Eddy was my pet hamster my grandmother gave me when I was six.  I was in love with this toy like no other, who smirked at me and ran around and never needed a battery replacement.  He was my buddy, unlike any teddy bear or Tonka truck.

But boy did he have a fascination with his wheel.  Round and round he’d go.  It was almost dizzying to watch.  Maybe he thought he was actually going to get somewhere?  Poor guy.  Because he certainly looked determined, like nothing was gonna get in his way.

One day I came home and Eddy was nowhere to be found.  My sister’s rabbit had wandered off and ate my best friend.  The Little That Thought he Could was devoured, in pure Darwinian fashion.

Yet another contract squabble between Cablevision and a television station they carry.  Not sure who the winner in all this is, but the loser is undoubtedly you the consumer.

Cablevision is known to be a tough negotiator, and they proved that by letting go of Food Network for 3 weeks.  Now Disney execs want their payday for ABC, and pulled the plug on the station at midnight on a day when many will be tuning in to watch the Oscars this evening.

ABC will be back, but these television station-cable company battles will continue every time a contract is up.  The only thing we do know is these corporate behemoths will fight to take your money as you sit watching a pitch-black screen until the negotiation is resolved.

by Ken LeClair

You only have one day to pump iron and you want to make the most of it. This is what you do.  First of all, have a hearty breakfast of protein and carbs 1-2 hours before you head to the gym and bring the largest bottle of water you can get along with you.   You can’t do this on an empty stomach or a dehydrated body.
You are going to do one set of 10 reps for each exercise preceded by a warm up set of 10 reps.

Squat: 1 warm up set @ 135 lbs then 1 set @ 225 lbs

Deadlift: 1 warm up set 135 lbs then 1 set @ 225 lbs

Overhead press: 1 warm up set @ 95 lbs then then 1 set @ 135 lbs

Pullups: 1 set 20 reps at full body weight

Incline & flat bench press: 1 warm up set @ 135 lbs then 1 set @ 275 lbs

Dips: 1 set 20 reps full body weight

Not done yet….take a 10 minute break to drink as much water as you can

Now do it again without the warm up sets…if you can

by Ken LeClair

This is a question that has perplexed bodybuilders and athletes since the beginning of it all.. The answer my friends is yes.  Yes,you can lose unwanted body fat and gain muscle at the same time by changing your body chemistry.  Kind of like switching from oil heat to gas heat, or say from a gasoline car to an electric car , substituting one form of energy for a new form.

Assuming you have a normal diet and you have extra body fat from eating too many carbs that the body turns into sugar and then stores as fat, we will attack the fat from the culprit angle. The carb to sugar to stored fat scenario can be halted by cutting way back on the carb,s thus depriving the body of the sugar it uses for energy and the fat stored from not burning that sugar up.  There are only three things we can eat and that is carbs,fat and protein…so if we cut the carbs out that leaves protein and fat..We need protein to build and maintain our muscles and our new energy source to replace the sugar from carbs is fat.

Yes,fat can power your body and, interestingly enough, more efficiently than sugar..What do tigers, lions and leopards and wolves eat? They eat lots of protein and fat and they are very strong and also very lean.. 　 This is what you do..for 2 weeks…as in 14 days..no carbs as in being the opposite of a vegetarian… If it has a mother and a father you can eat it.   But once a day you can cheat and have a little broccoli.   You can eat as much as you want as long as you don’t eat more than 2000 calories a day.  By the 15th day you will have switched your body to burning fat as in your body fat for energy and the fat will already be melting off your body but your muscles will still be as big and getting bigger.  Now you can eat green vegetables and salads with your meals and marvel at the transformation your body is going thru..

When you have lost the fat you wanted to lose you can add fruit and 100% whole wheat bread and pastas with no sugar or corn syrup added.  You will be healthy with muscle tone and minimum body fat as long as you continue to eat this healthy way.  If you go back to the carbs the body fat will reappear but you will know how to get rid of it. 　 If you are a vegetarian you have to cut out low glycerin carbs and replace them with high glycemic carbs and keep the calories below 2000 with the right combination of carbs for the needed protein sources such as brown rice and beans..

Doctors recommending President Obama stop smoking and watch his high cholesterol.  NJ Transit raising their fees.   Monster earthquakes.   ABC might pull the plug for Cablevision viewers just before the Oscars.   Oh yeah, there are no jobs.

Is anything going right?

by Ken LeClair

Of course we all want to be ripped and hot so what to do?  Assuming you’ve been working out at the gym or at home and you have some muscles to showcase, the next step is to lose some of the body fat that obscures their definition under the skin.  The guys and dolls you see in the muscle mags have single digit body fat as in 5%-7%….the rest of us have double digit in the teens or twenties…So we need to get our body fat down which is not the easiest thing in the world.

The only way to do this is to cut down on the amount of calories we eat, and the safest way to do this is get on the scale and multiply how many pounds you weigh by 12.  The number you come up with is how many calories per day you can eat in order to lose body fat at a maximum rate while cutting muscle loss to a minimum. So if you weight 200 lbs, multiply by 12 which is 2400 calories per day or 180 lbs X 12 = 2060 calories per day etc..It is essential that you eat 1 gram of protein per 1 lb of body weight, chicken has about half the calories of beef so that’s a no brainer..You should consume 15% of your calories in the form of fat as in olive oil,canola oil… the remainder of your calories come in the form of carbohydrates and these should be veggies, salads and 100% whole wheat breads or 100% whole wheat pasta. Divide these calories in 5-6 meals and space them evenly throughout the day with a meal 1 hour before a workout and the next meal as soon as possible after a workout.

Keep working out with an emphasis on compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, shoulder press, pullups( or pull downs) and of course crunchs for abs..Remember 2 days per week is not enough and five days per week is too much. General rule of thumb is 3 sets of 10 reps per exercise doing 60% of your 1 rep max…If the most you can squat in 300 lbs then squat 180 lbs etc..

I have to lose 12 lbs how about you?

Is it a baseball cap signed by Paul O’Neill?  Your favorite Fiona Apple record?  A pumpkin you carved back in kindergarten?

Or is it something less tangible, like a long lasting friendship or a favorite story?

It is certainly pleasant to keep little mementos of what is important to us, whether they are hard objects or simply memories in our heads.  It’s our guidance when the going gets tough, a fond reminder of our identity should we begin to question our direction.

by Ken LeClair

Nature has many natural remedies for human diseases tucked into some of our most abundant foods.  One of the most beneficial and least expensive of these foods in fish oil.   Yes, oil from cold water fish such as mackerel, tuna, salmon and cod to name a few plus many others.  Fish oil contains two of the most important omega 3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA. These two fatty acids are crucial in developing normal brain and nervous system function and as well as vision, and also protect the body from the development of arthritis.

Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans, and fish oil according to the The American Dietetic Association can reduce the fatty deposits in the arteries that actually cause heart disease.  Fish oil has also been shown to reduce the occurrence of breast, colon and prostate cancers.  Fish oil has actually been shown to be a ant carcinogen in that it actually kills cancer cells and prevents their forming tumors in the body.  Fish oil taken during pregnancy has been shown to reduce the risk of low birth babies and premature births.  Fish Oil is also noted for preventing curing many ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, inflammation of the bowel schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, as well as depression.

The best way to get this fish oil into your body is by eating the fish that the oil comes from. The next best way is to take fish oil supplements. These are surprisingly inexpensive and available in most if not all pharmacies and supermarkets.  I recently bought a bottle of 200 soft gels at the supermarket the 1000 mg size,  $15 for one and it was buy one get one free to boot. How many 100 mg soft gels should you take? The suggested dosage is one soft gel 3 times daily with a meal.  I take 3 in the morning and three at night and 3 after a heavy work out at the gym.  I figure something this good and this cheap, I’m going to lavish myself with it.

The alarm rings.  4:30 a.m.  You get out of bed with a purpose, and are soon on your way to the gym.  You finish your powerful cardio and weights session and fly down the highway fast enough to get to your desk at not a minute past 6:30.

You check your e-mails and face the avalanche of morning meetings.  You are prepared for some, but let your instinct and expertise carry you through the rest.  You do some office work before you head on-site to meet with one of your facility people to check on the progress of one of your capital projects.

It’s 5pm, and you are on the way home.  But you still have to analyze some proposals for an early morning meeting tomorrow, and are still working on renovating the kitchen in your home.

Exhausted?  Not a chance.  You’re a CEO.  Sure, now you have the title, but you’ve always felt like one and acted the part.  You never expected any less than the best, and you always delivered when the lights fell bright on your face.

You have that energy, that glow that most can’t comprehend as they lay down watching TV with a pile of potato chips on their stomach.