How to eat more fruits and vegetables

Eating more fruits and vegetables

Did you know...that fitting more servings of vegetables and fruits into your day could be easy? Try these ideas: Make breakfast count. In addition to your cereal or toast, start the day with a glass of 100% fruit juice and mixed berries stirred into lowfat or nonfat yogurt. Or combine juice, fruit and yogurt in a blender for a quick, healthy breakfast shake.

Pack a fruit or veggie snack for a day's outing. Bring along dried fruits, like apples, apricots, prunes or raisins. Stash a snack-size can of peaches or pears packed in fruit juice (and a plastic spoon) in your bag.

Add vegetables to your everyday meals. Add carrots, peppers and broccoli, or sliced mushrooms and zucchini, to pasta sauce. Top a baked potato with salsa. Lessen the layer of cheese on your pizza and load it with vegetables like tomatoes, onions, green peppers, broccoli and spinach.

Choose fruit for dessert. Top lowfat frozen yogurt with sliced strawberries. Slice ripe peaches onto graham crackers. Have a baked apple sprinkled with cinnamon.

Look beyond the usual. Try different varieties of melons, potatoes or greens. Make a fruit salad with mango, papaya, kiwi, pineapple or other fruits that are new to you. Create a new vegetable salad with Belgian endive, radicchio, cherry tomatoes and yellow bell peppers.

Make it easy on yourself. The convenience of frozen and canned vegetables and fruits makes them an easy addition to many meals. Veggies and fruits are frozen right after harvesting and contain similar nutrient levels to fresh produce. Canned products are preserved after being lightly cooked. They are also a very nutritious choice. Be sure to rinse canned veggies before using to wash off excess sodium. Also, choose fruit canned in its own juice.

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Get New Growth On Your Triceps With Triceps Pushdowns

The triceps pushdowns are an excellent bodybuilding exercise to work the triceps. With different cable attachments you can focus on different parts of the triceps.

For example, an overhand grip on a straight bar attachment will stimulate all three heads of the triceps equally.  Using a rope attachment however will emphasize the outer head of the triceps.  Finally, a reverse grip on a straight bar or a single handle will emphasize the inner long head of the triceps.

One thing that I love about this exercise is the constant tension that the cables place on the triceps. Performed properly, this exercise will help you to stimulate new growth on the triceps.

In order to know what the proper execution of this exercise is, please take a look at my Triceps Pushdowns Exercise Description.  For a good triceps routine that makes use of this exercise, you can check out Lee Labrada's Bodybuilding Triceps Routine.

Get New Growth On Your Triceps With Triceps Pushdowns originally appeared on About.com Bodybuilding on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 07:33:54.

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Last weekend I decided to watch the CD that comes with the Get Lean Kit  from Lee Labrada and Keith Klein.  By the way, if you are not familiarized with it, please take a look at my Get Lean Kit Review.

After getting some inspiration from Lee's awesome Mr. Olympia posing routine I decided to watch Keith Klein's nutrition seminar.  This seminar is the best nutrition seminar I have ever seen because of Keith's unique and effective ability to explain nutrition.  In addition, he's not only a wealth of knowledge but he also practices what he preaches.

Amongst the various gems of nutrition knowledge shared in the nutrition seminar, the one that always baffles me every time is the scam behind low fat food labels.  The best way to show you the low fat food label scam is through an example.

Let's say that you have a food that claims to be 99% fat free on the label.  But what does that really mean?  As Keith rightfully explains, all it means is that by weight, the food is 99% fat free.  However, let's say that the hypothetical food contains 50 calories and 3 grams of fat.  If that is the case, then guess what?  Because there are 9 calories per gram of fat, then that means that your low fat food contains 27 calories out of 50 that come from fat.  So if you look at the percentage of fat by calories, your low fat food ends up being over 50% fat!  Yikes!!!  So much for your food being low in fat.  Buyer beware.

This is just another example of how the food industry can use trickery to make you buy a food that in reality is not good for you.

The Low Fat Label Scam originally appeared on About.com Bodybuilding on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 21:23:51.

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There are many reasons why people fail to achieve their bodybuilding goals.  Unfortunately, when goals are missed, many people get frustrated and toss the whole bodybuilding  program and never come back to it.  However, if you are frustrated with your progress, the best strategy is to regroup, take a look at your training journal (I am assuming you have one), analyze the reason the goals were missed and create new goals.

Perhaps the reason for not reaching your bodybuilding goals was unrealistic expectations.  Expecting to gain 30 lbs of solid muscle in 30 days is unrealistic, especially for those of us who are well past our teenage years.  Expecting to go from 17 inch arms to 18 inch arms of solid muscle in 2 weeks, is also unrealistic since a 17 inch arm is already pretty developed, and thus, taking it to the next level will take longer.  So when you set bodybuilding goals make sure that your goals are realistic as otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure.  For beginners, the first and second year you can gain a good 15-20 pounds a year.  Teenagers a bit more perhaps and all of this depends on the genetics of the bodybuilder.  For more advanced athletes, 1/2 lb to 1 lb of muscle a month is a good gain (6-12 lbs/year). However for really advanced natural bodybuilders, 2-3 lbs per year is a good goal.

With that said, another important thing to realize is how you deal with failure.  There were many times during my bodybuilding journey in which I did not achieve the goals I wanted.  Regardless of the reasons (and 8 times out of 10 the issue was unrealistic goals), when I failed, I would simply assess the reasons why and just keep moving forward.  The way I saw it, I had just lost a battle but not the war.  And of course, my philosophy of war is: "No retreat, no surrender!"  You need to approach your bodybuilding endeavors with this sort of success mindset.

In closing, if you haven't achieved the bodybuilding goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year, do not get frustrated! Instead, analyze your bodybuilding training and diet plan.  Also, make sure that you are getting enough rest because recovery is as important as training and nutrition (hint: it is during rest that you grow).  Make sure that you are following everything in your bodybuilding program to the letter.  If you are and things are not working, then change your training routine.  More than likely, your body has gotten used to your current one.  If you are looking to gain muscle weight, make sure that you are taking in enough nutrients in the form of good carbs, proteins and good fats.  If you are looking to lose fat, then make sure that you are creating a slight caloric deficit without starving yourself in order to keep the muscle as you lose the fat.  Furthermore, make sure that you are using some way of tracking your progress.  Good ways are a combination of methods, like the scale, the skinfold calipers, and the tape measure.  Digital pictures are also valuable (and a great motivation tool as well) to help you see your progress over weeks.

Below are some good resources that will help you to achieve your bodybuilding goals:

Failing to Achieve Your Bodybuilding Goals? - Lee Labrada discusses why failure is a process and how it can be used to move forward.  He also discusses several reasons for failing to achieve your goals.

Bodybuilding Guide - A comprehensive guide that will set you straight if you need any sort of bodybuilding guidance.  Everything is covered: from goal setting, to choosing your training routine, to knowing what diet and supplements program to follow, how much rest you need, and more.

Are You Frustrated Because You Haven't Achieved Your Bodybuilding Goals? originally appeared on About.com Bodybuilding on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 07:53:32.

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