5 Self-Defense Tactics That Everyone Should Learn

Please enjoy a guest post from Albert Guardado Jr. from Combat Brands. We believe self-defense is vital for each and every person.

No one likes to think about the idea of being attacked, but the reality is that, according to the FBI, a violent crime is committed every 26.3 seconds in America, with one aggravated assault every 41.3 seconds. These numbers aren’t intended to scare you — though they are indeed alarming — but should instead help you understand why preparation and vigilance are vital in our sometimes threatening world.

One of the simplest ways to conquer a frightening situation is to learn some key self-defense tactics that you can file away in your mental rolodex if a situation should arise.

Aug302017

3-Exercise Workout You Can Do Anywhere

Alright, no excuses on this one, guys! We’ve been moving around a lot and traveling lately, so that means we don’t always have a steady gym or equipment to rely on. Instead of giving up or making an excuse about not having the right stuff, let’s adapt! That’s what humans are so good at, after all–we face adversity and adapt to overcome the challenge. Now, not having equipment may not be an extreme adversity, but it’s a challenge to overcome!

This workout is so simple you can do it anywhere: a hotel room, a park, a bedroom, or any place at all! All you need is a piece of ground long enough to fit your body and preferably a cushion of some sort like a mat, a blanket, and a towel. That’s it. Otherwise, it can be ANYWHERE. It’s going to be an epic muscle endurance workout. Ready? Here we go.

May262017

FriYAY Workout

We made it to Friday! I know some of us don’t have typical M-F jobs, but there’s still something about Friday that gets the happy dance going. We’re scooting through work with weekend plans on our mind and rejuvenation in our hearts. Maybe we have something scheduled for tonight–a party, a barbecue, an outing of some sort. We are looking forward to getting done with the day so we can embrace the weekend! But wait! What about a workout? A workout on a Friday?! Don’t roll your eyes at me. You don’t even need to go to the gym for this one. Just set aside twenty minutes (max) and do this before you get ready for your fun weekend. Get it done–at least one round, but why not three!

Aug062016

Why Cross Training is Important

Switching up your workouts is key for surpassing plateaus, getting stronger, and better at the physical activity you do. The body is constantly trying to find homeostasis and when you make a routine that you follow daily, weekly, monthly, etc., it’s not as hard for your body to reach towards homeostasis. However, if you throw your body curveballs by doing different workouts, you’ll be doing muscle confusion. For example, my week looks something like this: rest, boxing, muay thai, home circuit, traditional strength training, and hiking. I’m getting hard workouts in, but they are different. My body doesn’t have a chance to get used to any exercise because I’m pushing it to do different movements to challenge strength, speed, flexibility, and more. We wanted to share an awesome infographic brought you by Ghergich and Clubwoodside. Enjoy below:

Do cross training stay hungry and fit!

Nov042015

Join a Society of Strength

This is a post that I recently wrote for Society of Strength, a new organization trying to bring all strength sports together in one supportive group. The article is called “Defining Strength” and while you might read the post here, please visit Society of Strength after and look around! You never know what you might learn! Often I have seen individuals fall in love with powerlifting, strongman, Crossfit, and more. What’s even better is that more often that not, those individuals are not athletes but just average people who love the cooperative nature of those sports, as opposed to bodybuilding or some other disciplines that can be very lonely. Either way, your experience is what you make it! Read this and you’re already going to be one step closer to being hungry and fit!

Jun272013

My Hell Week is Over

Disclaimer: I would never suggest this “diet” to anyone else. For me, it was just a willpower test I’ve wanted to try. I am highly against crash or fad diets.

Second Disclaimer: This is kind of a long post, but only because it means a lot to me.

I did it. I did it! I did it! If you’re wondering why I’m seemingly raving mad right now, direct yourself to this post. If you don’t feel like reading the whole thing (even though it’s short), I’ll give you a little summary. I did a crazy thing of subjecting myself to 7 days of 560 caloric hell. The actors from Spartacus did this to get lean and in slave-gladiator-like shape for their show. It was a prescribed four water protein shakes a day. That’s it. For an entire week. And that was while they were at “Gladiator Camp” doing 4 hours of combat work each day. I unfortunately had no such camp to attend, so every other day I completed the hellish Spartacus Circuit (3 times over). And on the other days, I did other cardio and strength exercises.

Working hard during a Spartacus circuit

So last Wednesday I forwent food, subsisting on only 4-5 protein shakes a day (water mixed with protein powder). If any of you know me, I am hungry most of the time. Why do you think we named this blog Hungry and Fit? I didn’t choose to do this to lose weight or lose inches (even though I am doing this contest), I did it for the sole sake of testing my willpower. And I did it. I didn’t touch any food for that entire week though I drooled and craved it constantly. I’m waiting for someone to send me my “Willpower Extraordinaire” plaque, but I guess it takes time to mail.

I am very proud of myself and happy I pushed through. Water, gum, and ice are the three material things that really helped me get through it. Oh, and video games. Thanks, nerdy side of myself, for helping me get lost in that while I wasn’t working out or working. More than those, Chris and friends really supported me. Chris was there for me every step of the way and my friends would text me each morning say, “Alana, still staying strong?!” I appreciated it more than they know. Because I was definitely an infinitely more grumpy person during that week. You can especially ask Chris, but also my workmates like Daisy or Kim too.

How I felt

Again, I would not suggest this to anyone. After only consuming 560 calories a day, working out every day, and continuing an active-paced job, I lost ten pounds (I know my mum is yelling at me right now back home). Ten pounds in a week is NOT GOOD. Listen to me, I’m a trainer. That’s what you call a bad crash diet. Again, I want to reiterate, I did it for the willpower test, because for me, I think at the end of the day, if you don’t have your willpower, you don’t have anything. It was extremely rough the first few days–who am I kidding, it was rough for the entirety, but I started getting used to not consuming food. However, by the end, my body was pretty mad at me, making me a little sick and weak. Again–DON’T do this. I’m just sharing my achievement. It ended up de-motivating me for my contest because I was so miserable without food and feeling weak.

“Before”

“After”

I’m showing you pictures of how my body slightly transformed, not as motivation, but to document how this affected me.

You can imagine how blissfully amazing this day of rebirth into food has been (if you think I’m being dramatic, blame my dad, he’s an actor). I had my meals planned days in advance (because what do you do when you can’t eat? You think about food!). I was in such a better mood than I had been all week and I was just happy because I did it. I accomplished something I had wanted to for a long time now. I’m all for celebration, but I’m still on track for this contest. And although today is a “cheat” day (you’ll get descriptions and pictures after this of my meals today), I’m going right back to strict eating of lean proteins, veggies, fruits, and complex carbohydrates to get to my “extremely fit” goal with Chris at my back as a coach.

This wasn’t even close to my cheat day before the Spartacus Hell Week (in terms of bad food), but it was cheat enough for me because it was real, beautiful FOOD. Let’s look at the menu.

For Breakfast: Dot’s Diner

Small House Breakfast…that’s fake meat

I really tried slowly eating, but you can’t understand my excitement and happiness. I ate most of it, but not the whole biscuit. Stomach felt funky for a few hours, but it just needs to get used to solids again.

For Lunch: Snarf’s

Tuna sandwich…mmmm

Face of bliss

The mouth-watering in this situation happened to be ridiculous. Again, tried to take my time.

For Dinner: Korea House

Korea House in its amazingness…we would eat here every night if we could afford it

Happy last meal

I wasn’t going to (or supposed to) have any thick dairy like milk or ice cream, but we were served it by our favorite Korean chef and we always put respect, honor, and morals before anything else.

All in all, I’m glad I did it. I’m proud of myself. But I will never do it again. I only wish to inspire people to try to reach higher and higher, because you never know what you’re capable of. Wish me luck on the rest of my 5 weeks til the end of the contest! Going to be on an eating plan of tuna, beans, rice, vegetables, grapefruit, banana, fish and oatmeal! Use your willpower to stay hungry and fit!

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Jun192013

Fit is Entering a Contest

Some of you may have heard of BodyBuilding.com. No, I am not trying to become a body builder (though, that is what all of us do when we exercise or even eat–building our bodies in different ways), but I am trying to win a contest, and more importantly, show myself up. This is to prove myself that I can always be better than what I am and that I can use willpower to achieve whatever I want. I am entering the Strong to the Cor Challenge sponsored by Cellucor (a popular supplement company).

It is a contest for already fit people (though I’ve seen some men with 27% body fat…not exactly “fit” for men) to get extremely fit. This means cutting down fat and building up muscle. If you know me already, I’m fit, but there’s always room for improvement. I want to get stronger, faster, and more capable. I have Hungry as my coach and I could ask for no better as he knows me best and also happens to live with me.

There’s a $10,000 1st place grand prize (in additional to like 2k worth of supplements and products) with some 2nd and 3rd place prizes too. And it’s 10k to both a female and a male. But that’s not why I’m doing it. I don’t think I’ll actually win the grand prize in the face of all the other females who are doing it–especially those starting with 27% body fat and able to get such a larger transformation. I’m doing this, like I said, to prove to myself that I can push myself farther than I ever have before and really see what my body can do.

Recent arms workout

It’s a 6-week transformation, ending in early August. Tomorrow, I truly start. For the past 10 days, I did a cleanse to prime the body and now it’s ready to kick butt. So today was my in-between day, eating whatever I wanted to savor it all up. Pancakes for breakfast, big cheesy burrito for lunch, and pizza and ice cream for dinner. I had been off dairy for 10 days so today was a goooood day. Tomorrow, I start a week of 4 water protein shakes a day, doing what the cast from Spartacus did to get lean and ripped. It’s probably going to be one the hardest tests of my willpower yet. But, I’m excited for it. It will be a week of hell, but I believe I can do it if I set my mind to it.

So support me! I know that sometimes the killer workouts and nutritional plan are gonna make me want to quit, but I want to see how far I can go. Here is my BodySpace, I’ll try to be updating as much as possible. After watching Man of Steel, I’d love to be paid to workout every day and prime my body to become a superhero, but we can’t have it all, right? So with you guys supporting me and Chris there for me every step, I believe I can get far. Let’s do this! Time to be hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC