RAWk Your Body with Santino Rice

After a "grave near-death" experience from undiagnosed Celiac disease (extreme gluten intolerance), Santino Rice (RuPaul's Drag Race, Project Runway) shares the story of his journey back to health via raw foods. Watch as Santino is filmed IN THE RAW (yes, he’s naked!) providing simple yet extremely effective tips on how to improve your health AND sex appeal with his life-changing diet!

"We reached out to Santino about doing a WOWPresents series after hearing his harrowing story of how dealing with his Celiac disease almost brought his life to a full stop." said World of Wonder Co-Founder Randy Barbato.

"His journey back to health is one that seemed rich with useful information for all" added Fenton Bailey, WOW Co-Founder.

Apart from the seriousness and often-undiagnosed gluten intolerance known as Celiac disease, this series may also prove valuable to people with common skin problems, chronic fatigue, obesity, or overall health issues. 


"The sooner your eyes are open to the benefits of living foods, the happier and healthier you will be in your life. Re-design your life! Re-design your immune system! Re-design your body!" says Santino.

Stonewall Fitness: Mmm, Chocolate Milk!

By David Smith

(Seriously, who doesn’t love chocolate milk?)

Chocolate milk has recently gained new momentum as being an ideal recovery drink for athletes and those who partake in various forms of intense fitness. Many athletes including Missy Franklin have touted chocolate milk as being an effective recovery drink, especially following an intense period of training. (Examiner, 2012) The idea behind this approach is that the chocolate milk offers a balanced ratio of protein and carbohydrates, which are important to recharge your glycogen stores in the liver as well aid with muscle recovery and regeneration. Many people do claim that chocolate milk is the best (legal) recovery drink available, but how effective is it compared to other kinds of recovery drinks?

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Several studies examine this question in various aspects, the first such study Chocolate Milk as a Post-Exercise Recovery Aid by Jason R. Karp, Jeanne D. Johnston, Sandra Tecklenburg, Timothy D. Mickleborough, Alyce D. Fly, and Joel M. Stager. Examines the effectiveness of chocolate milk as a recovery aid between two intensive and exhaustive exercise bouts. Taking 9, highly trained, male cyclists and putting them through an intense interval based training session with 2 minutes cycling, 2 minutes rest with increasing intensity until failure. Immediately following and again 2 hours after the session the athletes were given chocolate milk, fluid replacement or carbohydrate replacement drink. After a 4-hour recovery period the athletes then began cycling again and had cycled at an intensity of 70% of their VO2 max at the same RPM as the initial bout. Once the athlete could no longer maintain this RPM the test was terminated and the athlete was concluded to have reached exhaustion. The results concluded that those athletes with the best performance overall had consumed either the chocolate milk or the carbohydrate replacement drink. Those who had consumed the fluid replacement drink did not see any improvements in performance whatsoever.

Stonewall Fitness: Eating and Exercise?

By David Smith

When is the best time to eat and exercise? I’ve been asked this a lot and it’s definitely something a lot of people seem unable to find a straight (but not entirely :P) answer to.

Well a simple answer is to exercise and then eat.

As I am sure you know though, nothing is quite that simple so let’s break it down a little more.

No matter when you exercise, it is always good to follow a consistent eating pattern so that your body can best take advantage of the nutrients and calories in the food, help you exercise at your best and most importantly help you achieve your goals.

The Gay Vegans: The 'Healthier' Gay Vegans

By Dan Hanley
 
REMINDER: I am not a registered dietitian. When I write about health I am writing about my own personal experiences which include success and non-successes. For great vegan nutrition information please check out some of the blogs linked on our blog.

Mike and I went for a run yesterday. We are both in training. This year we did our first half marathon, as part of the Colfax Marathon here in Denver. Now we are training again, Mike for his first marathon and me for my second half marathon. My goal is to finish in 2:30, which would be 25 minutes faster than this year. We have until May of next year and are super excited.

Stonewall Fitness: Why Super-Food Fads Suck!

By David Smith

Every year, and very predictably, a new “super-food” will hit grocery store shelves and every TV doctor and scripted, well-marketed “health professional” touts its amazing benefits and life changing properties. Every food has all the same qualities as far as being “the most nutritious” or “the fuel of ancient warriors” and all that jazzed up hype.

