"Not all drinks are created equally."

I want to start this post by stating that I, in no way, wish to advocate for or promote the consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially under-age drinking.  This post is not intended for persons under the age of 21 or for those over the age of 21 who choose not to consume alcohol (healthiest and safest choice).

However, that being said, social drinking does occur in college and for those of you who are health conscious but still choose to consume alcohol, there are ways to make drinking less unhealthy.  I intentionally used "less unhealthy" instead of "healthy" because, with the exception of an occasional serving of red wine with a meal, I have yet to hear or read about alcoholic beverages providing any substantial health benefits.

If you are extremely serious about significant weight loss or muscle gains, alcohol consumption should be cut out completely.  I know that is probably not what you wanted to hear but once alcohol is consumed, it is the first to get burned as energy in your system, leaving that healthy, nutrient filled meal you had earlier to be converted and stored in your body as fat.  Additionally, alcohol impairs your body's hormone regulation and sleep pattern which are necessary for any significant fitness gains.

However, if you are not looking to be the next Iron Man or Woman and just want to enjoy the social aspects of college drinking without packing on the extra pounds, here are some tips I have learned from both my own experiences (as a 22 year old who can legally consume alcohol) and from Nerd Fitness, another health-conscious college blogger.

"Less Unhealthy" Drinking Summary

First, understand that drinking is essentially the consumption of empty calories.  If you are a larger person, which plenty of health-conscious males and females focusing on muscle building are, it will typically take more alcohol to feel its effects than those with less body mass (there are exceptions to this rule).  If you fall into this category, your drink of choice should not be beer.  Beer, compared to other drink options, is high in carbohydrates, calories, and sugar, and is relatively low in alcohol.  This means you will have to drink more beers and ingest more carbohydrates, calories, and sugars in order to feel the same effects as someone with less body mass.  A less unhealthy option would be one of the following alcohols: red wine, whiskey/brandy/cognac, tequila, or vodka.  These drinks are higher in alcohol content and much lower in carbohydrates (none in whiskey) and sugars. If you wish to combine hard alcohols with mixers, stay away from "the sweet stuff" which includes and soft drinks or fruity mixers.  I say this for two reasons. One, adding these sweet mixers heavily increases the calories in the drink, making it no "less unhealthy" than beers. Second, eliminating the sugars from the drink make the drink taste quite a bit stronger and will generally cause the drinker to slow their drinking pace and ideally decrease total consumption.  If you wish to consume hard alcohol but do not enjoy your drinks straight, some better mixer options include: lime juice, club soda, and water.

Moral of the story, the next time you go out with friends, understand that all drinks are not created equally, and while social drinking will never improve your health or fitness, there are options that will harm it less.

Final approach in sight. Over and out.

MJH

I got a fever! And the only prescription is more kettlebell!

Throughout college I have encountered short, sporadic periods of lower back pain.  Last week I approached my crossfit instructor and asked her for any tips or tricks to alleviate and ultimately eliminate this problem. She explained to me that the majority of muscular lower back pain is caused by a muscular imbalance called lower crossed syndrome.  This muscle imbalance can occur from spending a large percentage of your day in the seated position (as an electrical engineering student I am an not surprised it happened to me).  In simplified terms, lower crossed syndrome occurs when you have tight hip muscles from sitting too much, which in turn deactivates your butt muscles, making them weak.  This imbalance then causes your lower back to become tight which then deactivates and weakens your abdominal muscles, resulting in an imbalanced cross of muscles illustrated below:

I was expecting to receive instruction on lower back and possibly hip stretches, but to my surprise the solution was a whole-body strength and conditioning exercise called the kettlebell swing.

Featured Exercise

Even if you do not suffer from a tight lower back or a weak core, the kettlebell swing is still a great strength and conditioning exercise for building lower body and core strength.  It can also be modified with lighter weight and higher repetition frequency to improve cardiovascular conditioning.  

One repetition of a kettlebell swing is completed using the following:

1. Start with your feet shoulder width apart with the kettlebell resting in your hands.
2. Squat down, moving your hips back and bending your knees slightly, so that the kettlebell swings between your legs and is slightly behind your heals.  It is important to keep a neutral spine (do not hunch over and look straight down at the floor) and ensure that the majority of the weight is loaded in your heels.
3. Drive up from the squat position, fully extending your hips so that you are in an upright standing position.  Ensure that the weight remains loaded in your heals at the bottom of the drive and transitions to a more even distribution as you approach an upright position.
4. Keep your arms extended with the weight in your hands during the upward drive (slight bend in elbows).  The momentum of the drive will cause the kettlebell to swing upward usually reaching its peak between parallel with shoulders to directly overhead.
5. As the kettlebell begins to fall keep your arms extended and as the kettlebell approaches the bottom of its swing, extend your hips back and slightly bend your knees, allowing the kettlebell to swing between your legs and slightly behind the heels of your feet.  Remember to keep and neutral spine and load the weight in your heals while in the bottom of the swing.
6. Once at the bottom of the swing, begin next repetition by repeating steps 3-6. 

The image below illustrates the proper form described.  For additional technique guidance, refer to this video.

Status Update

At the start of this blog I weighed 222 lbs with a 37 in waist.  At my first check-in (2 weeks in) I weight 219 lbs with a 35.5 in waist.  Today I weighed in at 217 lbs with a 34.5 in waist.  My goal for this weigh in was to weigh between 215-220 lbs (met that goal) and have a 34 in waist (close but no cigar).  I did however, enjoy myself a little too much over the St. Patty's day weekend and allowed more than a few cheat days with my diet which most likely contributed to not meeting my waist measurement goal.  With respect to my strength and cardiovascular abilities, my strength has increased in all areas, and my 1.5 mile run time has decreased.  Overall, I am happy with the progress being made. 

Final approach in sight.  Over and out.

MJH

"There's an app for that."

One of the difficulties with healthy, on-campus eating is tracking what you are putting in your body. Some foods that are typically assumed to be healthy, such as salad wraps, can be deceivingly high in saturated fats and carbohydrates due to oils, dressings, and poorly made tortilla wraps.  I have never been one to "calorie count" but I do like to know nutritional facts (protein, carbohydrates, fats, etc.) of the foods I eat.  This is important to me not necessarily for weight loss but to assist in reaching my fitness goals.  Different types of workouts are optimized by different types of nutritional intakes.  For example, if I am planning on going on a long run I will consume more carbohydrates and slightly increase my non-saturated fat intake than if I am planning a weight-lifting routine which would require an increase in protein and less carbohydrates and fats.

So how can a student who lives on campus and is limited to on-campus dining options track and record their nutritional intake?  Fortunately "there's an app for that."  But in all seriousness there really is.

Featured Smartphone Application

MyFitnessPal is a free app available for Iphone and Android smartphones.  It is designed to help you reach your weigh loss goals by tracking caloric intake (I do not use it for this feature) as well as other important nutritional data.  The reason this app sets itself apart from the other nutrition tracking websites or apps, particularly for LMU students, is because it has a very large meal nutrition database, which includes Sodexo meals.  For those who do not know, Sodexo is contracted to run all of LMU's dining services.  The app allows you to look up meals you purchase, log their nutritional statistics, and review your daily/weekly totals.  This is a great feature, especially when you are trying to manage specific intakes, such as high protein and low saturated fats.  Using the app is easy as well.  All you have to do is:

1. Download the MyFitnessPal app.
2. Set up your personal account (all you need is an email and to answer a few fitness-related questions).
3. Search "Sodexo Campus" in the "search for a food" bar.
4. Browse the meal selections and find one that aligns with your nutritional needs for that day/week.
5. Add the meal to your personal tracker and the nutritional totals will automatically be added to your daily/weekly totals.
6. Purchase your selected meal.

For example, if I already know I want to get the turkey burger at the Ignite Grill in the Lair I will open the app on my phone, search for "Sodexo Campus Turkey Burger," choose the correct meal from the list, and press "Add Food."  Below is an example of what the screen should look like.

What's Next?

Next week I will feature another highly effective, high-intensity exercise and compare my current health and fitness levels (weight, abdominal circumference, strength, endurance, etc.) with those taken three weeks ago.

Final approach in sight. Over and out.

MJH