Randomness

WARNING: This blog will be very random! Read at your own risk!

Apparently I haven't blogged since 2010, and technically I didn't even write that one. The last one I wrote... 2008! Wow. This gives me a lot of catching up to do! So, where should I begin? Well we had our second child, Emma, on April 3, 2011. We are now officially taking on the opposition one-on-one. Hand-to-hand combat is now a necessary skill!




Emma Madyson Felker






Some days we win, some days they win. I've determined that 3 year olds would make great terrorist negotiators. 3 year olds, and any child between the ages of 12 and 18. I'm currently in talks with the Dept. of Defense about this. Oh those terrorists would be begging for some water boarding! On a positive note, being a parent is awesome! Being a dad is probably the hardest, yet most rewarding thing I've ever done. But still, some days I'm just waiting for someone to walk in and say they're here to pick up their kids. Do you ever have those days? Where you KNOW you're a parent, but it still for some reason hasn't completely sunk in yet? You would think that with having two kids this wouldn't be an issue, but I still have those days sometimes. Then I remember they're my kids and I feed them. I'm careful though because I'm convinced that if I feed them after midnight they'll turn into gremlins and no one wants that.

I have a strange obsession with the military. I'm not sure why. I certainly didn't have this obsession when I was 18! I wanted nothing to do with the military then. Now that I'm pretty much too old for any branch to accept me though I'm all into it. I think being a trainer made me realize how much I truly enjoy helping people and I think serving in any branch of the military is the top of the totem pole of helpfulness. That may be why I have a new found interest in the military. Well... that and the crazy workouts I assume you do during training. Being a trainer also made me realize I'm a bit of a masochist. I've also realized that 9 out of 10 people are lazy. Just plain ol no way around it LAZY! The reaction I get when asking someone to train or workout with me, you'd think I'd just asked them to sign up for the draft to be shipped off to Afghanistan. "Oh, well.... I would BUUTTT.... I'm having a root canal that day. Oh and the next day I'm having a colonoscopy. So I'm booked all week! Sorry!"

I think I have problems dealing with death. At least the deaths of those close to me. I lost my best friend and my dad within the same year and I'm pretty sure I have some issues deep down about that. Ava asked me one day where my daddy was and it was like she'd stuck a steak knife in my chest. I was just frozen. I couldn't/didn't want to respond. So I did the next best thing. I changed the subject. Not only can I not talk about it though, I also don't like other people to talk about it. It makes me uncomfortable. I think I'm stuck in the denial stage. Like if I don't visit the graves or acknowledge that anything ever happened then everything will be ok. I know that's not true though. I thought typing about this instead of talking about it would be easier, but it's not really so I'm stopping now.

Oh, the other big news is that we moved! Yay! We moved from metro Atlanta to..... dum-dum-dum.... Butler. Talk about a culture shock! I'm not sure if the first day living in the Atlanta area was worse, or the first day trying to adjust back to small town living. They're both pretty ridiculous. The move has been kind of a catch-22. We're closer to friends and family now, but my work went from doing pretty well and growing every month, to pretty much non-existent. I figured it would be hard down here, but it's been three months and I still have zero clients. ZERO! So to make up for it I've been picking up pretty much any odd job I can to make a little extra money for the family and to feel like I'm "earning my keep." I heard about this guy one time that started a gentleman's service, not like a gigolo service, but a gentleman's service. Women who were single, lonely, or just wanted some company would contact him and pay him to go out to dinner with them, talk to them, listen to them, open doors for them, and basically just treat them like a lady. At the end of the "date" he would go back home to his wife. That's right... his wife! Not only was she ok with this concept, she did his scheduling! And this guy made a decent living on the side like this! This of course has made me wonder if something like that would work in this area? I'm a faithful husband, but there's no cheating so that's not an issue. I like dinner. I like meeting new people, spending one-on-one time with them and getting to know them. I think it could work, at least on my end.

Well I think this pretty much wraps things up for now. If you've hung in with all of this craziness for this long then you deserve a virtual donut. Enjoy!

Beware of what you're eating!

Just because it's healthy doesn't mean it can't hurt you! Read the following article for more info.


The new Dirty Dozen: 12 foods to eat organic and avoid pesticide residue
By: Dan Shapley

Fruits and veggies are an essential part of a healthy diet, but many conventional varieties contain pesticide residues.

And not all the pesticides used to kill bugs, grubs, or fungus on the farm washes off under the tap at home. Government tests show which fruits and vegetables, prepared typically at home, still have a pesticide residue.

You can reduce your exposure to pesticides by as much as 80% if you avoiding the most contaminated foods in the grocery store.

To do so, you need the latest info from the why the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list of foods most likely to have high pesticide residues. Since 1995, the organization has taken the government data and identified which type of produce has the most chemicals.

This year, celery takes the number one spot and both blueberries and spinach make an appearance (displacing lettuce and pears).

The best way to avoid pesticide residue on foods is to buy organic produce -- USDA rules prohibit the use of pesticides on any crop with the certified organic label.

Here's a closer look at the 2010 Dirty Dozen:

1. Celery
Celery has no protective skin, which makes it almost impossible to wash off the chemicals (64 of them!) that are used on crops. Buy organic celery, or choose alternatives like broccoli, radishes, and onions.

2. Peaches
Multiple pesticides (as many as 62 of them) are regularly applied to these delicately skinned fruits in conventional orchards. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include watermelon, tangerines, oranges, and grapefruit.

3. Strawberries
If you buy strawberries, especially out of season, they're most likely imported from countries that have less-stringent regulations for pesticide use. 59 pesticides have been detected in residue on strawberries. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include kiwi and pineapples.

4. Apples
Like peaches, apples are typically grown with poisons to kill a variety of pests, from fungi to insects. Tests have found 42 different pesticides as residue on apples. Scrubbing and peeling doesn't eliminate chemical residue completely, so it's best to buy organic when it comes to apples. Peeling a fruit or vegetable also strips away many of their beneficial nutrients. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include watermelon, bananas, and tangerines.

5. Blueberries
New on the Dirty Dozen list in 2010, blueberries are treated with as many as 52 pesticides, making them one of the dirtiest berries on the market.

6. Nectarines
With 33 different types of pesticides found on nectarines, they rank up there with apples and peaches among the dirtiest tree fruit. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include, watermelon, papaya, and mango.

7. Bell peppers
Peppers have thin skins that don't offer much of a barrier to pesticides. They're often heavily sprayed with insecticides. (Tests have found 49 different pesticides on sweet bell peppers.) Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include green peas, broccoli, and cabbage.

8. Spinach
New on the list for 2010, spinach can be laced with as many as 48 different pesticides, making it one of the most contaminated green leafy vegetable.

9. Kale
Traditionally, kale is known as a hardier vegetable that rarely suffers from pests and disease, but it was found to have high amounts of pesticide residue when tested this year. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include cabbage, asparagus, and broccoli.

10. Cherries
Even locally grown cherries are not necessarily safe. In fact, in one survey in recent years, cherries grown in the U.S. were found to have three times more pesticide residue then imported cherries. Government testing has found 42 different pesticides on cherries. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include raspberries and cranberries.

11. Potatoes
America's popular spud reappears on the 2010 Dirty Dozen list, after a year hiatus. America's favorite vegetable can be laced with as many as 37 different pesticides. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include eggplant, cabbage, and earthy mushrooms.

12. Grapes
Imported grapes run a much greater risk of contamination than those grown domestically. Only imported grapes make the 2010 Dirty Dozen list. Vineyards can be sprayed with different pesticides during different growth periods of the grape, and no amount of washing or peeling will eliminate contamination because of the grape's thin skin. Remember, wine is made from grapes, which testing shows can harbor as many as 34 different pesticides. Can't find organic? Safer alternatives include kiwi and raspberries.

