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(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/CV6d0)
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Overlooked Weight Loss Factors Pt 1: Eating with Others

(My Original Blog Post: http://nakednutritionnetwork.com/overlooked-weight-loss-factors-pt-1-eating-with-others/)
[caption id="attachment_2758" align="alignright" width="127" caption="One of the best books you'll read this year"][/caption]

There is always a lot of talk about diet and exercise when it comes to weight loss. Certain ratios of protein and carbohydrates seem to be important. Whether or not you need to be doing 4, 10, or 20 minute metabolic workouts is currently a much talked about topic. Last night I started re-reading Tom Venuto's "The Body Fat Solution" and the introduction got me thinking about the factors that are over looked in most weight loss programs. These overlooked areas (many of which Tom does an excellent job of covering in his book) are really the key to success.

As I have said before, losing weight is self isn't that hard. Keeping the weight you lost is difficult. What are the overlooked factors in both the areas of weight loss and weight maintenance that if you were to just pay a little bit of attention to could make all the difference? Over the next couple posts I'd like to explore some of theses with you to better your chances of permanent success and living a strong, fit, and healthy life.

Environment

I"m not talking about the feng shui of your dinner plate but factors that drive your eating environment. Researchers have identified 4 key factors in your eating environmental:

• Eating Atmospherics (Lighting, Noise & Music, etc)


• Eating Effort


• Eating with others


• Eating distractions.

For the most part I recommend that you do your best to control what you eat through proper planning and preparation which can take eating atmospheric influences such as "people will eat more in colder rooms and drink more in warmer rooms" (I didn't make that up) out of the equation as you just eat what you had planed regardless of the humidity level in the room.

But even with all the best planning in the world you can't (and wouldn't want to) eat alone; thus it is important to recognize the under the radar factors that come into play when eating with others. Combine this with the fact that a lot of eating in larger groups occurs at restaurants or parties where the food selection can be less than ideal and it is pretty easy to fall off the wagon.

Now, I don't have to work very hard to convince you that the presence of other people will influence both what and how much is eaten.  I'm sure you've had the experience where you were going to order one particular dish but the person you were with orders a different dish and you end up saying something like "oh, I'll have that to."

What I find really interesting is that research from Georgia State University shows that people can eat up to 33% more when eating with someone else compared to eating alone and that percentage increases as the size of the group increases. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating, has also pointed out that the variance associated with how much is eaten in these group situations becomes smaller as the group get bigger; which basically means that people are more consistent about eating more food as the size of the group they are in gets bigger.

Here are some other stats from Dr. de Castro at Georgie State University. We eat more people close to use compared to just having random people around:

• Spouse - 22% more


• Family - 23% more


• Friend - 14% more

But we eat less around coworkers (16% less).

[caption id="attachment_2764" align="aligncenter" width="298" caption="Do you eat more with certain people?"][/caption]

While some may argue the exact percentages and statistics, go ahead as those don't matter as much to me. Look at the big picture. Are you unknowingly eating more around certain people? Are you unknowingly making different food choices when you eat with certain people. Just take a couple minutes today to think about this and apply it to your life. Recognizing these situations in your life and making sure that you don't succumb to under the radar influences will help you live a strong, fit, and healthy life while maintaining the body weight you want.

Ketogenic Diets - Effective, But Are They Healthy?

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/95TC3)
There has been a lot more QnA going on at the Naked Nutrition Facebook Page (If you haven't already, make sure to head over, click image below, and 'Like It') and so I'll start answering some of the questions in more depth here on the blog.

Today's question comes from Shawn and it is about the ketogenic diets and if they are healthy?

"I know that keto diets are effective for losing fat, but is it a healthy way of eating otherwise? After staying true to the WSFL diet for a while, I may have lost some weight, but I just don't feel like I'm giving my body what it needs to be healthy (specifically, enough vegetables; for one, I don't feel like I get enough dietary fiber on this diet, not to mention all the other good stuff veggies bring to the table). I'm completely off the starchy and grainy carbs, but do fibrous carbs actually prevent ketosis as well?"

Let me answer the second part of your question, then the first. The normal timeline of a ketogenic diet is a 2 week 'induction' followed by several phases (of in determinant length) with increased levels of carbohydrates. During the induction phase you would only take in <20g/d of carbohydrates. This is really the only time you would need to worry about monitoring whether or not you are in ketosis. You can monitor your ketotic status (I don't think ketotic is an actual word but you know what I mean) with Ketostix. During this time period you really do need to be careful about your carbohydrate intake and the ketostix are useful at monitoring your ketone production.

[caption id="attachment_2749" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ketostix Bayer Reagent Strips for Urinalysis"][/caption]

After the two week period you can increase your carbs up to 50g/d. These carbs should come mainly in the form of vegetables so you shouldn't feel like you are restricting you vegetable intake too much because 50 grams of carbs give you...

• 12.5 cups of broccoli florets or


• 7 cups of cooked spinach or


• 1 head of cabbage or


• 7 medium size red bell peppers or


• 8 cups of cherry tomatoes

So the answer to the second part of your questions is...No, you don't need to restrict your intake of fibrous carb because as you can see from the list above it would require a lot of fibrous carbs to top 50 grams/day. You don't need to worrying about monitoring urinary ketosis beyond the induction peroid anyway, just monitor your fat loss.

Now to transition to the first part of your question regarding getting ample antioxidant and 'goodies' from vegetables.  1 serving of broccoli is acutally only 1/2 a cup so if you ate only broccoli you would be getting 25 servings of vegetables per day (not that I'm recommending eating only broccoli - the math is just easy with that as an example). The current recommendations for vegetable intake is only 5 servings (2.5 cups) per day!

My clients and other people that use Naked Nutrition always eat way more fruits and vegetables than are currently recommended even when on lower carbohydrate diets. Also Dr. Jeff Volek anecdotally told me once that the people whom participate in the low carb diet studies he runs at the University of Connecticut always find themselves eating more vegetables on the low carb diets compared to their normal eating habits.

As you transition away from weight loss to a diet maintenance phase you will increase your carbohydrate intake even more. I recommend that you do this by adding more fruits and vegetables as well as fiber rich grains (for breakfast and following workouts per the 6th Pillar of Nutrition). For more specifics on this transition check out my chapter in the Warp Speed Fat Loss Nutrition Manual called "Life After Warp Speed Fat Loss."

Dead-On Weight Loss Advice From an Unusual Source

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/1D5aV)
The other day on some social networking site (Twitter, Facebook, I don't remember exactly) someone made a post.  It post was titled "The Public Humiliation Diet." I had to read it. How could you not?

So I clicked the link.Where does it take me?

Deadspin.com (not necessarily a site I would tell my mother to read)

I read on.

The article was by one of the sites editors, Drew Magary, who has lost 60lbs in the last 5 months. Here's brief excerpt that describes his story and rationale for his diet.

I've struggled with my weight for my entire life. I went to hospital fat camp in seventh grade. I have stretch marks all along my sides and gut (fire belly!). I spend the majority of my day thinking about food, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon, even now. I love eating and have a hard time controlling myself when presented with cakes and pies and bags of Doritos. Oh, Doritos. Oh God, how I adore you. You hear about alcoholics who can't stop drinking until they're blackout drunk. I'm that way with food. I can't stop eating until I'm blackout fat.

So I needed to set some ground rules for myself to lose weight, ground rules that I felt were reasonable to follow for the rest of my adult life.

Here are 2  key strategies that Drew used to lose 2.5 toddlers worth of weight from his midsection (with my comments).

4. I never ate after dinner. 6 p.m., to be precise, because I eat with my kids. That may not be realistic for you. But there are plenty of people out there who advocate not eating too much at night. For me, it used to be that dinner was the start of my nightly eating. There'd be dessert. Then the after-dessert dessert. Then a bowl of cereal. Then shots of ranch dressing...This rule...I really stuck to. The only times I ate dinner late were when I was out with friends or whatever and had no choice.

This is great. I've written before about not eating after a certain time at night, not because of some magical fat burning property but because of the exact reason that Drew illustrated above - post dinner snacking. Drew was able to identify that for him, a huge caloric load was being consumed after he ate dinner. A simple way to curb that was to allow no wiggle room and just make the 'rule' that he wasn't going to eat after dinner.

Oftentimes, identifying a particular bad habit and making a hard and fast 'life rule' to stop it is a great way to instantly change your behavior for the best.

10. I made sure everything I ate was AWESOME. If I'm only getting three legit meals a day, they better be good. So I made sure of that. Did you know two slices of bacon only have 70 calories? Combine that with a fried egg and you've got a breakfast of less than 200 calories, far less than a bowl of granola. So I went the bacon route. I also learned to braise short ribs,  make my own pulled pork, make Thai steak sauces, and all this other crazy stuff because I wanted to lose weight and still enjoy what I was eating. None of this grilled-chicken-breast-every-night crap that NFL players do. I still love food and I LIKE it that way. (Note: This is not an exact quote as I editted out the f-bombs)

Diet foods or the foods that you eat when on a diet do not often conjure up images that make your mouth water. For whatever reason many people feel that the only way to eat healthy is by consuming the same bland food day in and day out. It does not have to be that way. You just need to learn to eat less of certain things that you love (like Drew did with Bacon) and cook differently (also like Drew did with homemade BBQ sauce) so the food that you do eat fits in with your plan.

I personally love cheese. There is no way that I'm cutting cheese out of my diet, even if my calories are low because I'm dieting down. A year or so ago I was teaching a nutrition course and got into a conversation with the class about this exact topic. They were surprised that I didn't recommend you eat low fat cheese,instead just less full fat cheese. Let's be real here, low fat cheese is disgusting. Maybe (let me repeat...Maybe) I'll use a low fat shredded cheddar cheese in a recipe but as a general rule reduced fat cheeses taste like rubber.

Why would you want to eat that? Wouldn't you much rather eat 1/2 an oz of delicious full fat Vermont Cabot Cheddar Cheese than suffer through a full ounce of fat free Kraft Cheddar cheese?

Losing weight needs to involve a calorie deficit, which will require you to eat less calories. It does not require that you deprive yourself of food that tastes good.

Take a look at your diet. Are you suffering through any meals? How can you make them better?

Here is the link to the  original article (again, there is a bunch of 'colorful' language in the post so if that bothers you then I wouldn't recommend clicking the link).

Post a comment and let me know your favorite delicious diet food or recipe.

Top 5 Most Popular Posts

(My Original Blog Post: http://nakednutritionnetwork.com/top-5-most-popular-posts/)
I recently went back and looked at all the past Naked Nutrition past posts to see what has been the most popular. I was surprised to see certain posts there (namely that the most popular post has nothing to do with nutrition) and certain posts NOT there. Here are the top 5 most popular posts of all time with some key nutrition (or exercise) nuggets from each of them

1. Tabata Protocol – Complete Exercise Guide

[caption id="attachment_2724" align="alignleft" width="446" caption="The Tabata Protocol was originally tested on Speed Skaters"][/caption]

It was surprising that my most popular post has been exercise related but understandable as the Tabata Protocol has reached such mainstream appeal that distance runners are even using it to improve their fitness levels. Here are 3 Key excerpts:

"A Tabata workout is a timed workout that is only 4 minutes long. It consists of 20 seconds of hard (intense) exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, and then you repeat this 8 times. Seems simple but it is really tough."

"...in order complete a full Tabata, really complete it like in the study, you need to be in decent shape. Fortunately, you can work your way up to the full 20 seconds on/10 seconds off protocol by using different time variations.

• 10 seconds on, 20 seconds off x 8


• 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off x 8


• 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off x 8"

"Coach Robert Dos Remedios a.k.a. The Tabata Master also emphasizes the importance of intensity when completing a Tabata session. He jokes that if you can do 2 Tabatas after your workout then your training session isn’t tough enough or you aren’t hitting your first Tabata hard enough. He recommends adding a Tabata to the end of your workout as a great way of ‘finishing your body off.’"

You can read the rest of this post here.

