The truth about High Fructose Corn Syrup

There is a lot of confusing information out there about high fructose corn syrup.  First were the claims that it was linked to obesity because more and more things were made from it. Unfortunately there was no proof provided to back that up.  The corn refiners took advantage of that and started advertising campaigns like this commercial.

So does that mean that it is the same as cane sugar?  Not quite.

What is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)? It is made from corn. The corn is ground down into corn starch, the starch is refined into a glucose syrup and then enzymes are added to turn the glucose into fructose.  When all is said and done the mixture is about 55% fructose.  Both glucose and fructose are naturally occurring substances while not normally in the quantities we consume them. So we have established that  HFCS is made from corn and that it is refined into a naturally occurring substance in foods like apples.  So far the commercial is right on.  It also says that it is fine in moderation.  Also true.  If you are able to control your consumption of HFCS it does not have any severe side effects.

How does HFCS interact with the body? Recent studies are finding that your body's need to eat is heavily influenced by 2 hormones leptin and ghrelin. These 2 hormones are always in balance. Leptin checks to see if you have enough energy stores.  If you are eating regularly then your leptin level rises and tells the brain that it can burn as many calories as it likes because you have the reserves.  If you do not have the available energy then your ghrelin level rises and tells the brain that we need to conserve energy.  This will cause you to stop burning fat and become hungry.

When that check is made to see how much fuel you have available the body does not recognize fructose and a real energy source.  This means that you will not burn calories as fast and it will take more time to burn the calories you took in. You can read more about leptin and ghrelin here.

So what do we do? High fructose corn syrup is in much of what we eat.  You don't have to avoid it all together just be aware of how much you are consuming.  There are alternative to the more popular products that contain HFCS.  Pepsi has made strides to put original cane sugar back in it's drinks with it's "throwback" line.

Main point: Don't just listen to the talking heads.  These days no one is going to find out the entire story for you least of all the popular media.  Be aware of what you put in your body and how it effects you.  Here is a challenge for you: The next thing you eat that has nutritional facts on it, pick a ingredient you don't recognize and look it up.  Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good for you and just because it's artificial doesn't mean it's bad.  As George Carlin said "crap is all natural, that doesn't mean I want to eat it."

Happy living
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First Injury: Keep your head up

So I have now had my first fitness related injury.  It's one of those things that you really shouldn't be proud of but I am anyway.

 I was hoping to avoid that for a little bit long but I suppose it's good to get it out of the way.  Still not 100% sure what I did to cause it but the chiropractor is fairly certain it was because of bad form.  Now I admit I am not 100% on when I'm lifting heavy but I try very hard to keep as close as possible for as long as possible.  However when all you want to get are those 2 last reps in, your focus becomes keeping that weight from falling on your head instead of keeping perfect form.

Sorry to those "do or die" types but if I'm hurting I'll say so.  This hurt like hell and kept me out of the gym for a while because every time it would feel a little better I would push through the pain and aggravate it again.  I say it was a neck injury but I had pain radiating from the spine and all over my right shoulder and upper back.  Apparently this is a common enough injury that when I finally went to my chiropractor, he recognized it pretty quick.  All I had to mention was that I have been lifting heavier recently to get that "ahhhhh" reaction.

The human body is able to withstand tremendous amounts of weight. Even without developing your muscle with the intention of lifting, the back and more importantly the spine are designed for it. Studies have even shown that the curves in our spine allow us to support 10 times more weight than if it was straight.  That being said, we have a tendency to try and get our back under the weight.  Even in the movies you will see someone trying to push upward while bending their head forward with the strain.  However doing this straightens the natural curve in the neck and subjects your neck to undue stress. The point being the when you are doing heavy lifts, especially shoulder press of any kind, be sure to keep your head up.  Sitting here typing this posing like L, probably isn't helping any.

(Warning next part isn't so fitness related just an observation)
The solution?  A couple trips to the chiropractor will straighten it out if they don't scare you to death first.  They try this in multiple ways first the try and electrocute you with those contacts they put on your back.  And if you like me you try and handle as much voltage (or whatever) as you can cause we are manly men and we can take it.  But then they leave you alone in the room and you feel your muscles start to contract in ways they never have before and by the time they come back you've either become a contortionist or your dead.  Next they act like pedophiles.  You have to take your shirt off so they can rub oil on you (if they don't really need to do this someone let me know cause mine did) and rub your back down with the excuse that "you need to be loose".  Then they lay your cheek on their hand and tell you to relax.  This is the time when they have given up on you and decide your a threat and try to SNAP your neck clean off.  Just like this. Some how after a couple of times doing this you feel better and get to go back to working out like an idiot or learn so you never have to see that horrible man again!

