Welcome to the VPX Sports Supplement Blog

You completed your workout, drank your protein shake and ate dinner. A couple of hours later it’s time to go to sleep; but wait, you’re hungry again! What do you do? Reach for the first thing you can get your hands on in your pantry? Eating empty fillers, such as chips and cookies is like a nightmare for your body. This has happened to all of us and we are often left feeling too full with the wrong food before bedtime. On the other side of spectrum, some people choose to follow the 9pm rule (eating nothing after 9pm) and starve themselves, but how effective is this?

There is a lot of information out there on the "latest and greatest" new diet products and herbs, but the truth is that the best way to lose that extra fat off your body is by exercising, eating a clean diet, and utilizing great supplements such as VPX’s Zero Carb protein powder. There are also certain foods that you should be consuming on a daily basis. Many of these foods are naturally high in antioxidants and anticancer properties, and best of all you can get them at your grocery store! If you eat crap like chips and candy, you will also feel and look like crap. If you eat foods that are good for you, you will be energized and feel good about yourself physically and mentally. So stop making excuses for every meal and just stick with it! These are the top 5 foods and spices you should be consuming every week to stay lean and healthy.

Now that you have started to exercise and have changed your diet, one constant thing you will have to work on is your motivation. There will be days where you feel like you can work out for 3 hours and eat nothing but lean protein and veggies, and other days you may not even want to get out of bed. The key thing to understand is that this WILL happen.  Everyday will not be perfect, but everyday you WILL have to push yourself to achieve your goals.

On the days you are naturally motivated and have had enough sleep, it will be easy to get into the gym and complete your workout. But what are you going to do on the days when there is just too much going on and you would rather pull your blanket over your head and go back to sleep? Here are a few tips and things to keep in mind when your motivation is low. If you PLAN ahead, you will stay on track and be one day closer to reaching your goals.

Unless you are a runner or are training for a triathlon, running on a treadmill for an hour or climbing on a stair climber may seem like death sentence. We all know it’s necessary to do cardio, and can’t simply abandon it. Your gym may offer some great cardio classes, but what happens if you don’t get there on time or the only class they are offering is their jazzy step aerobics?

Now that you have been going to the gym since the New Year, and have already been seeing awesome results, the next BIG thing to work on is your DIET! Where do you start? First, let’s be realistic. If you don’t have kids it may be easier for you to control what you buy and keep in the house. If you do have kids or 3 other roommates that don’t live your same lifestyle, it will be a little bit more work on your part to keep things clean. So, get into the right mindset of WHY you are changing your diet and how it’s going to benefit you immediately and in the long run. Here are 7 necessary steps YOU need to take to get on the right track!

After a whole day’s work, it is very tempting to run by a fast food place or just decide to go out to eat somewhere, even though you know the best thing is to come home and cook. Going out to eat can get pricey, and you don’t always know what you’re getting. Here are the top 5 reasons why YOU should be cooking delicious home cooked meals, instead of the junk food drive-through!

Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a fancy dinner and overpriced wine, why not do something different this year for Valentine’s Day? Try going on a romantic walk, or even nice run somewhere outside and spend some real quality time with your loved one. Maybe even a workout session to energize your body from the inside out. Another idea is to make a nice and clean dinner for 2, so you know exactly what you are putting in your body! Add some strawberries and raspberries for dessert, to stay in the Valentine’s Day spirit!

We all know the feeling: your heart starts racing, your mind is going a million miles an hour, your back begins to tense up, and you feel tension and anxiety creeping up on you. Yes, this is stress. Whether this is actual stress, or perceived stress, it’s still stress. If you work out regularly, you already know that a good workout can be the most beneficial thing you can do to relieve and even completely get rid of stress. Chronic stress can actually lower your immune system, make you feel tense and cranky, and will prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep. Other methods for stress reduction exist such as like progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery and biofeedback. One direct way to ease tension is through massage.

Antioxidants are compounds that protect our cells from oxidation. Oxidation is something that happens when we are exposed to things like pollution, excess sun, toxic substances, and also from immune system responses. Our cells have a specific “fat” layer that protects them from being damaged. When toxic substances like free radicals come in, they disrupt that layer and the cell may be damaged. So what if one cell damaged? Not much, your body will regenerate. However, if you multiply this by 1,000,000, then you have a lot of damaged cells. When we eat plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts such as blueberries, avocados and almonds, we can actually prevent some of this damage. Think of free radicals as unstable thieves trying to rob people for their belongings. Because they are unstable, they try to take things from other people to make themselves rich and stable. Does this sound like anyone you know? Free radicals work as a domino effect, where more damage to our cells gives them more power! Therefore something has to be done to stop them! Antioxidants work as superheroes to prevent this damage by donating themselves to these destructive free radicals, and therefore the healthy cells are no longer hurt. Of course the process is slightly more complicated, but for now let’s think of this as the antioxidants’ main job.

Do you dread doing 60 minutes of cardio on the treadmill, stair-climber or bike? How many more boring cardio sessions can you do? If you are sick of your cardio routine and are not seeing the results you want anymore, it’s time for you start doing HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training. HIIT is different than steady state cardio because you complete several short intervals of maximal intensity cardio lasting anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds and then recovering with moderate activity, rather than performing cardio at a moderate level for one hour. Therefore, you are actually training your cardiovascular system to recover from the high intensity and then bringing the intensity back up. You end up burning more calories in a shorter amount of time, because the actual workout is more intense. Most importantly, you do not have to spend 60 minutes running on a treadmill because your workout can be completed in a short 15-20 minutes. This leaves you with more time, and a more challenging workout for your body. What could be better?