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You may have seen a whole new slew of advertisements online and on television trying to revamp the poor image of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  They are basically trying to promote this junk food additive as “healthy”.

The advertising campaigns don’t come right out and make the claim that high fructose corn syrup is “health food”, but they do try to get clever and fool people into thinking that it’s not bad for your health.  In fact, they make these misleading claims:

“It’s all natural”

“It’s no worse for you than table sugar”

“It’s made from corn”

“It has the same calories as table sugar”

As you can see, these ads are trying to deceive us into thinking that HFCS isn’t so bad after all… I mean, they do say that it’s “all natural” and “made from corn”.  These ads are pure sleaze!

In my opinion, these ads are highly immoral.  For one, as if our nation, and the world for that matter, wasn’t already suffering an obesity epidemic, as well as skyrocketing degenerative diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  Now, they’re trying to make matters worse by fooling innocent people into thinking that high fructose corn syrup is somehow healthy. Meanwhile, as society and our kids get fatter and more unhealthy, they’re lining their pockets with massive profits since HFCS is in the majority of processed food.

As for their claim that HFCS is ”no worse for you than sugar”… I’m not even going to discusss any of the science about how HFCS affects the leptin and insulin process in your body, your blood sugar process, appetite levels, etc.  Instead, I want to make a more important point:

Who cares if HFCS is ”no worse for you than sugar”… because sugar is one of the worst things you can ingest in your body anyway, so it is not even a valid argument!

The point you need to understand is that if you want to be lean and healthy for life, you should be minimizing, or even eliminating all sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  In fact, most processed food should be eliminated altogether if you want to be serious about getting lean.

As for their claim that HFCS is “all-natural”… don’t even get me started!  It’s just a ridiculous statement to begin with.  I don’t care if you call it “natural” or artificial, the bottom line is that it’s a highly processed, refined substance that makes you fat!

So the next time you’re thinking about drinking that can of soda, or eating that candy bar or cupcakes, just think about how that is only going directly against your efforts to lose body fat and can even lead to other health problems in excess.

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Don’t miss another powder day with an injury or weak legs that can’t ski more than a half day!

Every time I read a skiing magazine or see another so called “expert” recommending ski-specific workouts, I have to cringe when I see some of the exercises recommended! After all, isn’t the goal of an effective skier fitness training routine to reduce injuries while simultaneously building incredible strength and endurance in your legs and core?

Of course that’s the goal… we all want to tear up the slopes as long as possible, avoid the dreaded “jello legs” that might cut our day of skiing short, and also prevent those nagging injuries that might cut our season short.

The problem I’ve seen with traditional workout routines that are being recommended for skiers are that they not only use inefficient exercises that don’t carry over that well to actual skiing movements, but also may even be setting you up for an injury. For example, if you’ve seen workout routines that are recommending machine leg presses, machine leg extensions, and machine leg curls, please run screaming from that workout recommendation as fast as you can! It will only set you up for injury, and won’t even help your goal of strength and endurance that’s actually applicable to skiing movements.

The same can be said if you see authors recommending smith machine squats or any smith machine exercises whatsoever… they should all be avoided as smith machine movements follow unnatural movement patterns (not biomechanically correct) that can create excessive stress on the back and possible injury there and/or in the knees.

Now what about wall squats (aka “wall sits”)? Well, although almost every skiing fitness program in existence seems to recommend this exercise for skiers, I don’t find it to be optimal. I will say that it’s a step in the right direction compared to the machine-based exercises that I mentioned previously. However, wall squats are still not a truly effective exercise that carries over directly to strength and endurance throughout the entire range of motion that the legs use during skiing. This exercise can be mildly effective since even an isometric exercise held for endurance in one joint angle will still carry over to a slightly wider range of motion, but I actually have at least a dozen exercises that are MUCH more effective than wall squats.

One of the other major faults that I’ve found with typical ski workout fitness routines is that they often neglect achieving a proper joint strength balance (proper strength ratios between quadriceps, hamstrings, etc). Although skiing demands a lot of work from your quadriceps and less work from your hamstrings and glutes, it is still vitally important for injury prevention to maintain proper strength ratios between all of the muscle groups of the lower body and also make sure the small stabilizer muscles around the joints are properly strengthened. This is yet another factor that’s lacking in most skier workout programs.

By Mike Geary
Truth About Abs

If you want to lose weight, we all know that eating a healthy diet should be your first priority.  Sure, exercise is important, but diet is king when it comes to lifelong weight management.  I hope this article gives you some simple, yet effective ways for you to make healthy changes in the way you eat on a daily basis. 1.  Make sure to eat at least some healthy fats in most of your meals.  Eating enough healthy fats is very important for maintaining proper fat burning and muscle building hormone levels in your body.  Adequate healthy fats in your diet also helps in keeping your appetite under control. The healthiest sources of dietary fats are raw nuts, seeds, egg yolks (from organic free range eggs), avocados, extra virgin olive oil (highest antioxidant content of olive oils), coconut oil (a great source of healthy saturated fats in the form of medium chain triglycerides), and grass-fed meats (a great source of the healthy fat, conjugated linoleic acid, which can help burn body fat and build muscle). Try this tip — eat a handful of raw nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds are great healthy choices) 3 times a day about 30 minutes prior to meals.  This can help to quell your appetite and give your body some protein, fiber, and healthy fats so that you eat less calories overall at your meals and get more nutrition at the same time due to the high nutrient density of most nuts. 2.  Try to eat a high quality protein source with each meal and snack that you eat.  Quality proteins from grass-fed meats, grass-fed raw dairy, and even from plant sources such as nuts and beans provides good appetite suppression so you can control your calorie intake easier. Getting ample quality proteins also helps you to build lean muscle (if you’re working out hard regularly) so that your metabolism can run at a higher rate from the increased lean muscle on your body. Eating sufficient protein at most of your meals also aids your body in controlling blood sugar and insulin levels by helping to slow the breakdown of ingested carbohydrates. 3. Although I do not fully agree with extremely low-carb diets, I do believe that one of the main reasons that so many individuals struggle to lose weight for most of their lives is due to eating excessive processed carbohydrates such as refined grain-based starches and refined sugars on a daily basis.

The natural sugars in whole fruits and berries are ok because the fiber in fruits helps to slow the blood sugar response in your body.  Just make sure to avoid fruit juices, which are mostly sugar and have the fiber removed in processing the juice.

In my experience as a nutrition specialist, when people start to minimize their grain consumption (from cereals, bagels, breads, pasta, etc), they start to lose body fat much easier.  What I usually recommend is for people to minimize eating grains and focus their carbohydrate intake on fruits and vegetables solely.  This simple step alone usually helps people to start managing their weight more easily.

Try to implement these 3 tips for eating a smarter, healthier diet and I’m willing to bet that you’ll start to see a leaner body and more energy in no time.