Breakfast - The Most Important Meal of the Day

Here's an interesting article I ran across today. Now you'll have no excuse for not eating breakfast!



Instant Breakfast
By Elizabeth Ward, Men's Health

In the time you spend each morning calibrating your hair gel, you could be doing something more important, with a much better payoff: eating breakfast. Mom was right (and it's okay to admit it): Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

It keeps you slim: Breakfast eaters are less likely to be overweight than breakfast skippers, and successful dieters are also more likely to be breakfast eaters.

It keeps you healthy: Eating breakfast may reduce your risk of serious illnesses like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer, and it strengthens your immune system so you're more resistant to common ailments like colds and the flu.

It keeps you sharp: Memory and concentration get a boost from breakfast. A study on children found that kids who eat breakfast score higher on tests and are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and hyperactivity. It should help you at the office, too.

The Perfect Meal
You say you eat breakfast? Good boy. Even so, it's likely you're doing it wrong. "Most men make the mistake of eating too little in the morning, and then get so hungry they go overboard and eat a giant meal later in the day," says Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., a nutritionist in Irvine, California, and author of Stealth Health.

A typical breakfast is just a couple of hundred calories, mostly in the form of simple carbohydrates that spike blood-sugar levels and leave the body starving for energy a couple of hours later.

Even a classic fiber-rich breakfast — say a cup of raisin bran with blueberries and skim milk — provides less than 300 calories and only about 10 grams of protein. An ideal breakfast needs to be much larger — between 500 and 600 calories. And it needs to be packed with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, including at least 20 grams of protein and at least 5 grams of fiber. That will give your body a high-quality, long-lasting, steady supply of energy to help you through the morning.

Here's how to hit those numbers. Each of the following meals tastes great and can be made in minutes.

Blueberry Smoothie With Toasted-Cheese Sandwich
Prep time: 4 minutes 2 slices whole-wheat bread 1/2 c Kashi Go Lean Crunch! cereal 1 c fat-free milk 1 c frozen blueberries 1 1-oz slice Cheddar cheese Pop the bread into the toaster. Dump the cereal, milk, and berries into a blender and liquefy. Stick a slice of Cheddar between the warm slices of toast and nuke the sandwich in a microwave for 15 seconds. It tastes grilled—but isn't.

Benefits: "The cheese and milk in this meal are essential for building and maintaining new muscle," says Christine Rosenbloom, Ph.D., R.D., a professor of nutrition at Georgia State University. "The whole grains in the bread and cereal will help lower cholesterol, and the minerals in the milk and cheese will help keep blood-pressure levels down."

Per meal: 509 calories, 26 grams (g) protein, 75 g carbohydrates, 14 g total fat, 12 g fiber

Grab-and-Go Breakfast
Prep time: 1 minute 1 medium apple 1/2 pint fat-free milk 1 bran Vita muffin 1 pack Skippy Squeeze Stix peanut butter Slice the apple, grab the milk, muffin, and peanut butter, and go. Squeeze the peanut butter out of its pack onto your apple slices as you eat.

Benefits: Vita muffins (vitalicious. com) contain 100 percent of your recommended intake of several important nutrients, including vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, and E. Foods high in monounsaturated fats — like peanut butter — may boost testosterone levels. This meal should help you burn energy more efficiently and lift more weight at the gym.

Per meal: 506 calories, 20 g protein, 87 g carbohydrates, 12 g total fat, 15 g fiber

Minute Omelette with Toast
Prep time: 2 minutes 1 egg 3/4 c frozen spinach, thawed 1 slice Canadian bacon, diced 2 slices whole-wheat bread 1 Tbsp almond butter 1 c Welch's grape juice Stir together the egg, spinach, and Canadian bacon and pour onto a plate coated with nonstick spray. Microwave for 1 minute or until the egg is fully cooked. Toast the bread and eat it with the almond butter. Chase everything with grape juice.

