I had taken this picture about 2 weeks ago and meant to put a post on it.  Nothing too significant about this meal compared to the first post about salmon under great foods.  The main difference was that i substituted a boiled sweet potato for the brown rice.  Sweet potato is supposed to have significant health benefits as well as being high in fiber.  Just a reminder that you can still eat healthy and mix it up.  I will be posting some video content of Stan and I cooking some healthy meals.  Have a great night- Jose.

Though this may come across as controversial, I am still going to voice my opinion on the matter.  NYC now requires all restaurants and food places to display the number of calories in each food item.  What a concept!  I personally know that when I want to eat something really high in calories and I see it on the label I get outraged and put it down.  This may be exactly what others may be thinking too.  Well I will let MSNBC take it away:

By Roni Caryn Rabin

MSNBC contributor

updated 7:34 a.m. CT, Wed., July. 16, 2008

Nora Cara was flabbergasted.She was about to order her usual morning coffee and muffin at Dunkin’ Donuts when she saw the new calorie labels. The chocolate chip muffin she had her eye on was 630 calories.“I was blown away,” said Cara, a 27-year-old homemaker from Forest Hills in New York City. “I’m not a no-carb type of person, and I usually don’t even think about it. But you pick up a little muffin with your coffee, and it has 630 calories in it? That’s a bit extreme!”  New Yorkers have been in the throes of sticker shock since this spring when the Big Apple became the first city in the country to implement a law forcing chain restaurants to post the calorie count of each food in the same size and font as the price.  Restaurants have not exhausted their legal challenges, but the city will start fining violators up to $2,000 beginning Friday, say officials with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.  While some sit-down chains and fast-food eateries are waiting until the last minute, coffee shops like Starbucks — home of the 470 calorie raspberry scone and 610 calorie cookie — have been replacing their menu boards and adding calorie tags to pastries in recent weeks. The result: Do a little eavesdropping in a New York City restaurant, and you may think you’ve stumbled into an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.

   At T.G.I. Friday’s, one of the few sit-down chain restaurants to have already added calorie counts to menus, a group of young women gasped as they studied the menu, barely able to find a meal under 1,000 calories, never mind an appetizer or dessert. Both Stephanie Fowler and Lindsay Green asked about the suddenly popular Classic Sirloin — at 290 calories, it was one of the lowest calorie items on the menu — but learned the restaurant ran out by the time the dinner rush started.  Starbucks customers in New York City are in for a surprise when they see the calorie counts of their favorite pastries.  Outside the Forest Hills’ Dunkin’ Donuts, Juan Restrepo, the 45-year-old owner of a construction company, said he was quitting corn muffins — 510 calories! — this time for good.  “My daughter warned me about them,” he lamented. “I just didn’t listen.”  Putting the brakes on thoughtlessly inhaling calories is exactly the effect New York City health officials hoped the law would have. They say calorie labels could reduce the number of obese New Yorkers by 150,000 over the next five years, and prevent 30,000 cases of diabetes.  New York is not the only city pushing calorie labels. New laws in Seattle and California’s Santa Clara and San Francisco are scheduled to go into effect later this year, including some more stringent than New York’s, requiring restaurants to post information about sodium, carbs, fats and cholesterol in addition to calories.  Such laws have faced stiff opposition and legal challenges from the restaurant industry. A judge struck down New York City’s first calorie labeling law, which would only have applied to fast food restaurants that were already making calorie information available on Web sites or posters. The law was then revised to apply to all chain restaurants with 15 or more outlets nationwide.  “We’re still in court, but the ruling is in effect,” said New York City health department spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti. Fines for the restaurants who haven’t posted calorie counts by Friday will range from $200 to $2,000 depending on the violation, she said. 

Finally,  America is putting the brakes on people overeating.  Though, there will always be people eating junk at least let them see it eye to eye.  These calories and nutritional facts are facts and fact is that you will become what you eat.  To a healthy living.

Stan Newton explains the some basic exercise techniques one can use while on the road.  I thought this would be an appropriate link considering I am taking a trip to NYC tomorrow.  In this video we see the use of a few basic exercise tools you can purchase for a grand total of under $50.  The bands are used in replacement of weights and offer significant resistance.  I bought these at www.performancesports.com.   They come in various levels of resistance and they offer various sizes for multiple purposes.  Though I do recommend the use of weights in a regular workout routine,  I do think these serve a practical purpose.  Next,  Stan was using a jump rope that was purchased at Academy for under $5.  You can’t beat a good cardio workout for this price.  The most significant benefit I have noticed with jump roping is that it gets your heart rate up fast.  Many times individuals start a workout slow and never get to a fat burning heart rate.  As far as working out your abs, I would suggest strict dieting first.  Let’s be realistic, if you have over 2 inches of fat covering your abs crunches are only going to make your waist look bigger.  There is not such thing as target fat burning.  This was a myth of the 80’s and early 90’s.  

My Top 3 suggestions for getting Ripped:

1. Regular cardio program that fluctuates your heart rate through the entire workout.
2. Low-Carb and Eating Clean.  Lots of water and no carbs after 6pm.
3. Sticking with your diet and exercise.  Just like the fat did not appear over night nor will it disappear overnight.  There are lots of claims to losing fat fast but the only way to do it the right and healthy way is consistency over periods of time.  Remember,  this is a lifestyle not a quick fix.