–Eat more carbs early in the day, before 2 pm or so. Without plenty of carbs, you won’t have good fuel for a great workout. Carbs fuel the workout. Without plenty of carbs, your workout will be weaker, and your muscles will progress more slowly.

–Eat more proteins later in the day. Also, eat more proteins the day after you lift weights. (Assuming you follow a normal, healthy pattern of about 3x weight-lifting a week, with days in between for recovery.) Proteins build and repair muscle, you need plenty AFTER you work out.

–I try to keep my overall balance of calories as follows: 40% of calories from protein, 40% from carbs, and 20% from fat. Of course, this is the ideal, and I’m not always right on target, but I do make sure that protein % never drops below 30 and fat % never goes above 30. (I use http://dailyplate.com to track my food, and it gives the break-down of protein/carbs/fat automatically. There are complicated formulas you can use to figure it out by hand… but why, when there are online services for that?)

–Most important is not a nutrition thing, but it is important for building muscle: SLEEP. Get a solid 8 hours at least every night. Also, I’ve read a lot of research supporting the idea that allowing yourself to sleep in a few extra hours on weekends or days off can truly help repay sleep you lost during the work week. You, like I, have probably experienced this before as well. Getting plenty of rest is crucial to allowing your muscles to mend themselves– it could possibly be even more important than getting enough protein.

Are there any careers out there that combine both nutrition and nursing? Especially ones that require a masters degree? I have a HUGE passion for nutrition and would love to incorporate that into my profession.

Any ideas?

I finished a nursing program, as this is where my passion lays. However, I encourage everyone to look into a better field. Nursing has no shortage and there are literally NO jobs. I am in NYC and know BSN nurses who have been out of work for almost a year. When you DO find a job, 9 times out of 10, it will be abusive. Nurses have to deal with an incredible amount of stress, harassment, bullying, and degradation.

This is coming straight from the nurses mouth. If you have any level of self-respect, you will absolutely regret your decision to go into nursing. The suffering is tremendous and most nurses have conditioned themselves to accept the abuse. They are in flat out denial and will viciously defend their career. I am humble enough to say that I LOVE helping my patients, don’t mind the dirty work, but I actually have a self esteem and realize that, in this field, human beings are treated well below their worth and it’s not natural, nor healthy.

Here are a few fields that I have personally researched and very few people are aware of them. They are currently stable and will BOOM incredibly in the next few years as we have about 60,000,000 baby boomers retiring:

- Occupational Therapy Assistant…go for your COTA (Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant)- average salary $50,000-$65,000/year to start.

-Physical Therapy Assistant- average salary $40,000-55,000/year…but they are needed a little more than COTAs because most people do not want to go to school for PTA. It’s a little more difficult of a program and you usually don’t go back for your Bachelors. You would make this your career. It has a HIGH rate of job satisfaction, though.

-Health Information Technologies- $50,000-$100,000/year (depending on how large your facility is and what state it’s in). Ask yourself, HOW many people do you know that specialize in this? That’s right, probably NONE. Why? It’s a newer major that was created as health care expands/grows and systems are being updated. Being a computer major will not be enough. Hospitals and Health Care institutions have elaborate billing/coding/medical systems that are updated CONSTANTLY and they need someone who has the specific knowledge to handle them.

-Health Care Administration- $40,000-$85,000/year. This is the person that RUNS the show, per se. They have a vast knowledge of codes, laws, policies, and some payroll and human resource experience. They are the go-to people when there are questions to be asked…they are the jack of all trades. Desk job= LESS harassment, stress, bullying. But don’t be fooled, you will have to put in effort and actually know your stuff…very rewarding once you do.

-Diagnostic Sonographer- $35,000-$75,000 This person is trained to look for cancerous masses, cysts, etc. Very rewarding career, works alongside doctor and saves that doctor a DRASTIC amount of money.

I’m just saying..keep your options open.You don’t have to go into Health Care..you can do whatever you want! Have a great day and feel free to message me if you would like!

Do your own research, seriously. A vague question isn’t going to get you a good answer.

