Ha, okay, not 100 pushups right away. But, inspired by Rachel, I’m going to start the One Hundred Pushups program to complete this week’s OTB test: The Core Fusion Shock Your Body Test. Don’t worry, I’m not competing for the prize!

One Hundred Pushups is a thrice-weekly regimen designed to get you doing 100 pushups in just six weeks. They swear you’ll be able to do it if you stick to the plan with no cheating. I really, really want to do it so I can proudly display this badge on my blog!

Err, haha, not like I just did, but on the side over there! I do have another ulterior motive: to beat my boyfriend in a pushup-off! I know I can do it. Since it will only take me 5-10 minutes 3x a week, it’ll be easy to tack it on to the end of a workout.

Week 1, Day 1 is TODAY! Wish me luck. Oh, and if you want to join me, just head over to the One Hundred Pushups site to find your level and plan.

After much debate, I relied on an old favorite for my birthday dinner: Zingerman’s Roadhouse (an Ann Arbor — nay, Michigan! — institution).

Let’s just say it wasn’t my first time. I love going to Zingerman’s because I can order anything on the menu with a clear conscience. Most of their produce, meat, and dairy come from local farms. If they can’t find something on a local farm, they’ll literally travel the world to hand-select only the best ingredients. Their meats are pastured and free-range.

People ask me if that stuff really makes a difference in taste, and my answer is always yes, yes it does.

My parents, boyfriends, and close family friends joined me in the feasting. We cleaned up! Let me show you around the foodie highlights.

I didn’t order any alcohol (my birthday is all about food, not drinks), but the server brought me some samples of wine to try because she said it would “look pretty.” Never one to turn down free stuff, I tried ‘em all! Usually I like reds best, but my favorite of these three was the white. I totally forget what they all were.

My boyfriend tried the Dr. Pepper made with real sugar. He gave it a thumbs up. Dad’s in the background!

For their entree, my parents got lots of small plates, one of which was the 5 Burger Sampler: “Five mini-burgers topped with different cheeses — a delicious way to try our many great American cheeses. Served with lettuce, hot-house tomato, onion, and pickles.”

All Zingerman’s beef is grass-fed, and most of it is from local farms.

My parents also split the Otto File Polenta Integrale (“served with roasted eggplant, Corman Farms roasted tomatoes, and Ig Vella Mezzo Secco cheese”).

Excuse the bad pic! My boyfriend got the Beef Bourguignon — “French pot roast braised with red wine and mire poix. Served with mashed potatoes.” I tried it, and it was delish.

I got a combo of BBQ Pork & Pit-Smoked Beef Brisket with different BBQ sauces (Eastern North Carolina vinegar, Memphis tomato, and South Carolina mustard) served with mashed potatoes and Southern-style braised greens.

One of my family friends got the Buttermilk-Fried Chicken, which is “Amish free-range chicken dipped in a buttermilk batter served with local mashed potatoes and yellow mustard cole slaw.” It’s supposedly the best fried chicken in Ann Arbor, and I believe it.

Of course, there was more food on the table (like amazing soda bread from their St. Patrick’s Day-themed specials!), but I’ll spare you the crappy pics. Speaking of which, my parents’ gift to me was money towards a new camera, so you might be seeing some upgrades in that department soon!

We ordered two desserts (I forgot to snap pics!) and Zing’s gave me this cupcake on the house because it was my bday. I got my favorite restaurant dessert ever, Zingerman’s famous doughnut sundae, and a slice of hummingbird cake (sort of like carrot cake, but with more stuff, like pineapple, coconut, and walnuts). The cupcake was pretty good, too! It had a delicious maple frosting.

Hope you enjoyed getting a peek into my bday eats, and thanks for all the birthday wishes!

upupdowndown asked: my best friend recently went vegetarian and her doctor told her she was being silly and demanded that she stop. now her mom is siding with her doctor, unless she can prove that she can pull it off healthily. do you have any advice for her as far as vegetarian proteins? i've been trying to help her as much as possible, but we have very different tastes in food.

Did you see this post? It has a list of some Nutritionista-approved vegetarian proteins!

On that note, I just caught up with all your questions, so I’m ready to open up the Ask page again. Before you ask, though, please check the previously answered questions to see if your question has already been answered (this asker couldn’t have seen the other Q because she probably asked the question before I answered the other one!).

Also, if you’re asking a broad question (“I need to lose weight, what do I do?!”), please either include more detail so I can tailor my advice to your specific situation, or search through the blog first. There are plenty of resources already available on the blog that can answer many basic questions! So as not to clog people’s dashboards, I’ll only be answering a few questions a day.

Alright, ask away!

inthelabyrinth asked: I've been sort of trying to lose weight lately; I just try to eat healthy/organic, and eat smaller portions and snacks instead of binging whenever I feel hungry. (I don't exercise much, just a little bit of walking and maybe some gym stuff like once a week) I feel like I'm eating healthily, and I've lost a couple pounds, but I've been feeling very tired lately, even though I'm sleeping a lot, and I was worried about my health and diet.

I'm a student, so I have some late hours sometimes, but this week I've fallen asleep in front of the computer at 5-6pm for a nap, and I go to sleep at 10-11pm and wake up at 6-7am. After all that, I STILL feel tired!

Without seeing exactly what you eat, it’s hard for me to try to draw any conclusions about if it’s having an impact on your fatigue. But I do think that what you eat can play a BIG role in your energy levels! For example, eating lots of sugar and carbs can send you on an insulin rollerskating that makes you crash hard when the sugar rush ends.

It’s also possible there’s something else going on, so keep close track of your fatigue. If it gets overwhelming, it’s definitely time to see a doctor!

imjohana asked: Why is it that guys (for the most part) can lose weight so much easier/faster than us ladies? I've seen this happen numerous times with guy friends/family....cut one thing out of their daily habits and voila! Down 10lbs+......it's quite frustrating.

Isn’t that the worst?! So frustrating! There’s pretty much one simple reason why men can more easily drop pounds:

They have more muscle, and muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.

Women have more estrogen, and thus store more fat naturally than men. If you want to dig deeper, you’ll find all sorts of biological and evolutionary arguments about why women store more fat (they need it for child-bearing and nurturing, etc.).

I would also guess that on average, women tend to eat for emotional reasons more often than men, and they also tend to favor cardio over strength training (see the reason in bold why men lose weight faster!).

Here are some other reasons I came across (take note that these are all generalizations and by no means do I think they apply to ALL men or ALL women):

• Men don’t diet as much as women, and dieting screws up metabolism.
• Men like different comfort foods. While women often crave sweets and breads, men crave home-cooked meals like meat and potatoes.
• Men are less self-defeating. They don’t get as discouraged and backtrack when the scale doesn’t move as quickly as they’d like.
• Studies show that men can lose weight through exercise alone, whereas it’s much harder for women to lose weight without changing their diet.

The lessons for us ladies? Strength train, don’t do crash diets, cut back on sweets, and don’t get discouraged if progress is slower than expected!

I’m just going to keep rolling with the bday eats here (because they’re so yummy!).

A few friends took me out for lunch, and I got this gorgeous plate of sashimi (plus miso soup and salad with that delicious ginger dressing). You know you’re getting older when you go straight for the raw fish, rather than the rolls that mask the fish flavor.

Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect birthday lunch. I’m SO excited for dinner, though… you guys will just have to wait and see what I picked!

People! You only have until Sunday at midnight PST to submit your entry for this week’s test. And this week’s test is worth entering, if only for your chance to win Core Fusion workout DVDs! As a reminder, you don’t have to have entered last week to win this week.

All you have to do is try a new workout, DVD, or even just a new cardio or strength machine, and then post about it here. What are you waiting for? Get sweating!

hilores asked: Hello again, Nutritionista!

Thanks for answering my question about healthy Asian food options, and I hope I'm not being a time-hog for asking you another.

This one's about my sugar intake.

I've been tracking my nutrition recently through the Livestrong service, "MyPlate." It's working wonders, but I'm starting to worry about the levels of sugar I'm consuming. I often end up waaay over my recommendations before lunch. I honestly don't eat sugary cereals, and I could be getting more fruits in my diet, but I know that'll spike my sugar by a decent amount. I've eliminated all sugary drinks too - soda, artificial juices and fruit drinks, etc.

MyPlate recommends I only take in 34g of sugar per day. Any suggestions on how to keep this issue under control? Thanks so much! =)

Sugar is so sneaky, isn’t it? Some form of it is in almost every packaged food. Sneaky sugar can be found in:

• granola/energy bars
• instant oatmeal
• processed chips
• frozen foods
• foods labeled “low fat” (they add more sugar to make up for the lost flavor)
• fruit-flavored yogurt
• flavored coffee/tea drinks
• sports drinks

When buying packaged foods, look for sugar codewords like fructose, sucrose, lactose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, rice syrup, and fruit juice concentrate.

These days, I pretty much only eat sugar in the form of fruit or dark chocolate, or on special occasions. I find the more I eat it, the more I NEED it. And you know what? I really don’t miss it!

simplefolk asked: I've gone back and forth between vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism for years. After developing hypo-thyroid and hashimotos my dr. recommended that I cut back on carbs in order to shake some of the resistant pounds that I gained loose. In order to do this I have added fish to my diet. Recently, I started reading a lot about CLA 1300 and picked a bottle up. I've been reading a lot of conflicting information about this supplement. Do you know anything about it?

I used to take CLA, back in the days when I would try basically anything to lose weight. I don’t remember if it did anything for me or not (I’m guessing not), but my current philosophy is: the fewer supplements you take/the more nutrients you can get from actual food, the better. Like you said, CLA is somewhat controversial, but most of the research I came across is fairly positive.

There are two reasons why I’m wary of CLA:

1) It’s mostly comprised of a slightly altered form of omega-6 fatty acids, and we already get too much omega-6.

2) In general, I’m hesitant to ingest supplements because we just don’t know how everything works together yet. Consuming the desired nutrient in the context of whole foods seems like a safer bet. You can also get CLA from (grass-fed) beef, lamb, and milk fat.