Sorry–again long time no posts.  I have been busier than a one-armed wallpaper-hanger, & none of my occupations at the moment let me anywhere NEAR a computer!  Things are going GREAT with my training, & I will be competing in just over TWO WEEKS at the Pittsburgh Championships!  This is a HUGE show, & I am very excited about the opportunity.  I have been working SO HARD–literally 3 workouts a day, 5 days a week, & 2 workouts over the weekends.  It is really paying off though!  My legs have NEVER looked this good–although I still have a long way to go to get them where I want to be!

I will try very hard to do a better job at keeping you updated on my progress.  My training business is really taking off, & I am so excited about that too.  I have discovered a new love—BOOT CAMP!   I am now teaching Boot Camps at my local gym & I am in love with it!  I have never taught group classes before, so this required me to step outside my comfort zone, but I am SOOOOO glad I did!   I have wonderful ‘troops’ & we are calling ourselves the “Buff-Armed Forces”.  We all should have the right to BARE ARMS! 

I have several things in the works, too, so I hope to be making some big announcements soon.  Stay Tuned!

I was forwarded this wonderful article by my friends at Sun Warrior, & just HAD to share it with you all!  Enjoy!

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Is Your Favorite Protein Powder Causing Cancer or Preventing it?

Protein is something everyone likes to talk about. Plant-based eaters, especially those who consume high raw and vegan diets, often find themselves on the defensive end of these conversations. This is unfortunate, but the tables are slowly turning. It is now common knowledge that cholesterol, found in all animal products, greatly increases the risk of heart disease, often leading to a heart attack or stroke. Eggs and red meat are notorious for being high in cholesterol, so some avoid beef and eggs and look to chicken or fish as protein sources. While lower in cholesterol than fatty cuts of red meat or egg yolks, poultry and seafood still contain substantial amounts of cholesterol. People are best served to avoid cholesterol altogether by eating a plant-based diet.

Most everyone is familiar with Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s landmark work, detailed in his book, The China Study. Campbell’s research dealt with casein, which is the primary protein component in cow milk and cheese. In his study, rats were fed casein above their protein needs, which caused experimental tumors in the rats to grow. The protein needs of a rat are similar to those of a human, about 10–12% of total calories.1 In Campbell’s experiment, the rats were fed up to 20% of their diet as protein. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003–2004, protein intake for Americans ranged from 13.4% of total calories in children aged 4–8 years to 16% of total calories in men aged 51–70 years.2 Additionally, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) recommends consumption of 0.4–0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight for exercise levels ranging from sporadically active to very active.3 The high end of this protein range is about 15% of total calories. Considering these numbers, it’s easy to see the relevance of Campbell’s work regarding protein consumption.

Traditional bodybuilding and sports diets, especially those targeting muscle growth, typically far exceed the NSCA’s protein recommendation, often doubling it. One can simply search the internet for “macronutrient ratios” and they’ll find that countless people are eating 30% or more of their calories as protein. Whey protein is a popular product to supplement the diets of those aiming to reach this protein surplus. Whey is the byproduct of the manufacture of cheese or casein. While whey is the more popular of the two, both whey and casein are marketed as protein supplements. All animal-based proteins, including powders made from milk or egg whites, should be avoided because of the cholesterol they contain and their link to cancer.

The trend in sales of protein products indicates people are learning the truth about animal proteins. According to 2008 research from Global Industry Analysts, annual sales of protein ingredients are expected to top $18 billion by the end of 2010. While animal protein ingredients account for 69% of the market, the plant protein ingredients market was the faster growing segment, with a projected growth rate of about 8% through 2013.4 There are several plant-based protein powders on the market—rice, hemp and soy are all popular options. None of these protein sources have cholesterol, but there’s something very special about one of them. One of them has cancer-fighting properties.

While casein can encourage the growth of cancer, certain components in rice protein can help prevent cancer. Sadly, these beneficial elements in rice are greatly reduced, or removed altogether, by the time it gets to the plate. Rice bran is the brown coating between the rice kernel and its protective hull. Brown rice maintains a thin layer of rice bran around the seed, but in the case of white rice, this nutrient dense layer is polished off. This is why white rice is a nutritionally dead food.

