How to get ripped and stay ripped while on a university hall diet

Here's an essay by my daughter, Mary-Ann, about how to stay healthy and lean while living in a university hostel. Weight gain and generally becoming unhealthy are serious problems faced by many students while living in catered hostels. 


If you have children living in a university hostel, you might want to pass this article onto them.
Gary


How to GR and SR while on a University Hall Diet

By Mary-Ann Moller (  sport and exercise nutrition at University of Otago)

Living at a catered hall can bring about its challenges when trying to stay on a strict diet.  Not only are you not always provided with the exact meal that you would ideally like, you are also faced with a lot of tempting food that is literally put under your nose at every meal.  However, living in a catered hall definitely has its perks and I believe that with a wee bit of education and self-control, you can eat your way to getting ripped and staying ripped!  Here are a few wee tips and pointers that I have put together for you.

-Firstly, avoid refined carbohydrates (CHOs).  For those of you  that don’t know what these are, these are processed food items usually made from white flour with added sugar.  They come in the form of pasta, white breads, desserts, cakes and slices.  These foods are high in energy and low in nutrients.  Therefore, if you don’t go out and burn this energy off (by exercising), it will get converted and stored as fat!  “A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!”  

-Where possible, replace refined CHOs with unrefined alternatives.  For example, instead of white bread choose the DENSE and WHOLEGRAIN varieties.  As its name suggests, wholegrain breads are the ones where you can actually see the GRAIN.  At my hall, Burgen and Ploughmans is where it’s at!  Instead of white rice, choose brown.  Wholegrain foods have a low Glycaemic Index (GI), which means that they release energy slowly into your blood system.  This prevents you from getting spikes in your blood-sugar levels, which is the cause for sugar cravings and potential binges.

-Try not to overload on the starchy CHOs such as potato and bananas.  Starch is sugar!  You can still enjoy these, but in moderation.  A great alternative for potato is pumpkin, which is low in starch.

-Take a piece of fresh fruit at every meal.  Even if you don’t eat it at the meal, take it for a snack to have later, in between meals when you get hungry.  You should be eating a minimum of 2 pieces of fresh fruit every day.
-Don’t drink the juice.  Fruit juices are incredibly high in sugar.  Just drink water.  You will not miss the juice.
-Steer clear of the hot chocolate machine.  It is just like drinking a cup of sugar.  Save this for the occasional treat. Again, just drink water.
-At every lunch and dinner there is a delicious salad bar.  Load up on the salads!  Fresh veges are the best source of many vitamins and nutrients.  Leafy green veges are high in iron, vitamin K and folate, so load up on the baby spinach leaves and broccoli.  If there is tuna/salmon or hard boiled eggs, eat plenty of these as they are high in protein which you want to eat lots of.
-Avoid anything deep fried.  Pretty obvious why, and what foods these involve.  The most common at my hall is the chips.
-Ditch the jam. You are just spreading sugar (and no nutrients) onto your toast.  If you must have something sweet then go with the honey, this is atleast a natural sugar, but go easy on it.  Hit up the marmite as it his high in iron and B vitamins.
-At most halls you are presented with some form of baked good or dessert at every lunch and dinner, on every day.  There is absolutely no reason why you should be consuming this amount of empty calorie and nutrient deprived food.  Just walk straight past the dessert section of the servery and don’t even look in it’s direction.  You don’t need it.  And you certainly don’t need it if you want to get ripped and stay ripped.  These things should be reserved for the odd treat maybe once or twice a week. You are in control of what you choose to eat!  
-You pretty much want to be trying to follow a diet high in protein and low in CHOs.

PROTEIN!

Some of the meals at my hall are a bit lacking in the amount of protein required to really get ripped.  Protein is not only essential for building and repairing muscle, but also for weight management.  When you ingest protein, this sends signals to the brain telling you that you are full, this is also known as satiety (the sense of feeling satisfied).  What you want to do is drip small amounts of protein into your diet over the entire day.  This will reduce you getting really hungry and potentially pigging out on something that you shouldn’t.  

Some high protein snack would include things like tuna, meat, eggs, cheese, natural yoghurts.  It would be handy to have your own supply of these types of foods to have either before a meal or in-between meals.  As these types of high protein snacks are not that easy to whip up quickly as you are running between lectures, protein shakes can be a great alternative.  Having up to 3 protein shakes a day can be a great addition to your hall diet.  Make sure you are making your protein shakes with water and not milk, otherwise you will be taking in a lot of sugar from the lactose in milk.

As with any diet, it must be sustainable.  There is no point in losing weight if you are going to put it back on.  In fact, this kind of yoyo dieting can mess with your metabolism and do you long-term harm.  The best type of weight loss is incredibly slow and is over a long period of time.  Those that lose it the slowest, will be the ones that keep it off.  It is about creating a healthy lifestyle to improve your quality of life. When it comes to health and fitness, there are no quick fixes, but there are long term rewards!

Yours in good health,

Mary-Ann

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About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Thumbs up for the lymphaciser rebounder

Hi Gary
Just thought you might like a great testimonial for Lympacizers! I've owned one for nearly 20 years and there's been hardly any give in the springs over that time despite being used daily. They are GREAT, well worth the outlay.
Cheers
Jan
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Gary Moller comments:

Thanks for the thumbs-up, Jan. The key to the feel and longevity (and the price!) of these exercise machines is the heavy steel frame, the many big steel springs and the way they are fixed by welded brackets to the frame.

I have used the Pacific Health Lymphacizer rebounders for some 25 years for outfitting commercial gyms. Some of these rebounders have been in use for that entire period, some in gyms that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some of the users are very, very big people! I can not recall ever having to replace a broken spring. All that has been required is to replace the protective frame and spring cover now and then and ensure the legs are tightly screwed in. These machines should out-live their owners if used in the home.



If you are considering purchasing a rebounder, it is worth your while spending more and going for quality. The cheapos that cost $100 or less simply do not last and they feel awful compared to the Lymphacizer. With use the springs of the cheapos quickly dig into the frame, the bed stretches and the responsive bounce goes out of the bed. You do not want to be jumping up and down on a cheap bed that may tear or with cheap springs that eventually snap with use.

Thermogenics - the latest fad leading athletes off track

"Put simply a thermogenic is any product that increases thermogenesis (heat production) in the human body. Heat is a by product of metabolism so when more heat is being produced this means that more calories are being used. This is in isolation from activity. Obviously this has had big implications for the fitness industry because if you are using more calories for no greater input of activity the result should be greater fat loss. Added to this is the fact that most thermogenic compounds are very stimulatory giving greater energy and decreased rates of perceived exertion and also have nutrient partitioning effects (greater utilization of fat over other fuels). The impact thermos have had on the industry is profound at it’s easy to see why.

Picture: Once on the slippery slope of substance abuse, where does it end?

There has always been a running battle between the supplement formulators and regulatory bodies and it seems that there are always compounds being banned only for others to take their place."

(The author goes on to list and explain the various substances that are banned and those that are still legal and how they work - Gary)

"For performance benefits I would suggest sticking with caffeine as a stimulant but be careful to not exceed allowable levels if you are subject to drug testing. Neurotransmitter formulas may prove VERY effective and would provide focus and decreased RPE without a stimulatory action and I theorise that in conjunction with certain adaptogenic compounds and caffeine with tyrosine would kick ass (watch this space ;) ! )

If you are needing to lose bodyfat……sort your diet out! Once you have sorted that out with the help of a good consultant you could look at one of the synephrine and caffeine, green tea formulas to speed things up. Also drink tea frequently, I really can’t see a down side to drinking tea, it’s thermogenic, increases insulin sensitivity and is a potent antioxidant! Only use dedicated thermogenic formulas for a set defined goal, don’t just take them in the hope that without changing anything else you’ll develop a lean physique…it just ain’t gonna happen!"
For the full article by Cliff Harvey, go here.
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Gary Moller comments:
Articles like these by supposed conditioning experts leave me with feelings of deep dismay for the future of sport - and weight loss!

Performance that is derived from a stimulatory substance - be it green tea extract or ephidrine, is a really dumb conditioning strategy. The same goes for using the same "thermogenic" substances for weight loss.

Encouraging the use of substances that artificially stimulate the senses and the metabolism to either increase physical performance or to burn fat go completely against the spirit of natural health and fair sport. Even if small amounts are considered safe to use, we all know that there are plenty of young and desperate people out there who will take many, many times more than that if they think it will give them an advantage. The abuse of "soft" drugs often leads on to harder substances. In sport, using stimulants may progress to the dangerous abuse of anabolic steriods. View my Power Point Presentation about Drug Cheats in Sport here.

Athletes who seek an artificial edge (cheating) by using chemicals might win spectacularly for a while; but they quickly disappear off the scenes. While clean athletes last longer career-wide they suffer financially and they miss out on their rightful share of the Gold medals and the Records.

I do not know of any chemical stimulants that do not quickly addict the user chemically and psychologically. When these substances are pumped into the body, the body responds by reducing its own production of the equivalent chemicals. This is the basis of addiction and once a person is in its grasp, wrestling free is much easier said than done. The downside of addiction to stimulants is inconsistent performances, poor decision-making, bad temper, bouts of fatigue and depression and the need to take more and more for the same effect. Oh - and I almost forgot: Weight gain! Please read my article about caffeine addiction here.

Conditioning experts who encourage such dubious practices do not impress me at all. They give my profession a bad name.

Gastric Bypass Horrors

Hi Gary,

Well after 16 weeks my XXXX still has problems from his gastric bypass! The stomach still hasn't healed and his body is rejecting the naso-esophageal feeding tube. He's vomiting most nights and looks like shit!

But he has lost 80kg (or more) from the virtual starvation regime he has been on, so guess that's what they're going to do? He's been told that in the long run it was a success (well.. he has lost the weight...) so now they're going to reverse the procedure. That means another complicated operation and so naturally he's very depressed and more than a little afraid.

He still has a now somewhat deflated spare tire hanging around his waist so will probably need further "body sculpture" surgery to fix that.

He would have achieved the same result if he had not had the surgery and simply drunk the milkshakes he's been squirting up his nose and left it at that.

We are actually concerned about his chances of suviving another operation in his current condition.

Isn't medical science great!

Cheers,

Anonymous
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Gary Moller comments:
Well, it seems that the pre-holiday hype by the weight-loss surgeons worked and they had at least one taker looking for a "new me" for the New Year.

In my last occupation I got to see a regular procession of failures of routine surgery. For these people that "one in ten thousand" failure rate was 100%. Here in NZ the victim ends up carrying the can. It is very difficult and very costly to sue and the assistance from Accident Compensation is measley to the point of being a miserable insult.

In this case, it would appear there is leakage occuring at one of the points where the stomach and intestine have been severed and joined. The tube is feeding a liquid meal (A poor version of my Super Smoothie) into the gut past the point of leakage. The operation has been a failure and the plan to surgically reverse the procedure is fraught with risk. This poor man is already in a malnourished and weakened state and his friends have every right to fear for his survival.
 
This botched operation has probably cost well over $30k and rising by the day. The reversal will be another $20k. If only there was public funding for a team approach for closely supervised lifestyle, diet and exercise weight loss programmes, similar to what we see on TV reality programmes.

We hear littel about these failures - about 3,000 dead per year in NZ.

In this case, the poor recipient will eventually be chalked up as a success, although with complications. After all - he lost weight didn't he? Let's hope the success is not because he makes a good looking corpse in a regular-size coffin!

Stomach surgery 'needed for teens'

"Surgeons are calling for children to be offered publicly funded stomach-stapling operations in a bid to treat soaring rates of extreme obesity.

New Zealand hospitals have been reluctant to consider weight-loss operations in young adolescents because of the risks of major surgery, and the potential for long-term complications such as nutrient deficiency.

However, growing numbers of teenagers are so overweight they are suffering diseases previously seen almost exclusively in adults.

These include type-2 diabetes, sleep apnoea, high blood pressure and gall bladder disease.
Some are at risk of heart attacks and strokes in their 20s.

Paediatric surgeons are saying it is time to make stomach-stapling surgery more readily available with the complicated health needs of morbidly obese adolescents now impacting on the care of other children.... The surgery can cost between $12,000 and $20,000 and about 400 a year were done, most on adults and only a handful publicly funded. "

To read the full article, click on the title above.
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Gary Moller comments:This kind of surgery produces a very uncomfortable feeling in my gut. The reason why is that stomach stapling surgery is an over-priced solution that, at best, only indirectly targets the cause which is the lifestyle of the positionally challenged. It is symptomatic of irresponsible, neglectful parenting, poor food choices and a societal bureaucracy that engenders a fear of all things natural, including the outdoors, sunshine and water.

There is an alternative to stomach stapling: I used to run rehabilitation programmes for long term Accident Compensation clients: people who had been seriously injured, incompletely rehabilitated following surgery, consequently losing their jobs and becoming unemployable due to ongoing health problems, loss of work skills, confidence and poor personal habits.

