Speaking of veggies

Many people don't eat vegetables because they don't know what to do with them and end up taking the "easy" way out and going with canned or frozen veggies. Anyone who has ever had canned asparagus knows that there is something seriously wrong there. Shanna Bertram, our good friend George's wife, has been kind enough to share some tricks of the trade with us. My apologies to Shanna for leaving out the great idea involving potatoes...potatoes are not recommended here at Renegade.

Why not? Potatoes are rich in potassium, calcium and iron you say! Well unless you're a farmer or a marathon runner, you simply are not going to burn those carbs off. We're not anti-carb here, but you have to USE carbs correctly or you will gain weight. Remember that carbohydrate=fuel. If the car is in the garage, then what good does it to keep pumping gas in the tank? Carbohydrate consumption is proportional to how much WORK you do throughout the day. Most people are simply not active enough to include potatoes in their diet. The nutrients you get from a potato do not cancel out the potential negative effects. Want the same nutrients and no worries about the carbs? Spinach. FYI...you will see that word plenty on this blog. If you don't like spinach, learn. Maybe Shanna's recipe will help.
 
Now that I've ventured off the subject, back to Shanna's ideas!

Making green beans more exciting:
 (great for either steamed or flash boiled)
add:
1/4 small onion or white parts of 2 fat scallions
1/2 tsp dried Dill Weed
Cook until tender
Peas:
Tarragon in cooking water if serving with steak
or
Lemon zest and a touch of dried mint while cooking to serve with poultry or lamb

Spinach
Fresh whole leaf baby spinach turned in a hot pan with a chopped scallion, a few drops of olive oil  and a TBS or 2 of water just until it turns color. Serve immediately with a small cube (about 1/2 tsp) of herbed goat cheese underneath. The heat from the spinach melts the cheese, as you fork it up the creamy cheese & herbs add just a little extra flavor.

Thanks so much to Shanna. If anyone else has great veggie recipes, email me.

Diesel Weasel

Many of you have heard me talk about Diesel Weasel. The man with terrible form that never gets hurt. Well, without further interruption, an example of how NOT to deadlift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHoOMQB8twg

My first post-Supermarket Tip #1

Hello everyone. I hope to provide you with some helpful information on this blog that may include facts about nutrition, training exercises and technique and some other odds and ends. I will do my best to make the posts as interesting as I can. So here we go...

I want to thank my client Rob for giving me this idea. Rob came into train the other day and brought some frozen vegetables and asked me if they were healthy. I informed him they were not. I maybe fibbed a bit because his veggies were similar to the Green Giant ones below and what I should have said is "They PROBABLY aren't healthy"....and all I mean by that is the substances in them are not part of extensive nutritional research and have not been proven to be bad or good. In my opinion, I generally like to avoid ingredients in food that have to be created by a guy in a nuclear hazard suit.

That gave me an idea. So here are some pictures of random vegetables I found in the supermarket and a classic case that big food companies produce mostly garbage.



Big Y generic veggies





Ingredients for Big Y veggies





Green Giant (General Mills) veggies




Ingredients for Green Giant


















So what do we notice? Well, while the Big Y veggies look boring, they are exactly as advertised. I get broccoli, corn, cauliflower, and red peppers. Nothing more, nothing less. How about the Green Giant?
If you look at the front of the package, it lets you know it's an ANTIOXIDANT BLEND! YES! Antioxidants are good for me, right? Well, as is with most nutrition...that can be debated and is maybe the subject of another post.

But what we know is good for you are the vegetables and only the vegetables. If you look at the back of the Green Giant veggies, you see that the extra buck you pay for them is not only going for packaging costs but also the cost of paying a chemical engineer to add enzyme modified butter, modified corn starch, "natural flavor" (which is a new way of saying MSG without saying MSG), and annatto extract color. Now, these items are not widely studied and so there is little proof to say they are "bad" for you, but in general, I always recommend unaltered food to eat. Why add the extra junk if your body cannot use it and does not need it?

ALWAYS CHECK THE INGREDIENTS.