Inositol hexaphosphate acid (IP-6) is a potent antioxidant found in rice bran. In addition to its cancer-fighting properties, many experts also believe IP-6 can prevent and treat heart disease, kidney stones and liver disease. The process isn’t fully understood, but IP-6 suppresses the production and activity of cancer-causing free radicals. It also reduces the abnormal rate of cell division that defines cancer and tumor growth, allowing cells to normalize and return to regular, controlled growth. Additionally, IP-6 enhances the body’s potential to kill existing tumor cells by stimulating the activity of the immune system’s natural killer cells, called lymphocytes.5

Arabinoxylan compound is produced by altering the outer shell of rice bran using enzymes from Hyphomycetes mycelia mushroom extract. This compound is a major component in a popular alternative cancer treatment called MGN-3 (known as BioBran® in Japan). More clinical trials are needed, but arabinoxylan has shown promise in improving immune reactions in cancer and diabetes patients. Also, pre-clinical experiments suggest that MGN-3 may also be of potential value in treating AIDS patients.6

Rice bran looks to have a very promising future not only as an alternative cancer treatment, but as a treatment for a host of other diseases and conditions. Whole grain brown rice also makes a fantastic protein supplement. There is a great protein product on the market today called Sun Warrior. Naturally rich in vitamins and minerals, Sun Warrior rice protein provides a complete amino acid profile. Their old world process combines the sprouted endosperm with the bran from raw, sprouted whole grain brown rice to offer a protein with a 98% correlation to mother’s milk and a 98.2% digestion efficiency. Sun Warrior is raw, vegan and GMO-free.

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Interesting info!  As you all know, I am a huge Sun Warrior fan, & more reasons are being added every day!  Click on the link to the right to order.

Be Defiant!!!

Christy

So I guess I will do what I like to do on a fall Saturday anyway—glue my rear end to the couch in front of the TV and watch a lot of college football! But I thought I would take advantage of actually having a few minutes of spare time and give you an update.

For some reason, my computer and Shannon’s computer were just not talking to each other, and I had not received my new weight workout schedule. I emailed Shannon several times and she tried to send it several times, but it just wasn’t coming through. So I had been making up my own weight routines based on the workouts from camp and from my first 4 weeks of Bombshell training. I think I did a good job—I kicked my own butt everyday! I would make up the routine beforehand and then make myself stick to it just as if Shannon sent it. Things don’t sound as difficult on paper as they are when you are trying to do them in a circuit routine—whew!

Knowing we were going on this trip, and that I would have no hope of being able to work out while we were here, I only rested one day last weekend, and started my five days of workouts on Sunday. I got in my two cardio workouts every day, in addition to the weights. That was tough, no doubt. Boy was I glad they upped my food intake!  I received my new weight workouts on Wednesday, and all the body part splits were completely changed around, so Shannon said to finish what I was doing and start the new ones on Monday.

The new workouts change the splits completely. Instead of focusing on each bodypart individually, like legs, back, chest, etc., now legs are split up with everything else blended in. So it’s like: hamstrings, calves, shoulders one day and quads, back, biceps the next day. Basically, I will be working legs almost every day and there is a lot less focus on upper body. I assume that’s because I am on the final countdown to contest, and of course legs are by far the hardest body part for women to bring in hard and cut. I am excited to see what the results will be, because I have never been able to get my legs in the condition that I want then to be, no matter what I did. Wow, I am so grateful to have Shannon and Rob’s experience and expertise guiding me now. I realize more and more every day how much I needed a coach and some help on this competition thing!

I totally forgot to take my measurements on Wednesday like I normally do. This week was so crazy, trying to fit in 6 days of work into 4, on top of the 3 workouts a day! So things slipped my mind all week. I did finally remember to at least measure my waist before we left on Friday morning. I had my big, awesome cheat meal on Thursday night, because I didn’t want to haul all the pancake stuff on the trip, and I felt the best time to eat a cheat meal was when I was the most depleted after the five days of intense workouts. So when I got up Friday morning, I was thinking I would be at least a little bloated or retaining water. So I was very surprised when I easily measured a solid 24 inches on my waist—down a half inch! I was thrilled with that! My waist hasn’t been this small since I was in college, and back then I was just tiny-skinny, not muscular like I am now. In college, I got down to only 103 pounds, which for me probably looked anorexic.

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I have to give a shout-out and some love to gorgeous Lake Jocassee. This pristine lake lies on the border of South and North Carolina, nestled in the mountains. It’s so pretty–the mountains literally drop directly into the waters of the lake, with big mountain boulders lining the shoreline, and there are only two small areas on the lake where there are even houses at all. Otherwise it is just Mother Nature’s unspoiled beauty at its best.