As always I hope I was helpful.  If you like these posts or if you would like me to cover a topic feel free to leave a comment and let me know.  If you really think they are worth someone's time share them around.  I hope to have some of these topics recorded on my YouTube channel as well so come check me out there if you have not already.

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Still Awake (A cautionary tale)

So I sit here awake at almost 1 am. I need to be up at 6:30 for a doctors appointment and then to get to work.  Why are you still up, you ask?  Because I am silly and competitive. I didn't have much time for a workout today so after dinner and homework and such I decided to get some planks and pushups in.  I went to my favorite fitness social media site, Fitocracy.com, to enter my workout for the day and found I had been bumped down a couple spaces in the push-up challenge.  Well we can't have that now can we? I should have let it go.  So I figure out how many more I need to do and go on my way.  I enter in my new points and see that I'm still not back where I should be.  Undaunted I keep going.  Still not there. Now I know something is wrong.  I realize that this must mean the the person I can not pass is also logging pushups as he goes. The nerve of some peoples kids. I "followed" (similar to twitter) the gentlemen and kindly asked that he stop doing push up so that I could go to bed.  To my surprise he obliged although it was not nearly as late for him in some other timezone.

(Takes a sip of Sleepy Time tea)

So now I sit here having done two hundred some pushups and four minutes of planks.  My triceps are unhappy with me.  However the other thing I now remember is that when you push yourself you open up adrenal glands and get extra energy.  It is commonly recommended that you do not work less than 4 hours before you plan to go to sleep.  I have now taken a long hot shower and am sipping some tea trying to relax enough to go back to bed and try to find elusive sleep once more.

Goodnight humanity. Please remember sleep is just as important if not more important than any exercise you do.  It is when your body does it's best recovery and repair and it doesn't matter how many pushups you do if your not sleeping you won't get any better at it. (-sigh- sips tea again)

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Stupid Health People (A Rant)

Been reading a lot about health and fitness recently and I find the best information comes from individuals.  As soon as you put multiple people together and ask them to decide on something it all falls apart.  The funny thing is that all the individuals seem to agree with each other as long as you never ask them to admit to that.  But when it becomes a group or a coalition or a wellness center or some other collection of minds somehow not only do they not agree with the individuals but they do not agree with other groups.  I'm reminded of a saying I have seen on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and demotivational posters; "None of us alone are as dumb as all of us together."  There are variations but you get the idea.  The concept that as soon as people try to work together there needs to be a social system and a political system and hierarchy and everyone needs to put in there 2 cents.  With all the systems and processes hardly anything gets done after the easy ideas have been achieved. But worse that that is the idea that everyone must contribute something.  So that when things do get done it wasn't by the guy that came up with the ingenious fully formed concept.  It has been broken down and butchered and twisted until it's originator doesn't even recognize it anymore.

Lets get to what sparked this whole rant in the first place.  I've been researching a lot health topics recently and I started reading one about digestive health and it's relation to gas and bloating.  It started with a lot of good information the bacteria in your colon and the role they play in breaking down sugar and fiber that could not be broken down before. Wonderful.  Then we get to the part where they had to make some ridiculous claim.






"Vitamin dosages are critical in today's world since it's literally impossible to get the daily nutrients we need from the over processed food we eat every day"




Really now?  Define need please.  Need to survive? Well that can't be true because there are plenty of people living without it.  Need for the long term continued survival of the race? Need to fly? Okay that one I'll buy. All the people I know have eaten processed foods at some point and none of them can fly.  That word need that they all use aggravates me to no end.  I would even be slightly less irritated if they were trying to sell me something, but this particular site is not.  Then what do I need it for?  To enjoy my life?  I didn't even know I needed it five minutes ago.  The biggest irritation of all though is the fact that it never mentions what non-processed foods you can eat that will get you the vitamins you need to that you don't have to take supplements that they are suggesting.  This is of course assuming that the comment was aimed only at the processed foods being insufficient.  If the suggestion is that all food is insufficient that I want to know where the vitamins came from back in the day.  I'm picturing something like this

God: "Noah feed eat these each day and you will live well"
Noah: "What are they my Lord?"
God: "Oh I'm going to call them Fintstones.  Funny fictional family, kids are going to love them"
Noah: "Yes my Lord but what is this?" points at small yellow character
God: "That's Fred's best friend Barny.  He's my favorite because he so cheerful and lighthearted"
Noah: Opens mouth then closes it again. Long silence then "Yes lord"

-END RANT-

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Ab Myth - it's not muscle it's fat!

I have heard some of the craziest things in the world regarding abs.  One of them being he's not strong he's fat. Granted this is the exception rather than the rule.  Many people think that you can target belly fat by doing tons of ab workouts.  That is only going to work if you already have an extremely low body fat to begin with.  You will build your abdominal muscles and there are some fantastic benefits to that, but there won't be anything visible. This is why many of the Strength competition guys look like they have extra belly.  It's really just a small layer of fat over the muscle.  Also for people that are trying to gain a lot of muscle, also called 'hard gainers', consuming enough food to grow muscle without gaining a little fat is extremely difficult if not impossible.  Did you know the guys and girls you see in bodybuilding competitions are normally weaker during competition than the rest of the year?  That's because they eat more to pack on the muscle and then eat less and do more carido to have the lowest body fat possible to compete.

 

Let's break this down a little though.  For those of us not entering a strong man or body building competition any time soon, the logic is much simpler.  If you have enough willpower to keep working those abs to the point where you can see that area getting bigger, you are still working out more than the average American. More muscle also means you burn more calories so if you have not been increasing your calorie intake you should be loosing weight. The best way would be to work on all muscle groups evenly.  Even if you could get just your abs and nothing else, would you really want to be as over balanced as this guy? 

 

My personal experience with this was in high school.  I wasn't athletic and didn't participate in sports but I did get into kickboxing.  It was mainly cardio but we did plenty of crunches, planks, and pushups as well.  However not giving a damn about being healthy (as teenagers normally don't) I finished every workout session off with a Mountain Dew and anything that I was burning I was eating more to compensate.  Not on purpose, just because I was hungry more often. Point is my abs were getting bigger but my body fat percentage wasn't going down any.  My aunt noticed that I was filling out and told me I needed to slim down.  I explained my situation and she laughed at me.  She told me that I was silly and working out tighted up the fat.  You are allowed to laugh all I could do was sit and stare at her dumbfounded. Point is that you can get bad information from anyone even if they mean well.

Granted you are talking to someone who sill doesn't have defined abs so feel free to believe what you will. However if you want the lowdown from a professional here is my favorite article on the subject.



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Pictures by sumoman.co  CC-BY

About me, myself, and my blog

So the other day someone wanted to know what "Before you Actuate" meant.  So I figured anyone reading this might like an explanation as well.  The whole business started with my friend Ray/Sebron and his YouTube channel. He had done a few videos before but was starting the YTO (YouTube Orbit) the objective is to post 1 video a day for an entire year.  It doesn't have to be long or very interesting but there needs to be one a day with the opportunity for a few misses. As of today he has reached 310 videos so almost there.  Which when you see the extremely long list of people who have failed trying to do this it is a very impressive feat. 

So watching these got me interested in video and editing so I got hold of some software and started messing around.  I released a video on 11/11/11 just because I thought it was cool.  It really wasn't much of anything but I wanted to be able to say I put up my first video on that date.  The video was all old footage I had taken with different cameras over a very long period of time so it had no point to it.  It just looking like a movie trailer for nothing.  Somehow that snip-it got a ton of hits at least for a first video on a channel with nothing else on it.  That channel is called SelfActuate.  The thought process behind that was that I wanted to do fun exciting things and share them on an epic scale.  To actualize my hopes, dreams, plans, and whatnot.  I only made one other video for that channel and decided that I needed to refine my skills a bit.  So I jumped over to an old channel I had set up with the intention of posting stupid videos to practice with.  Come to find out vlogging or video blogging is a thing and people actually started watching what I posted.  That channel became SAVY SelfActuate Vlog on YouTube.  Corny but everything on that channel is so it fits.  I have still been uploading videos there that have a little less production time to them.

 I had started my masters program around that time as well so as time was getting short I've made less and less.  I wanted a place to write down ideas I had for videos that were never made so I was trying to track them here.  So the original concept was before the SelfActuate video there is the blog. Hence "Before You Actuate".  However since then it has taken on a bit of a different meaning.  I've always been into fitness but more so recently.  Now the title has come to mean "before you try this be prepared" or for geeks "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."  So my new goal is to put together what I'm doing fitness wise and share what I find and let you know if it works or not.  Hope your enjoying so far!

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PS: I should have some new videos up soon and they may even be health related!

Crazy Abs (not in a good way)

I have heard a lot of interesting stories around abs, who has them, how to get them, even how to fake them.  Thought I would share some of the crazy some of the serious and some of my theories.

So let's start with the truly crazy:
Implants: Yes skip the work outs, skip the gym, and the healthy food. Don't worry they can make it look real with abdominal implants under your skin.  That's right 30 minute abs just got real. If I know you and you just considered this don't tell me.

I only have a few issues. This requires you to be put under which means you might not wake up. Yes I know how often this is done and how it hardly ever happens but why take the chance when it's not life threatening? Next, if you don't have definition already or if you gain weight this is going to look horrible. I personally think plastic surgery should be saved for burn victims and people born with deformities.  Large breasts attract my attention, I'd be lying if I said otherwise, however as soon as I even think the they are fake I'm not interested.  If you are crazy enough to try this you probably would like to know that just about all muscles can be implanted so you look like this guy.  But in all seriousness if you decide to get these please rearrange them into a smiley face and send me the picture.


Etching: Ok I hate to admit this but this option gives me pause.  Personally I could never do it but...... well you decide.  Etching is another form of surgery.  From the limited research I have done the concept is a form of selective liposuction that targets the fat pockets around the abdominal muscles. This is for those people that work at the gym 3 hrs a day and eat right and still can not quite get that definition.  For sustained results you have to continue to go to the gym.  While I still personally disagree, I have less of an issue because these people still have to put in the effort.  If you have never done a sit up, or leg raise, or side bend then it doesn't matter how much fat they take off you still won't have anything to show for it.  That being said I still consider this unnatural and could never do it personally.

Abs in a Box:  I really shouldn't be surprised by this one but really?  Have you ever seen the far side comic with the guy that has ab definition tattooed on.  I was really hoping to find a picture of that.  Please send me the link if you find one but I found this instead.  Damn near the same thing Abs in a Box is a semi-permanent stain that you put on to give the impression of curves in the right places.  I also think this is stupid but can you imagine the people that buy this thinking they have a true quick fix?  Honestly unless you are a makeup artist the possibilities for screwing this up are endless.  And, because it "works so well" it's water resistant.  So if you get carried away and paint the Mona Lisa on your gut, it's going to be there for a while.  I do see how this would work for super models and makeup at photo shoots.  As a matter of fact it makes me feel ever so slightly better about myself know that these "perfect people" have help. My last comment on this, dumbest tagline ever. "Paint away Flab" then they show women that are already super skinny and just add definition.  if you have any flab this isn't going to work.

I don't know if it makes me feel better our worse that these things are actually available out there.  Better that I am willing to actually work to get abs or worse about humanity that people think this is a viable alternative.  None of these things will make you stronger or healthier and without serious effort none of these things will make you look better.  Save the thousands of dollars you were going to spend on surgery and buy a gym membership and start eating better.

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Bulldozer training and yoga?

So I started a new training routine this week.  I found the listing on MuscleandStrength.com which if I haven't mentioned before is one of my favorite sites for finding workouts, exercise explanations and videos and other such fitness related material.  This plan in particular is called Bulldozer Training and it is based on the rest-pause method of training. This method suggests that the rests between reps be minimal and that the goal should not be a weight or a number of repetitions per set but the number of repetitions overall.  For example you do as many repetitions in 4 sets as you can if you meet the goal number of repetitions you raise the weight NEXT WEEK.  While I tweaked the weight a little bit this first go round the next time I know what I can and can not do.  I like this method because it makes sure I get the most out of my time at the gym.  Even still I ended up talking to someone in the middle of a routine and it threw me all off.  It and I are works in progress.

