
Supplements as the screws, nuts and bolts that hold everything together.

There are times when my diet goes to hell, but my supplement regime is always consistent. The net result is that my performance and body composition does not take that big of a hit.
if I miss a couple of meals or eat a couple of really bad meals, my energy levels don't suffer too much.

The problem is that all supplements are not created equal. Let me reiterate that. ALL SUPPLEMENTS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.

The supplement industry is not regulated, there is no way to actually be sure what is in a bottle is in a bottle!

Do not buy supplements over the counter at a pharmacy. one step better is to go to a supplement store such as vitamin life, seattle super supplements or whole foods and ask about this brands are the best.

One step even better is to choose a line that is endorsed (preferably voluntarily) by world class athletes and doctors and has peer-reviewed literature to back it up. I can forward you on to a couple of great companies.... eg. Juice Plus, advocare, melaleuca. (btw, I thinkAdvocare is by far the best).

it's surprising though that even "reputed" companies put sub par ingredients into their product line.

Here's an example some of you will be able to relate to. The Pro Club in Bellevue, WA has a program called the 20/20 lifestyles program. It's very expensive, but does produce good results.

The supplementation program of 20/20 consists of a multi-vitamin, Fish oil and calcium.
I tried to research the supplements, but could not find out who the manufacturer was.
The calcium supplement has calcium in the form of carbonate/citrate which probably has bioavailability of around 30% (please correct me if I am wrong). Furthermore it doesn't have any magnesium in it! how the hell are you going to absorb the darn calcium?
Adequate calcium intake is integral to fat loss.
in the Multi-vit, none of the minerals are chelated and so again the bioavailibility and absorption will be less than optimal. Lastly there is no Co-enzyme Q10, no Inositol or a bunch of other important co factors.

Here's another shocker, there are no probiotics or digestive enzymes as part of the supplementation program. So even if the vits were high potency and bioavailable, they will porbably not absorb very well since the persons digestive system will likely be a mess.

Ok so here's the deal.
1. start with a good pro-biotic supplement
2. ensure your multi-vit is super high quality
3. ensure your Omega 3 supplement is super high quality (put the softgels in the freezer, if they cloud up, they contain impurities - swtich brand to something better)
4. BCAAs and L-glutamine
5. all other performance supplements:
- protein powders
- pre and post workout mixes
- Night time recovery formulas (ZMA, Gaba, L-Theanine etc)
- Energy drinks and Thermogenics.

6. Specific, therapeutic stuff
- Milk Thistle, Turmeric extract, Extra Alpha lipoic acid, resveratrols, adaptogens, fruit/vegetable extracts
- Co-enzyme A, CLA, cleanses, etc etc.

That's how you build your supplement foundation that will serve you.

hitting the 500 # barrier

At last.... the 500 lb deadlift.
Thanks to:
- everyone there that evening for the motivation
- Rachel for taking the pic
- Advocare, for helping me out perform my former self!!!

What exactly does a Crossfit workout FEEL like?

If you've never experienced crossfit then you might think i'm crazy, if you have, then you'll relate just fine. Many times I try to describe to friends and family what a crossfit workout is like, how it is structured, what kind of movements we do, how it feels and why it works.

I'm going to describe how I felt during my last crossfit workout, thanks to Scott Takenaga at Crossfit North.

Date: Tuesday 01/23/20007
Time: 6pm

I waltzed into the hangar kind of low on energy, it had been a long day at work and all I planned on doing today was some technique work on my O-lifts (haha Sam isn't here so I can call them that) but I happened to get there in time for Scott's 6pm crossfit class. I asked him what was on the "menu" for the day and he said, "thruster row, thruster run". It sounded like fun, but i really hadn't planned on doing anything "metabolic" today. Scott invited me to join the workout.... "give jackson a run for his money" he remarked... "i'm sore all over man" I whined as I made excuses why not to do the work out. "Jackson's sore too" Scott continued. He basically made me feel like a pansy if i didn't do the workout.... so I put on the cross trainers and started to get the blood flowing.

This was the workout:
15 thrusters, 500m row
15 thrusters, 400m run
15 thrusters, 500m row
15 thrusters, 400m run

for time. ie. do the work as fast as possible. The weight used for the thrusters was a 40kg barbell.

video of a thruster: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/Barbell_Thruster.wmv

The clock started and the first round of thrusters was easy, i got all 15 no prob. I then started rowing, did the 500m, still just a little out of breath, but nothing major.
did the 2nd round of thrusters, still all good, i think i broke it up into 5's with very short rest periods then I started running. The run was manageable, I didn't push too hard, just made sure to keep it slow and steady all the way through. The 3rd round of thrusters seemed easier than the 2nd, i busted through them with 3 sets of 5 again and jumped on the rower. By this time, i was feeling some overall fatigue. The second round of rowing was slow and weak with a 2:20 split, I figured I'd not try to push much harder and just keep ploughing through. The last round of thrusters was hard, I had to break it up into sets of 3 and 4 with longer breaks.... then i started running... after about the first 100m I hit the wall, there was no localized fatigue, just total catastrophic systemic failure. I had a stitch in my belly, I was completely out of breath, my quads and calves were burning, i felt slightly dizzy and felt like throwing up, but i still had 300m to go... I stopped and started walking for about 10 seconds, then with the fear of someone behind me catching up, I started running again. i wanted to breathe more deeply and get more air in but deeper breaths surely would have made me throw up. the faster I ran the sooner it would all be over. The last 200m felt like it took ages and ages. I had to stop and walk for another 10 seconds to let some lactic acid wash out of the muscles so that i could keep running. My steps had gotten clumsy in the last 100m, I had to concentrate on actually stepping forward and not "leaving my foot behind me" and falling flat on my face !
i got to the end of the 400m and collapsed onto the gym floor.
This was indeed total systemic failure. I didn't want to drink water in case I threw up, I felt like I had to focus a to ensure that there were no other malfuntions in other excretatory bodily processes. My head was spinning and i was laying on the floor with my eyes closed thinking about nothing other than my next breath and remaining as still as possible to not agitate the dizzyness and nausea... about 5-7 mins passed and I finally sat up and had a splitting head ache. i started moving around, got some Spark energy drink and started to sip on some post workout recovery shake. It took about 20 mins for my body to completely stop freaking out. I was still sweating down the middle of my back, signalling that my nervous system was probably 'stimulated' :).

The workout took me 14 mins and 38 secs to complete and it took about 20 mins for me to feel back to normal again.
Crossfit is hard. Crossfit is as mental as it is physical... Get some!

Financial sweet spot

Money is such a crazy stressor. Life would be so much easier if we were all just hunter-gatherers :) we could trade supplies, eat good food, sleep long hours and not worry about mortgages, payments, 401ks, rents, etc etc.....

yes, we may have to worry about being eaten by a lion or a giant anaconda or something, but worrying about that seems like more fun. IMHO it's more fun to learn how to defend myself from a lion than to defend myself from a dying 401k!

When you have no money, you think about money, how to make more, how to save more.... how to "save for retirement" so that you can live well into the golden years... oblivious about the fact that some punk could blind side you on a tuesday afternoon on your 59th birthday so you never see your retirement $$$.... but still we live, we complain, we save, we spend and the cycle goes on.

What's fascinating is that we worry about how to get rich, then if we do get rich, there's a whole new set of worries....
Asset protection - how do I make sure no one sues me for my money and takes it all away
Capital preservation - how do I invest my money but guarantee that I don't lose what I already have?

Someone asked me recently, let's say you had 1 million dollars, would you be willing to bet it all on black at the roulette table. i guess it's hard to answer that question. I want to be in the position of YES. why? because If I win, I have 2 million. if I lose, then i'm back where I started - with all the skills and life experiences that could get me another 1 million...

I want to find that place financially and in life, where I'm comfortable, I have everything I need and want, yet would be totally at peace if I lost everything and had to start over from scratch. That would indeed be a blissful place, at least financially... don't you think?