The Diet Diva is Here!

I am very happy to welcome aboard the ‘Diet Diva’!  Also known as Jennifer McDaniel, dietitian extraordinaire.  You may have seen her on several news stations, the radio, or maybe even took one of her course at Saint Louis University.  Jennifer served as my adviser, teacher, and all around role model in my many years spent at Saint Louis University.  She is the best dietitian I know and is also one heck of an athlete from running, biking, and weightlifting.  She talks the talk and walks the walk (or lifts the lift, runs the run, and kicks the butt???).  Anyway, she’s good!  Below, Jennifer touches on some very important grilling tips and share one heck of a Kebab recipe.

As you know we are all about service at The Lab.  We are not simply a gym that demonstrates exercises, however we deliver results.  There are many trainers in this world but what sets them apart is not only what certification or degree they have but their ability to deliver a service that changes your life.  This is a multifaceted skill set that ranges from scientific knowledge, motivation, enthusiasm, and if they work for me one hell of a set of organizational skills!  My trainers are not merely demonstrators of exercise or rep counters but LIFE CHANGERS!

You get more than just diet and exercise at The Lab and in order to deliver such a product we go through great lengths to train our employees.  Not only are we one of the few gyms that have weekly staff meetings 2hrs every week) but we have a rigorous 90 day employee training protocol that not all make it through if we don’t see them as Lab material).  But, it doesn’t end there, our staff is constantly pushed to deliver better service and continue to learn more so we can keep our reputation as, The most unique gym around, and the best trainers in town!

So, we need your help.  Evey so often when we bring in a new candidate as a Lab trainer we need to give them substantial practice to learn our systems and philosophy.  In order to do this we have something called, ‘Continuing Education and Research Personal Training Hours,’or C.E.R.P.T.s.  This allows our trainers to take clients through all of our diverse training programs and take their current knowledge, skill, and abilities and refine them to our standards.  This is a very rare opportunity and does not come around often, so I would like to extend this offer to everyone now and we will keep your information on file for when an opportunity comes up.

What you get are sessions for only $10/pc!!! Which normally go from anywhere between $40-100/ per session.  Some gyms just let trainers walk in the door and charge whatever they want. Not here, we are guaranteeing our quality and this is one of the ways we do it.  So, if you would like to be considered for this rare opportunity and save HUNDREDS of dollars please reply to this email and I will send you more info (or email at: thelabgym@gmail.com).  There are MANY factors considered when choosing the right C.E.R.P.T. client for a new trainer.  Likewise, situations are very diverse so reply now so we can get you on file and contact you if/when an opportunity arises.

Finally, the USA Weightlifting Nationals are this weekend and my training and preparation are going very well.  I will be lifting Saturday night at 7pm.  You can find a link for the live webcast at: www.usaweightlifting.org (check later in the week).

Enjoy this Majuscule!

By: Jennifer McDaniel, MS, RD, CSSD

Summer is here, which is even more reason to avoid heating up the house, and fire up the grill.  Grilling can be a healthy and delicious cooking method for virtually anything from non-traditional foods like figs and flatbreads to staples like hamburgers and chicken.

Unfortunately, that charred taste some of us love, might be putting us at risk.  Recent attention has focused on the link between grilling and cancer, in particular, stomach, colorectal, lung, and breast cancer.  The culprits are cancer causing agents called heterocyclic amines (HCA) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). These chemical substances are formed when fat is heated to high temperatures.

Going to need some sauce…

So now what? Cut back on grilling? Absolutely not. There are several tips you can follow to relieve your grilling woes, and it can all start with a tasty marinade. A recent study from Kansas State University marinated the same cut of meat in 3 different marinades.  The various marinades reduced these “bad” chemicals anywhere from 57-88%.  The largest reduction (88%) was seen in the “Caribbean Marinade” (see a similar marinade recipe below).

Here are some additional steps for a healthy grill out.

- Avoid placing meats in contact with high flames or extreme heat through grilling, broiling, barbecuing, or frying.

- Grill foods such as vegetables, veggie burgers, quesadillas, or even pizza. These foods contain little fat and can be a fun new food to introduce to the grill.

- Choose lean and trimmed meats. They have less fat to drip into flames and cause flare-ups.

- Briefly cook meats and poultry in the microwave before placing on the grill, this will remove some of the drippings that could cause flare-ups.

- Place meat on aluminum foil instead of directly on the grill to avoid juices into the fire or flames touching the meat.  Not only does this help prevent charring, but it also makes for easy clean-up.

- Keep your grill clean.

- Keep a spray bottle on hand to tame flames.

- Remove charred portions of meat before eating.

Some Info adapted from WebMD and the American Institute for Cancer Research

Jamaican Jerk Beef Kebabs

1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 tablespoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 habanero or serrano peppers, seeded
1 1/2 pounds boneless sirloin, trimmed and cut into 30 cubes
1 red bell pepper, cut into 18 pieces
2 black-ripe plantains (banana-like fruit), peeled, and each cut into 9 pieces (use pineapple if you can’t find plantains)
Cooking spray
Diagonally cut green onions (optional)
Lime wedges (optional)

Directions:

Prepare grill.

Combine first 9 ingredients in a food processor or blender; process until smooth. Place onion mixture, beef, and bell pepper pieces in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 20 minutes.

Remove beef and bell pepper pieces from bag; discard marinade. Place beef, bell pepper pieces, and plantain pieces in a large bowl; toss well to coat.

Thread 5 beef cubes, 3 red pepper pieces, and 3 plantain pieces alternately onto each of 6 (12-inch) skewers. Lightly coat kebabs with cooking spray. Place kebabs on grill rack coated with cooking spray. Cook 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare or until desired degree of doneness. Garnish with green onion pieces and serve with lime wedges, if desired.

Yield:  6 servings (serving size: 1 kebab)

CALORIES 260 (25% from fat); FAT 7.1g (sat 2.7g,mono 2.9g,poly 0.3g); IRON 3.4mg; CHOLESTEROL 76mg; CALCIUM 20mg; CARBOHYDRATE 21.3g; SODIUM 358mg; PROTEIN 26.9g; FIBER 2.4g

Cooking Light, AUGUST 2001

If you follow these guidelines your everyday foods will be much improved!  For more information regarding eating healthy and other nutrition topics, please contact:

Call The Lab 256-1411 or email at: thelabgym@gmail.com to set up an appointment or direct at:

Jennifer McDaniel, MS, RD, CSSD @

jennifer.ebelhar@gmail.com

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Semper Fi!

Embarrassingly I didn’t know exactly what that meant until looking it up in Wikipedia.  I Always thought it sounded cool but if I am going to start screaming it like everyone else, a good scream can be fun, I thought I should at least know what it meant.  ‘Always faithful,’ sounds good to me.  I thin k I get it now.  When a task may seem daunting, overwhelming, impossible, SEMPER FI!  When you are tired and want to give up, SEMPER FI!  When it seems easier to just take a day off, SEMPER FI!

This faith is required when undertaking a lifestyle of health and fitness and likewise setting high goals for yourself.  It is never, ‘easy.’  BUT, with unwavering belief in yourself, in the plan, in knowing no matter what, you are going to find a way to your goal.  It’s about not giving up even when you fail.  Stand up, shake youself off, stand up and fight again.  A sub par plan well executed with belief is better than the perfect plan with doubts and limiting beliefs any day.

I was speaking with a client this morning about how another client came back and nailed a very difficult lift after getting humiliated by the same weight just seconds before.  He laughed and said he had a short term memory.  Maybe like those fish that have a 3 second memory.  It sounded good to me.  SEMPER FI, he grabbed the bar and nailed the next lift as if the failure 5 seconds before never even happened.  It didn’t set him back or stop him from trying again.  Nice job Mr.White. SEMPER FI!

I may have the TRUE meaning of SEMPER FI off by a bit, but for me this gives me a glimpse of what it might be to be on the battle field and fighting for a cause.  In my small world that battle field is the gym or taking control of your own health.  But, to the men and women who have given their lives so that I may pursue my dreams I am sure this has a meaning all of it’s own.  And excuse me for my naive understanding, but let me just say THANK YOU!  This Majuscule is dedicated to you!

CHEERS!!!

P.S.: We like to play “War” at The Lab sometimes…we call it BOOTCAMP!   These guys definitely have a little of their own SEMPER FI and will basically do anything;)  Below Dr Exercise is back for more describing good vs bad pain…you will need a little SEMPER FI to handle and get through both…but, know the difference!

Enjoy this Majuscule!

NOT ‘GOOD’ PAIN

Make it Hurt!?

By Dr Gina LaMonica

Justin: “How is everyone doing?”

Boot-campers: (half dazed and panting) “Make it hurt!”

But wait!  Justin’s not actually trying to HURT us, right??  I mean, he may put on his hard-ass pants every now and then, but surly injury is not a part of his agenda.

Identifying the difference between ‘good hurt’ and ‘bad hurt’ is an important tool for all of us to toss into our brain-bags.  This goes for the novice gym go-er, the sweat-a-holics, and even the casual treadmill user.

“GOOD HURT”

Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite terms: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.  We can call it ‘DOMS’ for short. DOMS is that stiff and sore feeling in our muscles often experienced 24-48 hours after getting our butts kicked. As a boot camp junkie and occasional marathoner, DOMS is my old pal and even my badge of courage.  A groan as I stand from the couch or climb up a step reminds me of what a bad-ass I am.

What causes DOMS?

In short, no one knows for sure ß  annoying, right?  Often, we blame lactic acid (or ‘lactate’) as the culprit.  Lactic acid is a byproduct of ‘anaerobic’ exercise — happens when our oxygen intake can’t keep up with energy demands.  But is it indeed the evil genius behind DOMS?

Evidence says ‘no’.¹

So allow me to attempt to clear its tarnished name:  Lactic acid levels do increase following a vigorous workout, but will return to normal after 30-60 minutes.¹ Therefore, it couldn’t logically be blamed for symptoms felt hours later, thus clearing it of all charges.

(You’re welcome, lactic acid!!)

Our best guess is that DOMS is actually the little bugger resulting from reinforcement process of muscle hypertrophy. (Word of the day: Hypertrophy = rebuilding of bigger, stronger muscles after the abuse we cause with weight training)

ALSO, NOT ‘GOOD’ PAIN

(This is my first weightlifting coach ever, Derrick Crass 2 time Olympian-Justin)

Ok, so what do I do about it?

Good news everyone, in this case there may be implications for pill-popping.  Assuming that DOMS has an inflammatory element, anti-inflammatory medications would be indicated.² Therefore, NSAIDS (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxen) would be justifiable.  Don’t get too excited though.  Because the causes of DOMS are debatable, we can’t be sure that inflammation-reducing drugs are the way to roll.  It has even been implicated that NSAIDS may slow the ability of muscles to repair the workout-induced damage.³ So, use your medicine cabinet with caution.

Literature also shows that stretching sore muscles has only limited success in DOMS elimination.⁴ (Damn you, research!)  Still, maintaining appropriate muscle length is an important fitness element and will help prevent other injuries.  Plus, it just feels nice, if only for a moment. Let us not neglect our all-important stretching! Incorporating a 5-10 minute ‘cool down’ may also help kick the DOMS before it kicks you.³

Should I train through it?

Training with DOMS would not be considered a comfortable experience.  If it is severe enough, it will put your normal movement patterns at risk.  Thus, posing potential injury of those muscles or ligaments not normally stressed but picking up the slack.² Still, evidence suggests that “active recovery” may be your best friend after a good sweat-fest.  This may be anything from an immediate cool down – as mentioned above – or even a light workout (walking, etc) in days that follow.^5,6 Generally speaking, resistance training should allow for a day or two of recovery time to allow for our little muscles to scramble together and make monster muscles.

“BAD HURT”

As a physical therapist, I spend my days with the ‘bad hurts.’ In fact, pain is my arch-enemy.  I have vowed to systematically destroy my nemesis, one patient at a time.  Unfortunately, it is a hopeless battle.  Every day, I collide with osteoarthritis, torn tendons and ligaments, and wage war on bulging discs and nerve pain.

Pain is our built-in alarm system.  It is our body’s way of flagging a problem and demanding a solution.

So, what separates the good pain (discussed above) from the evil I have vowed to eliminate?  How convenient that you asked! The following list highlights some of the elements of ‘bad pain’:

1)      Pain is intractable. You reach into your bag of pain-relieving tricks — changing positions, rest, ice, heat, massage, etc.– and nothing seems to work in a significant way.

2)      Pain occurs suddenly and with a vengeance.  Example: pivoting on a fixed foot, resulting in immediate and severe pain (and often any number of expletives).

3)      Pain may be described by any of the following adjectives: stabbing, shooting, pins and needles, numbness, throbbing, or popping or clicking ßassociated with pain.

4)      Pain is accompanied with local swelling, tenderness, heat, or discoloration.

5)      Movement is impaired in a significant way.

6)      Pain does not improve over time (especially if lasting for more than the usual 48 hours expected by DOMS).

7)      Comparative weakness.  If one limb or joint is suddenly notably weaker than the opposing limb or joint, consider this to be your body waving a red flag in your face.

8)      Pain prevents participation in desired activities: assuming that your desired activity is within reason (climbing a mountain, lifting 300 lbs, or running a marathon without proper preparation or training would be considered unreasonable and -frankly – worthy of injury.).

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, STILL ‘BAD’ PAIN

If you are experiencing or do someday experience any of these elements listed above, seeking medical attention would be a wise move.   If any symptoms are felt during an element of your workout (i.e. squats result in knee pain), consider checking in on your form or reducing your resistance.  As noted before, pain is a vital part of our physiology.  If we ignore our natural defense mechanisms we’re likely to pay for it at some point down the road.

Now that you’ve been schooled in good pain verses bad pain…go forth and be awesome.

Make.  It.  Hurt.  (But in a good way!)

Pain is temporary, pride is forever ….

DOMS will fade, but stress fractures are no joke.

Don’t be a pussy, but stress fractures are no joke!

References

1. Gabriel M, Herber RD. Effects of stretching before and after exercising on muscle soreness and risk of injury: systematic review. BMJ 2002;325:468-470.

2  Anderson JC.  Delayed onset muscle soreness: treatment strategies and performance factors. Sports Med. 2003;33(2):145-64.

3. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-lactic-acid-buil&page=2

4. Cheung K, Hume P, Maxwell L. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2004: Vol 5:1:26-32.

5.  http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52151

6.  http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/tipsandtricks/a/activerecovery.htm

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