Stuffed Mushrooms:

•  24 large button mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed, reserving stems

• 2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped

• 1/4 cup celery, finely chopped

• 1/4 cup unsalted organic butter

• 2 cups bread crumbs (whole wheat)

• Juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)

• 2 tablespoons dry sherry (or substitute apple juice)

• 2 teaspoons dried parsley

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Arrange mushrooms, cavity facing upwards, on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Set aside.  Finely chop the reserved mushroom stems. Heat a small frying pan over medium heat; melt butter and sauté the mushroom stems, onion, and celery until soft, about 3 minutes.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine breadcrumbs, lemon juice, sherry, parsley, garlic powder, salt, basil, oregano, pepper, and 1/2 cup Parmesan. Mix well. Add sautéed vegetables and mix well to combine.

 4. Using a small spoon, stuff the prepared mushrooms. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until stuffing starts to brown.  Remove mushrooms from the oven and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.  Turn the oven to broil and return the mushrooms to the oven, until the cheese has browned nicely.

 Serve warm from the oven. Makes 24.

Herbed Tomato Cheese Spread:

• 1-cup low-fat cream cheese

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tablespoon freshly snipped or frozen chives

• 1 tablespoon snipped dill or seasoning

• 4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

 Directions: In a medium bowl, combine cheese, garlic, chives, and dill. Add tomatoes and mix well. Good as a spread for Triscuits or whole grain crackers.

Lemon-Garlic Marinated Shrimp:

• 3 tablespoons minced garlic

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• ¼ cup lemon juice

• ¼ cup minced fresh parsley

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon pepper

• 1 ¼ pounds cooked shrimp

 Directions: Place garlic and oil in a small skillet and cook over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add lemon juice, parsley, salt, and pepper. Toss with shrimp in a large bowl. Chill until ready to serve.

 Serves 12. Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for up to 2 hours.

Have fun, be responsible, and go Giants!

Chad smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, speaker, and Author of “Best Of Fitness Answer Man: Volume One”, a published collection of 43 of his best Herald Mail newspaper column.

"Mmmm, donuts and diabetes...y'all"

This week, TV “Chef” Paula Deen announced that she has been a diabetic for over 3 years, all the while cooking high-calorie, sugar and butter-laden dishes on her popular Food Network show “Paula’s Best Dishes”. Why did she wait so long to make this public?

Pay attention…

She has just  begun a lucrative parnership with a pharmaceutical company, promoting diabetes drugs. Is it just me, or is this reeeeeal ly convenient that she announces this, starts selling diabetes drugs, yet continues to cook the unhealthiest food on the planet?

Here are some her greatest hit:

• Deep Fried Cheese Cake
• Lady’s brunch Burger (bacon cheeseburger with egg, placed between 2 glazed donuts)
• Broccoli Salad (made with 8 slices of bacon, a cup of mayo, 8 oz cheese, and a quarter cup of sugar)
• Twinkie Pie
• Cheesy ham and banana cassarole (a nasty combination of ham, bananas, bacon, cheese, and potato chips between layers of white bread)

Last year she declared butter is still her “must-have” ingredient and her favorite kitchen gadget is a deep-fryer. In fact, she urged other cooks out there who might be remodeling their kitchens to have a deep-fryer installed while they’re at it.  Also last year, her “Paula Deen‘s Southern Cooking Bible” was named one of the Five Worst Cookbooks of 2011 by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The group reserved special mention for her hot buffalo wings — 910 calories and 85 grams of fat in a single serving — and noted that diets heavy in meat raise the risk of obesity.

And obesity, as we know, is a prime risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.

When she announced her condition on the “Today” show Tuesday, Deen explained she kept the diagnosis quiet because she needed time to “figure out things in my own head.”

100% BS

She needed to figure how to spin the info into $$$, pure and simple. Paula Deen is not responsible for her audience’s eating habits, however, she does have a responsibility to BE responsible with her product. This is especially true considering she is diabetic, and has been hiding it for 3 years!

