On this week’s “Jobs That Don’t Suck” episode, host Andrew Schulz introduced us to professions that bring out the alpha male in any man, and among the “bro-fessionals” featured was UFC weight-cutting expert, Mike Dolce. It goes without saying that Mixed Martial Arts is one of the most intense careers out there — both physically and mentally — and we wanted to learn more about how Dolce made a successful living in the industry.
During a follow-up interview with Dolce, we found out that he took a risk long before he ever stepped near a ring, bravely leaving his 9-5 gig as a tax inspector 10 years ago in order to train world-class athletes. “I wanted to do something I was passionate about, something fun,” he told us. The chance he took paid off in spades, as today the health guru works with a variety of champs like Ronda Rousey, whom he helped lose about 20 lbs in a single week! Have we got your attention now?
If you strive for a career in fitness (or simply want the details of Dolce’s diet because summer is right around the corner), check out our full chat with him.
How did you come up with the “Dolce Diet”?
My program is based on a lifetime of work. What I do today is a result of each day before. The principles have been refined and tested in world-class athletic competitions and on literally millions of people around the world. Where can people learn how to follow it?
The UFC FIT program has a detailed list of the nutritional principles, as well as a 12-week exercise program to support your lifestyle change. Through “The Dolce Diet” book series, we offer over 200 recipes and additional exercise and motivational tips to keep your progress going. Does the diet work on all body types?
Yes! The Dolce Diet and UFC FIT principles are a longevity-based approach to immediate health and fitness. They work on all body types, all ages, all fitness levels – I’ve had 100,000 results around the world. Everyone can make improvements, and everyone can do a little better, whether you are a UFC fighter like Chael Sonnen asking me to get him down to 185lbs for a title shot, or someone asking me to help her have more energy to play with her kids on the weekend. What is your physical education background? Did you ever go to school for nutrition?
I have held multiple certifications and continually seek education. Most recently I was voted the worldwide “Trainer of the Year” at the World MMA Awards in Las Vegas, and there’s no certificate hanging on any wall that compares with the stamp of approval from your peers like that. Do you advise those seeking a fitness career to go to college for it, or is it better to learn on the job?
Education is certainly necessary, and college is always a worthwhile experience if you can take it, but the traditional college model may not suit everyone. The most important aspect of this job is to have real-world experience, and by that I mean you need to have been there, seen it, done it and lived it yourself.
I’ve lost over 100lbs and know what it is like to build my fitness levels almost from scratch. I know that sometimes you may just have to have a piece of chocolate, and I know what people are going through. I know the emotional side to this process. I’ve been there, too. So, how can someone get to do what you do?
The most important criteria to become a respected trainer is to live the life you are teaching to others. To be the example of what you want them to become.
Also, what I always tell people who ask me how to break into the business, especially younger people, is to take a chance on life. Take a chance — don’t just accept you will have to do a job you hate for your entire life. I took a chance to do something I loved, something that would reward me and make me happy, and the hard work paid off.
Dolce Diet Living Lean Recipes: Dolce-Approved Honey Ginger Chicken Wings
Try these delicious, baked chicken wings that are sure to score big!
Makes about 60 Ingredients Honey Ginger Glaze
1/2 cup honey
4 tablespoons Bragg’s Liquid Aminos 6 large garlic cloves, crushed
2 4-inch x 2-inch pieces of ginger, peeled, sliced Chicken Wings
5 pounds chicken wings
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon Onnit Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper Directions Honey Ginger Glaze
Bring all ingredients and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve honey. Reduce heat to low; simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1/2 cup, 7-8 minutes. Strain into a medium bowl to keep the small bits out. Let sit for 15 minutes to thicken slightly. NOTE: Glaze can be made 5 days ahead of time. Keep in the refrigerator, but warm before serving. Chicken Wings Preheat oven to 400° F. Set a wire rack inside two large baking sheets. (You’ll need more than one baking sheet to accommodate all these wings!) Place the wings, grapeseed oil, sea salt and pepper in a large bowl; toss to coat. Place the wings on the sheets. Be sure to spread out in a single layer. Bake wings until cooked through and skin is crispy, about 50 minutes. After wings are cooked, line another baking sheet with foil and top with a wire rack. Add wings to honey ginger glaze and toss evenly to coat. Place wings in a single layer on prepared rack and bake until glaze is glossy and lightly caramelized, 8-10 minutes.
Note: If you don’t have a wire rack, brush your foil-lined baking sheets with grape seed oil to be sure that the wings don’t stick to the foil. Enjoy!
Want more Dolce Diet Living Lean Recipes? Click below to get The Dolce Diet: Living Lean Cookbook with over 130 Dolce-Approved recipes!
MTV2 documented one of Mike Dolce’s famous weight cuts for their new show “Jobs That Don’t Suck.” The profile of the man known for his precise weight management methods and strength training techniques of the most elite athletes in the world features a behind-the-scenes look at how Dolce guided UFC welterweight Mike Pyle through fight camp training and onto the weigh-in stage ahead of a recent bout. The show airs tonight, April 23, at 11:30 eastern /10:30 central. Check your local listings for details.
Mike Dolce will be featured on MTV’s “jobs That Don’t Suck” tonight at 11:30pm est/10:30 c
Mike answers your questions and makes a couple of surprise phone calls to listeners!
The founder of The Dolce Diet & creator of UFC FIT, Mike Dolce is known the world over for his work managing the weight cuts of UFC athletes like Johny Hendricks, Gilbert Melendez, Vitor Belfort, Thiago Alves, Chael Sonnen, Nik Lentz, Jake Ellenberger and more!
His #1 international best-selling books include The Dolce Diet: 3 Weeks to Shredded, The Dolce Diet: Living Lean, & The Dolce Diet: Living Lean Cookbook. For more information on Mike’s books, MMA weight cuts, weight management, gaining muscle, weight loss, overall healthy living, UFC FIT and so much more, visit TheDolceDiet.com & TheMikeDolceShow.com & UFCFIT.com.
Ocean Grove Fishing Pier as Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast of NJ. Photo: Michelle Renee Bernard
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: Dolce Diet Emergency Preparedness
by Mike Dolce
(originally published 10/28/12)
In the blink of an eye, a storm can change everything. As a boy, I fished off the Ocean Grove Pier, just five minutes from my house. The photo above was taken just as Hurricane Sandy was about to hit NJ. The pier may not be there tomorrow after the storm.
On both coasts of the USA there have been storm warnings causing the locals to scramble to stock their homes with supplies.
I thought this was a great time to share a few of my thoughts on how I have stocked my own house with basic supplies, though I live in the Vegas desert.
Please note, this list is always changing, and I am sure as soon as I post this I will remember 50 other things we have done or might suggest, so take this as a friendly piece of advice.
Water! Water! Water!
These are two of my easily portable 6-gallon water containers.
1) I have a water bladder that holds up to 100 gallons and sits right in my tub, where I can fill it up at the first sign of trouble.
2) I have 10 pre-filled, 6-gallon water jugsthat are mobile, and stack easily under beds, in closets and my garage.
3) We always have a few cases of 16 oz. water bottles in the house and usually a few gallon jugs for daily use.
4) We always keep at least 1 gallon of water in glass jugs in the fridge that we use as table water.
5) We have our 3-gallon Berkey water filtration system always full with the added benefit of being able to purify up to 6,000 gallons at any moment. It currently sits on our kitchen counter but can easily be thrown in the truck and brought to a campsite.
Food
We have a whole stockpile of items that we use every week, allowing us to rotate often and always be current with expiration dates. But most of these same foods also have a long shelf life.
I designed a daily menu for each member of my family (including our two dogs and two cats) to ensure we each have a complete supply of food to last 30 days. In fact, we maintain a very similar meal plan to what we would eat any other time of the year.
Additionally, we have one week’s worth of meals in a separate storage system that is able to be loaded right into my truck, along with three changes of clothes, wool blankets, rain gear and shelter materials in case we have to leave our home to find a safer area to wait out the trouble.
Here is a list of my food suggestions in the order I could remember. I’m sure this list is not even close to complete but it covers most of the basics.
Bob’s Red Mill Oat Bran
Bob’s Red Mill Quinoa
Chia Seeds
Hemp Seeds
Lara Bars
Brown Rice
Bob’s Red Mill Soup Mix
Amy’s canned soups
Coconut Oil
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Canned Wild Alaskan Salmon
Canned Tuna Fish
Buckwheat
Ezekiel Pasta
Barley
Lentils
Red bean (dried and canned)
Chickpeas (dried and canned)
Pinto Beans (dried and canned)
Wild Honey
Bragg Liquid Aminos
Grapeseed Oil
Almond Butter
Peanut Butter
Cashew Butter
Hazelnut Butter
Ground Coffee
Green tea bags
Chamomile tea bags
Vitamin C
Fish Oil capsules Dried Foods Strawberries
Blueberries
Pineapples
Apples
Spinach
Broccoli
Green beans
Carrots
Cooking
I started this fire via Plow Method. Took me four hours and gave me two week's worth of blisters, but I MADE FIRE!
We only use stainless steel pots and pans in our home and have every imaginable size from a 16-ounce soup pot all the way up to a 6-gallon chef’s pot. This makes cooking very easy on our gas stove, in my yard over my fire pit, or out in the desert over a traditional campfire. We can purify water if needed, or make a massive stew for the family in one pot that will last us a few days, saving the need to waste fuel, if that becomes a consideration.
We also have two cords of wood in our shed that we rarely use but have on hand if the power goes out for an extended period of time.
We also have ¼ cord of eco-friendly quick-start logs that burn for hours and can be lit even in wet environments. Makes a great starter log.
Lighters, matches and ferro rodsare stored in pretty much every drawer in our home as well as each vehicle. You can never have too many ways to start a fire.
Candles and Flashlights
We have flashlights in a drawer in every room of our house, as well as each vehicle and on our key chains. We have candles as decoration, but we also took a class on making soy candles and have over 300 hours worth in tasteful glass jars in our pantry. This works out to be 10 hours per night for a month.
Guns
Keeping my skills sharp!
It may be bad manners to talk about such things in polite public, but the laws in Nevada are very friendly to upstanding citizens who want to protect their homes or just enjoy a good day at the range. With that said, my whole family is stocked up like a small country!
First Aid
Very important! I travel a lot and the first thing I pack is my First Aid Kit, and I use it more than you may think. Anything from an annoying hang nail, a simple splinter in your toe, an episode of food poisoning, or a 4-inch laceration needing immediate stitches, I have it covered. The kit in my home is good enough to not only serve my own family but to assist my neighbors if necessary.
Power
If the electrical grid goes out, what do you do?! If you live with me, you simply switch on our propane-fueled generator, neatly stowed along with enough propane for two weeks on near constant use.
I also have a Goal Zero Tour Guide 10 solar power charging kit that I take with me in my backpack all around the world and can charge up both my cell phones, iPad, and 4 AA batteries at the same time, as well as anything else that I can access for direct communication.
Knowledge
The most important supply in any emergency situation is knowledge. I grew up camping in the Pine Barrens of NJ, the Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania Mountains and later the rainy Pacific Northwest forests, Las Vegas desert, and Utah canyons. When I was younger, I spent weeks at a time in the middle of the ocean working as a mate on a tuna boat. I am very comfortable surrounded by nature, so much in fact, that I have the deepest respect and admiration of nature’s power. I never take safety or comfort for granted. You are just one bear, dead engine, or unexpected storm front from a potential emergency situation.
I am CPR certified, and read everything I can on sewing, gardening, first aid, navigation, car repair and home repair. I make it a point to befriend paramedics, doctors, firefighters, hunters, outdoorsmen, farmers and any other specialized craftsmen and always try to trade knowledge and build a support system in our local neighborhood.
Games
It is very important to have a whole bunch of fun distractions to keep your family from freaking out. Try and make these times special moments to bond. Monopoly, Pictionary, Yahtzee, Uno, a few decks of cards and any other such game will offer a much needed distraction to the unsettling events going on around you. The games can often be found at local yard sales for pennies on the dollar.
Cash
Have money on hand. The ATM may be out, the bank may be closed or simply out of money. If that happens, you may need to purchase supplies, transit or services. It is a good idea to have small bills, so you won’t have to worry about handing over a $100 bill for a $10 item only to find out your associate has no change and tells you to “take it or leave it.”
Knives/Multi-tool
Don't be caught in the dark! Be prepared!
Each member of my family has a knife or multi-tool to be used as a survival tool throughout the day and, if necessary, a weapon.
Fitness
What good are all the supplies in the world if you are 100 lbs. overweight and would be a hindrance to your own survival and the survival of those around you? You may be first on the menu if things get really, really bad! That said, be in shape at all times. Can you do a single pull-up and lift your bodyweight to safety at least one time? How about 10 times? Can you swim, walk long distances with 50 lbs. of gear on your back or run for your life?! Can you help your family, friends or neighbors if they are hurt or fall ill? You better get on it now.
What about dental? What happens if you can’t make it to a dentist for a few days, weeks or ever?
Have you been to the doctor lately? Any health issue that pops up, handle it immediately. Always put your personal health before all things. You cannot help a soul if you are falling apart yourself.
This blog was meant to be fun and use the current weather issues as a topic starter.
When I was a boy, my Scoutmaster told me to ask my parents to turn off the power in the house on Friday after school and not turn it back on until Sunday night. Only then will you realize how unprepared you are for an emergency situation.
How do you and your family prepare for emergency situations? Tell us by leaving a comment below! We’d love to hear from you!