2. Fast Safe Weight Loss – How To Lose 3-6 Pounds of Fat Per Week

With the popularity of the Warp Speed Fat Loss program it is no surprise that one of this site's most popular post centered around the the concept that it IS possible to safely lose more than 2lbs per week. Here are a couple key points about metabolic exercise.

"Since you aren’t on the Biggest Loser and probably can’t workout 5-7 hrs/day tweaking your metabolism so that you burn calories when you aren’t exercising is key."

"Go for time. Metabolic circuits are ’self regulating’ in that you do as much work as you can. Do as many sets as you can within a give time frame. 10 minutes is a good place to start."

"Do better each time. While there isn’t a target number of a sets that you should do, strive to do more sets/reps each workout. Push yourself to burn more calories each workout and you will be greatly rewarded by burning more calories after each workout."

You can read the rest of this post here.

3. Whey Protein Isolate vs. Whey Protein Concentrate

The popularity of this post really speaks to the lack of educational information there is surrounding protein powders. The Concentrate vs. Isolate question is evergreen and I"m glad that I could clarify it here for people. The difference between concentrates and isolates is really important for people from a digestive perspective. I recently helped a friend relief a good deal of digestive discomfort from switching protein powders.

"Protein concentrates. Protein concentrates are created by pushing the protein source (milk, whey, etc.) through a very small filter that allows water, minerals, and other organic materials to pass though. The proteins, which are too big to pass through the filter, are collected, resulting in protein powder. When this process is used to make whey protein concentrate, it yields a protein powder that is 70-80% protein and up to 5% lactose. People with lactose intolerance will have trouble consuming large amounts of whey protein concentrate."

"Protein isolates. This is the next step up in purification; the protein is purified again using more filtration or a technique called ion-exchange or cross-flow microfiltration. Protein isolates have very low levels of carbohydrates and fat and are almost exclusively pure protein. People with lactose intolerance usually don’t have trouble with whey protein isolates. Many companies that make whey protein isolates will certify that their product is lactose free or they add lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose) to the protein powder to help with digestion."

You can read the rest of this post here.

4. Female Body Breakthrough – Rachel Cosgrove’s New Book

I was not surprised to see that out of all the different books and resources that I have written about, Rachel Cosgrove's book 'The Female Body Breakthrough' is in the top 5. Why? Because it is easily the best training book for women written to date. Rachel is a great advocate for the proper way to women to develop the bodies that they desire. Her book is very comprehensive and she doesn't pull any punches about the hard work that is required to get the body you desire. My favorite quote beings "In order to look like a fox you need to sweat like a pig." Here is an excerpt from the post in which Rachel outlines what weight loss program for women SHOULD DO (weight loss programs for men should also do these things"

• "Metabolically demanding full body strength training program lifting challenging weights. This should be their priority workouts 2-4 days a week.


• Boost their intensity and drop the duration on their cardio sessions performing interval style workouts for no more than 30 minutes at a time.


• Fuel their body with healthy food every couple hours getting their metabolism revving.


• Focus on how her clothes fit and how she looks and feels and not on a number on the scale. Focus on Fat Loss, not Weight Loss"

You can read the rest of this post here.

5. How To Lose Body Fat Without Losing Muscle

When dieting the number concern that people have, aside from 'how fast can I lose weight' usually centers on preventing muscle loss. To do this you really need to reconcile the the differences between your body's objectives/problems and yours when your calories are low.

"First let’s look at why your body would breakdown muscle to use as fuel when dieting. There are three main reason.

• Body’s Problem: Needs energy.


• Body’s Problem: Needs enough amino acids to maintain important bodily functions.


• Body’s Problem: Energy is low thus needs to only keep around essential parts that require calories.

You have your own set of problems in regards to how your body acts when it comes to functioning on low calories.

• Your Problem: You want it to specifically use store fat to fill the energy void.


• Your Problem: You want the body to get amino acids from places other than hard earned muscle.


• Your Problem: Need to convince your body that lean muscle is essential."

You can read the rest of this post here.

Is there a post that isn't is the top 5 but it is your favorite? Let me know and I'll put together a 'reader' favorites list.