She also has a responsibility to the Southern people she represents. Southern states are the fattest, and least healthy of all the states in the union, and if what she cooks truly is “Southern Food”, I understand why.

Ultimately, we all choose our own nutrition paths. Paula Deen can cook whatever she wants, and you can eat what you want. However, when you have a platform of influence the size and reach of Deen’s, you must bear responsibility for what you put out to the universe. Hiding a diabetic condition when you could easily be a force for change, and selling medication over lifestyle change  is disingenuous, and gets you put in the same fraud file as Jillian Michaels and the people who created the “Shake Weight”.

Day one: *Dumbell Thrusters/Kettlebell swings* Use a dumbbell if no kettlebell is available

Day two: *Jump rope/Medicine Ball slams*

Day three: *Alternating Side Dumbell Lunge with Overhead Press/Single Leg Alternating Dumbell Row

Day four: High Knees/ Skaters

Add these finishers to the end of your workouts for the last 4 days of 2012, and you’ll have a great lead in to 2012!

Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, fitness columnist, radio show host, and speaker whose “Metabolic Mayhem” fitness training program was called “One of The Best in The Country” by Emmy Award winning fitness celebrity Rocco Castellano. Find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness, or listen to him weekdays at 12pm est on his FTNS radio show “Jump Start With Chad and Kat” on http://www.ftns.co

1. Keep the drinking to a minimum. There are few benefits to alcohol consumption, and non to weekend binging. Keep it to less than 3 per night, and you’ll do minimal damage to your fitness efforts. And if you aren’t already, drink lots of water all day, and between drinks to stay hydrated, and to minimize the buildup of alcohol in your bloddstream.
2. Skip the chips. Party food is the worse! Remember your first priorities are PROTEIN and PRODUCE. Fill up on non-breaded meat and vegetable items, then eat the other stuff. Your waistline will thank you for it.
3. Rest up! Try to get an extra hour or 2 of sleep at night to help your body deal with the added holiday stress. Stress causes fat storage hormones to increase, and noone needs that. Sleep more, dream it all away!
4. Try something new. Train differently than what you normally would. Breaking up the monotany of your usual regimine will remotivate you, plus may produce better results than what you’ve seen for a while.
5. Invite friends to workout with you. Get someone to the gym with you, you’ll not only help start someone on the fitness path, according to research, you’ll also turbo boost your results. Buddy up, and good stuff happens.

What do you think? Got any other ideas for finishing strong in 2011? Leave your comments below!

Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, fitness columnist, radio show host, and speaker whose “Metabolic Mayhem” fitness training program was called “One of The Best in The Country” by Emmy Award winning fitness celebrity Rocco Castellano. Find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness, or listen to him weekdays at 12pm est on his FTNS radio show “Jump Start With Chad and Kat” on http://www.ftns.co

Let's Get It On!!!

I got an interesting comment from a fellow fitness pro in my area, Lee Daugherty in regard to my post “Why I Hate CrossFit”. It was a pretty long comment, so instead of making an equally long response to his points. I posted it right here, so you could read, and leave your comments. Was my  ”Why I Hate CrossFit” post unfair and unfounded? Or is my opponent failing to see the truth? You decide. Read on!

He begins:

“I almost always agree with your advice to folks trying to get fit, but as a CrossFit certified trainer , I had to respond to this post. Here’s my rebuttal:”

  1)The “certification” program: Most fitness instructors I know have attended 2-day training programs at some point in their career. This type of training is common practice in virtually all industries, let alone the fitness industry. Unless you’ve attended the cert. (have you?), I’m not sure how you can criticize. Would you also explain what impact the cost of the program has on it’s validity? 

