25 Worst Health Foods

Why stop at 25 when there's so many out there. I can do more if you want but should be enough to last you a while.

There are so many people pretending they're healthy by lying to themselves that they're eating the right foods. Yes, I know marketing lied to you but you know this stuff taste too good to be true. All you got to do is look at the ingredients, calories, sugar, fat, and sodium to know better. But I've done you one better and will just straight up tell you what not to eat.

1) Granola- Look, if you're going to eat some sugary bar go all the way and eat a Snickers. Don't eat this just because the photo of is next to a tree. "Ooooh, Nature. It has to be good." It's oat clusters held together by sugar.

2) Fat-Free- Yeah, what you cut in fat, you make up for in artificial flavors and sugar to up the taste. And sugar is way worse for you than fat.

3) Yogurt-  If you're eating Greek Yogurt you're in the clear. But if you're messing with flavored or fruit at the bottom than you've messed up big time. Full of sugar. You may as well throw all those froyo toppings on while you're at it. "Extra cup of Gummy Bears, please."

4) Juice- You'd be better off drinking soda. Too many calories, too much sugar. Doesn't have any of the fiber real fruit has.

5) Dried Fruit- You wish this was healthy. Full of niacin and sugar and sulfur and one of the most common allergens. Fruit is natures candy? This is the real candy. No wonder Raisin Bran is the highest sugar cereal out there!

6) Trail mix- Yay, let's eat chocolate chips, salty nuts, deep fried banana chips, and yogurt covered raisins but pretend we're being healthy because it's meant for eating on a trail. It's like an oatmeal cookie, it's bad for you and doesn't taste as good as real junk food.

7) Sports Drinks- Just like granola, trail mix, and juice, it's one of those things marketed to make you seem like you're healthy. Electrolytes? Buzzword to make you feel like you're getting something out of it. Real athletes drink water. This is just sugar water, may as well have a soda. It's like Under Armour, people wear it to feel athletic but it's too tight and we see your big gut.

8) Wheat bread- High fructose corn syrup, molasses, yep, that sounds like ingredients to get someone lean. Not counting all the carbs that come along while never really filling you up. What a great thing to eat lots of before your entree comes out when dining out. Add some butter while you're at it.

9) Light Salad Dressing- Yeah, low in fat, high in sugar. That's always the trade-off. You're lucky if it stops there.

10) Veggie Burgers- Full of salt, fat, and enough soy to make sure you're bloaty and farting through the rest of your day. And that's not even counting the wheat bread and shit they stack on the burger.

11) Canned Soup-Full of sodium and sugar, though they act like it's a food that can help you lose weight. Much like Subway pretends to do that.

12) Frozen Dinners- I don't care if has the word lean in the title it's full of salt and sugar.

13) Lunch Meat-Sodium, nitrates, artificial flavors, and studies say it links to cancers of the digestive tract.

14) Turkey Bacon- What you lose in calories you'll make up in sodium, saturated fat, nitrates, artificial flavors, and worst of all... worse taste. If you're going to cheat, go all the way.

15) Instant Oatmeal- Go ahead and just eat cereal if you're going to eat this trash. Most cereal has less sugar, tastes better, and quicker to make if you're in a rush.

16) Coconut Water- 29 grams of sugar in a single serving. How many varieties of sugar water are out there pretending to be good for you?

17) Cous Cous- Just a bunch of white pasta. Sorry to ruin it for you.

18) Whole Grain Cereal- Whole grain, another buzz word. what they really mean is they probably dumped a bunch of fiber on it to make you feel good about all the sugar you just consumed. May as well have a donut. Anything that says crunch on it, run for the hills.

19) Tomato Sauce- Full of sodium and sugar, you're better off making your own or befriending an Italian.

20) Edamame- Full of salt and estrogen.

21) Milk Substitutes- While something like almond milk can be a good sub in small portions, a lot of the brands are full of sugar and artificial flavors.

22) Veggie pizza- All you're doing is ruining a perfectly good pizza. I'm sorry that you thought putting some spinach leaves on top of fried cheese was going to cure the saturated fat but it doesn't. Don't fuck up everyone else's cheat day by putting on vegetables on a pizza. Keep your pizza, pizza, and your vegetables, vegetables.

23) Protein Bars- Bloaty and gassy from all the whey and soy, full of sugar, carbs, fat, sodium, artificial flavors, and corn syrup. And they taste like shit. There's no good tasting protein bar, there's only less worse tasting protein bars. Here's a better idea. Eat a Snickers and down a protein shake. It's the same thing and at least the real candy bar will taste better and you'll get even more protein.

24) Processed Organic Food- Another buzzword to make you think healthy. The 2 words shouldn't even be in the same room together. Organic doesn't automatically equal healthy. Go get you some organic ice cream and organic corn dogs and see how good you look in 2 months.

25) Smoothies- Just like juice, it's fruit stripped of all the good stuff, the fiber, and you're left with all the bad stuff, the sugar. Mix that in with whatever fatty milk product is thrown in, and you'd be better off with some starburst.

Conclusion

Stop falling for marketing, do some research, use your gut instinct.  Don't fall for these scams. Europeans are laughing at how fat we are.

That's it for now, there are many others but this is already longer than I planned on writing.

If you want me to address other foods you're on the fence about, or want to debate anything I wrote: be my guest.

5 Tips on How to eat Cheap and Healthy

This was hard to come up with this because eating healthy is already cheap by nature.

Black beans, brown rice, canned green beans, etc.

But here's a few more tips.

1) Oatmeal can be bought in bulk at places like Sprouts.

2) Fruit can get expensive, so I just stick with bananas.

3) Canned tuna is pretty cheap and there's usually sales.

4) Buy the big bulky packages of meat to save money on protein.

5) Quit buying bottled water, it's a waste of plastic and money. I just use the water from my faucet.

Anyone else have any tips they want to share?

Willpower Instinct

I recently finished the book Willpower Instinct.

I decided to break it down to 27 tips because you probably lack the willpower to read it yourself.

1) Willpower is limited

Your willpower is like a life bar in a videogame or battery on your phone. It's only going to last so long. That's why you make worse decision as the day goes by.

2) Heart rate variability

Studies show that those that have a higher heart rate variability turn down temptations better. So slow your breathing to 5-6 breaths per minute for around 10 minutes and you'll make a better decision.

3) Working out adds willpower

When you start fixing one problem the momentum helps in other areas. Plus healthier people feel better and make better decisions too. That's why I'm so great.

4) Morning meditation Mess Up

Suck at meditation? Great. The fact you notice yourself messing up and trying to constantly get back on track will stick with you throughout the day as you catch yourself constantly getting distracted.

5) Seeing yourself do it

If you can see yourself doing something it makes it much easier to actually do that. See yourself or plan doing the task first, then you'll much more likely do it.

6) WANT makes WILL

If you don't have a strong enough WANT you'll never have the WILLpower. Losing weight to feel better is not as strong a want as making your ex jealous.

7) Good person rationalization

Many people feel so good after doing one good thing that they feel they can justify their next fuck up. You donated money so you can talk down to your waiter. That's why you see so many people in fast food restaurants in their gym clothes. They think they earned it.

8) Your identity

Think about how many things you do because you feel that's what you're supposed to do. Esquire and GQ market around the identity that makes men think they're James Bond. 'Don't Mess with Texas' stopped littering around the identity of gritty tough state pride. Think on how to make an identity around the things that will actually benefit you.

9) Opportunity Only

Studies show many people will do things only for the opportunity but not actually do it. You'll go to a restaurant because of the healthy options but not actually order them. Such as McDonald's Big Mac going up in sales after they added low calorie foods to the menu.

Just like I like living in a city like Austin with so many things to do, but I just stay home. I like the idea of being able to things.

10) Tomorrow I will be able to do it

People think of tomorrow as in it will be a much better day to do it. They'll be a stronger person, the day will be full of open time. That day will never come.

11) Dopamine vs Seratonin

People like quick dopamine boosts. Checking email and Facebook, watching quick video after video on YouTube, it's like high calorie, low nutrition food.

When you do the things that actually make you feel good and give you serotonin such as completing a big project you wonder why you don't do this more often.

