Lap band surgery improves health of obese teens (Reuters)

Reuters - A type of minimally invasive weight-loss surgery called gastric banding not only helps morbidly obese teenagers lose a substantial amount of weight, but also leads to healthy changes in blood sugar and blood fats, a small study shows.

I was recently looking at my supplement stash and realized I hardly have anything. I mean, here's what I've got: Vanilla Creme Muscle Milk, Vanilla Whey protein powder, Creatine, Glutamine, Vitamin D, Fish Oil, and CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid). After I was shocked by how little in the way of supplementation I had (I don't even take a multi-vitamin or fat burner like all the muscle mag bodybuilding shills tell me to). Quite simply, though, what I've got is all I need. While I pondered upon that I got to remembering how I never used to be a purest, meaning I used to have all kinds of supplements that I'd try. I wouldn't even research before I bought. I'd read in a bodybuilding forum or website that such and such will do wonders for gains, or here's what you can look like after taking such and such for this short period of time. I'd be seduced by the before and after shots of guys who supposedly took this such and such supplement. I was training hard but, of course, I was looking for help in achieving more gains. I'd go out to the popular vitamin store chains looking for the latest and greatest supplement, buy it, try it, and then read, oh, it even works better if you stack it with this other supplement, which by the way, we also manufacture. So, I'd get on a supplement buying binge and then $200 or $300 later I'd find out that, yeah I maybe did make some progress but maybe I could have made those gains simply through doing what I've buy wholesale spirulina powder been doing - training heavy and hard and going all out in the gym.

Pick up any muscle magazine at your local bookstore and count how many pages are devoted to supplement ads, and then compare that number to the number of actual training articles (minus the stupid female bodybuilder/swimsuit articles and centerfold pull outs they now insert to get guys to buy this crap). I'll bet you will have counted more advertisements than actual helpful, relevant articles. Why would the magazines carry all those advertisements??? Obviously, to seduce you into buying their crappy magazine, crappy and expensive supplements, and to make you poor! Yep, the magazine publishers make most of their magazine revenue by selling advertising space, not from you buying the magazine. And, another thing. Take a look at the articles they publish. If you have some magazines handy you might want to do a little comparison among a few of them. Can you identify a common theme??? I certainly can. They tend to all have the same types of articles from one issue to the next. You might see cover page headlines like: 'Build Massive Quads', 'Huge Arm Training', 'Get Ripped For The Summer', or some derivation thereof. These, of course, are to get you to buy the magazine. You could read every article published in today's issues of the latest muscle mags on the market and pretty much find that information in past issues of the same magazine (or for free on the internet). I mean, come on, how many articles does it take to tell you how to grow your biceps??? So, don't waste anymore of your money enriching the lives of the magazine publishing families.

Ok, back to my main point of how to become a supplement purest. As I mentioned in my story above I wasn't always a purest in this regard. I tried a lot of supplements, but they were just that, a replacement for hard work in the gym - A crutch to rely on thinking I could slack off in the gym as long as I have my full range of vitamins, pills, whatever. You want to have your basics like those I listed in the beginning of this post. You'll want creatine for muscular energy and explosive power, glutamine for faster recovery and energy, vitamin D, CLA for fat burning acceleration, muscle mass building and retention, and fish oil for, again, muscle building and retention and fat loss. You may already have these, may need to get some, or have your own set of supplements that you feel are tried and trued according to your standards and results achieved. If so, by all means continue doing what you're doing if its working for you and you're not going broke trying to keep up with the latest product to hit the market. The point is to get the maximum amount of results with whatever supplements you feel work for you. I find these, in combination, work the best for me. I hope they do the same for you.

If you'd like to know more about how you can maximize your weight training/bodybuilding gains please visit my blog http://www.liftingpurest.blogspot.com