Damn you Orowheat! by Michael Ma

Ok...who knew.. So I went to Costco today to pick up some whole wheat bread. I've been getting whole wheat by Orowheat for like the longest time. Walking towards the register, I read the ingredient. First one on there...? High Frutose Corn Syrup. Boo! So I went to get some whole wheat bread at Trader Joes. They are using HFCS as a cheap substitute for honey. Shame on you Orowheat!

I also went to Henrys to pick up a whole flat of strawberries for $2.59. I think they didn't charge me correctly at the counter, or I missed the 2 for 1 sign. I didn't complain. I cut the tops of most of my strawberries to make strawberry banana smoothies later. With a splash of OJ and strawberry-banana protein powder from Glutapro, it (with milk, yogurt, ice) it tastes identical to strawberries wild from jamba juice. But less carbs and more protein.

Body Fat Scale by Travis

Noticed this Body fat scale is on sale right now at Amazon for $38 with free shipping.

The Abs Diet Potluck by Michael Ma

One of my most favorite things in the world are potlucks. So why not have one centered around the guidelines of the Abs Diet? What I always tend to do in potlucks is over eat, but I guess that'll have to be moderated by yourself. If you are there for 2 hours, it can be two meals! In the worst case scenario, it'll be your cheat meal. Other than that, I don't see a reason why everyone participating in the challenge (and other people that have interest in the abs diet) can't come together, put a face to the name, share your progress, keep eachother in check, share some recipies, and share tips you might have gained that you think will be benefiscial to others while eating some delicious healthy food.

More details (and a sign up sheet) on the potluck next week. Heck, maybe we can watch "Super Size Me" also. :)

Day 5 by Travis

It's almost been a week and, so far, everyone seems to be doing really well. The transition onto this eating plan has been pretty smooth for me. The only downsides are getting up a little earlier in the morning to allow time to make breakfast and lunch and having to clean the blender repeatedly.

On the plus side, I'm starting to feel a little leaner. I think, for me, that is primarily from cutting a lot of sodium out of my diet. I'm definitely eating more fruits and vegetables, which I also feel good about. The workouts are also going well for me and I'm glad I finally found something to force me to change up my routine.

With the weekend just ahead of us I'm sure many of you are already planning out your cheat meal. What temptation have you been resisting all week that you're going to indulge in?

Soy, the near perfect natural food, with one serious flaw by Michael Ma

First, let me say that everything is ok in moderation. But anything in excess can be bad for you. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad, or take away any thunder of enthusiasm everyone on this diet has going. That's the last thing I want to do, but its better to know now, than to find out later.

Soy is could be nature's perfect ingredient. Its a vegetable that has a lot of protein, and it has just the right balance of protein to carbs. It tastes good, can be eaten raw, cooked, dried, fermented...heck you can even make soy milk with it. We have made it the posterboy of healthy nutrition. So now what's so bad about it? Soy isoflavones found in soy beans are nearly identical in chemical structure to human estrogen. That is really bad news. One of the primary reasons why women generally have a higher body fat percentage then men is because women have produce more estrogen than men (they also produce less testosterone.) Estrogen promotes storage of fat. Since soy isoflavones are so similar in chemical structure to estrogen, they posess estogen like activity. They will bind to estrogen receptors.

You don't have to worry about having some tofu in your soup, but when you are having soy protein powder, eating some soy cereal, and having some soy milk, you are definitely having excess amounts of soy, which might as well be excess amounts of estrogen in your body.

I know this because I am lactose intolerant. I'm at the far end of the spectrum where it can affect me to where my body treats it like a mild case of food poisoning. Here are tips I learned from my experience.

Like any latose intolerant person, I know that sometimes, we are able to handle some dairy, while other times, it could just be an awful experience. Also, I have experienced an affect where if you ate a small amount of dairy on a daily basis, our lactose intolerance could be pretty well controlled. This is because some dairy products have less or almost no lactose (skim milk, aged cheeses), or even though they have lactose there are things in there that help in breaking down of lactose (yogurt). Even if our latase enzyme producing mechanisms have been taking a break for who knows how long, it shouldn't be that hard to condition them to where you are able to drink at least low fat milk 1% without a problem.

If you don't want to go through that, there's always Lactaid and Lactaid milk. Only draw back is that its pretty damn expensive in comparison to milk (might cost the same as soy milk though not sure), and when you finally have some dairy w/o Lactaid after getting used to Lactaid, its not a fun experience since your latase producing mechanisms are pretty much in hibernation mode.

Conclusion. Avoid excess soy and curb your lactose intolerance.

Day 3 by Travis

The Mas Macho Meatballs turned out nicely, last night. I ended up using ground turkey instead of ground beef, so they may have ended up a little drier than they should have. I also substituted oatmeal for the saltines. I put the meatballs in a couple of whole-wheat hotdog buns with a little mozzarella cheese. Ate about half the batch last night and I finished up the rest today for lunch. I'm still quite full two hours later.

