We’ve all heard the expression “You are what you eat.” I always took this to heart, being from the South, which has a very rich history of consuming very rich and high-fat foods. We always expressed ourselves through the foods we ate — well at least in my house we did.
Things changed for me when I got to college. Suddenly I had to not only prepare and cook my own food, but I had to shop for it, too.
I was up studying for an exam late one night and one of those Jack Lalanne Juicer commercials came on and good ol’ Jack left me with something to ponder. He said, “If you can’t pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.” Everything sounds like a solid theory at 3 a.m. but after hearing that I began reading the labels of what I was buying and eating.
The next week when I went shopping I found myself reading the ingredients (if you want to call them that) with things like “partially-hydrogenated…”, “maltodextrin…”, etc.
I started leaving that crazy stuff in the store and switched them out for whole foods and not much later I started noticing many different changes within my body, my skin and even my mental capacity. I basically had more energy to get things done. Workouts were improved, muscle tone got better, skin cleared up, and even my grades went up, too. Just that one simple act had a resounding effect on my life.
Recently, I went back to my hometown for a visit and was asked how do I stay fit and so young looking and I laughed and told them about that same Jack Lalanne story and they quickly asked should they go out and buy a juicer. I told them “no” (not that I have anything against juicing…naturally…LOL). I simply told them to eat how they wanted to look. If you want to look lean and healthy, you should eat like it.
Oh, and since Bots keeps bugging me about offering you guys some specific workout tips, I thought I’d close out this week’s Super Squats with a sample workout routine that I’ve been using for the week:
- 15 mins Bike Cardio
- 3 sets of 12 Bosu Ball Pushups
- 3 sets of 12 Bosu Ball Squats
- 3 sets of 12 Barbell Curls
- 3 sets of 12 Tricep Extensions
- 3 sets of 12 Pilates Ball Crunches
- 3 sets 0f 12 Rope Crunches
- 3 sets of 12 Bench Press
- 3 sets of 12 Back Row
- Jump rope in between sets
- 15 mins of Treadmill Cardio
Power Up!