My biggest stumbling block to eating well has to do with ‘business’. How many times do we fall into this trap…long day at work, neither you nor your spouse have the energy/patience to cook, and take-out is calling! At times like that I have a fail safe quick and simple option that tastes AWESOME!
I am going to share my recipe for making Baja style chicken tacos. All you need are a few simple ingredients:
1 Rotisserie Chicken (found at your local grocery store)
1/2 a head of Green Cabbage
1 bunch of Cilantro
2 Limes
Taco Seasoning (I prefer Spice Hunters or Seeds of Change…they don’t have MSG and are organic!)
Taco Shells (I like the crunch of a corn taco, but you can use a soft tortilla made from flour, spelt, quinoa, etc.)
Preparation:
Start with the chicken by removing and discarding the skin. Then remove the meat from the bone and place on a plate. Use two forks, one in each hand, to shred the chicken. Place the chicken and a little oil in saute pan over medium heat. Add the taco seasoning to taste; usually 2-4 tablespoons depending on your personal preference. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the pan. Let the chicken cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the chicken is reheating, shred the cabbage, chop the cilantro, cut the remaining lime in quarters (for garnish), and crisp the taco shells in the oven (follow the instruction on the package). Once the chicken is warm put it in the taco shell, layer on the cabbage and cilantro, squeeze a little more lime juice on the taco, and then dig in!
The beauty of this meal is that it only takes one quick stop at the grocery store for the chicken, 10-15 minutes to prep and cook. I have found an average size bird feeds 3-4 people. You can also add Pico de Gallo salsa, cheese, or sour cream…really you are only limited by your imagination!
I wanted to share a 6-Degrees of Freedom (6DOF) pull-up routine that I put together. The concept of 6DOF comes from Scott Sonnon’s Circular Strength Training (CST) protocol. The idea is that training in natural movement patterns will ensure the body remains balanced. It also helps prevent overuse injuries or over compensations from repetitive movements.
What is 6-Degrees of Freedom?
The term comes from aviation, but it more completely describes how the body moves through space.
“We don’t move robotically through one plane at a time. Human movement is a complex weave through different planes and on different axes. If we take the three axes of conventional movement descriptions, we can think about moving both along and around those axes in order to take advantage of our true movement potential: “
6-degrees of freedom patterns:
Heaving: moving up and down
Swaying: moving right and left
Surging: moving forward and backward
Pitching: bending forward and backward
Yawing: twisting right and left
Rolling: turning right and left
That’s a brief primer on the theory. Let’s get to my adaptation to pull-ups. Here are the descriptions and a video montage to following…Disclaimer: I am not yet a CST coach so this is my interpretation of Coach Sonnon’s theory so if you have a better pull-up variation for one of the movement patterns than please put it in the comments.
Heaving Pull-up: do a standard pull-up with palms facing away or a chin-up with palms facing you.
Swaying Pull-up: Side-to-side pull-ups; start with your hands wider than shoulder width apart on the bar, pull up into the top position, shift sideways towards the right hand, then shift across to the left hand, then back to center and down is one rep.
Surging Pull-ups: Reach-ups; is a pull-up but on the top position reach with the right hand, back down, pull up, and reach with the left hand to complete one rep. This is a dynamic/explosive movement.
Pitching Pull-ups: Perform a standard or mixed grip pull-up but on the up movement arch back until your sternum is under the bar. Think of doing a back bend combined with a pull-up.
Yawing Pull-up: Grappler pull-up with a wide grip; start with hands in a mixed grip and wider than shoulder width apart. If your left hand is closest to your face you will twist to the right as you pull up. This will have your left hand in a palm facing you position and your right hand in a palm facing away. Reverse the twist while lowering back down. Switch hand position and perform to the other side.
Rolling Pull-up: Wide grip pull-up, pull up to the right hand, back down, pull up to the left hand, and back down to complete one rep.
Video Demo:
Programming:
You need to ask yourself what your goal is…what are you training for? This will determine whether you are doing a certain number of reps, going for max reps in a set time, or need to make the exercise harder/easier.
I have been focusing on metabolic conditioning. So I performed all 6 exercises in sequence in 6 minutes. I started with 30 seconds of max reps and 30 seconds of rest while I transitioned to the next exercise. Then I would rest for 1 minute after all 6 variations. I performed 3 rounds to complete the series. As you progress lengthen the work time and shorten the rest time so that you are doing 6 consecutive minutes of work. The only rest would then be the time to switch hand positions
Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you! Drop a comment if you changed the pull-up for any of the 6DOF movements.
On may to work I walk through a patient wating area on the way to my office and sometimes the titles on magazine covers jump out at me. Today an issue of Ladies Home Journal with Kristie Alley on the cover (yes, it is almost August and this was the May issue…I don’t have the luxury of working at a ritzy suburban hospital, so our magazines show up late;) jumped out at me. “I’m going to loose 100 pounds again” This was the tag line on the cover.
It got me thinking about how we reward ourselves. Maybe affirm would be a better choice. Kristie had dropped off the radar screen of the public eye until she gained a ton of weight. Her struggle to lose and keep the weight off revived her career. Then she dropped off the radar screen again because she was back to “normal”. So whether it was intentional or not, she regained the weight and is back on the radar screen as she struggles to loose the weight again.
The point I am trying to make with this illustration is that her reward, money & fame, came back with the weight. For the rest of us it is more subtle. Maybe it is the sugar rush from that candy bar, the buzz from a cup of coffee, the cholesterol from the cheese burger, all causing changes in the body’s hormones. These small daily indulgences all add up until one day we wake up, look in the mirror, and say, “dang, I don’t look good naked anymore”.
I wish changing our habits was easy, but you are fighting a genetic/metabolic reward center. It takes a combination of consistent work and getting back to basics. Breaking the cycle is the hardest part, but once your body is running on clean fuel again…WOW!! <–that is your body’s response to how it feels.
RIP THE BAND-AID OFF!!
I believe the cold turkey approach is the best method. Here are some tips to get started:
Identify the “reward” that is sabotaging you and make a goal of where you want to be.
Stay away from the temptation…whether it is sugar, pasta, eating out to often, etc.
Start making meals from scratch (don’t give me you don’t have time because you can make great meals in under 20 minutes) and think high fiber!
Find an activity that gets you moving, but most importantly is fun.
REMEMBER this is a marathon not a sprint so focus on the incremental progress.
I was browsing the tea aisle of a local health food store (I love tea, if you didn’t know) and I stumbled across pu-erh tea. Living in the Midwest it can be challenging to find certain teas, so I was pleasantly surprised to find pu-erh. Numi has added it to their line. I have had several different green, black, and herbal teas from Numi. I haven’t been disappointed other than when they stopped making Lapsang Souchong (or campfire tea as my wife calls it).
However, just because I found a mainstream source of pu-erh I wasn’t ready to sing hallelujah. I was worried because there were several options; one with just pu-erh an “Emperor Puerh” and three combinations. The three combinations were the reason I was worried, just like flavored coffee, the flavor is used to disguise poor quality tea or coffee beans. Like I said earlier, I have liked Numi’s other teas, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and bought a box of “Emperor Puerh”.
As soon as I got home I brewed myself cup. I smelled the aroma as the tea was steeping…yes, that smells like good pu-erh. My patience was waning and I almost added ice to cool it down. I resisted dropping in an ice cube, but I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I did have a cube melting in my hand.
Honestly, Numi did a good job. Their tea has the flavor of young pu-erh. It is not the best, but you can’t beat the $10 price and the convience of getting it close to home! I will definitely be buying more.
If you couldn’t guess from the title…this is my 100th blog post! So I thought I would share a little bit about myself and what I am trying to accomplish with this blog. The path of life for me has taken many twists and turns. Sometimes it seems like I am on the scenic path, but I just have to remember to keep working towards a long term vision. During this journey, I have needed to revise my current path. That is not to say that I am wandering aimlessly rather that writing in pencil allows me to make minor adjustments and rework the path to my goals. My long-term goals are my passions and this blog is where I can give them voice. This blog also allows me to share what I am learning on the way.
My passions (beyond my family) are health, nutrition, and fitness. Overlaying theses passions is the knowledge that if we can’t have fun pursuing our goals than we need to change something up! That is why my posts gravity towards health first philosophies. I share the knowledge I am learning with all of you because I want to improve all of our qualities of life. I believe that if we work together we can achieve great things. I hope to be like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” and look back at all lives I have positively touched. That will be a wonderful reward and make me “the richest man in town”.
So my parting thoughts come from someone dear to all of us…listen to your mom when she said eat your vegetables, get outside to play, and get plenty of sleep! Do that daily and we will all thrive as we grow old together!
The term comes from aviation, but it more completely describes how the body moves through space.
It got me thinking about how we reward ourselves. Maybe affirm would be a better choice. Kristie had dropped off the radar screen of the public eye until she gained a ton of weight. Her struggle to lose and keep the weight off revived her career. Then she dropped off the radar screen again because she was back to “normal”. So whether it was intentional or not, she regained the weight and is back on the radar screen as she struggles to loose the weight again. 
If you couldn’t guess from the title…this is my 100th blog post! So I thought I would share a little bit about myself and what I am trying to accomplish with this blog. The path of life for me has taken many twists and turns. Sometimes it seems like I am on the scenic path, but I just have to remember to keep working towards a long term vision. During this journey, I have needed to revise my current path. That is not to say that I am wandering aimlessly rather that writing in pencil allows me to make minor adjustments and rework the path to my goals. My long-term goals are my passions and this blog is where I can give them voice. This blog also allows me to share what I am learning on the way. 