Plaque build up in the arteries are more attributable to carb consumption than dietary fats, which seems to be the conclusion of the following study. Carb consumption raises triglycerides & VLDL (bad cholesterol). Fats raise the HDL (good cholesterol). High triglyceride levels & low HDL levels are an indicator of plaque, glycation – the precursors to a heart attack and heart disease.

study from the Oxford group examining the postprandial (after-eating) effects of a low-fat vs. low-carbohydrate diet. (Roberts R et al, 2008)

Postprandial lipoproteins, you’d think, would be plentiful after ingesting a large quantity of fat, since fat must be absorbed via chylomicrons into the bloodstream. But it’s carbohydrates that figure most prominently in determining the pattern and magnitude of postprandial triglycerides and lipoproteins. Much of this effect develops by way of de novo lipogenesis, the generation of new lipoproteins like VLDL after carbohydrate ingestion.

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/after-eating-effects-carbohydrates-vs.html

Reasons to Eat More Saturated Fat

1) Improved cardiovascular risk factors

Saturated fat in the diet reduces the levels of lipoprotein (a) abbreviated Lp(a)—that correlates strongly with risk for heart disease. The only dietary means of lowering Lp(a) is eating saturated fat. Eating fats raises the level of HDL, the so-called good cholesterol.

2) Stronger bones

Saturated fat is required for calcium to be incorporated into bone – According to expert in human health, Mary Enig, Ph.D., as much as 50 percent of the fats in the diet should be saturated fats.

3) Improved liver health

Studies show that saturated fat encourages the liver cells to dump fat content. Saturated fat has been shown to protect the liver from the toxic insults of alcohol & medications and even to reverse the damage.

4) Healthy lungs

For proper function, the airspaces of the lungs have to be coated with a thin layer of lung surfactant. The fat content of lung surfactant is 100 percent saturated fatty acids. Replacement of these critical fats by other types of fat makes faulty surfactant & potentially causes breathing difficulties, collapse of the airspaces & respiratory distress.

5) Healthy brain

Your brain is mainly made of fat & cholesterol. Though highly unsaturated essential fatty acids found in cold-water fish (EPA & DHA) are important for brain & nerve function, most of the fatty acids in the brain are actually saturated. The brain needs saturated fats to function optimally.

6) Proper nerve signaling

Certain saturated fats, found in butter, lard, coconut oil, & palm oil, function directly as signaling messengers that influence the metabolism. Without the correct signals to tell the organs & glands what to do, the job gets done improperly.

7) Strong immune system

Saturated fats found in butter & coconut oil (myristic acid & lauric acid) play key roles in immune health. Loss of sufficient saturated fatty acids in the white blood cells hampers their ability to recognize & destroy foreign invaders, such as viruses, bacteria, & fungi. Myristic & lauric acid have potent germ-killing ability. We need dietary replenishment of them to keep the immune system vigilant against the development of cancerous cells & infectious invaders.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/06/saturated-fat/

Saturated fats play many important biologic roles. They are an integral component of cell membranes, which are 50 percent saturated fat. Lung surfactant is composed entirely, when available, of one particular saturated fat, 16-carbon palmitic acid. Properly made with this fat, it prevents asthma and other breathing disorders. For nourishment, heart muscle cells prefer saturated long-chain palmitic and 18-carbon stearic acid over carbohydrates. Saturated fats are required for bone to assimilate calcium effectively. They help the liver clear out fat and provide protection from the adverse effects of alcohol and medications like acetaminophen. Medium-chain saturated fats in butter and coconut oil, 12-carbon lauric acid and 14-carbon myristic acid, play an important role in the immune system. They stabilize proteins that enable white blood cells to more effectively recognize and destroy invading viruses, bacteria, and fungi, and also fight tumors. Saturated fatty acids function as signaling messengers for hormone production, including insulin. And saturated fats signal satiety. Not surprisingly, given all these biological functions, saturated fats make up 54 percent of the fat in mother’s breast milk (monounsaturated fats are 39 percent; and polyunsaturated fats, a tiny 3 percent).

http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller33.1.html