Haven't decided what I'm going to do for dinner tonight, but the post dinner snack will definitely be a smoothie. Since we're playing poker tonight, and 3 of us are doing the diet, I'm going to make up some extra for everyone else.

Rest day, today, so no workout for me today (with the exception of my arms, as I drag pots all night long).

My First Impressions by Michael Ma

I don't know about everyone else, but this diet is turning out to be more fun than hard work. At the gym, I'm following the recommended workouts which is bringing a lot of variety to my stale workout routine. In the kitchen, I had never made a smoothie before, but now I can't wait to get creative with my own concoctions of fruits in the blender. I'll be honest, I've never used a blender before this diet either. Not being a big drinker, I never needed to make a margarita. For meals, all the recipies are for things that I had never eaten before. Eating something new and different on a daily basis is really awesome. I'm looking forward to trying every recipie in the book!

Day 2 by Travis

I made it through yesterday without too much drama. Although, I must admit that I probably ate about eight times as opposed to the prescribed six. At no point during the day did I really feel "full;" probably the closest I got to having my hunger satisfied was after drinking half a gallon of smoothie for dinner. Did anyone else feel weird using their blender and not putting any alcohol in?

For lunch yesterday and today I had a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with a bunch of spinach (instead of lettuce), mustard and tomatoes. I don't know what part of this combination is responsible, but I swear on all that's holy that it tastes like a club sandwich, complete with bacon. Snacks have included almonds, string cheese, oranges, apples and peanut butter, yogurt, and carrots.

My smoothies have been pretty generic. I just throw the following in a blender: milk, vanilla yogurt, cooked oatmeal, flax seed, peanut butter, whey protein powder, and frozen berries. I haven't been putting ice in because I don't care for it to be really cold. I've felt better today, having started the day with a smoothie as opposed to the cereal route I took yesterday.

I also did my first Abs Diet workout today. I actually started off with the Friday routine (a little more compatible with my hockey schedule). Allow me to summarize my impressions in two words: Holy Crap. That was probably the most intense workout I've done in a long time, mainly because I tried to be stringent with regard to the time between exercises and sets within the exercises. A bit of advice, plan on setting aside 45 minutes to an hour for the workouts; I think 30 minutes is a bit optimistic.

For dinner tonight, I'm going to try out the Mas Macho Meatballs and will probably have the remainder for lunch tomorrow.

Day 1 by Travis

Yesterday's shopping excursion was a success for me. I was able to pick up just about everything on the list except fresh berries. When I got home, it looked like a produce truck had overturned in my kitchen. I think my refrigerator is the fullest it's been since I moved in. I was pleasantly surprised to note that all the food I purchased was only about $20 over what I would normally spend. I figure this is a good sign, because a couple of the items I bought will last for a long time (like the flax seed, protein powder, etc).

This morning, I started the day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal, milk, sliced almonds and a side of turkey sausage. When I got to work, I managed to overtake the fridge here as well, storing my yogurt, carrots, peanut butter, string cheese and deli meat. My desk also runneth over with almonds, apples and oranges.

So far so good for me. How's everyone else doing?

On a side note, in order to make a post or enter comments, you will need to register (this is to keep the blog private). If you need me to send another invite, please let me know!

Tips by Michael Ma

Here are a few tips to get you started off right.

Don't cook high heat in extra virgin olive oil. Although olive oil itself has a high smoke point, the stuff in the oil has a VERY low burn temp. So when you do any kind of frying with olive oil, you will have oil loaded with carcinogens. For stir frying, cook with extra light olive oil, then add extra virgin olive oil (toss it in) for flavor.

Costco has a 4lb bag of almonds for $7. Much better than a 1/2 lb of almonds for $7 at Ralphs.

When buying sandwich meats, buy from labels that are sold by pro healthy labels. I recommend Healthy Choice sandwich meats which has much less sodium, tastes much better than cardboard textured Deli Select. General, when it comes to packaged foods, brands by pro healthy companies like Smartones, Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine are required to have much less sodium.

Buy fruits and veggies from Henry's. You really can't beat Henry's prices on produce.

Read ingredients before you buy. To my surprise, Yoplait yogurt has HFCS. All I can say is that I'm shocked that a company like Yoplait (who's trying to make it seem like they are increasing breast cancer awareness and weight loss by more consumption of calcium) can't seem to spend a few fractions of a penny to substitute some sugar instead of HFCS.

The lowest price I've seen on chocolate flavored whey protein is at Costco. You can buy 5 lb of if for $20. Fantastic deal.

Just a added note, I had an ultimate smoothie today, and it was awesome. :)