Don’t eat Ramen Noodles/Mac and Cheese/Chef Boyardee

Yeah I know, they’re beyond easy to make. Long study sessions and late night hanging out make these even more attractive as a snack. In spite of the convenience, there is nothing healthy about these heavily processed, low nutrient carb bombs. Avoid these at all costs. You can’t rationalize these, even now that you’re in college, and thus perceive yourself as “smart”. There are so many other alternatives if you are hungry. Walking to the dining room is always an option. If the dining hall is closed, or you don’t want to walk 5 minutes, eat some nuts or fruit. If you have a fridge (and you probably do, it is 2010), stock up on easy access snacks like cottage cheese, greek yogurt, beans and leftover lunches from the dining hall. It’s that simple. Don’t give your body low quality food, and weight gain can be kept in check.

Don’t use the school buffet for evil

My school had dining options that poor kids in Africa would dream about. Trays of chicken wings, pasta, garlic bread, and a fully operational Froyo station. Unfortunately, it is easy to eat way too much at the dinner buffet with some many options. Don’t take multiple plates back to your table, and don’t feel obligated to try every flavor of cookie that’s on the menu. Trust me, you don’t need them.

In spite of these perils of an all you can eat dining option, there are some ways to use the limitless food choices for good. Most dining halls have a salad bar. Remember where it is, and learn to love it. Even the most picky eater should be able to find something they like to eat at a salad bar. Make a giant salad before you eat anything else. Load it up with vegetables, hard boiled eggs, chicken, steak or whatever else you like. Use oil and vinegar, or some light dressing. Doing this makes overeating other foods much less likely. Also, make taking only one plate and never going up for seconds personal rules. You can eat a bad food every now and then, just keep the portions in check and the vegetables always high.

Don’t sit in bed all day

Get out and move. Find an activity you like to do, and do it often. Take a walk, go lift, go run. Take up a workout class if you need to be motivated. We all have different goals, likes and dislikes. If your friend told you “you have to run” to avoid the freshmen 15 and you hate running, don’t do it. No exercise or program can claim to be the key to weight management if you refuse to do it; compliance is always key. Pick something and stick to it. Once you figure out your class schedule, find when’s the best time for you to workout and make a commitment to do it. Please don’t wing it. Most people need structure, so do yourself a favor and create a workout schedule.

Don’t drink and eat late at night

Look, chances are if you go to college in the US, you will drink. A lot. Late night snacking and drinking seem to go hand in hand in college. Nothing makes you gain weight quicker than drinking alcohol, going to the late night food store and eating a bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel. You will be wearing that bagel on your stomach faster than you can say Super Size Me.

If you think you really are hungry, drink a glass of water or two before you eat. Chances are that you may be ready to just pass out by the time you finish drinking your water, and you might even be less hungry. If your hunger turns insatiable, try to have a protein shake or some hardboiled eggs. Try to avoid a high carb snack so close to going to bed. I also try to not eat nuts late at night because the whole container tends to disappear before I realize I’m not hungry anymore.

Strive for balance

Your body likes staying the same. Really! That’s why it’s so hard gaining muscle, dropping fat, etc. Your body needs a good reason to make any noticeable changes. Overeat and don’t exercise for a few days? I bet nothing bad will happen. Do this for a month or two? You’re probably going to get fat. So keeping this in mind, try to stick to a routine as much as possible. Don’t go to college and change everything you used to do when you weighed the same for the last 2 years. Changes will happen; college is full of change, both drastic and subtle. But you really have  control over much of what happens to you. If you don’t like the way your weight is headed after a few weeks in college, do something about it. Review your habits and see what might be causing the problem. The solution is always pretty obvious once you think about it for 5 minutes!

Now usually when a rare condition strikes such a closely connected group of people, doctors and experts look for the cause in order to prevent such a thing from occurring again. I get that; people want answers. However, what I don’t get is the reckless jumps in logic taken and the apparent intent to deter people from taking a safe supplement. I was casually browsing through the news yesterday and I came across this article. I was in complete disbelief. ABC News was singling out creatine, one of the most widely used and most research supplements in existence, as the leading cause for this odd medical mystery in Oregon.

Just to make something very clear, causation (i.e. when one variable directly leads to an outcome) is NOT the same as correlation (i.e. when two variables have a discernable relationship). As per our football player example, ABC is suggesting that since some of the football players used creatine (only three who had surgery were known to definitely have elevated levels), that creatine is the likely culprit in this case. Does anyone else see this as misleading? Yes, some of them used creatine. But ALL were teenage football players from the same geographical area, drinking and eating food that likely came from the same sources and went through the same practices and shared the same locker room. What I’m saying is the cause could have been literally anything they had in common. Those relationships look a little stronger than the creatine correlation, huh? Creatine looks like one of the few factors that was not even constant in all the cases. The most likely cause of the condition, in my opinion and several other expert’s, is an overly intense practice schedule coupled with a lack of preparation on the athletes’ parts, not a supplement used by so many people who have never ended up in such serious condition.

So why was this article written? That is the first question I ask when I read something. It clearly was not written for pure news reporting, nor was it supposed to entertain. The article was meant to incite controversy. If I were to read a story that said “too much practice, too little preparation is likely to blame for odd condition”, I would think to myself, “of course it is! That’s common sense.” No one could really counter that explanation. However, if ABC tries to demonize a very popular supplement (which is also naturally occurring, and impossible to detect whether the creatine in your body came from food or supplement, as one of the experts in the article duly noted) that has thus far been shown to be completely safe, they would generate much more site traffic and interest, regardless of the veracity of the content. I think this article is just another example of the media’s fascination with taking an unfounded and slanted viewpoint on the health industry (see this Time Magazine hack job). That’s fine, as it is their prerogative. However, I draw the line when news organizations blur the line between propaganda and news reporting. Articles which are purposely written to lack clarity or quality information is utter garbage, and I could only hope more people took issue with this style of “reporting”.

What Happens When We Sit Too Much

The Cliff Notes Version:

Sitting inhibits your glutes (butt muscles) from performing optimally. You are taught how to get by without using them much. They are not engaged while sitting; the chair does the work for you. They then no longer assist you when moving and exercising, thus causing more stress to be put on your lower back and hamstrings. The glutes are one of the strongest muscles in your body, so if they are dysfunctional, other muscle groups will be negatively affected.

Your hip flexors also become extremely tight due to constantly being put in a shortened position (your legs are at 90 degrees with your torso for 8 hours a day). This prevents your lower body from reaching a full range of motion during many movements (especially running/sprinting), eventually causing pain and injury. Many hamstring pulls are due to the lack of glute involvement and tight hip flexors during sprinting (I can attest to this one!).

Chronically tight hip flexors can lead to a condition called anterior pelvic tilt, which is the literal forward tilt of your hips. Needless to say this can have disastrous consequences for lower back health and correct posture. Tight hip flexors usually coincide with tight hamstrings and inhibited glutes since they are all interrelated.

How Can We Prevent This?

1. Move more!

If you work in an office, make it a point to get up every hour of so and walk around the office. It might actually help you live longer while also getting your hip flexors out of constant flexion.

2. Activate the glutes!

Before every lower body workout, I recommend doing a few activation exercises to “awaken” proper glute function. This will ensure your body will function optimally and as injury free as possible.

The Glutes bridge, (these will surely draw odd looks from people in the gym) re-teaches your body how to squeeze and contract your glutes.

The 4 Point Superman is also an excellent exercise to warm up with.

3. Stretch the hip flexors!

If you have chronically tight hip flexors, stretch them. Every day. The static hip flexor stretch is probably my favorite of the bunch. Excessive sitting takes a toll, so this must be done to stay healthy and injury free.

4. Strengthen the posterior chain!

Once you are sure your glutes are being recruited properly, get strong on deadlifts, pull throughs, weighted bridges and good mornings. Make sure your training program is balanced. Far too many neglect the back of their bodies and their injury history and life long pain is what they get in return. Do an equal amount of posterior chain work and quadricep work in order to prevent any imbalances.

One Size Fits All

The smith machine locks you into a set movement pattern regardless of the individual differences among us. People with long limbs will have to move in the exact same way as people with shorter limbs. Free weights allow people of all shapes and sizes to move in efficient, safe ways (once taught correct form).

If your goal is to get stronger, the smith machine will not help. Strength is largely a matter of correct form and neural efficiency at a given movement pattern. The smith machine disallows proper bar path when doing all free weight equivalents, making it impossible to learn and practice optimal technique. The machine also takes the stabilizing aspect of weight training out of the equation (another important factor in strength), causing important smaller muscles (see: rotator cuff, lower back) to become detrained and weak. If the lifter goes back to free weights (and he will have to if he is trying to test actual strength) his stabilizer muscles are a lot more prone to injury.

Waste of Time

Of course, some people will say, “I’ll just do more rotator cuff exercises.” Even if you did, your rotator cuff would still not be worked out in the same fashion and you are now doing more exercises than necessary and are using up more gym time. For people with limited time to train (98% of you), the smith machine is a poor choice.

Joint Stress

Joints are not immune to injury when using the smith either. The usual culprit of knee joint pain on the smith is squatting. In order to execute a proper free weight squat, you must “sit back” at the bottom portion. This movement allows the weight to be dissipated amongst the quads, hamstrings and glutes, thus taking force off the knees. Unfortunately, the smith machine does not allow you to do this; you just move up and down. Your quads and knees will take much more force than they need to, therefore exposing you to joint pain/injury. Combine that with the usual 30 minutes of jogging most gym goers seem obligated to do, and you have a gym burnout and constant pain at a very young age.

If your goal is to become more athletic, you are again out of luck with this machine. Becoming a better athlete usually means being able to control your body through space better. Running faster, cutting quicker, jumping higher etc. Since the smith machine takes most body control away from you, it will not help reach this goal one bit. Sticking to body weight exercises exclusively would be a better idea. Results would be night and day.

Want to lose weight? Then don’t use the smith machine! When dieting and trying to lose fat, training needs to be intense and efficient. You need to hit as many muscles as possible so you can preserve lean body mass and burn as many calories as possible. The smith, as mentioned several times already, does not hit as much muscle mass as free weights do. This in turn leads to fewer calories burned, making it counterproductive to weight loss.

It’s Too Easy

Finally, the smith machine tends to lack the intensity of it’s free weight equivalents. People flock to this machine because it’s not that difficult. Of course, most people need to do intense and challenging things to progress. Why not take the training wheels off and do something demanding? I guarantee your body will look and feel a lot better if you used free weights. I understand many people use the machine because they do not have a training partner. That’s taking the easy way out. Most people work out at commercial gyms that are filled with other people also lifting. Simply ask someone for a spot. It’s incredibly easy, and ensures safety. Most lifters do not mind helping someone else out. Worse case scenario is you have to ask an employee at the front desk to spot you because the gym is empty.

Eat unlimited vegetables

Go right for the salads and pickles. Eat as much as you can and you will be a lot less likely to overeat on other foods.

Eat Some Protein

You still have to get your protein, but you can be a little less stringent as to the source of it. Chicken, steak and even a hot dog will do. However, there’s still no reason to eat the bun. It doesn’t taste that good. At the very least, rip half a bun and use it to hold the burger, minimizing the damage.

Stick to Light Beer/Avoid Sugary Mixed Drinks

Most BBQ’s have a ton of different drinking options. Some choices are a lot smarter than others. Having a regular beer won’t kill you, but limit them in quantity. Switch to the much lower calorie/lower carb choices after you have a regular beer. Don’t drink sugary mixers, and if you really want to drink hard alcohol, make sure you mix it with diet drinks that contain few calories.

Go Swim!

Be active and you don’t have to worry as much about your caloric intake. It’s going to be a scorcher, so exercise tomorrow can be both refreshing and allow you to eat more.

Stick to Fruits for Dessert

The great thing about BBQs is that you are almost certainly going to see some great looking fruit. Watermelon, pineapple, mixed berries are the usual summer staples. All are great tasting, and much healthier for you than cookies and cake. The fruits will also help you eat less thanks to the high amounts of fiber and water.

Be Willing To Say No

You do not have an obligation to try every food your family and friends made. They will not cry if you don’t wat their cheesecake. You will be offered to eat a lot of food, and it’s up to you to limit yourself. Holidays are times you can get looser with your diet, but not loose. There are too many holidays and special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) to go completely off your diet every time. That type of behavior soon becomes a habit, which means you will soon be eating crap every few weeks, then every weekend, etc. Know your limits, and do not go past them. Enjoy the day, but eat and drink in moderation.

One of the best tips I have ever heard and put into practice is to keep foods you shouldn’t be eating away from you. Sounds simple enough, right? Well it works! It has been well documented that people will eat whatever is put in front of them. Mindless snacking and binge eating all stem from having food conveniently near you. I don’t know too many people who go out of their way to run to the store and get a sleeve of cookies and then go home and eat the whole thing. Chances are it was sitting on your counter, you were hungry, and you like cookies. The perfect storm.

If you buy “cheat” snacks, make sure you store them in a hard to reach place. Store them in your highest cabinet or in a small nook in the fridge. Make it so that you would need to consciously go to the cabinet, maybe even with a step stool, and take the food. This ensures you do not consume the snacks mindlessly and impulsively. You must really want the snack in order to put the work in to get it.

The same concept applies to the workplace. The candy dish study clearly demonstrates how junk food can cause havoc on a diet in an office setting. The easiest solution is to take your food off your desk and put it in a drawer. I guarantee you will forget about it when you are busy doing work all day. This dramatically improves the odds of diet success.

If someone brought in a spread of bagels or donuts and you cannot possibly control the location of the foods, just don’t look at them. Keep busy, take alternate routes to the coffee room/bathroom in order to avoid the foods. Proximity is key here. Keep your distance, and you will keep on track with your dieting. Every little bit helps when dieting, so learn to constantly adapt to each situation and stay the course. It’s worth it in the long run!

1. Not Writing Down What They Do

OK, its probably asking a little too much to expect people to have a plan going into the gym other than saying “lets do chest and tris today”. But what boggles my mind is how every guy I see at the gym thinks he has this amazing memory where they can remember exactly what weights, sets and reps were used in every workout ever. Of course, they can’t remember all too well, and their lack of progress shows. Most guys just wing it, making it near impossible to consistently progress in the gym. Just bring a pen and paper with you, log everything you do and repeat. Each week try to improve over your previous workout. Eventually, you can even start planning your week and blocks of training in advance, eventually developing your own competent programs.

2. Leaving Out Giant Body Parts and Training Only “Mirror Muscles”

Train. Your. Legs. I don’t understand how someone can believe they “work hard” in the gym everyday when the most challenging exercises they do for their legs are calf raises and leg extensions. Don’t even get me started on what passes for a full rep on the leg press in most gyms today. Lifting 600 lbs 4 inches to impress your training partner does not make you strong or special. Get over yourself. Get under a bar and squat. Pick heavy stuff off the floor. Don’t just train your quads either. Train your back, hamstrings and glutes. Just because you can’t see them in the mirror doesn’t mean they aren’t there! A well developed backside improve posture, explosive capacity, athletic ability, and they burn a ton of calories. Make sure you do horizontal pulls (rows), vertical pulls (chin ups) and deadlift variations. Just maybe you won’t need all those “supplements” to look good at the beach because you would have built real, quality muscle by now.

3. Not Warming Up

It amazes me to see how many people just walk into the gym and throw on the weight they intended to do for their first work set. This approach does not allow your nervous system to function optimally, does not allow blood to reach the muscles, ligaments and tendons, and leaves you susceptible to many injuries. All of these negatives result from being careless and lazy. In an ideal world, you should do a mix of mobility drills, static stretching and dynamic stretching prior to your weight routine, but at the bare minimum you should start with a really light weight on the exercise and gradually work your way up to your first work set. For example, if you planned on doing 250×5 on bench for your first set, do the following:

Bar x 10

135 x 8

185 x 5

205 x 3

225 x 3

240 x 1

250 x 5- work set

I don’t recommend doing too many reps on later warmup sets because you will become too fatigued to perform your work sets. These sets are supposed to get your body used to progressively heavier weight.

Got any other common screw ups? Let me know in the comments!

Key Recommendations

• Saturated fat intake recommendations has been lowered from 10% to 7%
• Trans fat intake guidelines have been cut in half, from 1% to 0.5%
• Salt intake has been lowered from 2,300 mg to 1,500 mg
• Potassium intake has been raised
• People are urged to eat more plant based foods, and less sugars and refined grains
• Children should avoid sugary drinks and should exercise more

It remains to be seen if these recommendations will have any direct change on the rate of heart disease, obesity and diabetes, but it’s hard to argue with telling people to eat more fruits, vegetables and to cut sugar and refined foods!

When people take this approach, they try to juggle too many new actions at once. This leaves these people constantly thinking about what they should be doing now, later and what they should have done 10 minutes ago. This is just not conducive to success. Nothing about this approach is on auto-pilot, meaning it is incredibly taxing on brainpower as well as willpower.

Far Better Approach

To ensure long term success with anything, I recommend adopting one change at a time. Once the initial change becomes a habit, you no longer have to think about doing it. This allows you to free up willpower and brainpower for the next task. You will now be able to devout 100% of your resources to this new change, drastically improving the odds of success. Over time, this approach allows you to make incredible changes. You will literally seem like a machine with ironclad will power to those around you.

Putting It In Action

When I went from this to this, I was able to change a lot of habits and behaviors. However, it took about 3 years to achieve, and I started very slowly. I took a baby step to get started. If I tried to exercise optimally and use advanced nutrition techniques all at once, I would have been really overwhelmed, and probably failed.

I started out with an easy win. Being a former athlete, I knew just getting myself into the gym was the most attainable habit. I had already been able to do this in my past, so getting back into this habit would be a lot easier than doing something I had never conquered before. Before I knew it, my first habit was instilled. Today, the question is always when, not if I will go to the gym and exercise each day.

Once I was able to get in all of my scheduled workouts, I moved on to the nutrition goals. Eating 6 meals a day was already a habit of mine, so I then focused on eating protein with each meal. Eating heathy fats was next, followed by eating better carbs. I built upon this foundation by then timing my carbohydrates properly, then moving onto cycling both carbs and calories.

As you can see, a series of little changes that snowball into full blown habits can allow even the most out of shape person to change things around. If I can do a complete 180 in lifestyle, I’m pretty sure you can. Just make sure you do it gradually, and one brick at a time. It will be a lot easier that way!

My list may seem to be a little heavy on the Eminem songs, but everything he’s released this year has been nothing short of incredible. The angry, spit fire lyricist Eminem of the late 90′s and early 00′s has returned, and all music fans are better off for it. I highly recommend listening to everything he has put out this year.

Without further delay, here are the 10 songs that I’ve been playing on repeat:

10. Fabolous- “Body Ya”

9. T.I.- “Yeah Ya Know (Takers)”

8. Kanye West- “Power”

7. LCD Soundsystem- “Dance Yrself Clean”

6. Big Boi- “Shutterbugg”

5. Eminem ft. Pink- “Won’t Back Down”

4. Eminem- “Not Afraid”

3. B.oB. ft. Hayley Williams and Eminem- “Airplanes pt. 2″

2. Drake ft. Jay-Z- “Light Up”

1. Eminem- “Almost Famous”

What are your favorite songs this month? Post them in the comments!