Tag Archives: chris zaremba

Grow your own good stuff

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Nutrition should be a key part of your fitness regime. Growing your own vegetables is a great way to enjoy fresh food and keep costs down.
If you are struggling to decide on what to grow, here are my top picks:

Spinach
Ever wondered why Popeye’s go-to food was always spinach? Although just a cartoon, there’s reason behind this concept — spinach helps to build bones, after all. On top of this, the leafy green works to nourish the eyes, boosts the body’s digestive system and offers relief against dry and itchy skin.

Broad beans
An excellent source of both fibre and protein, broad beans are a brilliant choice if one of your main fitness goals is to lose weight. The vegetable is rich in vitamin B and folate, providing the body with energy and enhancing its nerve and blood cell development, as well as cognitive function.

Courgettes
Your cardiovascular health can be substantially improved by adding courgettes to your diet. This is because they are high in nutrients like potassium and magnesium, both of which work to normalise your blood pressure. The vitamin C found in courgettes will work to prevent the oxidation of bad cholesterol in your blood too.

Carrots
There is some truth in the urban legend that carrots help you see in the dark. This is because the vegetable is rich in beta-carotene, which converts first into vitamin A in the liver and then rhodopsin in the retina — the latter is a purple pigment that is vital for night vision. Vitamin A also aids the liver by reducing the amount of fat and bile that builds up there.

If you’re looking for further ideas, or want to buy high quality vegetables to grow at home (even if you don’t have a garden), checkout the web site of my friends at Stacks of Flavour – www.StacksOfFlavour.co.uk

Gym Review

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Snapshot - 201I’m lucky to have tried gyms all around the world, in just about every continent (damn you, Antarctica) – and I was pleased to receive an invitation to visit Fitness First in Tottenham Court Road last week, just down the road from my usual London gym in fact.

This was my first visit to the gym and I was impressed by the huge range of facilities there – at 6pm, there were four exercise classes taking place simultaneously, all well-attended.  I don’t know many other UK gyms that have the amount of separate studio rooms that would be needed to support that number of activities.

And there is, as you’d expect, a large range of cardio machines – with multi-channel TV – and a large resistance training area with a good weights platform (for all of you who for some reason insist on dropping the bar in a deadlift rather than lowering under control) plus dozens of machines from calf raise to shoulder shrugs and everything in between.    For virtually every machine, there are multiple instances – I think I counted four leg extension machines, for example.

All good – and massively popular.  And that, perhaps, is a drawback – it was very crowded in the cardio, free weights and resistance training area.  A workout would need to be flexible if you didn’t ever want to wait for anything.  Supersetting could be a bit difficult, I expect.

A more personal drawback is that it doesn’t have high ceilings.  I know that may be seen as a weird comment, but I like training in an airy space – in London, think of Jubilee Gym in Covent Garden, and Fitness First’s own locations in St Pauls and Broadgate, both of which have partially double-height workout areas.  Further afield, two of my favourite gyms – Hercules Gym in Telford and Gold’s in Venice Beach – both have high warehouse-high rooflines, which contribute to the atmosphere (it for me, anyway).

There’s also a swimming pool, which I didn’t use, and looked pretty tempting if you like that in your gym.  I’ve discovered that putting a swimming pool in a Fitness First gym usually moves the membership category up a tier – which means those with Fitness First memberships of a more lowly calibre can’t use any of the facilities there – which is why this was my first visit.

In summary, Fitness First Tottenham Court Road is a great gym with more equipment and a bigger floor area than I’ve seen in any other London Fitness First.   And I guess the popularity was due to my 6pm visit time.  Go at some less popular hour, and I know you’ll have a great workout!  Checkout their website and you may just find a way to get a free one-day pass.

And thanks so much to Shaun and the team at Fitness First Tottenham Court Road for inviting me over for the visit.

My nutrition approach – yours too?

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People often ask me about my nutrition, so here’s a typical day.  The pic is meals 1-3 of the six I’ll be having.

Meal 1 is the power breakfast of oats, nuts, seeds, berries, cinnamon, and whey shake with water – with some of the shake poured on the oats to turn them into a great chocolatey taste.

Breakfast pic 22 is mid morning Quest Bar in pumpkin pie flavour.

Meal 3 is grilled chicken breast chunks plus green beans and sweet potato – with some oil to keep the potato getting dry over the day.  This is prepared in advance and packed to take for a day away from home.

That lot comes to 1100 calories of my daily target of 2500 – and provides 100g of my daily target 250g  of protein, 95g of my daily target 250g of carbs, and 35g of my daily target 60g of fat.

Later meals will be:

Meal 4 – mid afternoon – cold roast chicken slices dunked into rhubarb yogurt (from M&S)

Meal 5 – post-workout – another whey shake plus a banana

Meal 6 – dinner with friends at a restaurant – I’ll probably go for steak with veg and share some red wine – this is a sociable occasion rather than diet-focussed, so I’ll make good choices but I’m not going to be a diet bore over dinner.

That 2500 daily calories is made up of 250g of each of protein and carbs and 60g of fat, which is a 40/40/20 percent split on macros.  That’s a ratio that has always worked well for me and I recommend it to all my fatness-down and fitness-up clients.  It’s also easy to calculate!

I hope that helps and answers the questions… but get in touch if you’ve any questions or comments.

The LAD Bible

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There’s many web magazine-style sites out there, many dedicated to fitness – and a huge number that have a bigger subject coverage.  But I’ve noticed that more and more of the generalist sites are giving more space to fitness-related material.

This is excellent news, the more that fitness gets to be a mainstream activity, the better.  I want to be where lifting heavy things for the pure joy of it, and for the heath benefits and for the way all aspects of life are improved by doing it – is absolutely the norm for the population.  ‘Sorry, you don’t workout?’ becomes a surprising reaction.

I’m old enough to remember when it was absolutely the usual thing to smoke – ‘Sorry, you don’t smoke?’ showed up the exception.  So as smoking decreases in popularity, lets see hitting the equally health-promoting activity of shifting weights as something that everyone does.  I’d love to see it where pub conversations include ‘What’s your favourite beer?  Football team? Chest exercise?’

One particular example of fitness hitting the mainstream magazine sites is The LAD Bible.  A site with a huge following and audience base (10million likes on Facebook isn’t exactly shabby!), they are focussing more space and devoting further effort on promoting fitness to its audience through articles and videos.  And still they keep the levels of humour and entertainment way, way up there.  Well done guys.

So its big thanks and two-thumbs-up to the team at The LAD Bible to be featured there.  They recently published an interview with me on my approach to improving fitness levels, both my own story and what I suggest to others. Thanks again – and take a look at the article on www.bitly.com/ChrisTheLadBible

Fitness talk on HayesFM – listen again…

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I had the great pleasure of being invited to be a guest on the FuestelFIT programme on HayesFM 91.8 a couple of days ago.  HayesFM is West London’s leading community radio station, and this particular show, hosted by fitness personality Nicola Feustel, is the top weekly radio show specialising in fitness anywhere in London.

During the chat with Nicola, I talked both about my own fitness story, and also tips for others – both over and under 50 – during the half-hour I was on air.

If you missed the show, and you’d like to hear it, then you can listen again on
www.bitly.com/ChrisOnHayesFM

Vitamin D Awareness Week

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This is Vitamin D Awareness Week, a good time, I thought, to give you an update on this vital vitamin.

As you know, I’m a big believer that if you regularly engage in physical activity it’s important to take care of your body with the right nutrition. As well as increasing our wellbeing and energy levels, vitamins and minerals have the ability to help protect against injury and ensure good muscle recovery.  Recent research has revealed that 50% of UK adults are now deficient in vitamin D.

How much do you know about vitamin D? According to a health survey, 46 per cent of people think they get enough of this vitamin from vegetables. In fact, 90 per cent should be obtained from strong sunlight, this is why many of us become deficient during the winter months.

The highest rates of deficiency are in Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland. Due to limited sun exposure between October and March, it is almost impossible to get the UV rays needed to reach the daily requirement of this essential vitamin.

Low levels of vitamin D are associated with increased likelihood of illness, fatigue and a higher risk of suffering stress fractures. As we age, and during the winter months, our body’s ability to produce vitamin D reduces, so it’s important to think about topping up with a supplement.