Fat Loss Essential- Protect Yourself From Yourself

(My Original Blog Post: http://nakednutritionnetwork.com/fat-loss-essential-protect-yourself-from-yourself/)
Yes, I'm back after a long blogging hiatus. My PhD studies combined with a lot of movement behind the scenes at Naked Nutrition has been just about all my time over the past several weeks but I should be back blogging on a regular basis now.



Last weekend I made a trip up to my alma mater, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, (which I have since learned made the list of America's 50 Most Expensive Colleges) as my little sister (who is slowly becoming not so 'little') was graduating. The weekend festivities were great, especially because I got to catch up with a lot of family that I hadn't seen in a while. One conversation was especially relevant to the Naked Nutrition Approach and knew I wanted to share with it you right away.

I was talking with a family friend about his sleeping problems and if he had been able to crack the insomnia code to get more sleep. He said he was getting better but hadn't reconciled the problem completely. He did say that the one strategy that had provided him the most benefit was a sleep journal. What he did was each morning, upon waking, he recorded that nights events - about when he fell asleep, when he woke up, how long he was up, when he fell back asleep, etc.

This was so powerful because he realized that he actually was sleeping more than he thought. Knowing this relieved a significant about of anxiety surround his insomnia.

I instantly saw this as a perfect analogy for compliance charts. I've written about the 90% rule and compliance here, here, here, and numerous other places and I keep bringing it up because it is a make or break strategy that I don't see enough people using.

Just as my friend was under the impression that he was hardly sleeping at all, I have never met something who didn't think there diet was better than it really was. Once my friend took the time to quantify his sleeping habits he was able to see the truth of the situation and then employ more strategies that were appropriate for his actual situation.

Until you take the time and quantify your nutritional compliance, you really have no idea how well or poor you are adhering to your diet. If you don't know how well you are following your plan then any adjustment or 'fixes' that you apply to your diet is essentially throwing darts in the dark at your weight loss target.

Do yourself a favor, save yourself a lot of frustration and this week take the time to track your compliance before you try any new exercise plans, diet modifications, or supplements.

Apple Cider Vinegar

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/ARAik)
Before we get into today's post I wanted to follow up on Monday's contest. In response to my "3 Foods To Always Stock in Your Cupboards" post

The winner is Petra with her post :

Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of most grains, but I do like oatmeal, so my cupboard is always stocked with oatmeal. In addition, I have raw nuts, mainly almonds and walnuts, and raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. I don't know if it provides all the health benefits that I have heard about, but it makes a great vinaigrette when mixed with olive oil, garlic, herbs and spices.

(Petra - email me at support [at] nakednutritionnetwork.com and I'll send you the Fat Loss Edge Audio recording)


In regards to her question about apple cider vinegar...there are some amazing claims about this floating around the internet from its ability t0 slice open fat cells so that the fat drains out to and curing the flu (yes, the flu).

Most of the claims are completely unsupported and some are rather misleading. A perfect example of this is the claim that apple cider vinegar reduces cholesterol levels. The support for this uses one of my favorite tactics, the good ol' if it worked in rats then it'll work in humans justifications. Unfortunately if it works in rats, it does not mean that it will work in humans. Let's be a little reasonable here, even interventions that work in some humans don't work in all humans.

Back to the cholesterol issue.

WebMD.com summarizes this for us:

High cholesterol. A 2006 study showed evidence that vinegar could lower cholesterol. However, the study was done in rats, so it's too early to know how it might work in people.

So is apple cider vinegar good? Definitely. As Petra pointed out, it makes a great vinaigrette. For a while I was Balsamic vinegared out on my salads and apple cider vinegar is a good change of pace.

Despite all the unsupported claims about apple cider vinegar, don't let that turn you off completely from its health benefits as vinegar in general (not unique to apple cider vinegar) can slow the rate in which food leaves your stomach, helping your better control your blood sugar levels.

Also, in regards to salad dressings. I'm in the final stages of my first Naked Nutrition Cookbook and would love to include recipes from readers. If you have a salad dressing that you would like to have featured in the book post it below.