One thing I wasn't crazy about on this workout was the compound movement exercises have a different set up.  For exercises like squats and dead lifts that use a number of different muscles, you do a many sets of 1 as you can in 10 minutes with the goal of doing 15.  This means you should be getting less than 15.  I thought this was crazy talk that I would never get anything out of waiting that long in between sets.  It's the exact opposite of the rest of the training.  Be that as it may I did this for squats on Thursday and I'm just now able to walk normal again.  But damn if my legs aren't a little bigger already.

That leads me into the next part.  I have been considering trying yoga for a while now but never seem to get started.  A big inspiration for this was a YouTube video about a disabled war vet that was told he would never walk again.  The most interesting part about this was that even though the instructor that agreed to work with him is called out in the video it looks like the majority of the training done was at home in from of the TV.  If this guy can get there anyone can.  That said I did a little research on another video and realized that a lot of these yoga moves and poses are really just stretches that I had been doing for a while now. It doesn't hurt that all these yoga videos are good looking women in tight fitting cloths that can bend in ways that.....(ahem).  Back on topic, since I could barely walk I decided it might now be a bad idea to try this out.  So I've been doing a 5 or 10 minute set of stretches and yoga poses and I think it's helped.  I'm going to be borrowing a couple started DVDs from a friend and see how far I want to go with this.  There are actually ways to do do strength training with yoga and get flexibility, stability, and muscle control out of it as well.  I'll be looking forward to that training.

For those who were looking for more food information I am trying to "eat clean" as much as possible.  Trying to stay away from the obviously chemical based foods like soda and cool whip and anything that doesn't contain a single work on the label that you can pronounce. My biggest shocker was that after I did that meal breakdown I've been trying to do out a meal plan that will allow me to meet it but I keep coming up short.  It is getting me to look at nutrition labels for more than just the calories which is a step in the right direction.  If you remember if I'm doing the 6 meals a day 1 meal is only supposed to contain 9 grams of fat. I found out today that 1 normal hotdog HAS 11!!  I've still got a refrigerator full of those and I hate throwing food away.

I still have some thoughts on dandelion tea and flavors of clean eating but once again it is way to late so it's time to head to bed.  If you enjoy these, if they are helping, or if you just like the links and laughing at the kid running in circles trying to get healthy please let me know.  While I think this is helping me keep with it, it's always nice to know someone is benefiting.

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Meal Plans?

An article on one of my favorite sites explains how you should be breaking down your diet on a good workout plan.  So I thought I would give it a shot and at least compare what I am doing to what I should be doing. Here is the link if you want to try it out for yourselves.

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/how-to-create-a-bodybuilding-diet.html
So here’s how it works. Use the calculator here to determine how many calories you should be taking in per day. This is a common calculation and worked out the same for the My Fitness Pal mobile app.  Next you break down the calories into 30% protein, 50% carbs, and 20% protein.  (Yea I was never a big fan of Atkins either) turn the calories into grams (use the site) and then divide each one by the number of meals per day.

For me that was 2500 cals per day
Protein 750 = 187.5g
Carbs 1250 = 312.5g
Fat 500 = 56g

At 6 meals per day (which is about what you should be doing to keep your metab up and gain more nutrients from what your eating) My Per meal is

P 31.5
C 52
F 9.3

What I like best about the article is whether you buy into the numbers or not there is a nice long list on the best places to get your healthy Proteins, Carbs, and fats.

Based on this it looks like I’m getting what I need from the right areas but I’m over doing it it the fat section and not getting quite enough in the protein area.  Considering the new workout routine I’m trying this might be an issue.  Another interesting fact is that fat slows down the digestion process so the meal/snack/supplement you have after a workout should contain as little fat as possible.  Point being that while you might feel nice and manly after pumping serious iron at the gym your not helping yourself by having a big steak.  My issue is that I mix my protein with skim milk that has less fat in it but it’s still there.
I also did some research on body fat percentage and was told that once a week was not to often even though my gym says once a month. hmmmm  Wonder they are just tired of seeing me shirtless?  Oh well.  I also found that the caliper system isn’t the most reliable and changes dramatically when you change who is performing the test.  My last test said 14% and the one before that 17% only a month before but with a different person.  I didn’t even bother tracking it.  At least if you stay with the same person you know what direction your going in.  So my new and more precise goal (for now is to gain weight while lowering body fat percentage or at least keeping it the same.  Once I bulk a little I can break out the Insanity videos again and slim down in a hurry.  At least it worked that way last time.

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Nobodys perfect (not even close)

Don't worry I have no intention of giving you a play by play of every meal (if you really want to know I'll find somewhere else to put it. also pictures will be more common on my tumblr account.)  However Saturday bears an accounting.

The morning started out well I did 3 egg whites and 1 yolk with some yellow pepper, onion, and the rest of the mushrooms, seasoned with salt and garlic powder. Might not look fantastic but it tasted great.  Plus it carries all the great benefits of protein to build muscles, which I could use after spending 3 hrs in the gym on Thursday.  No this is not healthy.  I'm going to injure myself eventually but when I can't get to the gym for a while I tend to over do it.  I'm a work in progress what can I say. With that I've been having decaf peppermint tea with honey.  My understanding is that caffeine isn't good in general, however moderation can make it acceptable. 1-2 cups of coffee worth as a general rule.  I've given up soda (kinda) and never drank coffee to begin with so this one isn't that hard.  Any kind of mint is going to help digestion, among other things, and it's a great excuse to use honey, which has plenty of it's own benefits. keeping digestion moving is going to keep energy at the ready and keep you moving.

Keeping with the manageable amounts of protein theme lunch was light tuna on wheat with onion and lettuce. This is all accompanied by gallons and gallons of water.  No it's not necessary and I realize I'm over doing it but this at least this isn't going to leave me moaning on the floor at the back of a running treadmill.  It does however flush out your kidneys and keep you very uncomfortable and constantly running to the bathroom.  Just being honest.





But let's move on to the stuff you really want to hear about: my failures.  Yes it's a little early for that but thankfully it wasn't too horrifying.  Saturday was also my good friends bachelor party.  everyone was requested to bring a 6 pack of beer.  Well I don't drink so being the smart@$$ that I am I brought Stewart's root-beer among other flavors. My personal favorite is the orange creamsicle. Oh did I say that I gave up soda? Well one is okay right but that one wasn't cold so had to go for a second. Ah well, at least there aren't two 36" pizzas and 4 boxes of cheesy bread or something crazy like that..............

le sigh.  Yea well ya win some you lose some but on the up side my meal portions have been small enough that I couldn't have much before I was full. Could I have stuffed myself and expanded my stomach? Sure probably but why.  Honestly the joys of gluttony aren't as exciting as they were when Halloween was the ultimate holiday because you were going to rot your teeth and love it. Portion control is nice because it keeps your metabolism up if you eat a lot of small meals vs. a few large ones because your stomach thinks food could be coming at any time instead of just at designated meals.  Not trying to lose weight but keeping it steady while I bring down my body fat percentage is nice.

Hope I'm helping.  Does anyone want me to cover something specific?

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Food to start

So I think I'm doing ok to get started but I'm a long way from where I want to be.  Friday night I went to the store and picked up a bunch of healthy looking things but I won't bother you with the shopping list.  The point is what was done with it. First thing was the standard default diet food. Salad. This one consisted of romaine lettuce, red and green pepper, baby bella mushrooms, red onion, and carrots.  This is where the purists say I ruined it with light Asian (aka ginger) dressing.  But like I said I am far from where I want to be and let's not dive into this all at once.

The thing to remember here is that I'm not doing this to loose weight I'm doing it to get healthy. We all know vegetables are good for you in general but do you ever stop to think of why? Just about every vegetable helps your digestion tract.  Let's not get into details but you all know what roughage does.  What you might not know is that many vegetables also help cleanse your liver. If you read my detox post you know that's one of the things I have been looking into.  You can find out more about liver cleansing foods here:
http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/liver-cleanse-foods/

But obviously we cant survive on this alone.  Next was the part I was worried about.  I don't do marinades to often and when I do it's normally for a stir-fry of some kind.  So I marinated the other half of what I had put in the salad with a pre-made teriyaki, put it on tinfoil and brought it out to the grill.  We had a little bit of chicken left over from another meal already cooked so I threw that in as well.  While that was cooking I boiled some wheat pasta. Just in case the vegetables didn't work out, I put a little olive oil on that helped the Parmesan and Romano cheese as well as the garlic powder stick. (I'd like to point out that garlic, wheat, and olive oil are also good for the liver, which I didn't know when I was making it)  Thankfully the gill worked just fine as well.  Gotta say I'm proud of the first meal on this road.

