Tanning

This is for all of you trying to get a tan to show off all that muscle you've worked so hard for.

Before I say anything else, I feel I should warn all of you that UV radiation seems to be the cause of all three common skin cancers -- basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.

Now that I feel less guilty, us midwestern girls are known more than anyone else for our use of tanning beds, and, if you're going to do it, try this.

Start light - go for no more than 10 minutes your first 2 weeks of the season and no more than 3 times a week ever.

Use browning lotions - stay away from anything that says Hot or Fire or anything else related to heat. It opens your pores and greatly increases the chance for skin damage, along with purposefully giving you a sunburn.

Moisturize - even though you'll feel all greasy from the sweat and tanning lotion, wipe yourself off and immediately apply a moisturizer with vitamin E. Coco Butter and plain old aloe vera are great.

Please please please be careful and tan as little as possible. With lotions at $10 a bottle and lasting 2 weeks or so, they are often cheaper than the beds, just make sure to moisturize knees and elbows before applying (the dryer skin will absord more pigment, making those areas darker) and wash your hands really carefully or you'll have to explain your orange hands to everyone.

importancia do indice glicemico

How important is the GI?

by Tom Venuto

The glycemic index is a scale that measures how quickly carbohydrates are broken down into glucose. The original purpose of the glycemic index was to help diabetics keep their blood glucose under control. The glycemic index has recently attracted a lot of attention in the bodybuilding, fitness and weight loss world and is all the rage these days. Nary an issue of a fitness or bodybuilding mag is published without some reference to the glycemic index and diet books such as "The Zone," and "Sugarbusters" worship the index like some kind of idol. According to advocates of the glycemic index system, foods that are high on the scale such as rice cakes, carrots, potatoes, or grape juice are "unfavorable" and should be avoided because they are absorbed so rapidly and are therefore more likely to convert to fat. Instead, we are urged to consume carbohydrates that are low on the glycemic index such as black eye peas, oatmeal, peanuts, apples and beans.

While the glycemic index does have some useful applications, the flaw in stringently adhering to the glycemic index to dictate all your carb choices is that the index is based on carbohydrates being eaten by themselves in a fasted state. An effective fat-burning, muscle building diet is based on always combining carbs and protein together. When carbs are eaten in mixed meals that contain protein and some fat, the glycemic index loses some of its significance because the protein and fat slows the absorption of the carbohydrates.

For example, mashed potatoes have a glycemic index near that of pure glucose, but combine the potatoes with a chicken breast and vegetables and the glycemic index of the entire meal is much lower than the potatoes by itself. Similarly, rice cakes have a very high glycemic index, but if you were to put a couple tablespoons of peanut butter on them, the fat would slow the absorption of the carbs, thereby lowering the glycemic index of the combination.

A far more important and relevant criteria for selecting carbs is whether they are natural or processed. To say that one should not eat natural foods like potatoes simply because they are high on the glycemic index is ridiculous. Potatoes are an outstanding source of starchy complex carbs. Eaten exactly as it is found in nature, an 8 oz potato has only 170 calories, almost no fat, is loaded with essential nutrients and is satisfying to eat. Compare that to 8 oz of a processed carb such as pasta, which has 840 calories. Which do you think is the better choice if you want to get ripped?

You could also check out Will Brink's book, Diet Supplements Revealed - it has info on GI as well (although Will feels the GI deserves a little more emphais than I do) regardless, his book is superb for the supplement info as well as the GI info: http://aboutsupplements.com