Ben Asked:
What should I eat after a workout?
Thanks for the question Ben.
Well, there are a couple ways you can go about this. It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish physically with your workout. If you are trying to build lean muscle and lose weight, I would say to have a mixture between protein and complex carbs. If you are trying to pack on more muscle, I would say to eat more protein foods than carb foods. You should have something to eat at least 30 minutes after your workout, your body will absorb the nutrients better. Although I would not really find something to eat, but more something to drink. You have a small window of opportunity to replenish your body with protein and complex carbs, and sometimes food just takes to long to break down. But liquid forms are great. I would get a whey protein powder to drink right after a workout if I was you. Whey protein will help promote either a toned looking body or a muscular looking body.
I hope that answers your question.
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I really enjoyed learning about The Abs Diet. The Abs Diet teaches you how to eat healthy, and it does a good job breaking everything down and making it into an achievable plan. The nutrition side of it all actually reminds me of the South Beach Diet, but what the South Beach Diet Lacks (a workout plan), The Abs Diet provides. Not only does The Abs Diet teach the importance of proteins, carbs, and fat, but also it also teaches you the importance of a workout routine, and actually provides you with one.
So you have probably seen the infomercials of the Slendertone Ab Belt and it probably looks to good to be true. Well…it is! The Slendertone Ab Belt is a complete scam, and any other ab belts that promise you six pack abs are also scams. It would be nice to live in a world that we can sit around on our butts, watch TV and lose fat by putting on the Slendertone Ab Belt, but unfortunately we do not live in such a world. Instead we live in a world where people get taken advantage of in there desperate state to lose weight.
Lets face it, parties and family gatherings are fun…well at least parties are. But when you mix fun with delicious food, then you have a recipe for a weight loss disaster. So you need to switch up your game plan a little bit, most the year you are probably focusing on how to lose weight, but during the holiday season you need to focus on how to not gain weight. Weight management! The holidays are way to fun to dismiss, and it will only cause you frustration and disappointment if you decide not to eat these delicious foods. You main goal should be to keep your weight stable through these times.
You cannot target fat loss to one specific area on your body, it is very important to do abdominal workouts (which we will talk about), but it cannot be the only thing you do. You need to incorporate cardiovascular training, weight lifting, and interval training. You need to turn your body into a fat burning machine, and you do that by raising your lean muscle mass, because muscles burns fat. You also need to have a healthy diet, there are certain foods that can help you get your sexy flat abs, like foods with protein, and foods that are either whole grain or whole wheat. But let get to some of the reasons why strong flat abs are important, other than just looking good.
Yes, great looking abs go further than just skin deep, it’s not all about looking good. There are many health benefits to strengthening your core that will help you live a long and healthy life. If you are experiencing back pain, most the time it is because of the baggage you are carrying up front. Your back is supporting all that weight called your belly, or beer belly. Strengthening your abs will also help you with everyday activities. Just think about all the movements we do, twisting, bending, pushing, and pulling, we engage our core far more than we realize, and if we had a strong core than we would be less likely to injure ourselves. Belly fat has also been related to heart disease, the fat that surrounds our midsections is said to be the most dangerous fat for our hearts.
The First Phase – You pretty much eat normal size portions of food, but you will eliminate all carbohydrates. This will probably be the toughest phase, to get through, because a lot of your really good foods have carbohydrates in them. This strict first phase lasts for two weeks, and in this two weeks, you will eat lean meats. Turkey, chicken, shellfish are all accepted in this first stage, some selected vegetables, nuts and low fat cheese are also accepted in this first phase of the South Beach Diet.
So does the Atkins Diet work? Yes, it actually does work. But if the Atkins Diet works, why is there so much controversy over it? Let me tell you why I do not like the Atkins Diet. The Atkins Diet is great for short-term weight loss, but bad for a lifetime of health. By eliminating foods with carbohydrates, you are limiting yourself to all the wonderful nutrients that help your body. With the Atkins Diet you pretty much only eat foods with protein, which includes steak, chicken, eggs, bacon, and turkey, and even though this sounds great, they are also high in saturated fat. So even though you might lose 20 to 30 pounds, you will actually be doing damage to yourself in the long run.
Flaxseed has many health ingredients, but it is most known for being rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, that’s good fat! Omega-3 fatty acids have actually been known to improve the health of your heart. Flaxseed also has fiber, which most of us need more of in our diets. Another key ingredient that flaxseed contains is called Lignans. Lignans have antioxidants and plan estrogen.
I want to talk to you about Interval Training. Interval Training contains both high bursts of energy and recovery times. There are many different ways people use interval training, some people do long bursts of energy and short recovery times, some people do shorter bursts of energy and longer recovery times, both are affective. No matter which form of interval training you chose, the goal is always to get your heart rate up with high bursts of energy and then bring your heart rate down with the recovery time, do it over and over again for around 20-30 minutes.
Which brings us to our second way to burn fat quickly. Muscle training! I am not talking about getting huge and bulky, so if your a woman or a man afraid to bulk up? Do not worry. Resistance training is a very important key to burning fat, because building lean muscle is the fastest way to burn fat. You do not have to use heavy weight or even use weights at all. Resistance training involves chin-ups, push-ups, lunges and squats; all those exercises can be done without weights. If you do end up using weights, you do not have to pick heavy weights. Chose weights that you can control, many people try to whip out reps like they were in a race…but slow and steady wins this race. For example, going down with a bicep curl is just as important as going up with a curl. There are times for pumping out reps, but slow and controlled repetitions will help your body burn more fat during and even after the workout is finished.