Rehabilitation focussed on gradually replacing old unhealthy habits with healthy ones. This was a challenging process that took 12 weeks to be successful. Successful it was, and almost without exception - and for a cost of from $3-$6,000. What was a constant frustration were the constant demands by the health and funding agencies to cut back on the cost of these programmes, the preference being to spend their money on high technology surgical solutions at quadruple the cost or more. These intervention programme were progressively reduced to about 5 weeks for several hundred dollars - effectively rendering them a complete waste of time.

The same model of gradual behavioural change can and should be applied in cases of extreme childhood and teen obesity and they need to involve the entire family. Costing probably no more than $6,000 and lasting 12 weeks, the outcome will be fit, strong and healthy families that play together.

This is a far better prospect than surgically turning out thinner teens who then face uncertain lives that are still a constant daily preoccupation with food and at serious risk of malnutrition-related ailments and shortened lives.

Note: The Google Adsense ads to the right of this article can interesting to peruse. You will see that there is quite an industry, involving drugs and surgery, surrounding obesity. It is no conicidence that the call by surgeons for public funding of this kind of surgery for teens comes at the time of year of greatest over-indulgence and just in time to capitalise on all the New Year's resolutions for weight loss. Am I just being too cynical?)

All about sex: The connection between libido and exercise

This is the second of several articles about Libido. While I am not an expert in such matters, here is my understanding of the exercise physiology that works behind the scenes.

Having spent 20 years in the gym industry there has been more than the occasional passing comment from clients that their sex lives have received a boost of energy and enjoyment after commencing a fitness programme. This sure has been the case where couples work out together. Let's look at some of the possible reasons:

A plumber's view of the penis The penis is like a mass of flexible pipes encased in a flexible casing. Blood flows in through the arteries and flows out via the veins. During arousal, the outflow is clamped off, causing the penis to balloon. It's as simple as that. How effectively this happens depends on the blood flow and the tone of the blood vessels. Decreasing cardiovascular health may reduce penile performance because:

• The power of the pump (heart) is insufficient to maintain a strong inflow into the penis.
• Arteries can become progressively clogged like a kitchen sink drain pipe that has had fat poured down it over the years, reducing blood flow
• There may be fewer of the prolific microscopic blood vessels in the flesh (capillaries)
• The blood vessel walls lose tone and flexibility and are therefore less able to fully constrict to cause and maintain an erection.

The urban myth of the sexual stamina of the long distance runner has some merits from a straight analysis of the workings of the body's plumbing. Endurance exercise strengthens the heart, tones the blood vessels and causes a proliferation of capillaries.

Testosterone: The Agressor Hormone A powerful libido factor at work in both men and women is declining testosterone levels with age. Testosterone has a direct effect on libido in both men and women, despite the commonly held belief that this "male" hormone is found only in men. As we all know, men have two brains and it is speculated that testosterone works on both. Testosterone levels peak during one's 20's and progressively declines over the following decades.

Vigorous exercise like sprinting and lifting heavy weights, that build muscle elevates testosterone levels. This applies to both men and women. The converse can be assumed: Deteriorating strength and muscle tone with inactivity will be associated with lowering testosterone levels. So, one way to counter natural reductions in testosterone production with ageing is to do explosive exercise and lift heavy weights.

Those who work out together, stay together Working out together, whether it is a run in the bush, or lifting weights is a bit like an extended foreplay session. Shared experiences - be they fun-filled, exciting, daring or a thrilling achievement like climbing a mountain peak or completing a half marathon - bring couples closer together with a shared exhilaration.

There's just something about hard bodies Its not just the extra testosterone or the better blood flow, or the feeling closer with your partner: Let's face it - a strong, toned body has a certain physical attraction for most and it generally works a lot better.

So here is Dr Sex's workout prescription for lasting libido:

• Do two long, slow endurance workputs per week (rowing, cycling, running, walking, swimming, hiking etc).
• Do a progressive weights lifting programme 2-3 times a week to build muscle.
• Take up an explosive, exhilarating physical activity with your partner like restricted full-contact boxing, karate, judo, netball, indoor soccer, badminton, squash, climbing, sprinting, shot-putting and do 2 times a week.
• Take weekly dancing classes with your partner.
• Make sure that you are having fun together when you are doing these.
• Then, if you have any time and energy left after doing all of the above; make love!

