Monthly Archives: January 2013

Follow Us!

Drum roll please…Hungry and Fit now has a Twitter and a YouTube. Yes, this isn’t an exciting post…at all, but we try to keep you updated with what’s going on with us in accordance to this blog. Both are pretty easy to access…twitter.com/hungryandfit and youtube.com/hungryandfit. Pretty simple, no?

We will be updating it as regularly as we can, probably more so the Twitter than the YouTube, but the YouTube already has some cute kitten videos up on there! So you can follow us (our twitter handle is now on the left side of the blog page) and subscribe to the YouTube channel.

hungryandfittwitter

For the Twitter page, we will be updating it with workout tips, eating/cooking tips, and lifestyle guides. Much similar as to what you see us posting here, but in very short condensed form!

For the YouTube page, we will be putting up videos of kittens (duh), workouts, home cooking, and more! It will be well worth it to keep an eye out as we will keep them to a shortened length.

Sajah ninja-attacking Chris

Sajah ninja-attacking Chris

Thanks for following/subscribing to us, stay tuned, and as always…stay hungry and fit!

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15 Minute High-Intensity Workout — No Excuses

I don’t care how busy you are. You have 15 minutes. You do. Don’t lie to yourself. So if you don’t have time for your own full workout, try this one. Only 15 minutes. Extremely simple. All you need is a timer. You could use your phone if it has one too. You can get some of your family to do it with you–it will make it more fun (and entertaining) this way. Most everyone can do it, unless you have a significant injury. Just try it! It gets you working, your heart rate up, hopefully sweating, and your core/legs strong. So here it is…

  • 1 minute mountain climbers

  • 1 minute russian twists

  • 1 minute lunges

x5

Meaning, you perform 1 minute of mountain climbers, 1 minute of russian twists, then 1 minute of lunges. And REPEAT FIVE TIMES. Take as little rest as possible. If you do so, you will have completed a very efficient, high-intensity, muscle-burning workout.

With the mountain climbers, I want you to go as quickly as possible. Keeping the pace up is one thing, but you also need to try to get those feet as close to the hands as possible to complete a good exercise.

With the russian twists, make sure you are doing complete rotations. This means that it’s not just your hands moving side to side, but also your shoulders. You’re doing a complete twist from either side. Once you’ve mastered that rotation, try to get a solid speed going.

With the lunges, if you have enough room you can do moving lunges. Otherwise, place your hands on your hips, lunge forward with the right, bring it back to center, then lunge forward with the left. This way, you stay in the same spot, but still get the full extension of the exercise.

Good luck, work hard, and sweat often! 

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Healthy Whole-Wheat Honey Banana Muffins

If you couldn’t tell by the title, this recipe is very healthy. There is no sugar and no refined flour. AND THEY TASTE GOOD. I wouldn’t lie. This is my first time baking muffins from scratch, so I’m very pleased. I found the recipe here, altered it slightly and cut in half because I only have a 12-count muffin pan. And this was all the while watching Fawlty Towers!

IMG_2959

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cooking Time: 17 minutes
  • Yields: 12 beautiful muffins 

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 bananas mashed
  • 1/4 cup hot water

Directions

  • Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and grease the muffin pan 
  • Put the whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl and mix. 

dry ingredients

  • Put the dry ingredients to the side and get a bigger bowl where everything will end up. Put in the olive oil and honey and whisk well.

oil + honey

  • Once that is well mixed, drop in those two eggs and mix mix mix!

Eggggssss

  • Once those are beaten, then add the mashed (MASH THEM) bananas into the mix.
  • Now the dry ingredients are ready to make friends with the wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with pouring in a little of the hot water you measured out before. Mix well!
Mix all ready to go

Mix all ready to go

  • The mix is delicious by the way–had way too much of it before it hit the oven. Go a head and pour the mix into your muffin pan. Fill it as high up as you want–it all depends on how big muffins you’d like.

IMG_2966

  • Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Mine cooked in about 17 minutes. Try going for 15 minutes and test them.

IMG_2969And here they are. The texture turned out wonderfully, the taste not overpowering, and the structural integrity strong. Very excited about these.

Chris' hand

Chris’ hand (you can see dinner in the background)

My hand

My hand

Cheers! Enjoy the recipe and the food! Delicious 

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Movie Review: The Impossible

It’s been awhile since we hit the movie theatres with our busy schedules, work, and sickness. But today, we did. It was a movie that I’ve wanted to see for a while now: “The Impossible.” It’s a true story about a British (though in the credits of the actual family members, we think they are Spanish) family of 5 (parents and 3 boys) on a resort in Thailand when the 2004 Tsunami hit the Southeast Asian area. It was very gripping and intense.

Countries most affected by the tsunami, with t...

Countries most affected by the tsunami, with the earthquake’s epicenter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is an underlying tension from the beginning, seeing as the audience knows what’s going to happen as they show the date and time continually. The family is happy travelling to Thailand and having a blast on a beautiful resort, lots of love and joy. But we know what’s going to happen. We just don’t know how it specifically is going to happen to these people. So right from the start, there’s that gripping tension of waiting. 

Once it does happen, the movie becomes very intense and consequently emotional, family members trying to find their others. And in the midst of the tsunami actually passing through, a feeling of panic and terror rose up even in me as I was sitting safely in my cushioned movie theatre chair. The thing that made this harder to watch and comprehend was that it happened in real life, all of this occurred to real people and I kept remembering back to the catastrophic death toll of this event.

The Impossible (film)

The Impossible (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The family, split up, travels to different locations, sustaining horrific injuries and struggling to survive through it all. I won’t spoil it by telling you if they do or not. Despite the terrible event that triggered the horrors, there was something incredibly heartwarming about many parts. People, when they were significantly injured, stopping to help others in need when it could cause their own death. A village of Thai helping out two rich anglos, going completely out of their way just to save someone’s life. During these scenes, I felt an incredible warm feeling of hope and the beauty that still thrives in humanity, despite scenes of horror.

The acting of this movie was splendid–I mean, how could you go wrong with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGreggor. Also, the oldest son was an incredible actor and took up a big role of the movie. It really felt as if you were thrown into the situation with them. The only downside to this movie for me was that, at some parts, it was a little bit too dramatic. Sometimes you didn’t need the drama of Hollywood because you had the drama of nature–a real-life event.

English: Naomi Watts at the Cannes film festival

English: Naomi Watts at the Cannes film festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It was tough to watch in some parts, but highlights what’s good in humanity in the worst of times. Take the time to go see it, or catch it on DVD when it comes out.

Cheers!

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You Can Train Your Cats Too

I have always been a dog person. Not to say that I was a cat hater, but if given the choice of feline or canine, I would always go with the dogs. I am an animal lover, thus I do enjoy cats as well, but they never seemed as approachable or personable as dogs did. I’m still a huge dog person, but now I’m a cat person too (somehow that makes me sigh). Since I’ve gotten our kittens, I’ve learned to love them. Instantly. And now I see that they aren’t so different from dogs after all. Especially Nymeria.

Sleepy Nymeria

Sleepy Nymeria

If you’ve read about her, you’ll know that she acts like a dog, rough housing, and cuddling, and afraid of nothing. Sajah, our newer kitten, behaves like a dog when it comes to food…and he’s become quite the cuddler as well. I’m drawing the connection between these two species for a reason. Dogs are trained right from when they are of puppy age (if possible) to sit, lie down, come, and so forth. Rarely will you find people training their cats this way. Sure, they might urge them towards a litter box when they’re young (although they are born with the tendency to go to the bathroom in a confined place), but when do you ever hear of someone training their cats as you would dogs?

Rarely. And I ask, why? Why should dogs be trained to do certain tasks or tricks but not felines? It doesn’t make sense to me. It just seems to be a cultural thing to just train dogs and not cats. With Nymeria, we’ve been training her to do pull-ups on her cat tree since she was young. Even though she’s smaller than Sajah (and was smaller than Misty too), she can use her upper body wiry strength to get out of a bind. That was just a little thing.

photo (61)

Up until the kittens, I’ve only known how to raise a dog. So I am raising the kittens like puppies. I’ve begun a training regimen with both of them, and I try to keep to it every day. And guess what–they’ve learned commands incredibly fast. At the same speed or quicker than dogs that I’ve trained. So there’s to people who think that cats aren’t made for training.

How do you train them? Some might ask. All I do is cut treats into small pieces (we use “Greenies” for good kitty dental health) and have them follow different commands. It can be tough and hectic training them both at the same time, but if one starts interfering just plop them somewhere else. Say the commands and show them what to do until they understand.

Random window pic

Random window pic

Both Sajah and Nymeria know “come” although they don’t always choose to follow that one without treats. Nymeria is an expert at “sit.” She does it on command without treats now and understands the word. How did I get her to understand? I would say, “Nymeria, sit” and then position her body in a seated position. Eventually, she connected it and put it together.

Nymeria, sit!

Nymeria, sit!

Sajah,  on the other hand, is an expert at “up.” He knows even by the hand gesture of patting the couch that he will jump up right beside me. He picked that one up quickly and does it frequently whenever I ask. Of course, he’s hoping for treats, but it’s great that he will do it without them.

Sajah en route to command "up!"

Sajah en route to command “up!”

It takes time and patience, as all thing such as these require, but I think it’s worth it. Some may call it odd or strange, but I believe it’s due to culture that people don’t train their cats. It’s simply not the thing to do. So break the pattern, get with your kittens, and give them a few minutes of training every day so they can become intelligent, task-managing fiends!

Cheers!

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Hungry’s Secret Recipes: Humming Chicken Star Deluxe

My father taught me much about sandwiches while growing up. While Mom was always making creative and sophisticated dishes, Dad was the master of the art of sandwich. And it was not something to be messed with in the house. If you didn’t toast your bread, you were a punk. Cheese and salami on bread? Not a real sandwich. He invented the super deluxe sandwich, with all the fixings. Lettuce, pickles, cole slaw… anything in the fridge was fair game to be put on the sandwich.

Being from the New York area and having the earl of sandwich in the house, I inherited a love for the sandwich. My standards are high, even though I’ll eat just about anything. The philosophy hasn’t changed, put stuff on it, and toast it, or you’re just an ingrate.
Without a ton of time before work and having to go in the water for four hours, and five without food, I knew I had to throw together a nice sandwich that wouldn’t hurt my stomach at all. Since I’m getting back into working out, I also wanted a good amount of protein, calories, and carbs since it’s still early in the day and I need my fuel. The catch is that I woke  up with some cold symptoms including a sore throat and congestion, so I wanted to avoid cheese and thickening agents.
Here are the ingredients:
  •  1 Morningstar Original Griller
  •  1 large can of Chunk light tuna
  •  hummus, plain
  •  mustard, Gulden’s
  •  butter, land o lakes 
  •  whole wheat bread, 3 pieces
  •  1 avocado, large
 Ingredients
(I forgot pickles, really just a lack of time)
And the pictures show the rest.
The start
Get the avocado on there

Get the avocado on there

Next comes the tuna

Next comes the tuna

DON'T FORGET TO TOAST IT

DON’T FORGET TO TOAST IT

Essentially, create a monster stacking sandwich that has toasted bread. First toast the bread. Then construct as the pictures show. Then cover in butter and toast on the stove top. Take that Dad. Feel free to add lettuce and pickles.
Ready to be eaten

Ready to be eaten

Nutritional Facts: Way over 50 grams of protein. That’s all you need to know.
Be hungry!
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Supplement Review: Optimum Nutrition Platinum Pre-Workout

It is time to write this review because I have officially decided to stop using this product for health concerns. Honestly, I cannot say for certain if this is having negative side effects on me, but I believe that it is.

A little history: I have been using Optimum Nutrition as a major supplement provider for the past five years. I have consistently gone back to cycles of their Isolated Whey Protein (Chocolate) because it is affordable in bulk, mixes well with milk and water, and is one of the more natural proteins in its class. I also only use Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder in cycles for the past four years. I have never had any issues with these two products, obviously.
 
As a result, when I found out that they recently released their own Pre-Workout, I was excited. I bought it immediately and said as soon as my MusclePharm Assault and 1MR are finished, I’ll start a cycle with it. Well I did just that and was immediately not impressed. I got the Raspberry-Lemonade, 30 servings, which has recommended use of 1 scoop for average training and 2 for intense. It’s a rule that you only try the half serving the first time around with a new supplement so I did just that.

It tasted awful! Really was one of the worst tasting pre-workouts ever, and I have tried nearly all of them (not every flavor of all of them). The weirdest part was that is was spicy. I have a tongue disorder that causes my tongue to be extremely sensitive and this burned my tongue worse than chili peppers. This was extremely painful and the sensation lasted for quite some time. Within three days of starting using this I ended up in the emergency room with what was diagnosed as gastritis. Looking back, I truly believe that this was the cause of the gastritis, which essentially ruined my last two months of 2012 and even carried into 2013. I believe if I did not buy this product, I would not have had my health issues that led to me missing work, Christmas, and weeks of working out.

Now, I have no issue with ON over the incident but as of tonight, despite having servings left, I will stop taking it to see if my stomach issues and digestive problems go away. If they don’t, maybe I’ll finish the load. If they do, I’ll give it away to someone who might not have as sensitive a stomach. I highly doubt any other supplement that I am taking is the cause since I have used them for the last five years with no issues.
As for its effectiveness, it is hard to measure but I never felt any sensation of extra blood or oxygen flowing through my veins or body during the cycle. No tingling in the lips or mouth. No extra pump in muscle groups and no noticeable decrease in my lactic acid build up.So unfortunately, ON, from a professional opinion, I have to give your Platinum Pre-Workout a 2/10. It is somewhat affordable and mixes well, but tastes awful and has little to no effect on a workout, either pre, during or post. The rating does not even include what I think it did to my health. No hard feelings on potentially ruining a ton of progress that I made and my two favorite months and holidays of the year.

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Bodybuilding.com Review

I know what a lot of you are thinking. Bodybuilding? We don’t want to be bodybuilders. But this is a huge misconception about this phenomenal online resource. Let me tell you from some experience why you need to go to www.bodybuilding.com and see what they have to offer. Disclaimer: I have no official connection to the website and I am doing this simply because I think it can help any readers that are interested in being HEALTHIER!

 
I have it bookmarked on my Chrome bookmark bar and this is why.

 

1. Store: Obviously, they need to make serious money to stay in business because it is a massive operation, which I’ll say more about later. If you are interested in taking supplements, keep reading… if not, I won’t force anything on you because I have mixed feelings about supplements. The website gives user reviews on every product, a massive selection of supplements, and very competitive prices. I buy ALL of my supplements from Amazon or this website. What I love the most is the promotions they have. Free shaker cups, t-shirts, gym bags with the purchase of your supplements and on top of all that… they send you a ton of free samples depending on the size of your order. Last time, on a $100 order, I easily got $25 dollars of free supplements (mostly good ones) on top of two free shakers and a drawstring bag. Just saying, you can do your unbiased research and get a great deal.

 

2. Bodyspace: This is the workout world’s equivalent of MySpace. It is a social media medium in its own way, but it’s very useful. I have a Bodyspace but I have never used it. Nevertheless, I can tell you that you can track progress in terms of measurements, body fat and weight, and other goals. You can set goals and work towards them. You can even post your own workouts for others to use… and so much more. The best part is that out of the million users nearly all of them are friendly, motivating, and supportive because if they aren’t, they aren’t welcome. It’s free, by the way, and has literally changed thousands of people’s lives for the better. Just go on and ask those people, and check out their progress.

 

3. Articles: Free fitness articles, free recipes, free workouts, free information that competes with any magazine out there. Fitness professionals (some that I like more than others) provide you with great information born from brutal experience and education. They have everything from a book worth of protein powder recipes all the way to interviews with really fascinating people.

 

So those are my three biggest reasons that you should check the site out if you’re interested in any fitness related goal. Nutrition, workouts, motivation… they have everything and more, go check it out.

 

Okay, Bodybuilding.com, time to hire me! 
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The Record Volume 1: Live Music Collaborations

This is a very specific post. It’s a list of my three favorite male-male live music collaborations, the best performances. I just thought of it while watching YouTube this morning while trying to wake up for the day (we don’t drink coffee). It doesn’t include every performance; it’s the first three that popped into my head but they did for a reason. They are three of my favorite songs of all time, easily top 100 list for each. Potentially top 10 and probably top 20. Here they are, in order, and why.

1. MOBO 2007 – Kano ft. Craig David – This is the Girl: First of all, this is the second most played song of all time on my iTunes, out of well over 8000 songs over the past seven-ish years. Kano is one of the most underrated rappers ever, and in my opinion, the best out of the U.K. Off his London Town album, this track has a great energy to it and I can use it in any workout. Nothing vulgar, not a bad message. It’s classy. And it has Craig David on it, arguably my favorite artist of all time. Born to Do It is my favorite album of all time and was ranked the 2nd best album ever behind Thriller by MTV viewers in a large poll. As for the performance, it’s pretty simple. Some flashy lights and big screens, but mainly these two guys just going at it. No lip syncing, no faking… this is top notch live performing just the way everyone should do it.
2. The King Stays King Sold Out at Madison Square Garden – Romeo Santos ft. Usher – Promise: This 75% Spanish/25% English bachata based love song was my song of the year for 2011 along with the last live performance. It makes sense that they both make the list then, since they are fresh in my mind. Romeo Santos, the lead singer of Aventura (band of Dominican boys from the Bronx), is a large man with a soft delicate voice that comes out of nowhere. He is the king of modern bachata and royalty in New York City. Not everyone can sell out MSG: it’s big, especially in this economy.

Usher can dance and his style and voice fits bachata nice as well. So what makes this performance worthy of the list other than the fact that I like the song. It was at the end of the concert and no one actually knew Usher was coming. Everyone went crazy when he emerged from under the stage. They both brought top notch vocals, the band has great skill and energy, tons of smooth dance moves and the two worked off one another, harmonizing beautifully.  At one point, about four minutes into the over ten minute performance, the band breaks it down and everything melts like butter. One of the best moments in a live performance I have ever seen. Good work, boys, keep making teenage girls across the country happy.

 

3. SBS Inkigayo 2011/10/30 – Tablo ft. Taeyang – Tomorrow: This performance is on the top three list more so because of its significance than anything else. This is one of my favorite songs, and top two from 2011 along with Promise, but this isn’t the best possible performance they could have done. Tablo, the leader of Korea’s “founding” rap group Epik High, had some background tracks running throughout his verses. I did like how they made it seem that Taeyang, Big Bang’s smooth moving and singing heart throb, wasn’t actually there as they were just using the film from the music video. When he came out for the last minute it made it that much better.

This was so exciting because it was Tablo’s first release after signing with YG, my favorite Korean music label. When the two “dapped” (NY’s terminology for the hand shake hug) it signified Tablo’s joining of YG with one of YG’s most popular and marketable artists. Throw a little big of Taeyang’s dancing and vocals in there, along with Tablo’s lyrics and style and this was one great moment on Inkigayo. (Inkigayo is a weekly television show with small audiences that features popular artists and songs in Korea at the time.)

So there you have it, top three live male-male crossover collaborations. I’m not surprised there is an English, Spanish, and Korean song. Maybe if MC Solaar and Garou threw something together there would have been a French one too.

 

Cheers! Listen and love your music and don’t let anyone tell you to stop listening to something you like!
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Where Did My Arms Go?

It’s the third week in January and I haven’t focused on my arms in the gym once. Add that to the fact that we haven’t really really worked out since mid-November-ish and it’s been months since I’ve touched my arms. Now, are arms a body part that I enjoy working out? Not entirely, and I don’t think that they need the same amount of focus that other body parts need.. but should anything be neglected? Of course not, so it almost had to be done. With a recent chest-back workout that left me sore and somewhat sore shoulders, I knew I would have to be very careful and not cheat with any motions. Considering they’re one of my weakest body parts, due to neglect and injuries, it wasn’t awful. Here’s how it went.

Working Out

Working Out (Photo credit: Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums)

6:22Warm up superset: chinups 6-7 reps/tricep dips 8-9... 90 degrees on all my reps, no full range of motion but hitting my contractions right
6:28main superset 1: iso incline pinky offset curls/incline iso cross-body extensions… alternating a 30 and 45 degree incline, 4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps, to failure
6:43main superset 2: ez bar preacher curl/horserope cable tricep push downs4 sets increasing weight and decreasing reps, to failure
6:53main superset 3: iso seated hammer curls/seated overhead dbell extensions: 4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps on the curls while decreasing weight and increasing reps with extensions, to failure
7:07main superset 4: standing iso reverse curls/flat ez bar skullcrushers4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps with a drop set for the last set of skullcrushers, to failure
7:23 – (Running a little long, realize cardio is out of the question) main superset 5: cable iso lowering achilles curl/cable no grip iso tricep kickback4 sets of maintaining weight at 1-2 setting until failure
7:37tricep cool down: over the top horserope cable presses... 4 sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps with a drop set at the end, until failure
7:44bicep cool down: arm curl machine, bilateral… 4 sets until failure with decreasing weight and increasing reps
7:49finished, 4 minutes of boxing on the bag with gloves to finish up, maintain some discipline and get the heart rate up a little bit
English: an exercise of triceps

English: an exercise of triceps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Overall, it was good enough and since I never feel like I get a good arm workout, I wasn’t at all disappointed that I felt like I didn’t get a good arm workout. Try to work opposing muscle groups sometimes to really reach great contractions and full stretches during your “rest” periods. Supersets are a great way to keep you moving, shorten your workout, and push yourself harder. Just be careful committing to one when the gym is busy because you might have your equipment or machine taken, no questions asked.

 

At the gym for an hour and a half, pretty long for just arm strength training but sometimes you need to take it slowly when you’re getting just back into your routines so you don’t get hurt. Especially when working on one of your weaknesses. Also, remember that there are many ways to grip a dumbbell when working biceps, neutral/thumb offset/pinky offset. It could be a little detail you can adjust this week and work some different muscles. That’s the tip of the post!
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