Benefits: Monounsaturated fat in the almond spread will help prevent spikes and drops in blood sugar, which can leave you feeling tired or crabby. Grape juice gives you an antioxidant, called resveratrol, that not only helps lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels but also helps improve bloodflow to the heart.

Per meal: 540 calories, 25 g protein, 73 g carbohydrates, 19 g total fat, 8 g fiber

Two PB-and-Banana Wraps With Milk
Prep time: 2 minutes 2 Tbsp peanut butter 2 Eggo Special K waffles 1 medium banana 1/2 pint fat-free chocolate milk Spread a tablespoon of peanut butter over each (briefly microwaved) waffle. Divide the banana between them and roll each to make wraps. Wash down with chocolate milk.

Benefits: Eggo's Special K waffles supply complex carbohydrates, which break down slowly in the body and stimulate the production of serotonin, a calming brain chemical. The banana is packed with potassium — a heart protector.

Per meal: 570 calories, 23 g protein, 90 g carbohydrates, 16 g total fat, 7 g fiber

The Santa Fe Burrito
Prep time: 4 minutes 2 eggs 1 c Santa Fe frozen mixed vegetables (black beans, peppers, and corn) 1 flour tortilla 1/2 c low-fat shredded Cheddar cheese 1/4 c salsa Mix the eggs and vegetables and spread the mixture on a plate coated with nonstick spray. Cook in the microwave for 1 minute, stir with a fork, and microwave again until the eggs are cooked and the vegetables warm. Pile onto a flour tortilla, top with shredded Cheddar cheese and salsa, fold, and eat.

Benefits: "Without protein, guys can lose muscle mass quickly," says William J. Evans, Ph.D., a professor of geriatrics, physiology, and nutrition at the University of Arkansas. This meal is packed with it.
Per meal: 530 calories, 36 g protein, 53 g carbohydrates, 18 g total fat, 6 g fiber

Black-Cherry Smoothie and Peanut-Butter Oatmeal
Prep time: 4 minutes 1 c R.W. Knudsen black-cherry juice 1 c frozen strawberries 1 c frozen unsweetened cherries 2 Tbsp protein powder 2/3 c oatmeal 1 Tbsp peanut butter 1/2 c fat-free milk Blend the cherry juice, frozen fruit, and protein powder until smooth. Microwave the oatmeal according to the directions on the package. Stir in the peanut butter and milk.

Benefits: Men who ate at least one serving of whole-grain cereal (like oatmeal) a day had the lowest risk of dying of any cause, including heart disease, according to a 5-year study of 86,000 doctors. Cherries and strawberries are natural sources of salicylates — the active ingredient in aspirin — making them ideal for relieving stress-induced morning headaches.

Per meal: 600 calories, 27 g protein, 100 g carbohydrates, 11 g total fat, 10 g fiber

Almond-Butter-and-Raisin Sandwich With Smoothie
Prep time: 1 minute 2 Tbsp almond butter 2 Eggo Special K waffles 1 Tbsp raisins 1 Stonyfield Farm smoothie Spread the almond butter on the waffles. Sprinkle the raisins over one waffle and top with the other. Wash down with the smoothie.

Benefits: Whole-grain waffles help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and improve your body's processing of insulin and glucose, a benefit that can reduce your risk of becoming diabetic.

Per meal: 600 calories, 21 g protein, 86 g carbohydrates, 22 g total fat, 7 g fiber

