"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

The target...

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning brand that integrates multiple training disciplines into high intensity. CrossFit contends that a healthy, fit person requires proficiency in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and acuracy. It defines fitness as increased work capacity, and the training circuits are usually done for completion in the shortest amount of time. Now, on paper this sounds great. But as the old saying goes “the Devil is in the details”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we can find fault with most anyone’s training methods (except anything Alwyn Cosgrove writes), even if they are firmly rooted in solid exercise science. The CrossFit method is special in that the fallacies don’t just lie in the programming, but also in the brand as a whole. How I hate thee, let me count the ways…

Trust me! No,no, no, our certification is COMPLETLY legit...

1. The “certification” program – The Level 1 CrossFit trainer certification program is a 2 day course, and according to the official CrossFit website “is an introductory course on CrossFit’s methodology, concepts, and movements”. There are no pre-requisites to take this course, and when you pass your 50 question test at the end of the course (which is $1000 BTW), you are a brand spanking new certified CrossFit trainer! Fork over another $2k, and you can become an official CrossFit affiliate, ready to open your own “box” as they call their Crossfit gyms. So after a 2 day course, you are ready to teach each of the ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and acuracy? Ridiculous to even assume. 2 Day courses in general are a blight on the fitness industry, so to send people into the world and entrusting your brand, and the safety of people seeking fitness into the hands of an inexperienced person holding a 2 day certification is irresponsible and downright stupid.

It doesn't add up!!! Ahhh, do it anyway...

2. Lack of programming logic - The CrossFit programs come in the form of the “WOD”, or workout of the day. These come for the CrossFit HQ or from whatever CrossFit gym you may be attending. The workouts don’t emphasize balanced training, often appearing random with no rhyme or reason for the exercise selection, or number of reps assigned.

For instance, Monday, WOD may be the “Murph”:

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Then the Wednesday WOD may be  the “Grace”:

For time:
135 pound Clean and Jerk, 30 reps

Then Friday’s WOD might be “Random-ass workout A2″ (not official name):

Set a cone at 20 meters. Five rounds for time of:
185 pound barbell Overhead walk, 40 meters
30 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball
95 pound barbells Farmer carry, 40 meters

What?!? This makes about as much sense as Kim Kardashian getting married. This kind of random assery being promoted as the “world’s greatest fitness system” is a slap in the face to industry legends like JC Santana, Alwyn Cosgrove, Roberto Dos Remedios, Lou Schuller, Douglas Brookes, and others like them who have made safe, progressive, and effective program design a thing of beauty, and bastardizes the artful blend of solid science and real world application. Ugggh…without a plan of steady progression, how are we really supposed to master any given exercise or method? I guess CrossFit knows something everyone else doesn’t. Which leads me into…

Pffft...you and your specificity. Mediocrity is the the new elite...

3. Elite snobbery – Despite the fact that the fitness industry  has been effectively using HIIT (high intensity interval training) for many, many years before Crossfit was born, many people in the CrossFit community act like they invented it. Some guys busts his ass manage to master a terribly designed fitness program, and walks around like he is the fittest man on the planet who none can question? Not so much. The fact is that CrossFitters are typically good at only one thing. CrossFit. With the lack specificity, the programming doesn’t lend itself well to much else. So working out pretty much becomes your sport. Now I don’t doubt that CrossFitters are strong, and are probably pretty decent athletes. But let’s be real. Outside of Crossfit Games, among the real elite, speficity training rules the day. Most of the so called”elite” I’ve seen in CrossFit were already strong athletes in one sport or another, so it only makes sense that they would do well, even with this faulty method. I would put any of the top known strength and conditioning specialists in the country’s programming against the CrossFit programming, and i guarantee the athlete in question would outperform any “Elite” CrossFitter.

I don't hear you...I don't hear you...

4. Denial of risk of injury - This is the biggest thing I have a problem with. Combine repetitive explosive movement with randomly selected set/rep/time/exercise schemes and what do you get? A recipe for disaster in my estimation. Olympic lifting has no place in timed endurance circuits due to the amount of technical proficiency required for the lifts themselves. The CrossFit workouts are extremely taxing, dangerously so. Executing Olympic lifts while in a fatigued state is a force multiplier to that danger. When you get tired, you get sloppy, and with a loaded bar above your head, there is no room for sloppy. Olympic lifters who do it full time only do the lift one rep at a a time…I’m just saying. I’ve heard so many hardcore CrossFitters say their method is no more dangerous than any other method cuurently being used. Pretty much every non-CrossFit fitness expert on the planet who has objectively reviewed the CrossFit method disagrees.

CrossFit creator Greg Glassman and the infamous "Pukey The Cown" T-Shirt

5. The guy who started it all - The man behind the madness is a former gymnast and CrossFit creator Greg Glassman. You would think that someone who claims to have created the ultimate fitness method who kind of look the part. He should have otherworldly work capacity, and be strong as an ox. Right? Not so much. Seeing Greg Glassman and his lack of  a physique is the ironies af all ironies. For all the “survival of the fittest” rhetoric he spouts, shouldn’t you be a product of your product? Rumor has it, Glassman doesn’t even DO CrossFit workouts anymore. He has visciously attacked critics of his methodology, and has dismissed popular figures in his company for daring to disagree with him. He hasn’t demonstrated an ability to make friends and influence people within the industry, and doesn’t even seem to be well regarded within his OWN affiliate network. I’ve tried and tried to find something redeemable in this character. Save for appreciation for creating the CrossFit method, noone seems to have anything good to say about Mr. Glassman. I’e read interviews he’s done in the past, and he comes across to me as an arrogant, self serving, faux Messiah sent here by God to spread the gospel of CrossFit to the strong among us. Anyone who wants to convince you that their way is THE way this badly has something to sell…it’s true.

All and all, the concept of CrossFit is good. Being able to perform well across the board, being truly fit is something I believe in. The execution of this concept  within the CrossFit brand is poor at best, downright dangerous  at worse. that being said, come back in a few days, and I’ll show you how to do CrossFit the right way, get into killer shape, and make yourself a fitness machine without the risk!

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

One of the most common excuses for not exercising is a lack of time. Oh come on! Usually “I don’t have time” really means “I am not willing to rearrange my life to get healthier”. Time is a precious commodity and with the fast-paced, urgent world we live in, most people push their needs — including exercise — to the bottom of their to do lists. But you have to, HAVE TO, create time for exercise. It CAN be done. Here are 10 ways to make it happen TODAY…

10 Tips to Make Time for Exercise:

1. Make an appointment – Schedule activity in your planner 1 month in advance and keep that commitment the same way you would any other meeting. When you go to schedule other activities, do so around your workout session. If it’s necessary to cancel a workout session, reschedule it immediately for another time during the day or for the very next day.

2. Plan Ahead - Cook on Sunday night for the week. This way, you can head to the gym after work and still come home to a healthy cooked meal. This will help you stay on track for your meal plan as well as your exercise schedule. For best results, both your meals and activities need to be planned for and should not be left to chance.

3. Workout at Lunch – A workout break will refresh you for the second half of the day and is known to boost brain power. You will be more productive after recharging your body with exercise than working through your lunch and eating at your desk. Live with no regrets!

4. Get Support – Let your significant other know your exercise schedule ahead of time, so there are no conflicts or guilt when it comes time for working out. Inform your employer of your goals and ask for some flexibility in your schedule. For example, come in later and work later, so that you can get in your morning run.

5. Stick to Your Schedule - Set you watch or palm pilot to go off when it’s time to exercise. Then stop what you are doing and take 30+ minutes to exercise. You will be more productive finishing up tasks after you worked out versus trying to work through a situation knowing you did not keep your commitment to yourself.

6. Make an Investment – Consider signing on with a personal trainer, joining a gym or purchasing home gym equipment. Making an investment is likely to help you make a time commitment. Knowing that you have a trainer waiting for you will increase your chances of showing up. Signing up for an online personal trainer and comprehensive fitness program can do the same.

7. Always be Dressed to Move – You never know when the opportunity will arise to go for a walk or hit the gym. Keep your sneakers in your car at all times, lay out your workout clothes or pack your gym bag the night before. Eliminate excuses and always be prepared for opportunities to exercise.

8. Engage in Intermittent Sessions – Take several 10-15 minute walking breaks throughout the day. By days end, you could have completed 60 minutes of cardiovascular activity, and the health benefits are the same as continuous exercise.

9. Eliminate Time Wasters - Take a look at your 24-hour schedule and see where you can eliminate some time wasters. Can you multi-task, be more efficient or watch less TV? You only need to dedicate 2 percent of your week to exercise. You are worth it!

10. Set Yourself up for Success – Get up 30 minutes earlier — then you don’t have to make excuses for the rest of the day. Morning exercisers have the highest compliance rates, as do those who exercise with a partner.

No more excuses! Get to the gym, and move that ball forward. Did I miss anything? Tell me how YOU make time for exercise!

We're taking forks over knives...

This is probably my favorite line from the documentary “Forks Over Knives” which focuses on the life work of the above mentioned Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and Dr. T. Colin Campbell. These two doctors have dedicated their lives to cracking the code of modern disease by asking the question “can food REALLY be thine medicine?”. I believe the answer is a resounding YES. While I’m not sure I’m ready for a meat free diet, a mostly plant based diet is inarguably the best way to make yourself a health juggernaut, with an iron-clad, disease resistant immune system.

Checkout the trailer:

The information presented in this documentary is compelling and even alarming. More and more, experts and researchers are presenting overwhelming evidence that flies in the face of the nutritional status quo in western culture. The erroneous school of thought that eating refined grains and meat all day has to give way to modern science if we are going to stop the cycle of sickness and disease that has gripped our population.

Here are some quick bites from the film:

1. In the past 3 decades, over 40% of the United States has become obese, and about half of us are on some sort of prescription medication

2. Americans spend roughly $2.2 trillion on healthcare. That’s nearlt 5x the national defense budget!

3. Cancer and heart disease kills over one million Americans per year

4. Only about 1-2% of cancers are related to genes

5. Refined, unnaturally calorie dense foods cause rapid weight gain because they cause you to eat more just to feel satisfied

6. Sugary, fatty foods stimulate the brain’s pleasure centers much like cocaine does

7. In long term studies, people who switched to a vegan, plant based diet saw general health improvement within days, and disease reversal within weeks

I’m hoping to have a few of the figures from the film on our FTNS radio show “Jump Start With Chad and Kat”, which airs Monday – Friday at 12pm est on http://www.ftns.co. Stay tuned for updates!

Have you seen the film? What are your thoughts? Leave your comments below!