I look forward to your recipes and have a good one!

-Mike

3 Foods To Always Stock in Your Cupboard

(My Original Blog Post: http://nakednutritionnetwork.com/3-foods-to-always-stock-in-your-cupboard/)
Having healthy fat burning food on hand at all times is essential for success with your diet. In order to hit the 90% percent rule week after week you need to make your nutrition be automatic and delicious. If you are truly going to change the way that you eat for the rest of your life and adopt the Naked Nutrition eating plan as a permanent change and not just an 'I need to lose a couple pounds so I'll do this for a couple weeks' then eating delicious food is another must

Today I wanted to share with you 5 foods that I always make sure that we have on hand in our cupboards.

1. Quinoa - Quinoa is second favorite grain (second to oats - my favorite is the steel cut variety). This 'ancient' grain has found main stream popularity over the past couple years. In has all but replaced brown rice in my diet. Compared to brown rice quinoa has a lighter, nuttier flavor. In addition it one of the only grains that is a complete protein (meaning that it has all the essential amino acids). Plus, if you are a busy person you'll love quinoa as it cooks in half of the time it would take for you to make brown rice.

2. Walnuts - Walnuts are hands down my favorite nut. They contains a wide spectrum of health boosting fats, including the ever popular omega-3 fat alpha linolenic acid. Walnuts are great in shakes as they blend up and dissolve into your shake with out a trace (unlike almonds which often will settle to the bottom of the blender). If you aren't going to use walnuts in shakes, they go great on salads and you can crush them into a powder (they make a texture similar to moist corn meal), and stuff chicken breasts for a great twist on an old stand by protein.

3. Chickpeas - Like walnuts, chickpeas are very versatile. Whether you are eating them blended up with olive oil and tahaini in the form of hummus, added cold to your salad for extra fiber and protein, or in chili in place of black beans - Chickpeas are my favorite legume.

What else do you consider essential for your fat burning cupboard? Post below and the person with the best top 3 get a copy of my Fat Loss Edge Seminar Audio Recording.

Resource: In each issue of Strong, Fit, & Healthy I share with you 2 new delicious Naked Nutrition approved recipes - you can become a member and get instant access to the entire Strong, Fit, & Healthy archives here.

7 Personal Lessons for Losing Fat

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/oQ5EV)
There Are 7 Lessons From My Story That You Can Use Yourself To Lose Fat or Even Get Ripped Like I Did... - Guest Blog from Jason Ferruggia

I want to share these with you because even if you have a different personal history than I do (most of my readers are NOT bodybuilders), these 7 lessons are the keys to achieving any previously elusive fitness goal for the first time and I know they apply to everyone.

1. Set the big goal and go for it. If your goal doesn’t excite you and scare you at the same time, your goal is too small. If you don’t feel fear or uncertainty, you’re inside your comfort zone. Puny goals aren’t motivating. Sometimes it takes a competition or a big challenge of some kind to get your blood boiling.

2. Align your values with your goals. I understood my values and made a decision to be congruent with who I really was and who I wanted to be. When you know your values, get your priorities straight and align your goals with your values, then doing what it takes is easy.

3. Do the math. Stop looking for magic. A lean body does not come from ONE "magic" type of exercise or one "magic" type of food or food group, it’s the calories burned vs calories consumed that determines weight loss or weight gain. Don't get me wrong - the strength training is crucial for optimizing body composition, and you might do better by decreasing the calories consumed, whereas I depended more on increasing the calories burned, but either way, it’s still a math equation. Deny it at your own peril.

4. Get social support and social accountability. Support and encouragement from your friends can help get you through anything. Real time accountability to a training partner or trainer can make all the difference.

5. Be consistent. Nothing will ever work if you don’t work at it every day. Sporadic efforts don’t just produce sporadic results, sometimes they produce zero results.

6. Persist through difficulty and self doubt. If you think it’s going to be smooth sailing all the way with no ups and downs, you’re fooling yourself. For every sunny day, there’s going to be a storm. If you can’t weather the storms, you’ll never reach new shores.

