WHY QUICK, CHEAP FOOD IS ACTUALLY MORE EXPENSIVE

I just read a very good article from the Huffington Post:

Why Quick, Cheap Food is Actually More Expensive

The concept here is basically that one cannot only consider the short-term costs of food.  It's not about how much you pay at the cash register, but what that food will "cost" you over your lifetime.  TIME Magazine actually ran an article that talked about this same concept about a year ago:

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food 

There are some great take-away points from both articles (which I'll include later in my FAVORITE EXCERPTS section), but each of these articles can be summed up in the following way:

You will spend both time and money on your health, and you get to choose whether your time and money are spent proactively or reactively.

Now I'm not going to steal credit for that quote.  I read it from one of Mike Boyle's blog posts, but I'm not sure if he was the creator.

FAVORITE EXCERPTS

The odd paradox is that food insecurity--not knowing where the next meal is coming from or not having enough money to adequately feed your family--leads to obesity, diabetes and chronic disease.

And most of those meals eaten at home are produced in plants, not grown on plants, are from a food chemist's lab, not a farmer's field.

Unhealthy food is cheaper because our government's policies support its production. We're spending nearly $30 billion a year to subsidize corn and soy production. Where do those foods go? Into our food supply as high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fats), that are the foundation of almost all fast food and processed foods that are "manufactured" by the food industry.

Corn and soy are also used to feed cattle for the production of meat and dairy. In fact, 70 percent of the wheat, corn and soy farmed in this country is used to feed animals used for our food. The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people--more than the entire human population on Earth!

...one expert has estimated that healthcare costs related to obesity are $118 billion per year. That's nearly 12 percent of total healthcare expenditures--and more than twice that caused by smoking! Seventy-two percent of Americans are overweight and over one third are medically obese. One in three children born today will be diabetic in their lifetime and the life expectancy of our population is declining for the first time in human history.

As these numbers prove, the costs of eating fast, junk, and processed foods are often deferred until later. And that's the key point: When you go to McDonald's for a cheap burger and fries, you might immediately compare that lower price to whole organic foods which are more expensive in the short term. But the total cost isn't reflected in how much you pay for your meal in the immediate moment, it's the cumulative cost of what those decisions cost you over a lifetime.

SATURDAY IN THE SHOP

It's been a while since I did a training update, so now seems to be as good a time as any!  I didn't start working out yesterday until about 3:00pm, so it was nice and toasty in The SHOP (probably 102 degrees outside and very comparable inside my garage).  Oh well, I had two fans blasting on me and plenty of fluids so I was fine.

Yesterday was a strength day that went something like this:

WARM-UP

Foam Rolling

Static Stretching

Mobility Drills and Activation work (namely the glutes)

STRENGTH

A Bulgarian Split Squats - 185 x 6, 6, 6, 6 (each leg)

B1 Sandbag Shouldering - 6, 6, 6, 6 (I'm guessing my sandbag is about 150 lbs or so)

B2 T-Bar Row - 90 x 12, 12, 12, 12

C1 Band Hip Abduction - Mini band x 17, 17, 17 (more glute work and hip strengthening)

C2 Pullups - 13, 10, 9

D Band Rows - Black Band x 10, 10, 10

For my post-workout recovery I had a gigantic shake and then a dip in our neighbor's pool!  It feels so good to jump in the pool after a workout, especially when it is over 100 degrees outside!

OBESITY RATES IN THE USA

I read another interesting article in the NY Times yesterday:

Obesity Rates Keep Rising, Troubling Health Officials

There are now 9 states that have obesity rates greater than 30% (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia), with the national average coming in at 26.7%!  That means 72.5 million people in the United States are considered obese.

The real scary thing is that the data was collected by telephone surveys of 400,000 people.  The simple survey consisted of asking them their height and weight.  Maybe I'm a skeptic, but I seriously doubt that people really gave accurate information, and I tend to think that people would underestimate their true weight.  Just think what the real numbers could be!!


Now just to be fair, the researchers used BMI to determine if these people are obese, and BMI is not really a good measure (it is just a function of height and weight and ignores things like muscle mass).  It may work well for a large scale research project, but at the individual level it simply is not the best approach.  For instance, my BMI (I'm 5'11" and 195 lbs) is 27.2 which puts me right in the middle of the "overweight" category (obese is greater than 30.0).  HINT: I'm not overweight.

What's probably the most disheartening thing about this article is that the annual medical cost of obesity is estimated to be $147 billion!

FAVORITE EXCERPTS
Researchers blame the usual suspects: too little exercise and too much of the wrong kind of food, which means not enough fruits and vegetables and too many high-calorie meals full of sugar and fat, like French fries, soda and other sweet drinks. Children do not get enough exercise during the school day; Dr. Frieden noted that even in gym classes, students are active for only about a third of the time.

The nine states with obesity rates of 30 percent or more are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia. The highest rate, 34.4 percent, was in Mississippi.

Only Colorado and Washington, D.C., had obesity rates under 20 percent. Researchers are not sure why. Dr. William Dietz, director of the nutrition, physical activity and obesity division, said that Colorado had spent money from a state lottery on biking and walking trails and that many people were using them. The state seems to have “a culture of physical activity,” he said.

LOADING BODYWEIGHT MOVEMENTS

In previous posts I've talked about the need to progress bodyweight movements by using more difficult variations (1-arm pushups instead of regular pushups, 1-leg squats instead of regular squats, etc.).  Of course when I say "the need" I am assuming that someone who is training in the first place is looking to actually improve.  If you don't progress, why the heck are you training?

Anyway, those were a few examples of how you could progress those movements without any extra equipment.  However, if you happen to have a fully-loaded SHOP like I do, you can simply perform the movements with added resistance like a weight vest!!

1-LEG SQUATS W/ WEIGHT VEST (45 LBS)


PUSHUPS W/ WEIGHT VEST (75 LBS)
Feet elevated and hands on blocks for greater ROM


I love the weight vest, and it can be added to virtually any movement:  pushups, squats, pullups, dips, lunges, etc.

I'm not saying anybody needs to go out and buy one, but for those who may be interested this is probably the best place to look:

WEIGHT VEST

And no I will not receive any commission if you go there, I'm just really happy with the product I have from them so I wanted to share the love!

And yes, I did shave my head!