Some of the latest “super-foods” include the Acai berry, Kale, and, most recently, the Moringa leaf. While some of the claims are true as far as the heavy nutritional content, many of them are exaggerated. They do contain sufficient amounts of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants which are all very good to maintain overall health, however this is no more or less than you’d find in berries, spinach or any other fruits and vegetables. These new foods do offer a nice new variety to your diet and may introduce new flavors, which are always good, but they are not miracle foods. It is important to add them into your current healthy, well-rounded diet that incorporates other nutrient dense foods as well.

Don’t fall for the marketing schemes. These foods are marketed in a way to sell more, they will exaggerate any claim on the food to try and influence people that this particular food might be a cure-all for everything from health conditions to weight loss. The food itself is more a novelty or a fad. It’ll be the best thing ever until next year when the next best thing ever comes and a year after that nobody will remember ever hearing of the previous fad. This will go on for as long as people continue to get on and off the bandwagon. Remember there is no one miracle food or miracle pill or miracle anything. It is always good to try new things and incorporate new and different things into your life, just make sure you do your research and don’t fall for the marketing and hype. 

David Smith is the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver and holds several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

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Phoenix Fitness: What's In A Food Label?

By Thom Seehafer

"Read the label, and set a better table." Does anybody remember that little ditty? It's sort of like the famous Libby's commercial from way back when. And now it's more important than ever to read - and understand - the information on nutrition labels. Anyways, do YOU look at labels of items you purchase in the store or do you just throw it in your shopping cart?  You may wonder just why you need to read the label.  "Isn’t this all good stuff that I am ingesting?" you ask yourself.

Well, not necessarily. We need to get some clarity on how to read those labels and get an understanding of what they really mean.

Obviously we all understand what the “serving size” means. If a 16 oz bottle says serving size is 8 oz, that means you have two servings in the bottle—but remember that the nutrition info is only good for one serving, so just double it.

The order of how ingredients are listed is also important.  Usually the item with the highest concentration in the food is listed first, therefore, WATCH OUT if sugar is the first ingredient in anything you consume. And sugar can be listed as corn syrup, dextrose, or sucrose, so be aware if these fall even into the second, third or fourth listing.

If the list of food has lots of long scientific sounding ingredients, it's more than likely they were created in a lab (preservatives, colors and additives).

Anything with “hydrogenated” words used is another no-no.  These are trans fats which, according to doctors, are the worst type of fat.  It raises the bad cholesterol and lowers the good cholesterol.  Even if there is a zero in this category, beware. Products do NOT have to list trans fat as an additive if it is less than .5 grams.

And lastly, avoid fillers in foods and products and go more for your key nutrients. Keep sodium below the five percent daily value, get your fiber intake around four grams or more, snacks should be kept under 200 calories and meals around 600-700.

Eat up ... but be smart!

Thom Seehafer is a martial artist, body-builder and part-owner of Body Solutions Rx/Phoenix Fitness.

Health and Wellness: Pick the Perfect Protein Powder

By Thom Seehafer

Looking for a GOOD Protein Powder? Here are some suggestions

There are many types of protein powders out there, from raw, to vegan, to gluten free to organic, but which one is for you? But with purer products and quality, you will pay more than just buying generic.

In addition to looking at the amount of protein per serving, you need to keep an eye on sugar content and added flavorings, and while yu are at it, check the label for other ingredients such as vitamins, mineral and fiber—these are items you may or may not want to consume.

Here are a couple brands that you may want to consider:


Sunwarrior – Raw Vegan Protein which has 85% protein, the highest raw whole grain sprouted vegan protein on the market

Garden of Life – RAW Protein – this is complete protein derived from raw sprouted greens, brown rice, quinoa sprout, & garbanzo sprouts. Has a great deal of raw vitamins, and its sugar free and low cal.

Natural Factors Vegan Protein Factors – A blend of nutrient dense vegan proteins (hemp, pea, rice and chia). It has 180 cal per serving and 22 grams of protein per serving

Olympian Labs Greens Protein 8 in 1 – This is a mix, not only of pea, rice and hemp, but also multivitamins, pH balance enzymes, probiotics, and a WHOLE bunch more good things for ya.

PROTIP: Shop around online and see what you can find if you really want to get more bang for your buck!

Thom Seehafer is a martial artist, body-builder and part-owner of Body Solutions Rx.