7. Redeem yourself. Non-achievers sit on the couch and wallow in past failures. Winners use past failures as motivational rocket fuel. It always feels good to achieve a goal, but nothing feels as good as achieving a goal with redemption.

Note from Mike: This is flat out great advice. #6 and #7 are my favorite of the bunch and are rarely talked about.

Additional Resources from Jason

Two years ago I decided to start experimenting on a large number of my clients and coaching group members. I wanted to see if I could create an athletic based muscle building system and help average guys get the same kind of results elite athletes get from their training. The only difference is the average guy doesn’t have the genetics, recovery ability or schedule of a professional athlete. But they all want to look like them.

So I took it upon myself to create the ultimate system that would help Average Joe’s and weekend warriors get a little bit closer to looking and performing like Reggie Bush or Georges St. Pierre.

I know how to help skinny guys get jacked. That’s old hat to me. I can do it in my sleep. As long as someone listens and does what I say they will pack on size.

But Triple Threat Muscle is a little different. Not only is the program focused on size gains, but also the development of explosive power and unrelenting endurance. So you get the jacked, muscular physique and the athleticism to go with it.

Get Triple Threat Muscle now and save $30. Click Here to Get Started Now

In the process of updated my Naked Nutrition for Fat Loss Program - It is going to be so much more comprehensive.

Bodybuilding.com delivered my order in less than 24hrs! Wow

just answered some rapid weight loss diet questions in regards to carbohdyrates http://readnow.at/18mm3

Testing out ping.fm. Hope you're having a great weekend

We're Moving!!!

Well my wife and I aren't moving (yet). But this blog is. The entire contents of this blog have been moved over to a new site --> http://blog.nakednutritionguide.com

If you have subscribed via RSS feed don't worry about changing your feed or re-subscribing as I've already taken care of that for you. Head over to the new blog's home and let me know what you think!

This will be the last post here at the blogger account so if you have linked to the blog on your blog or webpage please update the link to http://blog.nakednutritionguide.com

See you over there,
Mike

Video Friday - Bob Paris

I'm going to be traveling tomorrow for Memorial Day Weekend so I thought I'd post the video for Video Friday early.

Bob Paris is one of my favorite bodybuilders of all-time. He isn't a mass monster. Bob has the kind of physique that many men would aspire to - symmetrical, proportional, and not over the top. Today's video is a great as it is one of Bob's posing routines. If you have read Bob Paris' book Gorilla Suit then I highly recommend that you check it out. It is one of the few good books written on bodybuilding.

Tags: bob paris, bodybuilding, youtube, good books

Rooibos - Better Than Green Tea??

I've been getting a lot of emails lately about Rooibos tea. People are wondering what it is and if it is better than green tea (especially because a talk a bunch about Green Tea in Your Naked Nutrition Guide).

Rooibos (pronounced Roy-bus) isn't necessarily better than green tea but it is good. Rooibos comes from a South Africian legume. It is naturally caffeine free and brews up a dark rich red cup of tea. Rooibos is also loaded with antioxidants. Many of the health claims surrounding Rooibos tea and Rooibos extract are from animal and cell culture studies and thus should be taken as suggestive and not definitive.

While reading up on the research regarding Rooibos, I found a study that showed that Rooibos tea inhibited the activation of the COX-2 enzyme in human cells. The COX-2 enzyme is a major gateway for inflammation. Aspirin, Advil, and DHA (one of the fatty acids in fish oil) all also exhibit anti-inflammatory actions through inhibiting COX-2. This research is interesting as it suggests that Rooibos has anti-inflammatory properties.

So should you throw out your green tea for Rooibos?? Nope. Drink them both. Because Rooibos tea is naturally decaffeinated and Green Tea is naturally caffeinated they both can find a place in your day. Green Tea in the morning and Rooibos at night. Plus they both contain different types of antioxidants so drinking them both will give you a nice blend of antioxidant in your diet.

On a completely different note - NSCA Strength Coach of the Year Robert Dos Remedios has just launched a blog and website - www.CoachDos.com

Tags: rooibos tea, green tea, anti-inflammatory, health, nutrition