Mixed Fitness

I ride my bike to work everyday and I always record my rides in case I’m hit by a car, but I never thought to put any of my footage online. I occasionally come across some interesting things, so I decided that I’d upload it to YouTube and post it here. I’m going with two categories for now – “things that annoy cyclists” and “things that cyclists love.”

I’ve already published a couple of videos recently, but keep an eye out for more in the coming weeks.

But for now, check out some of the cool things I’ve read lately.

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Gelatin/Collagen Really Does Work For Joint Pain!

This study took 147 athletes and studied their use of gelatin over 24 weeks. They found that there were significant improvements in the participants in regards to pain, and they only used about 10 grams per day. I’ve had joint pain for longer than I can remember. It hasn’t been so bad in the last year, but I still want to do what I can to stop it entirely and prevent it from coming back later, which is why I purchased some grass-fed gelatin from Great Lakes. I was using it regularly for a while, but then I just stopped drinking smoothies for some reason. I need to get back into that habit of that.

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Grain Free Breakfast Pizzas

Ooh, now these look tasty. The recipe seems pretty easy too.

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The Kitchn’s Guide to Storing Fruits and Vegetables

Don’t store fruits and vegetables together. Remove ties and rubber bands. Trim leafy ends. Poke holes the bags you store your food in (I don’t use bags at all). Most fruits will ripen on the counter but some will deteriorate. Those are the basics, but this post covers 29+ individual fruits, veggies, and herbs.

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10 Problems Genetically Modified Foods Are Already Causing

GMO’s are killing bees, contaminating non-GMO crops, creating superbugs and “super weeds”, and destroying biodiversity. This article also claims that GMO’s could be increasing suicide rates in India.

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The Most Common FMS Squat Question

The question covered here is “Why is it important to maintain toes forward in a deep squat test on the Functional Movement Screen?” You can listen to the audio for a detailed explanation or just scan the notes below it for a quick run through.

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Crockpot Pulled Pork: 1 Pot, 5 Awesome Meals

I don’t eat pork because I can’t find high quality pork anywhere, but I don’t see why these recipes wouldn’t work with grass-fed beef. I’ll be trying them with beef for sure. Sprouts actually has grass-fed beef roasts on sale this week for $5 per lb. Score!

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The “Dangers” of Going Gluten-Free

Did you know that wheat is fortified with nutrients that our bodies need? If you go paleo, you might not be getting those nutrients unless you are eating a varied diet. Wheat is also a good pre-biotic for our gut bacteria, but we can replace it with fermentable fibers and resistant starches from certain fruits and vegetables.

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Research explains why you can’t remember being a baby (Science Alert)

When we’re babies we form brain cells at a higher rate than at any other time of our lives, because we’re learning so much. New research suggests that all the new neurons that we form as infants could be pushing out established memory circuits.

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Paleo Portion Sizes: How Much Is Just Right?

People are so used to restricting how many calories they eat that they find it hard to believe that calories aren’t as meaningful when they’re on a paleo diet. That doesn’t mean the paleo diet can’t be unhealthy though. You need to eat a variety of foods for optimal nutrition and you certainly shouldn’t gorge yourself everyday.

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Death by Caffeine

This neat little tool will tell you much caffeine it would take to kill you based on your drink of choice (coffee, energy drink, etc.) and your bodyweight. The only caffeine I drink is coffee, so based on my bodyweight (154 lb.), it would take 97.77 cups of coffee to kill me.

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Your Sunscreen Is Really Out of Date. Here’s What Congress Is Doing About It

I’ve never been happy with the ingredients in even the best of sunscreens I can find, but I didn’t realize that it was because I live in the U.S. Sunscreen has evolved so much around the rest of the world. It’s good to see that the FDA approval process is finally being expedited after being stalled for 12 or more years.

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18 Ingredients That Sound Dangerous, But Aren’t

It’s common for people to say that if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t put it in your body, and in many cases that’s probably true, but not all cases. For example, did you know that propylene glycol alginate is simply a powder derived from kelp and algae? Or how about carboxymethyl cellulose, which is derived from the cellulose of plants and trees.

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Google Maps App Will Show Cyclists the Flattest Route

This is a cool Google Maps update. I’ve pretty much ridden all the different routes I can take to and from work so I don’t really need this feature but it would be cool to have if I decide to take a weekend ride up to the mountains. It’s Android-only now so if you have an iPhone, you’ll have to wait.

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This Infographic Shows How to Prevent Bites from Dangerous Animals

If you spend a lot of time outdoors and in the mountains, like many of us here in Colorado, you should probably know how to protect yourself from dangerous animal bites.

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Is There Really a Benefit to Special Exercise Clothing?

I’ve worked out in many different types of clothes in various climates and situations. I absolutely recommend specialized clothing. I have cycling shorts with a padded butt and a short-sleeved cycling jersey for riding in the summer. I also have cold weather gear for riding or jogging in the winter. I have workout clothes for home too. All of it is sweat wicking. When I first starting working out, I wore cotton t-shirts and that sucked. Some people will say that working out isn’t meant to be comfortable, but screw them. If you’re not comfortable, you won’t enjoy your workout and you’re not likely to stick with it.

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Review: The Hatfield Strapworth is expensive but worth considering for PF relief

I’ve never had to deal with plantar fasciitis before so i had no idea that people needed products like this. Good to know if I ever have issues or if I meet someone who does.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted a a “best of” update, but not because I haven’t been reading anything. I’ve just been so busy on the weekends, which is when I normally post these updates. So this week I’m bringing you a bigger update than usual. Enjoy!

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Put down the smart drugs – cognitive enhancement is ethically risky business

This article discusses the possibility of smart drugs, such as ritalin and modafinil, becoming so common that every one will need to use them just to get through school or to keep a job. I think it’s a great discussion to have, because really, why wouldn’t people start using them to get an edge on their competition? The implications of this is scary. If smart drugs become as commonplace as something like coffee, we could be expected to perform better all the time or risk losing employment, and businesses might hire fewer people who are willing to work longer hours. Sports enhancing drugs is a common problem right now, even for athletes who don’t want to take them because they feel like they need to take drugs just to keep up with everyone else in the sport who is using them. The same could happen with smart drugs and daily life.

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15 Non-Kitchen Tools to Use in the Kitchen

Here are the few that I really liked: use heating pads to incubate yogurt or to raise bread dough, use bobby pins to remove cherry pits, and separate egg whites from yolks with a water bottle.

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Exercise During Chemo

Two small studies, both performed in 2006, showed that physical exercise, relaxation, massage, and body awareness exercises increase muscle strength and aerobic fitness and can also significantly decrease the symptoms cancer patients suffer due to chemotherapy.

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Quick way to peel new potatoes

This is a drill with a toilet brush attached (new toilet brush of course). This is being demonstrated on New Potatoes, or freshly harvested young potatoes, which are softer than larger potatoes, so I’m not sure if this will work for all potatoes.

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How the Sweetener Industry Sugar-Coats Science

Another example of how big business intimidates and influences scientists and health organizations into not telling the whole truth about the foods we eat.

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Dan Kois on His Month Without Sitting

We’ve all heard about how sitting can take years off of our lives. Dan Kois, a professional writer and editor, has heard this too and he decided to go to the other extreme. He didn’t sit down for a whole month except to drive, sleep, or poop, and once during a theatrical play. Standing all the time is just as bad as sitting all the time, but hey, it was for the story! I feel exhausted just reading this article.

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Most Popular Fitness Trends – The Onion

I have to admit that I haven’t tried any of these workouts yet, although I’ve witnessed “Competitively Trying To Run Faster Than The Asshole Next To You On The Treadmills” routine many times in the past 😉

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NY style paleo pizza crust. Yes, really

I haven’t tried this pizza recipe yet, but I’m saving it here for later. I really miss pizza…

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Which Weight Loss Supplements Are Best?

The researchers at ConsumerLab.com do a lot of interesting tests of supplements. This news release doesn’t go into detail regarding specific brands, but they do show which types of supplements passed their test for quality and which show real evidence that they can help with weight loss. At the top of the list is 7-keto DHEA, followed by conjugated linoleic acid, green tea extract, green coffee bean extract, and finally garcinia cambogia extract. Due to potentially dangerous caffeine content, none of the herbal stimulant blends they tested passed all quality tests.

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How Dangerous Is Licking a Batter-Covered Spoon?

I never the lick the spoon if I make something that contains eggs, despite the strong temptation. One of my biggest worries about homemade ice cream is that the eggs aren’t cooked. I still make it though! It looks like Foodsafety.gov recommends cooking the eggs at 160 degrees F, and then using it. Good idea!

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The Rich Food Summer BBQ Guide

We all love to BBQ during the summer, but many of us don’t use best practices regarding our health. This BBQ guide from Jason and Mira Calton, the authors of Rich Food Poor Food, provides tips on how to prevent HCA formation (chemicals that cause cancer), how to avoid overcooking, how to protect against toxins, how to choose the healthiest meats and how to prepare your food in the best way possible. There are some great summer recipes in here too.

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Penny In Yo Pants on Vimeo

Here’s a quick little tip for the ladies who want to wear skirts when they ride their bikes.

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Easiest way to cook and shuck a corn

I try to cook all of my food traditionally as often as possible, not only because I think it’s healthier, but because it tastes better, but I’m willing to use the microwave to try this one out.

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The Oatmeal’s DOs and DO NOTs of Running your First Marathon

Hilarious…and totally true 😉

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VeloViewer

There are several great running and cycling tracking apps such as Map My Run, Runkeeper and Strava. I personally use Strava, but I don’t think any of them are really better than the other. But if you do use Strava, I just discovered this awesome web app that collects your Strava data and lets you nerd out on statistics.

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2 Ingredient DIY Deodorant That Works!

All you need is baking soda and an essential oil of your choice. This actually sounds promising, just because baking soda is great for so many things, but then again, natural deodorants never seem to work for me. I’ve never made my own though, so I’ll give it a try.

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The Case Against Antibacterial Soap

Antibacterial soap contains an ingredient called triclosan, which is bad for our health and the environment. The FDA even says that antibacterial soap doesn’t work any better than regular soap. There’s just no reason to use it.

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The Best Way to Preserve Herbs: Organic Gardening

I’ve tried dehydrating herbs before and I didn’t like the way they came out so I never tried saving the herbs from my garden again, but the method described in this post sounds like it would work great.

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Lightning-fast recovery tips

Ben Greenfield contributed this article to Soccer.com, but these tips will work for anyone putting their body through the strenuous exercise. To sum it up – do deep tissue work, use kinesiology tape, and apply cold to injured areas.

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Bulletproof Coffee Is Not for the Faint of Heart

This is a writer’s personal experience with using Bulletproof coffee. It’s a great descriptive story about how Bulletproof affects the mind and body, and then ends hilariously. If you’re a beginner to MCT oils like this writer is, don’t worry, your body will adapt 😉

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Your Nose Should Know – When Fats Become Oxidized

Over the last week, I’ve been slowly working my way through a bag of rancid shelled sunflower seeds because I hate to waste anything. They weren’t absolutely terrible, but definitely not tasty either. I finally decided to look up what the negative repercussions might be and now I know that eating rancid nuts and seeds can increase risk of cancer and atherosclerosis, and it can cause inflammation in many parts of the body. I promptly threw the rest of the seeds away after reading this article.

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10 Effective, Easy And Cheap Biohacks Anyone Can Try

Here’s a free 18 page e-book with biohacks everyone can do. You have to sign up to their newsletter to get it, but after looking at all the awesome content they publish, I had no hesitation. You can always unsubscribe later anyway 😉

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Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars (made from almond milk pulp)

I make homemade almond milk two or three times per week. We love almond milk in our house. But it really sucks having to throw it away all the pulp leftover because it seems like such a waste. Well waste no more! Instead use the leftover pulp to make these tasty cookie dough bars. We actually stopped trying to find ways to reuse almond milk pulp and just leave it in. Our Vitamix does a pretty good job of blending up real good, but we have to shake it up every time we use it.

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One Ingredient 100% Mexican “NOT CORN” tortillas– LEGIT! and Paleo

This is a lot more work than making corn tortillas, but I’ll definitely give it a try. I already have a tortilla press. I guess boiling some plantains isn’t too much more difficult.

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Is Bacon Healthy? Don’t Be Stupid

The writer, Skip Hill, a competitive bodybuilder, NPC judge, and nutritional consultant discusses why he believes that bacon is unhealthy. He makes a lot of good points. One question in particular that I had is how he would feel about pigs not fed a corn-based diet and instead grass-fed.

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Fitness fanatic Kai Sedgwick claims to be in great shape despite only eating MCDONALD’S

Gross. He ate McDondalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner, everyday for a month, while also doing strenuous workouts. He claims to have lost 27% of his bodyfat and gained 2.7kg in muscle mass. He seems to be a fit and health-conscious guy. He just wanted to see what would happen by eating only Mickey D’s. Interesting experiment, but probably not safe in the long-term.

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Exercises You Should Be Doing: Paused Deadlift

This article talks about the paused deadlift, an accessory movement that can help increase strength and explosiveness off the floor, increase time under tension in trouble spot, and train people to engage the lats to a higher degree, resulting in better form.

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Nutritional Cures for Damaged Teeth

I learned a TON from this post! I don’t know if it was because I was vegan or because of my lip rings, but while I was vegan, I incurred extreme gum recession on my front teeth. I removed the rings before my wedding last year. Anyway, despite the cause, the newly exposed teeth were extremely sensitive and were really painful some days. I didn’t do anything about it because I thought there was nothing I could do. Well after deciding to go paleo, the pain went away and it might be because I stopped eating fruit. Not entirely, but I cut back a lot. When I was vegan, fruit was a large part of my diet, but now I eat a piece of fruit maybe three times per week and my teeth never hurt anymore. Now I want to implement everything else I’ve learned from this article.

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How-to Make Coconut Milk Yogurt

I can’t wait to try this. I love coconut milk yogurt, but I don’t like how expensive it is or all the weird ingredients in the store-bought version so I don’t buy it anymore.