Here are some of my favorite sites to visit. There will be more links in future posts, but these are the ones I am most likely to visit on a given day.
1.) The Heart Scan Blog
Dr. William Davis is a preventional cardiologist. If you want nutritional advice to prevent heart disease, you cannot find a better source than this. I actually enjoyed his blog so much, that shortly after discovering it, I read it in its entirety from back to front. It was really interesting to watch his suggestions evolve and become refined over that time. The nutritional guidelines begin with the elimination of wheat products and continue on to expected staples such as Vitamin D and fish oil, but he also has other suggestions specifically related to different lipoprotein patterns. I also enjoy the fact that he attributes his thinking and reasoning to scientific studies and clinical experience rather than deduction from the paleo idea. As a resource, his blog is phenomenal.
That said, I definitely recommend you buy his book, Track Your Plaque. It is on my must buy list. As a note, Dr. Davis also runs another website, which apparently contains even more in depth information about the Track Your Plaque Program. Unfortunately, this website requires a paid subscription, which I refuse to fork over. Faced with the fact that I won't have an income for the next 4 years while I pile on debt in med school... well, paying for the site isn't a very good idea for me. I really wish I did have access to the info, though, and if any readers are subscribed, I would love to hear about what kind of stuff is available.
2.) Robb Wolf
Robb Wolf was a research biochemist at Colorado State University. Wolf is considered to be a leading expert on paleolithic nutrition. I also put his book in the must buy category, although I have to admit it took me a while to get through it, because his writing style grates on me personally. I think that might just be my problem, though, because many other people seem to think he's quite funny. I thought this book had a great explanation of the effects that gluten and other grain compounds have on our digestive tract and how that can negatively effect our health. This book - and website - both buy much more into the paleo concept than Track Your Plaque, and use that as the basis upon which the nutritional concepts are built and studied.
I particularly like the angle on health Wolf tries to achieve with his recommendations. He is looking for "performance, health, and longevity," which is exactly what I am looking to achieve with my nutrition and exercise plans; I think a lot of nutritionists tend to leave out the performance part. Of all the nutrition/lifestyle writers I know of, I think his guidelines are the ones I most closely strive to embody. Wolf does a weekly podcast on his site. I have read or listened to most of them, particularly the recent ones, and I am really impressed by how kind it is of Wolf to put this kind of effort in to fielding questions from his readers. Most of the content on this website consists of the podcasts, which are excellent.
3.) Mark Rippetoe Q & A
I think you would be hard pressed to find a better strength coach than Mark Rippetoe. The guy wrote the book - literally - on most of the big lifts, and he practices what he preaches, having previously been a competitive powerlifter and still hitting the weights every week. Like the above 2, I highly recommend getting his books, Starting Strength, and Practical Programming.
I would be a little careful about taking "the Program" word for word, though. Maybe it's just me, but when I lift heavy that many days a week, my body starts to feel like it's falling apart. Also, the GOMAD approach, while obviously the best possible way to get as strong as possible as quickly as possible, is just not a healthy thing to put your body through. That's an example of a time where you have to look at your goals and decide what's more important to you. Do you want to get as strong as possible as fast as possible, or are you willing to develop strength more slowly while maintaining excellent health?
I am impressed by his willingness to coach people he has never met and doesn't receive payment from over the internet through this forum. Anyone can sign up and post a lift video which he will critique. The forum can also get funny at times. Be forewarned, Rip does NOT suffer fools or people who have not at least made an effort to understand his books and ideas. And he has a very dry wit.
4.) Dividend Growth Investor
This one is in a different vein, but I also think this is a great resource. He preaches what seems to be a very safe and sensible investment philosophy built around consistent returns, quality companies, stability, and holding stocks for the long run. He writes 2 or 3 articles every week. They can be deeper explanations of his investing technique, an analysis of some aspect of dividend growth investing, or an excellent analysis of a stock from a dividend growth investor's point of view. This is definitely worth taking a look at.
5.) MIT OpenCourseWare
This is amazing. MIT has put up a ton of full classes that undergrads at MIT took. For the most part, these consist of lecture notes and assignments, but a few classes also have lecture videos, tests, projects, etc. This is definitely worth taking a look at in your spare time if you're interested in learning more about a subject.
Keep in mind that you don't "get" anything for completing one of these courses. This is purely about knowledge for knowledge's sake.
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