As the bird flu rages all alcross the globe and recent news confirm new human victims of this plague in Asia, chicken still stays one of the healthiest choices of meat for non-vegetarian people. Chicken meat provides a high supply on proteins and has a relatively small ammounts of fat/calories. Apart from that some studies claim that chicken meat:

• Protects against cancer, as it has high levels of B-vitamins (niacin) and selenium, which is an essential substance needed for some of your body’s strongest antioxidants.
• That same niacin helps to protect yourself against Alzheimer and similar cognitive declines. Stay mentally fit with chicken!
• B6-vitamins protect your blood vessels against damage.

Chicken is the most important (and the cheapest) source of protein in any fitness diet. And the beauty of it is that there are so many recipes out there that are tasty and wallet-conscious

One of my favourite dishes is fried chicken with mushrooms. I am a pretty bad cook, but this one is so easy to make it’s simply hilarious. Basically all you need is (kg-alert!):

• 1kg of chicken breast (5.98$)
• 1/3 kg of mushrooms (0.49$)
• 1 onion (0.11$)
• soy sauce (0.07$)
• pulvorized curry (0.01$)
• black & red pepper (pulverized) (0.01$)
• 5 table spoons of olive oil (0.05$)

The most difficult part of the whole story is to clean and to cut it all into pieces. If you’re good at it you shouldn’t last more than 15 minutes. Note: you don’t have to cut it all into the smallest pieces ever. Rough medium-sized pieces are just fine.

When you’re done, you put some olive oil into the frying pan and start frying the chicken first. Add pepper, curry and soy and mix it all good. Personally I like chicken when it’s spicy, but this one is all up to you.

As chicken starts to get brown and you get a feeling in your gut that it might be ready, add the mushrooms and a few minutes later the onions and “shuffle” it all. At this point your experiment may be looking like this:

Damn, this thing smells so good I can’t even look at it Nobody can stand the aroma of fried chicken with curry and soja.

Anyway, you leave it like that for another few minutes and as you see the onions getting slightly brown, you’re done. Voila! In the grand total it shouldn’t take you more than 40 minutes. You can do a workout while you cook this dish (that’s what I do).
Usually I make in addition some pasta or rice (0.30$), add a vegetable (like a carrot) to the plate and eat it all together.

This should be enough for 8 plates. So, if you’re a hungry dude and you live alone, you could be eating this for 2-3 days. No unhealthy fast food, no excess of fats, no unnecessary salt. Quick, cheap and healthy. Enjoy! (I know I will )

Note: A real bodytweaker loves chicken meat anyway!
Cost: Depends on where you buy. Could be as much as 0.88$ / plate (without the carrot )

Last night a guy asked me some specific questions about bodytweaking and our philosophy. That wannabe “pro bodybuilder” preached that it was impossible to build muscles at home, because you lack all the “necessary equipment” to “target your muscles properly” and 110lbs is “simply not enough”.

Really?

Let’s get one thing straight: fitness doesn’t have to do anything with big muscles. BodyTweaking.Com is not about bodybuilding. BodyTweaking is about body-tweaking. You can have a sexy body with defined and toned muscles without ever setting a foot in a gym. If your aim is a Ronnie-Coleman-shape, you might want to check out bodybuilding.com. We are looking for quality of muscle here. We don’t want to grow muscles until no clothes fit. (extra big sizes aren’t cheap, you know )
What about mass? Coming back to Sparkie’s article about philosophy, moderation is the key in health. For some reason there are people out there who think they have to grow no matter what. Because that’s supposedly the only way to be “sexy” and “fit”. That’s when they start to take steroids and end up ruining their health. On the other hand, for your heart it is a pretty intense job having to pump blood through your 200lbs of muscle. Let’s see how many years you last under those conditions of constant struggle.

By quality we mean a natural healthy shape of well-toned and defined muscles. You still have broad shoulders and can impress anyone on the beach. And the beauty of it is that you don’t have to pay for expensive unnecessary equipment, steroids, supplements, gym membership, etc. You don’t have to spend 10 hours a week to go to the gym. Your bodytweaking routine can be as normal and integrated in your lifestyle as brushing your teeth. 30 minutes every morning and some balance in your diet can give you a perfect equilibrated shape.

That’s what BodyTweaking is all about. We don’t go to unnecessary extremes. We stay on solid ground. We keep our healthy center, our equilibrium.
After all, your outside size isn’t that important, you should be growing your inner size instead ;). As Josh R. Evans said: “It’s not the size of the dreamer, it’s the size of the dream.”

Note: A real bodytweakier looks for quality first
Cost: 0$ for a sexy figure

As Sparky said in the previos post, balance is the key to fitness and health. Balance between calories input and output, balance between workouts and rest, etc. I’ve been reading an interesting article about different types of fats and it appears that, according to a new study, a right balance of different oils in your diet may be crucial for your health.

A study published in the British Journal of Cancer reports different effects of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats on cancer cells (they conducted their study on prostate cancer cells).

• Omega-6 fatty acids are found in vegetable oils, nuts, etc.

• Omega-3 acids are found in fish.

The new theory is that Omega-6 oils give tumours a high energy supply for a rapid growth. However this invasion is blocked by omega-3. You need half as much omega-3 as omega-6 to block the malicious effects on tumour cells.

Therefore, if your diet includes vegetable oils, don’t forget to add some healthy ammounts of fish to your diet, too. For more information you may want to read this.

Note: A real bodytweaker loves fish (in a non-sexual way of course ;))
Cost: Depends… I buy 20 ounces of canned tuna for 3$