Research has linked good levels of vitamin D to reduced inflammation and pain within joints, as well as improved exercise capacity and better protein synthesis within the muscles.

Vitamin D is vitally important for bone health. Without it, calcium cannot be effectively absorbed by your body. A deficiency in vitamin D can result in bone and muscle pain, poor bone mineralisation (softer bones) and a greater risk of osteoporosis and fractures as we age – a prime concern for all you fantastic quintastics!

It’s especially important to look after your bone and muscle health if you engage in regular physical activity, doing so can reduce your risk of injury. Weak bones alongside repetitive loading can result in painful and debilitating stress fractures.

Finally, everyone hates the dreaded colds and flu that seem to come along during the winter months. Vitamin D is known for its high anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties, which means it can strengthen our immune system and help protect against colds and flu. Some studies even suggest that vitamin D may offer more powerful cold and flu protection than vitamin C.

Suppliers of vitamin D supplementation include Pharma Nord – here is a direct link to their site:

https://www.multivits.co.uk/bio-vitamin-d3

Three stage fitness

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I’ve written an article about a very simple approach to fat loss. One of my clients calls me the Patron Saint of the Bleedin’ obvious, and I think this article probably qualifies – at least as far as Stage One is concerned! Obvious, but true and sometimes it makes sense to go back to basics…

Take a look, its been published on the great WatchFit website – Click here

As always, I welcome comments, thoughts, questions via email.

Walden Farms review

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IMG_8023Walden Farms is a US company supplying a range of products which should be particular interest to all fitness enthusiasts – indeed to anyone looking to up their fitness levels, and down their fatness levels, or indeed a bit of both.

Based in New Jersey, they supply a range of dips, sauces, spreads, jellies and dressings. Nothing unusual about that, you may say, but these are products that tend to feature fairly low on the fitness-fiend’s ‘to buy’ list. Usually packed full of sugars and saturated fats, fitness-focussed readers of this article would tend to avoid them – well, not quite like the plague, but certainly as much as possible.

So what makes Walden Farms products of interest to you, fitness-person? Across the entire range – which is growing almost daily – every single product has no calories, no fat, no carbs, no gluten and no sugars of any kind. Which is indeed pretty amazing!

Obviously, since its zero calories, there’s no good calories in there either – no protein, fibre or good fats – but those can be obtained from whatever it is you are putting Walden Farms products on top of in the kitchen. And I’m not going to mark them down for missing these nutrients.

By the way, when is ‘none’ not ‘none’? Here is the answer, because although the products claim to be zero calories, the ingredients list on each label says ‘Contains trace calories’. And what are trace calories? It is calories in such a small amount that you use more calories eating and digesting it than it provides. And due to that, it is all legally OK in the US and UK to call it zero calorie.

So, with practically no calories, what on earth is in these bottles? The main zero-calorie things I know are water, diet sodas, herbs and spices, coffee and teas. And none of the Walden Farms products are like those. The answer is: water. The biggest ingredient in each product is good old H20, purified and/or filtered. Plus much smaller amounts of many other items – some natural, many others less so – to give the flavour, colour and texture required.

The biggest nasty I found was sodium benzoate. Used as a preservative, it’s a compound that which a lot of people don’t approve of, although it’s totally legal of course in all foodstuffs. It is being phased out of Diet Coke, but is present in all the Walden Farms products I tried.

The nice guys at Discount Supplements – discount-supplements.co.uk – sent me a box of various Walden Farms products to sample – so it was time to stop writing, and start tasting and reading labels!

I did an unscientific taste check on five of their products, one from each of several ranges. Here are my thoughts on taste and ingredients.

1. From the sauces, I chose the Seafood Sauce. It’s for seafood, not made from seafood – and I’m not sure why they limit it for seafood in their description, the taste would go with many savoury meals. The taste is tangy, and I noted hints of tomato, cider vinegar and horseradish. The main ingredient, of course, is water – and it is runny compared to most UK sauces, but comparable to American chop sauce. Other ingredients include tomato paste and sea salt. It is the sea salt that gives me a concern – it is pretty heavy in sodium. One serving gives you 10% of the US recommended daily amount. But that’s not outrageous when compared to calorie-heavy sauces that taste similar.

2. Another sauce I tried is their Tomato and Basil Pasta Sauce. This actually has real bits of tomato and peppers in it (but still legally zero calorie), and is remarkably lovely in taste, and I‘m sure it would enhance any pasta substantially – and will do in our house. Again it’s the sodium which is likely to concern a few people. A portion of this gives you 350mg of it – 16% of your recommended daily value. A large number, but again comparable to other similar-style products that come with tons of sugar too.

3. Let’s leave meals and move to spreads – and I’m really looking forward to this one – its peanut butter with extra flavourings – to be precise its Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Spread. I love peanut butter, the taste and the texture. And I love the taste of this, I get the peanuts, the cinnamon and the raisin in the flavour. But it has a weird texture, more creamy than I’d expect, so it’s far better put onto something (like bread) rather than eaten by the teaspoonful, in usual Chris Zaremba-style. And real raisins too – I’m not sure how they can be zero sugar, but I’m sure it’s a legally valid claim. Sodium is a bit high – but I can confidently predict this jar won’t be in the cupboard for long in our house!

4. Don’t like peanut butter, you strange person? An alternative is a fruit spread – and I tried the Blueberry Fruit Spread. Looks the right colour, smells right and tastes fine, but again the texture is unusual. Spread it on bread, and don’t expect any lumpy bits of real fruit – they would, of course, bring calories with them. Sucralose is here as the artificial sweetener, but there’s no sodium involved.

5. Finally, to coffee – and Walden Farms Hazelnut-flavoured Coffee Creamer. Americans love their flavoured coffee, and this does the trick with that big zero calorie plus point. This product in particular is a chemical lab in miniature on the ingredients list, with remarkably few truly natural-sounding ingredients. It is heavy on carrageenan – which is used in many dairy products – and gives some people an upset tummy. And the sweetener sucralose is surprisingly high up the ingredients list. But – if you like this sort of thing – it tastes fine in coffee, sweetens it well, and the favour reminds me of many trips to coffee shops in the US, where adding the creamer often brings 200 calories or more to your coffee.

In summary, this is a range of products that I suspect their food technicians and chemical engineers have laboured hard to keep within the no calorie, no fat, no carbs, no gluten and no sugars claim. And that is going to get them a lot of customers, including me for some of their products.

If that no sugar, no fat, no calorie approach is paramount for you, then without doubt this is the range for you. I doubt there’s enough sodium benzoate or sucralose to cause you concern unless you eat far too much from the range. But keep an eye on the sodium, it will mount up.

However, if you like your products as natural as possible, regardless of calories, fat or sugars, then my guess is you won’t be buying much from the range.

Me? I’ll take the sauces and the peanut butter, and for these I’ll happily take the Walden Farms rather non-natural approach in exchange for the zero calories. But the spread and coffee sweetener/flavouring isn’t for me; I don’t consume these anyway in full calorie versions, and I’m not going to change that due to the availability of zero calorie options for these.

A final word of thanks again to Discount Supplements for sending me the box. It’s very kind, thanks guys!

Quick Muscle Beach day trip…

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Filmed last November, when the weather was lousy here, Dan Wynes and I decided to do a quick all-body-part workout together showing some of our favourite exercises for Arms, Back, Chest, Shoulders and Legs – and then crammed them all into a quick four minute video.

And to make you truly jealous of the winter weather, we hopped on a plane and did it outside at sunny Muscle Beach in Los Angeles.

If you want to see these fave exercises, or just like seeing other people doing the work in the sunshine (or even see if my music choice has improved), take a look – its the top left video on www.bitly.com/ChrisVideos

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Really, why do you do it Chris?

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Sometimes I am asked – Chris, why on earth did you get into the Fitness Modelling lark? I understand all about getting fit, but not sure I really follow the on-stage bit – tell me more, and what’s it like?

Well, rather than write it out again (I’m all for self-plagiarism), here is an interview I did with Keith Cormican that was published a little while ago on the MyFitTribe website. I hope it explains why I think walking the fitness stage is great, even for someone of my age.

I hope you agree, and will join me under the spotlight later this year or next!  Let me know…

Click here