Thiago “Pitbull” Alves won an exciting unanimous decision victory over Seth Baczynski at UFC on Fox 11 in Orlando, Florida. Their welterweight bout earned them the Fight of the Night bonus!
Post Victory Pic! CONGRATS @ThiagoAlvesATT on an amazing victory in tonight’s @UFC! #DolceDiet #ufcfit #livinglean #livingleancookbook #3w2s #returnofthepitbull #healthy #happy -Mike Dolce
Thiago “Pitbull” Alves successfully weighed in at 170.5 lbs. for his long-awaited return to the Octagon. Alves faces Seth Baczynski April 19 in Orlando, Florida for UFC on Fox 11.
Just one day before weighing in for his UFC on Fox 11 welterweight bout, Thiago Alves enjoyed his Dolce Diet Breakfast Bowl and revealed a set of ripped abs. This video is part of Coach Mike Dolce’s day-long takeover of the UFC Fit Instagram account! Alves faces Seth Baczynski April 19 in Orlando, Florida.
#BOOM! @ThiagoAlvesATT looking lean & mean while eating 6 x’s per day as he drops from 195 LBS to 170 LBS for this Saturday’s @ufc!!! @thedolcediet #ufcfit #ufcgym #dolcediet #dolceknows #livinglean #breakfastbowl #weightcut #weightloss #recipes #abs
~Mike Dolce
Mike answers your questions and makes a couple of surprise phone calls to listeners!
The founder of The Dolce Diet & creator of UFC FIT, Mike Dolce is known the world over for his work managing the weight cuts of UFC athletes like Johny Hendricks, Gilbert Melendez, Vitor Belfort, Thiago Alves, Chael Sonnen, Nik Lentz, Jake Ellenberger and more!
His #1 international best-selling books include The Dolce Diet: 3 Weeks to Shredded, The Dolce Diet: Living Lean, & The Dolce Diet: Living Lean Cookbook. For more information on Mike’s books, MMA weight cuts, weight management, gaining muscle, weight loss, overall healthy living, UFC FIT and so much more, visit TheDolceDiet.com & TheMikeDolceShow.com & UFCFIT.com.
Glance around the gym, and you’ll probably see lots of people who are exercising in an attempt to shed pounds, tone muscle and look better. But numerous research studies have uncovered many other benefits to working out — ones that aren’t necessarily visible from the outside. Here, some of the awesome ways exercise can benefit your mind, body and soul:
It zaps anxiety.
Ever notice that you can start a workout feeling stressed and anxious, and end it feeling good? It isn’t in your head. Or, actually, it is: According to a new study from Princeton University, exercise appears to change the chemistry of the brain by causing the release of GABA, a neurotransmitter that helps quiet brain activity and minimize anxiety. The study found that people who ran regularly had a low reaction to stressful situations, even if they hadn’t run in more than 24 hours.
It boosts immunity.
Regular exercise can reduce your risk of certain serious health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. It can also decrease your chances of developing — and getting stuck with — more common illnesses, such as flus and colds. (According to one recent study, colds lasted 43% longer for people who exercised once a week or less.)
It brings on better sleep.
If you’re having sleep problems, skip the pills and hit the pool, track or spin studio. According to one study, people who exercised regularly for about 10 weeks reported sleeping better than they had previously.
What exactly does “better” mean? In this case, it translated to dozing off faster and having a decreased need for sleep-promoting medication.
It decreases PMS
Women often report feeling irritable and bloated before their periods, but exercise appears to minimize these conditions. In a survey of nearly 2,000 New Zealand women, researchers found that those who exercised, rested and wrote in a journal about their symptoms fared better than those who took specific vitamins or followed other DIY advice.
It gets you in the mood.
You may have heard that smelling the pheromones in sweat can make you want to get down and dirty — but that’s not the main reason exercise can lead to sex. For men, exercise can lower the risk of erectile dysfunction, and it gives both genders stamina and feel-good vibes about the body.
It strengthens the brain.
Studies have found that working out can lessen the severity of memory problems in older adults, and even decrease the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s. It can also have a positive benefit on the brain function of younger people. Research out of New Zealand shows that exercise improves executive function — the general brain processes that include planning, memory, reasoning, problem-solving and more.
It improves body image.
After summarizing the effects of 57 separate studies, a group of researchers determined that exercise does indeed improve how you feel about your body.
This article was originally published on upwave.com.
Editor’s note: upwave is Turner Broadcasting’s new lifestyle brand designed to entertain the health into you! Visit upwave.com for more information and follow upwave on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram @upwave.
(upwave.com)
Makes about 60
