6 Weeks Program

to boost metabolism (and burn fat)


Week

1. Reduce carb intake for 4 days.  Zero carbs for last meal each evening of the week. 
   
2. Add more cardio sessions (30-60 minutes) at least 3x/week. Increase protein intake, decrease carb intake. 
   
3. Reduce carb intake for 4 days. Zero carbs for last meal each evening of the week.
   
4. At least 2 cardio sessions (30-60 minutes) . Add a cardio session on empty stomach one morning or after a weight lifting session.
   
5. Cheat one day per week; eat more calories than what your body got used to. Add 50% more sets at training.
   
6. Take a break for 3 full days, then repeat program if necessary.
   

STOP KILLING AND POLLUTING !

VEGAN

For the People. For the Planet. For the Animals.
Make the connection.


Go see this video and learn about the facts. It takes only about 10 minutes of your life.


http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/veganvideo.html

Fish Feel Pain

This is in response to a ridiculous video on Youtube called "Fish Don't Feel Pain"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JRNHBZqxwM




From: http://www.fishinghurts.com/FishFeelPain.asp

"Fish Feel Pain

While it may seem obvious that fish are able to feel pain, like every other animal, some people
still think of fish as swimming vegetables. In fact, regarding the ability to feel pain, fish are equal
to dogs, cats, and all other animals. Dr. Donald Broom, scientific advisor to the British
government, explains that “The scientific literature is quite clear. Anatomically, physiologically
and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and animals.”1

Neurobiologists have long recognized that fish have nervous systems that comprehend and
respond to pain, and anyone who made it through Biology 101 knows that fish have nerves and
brains that sense pain, just like all animals.2 Indeed, scientists tell us that fish brains and nervous
systems closely resemble our own.3 For example, fish (like “higher vertebrates”) have
neurotransmitters like endorphins that relieve suffering—of course, the only reason for their
nervous systems to produce pain killers is to relieve pain.4 Claiming that fish do not suffer is as
intellectually and scientifically sound as arguing that the Earth is flat.

Interestingly, scientists have created a detailed map of pain receptors in fish’s mouths and all
over their bodies. A team of researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada recently surveyed
the scientific literature on fish pain and intelligence. They concluded that fish feel pain and that
“the welfare of fish requires consideration.”5 Dr. Lynne Sneddon, a scientist of fish biology in
the United Kingdom, explains, “Really, it’s kind of a moral question. Is your angling more
important than the pain to the fish?”6

Scientists at Edinburgh University and the Roslin Institute in the United Kingdom report that in
response to pain, fish also feel emotional stress and engage in “a ‘rocking’ motion strikingly
similar to the kind of motion seen in stressed higher vertebrates like mammals.”7 The research
team concluded that fish clearly experience pain in the same way as mammals, both physically
and psychologically.8

As you would expect from animals who we now know to be intelligent and interesting
individuals with memories and the capacity to learn, fish can also suffer from fear and
anticipation of physical pain. Researchers from universities across America have published

Dr. Lynne U. Sneddon, Dr. Victoria A. Braithwaite, and Dr. Michael J. Gentle, “Do Fish Have Nociceptors:
Evidence for the Evolution of a Vertebrate Sensory System,” The Royal Society Scientific Academy, 7 June 2003
. research showing that some fish use sound to communicate distress when nets are dipped into
their tanks or they are otherwise threatened.9 In a separate study, researcher William Tavolga
found that fish grunted when they received an electric shock. In addition, the fish began to grunt
as soon as they saw the electrode, clearly in anticipation of the torment that Tavolga was
inflicting on them.10

According to Dr. Michael Fox, D.V.M, Ph.D., “Even though fish don’t scream [audibly to
humans] when they are in pain and anguish, their behavior should be evidence enough of their
suffering when they are hooked or netted. They struggle, endeavoring to escape and, by so doing,
demonstrate they have a will to survive.”11

What happens to fish before they end up on your plate is nothing short of cruelty to animals—
whether they’re farmed or pulled from the ocean, fish are treated in ways that would warrant
felony charges if other animals were so horribly abused.

