Posts by healthyhtide

I love England as a place to travel, but not as a place to eat.  Thank god at least places like London have decent restaurants thanks to the influx of foreigners.  I have always heard horror stories about the English cuisine, so I was prepared when I went to stay with some family friend's parents who are in their 90's and live outside London.  Dear god, I had to work to try to "get it down".  Veggies were cooked till they were clear, beans were flavorless, meats came out of a can for gods sake.  Whoever said Heinz beans are great is smoking something.  I found most traditional english food overly heavy and void of any flavor or spices.  And just throwing cream on fruit isnt a desert to me.   

Americans have access to a huge selection of food, The problem here is that people eat mostly garbage rather then the actual good stuff.  I mean our produce selection is ridiculus, and yet how many people dont get their minimum 5 servings.  I do think our more traditional cuisine is pretty darn good ( my grandma makes the most incredible pan fried chicken and the most delectible peach cobbler).

In terms of the best food culture the french are still on top.  You can get fantastic food, thats relatively inexpensive and fresh.  they dont eat a lot of processed food frankly because they dont need to.   I spent a summer in france and lived off of baguettes with fresh mozzarela, tomatos, basil, olive oil and touch of salt, as well as tons of fresh fruits and veggies, wonderful salads, fantastic pasteries (chocolate crossant anyone).  They have it down.

Incidently, I stayed with a young couple while in france and I think the french tend to equate americans with the english (the french have a saying that the english kill their food twice: once, to kill it and second when they cook it).  While I was there I made them banana bread, an apple pie, and lasagna.  They were BLOWN away.  They were like "we didnt know americans could cook" and its not like Im some great chef or anything.  We are fortunate to have been influenced by so many other cuisines, like african, french, italian, german, chinese, south american, etc thanks to our foundation based on immigrants.

I used to work at the human society and I know a few things about dogs.  First and foremost never ever run. Never turn your back on them either.  The first thing you should do is stop and face the dog.  Dont make eye contact beacuse it would be a challange, but hold your ground.  Start to take slow steps away from the animal.  Sometimes using common commands can help like stay, no, or sit (the dog may submit to verbal commands it knows) If you see a home or buisiness move towards an entrance and knock once there.  If the dog comes for you keep your face back:stick out an arm as a last resort to protect face.   If the dog comes for your face try to knee it hard in the chest.  If you see anything like a large metal or wood rod, pick it up and hit the snot out of the animal if it gets near you (remembering to keep your face/head back).  Target the eyes if you can.  If you have to, take off a shoe or something to push towards the dog to hopefully grab rather then your limbs.   If you get taken down, curl into a ball and hold still while ensuring your face and neck are covered by your arms.  If its a pack, well your in big trouble.  Your best bet is to take on the leader holding your ground and fight like hell while protecting your face and neck.. 

jeez with that many carrots you probably would poison yourself with a vitamin A overload, and you wold be orange too lol. 

but in wiki has a pretty good explanation of the science

Human fat tissue contains about 87% lipids, so that 1 kg of body-fat tissue has roughly the caloric energy of 870 g of pure fat, or 7800 kcal. In principle one has to create a 7800 kcal deficit or surplus between energy intake and use to lose or gain 1 kg of body-fat, respectively, or 3500 kcal per pound. [1] However, if one eats 7800 kcal more than the body needs, one won't necessarily gain 1 kg of fat, since muscle and other tissues may be built. In the same way, if one eats 7800 kcal less than their maintenance level, they may not lose 1 kg of fat, since muscle and sugars may be metabolized to generate energy.

Nutrients do affect how we build muscle and how fast our metabolism is, but at the end of the day its simple physics.  A calorie is a unit of energy. when you eat more energy then you need your body stores it.  How much you as an individual is going to vary based on your rate of energy use etc, but at the end of the day you can gain weight eating anything be it carrots or bananas or whatever, so long as you eat the number of caloires at which your body is going to start storing that energy as fat.  For the average individual that could be 3500 calories from 140 medium carrots or 23 twinkies.  Although as someone noted, you will probably burn more calores eating a carrot rather than for example a twinkie.

Well if your a women, your not going to get bulky.  Its actually pretty hard to get bulky.  just start out slow with 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.  Pick a few exercises.  You will have the right weight if during the first few reps its relatively easy, but towards the end it starts to get harder (but you should still be able to complete the set). 

As for what to eat, it depends.  I am currently starting to train for an olympic distance  triathlon so i am working out 6 days a week for between 30 to an hour of cardio plus weight  twice a week.  Because i still want to lose weight i have created a calorie deficit, but i am still consuming about 1950 a day to sustain myself.  I havent cut out one group more or less, such as fats, but rather just increased the total amount of calories in each given group. so i eat two more cervings carbs one more protein 1 more of each fruti and veggie and 1 more of fat.  You dont want to leave out adding more fat because your body will go into starvation mode. This will allow me to still gain more muscle while still losing fat ( I hope lol, I will probably have to tweek it a little)

I must say, when I started cross traininl last year for a sprint triathlon the results were almost immediate. Not only did I have less aches and pains by doing a differnt sport each day, but the muscle development was a lost faster.  It was most pronounced with the swimming because apparently I was working stuff that did not get the same attention on the bike or running.  its really the best way to get results because you body is constantly being forced to do something different each day and therefore its hard for it to get used to it and merely coast.  Maybe switch out two days of running for other sports and you will be surprised at the results