This week’s Addicted to Fitness starts of with a recap of a recent trip back to my old kickboxing gym, Amir’s Academy. As soon as I walked through the doors at Amir’s, “Glory Days” by the Boss starting playing in my head. I owe a lot to Master Amir and his school and I knew he and his fighters would be the perfect people to help ETT client Carmin prepare for her upcoming celebrity boxing event. Master Amir put Carmin and I through 30 minutes of conditioning/cardio followed by several rounds of sparring. I was super proud of how Carmin performed in the ring. She sparred a very experienced martial artist for 3 rounds and did a fantastic job. After she finished, I knew that she was prepared for her match on November 12th at the Mike Calta Punchout 2. Shannon followed my week in training recap with her own (6 workouts in a row including an aerial yoga session) then we transition to a detailed examination of a natural sweetener called Swerve.

Swerve is composed primarily of a sugar alcohol called erythritol. Erythritol is created when glucose ferments with the fungus Moniliella pollinis. According to the Swerve website, their product has zero calories, does not raise your blood sugar or create an insulin response. Preliminary experiments support their claims, but further studies are needed to determine if this is the zero negative impact sweetener we’ve all been waiting for. Even though it doesn’t create the same metabolic response as regular sugar, it’s taste may perpetuate the current sugar addiction we are currently seeing in this country. Shannon has used it in a few baked goods she’s made recently and I can attest that it taste just like sugar, which makes me believe that it’s zero health impacts are too good to be true. Our Swerve debate was not the only somewhat controversial topic we discussed on this week’s episode.

Image courtesy of the Swerve website

Netflix recently added one of my favorite shows to their ever increasing repertoire of programming. Meateater can be described as a hunting show, but it is more a show about exploration and discovering what you’ll go through to obtain sustenance. Growing up on a farm, obtaining my own food, whether it be through hunting, fishing or farming, was an integral part of everyday life. Don’t get me wrong, we still went to the grocery store, but wild game was a staple of our diet. That’s why I wanted to have the conversation about wild game and how it’s obtained with Shannon. I’ve learned through the numerous years we’ve been together that Shannon is not a fan of the smell or taste of wild game (not including wild caught seafood). I describe the nutritional benefits of wild game, hunters contribution to wildlife conservation and the effect hunting has on your mindset. I know the topic of hunting can invoke a wide arrange of feelings in people, and I encourage you to leave your thoughts for or against it in the comment section below.

My uncle preparing venison sausage

If you have a comment about hunting, or any topic we bring up on the podcast, feel free to leave them below or reach out to us at elementaltampa@gmail.com. We love using your feedback to help make the podcast better. We’d also love it if you’d give us a rating and review on iTunes. We truly appreciate all the support you all give us. It really motivates us to put out the best podcast we can on a weekly basis. Keep listening, keep sharing and stay healthy this week peeps!

Links to this week’s episode

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-our-swerve-on/id1121420986?i=1000377317236&mt=2

Android: http://subscribeonandroid.com/addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/rss

Website: http://addictedtofitness.libsyn.com/getting-our-swerve-on