A really cool feature of Lake Jocassee is all the waterfalls. There are several scattered around the lake, of varying shapes and sizes. Whitewater Falls is a huge wide rushing waterfall that steps down massive boulders gradually as it boils noisily into the lake. Then there is a very tall falls where the water drops from a high cliff, and near that one, another rocky falls easy to climb up to see the beauty of the water as it rushes through the woods. But the most fun falls is one that drops down a sheer rock face into deep water, and you can literally run your boat right up under the falls! Our dear friends Jack and Deb are with us on the trip and we had a blast at the falls. Check out the following video for our waterfall experience!

It is pouring rain right now. I am so glad that I got all my workouts in before we came up here. I was thinking, well, I could go for a run and do my intervals out on the mountain roads which would be challenging with the steep hills. But I decided it was best to actually get some rest and rejuvenation, and I am glad. There’s no way we can do anything outside right now. Sadly, there will be no boating today. That’s a shame, with all the work and preparation it takes to make one of these boat trips. And we have a great group here of at least 30 people. But we will make the best of it. There will definitely be football involved, as well as some investment strategy groups working on their Texas Hold ‘Em portfolios. (I may have to do some investing myself—I love Texas Hold ‘Em!) And later, we are all planning to pack into our friends’ cabin, fire up 3 grills, and cook out. There will be lots of adult beverages involved too, I am sure! I am just eating my little meals out of my baggies, and not even a sip of adult beverages for me! Fortunately, I could care less about drinking—not even a slight issue for me. But that birthday cake they had last night for one of our friends……….I just had to stay far, far away!

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Back home today–watching a little more football. I am so happy–the Detroit Lions just won their first game in two years, behind rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford from my beloved University of Georgia. So glad to see Matt having such quick success in the NFL. He was great here–and I wish him all the best.

We had a great time last night at a cookout with all our Power Squadron friends. Michael took some beautiful tuna steaks and just barely seared them on the griddle so they were just seasoned outside and completely sushi-grade inside. Wow! Delicious! I didn’t feel deprived at all among everyone else’s steaks. I had my sides that are ‘prescribed’ on the diet, and enjoyed the evening very much. The rest of the group made s’mores. Yum–they smelled so good. I haven’t had s’mores in years and years. Still didn’t, but it was nice just to enjoy the aroma.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, I have been almost completely raw vegan for two years, but with the Bombshell training and diet protocol, I made the difficult decision to re-incorporate some meat into my diet. I still try to do as much raw as possible, and I had still been eating a little sushi anyway, even over the past two years. Now I eat a lot of sushi. Raw is always better, if possible. And I have discovered that some people even promote a ‘primal diet’, which consists of a lot of raw meat, especially beef and chicken. Interesting, but I haven’t gotten that brave yet. I do have a friend that is completely raw, and I was very surprised to see him eating raw chicken one day. He swears it’s great and helped him tremendously as he was struggling with raw foods without meat. He said it didn’t matter what he ate or how much fat or calories were in it, on only plant foods he was a walking skeleton, and now is a very healthy weight. But I do enjoy my sashimi. I also enjoy blending my raw oat groats with raw egg whites—mmmmmmm, tastes like cake batter. It’s even better with one yolk in it, but I can’t do any yolks right now.

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I am going to jump back on my cardio tonight. We are leaving Wednesday to go to Texas to visit Michael’s stepmother, who is bravely battling cancer. He hasn’t seen his family in a long time, so we are excited. I am also excited to get to work out with my really cool niece Angelique, who is in the Army, and is also a personal trainer. And I will get to see my dearest Bombshell ‘Sista’ Angela, who lives near San Antonio. Hopefully, I will get to tell you all about it. But with the travel schedule, I want to make sure to get ALL of my workouts in, so I am going to get a head start. Plus I can only sit still for so long–it’s time for some active football watching. Oh, and tonight is the new season premiere of ‘Dexter’–my FAVORITE show. Yes, macabre I know, but man is it good!

It was a little tough to be Defiant of all the food this weekend, but I am proud to report I made it through almost perfectly, with only the slightest taste of a homemade dessert just to avoid hurting a dear friend’s feelings. It was good–I could have eaten the whole thing, but one must defy those things to keep one’s eye on the goal!

Be Defiant!

