New Year's Goals

Happy New Year 2013!! Hope everyone rang in the new year in grand fashion; Laura & I were at the Burj Khalifa to watch the Epic Fireworks display with some close friends.

First off, resolutions in my opinion seem very immediate, without substance; where goals have lasting effect especially when planned or simplified to easily integrate into your daily routine. For example a resolution or choice to "Eat Healthy" is great but lacks the ability to achieve the end result because the commitment is open ended... a goal on the other hand to "replace potato chips with cucumbers and hummus" or "limit coffee to one cup per day" is defined giving you the opportunity for you to be proud of achieving your target.

I have a lot of things to be proud of and grateful for in 2012. L & I really came into stride when it comes to eating healthy and cooking. Yeah we still have our pizza or thai curry every now and again but for the most part we try to stick to lots of whole foods, fruits, organic veggies, eggs and lean protein mainly fish. We even bought a Juicer!

I have turned a new leaf after watching "Forks Over Knives" practically cutting out red meat and dairy from my diet. Fish is the preferred selection with Pork & Lamb in a close tie for second.

As for working out… I’ve maintained pretty much everything throughout 2012; Weight, Muscle Mass, Body Fat & BMI hasn’t changed over the course of the year. My goal in 2013 however is to increase my muscle mass, I weight about 160 right now and would love to be up to 170 by years end; this won’t be easy especially working a full time job and trying to meet the expectations of my wonderful fiancé (who wants a puppy). Anyways, 2013 Goals: 

1. Spend more time Outdoors with L: Going to the beach, golfing, camping, fishing, hiking, etc anything to get out the apartment; while safely sustaining the Dubai summer heat. 
2. Workout at least 4 times a week focusing on Multi-Muscle Lifts: Power cleans, dead lifts, dips, pullups, squats, and core training with dumbells or kettle bells. 
3. Eat more protein: Eggs for breakfast, tuna or chicken sandwich for lunch with bean salads, nuts and dried fruits for snacks, and looking forward to trying some new recipes for dinner which I’ll be try to be more diligent to post. 
4. Stretch Everyday!! Considering I can barely touch my toes I'd like to start the day stretching.
5. Write More: Weather it’s for The Healthy Press or otherwise, allocate at least 2 hours, 2 days a week and build from there; block out the time and stay focused.
6. Make Pickles: My buddy and I started making pickles a few months back aiming to sell them at the Ripe Farmer’s Market in February; check us out Mr Pickles: Famous Pickles!

We also plan to cut down on the drinking and going out to bars to once a week. A nice night in or with close friends over a decent bottle of wine is the preferred poison now days. I have been trying to learn more about wine and fascinated with the depth of the industry, expect some upcoming posts about Wine and my progression from 2 buck to chuck to hopefully a respectable standard. 

Wishing everyone a Happy & Healthy New Year!! Cheers,

The Non-Diet

I have been trolling around with an idea ever since I did an Body Composition Assessment a year ago. My BMR current around 1800 calories not including workouts and I always try to breakdown my meals to get as close to the mark as possible but, as everyone can agree upon, controlling exactly what food you eat is not easy and counting calories is no fun!!

Additionally, many fad diets focus on a specific food which doesn't necessarily burn fat as desired. The basics to fat burning is simple:

• THP FIT TIP #11: Burn more calories than you consume if you want to burn fat

So here's the plan... Target to consume 1200 to 1400 calories per day spread over 4 meals equally spaced starting as soon as you wake. My schedule:

• Wake Up 7am: 2 Hardboiled Eggs & 1 Buttered Toast = 330 Calories

• Early Lunch 11am: Roasted Vegetable & Quinoa Salad = 280 Calories

• Midday Snack 3pm: Do it yourself Trailmix: 6g Cashews, 6g Almond, 15g Dried Apricots, 15g Peanut M&M, 10g Raisins & 15g Granola = 300 Calories

• Dinner 7pm: Mushroom, Garlic & Lean Beef Bleu Cheese Burger on a Whole Wheat Bun = 390 Calories

• Go to sleep at 11pm: Drink lots of Water throughout the day, it helps digestion!

Theoretically you can eat anything ie carbs, protein or fats to makeup the calorie count so mix it up. Just be cautious that eating processed foods may change the function of your liver to breakdown Chemicals instead of the natural food used in the all the recipes above!! 

And remember that unused protein flushes out of your system where carbs are stored as fat. On days I lift I'll add a protein shake or two make sure my muscles are not being depleted instead of the desired fat loss... I estimate that for every week you follow the above you'll loose about 1 pound of fat.

• 600 calories burned per day = 75 grams of fat or 0.165 lbs x 6 days = 1 pound of fat

We're going to start blogging some Healthy 300 Calorie recipes especially Ripe Vegetable Salads. Stay Tuned & Stay Healthy!!