Let's get saturated about fats

My company is on some wonderful campaign to get all of their employees healthier. I imagine they couldn't give a shit less about our health and are just trying to minimize overhead on insurance costs, and even if that is the case they might want to start proofreading the cute little booklets and info packets they've been handing out as of late.

Our break rooms are littered with this cute little pamphlet called "FAST FOOD - Smart Eating Guide". First of all, this book should only consist of one page. Said page should only say "FAST FOOD: DON'T EAT IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE A TYPICAL FAT AMERICAN!" but unfortunately it delves into several dietary myths and promotes them as truths. You know, without any sources cited or surrounding facts to back up the statements. I'm only going to touch on one of them here, and that is on the topic of saturated fats. I bet the subject line of this blog made you think I'd be discussing the post mating cholesterol levels of three legged forest hamsters, didn't you? No? Oh. Here is a quote from the book, which you can also google if interested in reading it all:

Here are the simple facts about fat and salt. Healthy diets include dietary fats, but certain types of fats aren't good for you. 

The bad fats, saturated and trans fats, raise the bad cholesterol (LDL) levels in your blood and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and certain types of cancer.

Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats don't raise bad cholesterol levels and are better for you. Fats from plants, such as nuts, seeds, vegetables and avocados are good sources for these fats. 

Dieticians recommend that diets include 30% or less of its calories from fat and have less than 300mg of cholesterol. Saturated fats should account for less than 7% of your total caloric intake and trans fats less than 1%. 

Whoa. Say what? Let's pull the e-brake for a second because I see Mark Sisson on the side of the road flinging pieces of bacon at me while carrying a club and dressed like Fred Flintstone. Mark, THREE YEARS AGO, posted this highly informative piece on saturated fats. Because I believe that you, the reader, are capable of reading on your own I'll let you go ahead and read through that. Interesting stuff, huh?

Is that not enough? Well, here you go:

http://www.musclehack.com/the-saturated-fat-cholesterol-myth-destroyed/
http://www.truthaboutabs.com/saturated-fat-is-not-evil.html
http://healthyfixx.com/1/busting-the-myths-of-saturated-fat
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/food-myths-debunked-all-saturated-fats-raise-blood-cholesterol.html

Okay I got bored of copying and pasting. There are quite literally hundreds of articles debunking that stupid myth that saturated fat is bad for you. It's a shame that Better Books couldn't go the extra mile (i.e., typing in several words into a freaking search engine) to corroborate their claims. Well, I guess it makes sense since on the very next page they go onto one of those "eat this, not that!" topics when going to fast food chains. It's always the same: skip the burger, go to the salad. Punch me in the balls. The salad choices they list all have over 1500mg of sodium and are loaded with evil sugar. Yeah we should really heed this pamphlet's words.

I know I didn't give much personal insight on this matter, but I've got quite a few things to get done and figured I'd get this out there for anyone who may be reading my blog this very minute looking for info on saturated fats. THE PEOPLES DEMAND IT!

Stay shiny.

Monday training that ironically occurred on Monday

Just finished a nice workout down in my "gym". You know, my parking area.

Said parking area gym ("PAG"? No? I'll work on that) is currently infested with lots of newborn mosquitos due to the rash of storms and it being spring in Texas. They're sooo cute with their whole blood sucking and disease spreading thing. It made rest periods infinitely more fun as I wasn't really paying attention to the little bastards while working on my exerciseseses. Anyway, today consisted of kettlebell swings and snatches, and afterward I felt so good I decided to get in some barbell rows, OH presses, and power clean progressions. 

Oh, and I only have two KBs: a 30lb and 53lb. Don't judge me. Off the top of my head it all went a little something like this:

• Dynamic warm-up
• 50 one arm swings (each) - 30lb KB .. this was mostly to get my hips firing 
• Kettlebell snatches - 3 x 15 @ 30lb, and 3 x 8 @ 53lb. 
• One arm rows - 2 x 25 @ 53lb kb, 3 x 8 @ 95lb barbell
• OH presses - 2 x 8 @ 95lbs
• Hang cleans - 2 x 8 @ 95lbs, 2 x 5 clean progressions @ 135lbs

I'm not the strongest guy ever. Please continue with that whole not judging me thing. The barbell stuff was mostly done with focus on form. I got a lot of that work in on Saturday so I kept it mild. I'll get my daily push-ups done later tonight when the lights are off along with my pants.

Criticism welcome, critique and suggestions preferred. 

Dan John on perfecting that there cattleball swing

This clip from one of Dan John's seminars is fantastic, and not just because of the community rec center attendees and dad jokes, but because this man can flat out teach. He makes it so easy to understand how the human body functions, or how it should be functioning. 

I love the kettlebell swing, and the information contained in this vid helped me tweak my form. The whole attacking the crotch thing is something I wasn't doing, which is strange because I attack it plenty while not training. 

I know this is an old vid with information many already know, but I'm sharing it anyway on the off chance that if someone stumbles upon this blog they'll find it helpful. Hahaha that's funny. The whole stumbling upon this blog part, that is. 

I'm off to attack crotches. 

Shirtless Saturday programming

Every shirtless Saturday needs to start off with some power food, lest everyone stare at your bare chest and proclaim "That man hath not the fuel to be powerful and has the aura of a Tinseltown ladyboy!" I'm not sure what that means, but these tacos were really good.

MEAT. EGGS. STUFF. Sure they were the most expensive tacos I've ever purchased in the history of my life, but I'd do it again right now if the line wasn't out the door. Oh, those are from Velvet Taco. Check out that lobster roll taco. Yeah. Will work for lobster roll tacos.

After my taco consumption I pounded a couple cups of coffee, rehydrated, and went downstairs to my parking space gym. It was extra wonderful today since the entire complex was seemingly doing laundry, and to my great fortune the dryer vents right into my area. There is no airflow other than that. Needless to say extra sweat begets extra chalk. And extra dudesexiness (not subjective or up for debate). 

* Dynamic warm-up

* Hang clean - 4 x 8, 8, 6, 6
* Clean and press - 4 x 8, 8, 6, 6
* Deadlift - 5 x 8, 6, 4, 2, 2
* Tire slams - 5 x 10 (sub band slams, rock slams, ball slams, baby slams, or whatever if no tire)
* Uphill tire shot put + downhill OH carry - 3 sets (shot put tire up the hill, carry OH down, no rest)

I live in Dallas so hills are hard to come by without traveling. I just use my driveway which is about 30 yards long with a decent climb. Hope you guys got at it as well. Tomorrow for Pantsless Sunday I'll get in a suspension workout at the park with the ladyfriend. Let's hope she has a positive mindset. Speaking of, I need to write about that soon because all of the f'ing negativity people hold towards themselves and their capabilities drives me bonkers. 

Stay hard. 

Poliquin on nutritional deficiencies with vegetarians

Poliquin, master of crazy and loser of marbles, recently wrote an informative article on nutritional deficiencies vegetarians face in their diets. Instead of slamming the diet itself he takes a different route and offers up suggestions in order to make up for the missing essentials that plants and the like simply cannot provide. I won't get into quoting the article because you can read for yourself. I'm just sharing.

The state of my training, with pictures

I've now been training MMA/self defense for around 3 months. I think it's been that long. I don't pay attention to these kinds of details anymore. I just go in and work my ass off each day and try to forget about yesterday. Or, that's just a poor excuse for slaughtering my short term memory during my wild and out party years. Sure we've all been there, but I doubt any of you injected pure MDMA with a turkey baster through your nostrils.

Living forever aside, I've made great progress. I've really had to scale back my strength training since it interferes with my "combat" training, yet I am stronger than I've ever been, I'm more explosive than ever, faster, and way more awesomer looking with my shirt off. Yeah. WAY more awesomer. That's important when being punched in the face, right? I thought so. Oh, and I weigh in around 180lbs now. Wow.

So, without further adieu, here are a few pictures of me beating the piss out of a mouthy tire with an 8lb sledge. This was just a conditioning finisher. BTW, you like that mammoth EliteFTS wrist brace? Yeah I know you do. I've been rehabbing that wrist for awhile now, and my healing timeframe has gone on for an exceedingly long time. I imagine punching things does not create a conducive healing environment. I'll need to see an abstract on pubmed before I make a final determination.

Now that I've got your pants area all worked up, here's a vid from the following training session. 20lb sledge, 5x10e for power. This was the 3rd set so I'm not sure how much power I was making. 

20lb sledge finisher video

I'll fix the embed later. You know, when I'm not at work and am able to. On second thought, F all of that. Blogger can't find my video, unless "Angry Birds Cinematic Trailer" is it. I don't think so though.

For all zero of you who asked, here is what my strength training primarily consists of:

Deadlifts (deficit, sumo, standard)

Squats (box, front, farmer's, goblet, split squat)

OH press (barbell and KB)

Farmer's walk

Pull-ups and rows

Various other BW movements, much of it done on the suspension trainer

Macebell training

DB snatches

Ancillary grip strength training

That's just stuff on my own. I do loads of core work in my training, but I'm pretty much over this entry and need to go to the store. If anyone wants actual details on core work, prehab/rehab stuff I do, along with my stretching then I'll gladly expound.

Love you all. 

I suck at blogging

Over the years I've probably started 5 or 6 blogs and have failed to consistently update every single one of them. I go at them strong for a month or two, and then I just give it, and myself, the middle finger and I stop writing entirely. I have a bit of a perfectionist issue with myself, and I quite frankly hate my writing. It's never up to my standards, but then I realized nothing I do in life is up to my standards. Including my training. Does that sound like a recipe for a side dish of going batshit insane? It does to me.

So here I am, again, but with a more F it attitude. I'm going to try and be more lax on my standards with the hopes that my prose isn't bottom barrel quality shit like Steel Reserve 40s. Although, on certain occasions Steel Reserve can be pretty amazing. The following day is one generally filled with pain, anguish, and questioning of all things related to life. So, on second thought, I hope the same holds true for this blog. I want this site to put forth the most amazing, high quality, bottom barrel garbage possible. I want it to blow your effing mind, only to have you wake up cursing my name the next day. I hope you hold me to this high standard. So, here we go...again.