Christy

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My mother is the survivor of a massive heart attack.  She is a walking miracle to begin with.   Her heart is operating on only about 30% of its capacity, but she has the energy of a teenager and has never let it slow her down.  So ANY surgery or procedure is touch-and-go for a woman who literally died and was shocked back so they could do emergency open heart surgery.  And now they have to put her through it AGAIN!  When the device was implanted last week, the doctor sung the praises and said everything looked great, went great, and was a complete success.  Psych!!!  Guess not, huh?

She said tonight that it was so upsetting, because she was doing so well.   Then she went in for a checkup, they ran their little tests, and said that some number had dropped and they scheduled this ICD to be implanted right away.  Granted, with her history, having the defibrillator is probably not a bad idea, but still the surgery is stressful.  Plus they pump her full of antibiotics and other drugs, and of course there is the anesthesia–all of which is very rough on the body and hard to recover from, even for the healthiest person.  She was really out of it last week when she came out of the surgery.  She didn’t remember talking to us in her room when we first visited.

Now she has to go through it all again.  She can’t raise her left arm, because she is still so sore and bruised.  She can’t resume normal activities for six weeks, which will now be six MORE weeks, instead of being well on her way to recovery.  The surgeons aren’t gentle putting these things in.   They make a 3-inch incision between the left collarbone and shoulder, and then reach in with their hands and ‘hollow out’ a pocket for the device.  They just ream it out by scooping a space out of the flesh.   Well, that’s not particularly pleasant!  And it leaves the patient very sore.  Mom has bruising reaching all the way from her left shoulder down her left ribcage.

I guess you can tell I am upset.   As anyone who knows me is well aware of—I don’t trust conventional medicine, doctors, drugs, and hospitals at all.  And I refuse to see a conventional doctor for anything.  This is another example of why I feel this way.  I have observed the idiocy, arrogance, and incompetence all my life, starting with my grandmother’s heart attack when I was 11 years old.  (That’s an entire blog story in itself.  I will have to share that sometime so you can understand where all my skepticism and distrust of doctors stems from.)

Allopathic medicine is great for crisis management.  If I am in a car wreck, then the emergency room and surgeons are the best thing in the world, and the things they do to save people’s lives is truly astounding.  God bless them.  But conventional medicine is not only completely ignorant and horribly inept at promoting and maintaining good health and preventing disease, they actually CAUSE much suffering and needless pain, sickness and incredible expense in terms of outlandishly expensive treatments & drugs, lost time, lost wages, etc.    You get a six-minute encounter with someone in a white lab coat, quickly tell them your symptoms and POOF!  They magically diagnose you and write a prescription for the latest and greatest drugs with the best kickbacks, perks, and golf vacations to Hawaii.  Many doctors DO care about their patients and truly want to help, but the system is so broken that it just can’t be fixed.  It needs to be scrapped and a new paradigm arise in its place.   A paradigm of partnership, where physicians are trained in holistic nutrition and treatments, so they can help their patients achieve and maintain vibrant health, before resorting to toxic drugs, unnecessary surgeries, and especially ‘treatments’ (term used extremely loosely) that make patients sicker, like chemotherapy. 

I feel so powerless.  I want to rip someone’s throat out, but what can I do?  What recourse do we have?  The thing is misfiring and needs to be fixed, and the only way to fix it is to reset it through another surgery.  Now that the cursed thing is implanted, there’s no going back.  I just wish it had never been done in the first place.   But if it isn’t there, and she does suffer another defibrillation in her heart, then she could die before she receives treatment.  They live an hour from a major town or medical facilities.  So what do you do?  It’s too late.  She already had the heart attack.  The prevention wasn’t done and so the consequences have been suffered. 

The price for the years of poor nutrition is brutally high.  And it’s not just the person who suffers.  The ones who love them suffer deeply, as they hurt when they see their loved one suffer.   We have all heard of people with emphysema and lung cancer who will take off their oxygen mask to smoke a cigarette, because the ‘addiction is too strong’.    How selfish.  They are hurting the ones closest to them more than themselves.  It’s the same with food.   People know they are sick and yet refuse to give up the very things that caused the sickness to begin with. 

Is it really that the addiction is so strong, or the will to live is so weak?  Are most people so unhappy that their very instinct to survive is lost?  Is it that the addiction provides so much relief from the pain of life that they are willing to accept the suffering of disease and degradation of their bodies in exchange?  Is it that life isn’t worth living to them, so the greatest joys they have are destructive habits of food, cigarettes, alcohol and drugs?  It has to be.  It has to start with emotional breakdowns.  No other animal on earth purposely destroys its own body, taking in substances that it knows are harmful and toxic, and yet continues to do so despite the known consequences.   Only humans seem to enjoy destroying our bodies, defending the toxins vehemently and refusing to stop the behaviors, making jokes about it and knowingly continuing to ingest processed foods, chemicals, toxins and pure-out poisons. 

