Wow! It’s been too long since my last newsletter. My excuse is that I’ve been so busy training for my August 6th tournament while moving forward with the purchase of my first home. I let those two things get the best of me but I hope to make up for it by giving you a newsletter packed with usable health and fitness info. I also want to let you know that I’ll be sending another issue out in a couple of weeks with one or two surprise announcements.

Training for my tournament included 3 phases. The first 2 phases consist of about 3 weeks each and the last phase is only 1-2 weeks. During the first phase I simply wanted to increase my capacity for handling work. I did some long distance runs to get into good shape. I also conducted weight training 4 days a week for about 90 minutes. This was in addition to 90 minutes of grappling 5 days a week. For the grappling, I tried to drill a lot of moves and didn’t go crazy with intensity.

The second phase (the one I’m in now) is a lot less volume but higher intensity. I’m only doing about 2 conditioning workouts outside of the time spent grappling and practicing for my tournament. There is a principle that I subscribe to which says to be the best at something, you have to do that particular thing. In other words, to do my best in my grappling tournament, I’m better off spending my time grappling. The 2 workouts I am doing consist of mostly body weight exercises with calisthenics between sets rather than rest. This type of workout uses similar energy systems to grappling. For the grappling, I am doing more live sparring (mostly 3 minute matches with a minute rest between).

The final phase begins about a week before. The intensity levels off so I am well rested to compete but I continue to work on technique as well as practice sport specific movements (maybe some core work).

Probably most importantly I made some rest and nutritional modifications. I increased both. The amount of sleep I had previously been getting was inadequate for this type of training. Nutritionally, I found myself unable to maintain my weight with the intense training. I increased my caloric intake with more fruits, vegetables, lean protein, starchy carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Those changes made a huge difference and now I feel great. I’ll let you know how I do in my tournament in the August newsletter.

2) What are Lipids and How do They Relate to Atherosclerosis Part I

The more experience I get as a personal fitness trainer, the more I realize how confused people are about nutrition and especially fats. People are confused in part by the many popular diet books in which many different diets claim to be the only solution. Analyzing scientific evidence doesn’t always make things easier. I hope this short article helps provide some clarity regarding “lipids in the diet.”

The major sources of visible fats in our diets come from butter and margarine, vegetable oils, the visible fat in meat, and chicken skin. There is also fat (although not visible) in milk products, poultry, fish, nuts and seeds, and whole grain foods. The triacylglycerols (all fats and oils are composed of triesters of glycerol with three fatty acids) in meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, and eggs are mostly saturated while vegetable oils have a higher content of unsaturated fatty acids with no cholesterol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends a diet with not more than 30% from fats and oils and they further recommend not more than 10% of daily calories coming from saturated fat. In addition, the FDA recommends not more than 300 mg of cholesterol be included in the daily diet. One tip to reduce the amount of saturated fats in the diet is to use certain low fat food varieties. For example, 1% milk is a much wiser choice than whole milk. Both high-fat dairy products and egg yolks are high in cholesterol.

The FDA has found evidence of diets high in saturated fats and cholesterol being linked to heart disease as well as certain types of cancer. One thing for sure is that diets rich in saturated fat lead to higher blood-serum cholesterol while diets lower in saturated fat and higher in unsaturated fat can lower serum cholesterol level.

Atherosclerosis, a condition in which yellowish plaque forms within the larger arteries, is correlated with high levels of cholesterol. The result of atherosclerosis is an increased risk for a myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Following are the risk factors for heart disease: