I’ve been watching a repeat of the 2009 Alpine Skiing World Cup on Universal Sports this evening and found it absolutely amazing how Lindsey Vonn is able to obliterate the competition.

Mind you, while she won the overall 2009 World Cup, she actually only placed first in 2 downhills last year — Lake Louise, Canada and the race I just watched in Are, Sweden (the last downhill event of 2009). The race in Are, Sweden was the start of good things for Lindsey who to date has won 6 downhill events in 2010, not including her Olympic Gold.

I’ve been more than curious in regards to what Lindsey’s workout entails and after a bit of digging came across this video:

A note of caution: Unstable surface training is risky business if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Once again I have insomnia but I swear I heard something that woke me up at 1:30am and now I can’t get back to sleep.
I am struggling with the whole blog thing. Since I consistently (and some would say constantly) do Twitter and Facebook for Ingles Markets it seems to be just one more layer of busyness that I might not need to add. Yet it also occurs to me that within blogging I would be able to write more than just those 140 characters in the Twitter block.

I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time answering questions on the Jillian Michael’s message forum recently and one issue that keeps popping up is not being able to afford to eat healthy.

As one poster wrote: I don’t make very much money right now and I don’t have the funds to buy healthy groceries. I don’t want to fail this time, what should I do?

Fact is, you can eat healthy and cost effectively by being a savvy shopper and spending a little time in the kitchen.

Yes, it takes some work and is certainly not as simple as take-out or ‘convenience food’, but it will be well worth the effort not only from a weight loss perspective, but for your general health as well.

Guidelines include:

1.

In Defense of Natural Foods

By Neil E. Levin, CCN, DANLA

A public debate is now raging over the safety of natural fish oils. In truth, though, this should be more properly recognized as a narrowly focused legal debate rather than representing any real question as to whether these natural food products are good for us to eat; because health authorities around the world have already acknowledged that it is generally better to eat natural fish and fish oils than to avoid them. Yet a quirk in California law makes it possible for some environmental lawyers to argue that the general scientific and medical consensus on the known health benefits of natural fish products be ignored; instead touting zero tolerance for pollutants that are widespread in our food supply and advocating that only highly processed oils be sold.

Contrary to popular myth and The Healthy Skeptic (LA Times 3/1/10), the federal FDA (Food and Drug Administration) already regulates dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals and herbs. These are NOT “unregulated” products. What actually makes critics’ teeth grind is the fact that vitamin formulas do not need specific pre-approval from the federal regulators, which is the true endgame of many skeptics. But all ingredients used in nutritional supplements before mid-October of 1994 are already pre-approved by the FDA under an often-misrepresented law called DSHEA, which also requires all new dietary ingredients to be submitted to the FDA for pre-market review before a product is sold.

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.
~ Irish Proverb

I hope this is true.

* How would you rate consumer awareness of the health benefits of CoQ10?

Neil:
There is actually a fair amount of consistently positive press on CoEnzyme Q10 (CoQ10), with a significant part of that because of this antioxidant nutrient’s role in cardiovascular and heart health. Many cardiologists recommend CoQ10 to their patients and popular books, such as by Dr. Sinatra, promote the healthful effects of CoQ10 to at-risk people. I would go so far as to suggest that CoQ10 has picked up some of the wide popularity as a heart nutrient that vitamin E had several years ago (but lost due to consumer confusion caused by unwarranted negative publicity).

,On Friday, February 19, 2010, Bill O’Reilly discussed recent legislation introduced by Arizona Senator John McCain (the Dietary Supplement Safety Act; S.3002) to impose new regulations on dietary supplements (vitamins, etc.) with Suzanne Somers. He made several points that are quite reasonable: that there should be warnings on labels, that we should know what is in the products, that manufacturers should be registered with the FDA, that ingredients should be disclosed, and that the FDA should have recall authority. I heartily agree with these common sense statements but need to point out that these elements are already mandated by current federal regulations that simply may be inadequately enforced.

I had the opportunity to preview Pure Physique, a book written by Certified Personal Trainer and natural bodybuilder Michael Lipowski.

If you take one look at Michael (that’s his picture, over on the right), you would have to assume that this man knows a thing or two about fitness.

My initial impression of the book upon fanning through the pages however was not positive. Very wide margins and minimal graphics led me to question whether or not I would garner anything of value from this read. I’m somewhat of a research geek, and most of what I read in regards to fitness and nutrition is filled with charts and graphs and a ton of end notes.

It took a few hours to read the book cover to cover and overall I thought the content was good, but I was also left feeling that some individuals may feel let down by this read if they’re looking for someone to hand-feed them a workout and diet plan.

There is really a lot that I like about Pure Physique.

I started last week super excited about the TACFIT Commando Workout. Monday and Wednesday I completed both the Mobility and Compensation workouts with little problem. Wednesday evening some of my vestibular symptoms started to settle in and I found myself in bed most of the day on Thursday.

After a not-so-great Friday morning I started feeling better in the afternoon and decided to stay on track and hit my moderate intensity TACFIT workout. I had my @$$ handed to me. I got halfway through my fourth set of the Program 1 workout (an exercise called “sit thru knee”) and had to stop as my symptoms started to roar.

So, I posed the question to Coach Sonnon, ‘where do I go from here?’ His advice pretty much left me hanging with my jaw down to the floor.

Being that I’m dealing with a balance disorder, until my symptoms further dissipate, Coach Sonnon recommends that I use a traditional “machine” oriented bodybuilding routine.

Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I used one of the Cybex machines at my gym.