Commitment

Commitment. This small word means so much. If you make a commitment to your family you stick to it right? After all, you don’t want to let them down. If you make a commitment to get something done at work you make sure it gets done because if you didn’t it would look bad on you as an employee correct? Well working out and exercise takes just that… commitment. Without a commitment you may start off strong maybe working out 4 or even 5 days a week, eating all of your 5-6 small healthy meals a day, drinking all 8 glasses of water or more a day, and passing on the after dinner dessert. But after a while you start slipping. You might say to yourself, “Well I can skip the gym today. I did go yesterday after all.” And before you know it that one day has turned into a week, then a month. Then comes the dessert. “Well it IS Bob’s birthday. I can’t NOT have a piece of cake.” When all the while you don’t even really like Bob. But now that he has cake and you want some of it… he’s a “pretty good guy”. Without a commitment to a friend or family member or most importantly to yourself you’ll never achieve the goals you have planned. Commitment means going to the gym even when you don’t feel like it, eating more chicken because you know it’s healthier and leaner even though you can’t come up with a different way to cook it this time, passing on that piece of cake and just telling Bob happy birthday, and drinking that last bottle of water for the day. It’s squeezing in at least some type of exercise even though you’ve had a rough day and you just want to kick back and relax. Remember… working out helps relieve stress so go for a walk or a jog after that long day and unwind. Take out those co-worker frustrations on some quality weight training. And at the end of the day not only will you have less stress and sleep better, but you’ll feel better about being one step closer to your goals. When you first decided to get in better shape do you remember the person you pictured in your head? The smaller, healthier, fit version of yourself? That person wouldn’t quit! They know this isn’t just something that you can do for a little while and expect amazing results. That there is no magic pill you can take. That this is a lifestyle change. And until you realize that and make that commitment to yourself your goals are way out of reach, because you can’t reach for the stars when you’re constantly looking down at that cake!

Things that make you go #?/&%$

So this week I'm going to talk about something that just really gets under my skin concerning fitness. People that say, “I can't.” I'll be training someone who is just going through their reps relatively easy and all of a sudden say,

Client: “I can't do it!”

Me: “What!? You can't do it!? You're doing fine. Look, you're still going.”

Client: “I know, but my arms are hurting.”

Me: “Ok. Is it a muscle hurt or an injured hurt?”

Client: “A muscle hurt. It burns!”

So in this situation it's not that the client can't do it, it's that they don't want to. The way I feel about it is (in the words of Jillian from The Biggest Loser) “If you choose to be less that what God intended you to be then don't tell me that you can't. Tell me that you choose not to!” There's no room for excuses when it comes to fitness, but that's what I hear every day. You either do it or you choose not to. That's it! The word “can't” should never come into play. This is also true with nutrition. I'll look over a client's food log and they're either not eating enough or they're not eating enough and what they are eating is junk. It usually goes something like this:

Me: “You're nutrition isn't looking too good here. What's going on?”

Client: “Well I'm at work all day so I can't eat 5-6 times a day” or “I have kids” or “I just wasn't hungry.”

Really? I work all day, I have kids and you know what, sometimes I'm just not hungry either. Millions of people are in the same situation, but they still make it happen. Then when it comes time for their monthly assessment and they don't see very good results they want to look at me like I'm failing them when they're the ones who aren't working out like they should and/or eating like they should. I can only do so much. I can't force anyone to do 5 more reps, although sometimes I try. And I can't follow clients home and force feed them or prepare all of their meals while they relax. Oh you want to look like Jessica Simpson? Quit eating freaking cookies and ice cream and try a few carrots and apples. You want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or look good in a bikini this year? Quit complaining that you're muscles burn or that the weight you just did 12 reps with is too heavy. It's called responsibility and determination people, try a little bit!

The bottom line is it all depends on how bad you want it. If you really want it you'll do what it takes to make it happen. Something else that gets me is when people look at me and say, “You can probably eat anything you want and not gain a pound. I wish I was like that.” Are you freaking kidding me!? I've busted my ass EVERY day in the gym and at the dinner table to get where I am. I'm no supermodel or the next Mr. Olympia, but I work for what I do have. I don't sit around complaining that it's too hard or it's not convenient cause you know what, it IS hard, it IS inconvenient, but that doesn't matter because I can see the goal line. I can see where I am now and where I want to be and I know what I have to do to get there. You're damn right it's hard and anything worth having should be! So suck it up people and see your goal line. How far away is it? What do you have to do to get there? Got a trainer? Need one (hint, hint)? If you're paying someone money to help you get to where you want to be then listen to them. That's why they're there. To help you. Not baby you!