I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving, I know I did.  Instead of the traditional Thanksgiving meal I dined in Chinatown with friends and family, enjoying a dim sum feast.

Yesterday, after training two of my favorite clients, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my visiting sister and girlfriend to view Art of the Samurai, which was totally awesome.

When leaving the museum I noticed a banner outside stating that they had Vermeer’s “The Milk Maid”, I chuckled at the banner as it reminded me of the great article I recently read at Precision Nutrition.  The article, All About Milk was quite eye-opening.  I haven’t drank milk since high school, at which time I drank chocolate milk everyday with lunch.  My father has always said “milk is for baby cows”, and at some point I realized he was right and switched to soy milk after high school. Fast forward more years than I’d like to admit and now I drink either almond or hemp milk, as I feel that they are better for me than soy or cow’s milk.

Currently in the strength training community there has been a resurgence of classic strength training programs, like Starting Strength, Bill Starr’s 5×5, and the newer Wendler’s 5/3/1/.  Many people are obtaining great results from these simple and effective programs, myslef included.  Along with these no frills programs usually comes no frills nutrition advice, like if you want to gain weight drink a gallon of milk a day. Wendler even goes as far to say that if you are lactose intolerant “Buy baby wipes.  It’s gonna get dirty.”  The fellas over at 70’s Big certainly agree, and of course an additional 2400 calories (1 gallon whole milk)  a day will put weight on anyone, but is it the best choice?  All the talk over at 70’s Big, made me realize that I don’t like milk, and have been giving it a bad rap for years, but I don’t really have a wealth of knowledge to back up my stance, besides to me, it just never made sense (to drink it).  “Milk is for baby cow’s”.  So, I went to Precision Nutrition and read All About Milk and I encourage you to do the same before you decide if it’s right for you.   Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“The number of dairy cows in the U.S. decreased from 18 million to 9 million between 1960 and 2005. Total milk production increased from 120 billion to 177 billion pounds during the same period. This is due to strategic breeding and pharmaceutical aid.”

Also, Precision Nutrition is having a sale!  Check it out here.

8 Grams by Jon Feinstein

Visions of Fast Food by Jon Feinstein “There’s this weird relationship that we as Americans have with fast food,” says Feinstein, who titled each image with the given item’s fat content, in grams. “I made a project where the food mostly looks disgusting, yet some of it is still strangely enticing—probably because the branding is so embedded in our psyches.”

Crossfit for Baseball? by Eric Cressey “The randomness of the “workout of the day” is simply not appropriate for a sport that has quite possibly the most specific sport-imposed asymmetries in the world of athletics.”

Clean Eating Gone Wrong by John Berardi “What if I told you that a diet of 1/2 cup oats, 4 egg
whites, 5 ounces of chicken, and 1/2 cup broccoli could be a recipe for getting fat?  Hard to believe?  Well, in this week’s update, you’ll find out how even the cleanest of diets can lead to weight gain…”

USC RB Johnson recovering from weights accident by Gregg Beacham                 If you haven’t heard USC RB Stafon Johnson crushed his Larynx the other day while bench pressing.  He is thankfully expected to make a full recovery. I don’t believe this is necessarily a “must read”, but more of a wake-up call.  This is an extremely rare accident, but it can happen.  Always make sure you use a spotter you know, like your workout buddy (if you don’t have one get one), and most importantly use your thumbs.

Check out some of the articles I’ve read in the past week.  They are all available online.  Read them on your computer or print them out, but never do this:

Blowing It.

The Perils of Ignoring History: Big Tobacco Played Dirty and Millions Died.  How Similar Is Big Food? This article written by Kelly D. Brownell of Yale and Kenneth E. Warner of University of Michigan was brought to my attention by Mike Boyle who wrote a post about it on his Strength Coach Blog.  If you read only one of these recommendations make it this one.

Now Hiring is a hilarious article about how personal trainer Jon Messner runs his business.  “Jon Messner Performance is a personal training studio that specializes in pain management.  JMP has nothing to do with yoga, pilates, bodybuilding, or basket weaving”

What Are Your Four Pounds Made Of? A great article from Ryan Andrews at Precision Nutrition about the importance of eating real foods and why “Mother Nature has got your back”.