FOOTNOTE SOURCES

1
Richard H. Schwartz, “Do You Eat Fish?” Tikkun, Nov. 1999
.
2
L.S. Chervova, “Behavioral Reactions of Fishes to Pain Stimuli,” J. Ichthyol, 1997
.
3
L.S. Chervova.
4
K.P. Chandroo, I.J.H. Duncan, and R.D. Moccia, “Can Fish Suffer?: Perspectives on Sentience, Pain, Fear, and
Stress,” Applied Animal Behavior Science, 2004, p.11
.
5
K.P. Chandroo, p. 15.
6
Jennifer Smith, “Debate: Do Fish Feel Pain?” Newsday, 21 Aug. 2003
.
7
Alan Cowell, “Cruelty to Fish? Anglers in Britain Are Left Smarting,” International Herald Tribune, 7 May 2003.

8
Dr. Lynne U. Sneddon, Dr. Victoria A. Braithwaite, and Dr. Michael J. Gentle, “Do Fish Have Nociceptors:
Evidence for the Evolution of a Vertebrate Sensory System,” The Royal Society Scientific Academy, 7 June 2003
.

9
Martin A. Connaughton, Michael L. Lunn, Michael L. Fine, and Malcolm H. Tayor, “Characterization of Sounds
and Their Use in Two Sciaenid Species: Weakfish and Atlantic Croaker,”
.
10
Vantressa Brown, “Fish Feel Pain, British Researchers Say,” Agence France-Presse, 1 May 2003
.
11
Michael Fox., D.V.M., Ph.D., “Do Fish Have Feelings?” The Animals' Agenda, July/Aug. 1987, pp. 24-29."

What veganism is to me

It's about doing good to me and around me.
It's about not harming myself, and not doing any bad to others.

When I'm hungry I'm naturally atracted by fresh fruits, like an apple or some strawberries, that will satisfy my hunger, my physiological needs, my desire for flavors and good tastes. Fruits are sweet and delicious.

I eat this because I want to.
I could eat meat if I wanted to. But I don't want to.
Why would I want to eat animals. Why would I need to put corpses and carcasses into my body? Who needs this? Nobody.

People force babies to eat meat. All babies are reluctant to meat.That's all natural. Offer an apple and a piece of meat, the baby will always choose the apple. That's a proven experiment that every parent can try at home.

Man has no claws, sharp teeths; nothing particularly agressive about the human body, we don't have a predator body. We don't have a killer instinct neither; unlike wolves and tigers, we're not natural born killers. Therefore we need weapons to hunt and kill, fire to cook. Man came before the axe or other tools, he couldn't have been omnivore or carnivore.
Fruits were on the planet way before tools. We couln't eat meat at the beginning. Because of climatic reasons and the impossibility to find anything that grows in trees or on the ground, at some times and some places, men needed to eat animal flesh in order to survive. Man is an opportunist animal, who will eat what it finds, anything which is edible, that's the survival instinct.
When man had a more developped brain, he invented agriculture, with more and more complex systems, there was always food available, and he ate less and less meat. There was no need to go hunt or kill. Larger societies formed, with poors and rich people. Meat reappeared in the diet, on the menu of the rich. 10kg of the food of the poor is needed to produce only 1 kg of food for the rich.

Today it's a big mistake to eat meat. People say that we always have been eating meat. Man made many mistakes during the history of mankind. One of them was to eat animals when there was other choices. Now it's getting worse and worse. Let's not perpetrate ad nauseam the mistakes of our past, but learn from the mistakes. Evolve.

Ideas of Books and other texts on veganism

If you wish to learn about veganism, with facts, evidencies, stats, here are some titles and authors...

All texts by Dr. Douglas Graham. Or Superior Nutrition by Dr Herbert Shelton, as well as all his other books or articles on the web, they're all incredible common sense.

Other books: Diet for a new america, Thrive, The China Study, or Living Foods for Optimum Health by Brian Clement.

For plenty of interesting links, studies, testimonies, etc about veganism, rendez-vous on veganbodybuilding.com, on the forum board or read the Quotes, Articles on nutrition, etc...

The Many Contradictions About Meat-Eaters

Here's just a few of the many contradictions in their stupid arguments. 
Often they contradicts with eachothers, often they will even contradict with themselves, always trying to oppose what's proven as a fact and evidency. 

Those who say it's impossible should not interrupt those who are doing it.
(author unknown)

So there's this guy, let's call him Johnny, who says he tried raw veganism for a couple of months. He says his health started to decrease dangerously, losing weight, etc.

Then he abandoned veganism completely to eat strictly animal products, raw. (What kind of vegan does that?!). Raw meat, raw eggs, raw milk, raw butter, raw cream. He claims he does this because it's the most normal, healthy and natural thing to do.
He says:
"I say a vegan diet is deficient because it is. There are no quality fat soluble vitamins which are abundant in butter, organ meats, and other animal fats. "

Yeah, as if products as fat as butter and cream were foods found in nature.  What vitamins is he talking about, A, D, E? There are very little vitamins in animal products; just some vitamin A in butter, which is not even a natural product, and too fatty. On the other hand, there's so many vitamins and minerals in fuits and greens that I often score between 250-500% of the daily values, clearly showing that those ridiculous recommandations were designed for a deficient diet. Just one poor carrot is already 250% of DV ! One head of romaine lettuce (600g) is 726% Vitamin A, 250% Vit. C, and 800% Vit. K, all this, for only 100 calories. Now in which animal products is there Vitamin C and K is sufficient amount, as well as all the other vitamins? Eggs have some, but go ahead, 4 eggs is already 300% of cholesterol. You should rather go fo avocado, sesame seed, almond or other nuts, broccoli, spinach, carrot, guava, cherries or other berries. Go ahead, compare those with meat, butter, etc... Go on nutritiondata.com and see which contains vitamins and minerals, and which contains none, but saturated fats and cholesterol.

"I've eaten beef I let rot in a jar for over a year... Yeah, it was rotten, really rotten. Didn't get sick."

That's good, Johnny Rotten, you are truly mentally illed.


Yeah, I heard a story like his, about a woman who left an article on the web, she mentioned similar symptoms, and the only things she mentioned about her vegan diet, was that she often fringed for rice cakes with vegan margarine on them. Then she blames veganism. Good for you, and good riddance, go back to your meat, vegans don't need you at all!

So here come the contradictions: 

Some will say "be a man, eat some meat", referring to the cavemen, I guess. Yeah, sorry, even if I don't like modern times so much, I prefer this than being a retarded cro-magnon eating raw meat in his cavern. Anyway, I guess they refer also to the act of killing the animal, which of course they avoid to do, paying mercenaries in slaughterhouses to have the job done for them. And the only persons who stay longer than a week working as an employee in a slaughterhouse are deranged psychopaths, or just stupid.
So some will say that we always ate meat...Then some others will say that we ate only fruits at the beginning, then it's only a few milleniums ago that we started to eat more meat, and that is responsible for the evolution of our brain to what we are now.

Some will say that vegan foods have too much calories, like nuts and all that, compared to yogurt, skimmed milk, lean meat, etc. Wrong, a vegan diet is perfect because you can find a large variety of foods, with different macros.  Fruits and veggies will always rule when it comes to fat loss, being the most calorie-low, high nutrients foods available...  Then some will say that vegan foods are not calorie dense and that someone on a vegan diet will automatically lose weight. Well, what meat or animal products are calorie dense except butter?? If you want to gain weight, eat some pastas, potatoes, rice, bagels, or even vegan junk food like chips, chocolate, or raw foods like avocado, nuts, seeds, bananas, dates; this is the most calorie dense food on the planet. If you lose weight, that's either because you're too fat, or because you don't eat enough, or not well enough. There's many skinny meat-eaters out there, and many morbid obese meat-eaters too. Most vegans are just fine. But there are some who are skinny, some are fat. 

