It has occured to me that I've been rather lazy updating my diet logs, so here's what I had yesterday, on another relatively low carb, frequent feeding day.

Breakfast:1000mg vitamin c, cage free egg omelete, grapefruit, green tea

The usual preworkout around 9:30, then the usual postworkout at 10:30, check old diet logs if you want details on those

Lunch: Tuna with flax oil, 3 raw cage free eggs

Snack:Half an apple with some raw organic cheese, green tea

Dinner:stir fry(steamed in water) with chicken, snap peas, pineapple, beans, broccoli, and pork. Some cantaloupe and honeydew for dessert.

Before Bed: Raw Milk Protein Shake

Today's going to be a long day, but thankfully the last full day of classes for this semester. Life as a college student is great, but certainly not easy. I do get to have some fun today however, by demonstrating kettlebells in a friend of mine's speech class. She decided to write a paper on how kettlebells have affected her life, and asked me to come in and demonstrate a few techniques, which hopefully I can use this as an opportunity to pick up some new recruits for next semester.

Speaking of next semester, what can you expect? Well, a lot really. This semester was an enormous success, and I couldn't be happier with all of the people that have hopped onto the kettlebell bandwagon. Next semester will be bigger, better on every level. I have a few surprises in store, and I am going to try and organize a few workshops/seminars as well. And perhaps even a benefit or two will be in the works. What better way to raise money for a good cause then to swing some kettlebells?

Well we only have a little over a week left here at West Chester,so those of you that have stuck through it all semester, power to you! Let's finish strong. I will continue to post the WOD throughout summer for those of you who will not be close enough to come to my summer and YMCA classes, so all you have to do is find a bell!

Workout: Ain't nuttin but a peanut

Circuit 1: The Chain- Perform 6 rounds, refer to past wod for explanation on the chain if you are unfamiliar with it

Circuit 2: Grip Test-10 rounds - press relatively lighter for the grip test.

The Kettlebell Swing. A ridiculous looking exercise? Perhaps. But arguably one of the most purposeful and functional in existence. It's always interesting to watch the reactions of people when I show them the kettlebell swing for the first time. Perplexed, unimpressed, and doubtful are all proper adjectives to describe many initial impressions. Those who feel these way are easily diagnosed. The problem? Ignorance. The appropriate solution? A set of ten. A set of ten swings is all it takes to make even the most dubious into firm believers. From perplexed to enlightened. From unimpressed to dumbfounded. And from doubter to advocate. Even the most conditioned are floored by just how quickly a set of swings can bring even the manliest of men to his knees(assuming it's being performed with an appropriate weight, which would be HEAVY). I was one of the dubious in fact once. And the first time I got my ass kicked by a swing ladder, I never looked backed. I could barely walk to next day, and I absolutely loved it.

But the kettlebell swing is much more than it appears. Aside from being one of the best exercises for hacking off fat, developing explosiveness, and increasing both aerobic and anaerobic capacity, there is still more to this simple, yet profound movement. The swing itself, is just as much of a tool as it is an exercise. It serves as a diagnostic, and a corrective measure. The swing exploits and exposes physical weaknesses and imbalances. And if performed properly, can correct such problems. The swing isn't even about the kettlebell. It's about your body, and teaching your body to move properly, and athletically. When you master the swing, you learn proper body alignment when hinging at the hips, and how use the power of your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back to pick up and move objects safely, rather than constantly relying on your quads, or even worse, a rounded back to do so. You also learn how to effectively blend relaxation and tension to increase output. And even more importantly, the swing teaches you how to breath properly when under stress. All of these aforementioned benefits are crucial life skills, than many humans never develop. They keep us safe, strong, and youthful.

What I'm driving at is that even if you were to only perform kettlebell swings, a kettlebell would still be an incredibly worthwhile investment. Just this one single exercise has such an array of benefits, that it would be just plain stupid to not include it into your workout routines. So go out and get your swing on!

This is from yesterday, sorry for the late update!

This was a frequent feeding, low carb day, remember low carb is relative to the individual. This is low carb FOR ME. As you can see im still getting a decent amount of carbs from beans, raw milk, and some veggies, but compared to my higher carb days, this is relatively low and works well for me

Breakfast:4 cage free eggs with veggies and ham, 1 grapefruit, green tea, 1000mg vitamin C

Snack: Raw Milk Protein Shake, Multivitamin

Lunch: Tuna with flax seed oil, 30 almonds

Early Dinner: Crab Legs, Flank Steak, Turkey Breast, Green Tea

Preworkout: 3g arginine, 200mg caffeine

Postworkout:5g creatine hydrochloride, raw milk protein shake with whey and casein

Late Dinner: Salad with chick peas, black beans, chicken, cucumbers, carrots, walnuts, cashews, and olive oil

Before Bed: Glass of Raw Milk

Two a day

Workout 1: Ten sets of Deadlifts. Keep reps at 5 or below, and go HEAVY. rest as much as needed between sets so that you are as fresh as possible.

Workout 2: Vo2 Max

Workout: Whats in the Soup?

Warm Up: 5 rounds, no rest
Swings-30 seconds
Plank-30 seconds

Circuit 1:Perform 4 times, twice on each side
one arm swing-5 reps
high pull-5 reps
snatch-5 reps
clean and jerk-5 reps
Reverse Lunges-5 reps
Rotational Plank-30 seconds each position

Circuit 2: Perform 4 times, twice each side
One Arm Swing-5 reps
Clean and Push Press-5 Reps
Snatch-5 Reps
Windmill-5 reps
Get Up-2 reps
V-Ups-30 seconds

Swing Ladder, building up to 30 reps

Rest Up

With all of the so called health experts out there, the quacks, and even the fanatics, why should you listen to me? What makes my opinion any better or different from theirs? Well you shouldn't just listen to me, you should try to absorb as much knowledge from as many legitimate sources as possible, but I'll tell you why I consider myself one of those legitimate sources.

1.I've Been There: Think about this one for a minute. How many trainers, fitness experts, preachers of health, etc, have actually been fat and in truly poor health, and have made a complete turn around in their life? The answer is not many. And those who have, will always make for the best type of trainer. That's because they can relate. I have been there, and I can relate. For the majority of my adolescent life, I was fat, inactive, and ate pretty much whatever I pleased. I know first hand how difficult it is to turn your life around, and the amount of effort it takes. I realize that it is not easy to change bad habits, and to solidify new ones. But I do know the best ways to go about doing so, and how to change your life for the better. I also know how to make these changes permanent, and how to get people to enjoy fitness and health, rather than dread it. There's an old saying that you can't take people somewhere you haven't been yourself. This is certainly true when it comes to hiring a trainer. If a trainer hasn't hasn't already done what he expects you to do, then why should you ever listen to him? The answer is you shouldn't.

2. I Care: I love what I do, and I genuinely care about wanting to help people. This is because, I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for other people genuinely caring about helping me. For example, after my first year of training in Tae Kwon Do, I was no longer to afford my tuition. My instructor at the time, noticed my dedication and offered to let me work off my tuition, which at the time was somewhere around 300 dollars a month. All he asked in return is that I help instruct, and clean up at the end of every night. His generosity inspired me greatly, because he genuinely seemed to care about my interests and did all he could to help me out, with little to no benefit for himself. I do not do what I do for the money. As many of you know, I'm an accounting and finance dual major(this is how I will be making my living eventually), so personal training and kettlebell instruction is purely a passion of mine. I get great satisfaction from helping other improve the quality of their life and health.

3.Experience- anybody in the world can become a trainer. It's really a joke. All you have to do is find some sort of a "certification", most of which just make you take a written test. Very few even evaluate your actual effectiveness as a trainer. That is why when it comes to selecting a good trainer, you should look at their experience first and foremost. Experience is what will tell you whether or not a trainer is effective, and experience I do have. My experience ranges from martial arts, to kettlebells, to calesthenics, and even olympic lifting. My clientele experience ranges from college level athletes to stay at home moms, and even the elderly. I have worked with all walks of life, and have never met somebody that I couldn't work with. I have spent years of experimenting and researching, trying to find the most effective methods for obtaining optimal health, fitness, and overall well-being. I have done everything from private personal training, to small group instruction, to incredibly large group instruction. I have taught martial arts, and have assisted in numerous seminars and certifications as well, all in addition to teaching and certifying people in my own system. And I have accomplished all of this, at only 20 years of age.

