Holidays and Alcohol: How To Watch Your Figure

I feel that it’s necessary to take a seasonal approach for this second installment of The Wonders of Alcohol. Large populations of people put emphasis on watching food calories but forget that many of our calories consumed throughout the day come from beverages.

While you spend the holidays hopping from party to party full of finger foods, awkward conversations and spiked eggnog there are a few things you should keep in mind. If you are constantly concerned about keeping your figure and don’t want to sacrifice all of that hard work in the gym on one weekend, then listen up. There are a few secrets that can help you maintain that sexy body while still enjoying yourself.

First of all, it is important to stay hydrated throughout a night of drinking. Alcohol is a diuretic which increases glucose levels in the blood thus causing frequent urination (which is why you’re constantly taking trips to the bathroom). With all of this fluid flushing out of your body, which may include healthy nutrients, it is crucial to drink one to two glasses of water between alcoholic drinks. This won’t make you lose your buzz if that’s what you’re concerned about, it will keep you hydrated and in better control of your body.

If you’re a beer drinker you may want to consider light beer as an alternative. Light beer typically contains 50 fewer calories than a comparable fuller beer (and when you’re downing 5 to 6 beers in a night, these calories add up).



Champagne is easy on the waistline as well, only weighing in at 20 calories per ounce. Although laced with a good deal of sugar, champagne isn’t as detrimental as some may think. A beverage that you should drink in moderation is dessert wine. Packing double the calorie count of a glass of red wine at around 270 calories for every 6 ounces, dessert wine should be enjoyed and put aside.

It is also important to be aware of what you are mixing your alcohol with. Alternatives such as low-sugar juices and diet soda can make a beneficial difference. A general rule of thumb is that the creamier the drink, the higher amount of saturated fats you will be consuming. This rule isolates Eggnog as one of the least healthy beverages for your holiday season. So it may be best to enjoy this drink in moderation.


Whatever your plans are this holiday season please remember to be responsible. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a sober driver or the number to a taxi service. Most of our phones have applications or internet service that can help with this. Just head over to YellowBook.com to find the number to a taxi service near you. Believe me; the cost of the cab is much less than the consequences of drinking and driving. So be safe and enjoy the holidays.

As always, feel free to post any additional calorie saving techniques in the comment section.

--Andrew

Bulk like a Bear for Winter....Not Exactly.

As many people know, bears will gain as much weight as possible in order to hibernate for the winter. Most of the weight gained being fat, to be stored for food to be cannibalized during the long winter hibernation. When the winter is over and they come out of their dens, they are lean and wiry, hungry for their first meal.

In the realm of fitness, and much more narrowly in the area of bodybuilding theory and practice, those who would like to increase in lean muscle mass tend to “bulk” during the winter months. This means packing on the mass in order to shred as much fatty tissue as possible before the summertime. This practice is an emulation of professional bodybuilders who will pack on the pounds during an off season and then cut down prior to competition in order to have more muscle density, definition and size.

Here we have a proper bulk cycle.


However, the two processes are not to be confused. You do would not want to bulk like a bear. “Bulking” in terms of packing on body mass does not mean you gain lots of fat and then lose it later. The term bulking refers to packing on as much lean body mass as possible within a certain time frame while keeping the gains of fatty tissue down to a minimum. In other words you are not going to go out and have fast food for every meal and say you’re bulking. In gym culture this may be a pet peeve of the advanced and older lifters when new lifters start off, because of the prominence of “street knowledge” sometimes more commonly referred to as “bro-science” that is very hard to dispel and replace with solid backed information.

Once the bulking cycle is over, the person would then shift their workout program to higher repetition exercises with shorter rests in between sets. Focus is kept on burning as much fat accumulation while keeping the lean muscle gains from bulking.
A proper bulk would consist of working out as intensely as possible within a short amount of time, keeping rest times high enough to completely recover in order to hit the lift heavy for another set again. Once the workout is complete the rest of the day is focused on eating about every 3-4 hours with calorie dense healthy foods.

Now let’s not get the term “intensely” mixed up either. When working out intensely to stimulate as much growth as possible while bulking, you want to recruit as many motor units as possible by lifting very heavy and for low end reps. The common program being 5X5, five sets, five reps, with 2-5 minutes rest in between. When you lift this way you need to be lifting the most amount of weight you can handle for the 5 reps. Lifting without a spotter is not ideal as you would not be able to finish your repetitions with the amount of weight. You would also benefit from splitting your workouts as much as possible into days for certain body parts with no more than 5 exercises per body part. This way you can hit each muscle group hard and give it a whole week to recover, and grow from the stimulus received. Cardio is still essential only in moderation. No more than 3 time a week.


So this winter if you wanna pack on the mass remember these rules.

1. Eat clean calorie dense food, i.e. peanut butter, juices from concentrate, breads, pastas, grains etc.

2. Make sure you eat enough. Growth is done after your workout, eat plenty of clean foods and you wont have to worry about the fat packing on.

3. Don’t skip out on cardio, unless you have a super fast metabolism that necessitates maximum caloric allocation.

4. Don’t cut out your carbohydrates. They are the major energy source for what you’ll be doing in the gym. They wont make you big, but they will allow for the proper building of muscle by making sure it isn’t cannibalized.


-Turo Gamez
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Meet the Staff

Now you can finally put faces to these fantastic blog posts!

Keep following our blog as we look forward to bringing you more informative posts.

--Andrew

The Almighty Avocado

Lately I've been going through avocados like I'm growing them in my backyard. I'm not of course, but I've been buying them with every visit to Stater Bros. (nice little plug for my favorite grocery store). I can incorporate them into so many meals and they add a nice finishing touch.

Avocados (or alligator pears as they are sometimes called) are a delicious and healthy fruit, yes I said fruit. Shaped like a pear, avocados are actually a large berry containing a seed that grow from trees throughout the world. You can view a map of native avocado locations here --->


High in monounsaturated fat, also referred to as the “good fat,” avocados can be a key element to any diet. According to HealthDiaries.com avocados have the highest protein content of any fruit and also contain about 60% more potassium than bananas. Avocadoes also contain a nutrient called lutein which is important for maintaining healthy eyes. The country of Mexico is the worldwide leading provider of avocados with the state of California coming in second.

So now that we’ve covered some fun facts about this magical fruit, let’s take a look at how we can incorporate it into our diet. I have been slicing up avocados and putting them into spinach salads, on hamburgers, on hotdogs and on omelettes. I also take the back end of a spoon, scrape the inside of the avocado and use that as a spread on tortillas. This spread can act as a great addition to any fajita or breakfast burrito meal. And of course, you have the traditional yet incredibly delicious guacamole dip. You can mix slices of avocados, bits of onions and any salsa together to get a simple and affordable guacamole concoction.

So give them a try! Pick up a few avocados next time you’re grocery shopping and experience this wonderful fruit. HomeCooking has some awesome avocado recipes here (http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blavocado.htm).

Avocados are even mixed into smoothies. ---->

If you’re still not sold on avocados or just want to explore deeper into the “alligator pear”, take a few minutes and check out this amazing link that notes several health benefits of avocados. (http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-avocados.html)

--Andrew

The holiday season is already in full force, and Thanksgiving is quickly approaching. Many of us have plans to join our family around the dinner table. Let us keep in mind that not everyone is able to enjoy this time of year. The Bronco Fitness Center is currently hosting a food drive through November 23rd in order to help others who otherwise may be stressed due to Thanksgiving. A non-member will be able to enjoy a free gym session when he or she comes in with a member and brings in a food donation to the Bronco Fitness Center.

This time of the year also brings the thought of New Year’s resolutions, but you should not wait until January to begin caring for yourself. Members are already on the right track, and those who are able to get their friends to join the Bronco Fitness Center have the ability to get their January membership paid for. Members that refer one friend will receive $5 off their January membership, two friends is $10 off, and three friends make the month free for students at $15 off. This promotion will be going on until December 19th.

Since this article has been all about promotions, I thought that I would include another promotion that will be taking place December 3rd. Hangar 18, which is a rock climbing gym in Upland, will be allowing Cal Poly students to climb for free from 5:00pm to 9:00 pm. Feel free to check out their website www.climbhangar18.com

-Jessica

Carbohydrates, Carbs, Sugars, Starches... Oh my!

Over the past couple of years carbohydrates have gotten a bad stigma and it seems that everyone is avoiding them in fear of losing their physique and adding inches to their waste. The fact of the matter is, no matter what kinds of foods you eat, if you eat more than what you need your body will store it! So before you continue reading this blog, get that notion out of your head if you hadn't already.

Let's quickly discuss what a carbohydrate is and where we can find them.

What exactly is a carbohydrate?
- Well depending on who you ask the definition will change a little bit. For the sake of simplicity and so we don't turn this into a chemistry lecture; carbohydrates are part of 3 different macro-nutrients which consists of fat, protein, and carbohydrates.

What foods are carbohydrates?
- Simply check the nutritional label to see how many carbohydrates a food has and if it doesn't foods high in carbs are usually rice, beans, cereals, fruits, potatoes, bread etc.

So why all this talk about carbohydrates? Because there is more to this fantastic organic compound then just how delicious it tastes.

A recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research studied the effect of a "low carbohydrate beverage with added protein on cycling endurance performance in trained athletes."

We all know that carbs during long endurance exercise helps, that's why Gatorade is so widely used now but what happens when you add protein to a carb drink?

According to the study "compared to a 6% [carbohydrate] supplement, a mixture of carbohydrates plus a moderate amount of protein can improve aerobic endurance at exercise intensities near the [ventilatory threshold], despite containing lower total carbohydrate and caloric content." (the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Volume 24 | Number 10 | October 2010 | 2577)

So this begs the question, "How much did this really help?" The time till exhaustion in the group with protein and carbs mixed in their water was 19.3% greater than the group with only carbohydrates in their water.

On a side note the main point of this study was not to see whether or not protein made a difference, it was actually to see if a lower caloric carb + protein drink still made a difference in endurance. And it did.

So just to sum this all up, if you're dieting and are doing some really long endurance cardiovascular training and want to keep you're calories low, go ahead and spike you're low calorie Gatorade with some protein and sip on it throughout your workout. Your workout could be 19.3% better.

- Noel Cerda
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Keeping the Sniffles Away

Hello everyone!

We are getting closer and closer to that time of the year...the temperatures are dropping soon (although it may not seem like it after this past week) and we will be exposed to those pesky sniffles. Also, now that we are in week 7 there will be lots of projects and last minute assignments that "somehow" start piling up on us which tends to translate into less sleep. Our immune system can only take so much before it begins to slack on us.

Daily exercise can help you with weight loss, mood improvement, and maybe even add some years to your life. As a student in the health/fitness field I can't emphasize enough how important it is to hit up the gym. So how do the sniffles relate to exercise you ask? Well, "exercise is thought to boost the circulation of the virus-fighting white blood cells known as natural killer cells-the Marine Corps and Army of the immune system," says Nieman, a professor from North Carolina. The immune system is boosted for three hours, which may not seem like a lot, however, the numbers start to add up if you exercise on a daily basis. Also, endorphins (the feel-good transmitters/ runner's high), which are released during physical activity, are known to spike up these immune cells as well.

As a fellow student, I want to help YOU prevent the sniffles. The following are 8 ways to STAY SNIFFLE-FREE:

#1 SAY YES TO THE FLU SHOT:

Here on campus the flu shot is available to us for FREE, so take advantage of it.

#2 EAT TO BEAT ILLNESS:

According to David Katz, MD, "diet is the fuel that runs the complex human machine and all of its parts, including the immune system."

• High quality proteins such as fish, lean meats, and beans will help your body build white blood cells.
• Bright colored fruits and vegetables will provide your body with antioxidants, which in turn, will boost the immune system.
• Lastly, to balance it all out, intake some omega-3 fatty acids. Walnuts, flaxseed, and fatty fish are good choices.

#3 KEEP MOVING:

Exercise aids in the stimulation of those immune cells that attack cold infections. Just don't overdo it! High intensity workouts- such as marathon training- may actually increase the risk of catching a cold.

#4 HYDRATE INSIDE AND OUT:

Drink lots and lots of water and stay warm. Humidity kills viruses so keep your body warm and moist.

#5 BEFRIEND BACTERIA:

By bacteria I mean the good kind...Probiotics (microbes that help strengthen your immune system). You are looking for about 3 servings a day of foods such as yogurt with bacteria, kefir, kimchi (fermented food), etc.

#6 SLEEP ON IT:

Sleep, sleep, sleep! If you are sleeping less that 7 hours during the week you are 3 times more likely to develop respiratory illness than if you got eight or more hours Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009).

#7 GIVE GERMS THE SLIP:

Wash your hands constantly for about 20 seconds (you should be able to sing "Happy Birthday"). If soap is not available use hand sanitizer.

#8 DODGE GERMS IN THE AIR:

Try and stay away from people who are sick. If this is not possible, help yourself and take Emergen-C or Airbourne.

I hope my blog was compelling enough to see more of you here at the Bronco Fitness Center because exercise really does help! I wish you guys all the best as we are nearing the home stretch of the quarter. Stay fit :)

-Stephanie Sandino