Life is so precious.    Yet the world today treats life with no respect, no value, and no love.  Someone very dear to me recently lashed out at me for my eating habits, saying that I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and that what I was doing was stupid.  That I should ‘enjoy life’ more.  I responded that if I do get hit by a bus, that I would die in the prime of my life, free of pain, free of disease, fully functioning in every aspect of my physical body, in vibrant health and boundless energy, enjoying life and love.  To me, enjoying fabulous health beats the heck out of the transient pleasure of toxic foods that lead to disease and suffering.  Been there, done that, got the surgery scars.  No thanks.  I choose a vibrant life.  Nobody controls the length of their life, but they certainly control the quality.  This person responded that they didn’t wantto live very long, and that they were going to enjoy theirselves while they can.  How incredibly sad.  Do most people feel this way?  That life isn’t worth fighting for, isn’t worth living?  

I could go into a diatribe here about how to create meaning and purpose in life, but many people go before me who are much more articulate and educated than I am.  Seek them out.  Learn from them.  Apply what you learned.  I just feel that to have a great life, you have to have a great purpose.   Otherwise, what is life but mere existence?  Maybe your purpose is enjoying your great-grandchildren and being able to play with them as well as you did with your own children.  Maybe you want to reach out in love and generosity to help those less fortunate.  Maybe you want to accomplish great things and change the world.  Maybe you just want to relax and spend time soaking up the sun enjoying the fabulous beauty of nature.  Whatever it is, your purpose is the key to a life worth living.

And remember, when you are the most down, focus on others.  There is no better way to feel better than to help someone else.  Never look down at anyone unless you are helping them up.   

So many people are hurting right now.   They are losing their jobs, their homes, their possessions.  I can certainly understand why they feel life is a painful prison and isn’t worth living.   Life is full of challenges, and some of those are horribly painful.  I wasted many years of my own life focusing on the pain and negativity, before I learned that it was my choice.  By changing my focus, I began to attract beauty, happiness and love into my life.  If you haven’t seen or read  The Secret, get it  now.  It’s so true.  You get what you focus on.  Focus on your strengths.   Focus on your power, your freedom, your unique qualities, and most of all the blessings you have now.  Be grateful.  Every day look for things to be grateful about, and focus on those. 

I am grateful I still have my dear mother here with us.   The last three years have been a miracle, and I am grateful for that.  I am also grateful that nearly losing her shocked me and forced me into the mindset of treasuring every moment.  Loving without boundaries.  Spending truly quality time.   Being fully in the moment, every moment we are together.  Having the opportunity to be of service and to help her when I can.  These are all blessings that have arisen from near tragedy.  This is what I choose to focus on.

And as for the ’sickness’ industry, watch out.  I am going postal on you.  I am fighting for my health, and for the health of all those I can reach.  I will not stand by quietly.  I will misbehave, I will cause a ruckus, and I WILL defy you.

Fight for your health.  Be Defiant!

Blessings, love and light to you all,

Christy

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Unfortunately, that is the state of ’sick’ care in our country today.  We don’t have a health care system.  We have a sick care machine that profits on suffering and disease.  Healthy people don’t take drugs, have surgery, etc.  That’s not good for business, and these companies have a legal obligation to increase profits to their shareholders.  Which isn’t bad in and of itself, but in health care, profits and ethics are directly oppositional.  It’s not that they want to kill anyone.  Dead people don’t take drugs, so they are not good for business either.  The idea is to keep people chronically ill and dependent on the drugs and health care system to function. 

That is why I say to Be Defiant–don’t fall into the trap of the same thinking.  Stand up for yourself, and nourish your cells with the best foods—natural, whole, unprocessed foods.  To be healthy today, you really have to defy just about everyone–from the doctors who are looking to either write prescriptions or cut something out of you, to the processed food manufacturers falsely proclaiming their products to be healthy, to your own friends and family who don’t understand how vital nutrition really is.  It is life and death.  It’s that simple. 