Since I constantly get asked what I eat, I'm going to start logging what I eat during the days. But I stand by what I always tell people when they ask me what I eat, which is just because this works for me, doesn't mean it will work for you. My diet is incredibly complex, and that's because it's tailored specifically to me. It took me years of experimenting to get it how it is now, and I'm still experimenting even to this day.

I'm going to try and give this to you all as delicately as I can. My diet consists of constant cycles. I believe that's how it should be. We as humans, and just about everything else in nature, operates in cycles. Even the economy is cyclical. And I don't just cycle what I eat, but I also cycle when I eat, and how much I eat. I like to keep things as chaotically organized as possible. It sounds like a contradiction but there's truly order to this whole mess.

I'll start with what I eat. Well firstly, I cycle between high carb(complex carbs only, I never do simple carbs) and low carb days. I like to have about 2 to 3 high carb days a week, and 4-5 low carb days a week. This cycle works incredibly well for me, because my body never truly adapts to a low carb diet since I stuff it with carbs every 3 days or so, but I am able to reap the benefits of a low carb diet without the drawbacks. This cycle has allowed me to stay very lean, while putting on muscle and making solid strength gains as well. Also, what might be high and low carb to me, might not be considered high and low carb to others. This is what works for me, and will most likely need to be tweaked from person to person.

Now on my low carb days I typically eat a lot of cage free eggs(raw,hard boiled, etc), lean cuts of meat(chicken,turkey,flank steak), raw milk, lots of nuts and seeds(especially almonds), raw cheeses, canned tuna, lots of fibrous veggies, and perhaps a little fruit(I really like grapefruit)etc. As you can see the carb intake is very low, but I maintain my calories by upping my fats. This puts your body into a fat burning mode, where it will burn fat rather than carbs for energy.

My high carb days feature all of the foods mentioned above, with the addition of oats, sprouted grain bread, barley, black beans, chick peas, kidney beans, some fruit, and lots of veggies etc. Pretty much any complex carb is allowed, except flour. No refined sugars at all.

So when do I eat? Well recently I've been cycling between frequent feedings(eating ever 2-3 hours) and the Warrior Diet(one meal a day). The warrior diet is great for low carb and high carb days, because you fast for up to 16 hours, then consume one huge meal at the end of the day. This takes a lot of getting used to, but once you have adapted to it, you feel really great and energetic during the fasting period, and truly satisfied when you finally get to eat. This is obviously very controversial to a lot of so called nutritionists, yet you can't argue the success so many people have had off this diet. If you really want to learn more about it, then go to the store page of my website, and click on the defense nutrition banner. As for me, I typically switch between frequent feedings and the warrior diet everyday, or every other day. I like to keep my body guessing. This also takes care of the "how much I eat" cycle. Obviously I smaller portions during my frequent feeding days compared to my warrior diet days(where I will consume anywhere from 3000-5000 calories from my one meal). Now also for the warrior diet days, I will sometimes do a very light breakfast(perhaps a few eggs) and I will also have some post workout nutrition as well, but I never have any full meals until nighttime.

Let me give you a few examples, I'll start with what I ate yesterday and go into today.

Yesterday: low carb frequent feeding day

Breakfast:4 cage free egg omelete with broccoli, ham, peppers, onions, and mushrooms.
-1 grapefruit
-green tea
-1000mg vitamin c

Snack: Raw Milk and Protein Shake and 1 multivitamin

Lunch: Bumblebee chunk light tuna with flax seed oil
-30 almonds

Pre-workout:5 grams glutamine, 200mg caffeine, 3grams aginine
-25 grams whey and casein protein

Post-workout:5 grams glutamine, 5 grams creatine hydrochloride, 25 grams whey and casein protein, enzymes

Dinner: Salad with chicken, cashews, walnuts, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, some black beans, and olive oil.

Before Bed-Raw milk and protein shake

Today:high carb, warrior diet day

Upon Waking-1000mg vitamin c, 20 grams whey isolate

noonish-multivitamin, green tea

preworkout-5 grams glutamine, 200mg caffeine, 3 grams micronized arginine

postworkout-around 6pm-30 grams whey and casien protein shake, 5 grams creatine hydrochloride, 5 grams glutamine

Main Meal-1 large salad with chicken, black beans, chick peas, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, cashews, walnuts, and olive oil
-one large bowl of oats made with raw milk, 20 grams whey protein powder, and one large scoop of natural peanut butter
-raw milk and protein shake