About Fred Amano • Played college football at San Diego State, played both defensive tackle and offensive guard during my college career.
• Went on to play in the Arena League with the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League 1 and the Boise Burn of Arena Football League 2. Played linebacker and fullback.
• Spent time as a personal trainer, after obtaining a certification in Sports Performance with USA Weightlifting.
• Still stay very active and have always been a workout warrior my whole life. Just wanted to share my insights on working out, and give tips tothose who want to kick start their workout routines.
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Well it is that time of year again. Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and I can already smell the Turkey in the air. It is always tough to eat healthy during the holiday season; everyone is guilty of overindulging during this time of year, including myself. But when Thursday hits, its okay to forget about the diet and “splurge”. Consider Thanksgiving Day your cheat day for the week. So everyone has my permission to go all out and eat what you want on Thursday. Enjoy a big plate of Turkey with mashed potatoes and stuffing. Since you have gone that far, might as well finish it off with some pumpkin pie as well. Man I’m already hungry just writing about all of this.
Although I encourage everyone to do something active before the eating festivities begin later in the day. I assume the majority of you have the day off, so start off the day with a nice walk around the neighborhood, or a quick workout at the gym. Living in San Diego we are so spoiled with beautiful weather for this time of year, so take advantage of it and spend sometime out in the sun. Maybe get a game of football at the park with
some friends if you want a fun way to burn off some calories. I know for myself I am going to squeeze a workout in on Thanksgiving morning before I
do some damage at the dinner table. Try to get the day started early so you can spend the rest of the time watching football and enjoying the day with loved ones. So yes I am giving everyone the green light to eat all you want and not worry about it.
But I do want to invite everyone to come to the next Filipino Press Boot Camp workout. Dan and I held our first fitness day Boot Camp on Saturday November 21st and had a good turnout. We had about twenty people out there and everyone seemed to have a great time. It was a great sight to
see when Filipino Press Publisher Susan Delos Santos was out there flipping tires and working hard with everybody. For more information on
our next workout, visit the website at www.filipinopress.com for more details. Happy Thanksgiving everybody and hope to see you out there for
our next Boot Camp workout. |
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How many times have you heard of a diet that promises to help you loseweight and you don’t even have to work out? So many times we hear about these new and hip diets that everyone seems to be trying. But don’t buy the hype, because that is exactly what it is, its just hype. A good
example is the Atkins diet that so many people believed to be the answer to all problems. The diet consisted of eating only high protein based foods such as meat and chicken. The problem was the diet didn’t allow you to eat any type of carbs. Carbs being foods like bread, pasta and rice.
The concept of not eating carbohydrates is crazy, considering it is our main source of energy. People who did the Atkins diet actually saw results quickly, and everybody thought it was legit. The problem was once you started to eat carbs again you would just gain the weight back that you lost. My point being that there is nothing out there that will magically help you to lose weight.
It is the same thing with diet pills. People think that taking diet pills will help them to lose weight fast. Some pills may help, but there is a big risk when taking diet pills because you don’t really know how safe some of the ingredients really are. A few years back when the diet pill Hydroxycut was popular, people were seeing results fairly quick. Then people began to experience side effects, and it was later discovered that the Ephedra contained in the pill was the main reason. Ephedra which was the main ingredient was the cause of increased heart rates and high blood pressure. Even today without the Ephedra, it was reported that Hydroxycut still can cause liver damage. I think today people are just so eager to see results, that they will do or try anything to help them achieve that. Special diets and diet pills are not the answer. Call me crazy, but the only proven thing that works when losing weight, is eating a steady balanced diet and working out regularly. The hardest part about maintaining a workout routine and a steady diet is discipline.
Often times, people get sidetracked so easily when it comes to eating the right foods and continuing to workout. But don’t let that happen, there
are a couple factors that can help you to stay the course and not get sidetracked. The first option would be to have a workout partner; by
doing that it makes it harder for you to give up so easily. It also gives somebody there to push you when you don’t feel like working out. Every
person has their breaking point, after a while you might seem to get bored with working out and eating the same foods. But like I mentioned in my
previous article, reward yourself with a cheat day, and eat your favorite foods. It’s almost like reaching that pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow.
But if you have to eat a specific type of food and you know it’s not as healthy for you, just portion your food. Measure it out and only eat a small amount of it. This takes a lot of discipline to do, so only do this if you know you can handle it. To sum it all up, there is no cure it all
pill that is going to magically help you reach your target weight. Working out and dieting is a process, you may not see the results as quick as you would like, but stick with it and you eventually will get to where you want to be.
Also, I wanted to invite everyone out on November 21st, 2009 to El Toyon Park in National City. Dan one of my good friends and myself will be
leading the Filipino Press Fitness Day. The event starts at 10AM and is for anybody who would like to get started on becoming active and
interested in living a healthy lifestyle. Hope to see you all there on November 21st.
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| When it comes to being healthy, people automatically associate working out and lifting weights as the main component. But in fact what we eat is just as important as being active and working out on a daily basis. A big mistake people make is skipping meals throughout the day. The most common meal people tend to skip would happen to be breakfast. Breakfast by far is the most important meal of the day. Your body is basically running on empty when you wake up in the morning, when you skip breakfast you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Your body is a lot like a car, if there is no fuel, the car will not run properly. When you are running on an empty stomach, it is harder to focus and you have no energy. For those of you who are guilty of skipping breakfast, please change your ways and eat BREAKFAST. Believe it or not, we burn calories every single minute of the day. You can be sitting at your desk doing paperwork, or taking out the garbage,everything that you do, you are burning calories. We even burn caloriesin our sleep. Keeping the body fueled is very important throughout the day. Eating frequently, about every two hours is a great way to keep the body running properly. I am not saying go and eat chicken adobo every two hours, but instead snack on healthier foods in between meals. For example two hours after breakfast, it’s ok to eat a banana and some almonds. That right there is a healthy light snack to keep the body fueled and help support an active metabolism. In all you really want to eat about six times a day. Eating throughout the day will prevent overeating at meals and eating late at night. Late night eating is what causes people to gain weight, so at all possible try to prevent eating before going to bed. I myself like to cut off eating at about 8PM. If you do get hungry at night, have a bowl of cereal, which is what I like to eat if I get hungry a little before bed. Its light enough and won’t sit heavy in your stomach. Being Filipino rice is a big part of our culture and in many cases is present in every meal. Just keep it to a minimum when it comes to rice, if you have to eat it at each meal, measure it out and limit yourself to one cup per meal. Measuring your food and keeping the portions smaller is a good way to help you continue to eat your favorite foods without going overboard. You can also use a healthier alternative by eating brown rice instead of white rice, so you can still enjoy your sinigang and adobe. Eating the same foods everyday can get repetitive and boring for anybody. It is good to have a cheat day, which I normally do on the weekend. A cheat day is a good way to reward yourself for eating good all week. But it is important you don’t over eat too much, because in the end you’re going to have to work it off eventually. When it comes to eating, I would much rather eat a meal and get calories that way, rather than putting empty calories in my body. Empty calories are things like soda, and juices. It is important to stay hydrated throughout the day especially if you are working out daily. Try to drink water with every meal, and continue to drink it throughout the whole day. That’s all I have for now, have a great week. My Meal Plan Breakfast:
2 eggs 3 egg whites
2 pieces of whole wheat toast
Oatmeal
Glass of Water Snack:
Apple
Yogurt
Glass of Water Lunch:
Turkey Sandwich
Cup of soup
Glass of Water Snack:
Peanut butter and jelly
Banana
Glass of Water Dinner:
Two Chicken Breast
Brown Rice
Veggies
Glass of Water Snack:
Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios |
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The first thing people always like to ask me is, “how did you lose so much weight?” It is no secret that being a football player you have to have some size to you. During my college days at San Diego State, I was tipping the scales at 300 pounds. Being a Division I athlete I had to be that big in order to compete with the big boys. After my playing career in college I decided that it was time for a change, being lineman size was no longer necessary for me. I am now two years removed from my lineman days at SDSU, and now I am weighing at a much more comfortable 240 pounds. Working out should be looked at as a necessity rather than a chore. In order to be healthy, exercising is a must. It does help if you workout with a partner rather than working out alone. Because when you are alone, it is easier to quit, but if you have someone with you, they can be there to push and encourage you.
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