Everyone has heard the saying “you are what you eat.”  Every culture and language on earth has a similar phrase.  It’s so ubiquitous that it has become cliche’d and lost its deep, profound meaning.  Think about this–YOU ARE WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN EATING!!  Every cell in your body is literally built of the raw materials that you bring to the ‘jobsite’ through the food you ingest.  What are your cells made of? 

Food is essentially a foreign substance that you take into your body as nourishment.  If you are taking a foreign substance into your body, shouldn’t you make darn sure that it is exactly what your cells need for optimal structure?  Unfortunately, most of us eat for our brain and taste buds.  The brain loves things that trigger the opiate receptors and release the ‘feel-good’ chemicals, so it craves sugar, chocolates, breads, etc.   Our taste buds are so adulterated by all the chemicals in today’s food that we have to re-learn how to really taste natural flavors in whole foods.   So we eat to satisfy our taste buds and our brains, and the cells are out there going  “Hey!  What about us?  We need minerals, phytonutrients, and amino acids.  We’re starving here.  When are you going to feed us?”   And thus the cells give out a signal that they need more food, which you interpret as hunger and so you eat the things that the brain and taste buds love, which starts the whole vicious cycle over again.   The cells never get the nourishment they need, so they are constantly begging for food, and we are constantly hungry even though we’re eating tons of processed junk foods.  It makes sense, doesn’t it?  So much is common sense, but that is a rare commodity in the traditional medical field.

You will have to defy your own brain and taste buds!  They are working against you if you have been eating the Standard American Diet of processed food and chemicals.  It takes a few weeks, but once your taste buds adjust, you will actually be so sensitive to tastes that you will discover flavors you never knew existed.  For example, I can now taste the difference between types of apples, where before all apples just sort of tasted the same.  And if you eat foods that nourish your cells, those evil cravings tend to disappear, and the constant hunger disappears also.  The cells are satisfied, so they are not screaming for help via nourishment.   This doesn’t happen overnight, but it does eventually free a person from the prison of hunger and overeating.

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Today was back day.  I didn’t get to work out yesterday, due to crazy circumstances that really messed up my schedule yesterday afternoon.  So this morning I worked back along with high-intensity intervals of cardio.   I was by myself, and so I did the best I could without a spotter.  Since Michael wasn’t there, I skipped biceps too.  That’s his favorite muscle to work (isn’t that the case with all men?), but mine grow if I look at a dumbbell, so I only work them occasionally.

Back Workout:

• Warmup on elliptical machine
• Bodyweight pullups, 6 sets, 3 different grips, to failure on each set, holding the last rep for an isometric contraction
• Between pullups, I jumped rope, bench jumps and step ups on a high bench for 60 seconds
• Superset of rowing machine with dumbbell lateral raises for rear delts.  50 lbs each arm for the rows & 15 lb bells for the laterals.  Jumped rope between each superset for 60 seconds.
• Hammer Strength machine reverse-grip pulldowns, 50 lbs each arm, 3 sets of 12. 
• Cooldown and stretching

Have a fantastic day, and remember to eat for your cells, not your brain!  Be Defiant.  Tick off a drug company—be healthy!   

Christy

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I rarely get very sore anymore, due to my living foods diet and the massive antioxidants in Mona Vie.  Well, I found a way to overcome all that today.   I am becoming very intense about wanting to gain muscle, especially in my legs.  So Michael and I hit a very hard and intense leg routine this afternoon, and I am already quite sore only 6 hours later.  Michael said he is sore too.  Both of us, right in the deep middle of the meaty part of our glutes.  But it’s a good sore—the kind that lets you know you accomplished something.

Today’s leg workout routine focused on glutes and hamstrings.  The first exercise we did was leg presses.  Normally pretty mundane, but I made them brutal just through a simple tweak in technique.  I set the safety stopper of the machine right where the rack would hit it when my knees were just about buried in my shoulders.  Then I let the rack down in a good slow negative until it rested momentarily on the stopper, and pressed it back up with some explosiveness.  Wow!!!  Now that burns every muscle fiber in the glutes and quads, and the muscle pump was great.  I didn’t use a tremendous amount of weight, focusing more on getting the complete movement and taking the momentum out by resting the rack on the stopper.

My leg workout routine:

• Leg Presses with Stopper, approx. 300 lbs, 3 sets of 20, 15, 15 reps. 
• Walking lunges carrying two 25 lb plates, all the way across the gym, 3 sets
• Stiff-legged deadlifts, 3 sets of 15;  65, 65, & 70 lbs.
• Hammer Strength Hamstring curl machine, 3 sets, 20 lbs each leg
• Standing glute machine press, 90 lbs 3 sets, with explosive kickback
• Donkey calf machine, 3 drop sets
• Bodyweight calf raises during rest between first three exercises, abs in the last 2 (I like to put even my rest and recovery periods to good use!)

I really think those walking lunges were what made us so sore so quickly.  They may not sound like much, but grab a big 25-lb plate in each hand and lunge a couple hundred feet across a gym and see if your glutes aren’t crying ‘Uncle’ by the time you get to the far wall!  Lunges are such a great exercise, and you can do them anywhere.  Hey, lunge across your house as you’re going from one room to another, lunge to the refrigerator (for healthy food of course), do stationary lunges while you watch TV, take a break from the computer and do alternating lunges.  There are millions of variations, and need no equipment–therefore no excuses!

Expense of Eating Living Foods

I had a great comment on the website earlier today, mentioning that they would like to eat healthier but were concerned about the cost of healthy food, especially living and organic foods.   That certainly is a valid concern, given the skyrocketing cost of food lately.  And yes, organic costs more, as well it should.  It is packed full of fresh air, sunlight, water, and living nutrients, and wasn’t raised on soil-depleted wasteland with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.  Doesn’t it make sense that quality costs more?

That still doesn’t help when everyone is feeling the pinch and having trouble making ends meet.  My advice is to invest FIRST in your food, because your health depends on your nutritional intake and nothing, nothing, nothing is more important than your health.   Love yourself first and enough to provide your body with the nourishment it needs, or you won’t be healthy enough to enjoy all those other things that seem so important.  When you set your budget, look for unnecessary or harmful things that can be cut out to allow for all the wonderful organic foods.  I felt the same way at first, but I found that when we stopped buying all the meat and processed food, our food budget actually balanced out about the same.   Plus I have almost completely stopped eating out, since I like my own food so much better, so that is saving me hundreds of dollars a month.  Overall, I would say that living foods are a savings for me, not a greater expense.

Now, if I am making a bunch of big recipes that require a lot of raw nuts or things like nut butters, raw cacao, coconut oil, etc, those things can get very pricey.  But they do last for a long time.  And my philosophy is that cheaper is the poorer choice, unless I can prove to myself beyond a shadow of a doubt that the less expensive food is the same or higher quality than the more expensive one.   But that’s me.   My nutrition plan is of paramount importance in my life.  You may feel differently, and that’s fine.   Nothing is black and white.  There is a continuum of food quality in living foods–one is not ‘bad’ and the other ‘good’.  Just good, better, and best.  As long as it is organic, whole, unrefined, and unprocessed, you are doing  just fine, and better than 98% of the US population.

Think about this for a minute:  Why is organic food so expensive compared to processed food?  Why is processed food so cheap?   Let’s look at a box of name-brand cereal, for an example.  The corporation has to build large factories with expensive equipment, robotics, and employee labor to process the food.  They have to buy tons of the ingredients, including all the chemicals and preservatives.  Then they have to package it in expensive, brightly-colored, and scientifically-designed boxes that entice consumers to buy, and then ship it all over the country.  Then they have to spend millions of dollars advertising through many forms of media.  And the cereal is about 4 bucks.  Now, a bag of organic apples is about 7 bucks.  No processing, no factories, no marketing, none of that.  Just pick it, bag it and ship it.  Why is the bag of apples so much more ‘expensive’?  Think about that for a while and see if you can guess the answer.

Americans are a strange lot.  We spend and spend for luxuries like iPhones, TV’s, clothes, cars, jewelry, etc, etc.  But we clip coupons for our food.  We seem to expect that we are entitled to free food.  TANSTAAFL!  (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)  Why do we feel food should be so cheap?  We are not entitled to eat for free.  Even the Bible said that food would be earned through the sweat of our brow, after the fall of Adam and Eve.  Before that, it WAS free, plentiful, and incredibly healthy raw living foods.  Thanks a lot, Adam and Eve!  My family has a cattle farm, and we have always had big gardens every year.  That is SO much work.  Growing up I hated all the hot garden work.  My how things change, and how I wish I could have that again.   The farmers work so hard, and it is very expensive to properly build organic soil so that it nourishes the fruits and vegetables.   

That being said, there are ways to save money on great living food.  Join a co-op, buy directly from local farmers and farmer’s markets, buy in bulk and freeze what you can.  Go in with friends to buy in bulk.  Bulk herbs are so much cheaper than pre-packaged.  Grow your own food.  Eat sprouts–they are easy to grow, extremely inexpensive, and exploding with raw energy.  Look on the internet for bargains.  Eat free—learn how to recognize native edible plants.  For example dandelion greens are incredibly nutritious, and what could be more ubiquitous or free? 

OK, so have you figured out why cereal is so cheap compared to organic apples?  The answer is:  government subsidies.  The junk that goes into that cereal—refined grains, corn, and sugar–are supported by government subsidies for their respective industries, making the prices artificially low.  Plus the big factory farmers use the cheapest way out with chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, on these huge fields which gives  a great economy of scale.   I even know people who get paid by the government NOT to farm portions of their land, since there is so much overproduction of certain staple crops.   And the crops are largely genetically modified now, which is just a Pandora’s box of  problems to come.  The small farmer just doesn’t have the volume to compete, and it’s really hard to operate a large area with strictly organic principles. 

Your health is your most precious possession.  Yes, family, children, homes, money, etc are important and precious too.  But you are no good to your family and children if you are too sick, tired and diseased to enjoy them.  And what good is a fabulous house and lots of money if your health is gone?  Invest in your health first, and be able to give the best of yourself to those you love.   Please do your best to support local small farmers and keep our organic heritage alive.  It’s good for you, the environment, and for the farmers.

And one more thought…..what is the cost of NOT eating healthy?  Last I heard, cancer and heart disease weren’t cheap.  My friend’s husband had a heart attack and his one-week bill on pharmaceuticals alone was $71,000.   My mother’s hospital bills after her heart attack were almost half a million dollars.   Not to mention the pain and suffering.  Now, which one is more expensive?

The best investment is vibrant health!

Be Defiant!

Christy

How are you doing with the Christmas rush?  I haven’t done a thing yet toward shopping or gifts.  That has to be done soon!

I did manage to get in a great shoulder workout yesterday.  I had one of the big guys at the gym spotting me because Michael had to work, and he really pushed me to go hard and heavy (for me anyway).  It was great!   We did overhead bar presses with a stop between each rep.  That means you rack the weight just briefly and then start the next rep.  It takes all the momentum out of the movement, so it’s pure muscular contraction.  Very intense.   When my muscles got fatigued, he helped me ge the weight up and then I let it down slowly, getting the most out of the negative portion of the rep.  That’s a great way to gain strength and size.  I was also pushed for time, so this was a quick way to get in a really intense workout.

So the workout was as follows:

• Overhead Stop Presses 65 lb bar, to failure and then negatives, 3 sets
• Clean and Press, 50 lb bar, 3 sets, 8-10 reps with the overhead press to failure, then partial reps to burn out
• Superset 15 lb dumbbell lateral raises with overhead dumbbell pulses, 3 sets 15 reps
• Abs on decline bench between supersets
• Rear delt lateral raises, 12.5 dumbbells, 3 sets 12 reps

I am really enjoying working the smoothie bar in the Living Well Cafe.  It’s so great to talk with people about nutrition and their fitness goals.  I met a lady who is so inspirational.  Her husband has a brain tumor and was placed into hospice 4weeks ago with very little time given to live, and he was unable to talk or get out of bed.  She took massive action and is just now learning about raw and living foods, plus natural remedies, and has been giving him 8 ounces of Mona Vie a day.    Well, now he can carry on a conversation, and was able to sit at the head of the table for Thanksgiving Dinner.  How wonderful is that?  She is awesome, working out so hard herself with great fitness goals, and still taking care of his every need.   We talked for a long time about nutrition, and it was my honor to be able to make some suggestions to help her.  Please keep this precious couple in your thoughts and prayers.

This wonderful lady and her incredibly brave husband are looking brain cancer in the eye and defying it.  What an inspiration!  And they are doing it through natural means, now that conventional medicine has thrown in the towel. 

Defy sickness!  Defy disease! 

Remember the power that made the body heals the body.   Nothing is impossible.  I saw a great Chinese proverb recently that said:  “He who takes medicine and neglects diet wastes the skill of the physician.”  It all comes back to nutrition.  You are what you have been eating.  It takes time to build healthy cells.  They live for 4 to 6 months before being replaced, so it takes time to rebuild new healthy cells made of wholesome living foods.  Be patient and keep the faith. 

Blessings and much love to you all!

Be Defiant!

Christy