Here's another guy who tried veganism but came back to meat, and only animal products, fearing fruits and veggies, but contradicting himsel:

"I tried and tried to be raw vegan and vegetarian to the point I was physically ill." ... "The diet made me deteriorate into a horrible condition. My body screamed for beef and cream. I ignored it till the point my hair fell out, my joints and muscles were in constant pain, and had constant lethargy." ... "This is my experience of myself. I don't care about what anyone anywhere eats. This is just my story of being raw vegan for 6 months. As far as what I ate when I was on the raw vegan diet, raw fruits, raw vegetables, raw nuts and raw seeds. "

He changed completely his discours, and agreed with me when I told him that I have so much energy on a vegan diet that I always move, doing long endurance rides, or strength exercices, and I need less than 5 hours of sleep...

"I was already 100% raw vegan. I too had to bicycle 500-700kms a week when I was a raw vegan because I was SO STRESSED from consuming so much fresh fruit. The energy was horribly inconsistent and I had dramatic fluctuations of energy and fatigue. I also HAD TO eat a meal every hour. I was always hungry. It was clear that my constant hungry was that I was not getting what I needed from the diet. "

Well, I have all the energy, without the fatigue periods, except when I'm tired and go to sleep. It's been 5 years of "vegetarianism", with fish, cheese, yogourt, some eggs, but no milk. God I hated to eat those, but I was forcing myself to. And I did not have the energy that I have now, after one year of veganism (nor had I as an omni). But I was doing exercices too as an omni and as vegetarian, stress has nothing to do with that.
...How the hell is it possible to be stressed from fruits? They're the most relaxing foods on Earth, full of vitamins, antioxydants, anti-stress. Meat is stress, stress from the slaughtered animal, and stress to the body who then needs to deal with that rotten piece of corpse. Constant stress for the immune system trying to heal the organism after each time a pice (even a small one) or meat, fish, milk, whatever, is swallowed and enters the body like a billion of viruses installing cancer. 

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables, I don't need to drink water, except if I do lots of endurance training. Fruits and greens : 70% water and more. Just like the planet. Just like our bodies. That should give you a hint. I don't need to drink the toxic tap water from cities, or worst, from suburbias, or the spring water at 2$ per plastic bottle. Now who on a non-vegan diet can do this? If you eat only raw meat, like some freaks do, the muscles from meat contains lots of water, which is not removed by cooking. But not enough, and you would still need to drink lots of water, to help your organism and kidney to deal with the metabolism and metabolytes of all those animal proteins.

So, some say that the Bible prone veganism, others say not. Some say Jesus was vegetarian, some others say he ate fish and lamb. Who cares? Some say that Einstein was vegetarian, while he wasn't. Some others say Hitler was vegetarian, while he wasn't. Which meat-eater will admit that eating meat involves the act of killing, and that it is judged immoral, and is one of the Ten Commandments, "thou shalt not kill".  I personally don't care about religion and what the Bible says. But if some people have faith in those writings but act the opposite way... well I hope they know where they will go burn, just like the hundreds of animal corpses they burned all their life! ahah. The Ten Commandments were written by men, not god. It is a good guideline to follow, in order to honour Life. Some people just don't care. So the modern, perverted men, changed the Ancient writing; in the New Testament, we now see "you shall not murder", to permit the killing of other creatures than humans... technically : speciesm.  

What were ancient people eating?

People nowadays think that we always have been eating meat... Why would we have been eating meat? There were no ridiculous dietiticians saying : You need to eat meat. A vegan diet is deficient".  People were rarely eating meat. It wasn't convenient at all to hunt and try to store meat, there were no fridge and freezer. On the other hand, preparing and eating sprouted/cooked cereals, grains, etc was easy and practical. The coutune to make bread is thousands of years old, and it was the base of the diet of many nations. For others it was rice.  

