STRONG! An interview with weightlifter Cheryl Haworth

Cheryl Haworth is a legend in women’s Olympic weightlifting. A new documentary — appropriately called Strong! — profiles her career. Here, Cheryl sits down and raps with Stumptuous about her experiences.

Paying it Forward

A wonderful post by a Lean Eating finisher who explains his journey, his experiences, and how it changed his life. Now, he wants to do the same for others. Read more >>

You can see why this is such an incredible community to be part of. When people ask me what I do, I say “I change lives”. It sounds pretentious but it’s the real deal.

Just wait, there is more good stuff coming… we are announcing our finalists from the July 2011 cohort soon. When you see their stories, you will totally plotz.

Keep Your Head In the Game: Dealing With the Mind-fuck of Injury & Illness

Unless it’s a truly horrific, traumatizing event (for instance, being run over by a steam roller driven by all those girls that made fun of you in high school), the worst part of an injury/illness isn’t the physical pain. Sure, physical pain can be epic. It can nag and nag and nag. You can get to a point where you’d truly consider eating a rat poison smoothie if you thought it’d bring pain relief. But usually, once you get past the immediate event and the first few days of acute pain, the worst part of any injury/illness is psychological.

Fast Times at PPAR-y

Combine the occasional period of not-eating with a healthy diet that aims to reduce inflammation and optimize your body’s natural healing processes, and you might just stave off a cripping disease or two.

Eat quality protein, get lean?

An interesting, albeit small, recent study correlates protein quality to waist size. What is interesting here is that the researchers stipulate “quality protein”. What the heck does that mean? Read on…

Resolution Rehab: Screw The Scale—Get Me A Barbell

Now this is the kind of resolution I like to hear about. Dana McMahan vows to focus on weight in a good way — i.e. how much she can put on the bar.

“To reach my lifting goals I have to believe in myself, which feels the polar opposite of setting a weight loss goal…

The new me, the one that can squat 200 pounds, comes with a bonus that the post-weight-loss-goal skinny me didn’t come with: an unshakable conviction that I can make anything happen. While I surely feel strong and powerful because I can take on 200 pounds and win, my real strength and power lie in knowing that I can overcome fear and accomplish a serious goal. If I can do that, what can’t I do?”

YEAH BUDDY! Read the rest here.