Water is the optimal beverage but tea is a close second
The Holidays are a nutritionally challenging time of year for most people. How do you partake in all of the wonderful festivities without packing on the pounds? Yes, you could just wait until New Year’s resolutions roll around and kill yourself on the “dreadmill” at the gym. But, losing weight really doesn’t need to be that painful or difficult. Spare your belly and save your golf game by following these 5 tips for staying slim this season.
Drink Herbal Tea
Avoid sugary and artificially sweetened beverages and limit your alcohol intake by enjoying some soothing herbal tea. Although
water is the optimal beverage of choice, herbal tea provides an excellent source of hydration during the cold winter months. Available in many delicious flavors, some teas can even taste like dessert with stevia. Try peppermint tea with stevia for a candy cane in a cup!
Enjoy Protein-Rich Breakfasts
Start your day with more protein-rich, fat-burning foods such as eggs, leftover “roast beast” or wild salmon. Wild salmon is a great source of muscle-building protein, anti-inflammatory omega-3s and immune-boosting nutrients.
Grab a Handful of Nuts
Nuts are rich in healthy fats that support weight loss, prevent overeating and reduce sugar cravings. Include a handful of nuts daily. Try them roasted with coconut flakes, cinnamon and honey to satisfy a sweet tooth.
Slow Down & Chew
With a busy schedule most of the year, now is a great, “no excuses” time to slow down and savor your food. Practice putting your utensils down in between bites. By slowing down and chewing more you’ll improve your digestion and might even find meal time to be more relaxing.
Go Green at Every Meal
The more whole foods you eat, the less room you have for processed products. Green leafy and cabbage family vegetables such as kale, collards, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and spinach, provide maximum nutrients for minimal effort. Prep and cook them in batches so they’re always available to enjoy.
Cate Ritter runs THE LEAN 18 Nutrition program at MTT Performance, A Golf Channel Academy located in Pebble Beach, CA. With a successful career as a top junior and collegiate golfer, Cate knows the importance of nutrition when it comes to having a competitive edge on the course. Cate’s work has been featured on ABC15 News, U.S. News and World Report, Wall Street Journal, Golf Digest, GolfWRX, Golf Tips, Golf Today Northwest, PopGolf Mexico, GolfPunk UK, and The Arizona Republic.
Keywords: golf healthy lifestyle, happy holidays, 5 tips for healthy holiday season
Aimpoint Golf Review: Part 5 of my Aimpoint Odyssey
April 15-17, 2011
ROAD TRIP!!! This weekend, I played in Temecula, California. And I was excited to try Aimpoint on some new greens. Little did I know, I had NO IDEA what I was in for. In fact, it turns out, I had NO IDEA what I was doing!
I played CrossCreek, Journey at Pechanga, and Temecula Creek Inn. Three beautiful courses in great shape. They all had one thing in common: their greens are not easy to read. It turns out that practically every green I encountered had multiple shapes and undulations. By shapes, the 3 basic green shapes are planar, crowns, and saddles. I can read these features pretty decent. To review an example, crowns are when 2 sides of the green are lower than the hole, so as you walk around the hole, you go up, down, up, down, and you can find 4 zero lines or straight putts. You just find the zero line closest to your ball and make the read off of that. But when the putt goes over crown, through a saddle, then banks hard left, and… watch out for that shoulder… and am I on the wrong tier??? I had no idea how to read that.
By about my 40th hole, I walked a half arc around the hole at about 5 ft, and I noticed that I went up and down like 4 or 5 times! What the heck? So at first glance I found a straight putt, but really, it was the wrong straight putt to work off of. I had to find the closer straight putt, which I did.. and made the 7 footer. Quite enlightening, but I was lost nonetheless. At least I knew why I was lost.
Anyways, it was a bit disappointing. I was prepared to make awesome reads and impress my friends. I was talking nonstop about Aimpoint all weekend long, but it seemed like a lot of nonsense after my performance. My friends thought it was great in theory, but they could do just as good their way. I’m not giving up by any means… it only makes me more determined to master this, because I am still completely sold on the idea of Aimpoint.
About GK Member michaelko:
Our resident physical therapist from Northern California and one of the original GK Staffers. He is also one of the individuals responsible for making the GK Casual Golf Events possible. Way back when it was only an idea, michaelko, was one of those individuals that made it possible with our first outing of six members at Rio Hondo Country Club, Downey CA.
If you don’t mind I’d like to hear how you do in your first round using this.
I think it will take several rounds and several practice sessions to better understand the implementation. I am going to take the next 2 months and go out to my course in the evenings and study the greens. I will go so far as to make green charts, like yardage books, of each green. The explanation I gave refers to a straight planar green. when you have saddles and crowns it’s more complicated, and I don’t quite understand that yet.
It sounds interesting but i’m having a little difficulty grasping this zero line.
On a planar green, which is a flat tilted green… if you went around the hole and putted a 5 foot putt at each degree (so 360 degrees/putts), 2 of those putts would be 100% straight. That line is the zero line. Every break on every other putt is calculated off of that line.
In reality, for practical purposes, the actual zero line could span maybe 5 degrees, or the length of your foot. then you figure 30/60/90 degrees off of that zero line.
But how do you determine slope in degrees? For me I would think severe, not so severe, and non existent? Any way to pigeon hole these breaks?
They use %slope. flat= less than 1%, avg=2%, steep=3%, severe=4%. They say on tour, with greens running stimp >12, it’s never more than 2.5%… more than that the putt is too hard. Slopes more than 4% will rarely hold… they’ll roll down to a flatter surface. You might have to putt through a >4% slope.. they tell you how to handle that. But the charts they give you go up to 4%.
I bought a 9″ digital level that gives you %slope… so i’m going to calibrate my eyes to learn what these slopes look like.
About GK Member michaelko:
Our resident physical therapist from Northern California and one of the original GK Staffers. He is also one of the individuals responsible for making the GK Casual Golf Events possible. Way back when it was only an idea, michaelko, was one of those individuals that made it possible with our first outing of six members at Rio Hondo Country Club, Downey CA.
This is one of our original articles posted for the GK Blog by one of our members a few years back. I always look back at that series of articles when I need to rethink my putting strategy. I think it deserves to be re-posted in our newly revamped version. What do you think?
It all started with an article I read in Golf Digest magazine. It was about this thing called Aimpoint. It highlighted a different way to approach putting, or more accurately green reading: using science and physics to accurately predict how much and which direction putts will break. Instead of trying to read the green with your eyes and trying to figure out how much and which direction a putt MIGHT break, you use the laws of gravity and physics to accurately determine how much the ball WILL break. Hmmmm… a green READING system to help improve my putting…it made complete sense to me. A brief summary with basic principles was outlined in the article, and I headed out to the putting green to put it into practice. However, it was harder than I thought. A look at the website further intrigued me, but there were no classes close to me. So, I shelved the idea.
Aimpoint — Reading the green
Fast forward a few months later, a forum topic on Greenskeeper.org was started: “Aimpoint Clinic, anyone do this?” This inspired me to check the website again for clinics. I was rewarded with a clinic being offered THAT weekend.. $125 for a 2 1/2 hour class only 30 minutes from home. I quickly signed up and was exposed to the single greatest golf concept I have ever learned. It was eye-opening, and fairly simple to implement. In the end, I just needed guidance.
After a month of reading and rereading forum topics on the subject at the Aimpoint forum, watching and rewatching different videos, and several hours of practice, I am more and more encouraged with the results and the system. What I have learned is that I have alot more to learn, but I am grasping concepts and techniques that have improved my green reading skills immensely. I am excited about how much better I am going to get at it. I guess if I had to sum it up in one sentence, it’s this: “I am no longer guessing what the putt will do; I KNOW what it’s going to do.”
The following is a de facto blog, I guess, of my Aimpoint experience. I plan to update it as I go through the experience over time. You can get more info at www.aimpointgolf.com, as well as clinic dates. There is a forum as well, where people talk about all things Aimpoint. I highly recommend this clinic for everyone.
Wednesday March 2, 2011 — First Impressions and Initial Feedback:
First of all, my general feeling is I am really excited about this. At worst, I’ll be able to tell which way a putt will break 90% of the time, and I’ll come close to knowing how much. At best, I will be a putting fiend!
First a little background:
You know when you watch a tourney on television; they show you the putting line, and how accurate that line is? That’s AIMPOINT technology. The inventor of Aimpoint developed a system based on physics and gravity that can accurately predict the putting line. He turned that into a green reading system and has several touring pros on his system.
The class is a green reading class, not a putting class; however, it is very important that you practice hitting the ball straight and work on speed control.
The basic premise: The ball will give in to gravity. It will break downhill — always. This guy figured out, based on the length of the putt, speed of the green, and severity of the slope, exactly how much that ball will break, as long as you always hit the ball 12 inches past the hole.
Basic Implementation:
You have to find the zero line, which is the point on the green that is a completely straight putt. From there, you plug in the data: length, degrees off of zero, uphill or downhill, right or left of zero, severity of slope, and speed of green. It then tells you how far away from the hole to start your putt.
For example: I have a 10 ft putt. It is uphill 60 degrees from zero line. Slope is steep (as oppossed to flat, average, or severe). The greens are running at a 8 stimp. Once I figure this out, I look at my chart, and it takes a second to see I have to aim say, 4 inches away from the hole. if I start my ball on the right line aimed 4 inches left of the hole (for a L to R putt), and hit it at a speed where the ball will go 12 inches past the hole, the ball will break accordingly.
After 3 hours of clinic, I was thoroughly sold. After reading the Golf Digest article I was sold on the concept, my stumbling block — I couldn’t figure it out in practice. After the clinic though, I see how easy it is All I needed was someone to walk me through it. Plus, with the chart they give you at the clinic, the information is all accurate. They say up until now, you were guessing on how the putt will break. Now, no more guessing.
A few things I learned:
1. There were many putts that I read with a completely different break than what actually happened, and the system was able to get it right every time.
2. I need to really learn what 12 inches is, what 10 feet is.. I need to calibrate my distances. I realize I’m way off. What I think versus what actually is are two completely different animals.
3. My speed control sucks.
4. The hardest part is finding the zero line, but over the 2-3 hours, I was better at it. I know with practice I’ll be able to do it.
5. Long putts (greater than 30ft), are really not that hard to read with this system.
6. You never have to read a green again; just find zero line and pace out your putts.
From my perspective, I highly recommend this clinic. I know I can master this in 2-3 months.
Look for my next article as I analyze both the practicality of the Aimpoint system and how it has helped and/or hindered me.
About GK Member michaelko:
Our resident physical therapist from Northern California and one of the original GK Staffers. He is also one of the individuals responsible for making the GK Casual Golf Events possible. Way back when it was only an idea, michaelko, was one of those individuals that made it possible with our first outing of six members at Rio Hondo Country Club, Downey CA.
Cate Ritter runs THE LEAN 18 Nutrition program at MTT Performance, A Golf Channel Academy located in Pebble Beach, CA. With a successful career as a top junior and collegiate golfer, Cate knows the importance of nutrition when it comes to having a competitive edge on the course. Cate’s work has been featured on ABC15 News, U.S. News and World Report, Wall Street Journal, Golf Digest, GolfWRX, Golf Tips, Golf Today Northwest, PopGolf Mexico, GolfPunk UK, and The Arizona Republic.
About GK Member michaelko:
