Understand what your body is made of and you will surely understand how to eat healthy. It was this rather simple idea that has continually propelled me along my nutrition path. Yes, I deviate; yes, I see the impending food-lapses that lie like land mines along the tracks ahead (thanksgiving…) and yes, I go through tunnels of nutritional darkness, where I come out from within wondering what I have just done to my body. However, there is a important idea that remains constant. When I find myself off-track, I think back to this concept that I want to share with you. The idea is really simple. We have all heard it before, “we are what we eat”. Well, I just want to add a bit to the idiom. “We are what we eat. So think about it!” Let’s get into more detail.

Water. Consisting of hydrogen and oxygen.

Lipids. Lipids are fats, oils and waxes. Most lipids are made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They contain a glycerol molecule with three fatty acids called a triglyceride.

Enzymes. Enzymes are large proteins that are bio-catalysts which means they help create and speed up chemical reactions within the body. They are composed of the same compounds that make up any protein.

Vitamins & Minerals. Vitamins are organic substances while minerals are inorganic. This means that vitamins are created by animals and plants while minerals are in the earth or water, absorbed by plants and animals. Vitamins include A, D, E & K and minerals include calcium, chromium, copper etc.

It is rather obvious how food makes up the building blocks of our bodies. Sure there are many other factors that make up the mortar, like the air we breath etc, but look at the overlap between the compounds in our bodies and food. Although this is a simplification, the concept is what’s important.

So you might be reading this and thinking, “of course”, all this stuff seems fairly intuitive and then I ask you, why do so many people know this yet do not think twice about what they put into their body? Well the answer to that is also really simple. Whether eating an apple or Cheetos, if you break it down, these foods provide the same micro-compounds that make up our diet. Yes, that is correct. But there is a difference. An apple contains these compounds in a purely natural composition while Cheetos do not. Take Cheetos first ingredient, enriched corn meal. “Why is it enriched?” you might ask. Through the refining process of making corn meal, the manufacturer actually removes essential nutrients by removing the bran and germ of the grain. This way, the grain is completely stripped of all nutrients so they have to then “enrich” the corn meal by adding , ferrous sulfate, naicin, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin and folic acid. Why do they do this? Your answer is as good as mine but the end result is a mixture of grain that is unnatural and literally stuffed with chemicals. Lets take another example found later in the ingredients maltodextrin. This ingredients is a synthesized form of starch, again stripped of all it’s nutrients but this time not replaced. Why they do this? The answer is a little more apparent; to create a substance that tastes good but doesn’t contain calories. If you still don’t believe me lets take yellow six also included in the ingredients of cheetos. Yellow six is a synthetic dye. It is a straight up chemical created by man. If there is one thing that we can take from this article is that our body is composed of natural occurring compounds. So why would we fill our body with all these man made, highly processed and dangerous ones?  There is no reason.

I encourage you to just think about it more. Everything we do, say, feel and think is a result of what we have eaten. We have full control over this. Our mouth is a gateway into our whole being and our mind is the gatekeeper. You have full control over what goes in and many people don’t even care or think about it. It’s like seeing enemies on the horizon and drawing the castle bridge to let them right in. So next time you are eating, think about just exactly what you are putting into your body, what you are allowing to physically make up who you are. Is it composed of natural ingredients or not?  If we can all be more cognizant, eating healthily will be that much more attainable.

20 burpees

sprint 100 meters

4 rounds

Second work out:

21-15-9
Left arm KB Snatch 1.5
Right arm KB Snatch 1.5
Pull-Up

“Latin tuesdays babyyy!!! LETS GOOOOOOOO!!!!!” -Veen

Toes to Bar – 3 sets of 20

20 push press with 35 lb dumbbells

5 rounds

Post time to comments

Grass fed steak, organic red beets, bell peppers, onions, garlic, and some herbs.

I haven’t really ever thought to post about the dinners that I make, but this one was just so good that I felt I must share it with the world. Who knows, maybe this could become a common theme and go along with my passion for food and nutrition.

Basically I just chopped up all the ingredients and put them into the pan with some water on the bottom so nothing would stick.

Also I made sure to boil the beets for a while before adding all the other ingredients.

If you make a similar dish, please leave a comment below and tell me how tasty it was!

Crew: Mike

Beach: Manresa

Time: Mid Day

Workout:

Run from my house to manresa

Watch Kai shred some gnar waves

100 push ups

100 sit ups

100 lunges

50 pull ups (on the life guard towers)

100 clocks

check for sandcrabs… (none were found)

run back to my house

military press 50 reps with 80 lbs

curls 50 reps with 60 lbs

l sits 50 reps

boom

bringin it back son… cabo 2011

I tend to use things that work and work hard. One thing I hate is light-weight or plastic kitchen tools.

With that sentiment I was both pleased and annoyed to read a report that the Environmental Protection Agency recently released on Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Florinated Telomers, two chemicals found in non-stick cookware. The EPA says that Teflon and other chemicals commonly found in non-stick pots and pans are not good for you. They cause developmental defects and can potentially cause cancer. A big fuck you to the companies that make these terrible poisonous products. My previous landlord worked for a company that helped develop Teflon and find practical applications for it. One of these practical applications was in cookware. He said that knowing what he knows about Teflon and the other chemicals they put into their non-stick compounds he would NEVER use the stuff.

Only recently have all us idiots forgotten how to care for quality tools and gone instead for the cheap, easy, potentially poisonous, and poorly make kitchen tools. Time to get reacquainted with one of the best friends you’ll ever have in your kitchen.

CAST IRON

Cast Iron pots and pans are more versatile and perform better than non-stick pots and pans as long as you know how to treat them. It’s not complicated to season and take good care of your cast iron cookware, and when you learn how you’ll be so pleased because a) you are inherently lazy and b) they are so easy to clean it’€™s a joke.

How to Season your cast iron skillet

Unless your cast iron is brand new you probably need to re-season it. If there is any sign of rust or if food sticks to your pan, seasoning it will bring it back to its non-stick-like glory days. Here€™s how you do it.

1) Rub the inside of the pan with oil. Use an oil or fat that withstands high heat, Canola oil works fine and I also like using coconut oil which I’m obsessed with. It is awesome for frying fish, cooking potatoes, anything that you would use oil for, except salad dressings. It comes as a solid which might freak some people out but I promise you’ll love Coconut oil. It rubs the oil on the pan, then

Nutiva makes my favorite coconut oil at the moment.

2) It places the pan UPSIDE DOWN on a baking sheet.

3) Bake the pan in the oven somewhere between 350 degrees and 500 degrees. The oven will smoke a bit, don’t worry as that is normal. Bake the skillet for an hour and a half and then turn the oven off and using oven mitts (that thing will be HOT!) turn the skillet right side up. Leave it in the oven to cool slowly.

4) Your skillet is now seasoned! You will need to do this a few times over the life of your skillet, I bet it looks super fly now!

How to care for your cast iron skillet

1) If possible do not wash your cast iron with soap, just use water and a sponge and rub it out. Using soap will slowly remove the oil that is imbedded in your skillet.

2) Do not leave your skillet sitting in water. Also, if you put a hot skillet into cold water your seasoned skillet will quickly lose the oil that makes it non-stick-like. Let it slowly cool down.

3) Continue to cook and bake in your cast iron (Yes, you can use it in the oven to bake with!) using your favorite oil and it should stay seasoned. If one of your house guests ends up washing it with soap just re-season it. Small price to pay for not exposing yourself to the cancerous chemicals in non-stick Teflon cookware.

Where to get a great cast iron skillet

Le Crueset makes the most baller cast iron skillets. They are expensive and awesome and really beautiful.

The Le Crueset Skillet is top of the line.

Lodge is the standard cast iron that is cheap and durable. Not quite as easy to season as the Le Crueset, but still a great pan.

The Lodge Skillet is a less expensive choice.

There are so many different styles too! Have a great time cooking! Willy.

EPA report on PFOA and Teflon – http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/pfoa/

After a good day of beach fit we decided to do another workout at night. The 2nd workout for the day was max press / max jerk. Naveen made a PR by 20 lbs but Elliot continued to press and jerk until he was the last one lifting. Its a good thing that he reached his max because we ran out of weights to put on the bar.

Here Elliot is about to jerk 290 lbs.

First day of Beach Fit for the summer of 2010. Ell and Veen were practicing back flips and handsprings on the sand and we ended up meeting some cheerleaders. They practiced the basket toss, cradle, and some other cool moves.

The guys about to catch Brynn after being thrown up in the air.

The guys about to throw a girl really high.