Traineo vs. Gyminee vs. Sparkpeople: Which is the Best?

All three provide good and useful services, but is any one of them clearly better than the other two?  The reviews are based on the features most of us would expect from a fitness tool/advice site.  For each category/feature I will rate Traineo, Gyminee, and Sparkpeople.  The format is simple, five categories (user-friendliness, groups, nutritional logging, exercise logging, and graphing capabilities) judged by placing each site into first, second, or third place.  First place is awarded 3 points, second place 2 points; third place 1 point.  At the end of this review the points are added up and the winner announced.  Pretty simple, right?  Good, well let’s start the reviews.

A Few More Reasons to Eat Your Watermelon: Hint, Natural Viagra

It is delicious, thirst quenching, nutrient dense, and now it is also labeled as a natural Viagra.  What is this miraculous food?  Abromosia?  Close, it is watermelon.  The delicious deep red fruit has a whole host of nutritious benefits, tastes 1,000 times better than broccoli, and now, according to Texas A & M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center some compounds found in watermelons:

“[perform] the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it.”

Moreover, Dr. Bhimu Patil went on to state that, “it’s [watermelon] a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects”

Sounds like it makes for a great pre-run, pre-workout snack.

Add to these new benefits the long recognized health benefits of watermelons (listed below) and it is probably worth designating the delicious fruit as a totally awesome super food.

Health Benefits of Watermelon; Tips on Knowing a Good Melon when you see it.

A Busy Monday….

So busy in fact that I couldn’t fit all my activities and nutritional info on to one excel sheet.  That is why you get three separate GIF files for your viewing pleasure.  Plus, if you click the read more option below, you’ll get a tease about tomorrow’s post- a post I REALLY DON’T want to write or leave up as public record.

Back to the Excel files.  The first GIF showcases today’s activities and basic meal information. As usual (at least for the last week) the day started out with some Wii Fit yoga and boxing.  Around the middle of the day I took the opportunity to lay out the slip and slide and enjoy time with my daughter and wife- and later suffer from a raging sun burn- for over an hour.  Later I took some time to throw in a complete resistance workout using an old set of PowerBlock dumbbells.   Also, I’m not even counting the 50 or so times I had to throw my daughter over my head, run around with her on my shoulders, etc.  I would rank today as a high activity day.

The second GIF is the top half of a more in depth analysis of caloric intake throughout the day. 

Fitness Journal Entry 3/21/08: A Day at the Park

It was a great day out with the family ;-).  65 degrees, sunny all day, and a very energetic daughter to chase around the playground.

The Difference A Week Makes…

I took off a whole week from lifting over Thanksgiving (Monday to Monday) and the results were nothing less than excellent.

My Squat went from 290 to 320

My Leg Press went from 390 to 415

My Bench Press went up, although its gone down overall since I switched machines.  Over the last few months I went from Hammer Strength bench presses, to Smith Machine bench presses, to free weight bench presses.  The difference is amazing- the latter is MUCH harder.

and My Shoulder Press went from 150 to 180

Suffice it to say, I feel great!  Combined with my tighter higher protein food regimen I am expecting great results over the next month.  Perhaps I will go shirtless in February?  Who knows?!

I should add a word of warning, long periods of time off from exercise can be extremely beneficial in aiding muscle recovery and allowing your body the time it needs to recover.  However, be sure your workouts are intense enough to stimulate growth before you go taking off a whole week!

The Joys of Marriage and Weight Loss Mixed…

I hate gimmicky diets!  Low-Carb, no carb, low fat, high fat, grapefruits only, whatever, they all serve one purpose- to make some schmuck who wrote a book rich.  Eventually, I hope to be that book writing schmuck.  But for now I have no book.  What I do have is a wife with relatives that swear by the “South Beach Diet”- isn’t the pretentious name alone enough to make you gag?

So, as an act of marital love (akin to watching a boring chick flick times 1000) I’ve agreed to do South Beach with her for at least one month.  So what is South Beach?  Think Atkins but more veggies and a bit less steak.  I get two weeks of pretty much just veggies and protein, then I am “allowed” to reintroduce whole wheat and such.  You aren’t even allowed to eat fruit during the first two weeks.  Does that sound healthy to you?  I thought so.  But oh well, I will try it and report back to you.

This is day one of South Beach for me.  For breakfast I had one of those brand name South Beach breakfast bars and about five strips of turkey bacon.  I was able to make it through my time in the gym with a fairly decent workout and some pretty intense leg exercises.  My meals for the rest of the day include turkey breast on greens and whatever my wife makes for dinner tonight.  Wish me luck and pray for me.  HA!

Re-Dedication, Again…

It is always interesting that whenever you take on a major lifestyle change the old habits always seem to find a way to creep in when you let your guard down.  They find the cracks in your resistance and slip on through with ease.  For me it was stress from school that got me eating like I used to and skipping my cardio.  I tend to eat when I want to get my mind off of whatever is stressing me.  That is why I reached 206lbs back in law school, as I was constantly stressed out back then.

Thanks to my continued resistance training I haven’t fallen too far off track, but for a perfectionist like me, I am INCREDIBLY frustrated that I am still hanging around between 167 and 171 lbs.  I should be 159lbs by now.  Well, I would be, if I hadn’t succumbed to my basest urges.

So now is a time for rededication of sorts.  To throw myself back into this fully and fit into this shirt– not to mention make it look good!  So for the next two weeks I am going to reintroduce cardio and bring my eating back under control- no more cookies or chips!

Next Week: The Return of Intensity (Part Deux)

So my workouts are more intense and it is working great, now what?  Well, how about taking a step back and looking at my diet.  Wow!  Much room for improvement remains.

So in addition to a workout schedule similar to last week I will be clamping down on my food intake and ending the snacks that often sneak into my mouth.  Darn clever little critters aren’t they?  This means no more bites of my daughter’s cookies, no more ice pops, no more pointless white flour I sometimes consume, and even no more buns on my Chick-fil-a grilled sandwiches.

Now let me emphasize this next point.  THIS KIND OF THING ISN’T NECESSARY for those of you just trying to lose some weight.  My goal is more than just dropping a few pounds- I’ve dropped 40 already.  My new goal is to see my abs and turn my body into a fitness machine capable of short bursts of incredible strength and speed and long periods of serious physical exertion.  This is the NEXT LEVEL!

Coming Soon: Protein Bar Review.

It’s been a while since someone asked, but I finally got around to it.  Over the next week or two I will be posting reviews on protein bars.  I have selected five brands, all of which are available at Wal-mart.  After all, no sense in me reviewing bars you can’t find anywhere.

The competitors are….

Snickers Marathon Protein Bar: 290 calories; 9g fat; 40g carbs (11g fiber, 20g sugar); 21g protein. Caramel Nut Rush.

PowerBar Protein Plus:  290 calories; 6g fat; 37g carbs (2g fiber, 18g sugar); 23 protein.  Chocolate Crisp.

Meso-Tech Complete:  340 calories; 9g fat; 40g carbs (1g fiber, 26g sugar); 25g protein.  Cookies & Cream.

ThinkThin:  240 calories; 8g fat; 27g carbs (1g fiber, 15 sugar alcohol); 20g protein.  Chocolate fudge and Brownie Crunch.

MLO Sports Nutrition EXTREME: 370 calories; 8g fat; 44g carbs (2g fiber, 29g sugar); 30g protein (W/ 5g Creatine).  Peanut Butter.

Now to see how they taste.  I have a feeling this will be an interesting experience.

Breaking Free of Plateaus: A New Suggestion

Here it is, as simply as I can put it:

Indulgence days aren’t optional, they are essential!

Yeah, I know, you’ve spent the last few months (or years) carefully watching every calorie lest you eat 1 calorie too much.  And this might seem counter-intuitive, but trust me on this.  I stumbled on this by accident.

As many of you know I was stuck somewhere between 168.5 and 170.5 for about 70 days or so.  I also had no change in either muscle growth or waist shrinkage.  Both numbers remained the same for that 70 day period.

Last week, as I had company in town, I ended up taking two days off my diet for the sake of convenience.  Keep in mind I DID NOT take off time from my workouts.  On the first night I ate three VERY large slices of pizza and a few garlic knots, and on the second night I ate a delicious Checkers’ burger with small fries.  Sure, on those nights I weighed in at about 170.2, but I felt fine and my waist measurement never went up.

The next day I got back to basics and stuck with my meal plan and ran through a good resistance training workout and a short cardio session (part walk, part interval training).

The next day I rested and ate well.

On the fourth day I stepped on the scale…