A Super Nutrition Drink

Eating the right kind of healthy, nutrient-rich foods is one of the keys to lifelong strength and health. 

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Two quick notes and then I'll share Trudi's
Super Nutrition Drink. It's great for keeping
your immune system in peak condition
during the winter flu season.

1. Dinosaur Training Secrets, Vols 1, 2 and 3

I just ordered more copies of Dinosaur Training
Secrets Vols. 1, 2 and 3. So if you missed them
the first time around, now's a good time to grab
them:

These little monsters are available in your choice of hard copy, Kindle or PDF.

Vol 1 - Exercises, Sets, Reps and Workouts -
with 20 Detailed Workouts 

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_01.html

Vol. 2 - Poundage Goals and Measuring Where
You Stand - and How You Compare to the Great
Champions of the Past

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_02.html

Vol. 3 - Old-School Progression Systems - How
to Make Steady Progress Without Going Stale or
Burning Out

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_02.html

All three courses are also available in Kindle and
PDF editions - see the links for Kindle and PDF
courses in P.S. 2. at the bottom of this email.

2. The Strength Secrets Facebook Group

I believe in hard work and heavy iron - and so do the members of the Strength Secrets Facebook group.

John Wood has created a special, members only
Facebook group focusing on old-school strength
training and muscle building, Iron Game history,
old time physical culture, and everything else that
Dinos like.

Go here to apply for membership - and be sure to
tell him I sent you:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/strengthsecrets/

Join up, head over, and say hi to your fellow
Dinosaurs!

3. Trudi's Super Nutrition Drink

It's the middle of the flu season - and Trudi
works at a health care facility - so she's
extra careful to do everything she can to
stay healthy.

One of her secrets is the Super Nutrition
Drink.

Use a juicer to make it.

If you don't have a juicer, a hand-mixer or
blender will work fine - except you'll have
more of a smoothie than an actual juice.

If you make a smoothie, you'll need to
add water before mixing or blending.

For superb good health, always eat plenty of foods packed with antioxidants and phytochemicals - and supplement your meals with Trudi's super nutrition drink.

Here's the recipe:

1. Juice some fresh ginger root. Use one or
TBS of ginger juice for your drink. Pour it into
a glass and set it to the side until you mix the
other ingredients.

You'll probably have extra ginger juice. If
you do, set it aside and save it separately
for later use.

Ginger is highly anti-inflammatory and
is great for your immune system.

CAUTION: fresh ginger is strong stuff -
so don't go wild and overdo it the first
time! Start with a TSP or two - not a
TBS - and get used to it. From there,
build up to one or two TBS of ginger
juice.

I got inspired as I typed this Blog post, so I whipped up a quick Super Nutrition Drink with an apple, strawberries, a teaspoon of fresh squeezed lime juice and a tablespoon of fresh ginger juice. 

2. Now juice any fresh fruit of your
choice.

Trudi likes apples, oranges, lemon,
grapefruit, or berries.

You can use one fruit or two fruits that
would work well together. For example,
oranges and berries go well together -
and so do apples and berries, or apples
and lemons.

Fresh fruit is packed with antioxidants
and phytochemicals that will work with
the ginger juice to help rev up your
immune system.

Health warriors.

NOTE: if you're short on time, just mix
the ginger juice in some unsweetened
100% fruit juice. Berry, cherry and
pomegranite juice are VERY healthy.

NOTE 2: Here's a bonus for you! One
8 oz. glass of pomegranate juice every
day for just a couple of weeks increased
testosterone levels in men by almost 20
percent! (And they weren't even training -
so imagine what would happen if you
were doing regular Dino-style workouts
while drinking pomegranate juice every
day.)

3. Optional - juice one or two carrots.

These go well with citrus fruit or berries.
They also go well with apples.

Carrots provide additional antioxidants
and phytochemicals which will increase
the health benefits of the drink.

4. Mix the fruit juice (or fruit and carrot
juice) with the ginger juice - give it a stir -
and enjoy!

As far as amounts go - two pieces of
fruit, two carrots and two TBS of ginger
juice will make a small (4 to 6 oz) serving.

That's all you need, because there is so
much concentrated nutrition in this drink.

Give it a try, and let me know how you
like this super-nutritious and super-
healthy drink!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. I have plenty of other recipes and
nutrition tips in Knife, Fork, Muscle:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_nutrition.html

P.S. 2. My other books and courses are right
here at Dino Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

P.S. 4. Thought for the Day: 


"Strong is good, but strong and healthy
is better."

-- Brooks Kubik

BEFORE YOU LEAVE . . .

We have more than 25 Dinosaur Training books and courses in the Kindle bookstore - here are several of them - head on over and take a look at the others:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

Did Hi-Proteen Kill Bob Hoffman?

If you're my age or older, you probably remember Hoffman's Hi-Proteen powder and Hi-Proteen tablets. (Not a typo, that's how it was spelled.) You were supposed to gain one pound of muscle for every dollar you spent on Hi-Proteen - but that never happened for me.

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Back in the early 1950's, everyone started
selling protein powder.

A guy in Chicago named Irving Johnson
started the craze. He later moved to
Beverly Hills and changed his name to
Rheo H. Blair.

He made so much money selling protein
powder that everyone who published a
weight training magazine decided they
needed to do the same thing.

Bob Hoffman did it - Joe Weider did it -
and even Peary Rader did it (for a short
period of time - and then he - thankfully -
stopped).

Hoffman called his protein powder Hi-
Proteen. (Not a typo - that's how they
spelled it).

The stuff was made out of soybeans,
which were being hailed as a super food -
even though, prior to that time, soybeans
had been used almost exclusively for
animal feed here in the USA.

But the bodybuilding world began using
them for humans - as a food supplement -
and before you knew it, pretty much every-
one who lifted weights had tried the stuff
at least once.

There was a relentless advertising campaign
for all the protein powders. We were bom-
barded with articles telling us we needed
to eat more and more protein.

Three square meals a day weren't enough.

You needed six high-protein meals a day.

You needed to take protein powder at
every meal.

If you were extremely underweight and
skinny (as most beginners were), you
needed to guzzle a gallon of milk loaded
with protein powder every day.

For good measure, you were supposed
to take a thermos of high protein shake
to the gym and glug it in-between sets.

And just to be on the safe side, you were
supposed to carry high protein tablets in
your pocket and eat them like candy all
day long - just to be sure you didn't go
a single minute without an adequate
supply of protein. You didn't want to
start shrinking and lose all your gains!

I remember trying all of the different
protein powders when I was a kid.

MAN, DID THEY TASTE BAD!

A pair of dirty soaks boiled in swamp
mud would have tasted better.

If you ever tried them, you know what
I mean.

Bob Hoffman always said he ate
more Hi-Proteen than any man
who ever lived.

I don't know if that's true or not, but
if he did, it probably killed him.

That's also why - to this day - I steer
clear of any protein supplements. Been
there, done that - and don't want to do
it again.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. I cover diet and nutrition for strength
training and muscle building in Knife,
Fork, Muscle. Go here to grab a copy:

Hard-copy

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_nutrition.html

We're also releasing Knife, Fork, Muscle in
a series of Kindle e-books. The first three
books in the e-book series are right here;
book 4 in the e-book series is coming soon:

Knife, Fork, Muscle, Kindle e-book 1

(covers protein for strength training -- how
much, the best sources of high-quality
protein, etc.)

http://www.brookskubik.com/knifeforkmuscle01_kindle.html

Knife, Fork, Muscle, Kindle e-book 2

(covers healthy and unhealthy carbs,
vegetables, starchy vegetables, grain
and gluten issues, organic foods, and
gardening)

http://www.brookskubik.com/knifeforkmuscle02_kindle.html 

 Knife, Fork, Muscle, Book 3
(covers healthy and unhealthy fats,
food and chemical allergies, and the
importance of allergy-free diets)

http://www.brookskubik.com/knifeforkmuscle03_kindle.html 

P.S. 2. My other books and courses --
including links to all of my e-books on
Kindle -- are right here at Dino
Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/oldschool_01-kindle.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: 

"Heavy iron and real food works
pretty darn well."
 
- Brooks Kubik

BEFORE YOU LEAVE . . .

We have more than 25 Dinosaur Training books and courses in the Kindle bookstore - here are several of them - head on over and take a look at the others:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

The No Tofurky Diet

 

Hitting it hard in the Dino Dungeon, and earning my dinner. That's important, because we've been having some great meals here at Dino Headquarters.

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Ever since I updated you on Trudi's
30 Day Diet Challenge - where she
challenged me to join her in 30 days
of nothing but home cooked vege-
tarian meals for 30 days - I've been
getting a lot of emails.

Some of you have been thinking
about doing the same thing, and
wanted to know how it was
working and what we are
eating.

Others asked if I was dead yet -
working on the assumption that a
meat-free diet would kill me. (So
far, that hasn't been the case. In
fact, I feel really good.)

There were many common questions
and concerns.

A lot of you asked if we were eating
Tofurky or other faux meats.

The answer to that question is a
great big "No, double no and triple
NO!"

The whole purpose of the 30 Day
Challenge was to try new meals,
new menus and new foods. Trudi
thought that going meat-free would
force us to do that - and she was
right. It made us think outside the
box.

We don't eat any faux meats, and
we eat no refined, packaged or pre-
pared meals. That would defeat the
whole purpose.

Instead, we scour cookbooks and
the web for interesting meals - and
then we prepare them from scratch.

If we like them, we may try them
again, perhaps using a slightly
different recipe. If we don't like
them, we find and try something
else. There are tons of wonderful
dishes to try, and life is too short
to eat food you don't enjoy 100
percent.

We eat lots of fresh vegetables,
including plenty of leafy green
vegetables. We add kale, spinach,
beet greens or collard greens to
almost everything we cook. And
all or almost all of it is fresh and
locally grown. We have some great
farmer's markets here, and we
make the most of them.

Trudi served this terrific fruit and veggie plate the other day. To round out the meal, we had toasted Ezekiel bread with hummus.

We eat lots of fresh fruit - and
try to keep it as varied as
possible.

We both love mushrooms, and
we've been having fun with sauted
or stir fried mushrooms over whole
grain pasta, brown rice or (Trudi's
favorite) barley.

Stir-fried mushrooms with onions and garlic, served over barley. This is one of Trudi's favorite meals. We often add kale or spinach for extra fun.

We also grill portabella mushrooms
and serve them like burgers. Those
are pretty tasty. Of course, we use
lots of onion and garlic with any of
mushroom dishes, and that's pretty
hard to beat.

Homemade veggie burgers with hummus, avocado and tomato.

We've found some great recipes for
homemade veggie burgers made from
beans, grains, garlic, onion, and various
spices. They're surprisingly good, and
high in protein (14 to 17 grams for
one burger).

One day, I added some acorn squash
to the veggie burgers, and didn't like
them as much - so for dinner I took
the same mix (I had lots of it left-
over) and made a veggie meatloaf
that we baked in the oven and topped
with tomato sauce for the last 10 min-
utes of baking. That was delicious.

Veggie meatloaf with oven-baked potato wedges. This was simple and delicious.

We get our protein from a variety of
beans and legumes. We also have
lentil dishes, and we'll try some split
pea  dishes soon.

Today's breakfast - oatmeal with cherries, topped with a ton of nuts and seeds.

We eat nuts and seeds, which have
fats and extra protein.  Our breakfast
today was oatmeal with cinnamon,
three kinds of cherries, hemp seeds,
sun-flower seeds, pumpkin seeds,
flax seeds, walnuts and almonds.

Trudi found a great-tasting pasta made
from brown rice and chickpeas. It has
11 grams of protein per serving. We
like it a lot, and it's a good way to
add some extra protein.


We also use Ezekiel bread for sand-
wiches. It's made from sprouted grains
and legumes, and has six grams of
protein per slice.

We have lots of hummus with our meals.
It's made from chickpeas, and is high
in protein. I use it as an all-purpose
sandwich spread.

We eat a variety of fresh-cooked whole
grains: brown, red and black rice; quinoa;
barley; couscous; wild rice (which is
actually a grass seed rather than a grain);
buckwheat (also a grass seed) and whole
corn meal.

Peasant food that's fit for a King - minestrone soup with white beans and barley. Very filling, and a nutritional powerhouse.

All in all, we're getting plenty of protein,
and tons of vitamins and minerals. The
only nutrient we're not getting is vitamin
B12 (which is only available in animal
foods), we take a supplement for that.
(By the way, no matter what you eat,
all Dinos over age 50 should take a
vitamin B12 supplement. That's be-
cause we lose the ability to absorb
it as we grow older.)

Our meals are fun, we're having a good
time planning our meals and prepping
and cooking them together, and we
are definitely achieving Trudi's goal
of trying new and different meals.

So it's been working pretty well so
far.

And yes, we're 100 percent Tofurky-
free.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. For more about diet and nutrition
for strength and muscle building, grab
KNIFE, FORK, MUSCLE. It has great
ideas for carnivores and non-
carnivores alike:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_nutrition.html

P.S. 2. My other books and courses
are right here at Dino Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: 

"Always train for real, and always
eat real food."

- Brooks Kubik

BEFORE YOU LEAVE . . .

We have more than 25 Dinosaur Training books and courses in the Kindle bookstore - here are several of them - head on over and take a look at the others:

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

Souped Up Soup for Strength and Health

 

There's a great big pot full of strength and health simmering away here - and it costs next to nothing to make this super nutritious, super delicious vegetable broth.

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Trudi and I made a big pot of souped
up soup last night.

Souped up soup comes from an old
recipe by John McCallum in his
famous "Keys to Progress" series
in Strength and Health magazine.

You make it by saving vegetable
scraps and peelings in a plastic bag
in the freezer.

Note: by veggie scraps I am referring
to unused tips, ends, peels, stems,
cores and other inedible parts of
fresh veggies. Not table scraps off
of someone's plate - but food scraps
you make when you cut, slice peel
and prep your veggies.

For example, potato peels, carrot tips
and carrot ends, the core of a red or
green pepper, the bottom end of a
celery stalk, the peels from an acorn
squash, the core and inner leaves from
a head of iceberg lettuce, parsley
stems, and stems from kale, spinach,
chard, or other greens. 

Normally, you would throw them
in the garbage. But this is a way
to use them to add some great
free taste and free nutrition to
your diet.

Of course, this also means you
need to be making your own
meals and using plenty of fresh
veggies in them - but you should
be doing that anyway.

When the bag is full, you pour the
frozen vegetable scraps into a big
pot, cover with water, add some
salt and pepper, and cook it for a
couple of hours.

Let it cool for a while, then strain
the veggie scraps, and you're left
with some beautiful vegetable broth
to use in soups, stews and other
recipes.

At this point, discard the veggie
scraps. They've served their
purpose, and there's no more
nutrition left in them.

By the way, if you have a garden,
be sure to put the veggie scraps
into your compost pile. They break
down very quickly and make great
compost.

The broth is very rich, dark, tasty
and flavorful - and it makes great
soup, stew or other dishes.

It's also jam-packed with vitamins
and minerals. So much so that it
could be considered a no-cost
vitamin-mineral supplement.

To make it even better, add some
fresh crushed garlic and onion to
the mix before you start cooking
it.


And yes, you can add a soup bone
to the mix - just be sure to sear it
or brown it a bit before throwing it
in.

The veggie broth is one of our secret
ingredients in soups, stews and other
dishes. As you can see, we've made
some great tasting meals with it:

Red lentil, spinach and potato stew - flavored with curry and other Indian spices.

  Lentil, sweet potato and cauliflower stew on the left; sag paneer (a spinach dish) on the right. Both seasoned with curry and other Indian spices. 

 

 

Tuscan white bean soup with sweet potato and kale. Seasoned with Mediterranean spices.

Speaking of meals - Trudi wanted to
try some new recipes, new meals,
and new dishes, so she asked me to
try nothing but home-made, cooked
from scratch vegetarian dishes from
around the world for the next 30
days.

That made it a challenge, so I
accepted. I like challenges - and
besides, it's always interesting to
try something new and report on
how it works.

We've been doing it for two weeks
now, and it's been a lot of fun. I'll
share more about it in future posts.

But souped up soup is neither a
vegetarian food nor a food for
carnivores.

It's just a great way to make a
really good soup broth for next to
nothing.

And it's one of the best ways to
be sure you're getting all the
vitamins and minerals you need.

Give it a try - and let me know
how you like it.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. For more recipes and cooking
tips, and tons of advice on how to
eat for strength and health, grab
Knife, Fork, Muscle:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_nutrition.html

P.S. 2. My other books and courses
are right here at Dino Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day

"Train for strength, eat for health,
and live every day to the fullest."

-Brooks Kubik