Lee, as I’ve been a fitness trainer with multiple certifications for close to 2 decades now, I am perfectly qualified to criticize a certification program as I see them described on the organization’s website, and based on descriptions from certified individuals. 2 day personal training certifications are ridiculous enough, without the terrible anti-science of CrossFit.  I’ve taught certification courses, and I can tell you, as many other experts will tell you, the curriculum in relation to the actual “system “ is subpar. A 2 day course is NOT sufficient to be set free in the world to conduct ANY high level training session. Let’s not even talk about Olympic lifting. The impact of cost on validity is simple. For the $1000 someone spends on a CrossFit cert, a more respected, and globally recognized certification, or two, can be enrolled in. For example an NASM, or ACE, or NSPA certification, can all be purchased for under $1000. The student will learn the science based foundations of training, and be prepared. To design safe, and effective fitness programs.

 2)Lack of programming logic: See New Rule #9 from Alwyn Cosgrove’s New Rules of lifting (Everything Works, Nothing Works Forever). As far as mastery of exercises, practicing the lifts is built into each CrossFit workout, and workouts are scaled to accomodate all fitness levels. Speed is not added until a person is proficient in the lift(s).

Lee, don’t bastardize Alwyn’s brilliance trying to justify the lack of programming logic. Learning exercise technique is meaningless if it isn’t married to a well-designed systemized training SYSTEM.  If you are going to use Mr. Cosgrove as a justification tool, don’t forget to mention that he is considered to be THE authority in the art and science of program design. If the CrossFit method were a legitimate method for the masses, he’d be doing it. However, he is not. In fact, he is quoted as saying this about CrossFit in T-Mag “This type of all over the place programming can be dangerous…”. He went on to say: “A recent CrossFit workout was 30 reps of snatches with 135 pounds. A snatch is an explosive exercise designed to train power development. Thirty reps is endurance. You don’t use an explosive exercise to train endurance; there are more effective and safer choices.

“Another one was 30 muscle-ups. And if you can’t do muscle-ups, do 120 pull-ups and 120 dips. It’s just random; it makes no sense. Two days later the program was five sets of five in the push jerk with max loads. That’s not looking too healthy for the shoulder joint if you just did 120 dips 48 hours ago.”

  I’m just sayin. Innovation is good if it moves science forward. CrossFit completely ignores science, and dares you to say anything about it. Strength and conditioning expert Charles Poliquin had this to say about CrossFit: “

3)Elite Snobbery: Not sure what to say to that, except as your blog post reads it’s like the pot calling the kettle black. As it relates to the topic of specificity, there is a reason why the military, law enforcement and emergency services communities have gravitated to the CrossFit model – the lack of specificity in the programming. Specialists are typically good at one thing, but in real world situations, being a specialist could have life or death consequences. Military and emergency services professionals may be called upon at any moment to perform any combination of the ten physical skills. Failure to be proficient in any one could be devastating.

Ok, the people you just mentioned who have chosen CrossFit because it has a pumped up, macho image, not because it is PROVEN to be superior to any other training system on the planet. To assume that is crazy. Many top level fit pros like JC Santana have also served these groups with more sensible programming. I dare you to examine JC’s programming, and call it inferior to CrossFit. I know you are smarter than that, Lee. Heck, I’m no JC Santana, but I’ve also trained military, police, and EMT personnel, and they have all seen massive improvements in their performance without CrossFit. This is my exact point about CrossFit. Too many CrossFitters beat their chests, and act like they know something no one else knows, and are somehow “elite” because they can excel at a poorly designed workout. As far as your “calling the kettle black” comment, at no point do I ever claim to be the end all be all world’s greatest trainer, and if you aren’t training in my system, yours is crap. You know me, Lee, I’m shocked you would even put that kind of personal attack out there. You did, however, prove my point.

4)Denial of risk of injury: See New Rule #12 (fast lifting is not more dangerous than slow lifting)from Alwyn Cosgroves’ the New Rules of Lifting. The ability to sustain movement in a fatigued state is an identifier of fitness capacity. Certainly no one is endorsing an unsafe training program, but people must explore the boundaries of their fitness capacity if they want to elicit a training response. An Olympic lifter’s goal is to perform one rep max lifts in the games, therefore they are specialists and have no need to train any other way. To say that the Olympic lifts should not be utilized as a training tool in other ways is shortsighted. A friend of mine recently broke her toe taking a ballet fitness class. I guess there is no room for sloppy in that class either.