Lift Strong is an organization founded by Strength Coach and two time cancer survivor Alwyn Cosgrove.  Lift Strong has recently teamed up with Elite FTS to launch an apparel line.  Check out the article and gear.  All proceeds benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Happy 4th of July to all!  I spent my Independence Day at Coney Island, another place that after almost 5 years of living in NYC I had never been to.  Although I found out that I was not alone, when telling clients of my plans many of them responded “why?” and/or admitted that they also had never been there.  There was something else driving this journey, besides some sun and adventure on the 4th: the Annual Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest; something that I didn’t care much to see, but my girlfriend really wanted to witness and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.  We arrived to an extremely crowded Surf Avenue and the contest was about to begin.  Were we close enough to see?  Not really, but thankfully there was a huge jumbo-tron set up to broadcast the event.  I was becoming excited as the countdown began…and then my consciousness turned on.  Hot Dogs — do these people understand what a hot dog really is?  Where it comes from?  What do the contestants do after this event?  Or more importantly, what do their bowels do?  I noticed while vying for a spot near Nathan’s that an original hot dog (bun included) has 297 calories, and  assumed that’s what they’d be eating.  And then the contest was under way!

2 Hotdogs: 594 calories

5 Hotdogs: 1485 calories

11Hotdogs: 3267 calories

Ok so my math wasn’t good enough to go to far past 11, but we’ve already surpassed the average daily diet in only 1 minute.  What happened next was even more disturbing than the actual count, was that people started chanting USA! USA!  That’s right folks the reigning champ from the land of the obese was followed closely by Kobayashi from Japan.  USA!  Are these people serious!?  Are they thinking of the irony, we’re dying from this shit, but hell we’re good at it!  I’d be confused if a Japanese guy with a 6-pack won.  But, come to think of it, the reigning champs body comp doesn’t seem too bad either, so what’s the deal?  Well, who knows and I don’t have the desire to perform some heavy research to find out.  In the end Joey Chestnut of the U.S.A.! (which set everyone into cheers) won by consuming 68 hotdogs in 10 minutes to set a new world record.  Lets look at the nutritional facts of that “meal” shall we:

Joey Chestnut

Nathan’s Famous Beef Hotdog:

Calories = 297 x 68 = 20,196

Calories from fat= 164 x 68 = 11,152

Fat (g)=18 x 68 = 1,224

Sat. Fat (g) = 7 x 68 = 476

Trans Fat (g) = .5 x 68 =  34

Cholesterol (mg) = 34 x 68 = 2,312

Sodium (mg) = 692 x 68 = 47,056

Carbs (g) = 24 x 68 = 1,632

Fiber (g) = .75 x 68 = 51

Sugar (g) = 4 x 68 = 272

Protein (g) = 11 x 68 = 748

Calcium = 8 x 68 = 544

Iron = 2 x 68 = 136

748g of protein sweet!  He’s probably ripped — that’s like 21 Muscle Milks!  But, seriously 20,196 calories, that’s about what I eat in a week, maybe more.  What happens to these guys after the trophies are handed out?!?!!

On the way home from Coney Island I ran into a friend who had just got out of a screening of Food Inc. I couldn’t believe the irony, and how righteous is that!?  On the 4th of July, instead of eating chips, soda, beer, and a shit-ton of other processed foods or watching others this guy put him self in a movie theater on a nice summer evening to learn about the horrors of the food industry and probably why you shouldn’t consume hot dogs.  Check out the trailer:

I can’t wait to see this.  As you may have noticed from the trailer Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser are both in the movie, two of my favorite authors.  Read their books:

Read This

And This.

I’ll be back soon with my review.

When Dr. John Berardi dropped me an line the other day,telling me all about his new program, I thought for a second the guy had lost his mind.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I respect Dr Berardi.  He’s recognized as one of the top nutrition coaches in the world.  And his programs get people results.  Fast.

However, when I watched this video he sent over, and learned that he’s giving away $20,000 of his own money, he definitely got my attention.

Check out this blog post for yourself.

Now, to qualify for this reward, you have to participate in the Lean Eating program.  But that’s a no brainer. You should want to do that ANYWAY if you’re interested in body
transformation because there is nothing else like it.

You get 6 months of world class coaching, the type of coaching you can’t find, well, anywhere.  And, during these 6 months, if you achieve the best body transformation, you’ll win 10K.

Worst case scenario, you come out with the best body of your life.  Best case scenario, you come out with the best body of your life, and 10 GRAND.

So, I highly encourage you to check out this post below.  In it, Dr Berardi shares with you two critical components for body transformation success.

And then he tells you exactly how one man and one woman are going to swoop in and claim $10 G’s of his own money.

Now, this message is time sensitive.  No, it’s not gonna self-destruct or anything. However, spots are limited in this program.  And LOTS of people want in.

So, if you’re interested in finding out exactly how to eat toget in the best shape of your life, click here.  10grand may be waiting for you on the other side: