Ultimate Fitness, Workout Routines
Killer Beach Workout
Hey Guys,
I’m pretty excited.
Today is the first day of my intense beach body bootcamp where I will be posting several workouts weekly to help get us in shape for the summer and life in general.
And it couldn’t have been a better day to get started. It was an absolutely beautiful sunny 70 degree day. If you didn’t get any sunshine today then I will happily share mine with you. 
Today’s workout was an intense 15 minute overall body workout. Even though I did it on the beach, this routine can be easily modified to do at home.
Here’s what you will need:
A 12-16lb medicine ball (if you don’t have one of those, you can still do all the exercises without but you will get faster and better results with a weighted ball)
A chair for box jumps-just make sure to push up against the wall so it does not move
A mat or folded towel to protect your elbows when doing the plank jacks
An interval timer
Exercises:
Box Jumps
Lunge with medicine ball tri press
Plank Jacks
Curtsy Lunge
Jump Knee Tucks
Squat Jumps/ medicine ball arm curl
The workout routine consisted of 3 sets of 40 second intervals with a 10 seconds in between which is only enough time to transition into the next exercise.
The workout 15 minutes long doing each exercise as fast as your body allows.
Next time I will write my reps down so we can compare our scores.
Have an awesome workout and day!
My Secret Weapon to Energy, Recovery, Cravings and Staying Happy!
Hey Guys, I want to share with you my newest secret weapon for keeping my energy levels high especially after some tough workouts.
It’s called Maca.
It’s known as the incan superfood of strength. Hundreds of years ago warriors would gorge themselves on Maca prior to battle to promote strength and endurance.
Maca is well known to enhance hormonal balance. We may not realize it but when we workout hard we can really stress out our bodies causing hormonal imbalance.
I use Maca to help balance the hormone levels in my body so I can recover quickly from my workouts.
It contains sterols, a steroid-like compound found in plants and animals that promotes the quick regeneration of fatigued muscle tissue.
Another key feature is Maca’s ability to enhance serotonin levels. When our body is stressed, we crave carbohydrates or sugar in the attempt to mimic or create serotonin in the body.
It satisfies the body’s need for more serotonin which makes us feel happier, less stressed and more satisfied and our cravings decrease.
But what’s really cool about Maca is that it works as an adaptogen which means that it responds to different bodies’ needs individually.
So if you’re producing too much of a particular hormone, maca will regulate the production downward. However, if you’re producing too little, it’ll regulate the production upward.
Only about one in 4000 plants are considered an adaptengen which makes it pretty powerful.
It’s also rich in B-vitamins, which are the energy vitamins, and it’s a vegetarian source of B-12 which is awesome if you’re a vegetarian or don’t eat red meat like me.
Maca has been shown to be beneficial for all sorts of hormonal problems including PMS, acne, menopause, and hot flashes.
And as an added bonus, it’s best known for improving libido and sexual function , especially in men. For this reason, it’s earned the nickname “nature’s Viagra.”
Maca comes in powder form so it’s easy to work it into my diet by just adding it to my whole food protein smoothies. I buy the Navitas brand Maca powder at my local health store.
Do some research on Maca. I think you’ll be pretty impressed.
Cheers!
Lifestyle & Adventure, Nutrition, Ultimate Fitness
Optimal Recovery Drink After Workouts
Hey Guys,
Intense exercise must impair my cognitive function because I forgot to mention one of the most important ingredients-one tablespoon of protein powder.
I will usually follow up the recovery drink with a whole food protein shake about an hour later. I find that my muscles seem recover faster and I am alot less fatigued when I drink an easy to digest whole food protein shake as opposed to a heavy breakfast like eggs.
It’s more just a preference but it’s worth monitoring your body afterwards to see what works best for you.
Post Recovery Drink
Juice of 1 organic lemon
1tbs protein powder
2tbs agave nectar
1tsp flax oil
1/2tsp sea salt
4 dates
8 oz filtered water
Either blend ingredients in a blender or shake all ingredients with ice and water in a shaker cup except dates. Just eat dates before or after-that’s what I do
The Real Truth Behind ‘Where’s the Beef’
For the past ten years those words from Eric Schlosser book, ‘Fast Food Nation have haunted me. If I wasn’t a vegetarian already, I was by the time I closed the cover of that book.
But it’s likely you’ve never heard of the small town of Greely unless you’ve read the book.