It's because the body discounts the rewards that you have to wait for.

They did an experiment with Chimps and humans. The Chimps outdid the humans on waiting for bigger rewards by a severe margin.

So even if you think you're above average at waiting for rewards, you're only good for a human.

12) Are you as Excited as an Electrocuted Rat?

Rats were stimulated in the part of the brain that gives you excitement if they ran on the electric bars in their space. They ran on those bars until they couldn't physically do it anymore. As cruel as this experiment was, it shows that excitement is more rewarding than the actual reward.

People are much more excited about a lottery win than savings through a stock index fund. It's much more exciting to think of what could happen than what will happen.

Hard to get that excited about a slow fat loss process. Much more exciting is Papa John's on it's way to your door.

13) Hooks

That thing that has you constantly looking for a new notification. that next text, that Instagram like. These are the hooks that people who make apps and video games base their entire model.

It can work for your good as well. Apps that teach coding, foreign languages, and calorie counting are trying implement this.

14) Stress Terror Management

People naturally indulge to relieve stress. That's why companies love advertising during the news. All that scare mongering makes people want to buy.

People buy nice cars or vacations to deal with bad relationships. People buy expensive TV's and video game consoles to deal with being in debt. People eat to get over being fat.

15) Ask yourself while you're fucking up 

While you're fucking up ask yourself during what lead to this and you can find your trigger behavior. Because you didn't get sleep? Because you were starving? Because you're overworked? Be cause of the people you hanging around? Because you were around the birthday cake?

16) Wait 10 minutes

Much like controlling your breathing for heart rate variability, waiting 10 minutes usually sets your mind in a better decision making mode.

17) Fuck up upon sight

People can much more easily make better decisions when the temptation in not in your direct sight.

So stay away!

18) Burn your ships

Like the famous story of Cortes burning his ships so they couldn't retreat, make it so that you can back out of your goal.

Announce a big proclamation on Facebook or wager a bet that you'll donate to the KKK if you don't follow through. Unless you support the KKK, then you should donate to Black Lives Matter.

19) You vs Future You

People think of the future them as a stranger. You put off things for the future and give all the work to them like an asshole. Think of them as you and you'll be much more nicer to yourself.

Send out an email to yourself that won't come until a much later date and see how different you are actually.

Do I want this ice cream sandwich now vs do I want to deal with the repercussions later?

20) Too far sighted is a problem

Some people don't indulge enough and save money forever or stay away from bad food all the time and never actually enjoy life at all (me?). They actually need to make indulging a goal to do every now and then.

21) Out of shape infection

There's an infection that can affect people without knowing it and is scientifically proven. People that are out of shape make everyone around them become out of shape. And vice versa. So think of who you surround yourself with and they will begin to shape you. The closer they are to you the worse.

22) Social Norms

As a follow up to the last point, most people cheat on their taxes so you shouldn't feel bad. Well, that's not really the case but it's a belief and the fact it's a popular held belief gives many people the okay to do so. Same thing when all your friends are fat or lazy or negative.

23) Shame Vs Pride

Self shaming only makes your willpower weaker and more susceptible to giving in. Which is why shaming doesn't work.

Researchers have found that pride works the other way and more people are willing to stay strong out of the want for pride.

So go ahead and be prideful. Never mind those Seven Deadly Sins.

24) No White Bear

Tolstoy's older brother asked him to stay in a corner until he couldn't stop thinking about white bears. He came back much later to see him still in that corner. When you tell your mind to stop thinking about something, it doesn't receive the NOT part. Only the subject. DON'T eat chocolate. Becomes EAT CHOCOLATE.

Focus on what you want, not on what you don't want.

25) Accept the Thoughts

You will feel anxious, frustrated, mad, sad, tired, and will probably try to suppress the emotions. I don't know what you've heard about suppression, but the general idea is that it's NOT GOOD. Accept those feelings. You're only human. Accepting those thoughts doesn't mean you have to act on them. But accepting them and thinking about them  makes it much easier.

26) Surf the Urge

When you find yourself wanting to give in, and especially while you give in. Ask yourself what brought you to this point, what is it like.

What does it feel like? Are you tense? Where? How do you feel emotionally?

This will help you in the future or help you get out of a bad state.

Because the best way to not fuck up, is to fuck up, and then ask yourself why.

27) EGO

People who think they have the most willpower are likely to have the least.

Derek Sivers has even more notes from the book on his blog. https://sivers.org/book/WillpowerInstinct

You can also purchase the book here.
https://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Instinct-Self-Control-Works-Matters/dp/1583335080


Let me know if any of this changed things for you.

Are You Still Trying to Get Abs?

Everybody wants abs, but everybody wants to get them by doing ab workouts.

That's like everybody wanting to get rich, but they don't want to save money.

So you want to workout so hard that you can eat whatever you want?

Fine, go google the Michael Phelps Olympic workout.

Ab workouts are the least important factor when it comes to getting abs.

If we're looking at an 80/20 rule. Calorie Deficit>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Stomach crunches

Why should you even do ab workouts? Well, let's be more specific, core workouts.

Stronger core helps in all of your lifts, and protects the spine.

That means it helps with back pain.

But for having a six pack or flat stomach, it doesn't do much there.

You have muscle underneath, that's how you bend and twist. It's just hidden under flab, so you think you don't have them.

If you want sore abs, do lots of crunches.

If you want a strong core, do planks, side planks, bird dogs, and exercises such as those.

If you want to see your abs, then cut down the calories.

And don't do sit ups, they hurt your low back and don't help you get abs either.

www.getfarmerfit.com

steven@getfarmerfit.com

3 Reasons to Walk

1) Great for your Back

Walking is non negotiable for eliminating back pain. 

Walking fast unloads the spine and challenges the later parts of the spine and core.

Don't walk slow. Slow walking does the opposite and loads the spine.

Keep your head up and chest forward, poor posture is bad for the back.

Make sure you're swinging your arms, 

Aim for 2-3 twenty to thirty minute walks a day.

2) Great Low Impact Cardio

You can burn around 120 calories with one thirty minute session.

Do that 3 times a day and you're burning 360 calories!

Do that 7 days a week and you're burning over 2500 calories a week!

That's over an entire days worth of calories for most people.

And you're doing it all without hurting your knees, feet, ankles, and back.

You're actually healing your back!

3) Great for Productive Meditation

In the book 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport he recommends walking as a way to be only occupied physically and not mentally. Allowing you to focus on a single problem.

Many poets, writers, scientists, and Greek philosophers have all used walking as a way to bring about their best ideas or answers to perplexing problems.

Isaac Newton was well known for wondering around in endless thought.

Go ahead, google some examples. It's endless!

Runners Up Include:

Boosts brain power, fights dementia, heart disease, high blood pressure, stress, and most importantly your dog will love you for it.

For more information on walking helping your back pain, check out the book the 'Back Mechanic' by Stuart McGill

For more information on productive meditation checkout the book 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport.

Are You Getting Anwhere?

STOP DOING THIS

Don't talk about your goals

Doing that gives you a false sense of accomplishment and annoys your friends.

Quit looking for new information on how to get results

There's nothing new to doing what you need to do. Don't reinvent the wheel. It's all common knowledge.

Don't complain

Gain weight easy? Hard to put on muscle? Does that mean it's impossible? Work harder. Was it hard for you to go to work one day because of traffic? Did you just not show up?

Don't take things for granted

Think about all the business that were huge and now are gone. Think about the people in high school that were popular and now are nothing. Think about the A-list actors from the a decade ago that can hardly get a decent role on a TV show. Did you get in shape but then started to gain weight. Happens all the time. Did you get cocky? Did you start to slide because you thought you could get away with that extra bagel?

Don't shop for groceries or go to restaurants hungry

You crave empty carbs been you're hungry. You'll buy Red Baron pizzas at the store, or eat 2 baskets full of corn chips or bread sticks. Chips make hips and rolls make rolls.

Don't look for an easy way to get results

There is none. If there was, everyone would have already accomplished it.

START DOING THIS

Track what you're eating

Track your exercises. Blog, journal it, track it. If you're not, you obviously don't care enough and deserve to get there.

Be happy that it's hard to be in shape

If it was easy, everyone would look great. Personally, I'd hate that, I would have to be judged off my personality and I would never survive.

Recognize your bad habits.

Bad habits don't immediately give you bad results. If ice cream immediately upped your body fat by 15% and gave you type 2 diabetes you'd stop eating (I hope).

It's the little things that get you, because they're little and you let them slide. Back pain, body fat, high blood pressure, bad relationships, low wages, everything bad in life is from your bad habits.

Prove to yourself who's in control

I give up things to show myself who's in charge. I can't live with the fact that anything could possibly have control over me. Maybe it's because I have a history of addicts in my family, but I can't live without knowing I have control.

Stay away from bad environments

It's easy to eat healthy when I"m home because I don't have junk food around at all. At my grandmas house it's harder to make those choices.

Recognize your successes

So many of you are so successful in areas of your life but can't do something so simple that you want to do? Why? Think about how good you are at other things, how you did that, and how you could apply that to your fitness goals?

FRIENDS

No one is going to help you

Everyone is too worried about the little dilemmas in their life to waste their time thinking about what you're doing. Are you thinking about their aspirations right now, or are you concerned with your own?

Get rid of loser friends and people that aren't developing themselves

Eliminate bad influences from your life, they don't want you around anyway. If you stop drinking you won't want to be around your drinking buddies, and they definitely don't want a sober person around. If you eat healthy, people who eat shit don't want you around reminding them of how bad their life choices are. 

Negative people and bad influences are not so transparent

They're hidden in your life and use subtlety to throw you off base. Think hard on who they are, and they'll eventually reveal themselves. Just like they'll slowly get you off track, not just push you off the rails in a few single meetings.

"That's too hard. It's easy for her. Wish my family was rich. That could never happen. Easy for them to say. If I had time and money I could do that." People who say things like that are friends you need to delete. 

Do you have the right mentor?

A lot of trainers were in shape at one point but now are chubby or even fat. They say they know how to get in shape though and flash old photos of themselves. But being in shape isn't about getting in shape one time, it's about a lifestyle you can maintain. If they can't live that, how could they possibly teach it?

THE COMPOUND EFFECT

A lot of what I mentioned was taken from life experience, and a lot of the things mentioned were also heavily influenced by a recent book I've been reading called THE COMPOUND EFFECT by Darren Hardy. http://www.thecompoundeffect.com/

Back Pain

BACK PAIN 

You're only allowed so many bends throughout the day. Save them for things like tying your shoes, not sit ups.

Don't do sit ups. They stopped doing them in the military.

Your back hurts most in the morning because you're superdehydrated.

Stretching by pulling knees to chest may feel good today, but will hurt you more tomorrow. You're flexing your back and putting yourself in a dangerous position.

Find what's hurting your back, stop doing that, work on strengthening what's lacking.

Don't ever get surgery. It may alleviate one pain, but open up a whole new world of problems that you can never fix.

Many people have herniated and/or bulging discs, but don't even realize it because they're not in pain yet.

Enlarge your computer screen to 150% so you don't have to lean forward.

Common thought is that you hurt yourself through some sort of event. Disc herniation is not an overnight thing. It's bad habits/posture/form that have lead to this happening.

If you're in pain during an exercise you've gone beyond your capacity, stop it. Your body is telling you something.

Squatting is appropriate for getting off a toilet or chair but not for dropping to the floor. Instead, do a lunge that does not bend your spinal discs and is a much more appropriate choice

Athletes with the most abdominal flexion have the most injured discs, think gymnasts.

80% of people have back pain.

People with back pain tend to use their hamstrings more, when they should be using their glutes.

Doing glute bridges reinforces the idea of using your glutes.

Curl ups, Side Planks, Bird Dogs are all good exercises to rehab your back.

Back pain is not a life sentence. Just have to take an effort to rehab it.

Genetics play a part in it. Slender spines are great for golfing but terrible for football. Thicker spines are great for football but are terrible at golf.

Some people have deeper hip sockets than others. Not everyone is meant for squatting deep.


For more info from Stuart McGill, check out http://www.backfitpro.com/