Supplement Coach

Last week I was in Miami (like I have the time, eh? lol) doing filming for the credible online supplement and nutrition site: http://www.supplementcoach.com/

I was asked to come down there along with Jose Antonio, PhD, Jeff Stout, PhD, Dr Hector Lopez, MD, Doug Kalman, PhD, Juan-Carlos Santana, CSCS, and world-class distance athlete Sonya Friend-Uhl, CSCS, to interview about various supplements and dietary practices used by athletes and non-athletes alike, such as creatine, caffeine, fish oil, low-carb diets, and beta-alanine.

The site supplementcoach.com was started by Melinda Mergen who had a dream and made it a reality. She wanted to help people obtain factual, scientific-based information about supplements and nutiriton without having to sift through hundreds of different books or weeding through some of the misinformation that is taking over the internet. So, she put together an easy to understand vehicle with which people could get this information without having to worry it was incorrect or a scam. The format it is presented is unique too: video files that have experts talking about the supplement or dietary practice. This makes it very easy to understand for those who don't want to always read tiny letters on a website.

Melinda is not only a smart business woman, but is very passionate and caring about what she's doing. She is truely dedicated to helping people understand supplements and diets so that they don't buy into something they don't need, or worse, take something that might harm them.

Melinda is also one of the most beautiful women I've met, both inside and out. As a model and a genuine caring person, she's one of the people that makes our world a more special place. I'm glad she asked me to join supplementcoach.com and I look forward to contributing more in the future.

In health, Cassandra

Now, back to my PhD!

No excuses to miss a workout

My life is pretty crazy (hence the long days between posts). Not only am I doing my PhD project in just a few short weeks, I'm doing edits for the new book I wrote, supervising a diet trial for the new book, doing assays in the lab for other research projects, writing for other websites, peer-reviewing papers for journals, writing questions for a new sports nutrition text book, etc etc, ALL while managing my own home, working out every day, attempting to plan a wedding and trying to not ignore my fiance Justin. Oh, and let's not forget getting at least 7 solid hours of sleep a night; any less and I feel really bad.

So, due to all this craziness, I have to make shortcuts wherever I can. First, I have about a 40 minute commute to work (the University) each way. On that drive, I get in most of my phone calls to friends, family and whatever else is going on.

Then, to ensure I eat well all day long, I cook large batches of food at one time, eat almost the same thing everyday and bring all my food with me wherever I go. This saves me from running to a cafeteria and being forced to choose something that just doesn't fit into any woman's (or man's) diet.

Finally, most importantly, I make sure I'm ready and able to exercise at all times. Luckily, I can wear running shoes and workout clothes to my job. So, like right now, I'm dressed in my workout shorts, a tank top and a pair of crosstrainers that can be used either for running or lifting (I really don't run that much, but I do run stairs at the football stadium or do sprints on the track). This way, when I get a free hour from the labwork at the University, I can walk over to the gym or the track and get a workout in. Or, if I don't want to workout at the U, I can hit my other gym on my way home from work.

Now, since not everyone has the luxury of wearing workout clothes all day long, you can always keep your gym bag with clothes and running shoes in your car, or carry your gym bag with you to work, if you take the train. This way you have no excuse to miss a workout because you've got everything with you.

Exercise is one of the most important ways (aside from good food choices) to keep your body weight steady, to keep your energy levels high, to help you sleep better at night and to make you feel good all over from head to toe. Don't rely on anyone else to workout for you. Make it your priority to get exercise in your life at least 30 minutes each day, everyday. If you have a workout partner, great, but don't let that make or break your date with exercise. Also, if you feel you need a trainer to spark new motivation in your workouts, suck it up and dish out the cash for someone to show you new moves for a few weeks. Trust me, it's worth it.

So, in summary, to make sure you never have an excuse to miss an opportunity to workout:
1. Keep gym clothes and shoes with you at all times
2. Even better, wear your gym clothes to work
3. Have two gym memberships in different areas so you can make it to the gym no matter where you are
4. Don't skip the gym just because your workout partner can't make it
5. Hire a personal trainer, or seek someone to design a new workout for you if you feel bored with your current routine

If any of you have other ideas, please share it in the comments. We can all benefit from other's experiences.

From one workout nut to another.

