Today, I want to look at what I consider to be a couple of minor vices, provided their consumption is “moderate”. Moderate…how’s that for a word that has a million meanings? One person’s “moderation” is another person’s “excessive”. So today, we’ll look at two very common “drugs” used by the general populace, myself included, and try to figure out what is a “moderate” intake that won’t cause any health problems for most people.

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation. ~Author Unknown
Coffee smells like freshly ground heaven. ~Jessi Lane Adams
First things first, obviously there are many other sources of caffeine besides coffee, but tea has very little and you already know I can’t get with energy drinks. So for me (and most other healthy folks), my only real source of caffeine is coffee. Sure, I drink some green or white tea, but the overall caffeine content is low (we’ll discuss that further in a couple sections).

The Effects Of Caffeine

At its heart, caffeine is a stimulant. It causes an increase in three stress hormones: cortisol, adrenaline and …

November 23, 2009 | 24 Comments

Here is the holiday time of year. Where people are running around shopping, going to social gatherings, and unfortunately adding on some extra pounds.

Why wait till New Years to make some promise to lose weight when you can get back in control right now? Here’s some simple things to be aware of and a free survival guide at the end to keep you on track during the holidays.

Do You Know What You Are Really Drinking?

One of the deadliest calorie bombs around the holidays comes from sources that most people won’t even count, that being what you drink. Yes sad to say that drinks also count towards putting in the excess calories and shutting down fat burning (from the high sugar intake).

Here is just a few samples of the deadliest drinks during the holidays that may be sneaking up on you. All of the stats below are based on 1 serving size/cup (8 fl oz) and taken from www.caloriecount.about.com.

Eggnog - is about 350 calories with @40g of sugar per serving!

Hot Apple Cider - While not too high in calories does pack about a 30g …

November 17, 2009 | 12 Comments

How much protein do you REALLY need per day to build muscle? Chances are that you may be actually overeating. But how much is enough to help maintain and build muscle?  Is there a limit per meal that the body can use? Lets get started with 2 more recent studies that currently have many high protein eating bodybuilding communities panicking…..
Six healthy young men reported to the laboratory on 5 separate occasions to perform an intense bout of leg-based resistance exercise. After exercise, participants consumed, in a randomized order, drinks containing 0, 5, 10, 20, or 40g whole egg protein. Protein synthesis and whole-body leucine oxidation were measured over 4 h after exercise by a primed constant infusion of leucine.

APS increased in a dose-dependent manner and also reached a plateau at 20g ingested protein. Leucine oxidation was significantly increased after 20 and 40g protein were ingested.

Ingestion of 20 g intact protein is sufficient to maximally stimulate MPS and APS after resistance exercise. Phosphorylation of candidate signaling proteins was not enhanced with any dose of protein ingested, which suggested that the stimulation of MPS after resistance exercise may be related to amino acid …

November 10, 2009 | 23 Comments

Alright, we have two little fun things today. First, it’s recipe time. But I want to give you all something different than the regular old recipe in a PDF. So I talked to Antonio at Healthy Urban Kitchen about putting together a cooking video showing you all how to actually put together one of his recipes. He grabbed the beautiful Donna Sonkin to put together this video for you, exclusively for Fitness Spotlight readers. (The password is “cooking”.)

Fitness Spotlight Cooking Video from Antonio Valladares on Vimeo.

For those wanting a run-down, here are the things that Donna threw into the marinade: Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, pepper, hot sauce, olive oil, cumin, garlic, oregano, cloves, and sea salt. Some other ideas she threw out were capers, coconut butter, tamari, fruit concentrates, and maple syrup. I probably missed a few, but you can see that the possibilities are endless.

Now let me tell you what I really like about this video. It’s all about the art of cooking, rather than the science. It’s how I cook …

November 2, 2009 | 106 Comments