Balanced Existence

photo credit: treehouse1977

This month in Scientific American an article appeared discussing the new thinking on refined carbohydrates, saturated fat and heart disease. The article reports that despite 30 years of reducing saturated fat consumption the obesity rate has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still America’s biggest killer.

The article goes on to recount how in March the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a meta-analysis comparing the reported daily food intake of nearly 350,000 people against their risk of developing cardiovascular disease over a period of 5 to 23 years. The analysis found NO association between the amount of saturated fat consumed and the risk of heart disease.

According to the head of this study the old conventional wisdom that saturated fat is bad for the heart because of cholesterol is “based in large measure on extrapolations, which are not supported by the data.” Well worth checking out the whole article – Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart.

“It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – Jiddu Krisnamurti

Low Tech High Effect Workouts
Don’t have any money to spare on exercise equipment such as kettlebells or an Olympic barbell set? Check out this awesome video demonstrating many ways to utilize a used car tire for an effective workout that you can get for free from your local tire shop. There really are no excuses.

For subscribers, here is the link to the video – Low Tech High Effect Working out with Tires

My Recent Workouts

Friday 30th April 2010

Deadlift
120kg x 1 single
150kg x 6 singles

Single Leg Split Squat
50kg x 5 l/r
60kg x 13 l/r

Monday 3rd May 2010

Turkish Getups (TGU)
16kg x 1 l/r
37kg x working through the steps up to completing a full getup and back down with both arms

Deadlift
125kg x 15 singles

Bottoms Up Press
25kg x 5 singles l/r

Tuesday 4th May 2010

Deadlift
132.5kg x 12 singles

Single Leg Split Squat
65kg x 5 l/r
60kg x 5 l/r
50kg x 4 x 5 l/r (sets x reps)

Friday 7th May 2010

Turkish Get Up
16kg x 1 l/r
37kg x 2 l/r

Deadlift
120kg x 1
150kg x 10 singles

Kettlebell Bottoms Up Press
16kg x 6 singles l/r
25kg x 7 left
25kg x 12 right, including a triple and a double

Flutter Kicks
3 x 20