wild-related stories
Which Celebrity Trains Upside-Down?
Celebrities and Entertainment, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment
Yesterday I rejoined one of the most athletic guys I know, and he taught me both the most insane and brilliant exercises I've ever tried in a gym. His name is Anthony Field, and yes ... he's the Blue Wiggle from the children's TV show The Wiggles.
Anthony and I have trained together before, and he's impressed me each time. But yesterday ... I have a hard time finding words to describe. He started doing pull-ups almost two years ago, and he lost about 40 pounds. Then he added rings to his routine, which made things more fun. And now, well, the average person would just think he's lost his mind.
He is addicted to strength training while using nothing but his body weight, and his physique is proof that this strategy works like a charm. We spent a ton of time in a hotel gym shooting a bunch of fun and exciting fitness segments, which I'll be airing here soon. We giggled through it, but mostly because he doesn't speak "American" and I'm not so good at "Australian."
Be nutty and try this recipe
Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements
Maybe it's true that we are what we eat, but what does that make us if we try this nut loaf recipe? Heck, there's nothing wrong with being a little nutty if it comes from eating this tasty dish.Nuts, mushrooms, veggies, and fresh herbs make the bulk of this recipe, with eggs and a few this-and-thats. So healthy proteins and fats combined with the nutrients of onions, leeks, carrots, and celery. Can it get any better?
Just a few tweaks and we've got a vegetarian mainstay full of healthy perfection:
- Use wild mushrooms, not just white ones, to help boost your immune system.
- Use brown rice cooked in broth instead of rice pilaf.
- Instead of breadcrumbs, just pop a slice of sprouted grain bread in the food processor and use that for more nutrition and better digestion.
Celebrity Fitzness Report: Fearless Planet Adventurer - Will Gadd
Healthy Habits, Healthy Places, Womens Health, Celebrities and Entertainment, Healthy Kids, Celebrity Fitzness Report, Obesity, Healthy Events, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health
Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy
My guest this week is the very excellent athlete and adventurer Will Gadd. Starring on Discovery Channel's Fearless Planet, Will guides us through the world's most spectacular natural wonders to teach us how these land formations were created. The show is really so gripping that as I lay sick and exhausted in bed a few weeks ago, I refused to fall asleep. I couldn't miss his journey through and lesson about the Sahara. (No.....I don't have TiVo.Yes, I know I'm a nerd.) I was wishing this show was around when I was back in school learning about geography. If it was.....I think I would have actually been interested in the subject and learned all of the things I was supposed to learn back then. Totally entertaining!
From Canmore, Alberta, Will has won every major ice-climbing competition in the world and holds the distance world record in paragliding. He's one of the most successful outdoor sports athletes in the world, as well as an award-winning film-maker and writer. He has flown his para-glider over the Grand Canyon, climbed icebergs in the North Atlantic, won the X Games, written a best-selling outdoor instructional book and regularly writes for the New York Times and other international magazines and newspapers.
As I interviewed Will, we giggled a lot as he was totally down to earth (when not hanging from it). He's a new Daddy and considers that his most exciting, yet rewarding adventure. He's also the real deal when it comes to healthy living. He has some especially unique insight on food, which I think we could all learn from.
Fitz: You're the ultimate outdoor sports guy....in amazing shape. You're world renowned for excellence in ice climbing, mountain climbing, paragliding, kayaking , caving and skiing; a bit of a lunatic. How did you get started with all of this?
Will: I actually began my escapades in utero. My Mom was hitting the mountains while pregnant with me. My Dad's a climber too. I grew up with it.
Fitz: What does your wife think about you dangling upside-down from ice all the time?
Will: She totally gets it. She's (Kim Csizmazia) also a champion ice climber.
Fitz: That would probably help! And now you have a daughter?
Celebrity Fitzness Report: Bear Grylls of Man vs Wild
Womens Health, Healthy Recipes, Celebrities and Entertainment, Healthy Kids, Cellulite, Celebrity Fitzness Report, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health
Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy.
This week I'm featuring one of the coolest guys in the world. A real life action hero who actually couldn't answer some of my questions, because he's been sworn to military secrecy. I love it! Bear Grylls is the star of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel.
Bear was a survival expert in the British Special Air Services (21 SAS). He's obsessed with adventure as well as breaking rules and records. Bear is a brilliant outdoors man, built like a guy movie producers choose for their action flicks, and handsome enough to make girls want to watch him eat zebra guts. A fantastic combination for television.
To shoot each episode of Man vs. Wild, 33 year old, Bear gets dumped out of a helicopter in to the wildest most extreme regions in the world where tourists are likely to become stranded. He then gets to work trying to teach our sorry butts how to escape eminent doom. On Man vs. Wild, Bear has: thrown himself into both quicksand and an ice lake to demonstrate exit strategies, hidden from a sandstorm inside of a camel he'd previously gutted, and chowed down on everything from elephant dung to goat testicles. All for our benefit.
While interviewing Bear, I started the conversation off by telling him that I love the show, but spend half of the run time covering my eyes and ears. He didn't seem surprised. I often inquired about why he is willing to go to such extremes. He also didn't seem phased; unlike you and I....hiding inside of a camel doesn't seem appalling to him. The man is the real deal. He takes his job seriously and is literally willing to do anything to survive. I think I'm inviting Bear to vacation with me from now on.
Fitz: How did you get into this whole survival thing?
Bear: I was a survival expert in the Royal Marines. We had a tight unit and I loved it. I served twice.
Fitz: What kind of exciting missions did you go on in the military?
Bear: I can't tell you much, it's all kind of hush-hush! But in one of my unfortunate incidents, I broke my back in three places during a free-falling parachute accident in Africa.
Fitz: Ouch! I'm impressed that you recovered and came back for more. What kind of kid were you?
Bear: Oh God! I was always dirty and causing lots of trouble. Kind of like I am now.
Fitz: How did you end up with your own show on Discovery Channel?
Bear: I had done a television series about the French Foreign Legion in the UK. The people from Discovery Channel invited me to do Man vs Wild. They had to ask three times, because the first two times I told them no. I felt like they wanted some 'smart guy' and I was not what they were looking for.
Bear Grylls was a chubby bear
Healthy Habits, Womens Health, Celebrities and Entertainment, Cellulite, Celebrity Fitzness Report, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health
Bear Grylls (at right) used to be a more cuddly bear. The athletic star of Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild recently revealed to me that he used to be quite overweight. After completing his service to the British Special Forces and getting married, Bear gained two and half stone! Not familiar with stones? Well, each of the British survival expert's extra stones equal a whopping 14 pounds! That's quite a lot. 35 pounds to be exact.
Bear is ripped now. How did he make the transformation? He decided to! Bear says that he just was sick of being a loaf and changed his ways. He also was suffering from back pain. (He broke his back during a free-falling parachuting accident). To stay in shape for his adventures and remain pain free, Bear trains three hours a day. He varies his workouts with: martial arts, running, climbing, yoga, swimming, pull-ups, push-ups and more. When he's not eating all sorts of disgusting live and dead animals to demonstrate survival skills, Bear avoids meat and dairy. He feasts on fruits, veggies, and whole grains.
The guy knows what it's like to be out of shape, and has decided that's not the way he wants his life to be. His training is not 'easy' for him, but it's something he feels passionate about. Bear is not chubby at all anymore. In fact, his ripped. What a lucky lady his wife is to get to cuddle up with that Bear.
Caught in a sandstorm? Hide in your camel!
Healthy Habits, Healthy Places, Womens Health, Celebrities and Entertainment, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Men's Health
Never a dull moment with Bear Grylls. The star of Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild and I spoke last week during a long interview in which he will be featured in an upcoming Celebrity Fitzness Report. Definitely 45 of the most interesting minutes in my life. I can't imagine anyone having more incredible tales.
Bear told me about visiting the Sahara Desert in Africa and enduring the extreme temperatures, highs of 130 and lows of 20 degrees ferenheit. What he didn't tell me is what I saw last night while watching his show. He was given a camel from some local tribesmen that he met on his journey, and showed how to skin it to make a blanket (which he slept with later that night). Fun! He also demonstrated how to remove the water reservoirs from the camels humps in order to drink. Tasty! But wait ...there's more!
Goat testicles don't taste like eggs
Celebrities and Entertainment, Celebrity Fitzness Report, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health
I know. Isn't this a disgusting topic? Blech. How do I know this information you wonder? Well, a few days ago I had the luxury of speaking with one of the coolest men on television, Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild star, Bear Grylls. Bear travels to the wildest locations around the world and teaches survival skills. So, just in case you get stranded in Antarctica some day......you'll know what to do.
Bear's complete interview will be featured in an upcoming Celebrity Fitzness Report here on ThatsFit.com, but in the interim I thought I'd share this fun information with you. A huge part of surviving in the wild is knowing what to eat and what not to eat. Bear discriminates against poisonous things, not disgusting things. Apparently neither should we.
This season he feasted on goat testicles. He was presented with them by some nomadic tribesman and contrary to Bear's initial projections, they did not taste like hard boiled eggs..................
Five superfoods to add to your diet
Reviews & Products, Nutrition & Supplements
I'm relatively new to this fitness blog and one of the biggest benefits that I've discovered from writing posts is that it gets me to search out and learn more and more about health and fitness. One of the tings I've discovered since I started is the concept of a superfood. As Bethany mentions in her post 'What exactly is a superfood', these items are basically just incredibly good for you as they're high in a number of nutrients, vitamins and more.
The author of this piece takes the time to discuss 5 personal favorites, and the breakdown and accompanying information go something like this:
- Whole grain bread - Find a loaf with 2g of fiber or more per slice. It should also be made with whole wheat or whole grain (as opposed to enriched) flour.
- Wild salmon - As many of us have heard, farmed salmon is often full of harmful chemicals. Stick to wild salmon and you'll consume all of the Omega-3 goodness with far fewer accompanying chemicals.
- Green vegetables - Anything that has a rich, green color like kale, broccoli or spinach is great for you as these foods are full of fiber, vitamin E and calcium.
- Blueberries - This is one fruit I'm hearing about constantly lately. They contain loads of antioxidants (more than any other food, according to the article) and also provide you with a bunch of vitamin C. Plus, they're just as healthy frozen as they are fresh.
- Avocados - I know a lot of people who avoid avocados because they contain fat. This is true, but it's monounsaturated fat, which is good for your heart. Plus they contain vitamins C, K and B6 as well as fiber and folate.
To find out the rest of what the author of the article said about each superfood, take a look here.
Why are wild women always thinner?
This article on eDiets is a bit controversial, and I don't agree with everything it says. What's wrong with being a little domestic? I happen to like the idea of having a nice house and 2.5 kids and all that. But I will say that part of what the author says makes some sense to me: the idea that many women think "growing up" and "being mature" means giving up big parts of themselves -- giving up many of the things that make them happy and help them express who they are. I also believe the article's point that a balance can be found between growing up and having responsibilities, and still being yourself. I don't know if you have to go so far as comparing yourself to a domesticated house pet, but paying a little attention to yourself and what you need to be happy is always a good thing -- for you and for those around you.
Fish fraud! Watch out for that wild salmon
There are plenty of reasons why people would rather sink their teeth into salmon that is "wild" as opposed to farm-raised. It has a more distinct taste with a stronger flavor and firmer feel to it. Not to mention it isn't gray like the farmed kind.Turns out that some stores are stocking farm-raised salmon that's labeled "wild" during the slower season. In November, December, and March, a test was conducted on 23 store-bought salmon that were marketed as "wild." Only 10 passed the test as being such; the other 13 were frauds.
Another interesting twist involved the "organic" salmon. With no federal standards, the unlabeled fish that were tested came from farms as well. So what does this mean? Well, since the "wild" kind ordinarily costs more, and doesn't have added toxins, people should be getting what they paid for -- not a farmed alternative marked up at a higher price. If you want to avoid the fish fraud, get it during the summer when it's most abundant. This will minimize your chances of getting salmon that's falsely labeled.