A final piece of advice: Use it, or lose it! Every organ in the body (male or female), be that brain, penis, muscles, bones or heart; responds to how it is being used by strengthening those functions that receive the most use, while reducing the functions that recieve the least. So, if your penis is going the way of the vestigial Appendix, you now know what you have to do - give it a regular workout like any other muscle 2-3 times a week.

The next article is about nutrition. In the meantime, start working on the fitness, if you are not already.

Commute your way to fitness

If you want to get really fit and time is against you, commuting to work under your own steam is the solution.

My partner, Alofa, is very fit. By commuting to and from work, she has reduced her resting pulse from 80 beats per minute to 40 beats per minute. That’s an extra 40 beats to play with when running, meaning she can run with ease a lot faster and longer. She either rides her mountain bike to and from work or she runs with a small back pack. At the beginning of each week, she takes her clothing and her breakfast (muesli) to work where her employer has supplied a wardrobe and shower. This is good time management.

She gets to work early, faster than driving or taking the bus, has a quick shower and breakfast and then she is down to work. No need to waste time with makeup due to the healthy start to the day!

If you live too far to commute and you think you can get out of it, think again; use public transport to travel only part of the distance, then run the remainder of the journey. Extend the distance run as fitness improves. There should be no whimping out when the weather is foul. There is no such thing as bad weather – just bad choices of clothing.

Commuting disciplines you into a twice daily workout that quickly builds enduring fitness. It makes very good use of time that is otherwise wasted on mindless and stressful commuting. It can save you thousands of dollars per year and is good for the environment. When building fitness by commuting, all you need do further in training is a long run on Sundays with the occasional race thrown in here and there.

Losing weight is as easy as 3+3

In my recent article about who were the biggest losers at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, I began by expressing my horror at the way obese participants in the reality TV programme "The Biggest Loser", were made to go about exercising. It was horrific. The risk of injury was excessive as was the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Early arthritis - roll on! One thing for sure, if these people were not committed on national television and followed and cajoled every moment along the way, they would certainly have given up and never succeeded.

Exercise and diet programmes that are painfully ascetic are ultimately doomed to fail. This failure usually results in a rebound further behind where they first began - less fit and much larger. A far more sensible and less injurious approach is to make enjoyable and less drastic changes to one's life - changes that are more or less immediately rewarding and which can be continued for life. This is the approach that was so successfully demonstrated at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

As easy as 3 + 3
Three good meals a day and nothing in between other than a drink of water and maybe a piece of fruit. My gosh! Doesn't food taste great when the tummy is rumbling! I am reminded of my childhood when we went for hours out in the bush and farmland without a fridge or convenience store to be seen. We ravenously ate everything Mum served up.

A big swig of water now and then can fill the tummy a while between meals and the water assists fat metabolism. The herbal Brindleberry formulation can assist fat loss and dulling the hunger pangs for those who need a little assistance adjusting to a 3 meal day. Another trick is to have a tablespoon of Whey Protein in a glass of warm milk between meals. The whey helps to stabilise blood insulin levels.

Three workouts a day is all it takes to stoke the metabolic fires white hot to burn excess fat and tone the muscles. For most people this might begin with an early morning walk around the block, or walking to work. For me, its running alongside my son as he rides his bicycle to school. Then its another brisk walk before lunch. This could be deliberately planning to do a delivery on foot. The third could be walking home, a workout in the gym, swimming, a Pilates class or playing sport with the kids. For me, its a run to school to pick up my son. Its part of my daily "father-son bonding programme". A good tool for convenient exercise anywhere, including at home is the Myotec pocket Gym. Your body loves both set routine and variety.

Now this might seem like a lot of exercise. Well, it isn't really because it is planned and opportunistic exercise that can be easily fitted into a busy lifestyle. Furthermore, these are opportunties to interact with loved ones, friends, workmates and neighbours in a relaxing and healthy way. It gets you well away from the fridge and it will encourage you to select healthier choices for meal times.

Make a habit of it
It takes from 8-12 weeks of doing something for it to become habit. Once it is an ingrained habit, it feels uncomfortable to stop. The habit becomes part of one's lifestyle. So, timing is important: choose a time of year when you are certain that you can keep your new eating and exercising patterns going for at least 8 weeks without disruption. But let's face it; there is no better time than right now!