Planking – Benefits

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Planking.  It is not just a fad where numerous people lay flat and still for a period of time doing little more than taking up a horizontal space equal to their height.  However, when you look closely, they are actually doing something kind of amazing, even if they do not know it.

Muscle Groups

The primary muscle groups involved with planking are as follows:  transversus abdominis muscle, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles (abductors), the adductor muscles of the hip, and the external, and internal obliques. But not just these muscles are used, in addition, secondarily, the gluteus maximus (glutes), quadriceps (quads), and hamstrings are all used as well.  Now, please take a moment and look at an anatomical model and tell me what else these muscles may be used.  From a health standpoint these muscles promote better posture, better distal tendon strength due to increased short fiber strength within the muscles, and increased flexibility due to increased strength of the core.  From a vanity standpoint, the muscles used are the same ones that we are all trying to improve simply to look better.  The basic plank will increase strength in the belly, buttocks, thighs and chest.  Raise your hand if you do not want to have these muscles be stronger so that you look better.

The idea of improving your core is also important due to the role that the core plays in balance, posture and recombinant muscle allocation (meaning, the way muscles interact) and can reduce overall pain.  For instance, it is common knowledge that poor posture in an office chair will lead to back pain over time, not because the back muscles are weak, but because the abdominal muscles are weak and not in proper location.  Any chiropractor can tell you how important alignment is. If you sit in a chair all day and have some back pain there are two things to do to relieve it.  First, get up and walk around so that you back does not hurt right now.  Second, when you are done walking around, do some sit-ups, crunches and leg lifts to strengthen your core abdominal muscles.  Better yet, find a 30-day planking challenge on the internet and follow it.

Why does planking hurt?

The primary reason that planking hurts most people is due to a lack of core strength.  This is not to say that you should go out and do 6 months of Pilates before planking, but it does help.  Seriously though, planking is one of those fun exercises that can be done at any level of fitness and for any duration.  In addition, a personal best planking time for a lot of people between the ages of 24-39 is about 22 seconds, which is pretty good.  That means that in under a minute, you can achieve a new personal best at something whenever you want.

Planking hurts because the muscles used to plank are not used for many other things, when looking at it directly.  The muscles used are not used for walking or moving in general.  The closest exercise that most people are familiar with is, in fact, a push-up.  In fact, most people can do push-ups with more ease than they can plank for 20 seconds.  The reason is because the muscles used for a push-up are completely different from those used for planking.  When you extend upwards in a push up, you are actually providing a great deal of relief to your core.  When you stop at extension to rest, you are actually planking.  It turns out that the slow push-up is an excellent exercise to promote core and to promote arm strength.  But it will hurt.

The Basic Takeaway

Planking is quite a great and convenient way to get some exercise in.  The results are not noticeable in the vanity sense because you will not see the results of this exercise in a mirror for a while.  But, one of the finer points of any exercise is the feeling of accomplishment that goes along with whatever you are completing.  However, planking provides more than the rush of good mood that comes with any exercise in that it provides relief to the muscles that become tired and achy when you sit for a long period of time.  So next time you begin to feel like maybe you were sitting too long, please take a second and plank.  No one will think this is weird.

References:      http://www.plankexerciseapp.com/guide/plank-exercise-benefits

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2014/12/05/5-plank-benefits.aspx

http://news.health.com/2014/02/28/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-planks/

Clean Cinnamon Apple Soup wit Turnips

Posted on by Sam Boyd

A lot of times we neglect breakfast in this world.  On this site we tend to post recipes that in my opinion work in many different meal times, like pretty much anything with sweet potatoes, so it was nice to actually prepare something totally clean intended solely for breakfast.

Ingredients

1.  3 medium apples of any sort (we used pink lady’s for this one), peeled and cubed

2.  1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

3.  1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

4.  1/2 cup water

5.  1 small turnip peeled and cubed

6.  1 teaspoon dried mint

Recipe

1.  Put the water, cubed apple and spices into a small pot and simmer on medium for about 20 minutes

2.  Take a hand mixer to it or put into a food processor and blend until smooth

3.  It wil be a brownish color.

4.  Add 1/2 of the turnips on top.

This recipe is good either hot or cold, and the turnips have such a mild flavor that they the whole soup should taste like cinnamon apples.  It should keep about a week in the fridge.

Sweet Potato Chili Sweetness

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  8 tablespoons of organic tomato paste

2.  2 medium onions, cut into 1″ sections

3.  4 stalks of celery, cut into 1″ sections

4.  1 cup of sweet peppers cut into rings/slices

5.  1/8 cup minced garlic

6.  4 tablespoons of Arizona Dreaming spice mix from Penzey’s (ordinarily I would break it down for you, but its awesome, you should go to their website and buy some just for this recipe.  I get nothing for saying this, but maybe if a ton of people buy it I might, you never know).

7.  2 cups vegetable stock

8.  Enough salt to taste it.  You decide how much you want in there during the last step.  It will vary depending upon how much salt is in your vegetable stock.

9.  2 large, peeled and cubed into 1″ sections sweet potatoes.  Boil these with salt and set aside when finished.

Recipe

1. Put the onions, celery, peppers and garlic into a pan and sweat until soft.

2.  Add the spice, stir well, put heat to medium and lid for 10 minutes.

3.  Position self directly over the pot, remove lid, be in heaven for 8-12 seconds, then add the vegetable stock, relid for 20 minutes.  Here is where you add the salt, after the 20 minutes.  You want it to seem slightly too salty.  If you think it’s too salty, its perfect.  If you are not sure, add more salt.  Keep in mind that most tomato paste is not salted, so you want to have enough to carry over.  If you try to add it afterwards, it will not be as good.

4.  Add the tomato paste, stir well, it will be thick.

5.  Pour this over the sweet potatoes.  You can add cheese, but you won’t need it.  You can add yogurt, but you won’t need it either.

The picture is what my wife and I took to work last night separately.  Questions, email me or comment below.

Curried Carrots with Sweet Potatoes

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

  1. 8 large carrots cut into 1/2” chunks
  2. 1 medium onion, cut into pieces
  3. 1 celery stalk, cut into ½” chunks
  4. 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1” chunks
  5. 1 quart of vegetable broth
  6. Salt and Pepper
  7. 1 teaspoon cumin
  8. 3 tablespoons of curry powder mix (kind of depends upon what mix you use or if you use a mix)
  9. ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  10.   3 pitted dates
  11.   1teaspoon cilantro

Recipe

  1. Put onion, celery, dates and carrots into a large saucepan on medium heat and sweat until soft.
  2. Add Vegetable broth and bring to a boil
  3. Turn off heat and take a hand mixer to it till it is pureed and smooth
  4. Add spices and chunked sweet potatoes, lid and turn heat to medium high, stirring about every 2 minutes or so
  5. The potatoes should be soft and done after about 10-12 minutes.
  6. Cut the heat and serve.
  7. Enjoy and then pat self on back for eating so clean.
  8. Add Cilantro for an extra flavor and some green.

This recipe is cleanse friendly and features no oils, meats or sugars. Make sure that whatever curry powder you use has no sugar in it, and avoid paste as it will have some extra ingredients outside of the spices that you do not need. If you want to spice it up more add more cayenne pepper. To sweeten, add more dates (1-3) or add raisins with the potatoes.

Detox Smoothies

Posted on by Sam Boyd
The "Shut up and Drink it"
The “Shut up and Choke it Down” Smoothie

As we move into another Detox cycle (for those of you playing at home, please email Emily before you use these recipes) these will be some of the ways that I will be accomplishing my goal. I will be trying to eat/drink 10 cups of the 14 cups of veggies that I will be consuming every day during the week of 1/5/15 to 1/11/15. So I have come up with the following to make things easier on myself.

Green Dream (adjusted)

  1. 1 medium banana
  2. 1 cup cucumber
  3. 6 small stalks of celery
  4. 1 cup spinach
  5. 1 tablespoon ground ginger
  6. ½ teaspoon mint extract
  7. Enough water to make it smooth, probably about 8 ounces.

The total for this smoothie ends up being 3 cups veg, 1 cup fruit, best to drink in the AM or early in the day. Fruits are best early in the day due to glycemic control.

Breakfast Smoothie

  1. 1 medium banana
  2. 1 cup diced radish
  3. 1 cup cucumber
  4. 1 cup spinach
  5. ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  6. ½ tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa
  7. Enough water to make it smooth, probably about 4 ounces

The total for this smoothie ends up being 3 cups of veg, 1 cup fruit and contains cocoa which is known to be a metabolic mood stabilizer. However, there is not enough in this replace any kind of pharmaceutical mood stabilizer. In fact, the research is incomplete as to whether the amount you would have to take to noticeably increase mood would outweigh the negative of having an acidotic body environment.

“Shut up and Choke it down” Smoothie

  1. 2 cups spinach
  2. 1 cup cucumber slices (peeled, but not seeded)
  3. 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  4. 2 ounces aloe vera juice
  5. 6 small stalks of celery
  6. 1 tablespoon of probiotic-filled fiber powder

This smoothie does not taste good, but the taste will grow on you if you like vegetables. However, it will provide a ton of benefits in the middle of the day and you can eat a piece of fruit (1/2 banana or 1 whole peeled orange) immediately afterward to get the taste out of your mouth. It contains 4 cups of veg, 2 bowel assisting agents, and enough fiber to correct any problem you might be having in your colon that fiber can fix. The benefits of this smoothie are huge and bowel centered. Please try it and tell me what you think. I will be drinking this once per day during the entire week.

Beefy Cabbage Stew

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  10oz beef tenderloin (yes, the same meat they use for filet mignon), cut into 1/2″ chunks.

2.  1 quart of vegetable broth

3.  1 whole cabbage, cored and cut into 3 inch sections

4.  3 medium onions, cut into 1/2″ ribbons

5.  3 large carrots, cut into 1/2″ chunks

6.  1 can organic tomatoes, drained and rinsed

7.  5 tablespoons of organic tomato paste

8.  2 tablespoons of dried basil

9.  8oz boiling water

10.  1 tablespoon of avocado oil

11. Salt & Pepper to taste

Recipe

1.  Combine onions, carrots, avocado oil with S&P into a large dutch oven, big soup pan, or whatever other large pan you want to use for this,  make sure it can stand med-high heat for about 1/5 hours, on med-high heat.

2.  Sweat these items til they have given up some liquid.

3.  Scoot all the veggies to a side of the pan and then add the meat.  Let it get some good browning on it, then stir everything back together.

4.  Cook together for a few minutes on med-high, then add the tomatoes, boiling water, broth, and tomato paste.  Stir to combine and bring to a boil.

5.  When boiling, add all the cabbage and dried basil.  Stir well.  Reduce temp to medium and cover.

6.  You will cook this forever.  I cooked it on medium for about 3 hours, which I had because I was home and doing other things and could keep an eye on it.  Your time will be rewarded.

This will make about 7 hearty servings.  One for me to eat now, two for dinner, and 4 for lunches.  In addition, this dish freeze well and can be frozen for up to 6 months in a deep freezer.  This is an old favorite that we make a few times per year.  Please let me know what you think.

 

More Smoothies

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Emily has been creating some very  interesting and good combinations for more smoothies.  Pictures are unnecessary as they end up either green, yellow or orangish with small specks in them.  No one needs a picture of that.

Fruit & Spinach Smoothie

1.  1/2 a navel orange, peeled

2.  1/2 a medium banana, peeled

3.  1 cup of spinach

4.  2 ounces of aloe vera juice

5.  3/4 cup of almond milk

For best results, freeze your oranges first.

Mega Veg Smoothie

1.  1-1/2 cups of spinach

2.  2 ounces of aloe vera juice

3.  3 medium celery stalks

4.  1/2 apple peeled

5.  2 tablespoons of date paste

6.  1/2 cucumber seeded and peeled

7.  1/2 cup coconut milk

Sometimes I Miss Florida Smoothie

1.  1 whole orange peeled and chunked

2.  1 cup pineapple peeled and chunked

3.  1 cup of coconut milk

4.  1/2 tablespoon ground ginger

5.  1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

6.  1/2 banana peeled

7.  1 lime peeled and wedged

For best results, freeze the oranges, limes and pineapples

Soy-Sesame Tilapia w/Zucchini

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is such a simple recipe that I marvel that more people have not tried.  It is completely clean without any oils, sugars or starches involved.  Some people say “what about the soy sauce and the horribleness of soy with the sodium and blah blah blah blah”.  I say to those people, look up soy sauce and read about the magic of all things fermented.  Fermented soy sauce contains a lot of oligosaccharides and this is beneficial to the digestive tract of the gut.  These oligosaccharides promote the growth of beneficial gut flora which leads to less lower intestinal tract inflammation which is an overall good thing.

Ingredients:

1.  16 ounces of tilapia filets or loins (loins are pictured).  Unless you are protein restrictive or are trying to lose a lot of weight fast, the serving size for this should still be 4-6 ounces.

2.  6 tablespoons soy sauce (read your lable, make sure it is fermented, not just brown colored salt water)

3.  6 tablespoons sesame seeds

4.  3 medium zucchini cut into 1/4 inch slices.

Recipe:

1.  I highly recommend soaking the fish and zucchin in in soy sauce, but that can be wasteful, as you will toss a lot of soy sauce out.  So basically toss the zucchini in the soy sauce, then brush the leftover onto both sides of the fish until it is gone.

2.  Sprinkle and pat 3/4 of the sesame seeds into the fish.  Sprinkle the rest over the zucchini.

2.  Put it all on the same pan and roast for about 20 minutes or so (depending upon the thickness of the fish) at 375 degrees.  You will need to check the fish to make sure it is done.  The zucchini will still be a little crunchy, which is good.

3.  Put on a plate, eat, yummy.

Consequently, tilapia is one of the few fish that will actually keep and microwave later at work.  So, true to form, we made enough for our meal plus two more to-go dishes for work.  Delish.

Pork Fried Cauliflower “Rice”

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This one allows me to have chinese food.  The flavor profile is dead on, with 0 net carbs and lots of protein and vegetables.  The most unhealthy thing in this dish is the sesame oil and maybe the pork, depending upon how you feel about swine.

Ingredients:

1.  1 whole cauliflower, riced.  What this means is you take, leaving it raw, and put it into a food processor or grater and blitz it.  It creates a substance that is a little smaller than white rice but still have some body.  It is important to leave it raw, otherwise you will make paste, which is another blog post.

2.  2 medium onions, chopped as big or small as you like

3.  16 ounces of pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1″ squares/chunks.

4.  1 cup of frozen peas.

5.  1 tablespoon of sesame oil

6.  2 tablespoons of minced garlic

7.  1 teaspoon of ground ginger

8.  1 teaspoon of dried basil

9.  4 tablespoons of soy sauce (low sodium is a good idea)

10.  2 eggs, lightly beaten

Recipe:

1.  In large skillet or wok, put the wok with 1/2 of the sesame oil over high heat.

2.  When the pork is about 1/2 cooked, add the onion and garlic with the rest of the sesame oil.

3.  When cooked through, add the peas.

4.  When heated through, push to one side and add the lightly beaten egg and scramble,

5.  When eggs are scrambled, add the whole mixture together and add all the spices, soy sauce and cauliflower rice.

6.  Stirring near constantly, move the entire mix around until most of the soy sauce either absorbs or evaporates which should only take about 30-40 seconds.  If there is still a bunch of liquid, then keep going till it is gone.

This should serve 4 people.  Or as usual, two people with two leftovers.  This dish is pretty awesome and allows for a chinese craving to be met without a lot of the MSG and extra calories.

Results so far and the next steps.

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Well, I had originally decided to try to post a results post once every week to let everyone know how things are doing with this drastic lifestyle change.  Well, I have not and that’s ok because my life is crazy busy and although this is the most important thing in my life, I will not get dinged for being late and cannot be fired from it, so it ends up last on the list some days.  However, the recipes are still doing great and I still intend to put out the quarterly e-cookbook, still looking for contributors if you are interested.  More on that later.

After ten weeks of this lifestyle change, I have some subjective results:

  • Down 25.4lbs in total body weight
  • Down 12″ in total body inches
  • Down 6.2% in total body fat percentage
  • Up 7.3% in overall body hydration percentage

These are all measurable by the scale and are some stone cold evidence of this lifestyle change working its magic.  Subjective changes are as follows:

  • I fell fantastic, and that’s weird because I am not the type of person who walks around feeling fantastic
  • My joint pain that I used to occasionally get, which was getting worse and more frequent, is completely gone
  • My mood is stabilized (the caveat here was that I did not know I had some mood swings, really).
  • My clothes are fitting better.
  • The amount of compliments that I get on how I look have increased

All of this is fine and dandy, but I am not done.  I am working on new goals for the next twelve weeks.  I will actually be starting that at the beginning of the new year.  I will be redoing the detox portion and making new recipes.

If you want to come along on the journey with me and Emily, please email her and talk to her about what we are doing and how to do it.  She is a lifestyle coach and has tons of advice on how to manage this.  She will be contributing more to the site again soon.

As always, please contact me for information or recipe ideas or if there is anything you want to see on the site.  Comment on whatever you want, I read all of them.