Cass

More about role models

Last year I blogged about how atrocious some of the women on magazine covers look these days. Basically, I went off on a tantrum about the fact that the women who are "supposed to be" our role models, look nothing like any woman could possible appear naturally. It's ridiculous how thin some of these women seem - making it no wonder why women are overly critical about their physiques.

Well, a few days back, my co-author Lou Schuler posted a link about how Redbook drastically altered a photo of the beautiful Miss Faith Hill because they felt her almost 40 year old wrinkles, her wee-bit of loose skin, and normal sized arms were unapproapriate for a cover picture.

Please have a look at the link here and you'll be just as disgusted at how some people think women should look, just to be on a cover of a magazine. If the change in the size of Faith's arms is not enough to make you want to vomit, watch for her shrinking hips and disappearing smile lines.

If gorgeous Faith Hill isn't good enough the way she is to be on the cover of Redbook the way she is, you wonder who the heck really is?

Creatine for Women

Today T-nation's counterpart, musclewithattitude published an article I wrote with my friend Jen Heath about creatine use for women.

Check it out here

Enjoy!

2007 is the year for Fat Loss

If you're looking to make 2007 the year in which you succeed at Fat Loss, then you need to tune your MP3 to this amazing resource created by Jen Heath:

Fat Loss Pros

I was recently recruited (along with noted fat-loss experts such as Chad Waterbury, Dr. Lonnie Lowery, Craig Ballantyne, Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale, Alwyn Cosgrove, Charles Staley, and several others) to provide my BEST thinking on real-World, practical fat-loss for a comprehensive 15-hour downloadable MP3 interview collection.

In addition to the staggering 15 hours worth of fat-loss secrets from the top dogs in the industry, the package also includes a ton of bonus materials from all the experts involved.

My bottom line for you is this: if you can’t get crazy-lean with the tips, tricks, strategies, insights, diet plans, and inspiration you’ll find in this expert interview compilation, it’s just never gonna happen for you!

It all comes down to a simple question- are you serious?

If so, get your own copy of Fat Loss Pros and make 2007 the year you get freaky lean.

Click Here

Bike Specs

I didn't think I'd get asked this, but Robin had asked me to post some specs about my great new bike.

You can go to the Specialized website and get all the details here

I'll also list information about the bike right below:

Name: Specialized Crossroads Sport Women's

Features:

-A1 Premium Aluminum Low Entry "U-Frame" design, Ground Control Geometry 700c comfort frame
-SR suspension fork
-Body Geometry Comfort grips, triple density gel
-Tektro alloy 3 finger brake lever, Kraton contact area, for twist shifter
-Wellgo platform pedals
-Specialized Super Comfort Plush saddle w/ springs and an alloy suspension seatpost (this is the best part... springs in my butt!)

REAR BRAKE
Tektro "V" w/ linear spring
BRAKE LEVERS
Tektro Wmns alloy 3 finger lever, Kraton contact area, for twist shifter
FRONT DERAILLEUR
Shimano C-102, 31.8 clamp
REAR DERAILLEUR
Shimano Acera
SHIFT LEVERS
Shimano RS-41 Revo Twist
CASSETTE / FREEWHEEL
Shimano HG-40, 8-speed, 11-32t

Biking to the gym

Don't you think it's a little funny that a person would bike to the gym?

I do.

So, today, instead of getting in my car and driving to the gym to just do cardio, I road my bike. Now, it normally takes me about 15 minutes to drive there, but today on my bike, it took 45.

The day was gorgeous, the air was fresh (albeight a bit humid) and the sun was shining.

Since I have a bad back which makes it very painful to ride a bike, I finally located a bike that works for my mechanics. This made my ride much more enjoyable then the year prior when I would get off my $1300 road bike and want to just die from the pain. Now, I've got myself a granny bike (as some people call it) which sits me upright and makes my back very happy. It also gives my legs and butt a killer workout because the angle at which I sit is almost like stepping up on a stair rather than rolling my thigh back on a normal bike.

Pictured is my beauty bike. If you have a bad back, like I, I encourage you to check one out. It's the Specialized Crosstrails and it makes riding to gym a great and pain-free workout.

The next time you have the option to bike to the gym instead of driving you should. It made my whole day a lot better and my workout a lot longer.