If you did then you’d know that it’s home to the two of the largest cattle feedlots and slaughterhouse in the US and the smell that sometimes hangs as heavy as fog in the air is the smell of slaughtered animals, blood and excrement.
However, it’s no accident that you never hear about towns like these. And most people prefer to keep it that way.
Out of site. Out of mind.
They would rather not know about the brutal living conditions of factory farm animals- how animals are locked in cages and pens so intensely crowded that they barely have room to turn around.
They would rather not know how cows are forced to live their lives walking in their own excrement and walking on other fallen cows.
Or that when you walk down the aisles its as if the animals are crying out to you.
They don’t want to know of the panic and hysteria of pigs as they wait to be slaughtered.
And the meat industry is only too happy to oblige us in maintaining our ignorance. God forbid they allow a little thing like compassion to get in the way of their profits.
Ignorance is not Bliss
Hundreds of millions of people eat their food everyday without much thought to where it came from or how it got there.
Because of the way our food is produced it’s so easy to forget that a living thing had to die in order for you to eat it.
Sure, most people will tell you they love eating meat , but just try to tell them about the intense suffering an animal must endure before finding its way to their dinner plate and they actually will get angry and tell you ‘I don’t want to hear it!” as they cover their ears with sausage-size fingers.
Most people prefer to eat with blinders on, perfectly happy to live within the confines of their own ignorance.
Do they sense perhaps that beyond their massive desire to consume steaks, burgers, pork, chicken wings, spare ribs, and ice cream that there exists an intense animal suffering that might curb their appetite?
Are they afraid that maybe, just maybe their heart will get the better of them and their conscience will require them to make a change?
And since change disrupts the mundane routine that defines most people’s lives, they steadfastly cling to their ignorance?
But its cruel to pretend that unnecessary animal suffering doesn’t happen.
Ignorance is understandable when you don’t know what you don’t know but to maintain ignorance intentionally when others are suffering is unforgivable.
In fact there’s very little difference between maintaining your silence and giving your consent.
Speaking out is never easy
When I first became exposed to the inhumane treatment of factory farming, I was deeply horrified yet I still wasn’t sure if I had the willpower to become a vegetarian.
But I refused to turn a blind eye the atrocities that humans inflicted on these poor helpless creatures.
So I made a bargain with myself.
I gave myself permission to continue eating meat as long as I never let myself forget how the meat got there. So each month I forced myself to read several animal rights magazines from cover to cover.
Now understand that magazines like the ones put out by PETA had the power to reduce me into an uncontrollable sobbing mess.
So I had a choice to make- I could either walk around the rest of my life with red swollen eyes, a runny nose and an ache in my heart at the seeming futility of it all or I could go vegetarian.
I chose the latter.
Now I admit over the past 8 years, I haven’t always been the perfect “vegetarian” . In fact, I still eat fish which makes me a pesci-vegetarian and more recently I cycle a little organic humanely raised chicken back into my diet (I will never compromise by eating red meat).
So technically I am an on-again, off- again vegetarian.
But my purpose has never been to fit neatly into someone else’s definition.
Nor am I trying to convince you that you should become a vegetarian.
Because to me it doesn’t matter whether you are a vegan, a vegetarian, a lacto-vegetarian or pesce- vegetarian, or a person who buys only humanely raised meat.
What matters is that your heart is in the right place and that you are DOING something to speak out and withdraw your support (dollars) from an industry that ruthlessly exploits animals and the earth for their own gain.
It’s about doing our part- no matter how big or how small. And not turning a blind eye because we feel our individual efforts seem so insignificant that they just don’t matter.
Becaust they do MATTER.
It’s time to stop allowing ourselves to be brainwashed by all the coporate media and marketing lies so they can continue to perpetuate propaganda such as ‘factory farming is a necessary evil’.
It’s pure Bull.
Quite frankly, it’s one of the most ridiculous arguements I’ve ever heard. It’s right up there with ‘abstaining from meat won’t change the industry. It just takes you out of the market’.
Seriously?
Now I don’t want to brag but if there’s one gift I feel I’ve been blessed with above all else …it’s COMMON-SENSE and the ability to THINK for myself.
And my-common-sense tells me that if enough people abstained from eating meat or purchased humanely raised meat, the factory farming industry would be forced to change.
Greedy corporations will try to intimidate us with their wealth and convince us that they hold all the cards.
But it’s all just a bluff.
They know it’s the people who hold all the power. They know that the economic law of supply and demand stands unwaiveringly in our favor.
We just need to remember that even the tiniest grain of effort can make an enormous difference and that every visit to the grocery store can be a vote for compassion.
Why Everything You’ve Been Taught is Lie
A few days ago I had to say goodbye to my beloved pet rat Libby. Sadly she passed away from a respiratory problem prone to rats. I will miss her but I’m also glad she is not suffering anymore.
Since I don’t have a yard to bury her in, I walked her one block to the beach where I dug a 2 foot hole near the dunes with a large slotted spoon from my kitchen.
As I piled the last scoop of sand on top of her final resting place, I began remembering what an incredibly mischievous and clever scamp she was when she had been healthier.
At night when she thought I was sleeping she would sneak out of her cage in between a slight gap in the bars, jump onto my bed and nibble at my toes before scurrying off to steal some sea shells off my night table and tuck them in her secret hiding place.
Libby was so fun to watch.
I always have a hard time understanding people’s irrational dislike for rats. When I asked them why they’re hating on rats, they tell me they’re not exactly sure why and end up mumbling something about how a rat’s tail freaks them out.
As if a rats tail was capable of bitch slapping them across the room or something.
Unfortunately for rats, society’s dislike of them has more to do with our social conditioning than anything else. It seems history has given them an undeserved bad rap.
It always amazes me that as the supposedly most intelligent species on earth, humans can’t grasp the concept that every living being has its place in nature and is here for a definite purpose.
Just think about our irrational fear of germs. It’s been well documented that most germs will never hurt us as long as we maintain a reasonably good immune system.
Yet we are a society of germophobics.
Everywhere you go you see people loading up on anti-bacterial soaps, tissues and aerosols- products which contain all sorts of deadly and noxious poisons.
Ironically, it’s these toxic chemicals that end up harming our immune systems so that we’re no longer capable of fighting off what used to be harmless germs.
We’ve been conditioned to fear more from germs than from poisonous chemical cleaning agents.
How rational is that?
As if we could ever get rid of germs anyway. The day germs cease to exist, we cease to exist.
My point is that we live our lives based on belief systems that are unfounded and not based on fact but on someone else’s opinions.
Yet we readily adopt them as our own and rarely ever think to ever question their validity.
How does Santa fit down the chimney, Mommy?
As children, the adults in our lives trained us to believe things without question.
When we did probe them for more clarification they either shooed us off or gave us the one-size-fits-all standard answer,
‘Because that’s just the way life is. Now shut up, eat your cookies and don’t wander outside the lines of conformity, dear.’
We’re spoonfed a set of expectations from birth onward until the day we wake-up and realize that it’s not working for us.
So we grow up repeating other people’s thoughts and convictions but rarely ever stop to think about what they all mean. If we did, we may find that we no longer agree with them.
Think of how many times as teenagers we’ve been told we need to grow up and start acting like an adults.
Really?
Why does this sage piece of advice always seem to be repeated the most by people who look so freakin’ miserable?
Um.. yeah ok… no thanks , I’ll think I’ll take my chances with immaturity if that’s ok with you.
Unsubscribing from the collective nightmare
Now I am not blaming our parents or peers. It’s not their fault. They were only teaching us what they knew, what had been taught to them.
But at some point we need to break the pattern and either start questioning the rules and logic of our peers or remain powerless and be destined to live our lives based on someone else’s idea of what our life should be.
We need to start facing our fears of being a wrong or viewed as an outcast. We need to bend the rules sometimes if we ever hope to break free from the mold.
The more we live our lives under the delusions and programs designed by others, the less power we have to create the kind of lives we want to live. The less freedom we allow ourselves to have.
If you want to break free from the bondage of self- limiting beliefs heaped on us by a society designed to control us, then the first step is to become aware.
The second is to become a skeptic.
From this day forward make a point to question everything you know and everything you think you know. Challenge every belief or rule you’ve ever followed.
Stop looking outside yourself for answers and start looking within.
Be aware that all religions, media publications, governmental agencies and educational systems are simply institutions based on someone else’s opinion of how we should live our lives. Nothing more.
Once you begin really analyzing your old beliefs, some crazy things will start to happen. It’s almost as if you can feel the synapses firing off in your brain as you neural pathways start making connections.
You’ll start thinking how utterly ridiculous some of your previous beliefs were. You’ll stop second guessing yourself all the time. You feel less guilt. You gain more courage. You learn to trust in who you are.
But you may also feel a little anger at being so misled all your life.
That’s ok. We all go through this as we begin to awaken to the truth. It’s better than living the rest of your life in fear and darkness.
Be happy. You are on your way to living a life of incredible freedom.
R.I.P. Libby
“I’m not going to spend the rest of my life working my ass off and getting no where just because I followed rules that I had nothing to do with setting up” Tess McGill, Working Girl 1988
Why Do We Stay In Jobs We Hate?
Do you remember when you used to sit at the dinner table trying not to listen as your parents discussed complained about their jobs?
Can you remember how depressing excruciating it was for you to have to sit through all those negative emotions?
How even the air surrounding the table seemed heavy & depressing and how all you wanted to do was to get away from the table as quick as possible.
Somehow you just knew your life wouldn’t end up like that.
You were going to be happier because you were going to do something fun and exciting that made lots of money.
The world was your oyster.
But then somewhere along the line it happens.
We find ourselves sitting at our own dinner table complaining how much we hate our jobs.
Somehow, somewhere without even realizing it … we conformed.
How did that happen?
When did our inner child who was so full of rebellion, dreams and a zest for life settle for a life of mediocrity?
Now I am the one who usually preaches the importance of taking responsibility for our own actions, but in this once instance I must regress.
For it truly it was not our fault. We had no choice. Not really.
Because Individual and critical thinking are discouraged in our society starting at a young age.
In its place, we are exposed to a common mantra, a subtle brainwashing that occurs before we even reach puberty.
“Get good grades, go to college (debt), get a high paying job(spend more), so you can buy (debt) a big house … Rinse & repeat.
It’s high time we break the cycle. That model doesn’t work anymore.
In terms of happiness and living a fulfilling life, that model never worked. It’s only real purpose is to create mindless consumers.
Those who do embrace the old model in today’s economy are in for a rude awakening.
The labor department reports that they have never seen unemployment among college grads this high since they began reporting in 1948.
Only 33% of Harvard’s graduating class had accepted a job by commencement in 2009; a drop from 51% the year before.
So whether we like it not, we are going to have to become innovative & creative thinkers if we are going to survive thrive in this new economy.
Recently there was an article on MSN about how Peter Thiel co-founder of Paypal, and a billionaire thanks to Facebook recently announced he was launching a program to teach kids about entrepreneurship.
He is offering to give 20 students up to $100,000 to invest in a start-up business.
What a wonderful concept right?
Well apparently not everyone thinks so.
Jacob Weisberg, a journalist and editor-in-chief of Slate Group,(a division of the Washington Post) thinks its positively outrageous…“luring students away from their love of knowledge” and “ the siren lure of helping others” .
Get real.
Who do you know that went to college for ‘the love of knowledge?
It’s also worth mentioning that Jacob Weisberg who is critical of the Tea Party Movement( a political group of americans who are unhappy with the status quo), said this about them,
“It’s an unorganized and unorganizable community of people coming together to assert their individualism and subvert the established order”.
So you see, the powers that be don’t want you to think for yourself. They don’t want you to ‘assert your individualism’.
They prefer obedient workers.
But this is exactly the kind of garbage we can expect from our mainstream media. Shut up & drink their cool-aid.
That’s why there is no better time for you to break the cycle then now. It’s time to start thinking for yourself and reclaiming your dreams.
If not for yourself then do it for your children.
Because the old worn out ‘job security’ excuse doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s a fantasy.
The days of working at the same job for 40 years and retiring with a big pension is a thing of the past.
Yet still so many people cling to their jobs they hate like life jackets, deathly afraid to take chances, and terrified to leave their safe job ‘haven’.
To make matters worse they continue to pile on the debt still under the false illusion that material goods are the answer to an unfulfilled life, further enslaving themselves in the process.
Job Security + Material Items = Enslavement
That’s if you’re lucky enough to even have a job you hate. (now what’s wrong with statement?)
So what should you do now?
Start by investing in books and audios that encourage critical thinking and self introspection. They will assist you in challenging your current views & spark your imagination.
Have the courage to walk your own path you truly want to go and forget about what your friends and family will think about you.
Your working life accounts for more than half of your life- so make sure what you are doing is meaningful & exciting.
You need to give yourself a reason for waking up. Something to live for that gets you excited to be alive.
I encourage everyone to consider a start-up internet business that is in line with your core values, just make sure you steer clear of all those ‘blueprint to success’ claims that litter the internet.
Cookie cutter paths to success simply do not exist. Success is achieved through innovation-even it’s taking an old idea & putting a new spin on it.
There are plenty of guidelines & principles that you can follow but you will have to blaze your own trail.
Don’t let fear paralyze you into inaction
Once in a while you’ll doubt whether or not you’re up to the challenge…whether you are brave enough to doggedly pursue your dreams through all the pitfalls and adversities.
But there is something that you should fear even more:
The nothing-ever-changes, ordinary, conventional, safe, secure, follow the herd existence you could have chosen instead.
That is what should really terrify you.
Just remembering that will help you stay the course.
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened”. ~Mark Twain
How To Uncover Your Authentic Voice
Over the last few months I have been doing a lot of research on self-expression and finding ways to tap into my true ‘authentic voice’.
Your ‘authentic voice’ comes from the place where the real you exists -a place free from our internal censors that water down our true thoughts.
As a blogger, it’s vital to be able to connect your readers on almost a cellular level.
With over 1 million blog posts created every day, you have to be remarkable if you want to be heard above the noise on the internet. You have to be real.
I think it’s a mistake trying to build up this authorative persona of yourself. That was the path I started down originally and never was I more uncomfortable in my own shoes. I had convinced myself that I needed to be someone else in order to be successful.
Of course, being able to express yourself freely is not something that comes easy for most of us- certainly not for me anyway.
It can be very scary at first to share with strangers the way you really see things-to trust yourself enough to open yourself up to criticism-to be ok with the fact that not everyone is going to like what you have to say.
But you’ve got to be willing to cut the majority of people loose in order to impact the few who matter. It’s not an easy thing to do when for so long we’ve been auto-programmed to try and please everyone.
However self-expression can be incredibly liberating.
I believe that true freedom and energy comes from knowing who you are and then having the courage to shout it from the rooftops.
But first you will need to touch with a very clear place buried deep within yourself. A place where our deep beliefs, our passions…maybe even our obsessions live freely without censorship.
You need to be able to burn through your first thoughts that are obstructed by ‘social politeness’ and ‘political correctness’ to get to the place where your mind actually thinks and feels, not what it ‘thinks’ it should see or feel.
Thoughts can be so quick, so fleeting- that if you are not consciously aware of them the moment they happen, you may never get the chance again to ask yourself “hey what did you mean by that?”
Then poof… that thought, that golden nugget, that glimmer of insight can disappear faster then it came.
Sadly, most people will never take the time to explore themselves. Instead they will sit mindlessly in front of the tv allowing their minds to be programmed by the big corporations who tell us how we should feel, what we should think, and what makes us happy.
I think alot of people have trouble “finding themselves” because they’ve kept themselves so distracted, they don’ t even realize they’re lost.
Just Start Writing
One of the best ways I’ve found to true self-expression is to start writing. I got in the practice of carrying a small notebook or journal with me so I can capture thoughts alive they happen.
This way I am ready to take action whenever the universe runs through me.
Start recording what your mind actually sees and feels before your internal censor squashes them. When you feel moments of inspiration write them down.
When you feel moments of clarity, write them down.
Whenever you are reading an article or book-take a moment to reflect on how it impacted your thoughts & feelings…and write them down.
Just keep writing what’s in your head. Don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t censor. Keep writing forward without looking back.
Don’t worry what other people will think. The only person who is going to see this is you. No one is going to grade you on your thoughts.
It can take a lot of practice writing before you are able peel away all the layers of social conditioning that has hidden your core self for so long. To discover all the complexities that make up you.
But when you are able to finally pierce through that tiny membrane that separates your façade and the real you…
-that’s when you will be able to radically transform the way you see yourself and your ability to communicate with others.
So how about me?
Am I able to bleed my emotion all over a page and share it with the world without fear of judgment?
I’d be lying to you if I said I could.
But I know that with every journal entry I make, I get a few words closer.
Hi. My name is Grace Weis. I believe that deep within all of us reside feirce warriors who yearn to live remarkable lives.
While most people live their entire lives in obscured mediocrity, warriors find the courage to push themselves to thier max edge and beyond to uncover thier own personal greatness.
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Recipes
Amazing Raw Brownies
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Killer Beach Workout
- My Secret Weapon to Energy, Recovery, Cravings and Staying Happy!
- Unleashing Your Warrior Within
- Optimal Recovery Drink After Workouts
- The Real Truth Behind ‘Where’s the Beef’
- Why Everything You’ve Been Taught is Lie
- Why Do We Stay In Jobs We Hate?
- How To Uncover Your Authentic Voice
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