Sometimes I’m too lazy to cook, and just want to make/eat something fast.
Tuna is the perfect choice to make a quick healthy meal. I usually pick out white albacore packed in water. This is an ultra-healthy meal that is high in protein and low in fat.
Yield: 2 servings
Here’s what you need…
1 can albacore chunk tuna, packed in water
2 Tablespoons finely chopped white onion
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 apple, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons nonfat mayonnaise or Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon dried dill
4 large lettuce leaves, washed
Pepper to taste
Combine the tuna, onion, bell pepper, and apple in a medium bowl. In a small bowl mix the mayonnaise, ranch dressing and dill.
Add the mayonnaise or better Greek yogurt mixture to the tuna and mix until well combined.
Arrange the lettuce leaves on two plates, and fill with tuna. Garnish with a dash of pepper.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 124 calories, 1.5g fat, 13g carbohydrate, 2.7g fiber, and 14g protein.
From now on we’re going to be “organized” and post a workout video or whiteboard workout every Wednesday…so stay tuned!
Here goes our first Wednesday Workout…
Today we have a workout specially designed for adventure riders and travelers (like me) all you’ll need is a couple bike panniers and stuff some weight in it.
You can fill your panniers up with anything…rocks, beers, shoes & clothes… you name it–just put it in your panniers or motorbike luggage to create your own dumbbells ?
Check out our video here:
If you you don’t have any panniers on your bike (or if you are traveling by another mode of transport) you can also just use your suitcases and complete my suitcase workout.
Check it out here:
There you have it… no gym, no equipment–just using the stuff around you.
Would you like to make us you a more personalized plan?
Do you have some injury limitations?
No worries we can help, will can make you a personalized workout for wherever you are and with whatever you have.
Bert and I crossed paths due to him responding to one of my direct marketing letters offering personal fitness training. I became his personal trainer and him my “client” but now, I believe our relationship has become more than that.
I consider him one of my mentors and he’s also become a dear friend.
I truly admire Bert and look up to him. First off, we do have a couple things in common. We are both Dutch and he also married a Filipina and chose to start his business in South East Asia. But being fellow Dutchmen, marrying Filipinas, and settling in SEA is not what really connected us.
When we would meet for personal training we would find ourselves getting distracted and talking about our travel plans, past adventures and business aspirations instead of focusing on physical exercise. I realized then, that I could learn a lot from him, and I believe he enjoyed sharing his wealth of experience, information and encouragement.
Bert started as a physician devoting chunks of his time and medical services in the remote areas of the Philippines. He then expanded and started his successful pharmaceutical business (Euro Generics International Philippines Inc.) from the ground up with the mission to provide affordable medicine in the Philippines.
There’s a saying that we are the “average of the 5 people that we spend the most time with.”
If “hanging around” Bert helps me get half the amount of success, he has had, I’m all for it! –but here’s to hoping I can be of value to him too! 😀
On another note; what makes me respect Bert even more is that even though he is battling with a seriously debilitating form of cancer he still takes the time to train. Ok, we might not get a huge amount of exercise done, due to his condition, but I admire that he still finds the time.
That takes a certain type of serious discipline. Believe you me, a lot of folks quit exercising simply because they have a cold–he has cancer and he still finds the time–I can’t help but admire that!
Finally, Bert also has such a big heart and a “big picture” vision and continues to travel (sometimes weeks at a time) to work towards his goal of making his corner of the world a better place. You can read about his EGIP foundation focusing on protecting Gaia and rehabilitating forested areas within the tribal ancestral lands in Mindanao here.
Again, thank you so much for your support Bert, I hope to continue to learn from you. Both Marie and I hope to see you someday and somewhere, in better health, on the other side of the planet!
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How many times have you attempted to reshape your body by dieting (or eating “healthy”) alone? Or by doing hours of cardio, walking in the park, running on a treadmill? But after all the sweat and tears, you see no results. It’s frustrating and bit depressing, no?
Why?
Because exercise is an equally important factor when it comes to fat loss. While clean eating helps by restricting fattening calories, exercise revs up your metabolism for an all-day calorie burn.
Sad but true fact: Dieting alone won’t cut it.
The best and healthy way to get the best results is a combo of weight training, cardio and nutrition (or what most folks call dieting)
I am speaking from my own frustrating experience.
I was a fat teenager. I loved to eat so I didn’t want to “diet” or eat healthy. But I was desperate to stop being “fat” so …
⇒ ⇒ ⇒ I ran on the treadmill for hours.
⇒ ⇒ ⇒ I jumped around and did all the aerobic exercises on TV to try to sweat and “burn” all my fat off.
I succeeded somewhat, because after a few months of hard BORING gym workouts I lost 5 kilos…whoohooo!
But I still felt terrible and I didn’t really look all that different. I still was fat and flabby because I didn’t just burn of my fat…I also burnt some of my precious muscle mass.
Fortunately, I met this fitness pro who helped me on the right path of truly transforming my body. He told me to do LESS CARDIO and focus on weight training. He made me do basic movements like: squats, deadlifts, bench press and pull exercises.
I don’t know about you, but weight training was soooo much less boring than endless hours of cardio…
He also told me to eat every 3-4 hours small meals high in protein and low in carbs and fill up on veggies.
I still did some cardio but instead of running around like a chicken for 1 hour, I did intervals in the pool– I swam fast for 1 lap, and then slowed down for 1 lap.
These 2 simple changes transformed my body from a fat and chubby 120kg insecure 20yr old into to 95kg and 4% body fat amateur bodybuilder…
Now that might not be your goal– but I completed my transformation 15 years ago and now I have 15 years of helping hundreds of folks with their own transformations and lifestyle changes since then.
You can download my free “Fat 2 Fit” e-book for more details about HOW I did it and how you can be on your way to get the fastest fitness results ever!
This is a bit of an embarrassing confession, because I’m a personal trainer and most folk’s ideas of personal trainers are that they are perfectly fit and healthy.
But I’ve decided having back pain has made me an even better trainer because I’ve had to study and learn even more about the human body than what my personal training course taught me.
Because of my injury and limitations, I’ve learned how to challenge my clients and give them a good workout without causing more (back) injury and I’ve discovered my simple 3 Step Routine to “fixing” back pain.
But first let me tell you my story of how I got my back pain…
It all started about 12 years ago, I had just started to get serious with my bodybuilding and felt huge and strong. I want to show off to my dad and got the brilliant idea to snatch him above my head.
Ok, I’m not a small guy (around 6ft and 100kg) but my dad is a bit bigger than me–he weighed at least 110-120kg of Heineken 😛 and I was lucky that I did manage to get him hoisted above my head…
But while I was holding my dad above my head I heard a loud “crrrraaack” and I felt a sharp pain in my back. I quickly put my dad down and laughed off the incident. I was showing off so the last thing I wanted was for folks to know I had hurt my back with that stunt.
I was young (I was only 22yrs old at that time) and strong, buff like a bull, so the back pain didn’t bother me so much then. I felt a dull pain in my back for a couple of weeks but because I could train and lift my weights I kept on going.
I was passionate about fitness and building muscle so a little niggling back pain was not going to stop me..,LOL!
It was around this time that I decided to become a full time personal trainer. I overhauled my life and quit my secure and fairly well-paid job as a master electrician in my home town of Den Haag and moved to Thailand.
In Bangkok, Thailand I opened two successful personal training fitness studios (Maxfit Performance and Maxfit Bangkok) and continued my love affair with heavy weight lifting.
All was going well, but one day while dead lifting my regular weight of 180kgs I felt and heard the “craaaack” again. This time the pain was unbearable, and my lower back muscles just completely seized up on me. I couldn’t walk, I was literally rolling on the gym floor writhing in pain.
This was a massively embarrassing experience for me, as I was working out by myself, so some other dudes in the gym (complete strangers to me) had to roll me into a cab so I could get to a hospital.
It was really bad this time and I ended up not being able to walk for 2 weeks and had to go for an MRI to see what really was wrong with my back. The MRI confirmed that my L4 and L5 were degenerative and quite damaged from a serious injury from awhile ago.
It took me a second to remember when I got injured, because I had not taken the pain I had experienced when I was 22 seriously. I was a bit shocked, I guess I had thought I was healthy, strong, packed with muscle and indestructible.
I’ve come to realize, and admit to myself, that if I had taken care of myself back then, and hadn’t chosen to ignore the pain I felt, I might not have the serious back condition I have now.
Tweaking my back and not being able to walk has happened a few times now and the last time the doctors recommended that I have surgery. But after some research and asking folks who have had surgery to fix the condition I have, I decided to see if I could “fix” my back without surgery.
Ok, I can’t technically “fix” my degenerated discs as the damage has been done. But because I’m a personal trainer and constantly helping other folks get their strength and mobility back after injuries I figured I should try to “fix” my back through modified exercises and mobility work first—before committing to surgery.
I also took this as a great opportunity to learn more how to train other folks with back pain or back injuries like myself.
I devoured books like:
The 7‑Day Back Pain Cure: How Thousands of People Got Relief Without Doctors, Drugs By Jesse Cannone
I also learned a lot from Donnie Thompson he’s a great power lifter and Physical Therapist with a lot of knowledge about back injury. You can watch me practice some of his tips of how to relieve back pain using a resistance band in Step 2 below.
It took a bit of time for me to decide what really worked for me. But I believe I have narrowed down my “fix back pain” routine to 3 steps which I will share with you soon…I promise!
So, if you don’t have time to read all the books I posted above. And if you’re not sure how to implement all the exercises/stretches your physiotherapist says you should do, you can try to follow the 3 steps that worked for me.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, physiotherapist or physical therapist. But I am an experienced personal trainer that experiences back pain and I’d like to share with you what worked for me. If you have tried the conventional methods to alleviate your back pain and they haven’t worked for you, you can try my routine. Just do it slowly and listen to your body. If any of the movements I share with you trigger your back pain, instead of relieving it, my routine is probably not for you.
Let’s get it started. Here’s my simple 3 Step Routine to “Fix” my Back Pain
Step 1. Trigger point massage using a foam roller or trigger ball.
Why trigger point massage? Giving yourself a trigger point massage (aka myofascial massage) is important before and after a workout to loosen your muscles and encourage better circulation in the injury prone area. It will also help the tight or strained muscles to “release” thereby giving you immediate pain relief. If your back is really stiff, you should spend 5-10mins doing this every day.
Instead of giving you a lengthy description of how to do your own trigger point massage. I will show you how to do it in this video
I use a tennis ball and a lawn hockey ball (which is quite hard) in my video.
You can get proper trigger point therapy balls HERE
Step 2. Mobility stretches to promote flexibility. (You will need a heavy-duty resistance band)
Your back is connected to a lot of muscles and your hip joints. If these muscles are tight and your hips are inflexible they can cause stress on your spine and you will feel back pain.
Making sure you stretch and keep these muscles and joints (I’m mainly talking about your quadratus lumborum and your hips) healthy, mobile and flexible will go a long way to avoid back pain. But how to do this?
Watch my video here:
Step 3. Strengthen the muscles “connected” to the back.
Ok, some of these muscles aren’t connected “directly” to the spine. But if these muscles are weak, your body will compensate and will use your injured back to perform the movements required for our day to day activities.
I’m talking about your core (front and back) your glutes and your hamstrings.
Sadly, most of the conventional exercises to strengthen the muscles above (like sit ups, squats and deadlifts—which were my favorite) will no longer work, because it causes too much pressure on the spine. But I have found some exercises to “replace” those exercises.
Watch my video here to find a variety of exercises you can do without “loading” your spine.
The first exercise will focus a lot on the hips and the outer thighs. Use bigger and stronger bands once you get stronger. You can purchase your own set of bands HERE
So that it! My 3 Step Routine to “Fixing” (lower) back pain.
If you have back pain and you would like me to make a training program that won’t injure or hurt your back further. Contact me by filling out the form below for a free online training program specifically made for you and your personal situation.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
–Stefan Lamping
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I know that writing about an event a month late just seems useless…
But because this blog is also my digital journal, I’m going to go ahead and tell my story regardless of whether anybody besides me (and a couple of my family members) reads this or not.
The patron of our Cortejos Clan, Tito Flips and his beautiful wife Tita Babette wanted to organize a gala ball for Christmas Eve. I think the planning and the organized started sometime in July 2016, but somehow we are all running around trying to rent/acquire suits and gowns right until the day before.
I don’t know why that always happens, but despite our disorganization everyone in the Cortejos Clan looked gorgeous and handsome and stuck to the color code each family was given.
That’s right, our “Cortejos Christmas Gala” was to have lots of food, drinks, a beautiful venue, a couple of bartenders for the free flow bar, cool DJ’s, photographers and of course a mandatory COLOR CODED DRESS CODE per family….
It was a bit stressful, to be honest, but the family pictures that were taken were priceless…
I will make an album and link here…soon 😀
But so you get an idea of how the Cortejos Clan partays…here’s a video compilation of some of our moooooves….
My sister planned an AWESOME birthday party for my niece Kelsie at Zanook Aqua Park and I didn’t realize that it actually landed on Thai Children’s Day…
Seeing my 4 year old niece (she just turned 4) diving off the floats and happily sliding down a slide that was at least 10-20 meters high got me thinking and made me realize how much “growing up” has changed me.
I used to climb trees, dive off rocks and think that I could almost anything. I was, and still am, a fairly little girl, but I can remember wanting to compete with the big boys all the time and what I wanted to be (a lawyer, a doctor, an astronaut) changed weekly. I really thought I could do ANYTHING…
What changed? I grew up and realized I couldn’t do something things. It happens to all of us, we capitalize on things that we are good at and we STOP doing the things that we aren’t good at. And slowly but surely we get more “careful” and we totally stop trying to do things that we aren’t SURE we are good at and we start unknowingly putting ourselves into a box.
My husband and I have chosen an unconventional life (selling our fitness business and driving around the world on a motorbike is fairly unconventional at least to most folks standards) and I realized that to succeed in going against the “flow” I cannot be the traditional sort of “grown up.”
I realized that I want/need that childish bravado that I used to have…
I want to stop being a grown up and be more my like my niece…
And that also got me thinking that for children to grow up brave, confident and fearless we have to make the world a safe place for them.
I think my sister Natalie and her hubby, Sam, have done an exemplary job so far…
And in honor of all the children and “children at heart” everywhere I’d like to share this music video again…
It’s been a long time in coming and I admit to being a prodigal daughter (grand-daughter/niece/cousin etc.)
I’m not exactly sure how long it has been, but it has been more than 10 years at least…
That’s right– I haven’t managed to attend a family reunion or visit my home town in over 10 years! I think I was a teenager when I last visited, now I’m married, had a couple career changes, lived in a couple more countries and started and sold a business.
I was a bit worried that my blood ties weren’t strong enough and that I would be a stranger in my hometown…
I mean, some of my cousins I hadn’t even met yet, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t remember all my aunts and uncles names! At least I know I have 16 aunts and uncles on my dad’s side, and another 12 on my mum’s, and I won’t even try to count all of my cousins!!!
This picture is just from my dad’s side…do you sympathize with me yet???
But as soon as the hugs started, Stefan & I received the traditional blessing from Lola I felt at ease. I wasn’t too lost or too estranged and everyone still recognized me. As prodigal as I was they still remembered that I was the first Cortejos grand-baby and that somehow gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
And we are a wonderfully crazy family…like seriously! It seems like we’re always eating, drinking, dancing, singing, laughing and talking really loud!!!
Fortunately my Dutch side of the family (Hubby Stefan, Mum Alice and Sister Jolanda) loved the chaos and they jumped right in madness!
Here’s my favorite picture of my immediate family from our “gala ball” …too bad I can’t find the one with mum Alice and Jolanda…
And here’s another good pic of my brother Martin and his handsome kids (Chad and Kylie) ***I take MUA credit for Kylie LOL!
Wow..it’s quite a task to go through hundreds of pictures and edit videos from a family reunion with several cameras. It makes one miss the old cameras where every picture had to count because it was expense to develop them and the roll of film was only 12-24 pics long. I was a little girl when cameras still used film rolls, but still, 24 pictures to choose from does sound lovely no?
1 hour later >>> I have been trying to pick out good pictures and edit videos, but alas hunger makes me lose focus and I find myself giggling at the funny videos without actually doing anything “edit-wise” so…
I’m off for dinner and will have to make a part 2, 3 & perhaps 4 of my Big Fat Filipino Family Reunion…
We shelled out quite a bit of dough and got our Redverz Atacama Motorcycle Expedition Tent. It’s even bigger and more spacious than we thought! Last night we set it up and today we spent a few hours checking out how it’d feel to be living it for a good amount of time. We even blew up our air mattresses and dug out our sleeping bags to make sure that everything fit in cozily. You can see how huge this tent is in our picture below. Stefan at 6ft+ can easily stand in it…
Here I am snug in my Coleman cocoon sleeping bag. Ok, I lasted in it for about 3mins as our sleeping bags are rated for 5 degree weather LOL!
Stefan standing easily in the motorbike “garage”. I can stand pretty much anywhere in the tent…
We couldn’t pin the tent out to it’s largest capacity, but it easily covers 3×4 meters. The front most compartment is where our motorbike panniers/gear will be stored. This allows for our “living” space to be completely mud/dirt free.
Massive and numerous ventilation openings so that it is also appropriate for hot weather. 3 pane linings for the windows and doors to block out insects, sand, cold and direct sun. It truly is an all season tent!
So that was our ONE STEP FORWARD…
Our TWO STEPS BACK experience has to do with our motorbike.
As you know from our previous post, our bike has been out of service for the past few months due to it needing a part that is currently out of stock.
We found a replacement for the part, while it is the correct part, the connection doesn’t quite fit on our bike as BMW has changed the shape of the gear shaft.
Ahhhhh!!!! >:(
Fortunately, our awesome BMW mechanic (the owner of Tart Motorrad ) is a positive guy and he figured he could do something to get the part to fit on the gear shaft. The electronic connection was all good, as our bike happily turned on when connected to it, but it really was a situation of getting the slightly “wrong” puzzle piece to fit in the puzzle…
We put our bike in his garage in the late afternoon of the 11th of November and we were hoping he could work his magic on Saturday and that we could go for a ride on Sunday…
That was not meant to be. We got a call Saturday morning that a fire broke out in his garage late Friday night and that 8 BMW GS1200 were destroyed and that our baby was damaged… Luckily, no one was hurt as it was in the middle of the night.
OH MY GOD!! Seriously, if we kept our baby for one more weekend and didn’t insist on it going into the garage on Friday in hopes of riding out on Sunday we would have missed the entire accident!
We felt horrible for ourselves and our friend. He’s been awesome during this whole ordeal and is assuring us that he will take responsibility for the damage on our bike and that our baby will be the first he will repair. He will also take responsibility for the 8 destroyed bikes while waiting for the “slow as molasses” insurance claim to be sorted out. We really do hope that he can claim insurance soon!
One of the 8 totally destroyed bikes
Seems like our bike only sustained superficial damage. But we won’t know till it is run through a full and intensive diagnostic test. High heat could also damage electronics. We’ll post an update when we know the full extent of the damage…
So that’s where we are right now. We’ve had a string of bad luck and we’re hoping that we’ll have some better news soon…
Tuna & Lettuce Tacos
Thank you 
It all started about 12 years ago, I had just started to get serious with my bodybuilding and felt huge and strong. I want to show off to my dad and got the brilliant idea to snatch him above my head.