I'm out of time for tonight but I'll try and run through my Saturday for you tomorrow.  Not quite as inventive but equally delicious.

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Detox

So I’ve been working on getting in shape for a long time now going through the normal ups and downs of working out consistently and then slacking off and losing the results.  I’m on my up-tick again and hope to stick with it this time, or at least make it last longer.  My biggest goal is to see ab definition.  If I get that for a single day I think I’ll die happy.  I do a decent amount of crunchs: ball crunch, decline crunch, leg raises, and planks are my normals.  I’m about ready to move to weighted leg raises.

I know that it doesn’t matter how many you do.  You wont see definition without lowering your body fat percentage.  I’m working on it. According to a pinch test I’m down to 14% but I think they were being nice.  I want to get down to 10% but that is going to take a lot of effort.

Then I went to this free seminar on detox.  They explained how acid builds up in your system when your liver and lymphatic system can’t handle what you are putting in.  They also said that unless you are only eating all natural organic and living in the woods it’s bound to happen.  When the acid escapes it is called free radicals.  I had heard the term but didn’t know what it meant until now.  Those acids attach to you cells. Your fat cells in particular.  Then your body pushes water to those areas to keep the acid from damaging your cells. This water build- up is what causes or at least contributes to cellulite. (I’m not a doctor and I’m going from memory here)  The point being that in order to remove the water and acid you need to detox.

I bought in right up until they told me how much their product cost to complete my detox.  Sorry I don’t have a grand just laying around.  So after a lot of online research I fount there are many ways to detox that are cheaper and can get you similar effects as long as you combine it with healthy eating.  So I am going to try a wrap (not the kind you eat) that has alkaloids on it.  The theory is that the wrap will make you lose the water and then the alkaloids with remove the acids.  I know for a fact that the first part works because you can lose a couple inches wearing these things for an hour or so. But you can get similar effects from a steam room or other forms of dehydration.  Did I mention you are supposed to drink half your weight in water when your done?
So my question to you is what are your thoughts on detox.  Have you tried one? did it work? And is it going to get me that definition I so crave?

Hope I helped inform some people.  If your interested in hearing more about detox let me know.  I did quite a bit of research.

/Actuator/

Stupid words

Finance;

So the other night I'm working on my finance homework and I'm just not getting how to calculate a ratio.  If you know finance the naming scheme for ratios is a little off.

For instance the calculation for Liabilities to Assets Ratio is (Total Liabilities/Total Assets) makes sense right.

Next Long-Term Debt Ratio is (Long-Term Debt/Total Assets) hmmmm ok well probably would have been easier to remember if they had included 'to Assets' in there but ok I can deal with this.

Then here comes Debt-Equity Ratio. You know something is wrong right away because its not Debt to Equity ratio and its not Debt ratio so they changed the naming scheme once again but this should still be simple enough right? just a normal (Total Debt/Shareholder Equity) right?  Well first of all there is no 'Total Debt' line on any sheet so you would have to add together current portion of long term debt and long term debt and possibly Accounts Payable because that could be considered debt.  Hence my confusion.  Come to find out the when making this calculation you are supposed to use Long-Term Debt.........Why?  Why couldn't you just be consistent with ratio names.  It's not like you had to save room on the sheet.  There were no character limits when this stuff was written and it's not like it was taking up more space than the "Cash flow from Operations to Current Liabilities Ratio so WTF.  Honestly how many people got to vote on the names and was their a convention on each name and did they look at the names they had already put on the financial statements used to make these ratios? 

I think it went some thing like this:
(Dave the accountant): Hey John we need to name these ratios but I need to embezzle from Big Corporate shmucks in an hour so we need to divide the work.  Split it with me.

(John the accountant): Once I sober up from drinking on the job I need to go home and beat my wife so we need more help.

(Dave): You lie sir you haven't had a drink all day.

(John): nope been dropping acid and that baloon of coke that exploded in my anus yesterday still has me going.

(Dave): Where did you get the drugs?

(John): Bob in Payroll [yes accountants have payroll departments] he's so burnt out he gives them to me for free and ups my pay every time I bring Taco Bell.

(Dave): can he help?

(John): Guess so.
HEY BOB!!

(Bob the burnt out Junkie):  I LIKE BUNNIES!!!!!

(Dave): Nice.  We'll have this done in no time.
John crap me a line of coke.  I need a pick me up before my next meeting.