Video about the ancient vegetarian diet: "Famous Vegetarians: from Buddha to the Beatles" - Rynn Berry"

It also talks about Hitler, his falonny vegetarianism. Hitler: nor vegetarian nor animal lover. His favorite dish was a carnivorous dish consisting of pigeon, with the tongue and everything, stuffed with eggs and dairies !



http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Gladiators-Actually-Fat-Vegetarians/Article/200404113050005?lpos=Home_Article_Related_Content_Region_4&lid=ARTICLE_13050005_Gladiators_Actually_Fat_Vegetarians


Gladiators Actually Fat Vegetarians

"Tests performed on bits of bone taken from the skeletons of some 70 gladiators buried at Ephesus seem to prove that they ate mainly barley, beans and dried fruit," said Karl Grosschmidt, a forensic doctor who took part in the study by Austria's institute of archeology.
"This diet, which has been mentioned in the oral history, is rather sad but it gave the gladiators a lot of strength even if it made them fat," he said.

He (Kanz) believes that because some gladiators fought with little more than their bare hands, they could have "cultivated layers of fat to protect their vital organs from the cutting blows of their opponents."

=====================


It has also been demonstrated, by analizing the DNA of proteins found in fossilised excrements of different prehistoric ages, that our ancestors, of different eras and places, were eating mostly plant-based foods. In fact, most proteins found are from crushed nuts, seeds, shoots, roots, grains and vegetables, with very little or usually no traces of animal proteins. This discovery changed completely the way scientists and anthropologists see our ancestors, and therefore us.

The nature of muscle building

Some articles about bodybuilding , that I took from a book

Calories and Muscle--Reposted 2/26/06

If one were to measure the caloric content of one pound of human muscle, using a scientific measuring device known as a calorimeter, he'd find it contained, or yielded, slightly over 600 calories. By contrast, a pound of human fat yields 3500 calories. This points rather clearly to the fact that it requires much fewer calories to provide for muscle growth than it does to add body fat.
Why such a disparity in caloric content of the two types of tissue -- muscle and fat? The following will explain:
Water Protein Lipids(fats) Inorganic Material
Muscle 72% 22% 4% 2%
Fat 15% 12% 70% 3%
Muscle is predominantly water; which, of course, is devoid of calories, hence its much lower caloric content.
Mike Mentzer
Not So Obvious--Reposted 1/25/06

It is obvious that humans possess differing metabolic rates as each of us gains fat, loses weight and develops muscles beyond normal levels at varying rates. What is less obvious, but equally important, is that the physiology underlying metabolism is universal, i.e., applicable to all. The chemical processes governing our utilization of food for energy, maintenance and repair had been clearly mapped out and circumscribed by physiologists -- (not exercise physiologists) -- decades ago. Pick up any textbook on physiology or nutritional science, and you'll be reading about what goes on inside yourself. . . your neighbor. . . your training partner. . . and everyone!
So, while we all possess the stamp of unique personalities, we aren't all that different inside. We all need protein, require rest and sleep and we all burn carbohydrates at the rate of four calories per gram. Also, each and everyone of us requires a high-intensity training effort to stimulate growth, we all possess strictly limited recovery abilities, and, as bodybuilders, none of us ever grow fast enough!
Mike Mentzer
In the End, There Can Be But One--Reposted 1/25/06
The essence of the above is that we're all basically the same creature, members of the same animal species -- Man. Genetic anomalies notwithstanding, all members of the species man have hearts, lungs, pancreas, livers, thyroids, muscles, bones, brains and so forth; whose anatomy and function are governed by the same physiologic principles. And, again, we all need protein for repair, maintenance and growth, we all burn carbohydrates at the rate of four calories a gram and each requires rest and sleep for growth and normal mental functioning.
If everyone possessed cells, muscles and organs that were constituted and functioned differently, i.e., if every individual were a unique physiologic entity unto himself, medical scientists couldn't make diagnoses, perform surgery or dispense medicines. The fact that we are all essentially the same anatomically and physiologically shows what is logically true -- that there is and can be but one -- and only one! -- valid training theory. And that one valid theory just so happens to be the theory of Heavy Duty, high-intensity training.

Mike Mentzer