Once again, Lee, you take Alwyns words out of context. He wasn’t speaking about Olympic lifting when he made this rule. Fast lifting isn’t more dangerous than slow lifting IF the exercise in question is a stable, low tech exercise like a bench press. Do repeated sets of loaded, barbell snatches for reps, and technique WILL breakdown, putting your trainee at high risk of injury. It’s a fact, and you know this, you aren’t new, Lee. In fact, the one and only Mike Boyle had this to say : “I think high-rep Olympic lifting is dangerous. Be careful with CrossFit.”. Once again, it’s not just me saying this, it’s high level, respected strength coaches around the nation who are saying this as well. Strength and conditioning legend Charles Poliquin said: “If you try to do everything in your workout, you get nothing. CrossFit is different, and maybe even fun for some people, but it’s not very effective. No athlete has ever gotten good training like that.”. finally, are you really comparing ballet to CrossFit?!? You are really reaching, Lee. It seems as if you haven’t read my post in its entirety . The evidence behind my statements is solid, and you haven’t helped Crossfit’s case at all with the nonsense in your rebuttal.

5)The guy who started it all: Greg Glassman is a former gymnast who suffered an injury years ago. Unfortunately this injury has impacted his ability to perform exercise as he prescribes. Vince Lombardi didn’t suit up and take the field with his team on Sundays, so does that mean he wasn’t a great coach? You’re using broad brushstrokes to paint an unfavorable image of CrossFit and it’s founder, very surprising to me given the normally positive and enlightening approach you give to most of your writings.

Greg Glassman: “If you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don’t want you in our ranks,” he said in a 2005 New York Times article. Glassman responded to a lawsuit filed by Makimba Mimms, a former Navy CrossFitter who claims he suffered permanent disability from a CrossFit workout, by posting a video of children doing the allegedly dangerous workout, which was sarcastically renamed “Makimba.” (CrossFit and Glassman were not named as defendants  in the suit; Mimms was ultimately awarded $300,000 for his injuries.). Glassman has endorsed the “Pukey the Clown” award given to people who push themselves to point of vomiting, and the “Uncle Rhabdo” character commonly found in CrossFit “boxes”, which represents a real, potentially  life threatening injury caused by overtraining. Lee, tell me where I’ve misunderstood Greg Glassman? Tell me 5 good things about the man. Share one positive thing he has contributed to the fitness industry. By the way, being a former gymnast who got an injury is no excuse to be fat, and out of shape if you are representing a FITNESS PROGRAM! I have had numerous injuries in my wrestling career, including several degraded cervical vertebrae, a surgically repaired torn pectoral, and low back injuries. Know what? I’m 37, and regularly maintain less than 10% bodyfat, and I’m as strong as ever. An expert fitness trainer knows how to work around injuries to ensure the represent their product at all times.

Lee, I respect your knowledge, and what you’re doing to help improve the condition of our community. However, in this instance, I feel you are completely without a leg to stand on. The science of training flatly supports my stance on the CrossFit method, and as for it’s founder, well, his words and actions speak for themselves.   I truly belive the concept behind CrossFit is legit, the but it’s the method behind the concept that is extremely flawed. However, if someone likes the activity in the CrossFit method, more power to them. Any physical activity is better than none!

BTW, this is the absolute last time I blog about Crossfit. Comments can be left below, and I will gladly speak to anyone wanting to discuss this topic more. But there will be no more full posts dedicated to the topic. As much as I still want to, lol…

Thanks for commenting Lee, I definitely look forward to talking to you more about this in the future!

Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, fitness columnist, radio show host, and speaker whose “Metabolic Mayhem” fitness training program was called “One of The Best in The Country” by Emmy Award winning fitness celebrity Rocco Castellano. Find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness, or listen to him weekdays at 12pm est on his FTNS radio show “Jump Start With Chad and Kat” on http://www.ftns.co