A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to Brian Carroll about his epic man lust, and some of the stuff he was doing with his nutrition. Man lust aside, I noticed from talking to him via text and phone, and stalking him on Facebook, that he was all about his nutrition and stuff like that now, and how he was getting stronger. Also saw the pictures he would post every so often showing him getting leaner, but not losing weight on the scale. He also told me that he wasn’t really counting calories, paying attention to macros, or anything else that pretty people spend their time worrying about. Stay away from carbohydrates during the day, and go wild at night. Eat whatever you want after you train. Sounds like a horse that I can hitch my wagon too. Eating like total shit is a HUGE past time of mine.

After about 5762987 trillion text messages and half as many emails back and forth between Kiefer and myself, we came up with a plan. For those of you who are unaware of Kiefer, he has a Masters degree in Physics. Attention to detail is the name of the game. This is, in parts, VERY simple. It also requires a bit of reading of his blog on my part, which is fine, and a bit of application knowledge on my part, which is also fine. I work at a gym, and lift weights and do stuff. Im not going to completely outline it, but some changes we made, things we added in, and other things we dropped follow

1. Quit eating breakfast and start drinking coffee. The breakfast part was easy. My first meal was usually anywhere from 5-7 hours after I woke up in the morning. Yes. 5-7 hours. Apparently I was getting jacked without even realizing, and to that end, caring. I just want to be strong as fuck. Should I happen to look good and smoking hot chicks wanna bang me? I’m cool with that too. The coffee was MUCH more difficult. I HATE coffee. I don’t know how you sick fucks drink it. I really don’t. Kiefer and my girlfriend BOTH swear it is some sweet nectar from the gods, however I thought, and still think, it tastes like piss. From the Gods, perhaps, but its still terrible. I usually managed to ALWAYS burn myself with it too, and I just have a general disdain for warm drinks in general. Tea sucks too. Claire hooked me up though, and we defeated the heat with a coffee cup in the freezer, handfuls of ice cubes, and the pot its self in the freezer. As for the taste, heavy cream and some Splenda are nice.
2. Added in leucine to everything. Apparently the stuff is pretty amazing. I know Shelby and Justin Harris have been firing off and raving about it for years, and I used it sometimes, but was woefully inconsistent with it. I’m now finding out that I spent all of that time pissing up a rope, as it seems to definitely be helping me get jacked and swole, brah.
3. Added some supplements at every meal. Now, in addition to what amounts to normal food, I eat a scoop of Anaconda or Mag 10, leucine, and low carb Metabolic Drive. All of these are Biotest supplements by the way. Then, I eat whatever the hell I want. Usually a sammich. My favorite food group. Tastes like amazing. A word to the wise. DO NOT MIX ALL OF THIS TOGETHER. It tastes like DEATH. I would rather drink hot black coffee than hydrolyzed casein. It’s seriously awful. Do like the bottle says, and mix it alone with the flavor stuff. It’s a million times better, and you don’t end up vomiting it into the trashcan like some washed up fitness bunny.
4. Kept the Gangster Anaconda protocol the same. It actually works VERY well with Kiefers’ system. This is a plus for me. Did I mention I eat like total shit after I train?
5. Do some walking around or random sprinting on the treadmill. Also do some prowler work. This will piss all of you off: if I run on the treadmill, I wear Vibram Five Fingers or I do it barefoot! My hips, knees, ankles and lower back also feel like a million bucks all of the time. Feel free to express your hatred for me taking part in a “fitness trend” and feeling awesome in the comment section below. I can also run for at least 60 seconds at a 6 minute a mile pace. This is infinitely better for me as a person than dragging a sled like a mindless idiot back and forth. Both help with heart attack aversion.
6. EAT LIKE TOTAL SHIT AT NIGHT. This is the best part. It wasn’t really a change (Ask Wendler), but how fucking awesome is this? Seriously? Its like a sore pecker. You just cant beat it. Ice cream? Pizza? Pop by the gallon? M&Ms? I eat all of this shit, from about 1030 at night until I fall asleep at 3-4am. Ill give you an example of what I ate last night. I could probably produce a receipt for all of this stuff, but really don’t care if you believe or not that much.

Foot long from Subway with a bag of Doritos, big bag of peanut M&Ms, 20oz bottle of pepsi, and a 4 gallon can of monster. Made it back to Wendlers house and ate some of his M&Ms and 2 of his Klondike bars. Then I drank 2 cans of pepsi, ate some more M&Ms, had 2 scoops of protein powder, and went to bed. Whats not to love? My pancreas absolutely hates me, but in this day and age, whose doesn’t? Really? Shelby, put your hand down.

Also, Ive been having a hard time forcing food during the day. I might eat 1-2 times before I train, 3 at most. Kiefer added a super gangster shake that has a ton of stuff in it. Going to start with it probably on Monday, as I plan on consuming more calories than I should all weekend. ALL HAIL NACHOS!

Obviously, it is more involved than this, but, its Kiefers stuff, not mine, and I’m not going to give it to you. He might, if you ask him nice, and paypal him some cash.  I will say that you can pick up a ton of it from his blog at http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com , and for those of you who are interested, his blog definitely has the information you will need to get started on your journey to be as awesome as I am.

Monster Milk by Cytosport

This is the first of what hopefully becomes a list of reviews. There are two reasons that I do this. The first one is for my personal training clients. I have a lot of younger athletes that come in, and, unfortunately, kids are seriously swayed by the advertising they see. They ask me all the time my thoughts and input on a HUGE range of supplements. Huge! It also happens that the same kids that I am training are also asking about a product they saw in a magazine. The second part of this is purely selfish. For whatever reason, as long as I have been lifting weights, I have had an almost obscene obsession with supplements. My views on them have changed quite a bit, but I am still really interested in the industry. Sometimes they pan out, sometime they dont.

I bought this Muscle Milk at the GNC in the mall here in town. But wait, Jason, you hate GNC! You’re right, I do. I was in a pinch, and didn’t have the days to wait for some shipping. Also had some stuff coming from another company already. The Monster Milk was “On Sale” for 35 bucks for 2 pounds. This was the cheapest that they had in the store. And now, I know why. At least I think I do. It was kind of surprising, as I remember being a fan of the original Muscle Milk.

Individual product specs aside, there were some things that I HATED about this, and the reason I give it the review that I am. First, and for nearly everyone, was the taste. While the label promised it would “taste like a REAL milkshake” I fund the opposite to be true, unless you are into gasoline flavored milkshakes. okay, i did use a bit of exaggeration here, its not quirte gasonline, but it is chemical. I don’t know specifically WHAT caused this taste, I think it was the MCTs in it, but it was an overpowering chemical taste. Absolutely awful. Wondering if it was just my palate, I mixed it a few different ways. I used milk, and I used water. Used a lot and a little od both of them. I used more powder, and I used less. Every time, the same result. Sweet flavor dominated by a nasty chemical taste.

Mixability was also a big issue with Monster Milk. Monster Milk was actually able to defeat my Blender Bottle. This is a first, ever, and I have had these blender bottles for almost 4 years. I seriously think that these could blend raw meat. They’re awesome. That being said, Monster Milk showed them who was boss. I tried using room temp water, hoping that would improve its ability to mix up. Nope. No change. I even sat and shook one shaker cup full of the stuff for literally 3 minutes. STILL had clumps. In this day and age of instantized proteins, this is ridiculous. I thought maybe it was due to the product being compressed inside the scoop, so I just limp wristed a scoopful. Same thing. CLUMPS.

The nutrient profile was the one redeeming factor in my eyes. 25 grams of good protein a scoop, and only 2 grams of sugar. Actually has fiber in it too, which was nice. That’s about it though. I eat well enough and with enough variety I dont worry about the vitamin or mineral content of the product. It also has aminogen in it, which is an enzyme that helps digest protein. This is always nice, especially if you are eating TONS of protein. Muscle Milk also contains Creatine in the form of Kre Alkalyn. The amount per serving is only a gram though, so I dont think it would really make a noticable difference.

All in all, I was pretty disappointed in this supplement, and the purchase in general. I know that it was only 35 bucks, but still. This product just didnt do anything for me, outside of having an impressive label. All told, however, I wouldnt recommend this to anyone. The taste and mixability were bad, and I just cant justify dropping another 35-60 bucks to find out if i just got “a bad can.” Sorry Cytosport. Only going to get me once.

This goes along with the new years resolution stuff we talked about earlier. along with utting out the sugar from your diet, youre going to do two things differently. They are both easy to do, and require little on your part, other than getting it done. I noticed huge improvements in my mood, energy, and results when i started doing these consistently, and I know that you will as well! I have heard some great things back from my personal training clients with the results and changes that they are seeing from these two things.

1. Eat breakfast within 15 minutes of getting up.
This is hugely important, and i try to stress it to my personal training clients all of the time. You HAVE to eat breakfast. This serves two purposes that are applicable to us. One, it gets nutrients to the muscles. After 8 hours of sleep, your body has hammered away at most of the fuel sources floating around in your blood stream, and has possibly started in on your catabolizing, or breaking down your muscles to use for fuel. If you have any interest in getting stronger, or getting bigger muscles, or losing fat, this is something that we DO NOT want. It is literally taking your hard work and undoing it. You are literally moving backwards. Another thing that it does is get you ready for the rest of the day. i know so many people whose first meal of the day is lunch, or something crappy from a vending machine or gas station on the way to work. AWFUL. Not only is it bad for you, it tastes like shit. It also helps you eat less throughout the day. research has shown that people who eat breakfast consume less. Without trying. This is huge for any of you who are trying to lose fat and weight. Another thing that I have noticed too, not only with myself but my training clients is that eating breakfast really helps “set the tone’ for the day. You eat a good breakfast, and it sets you up for a healthy lunch. I know that one of my personal training clients used it as a deterrent mentally, and said that he “couldn’t justify” the extra calories at lunch from a missed meal at breakfast.

2. Eat a protein shake after you train
If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the one you consume after you workout, your post training meal, is number two. Like we talked about with breakfast, your muscles have just done a ton of work, and need fuel NOW! For those that are trying to lose fat, a protein shake is the best way to go. just make sure that you are using a high quality whey protein, and not some shitty Walmart or GNC brand. They ARE cheap, i realize this, but like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. Also, as far as the protein goes, you get what you DON’T pay for. Things like gas, bloating, and diarrhea. These come from shitty whey concentrates, that dont have the lactose, or fat taken out of them. Try to avoind them at all costs, and get a high quality Whey Protein isolate. Way easier on the stomach and digestive tract. Your friends will appreciate it too.

Now what you have to do is take these two things, along with reducing the sugar in your diet as uch as you can, and use this week to make them habits. Do them every day. Your body will thank you. I promise.

If you missed the New Years Resolution Post, You can check it out HERE

Sugar is by far the biggest roaadblock to your goals!

If you guys read the blog yesterday, you saw that I wrote about a few different things to help you keep on track with your New Years Resolutions. The first topic I touched on, and one of the biggest, after taking action, was breaking into your diet slowly. This is something that I talk to all of my personal training clients about, and an approach that I have found is the best way for me personally to transfer from eating like crap all of the time into more of a fat loss type of nutrition. I hate calling them diets, but that is another topic for me…

There are a few things that I tell all of my clients to do, regardless of their goals, and a few that are more geared towards those who are trying to lose fat and get back into shape. While some of these are more restrictive than others, they are all not only effective, but important steps for you on the road to your goals in 2010. I will talk about more of these as the week goes on, as you will really get the best results if you take your time and fully implement them as time passes. You will also see that some are diet changes, and some are lifestyle changes. They are both based around your nutrition however, as it will be the most important piece of the puzzzle for you to really have a good grasp on.

DIET CHANGES

1. Cut out the sugar!
The biggest one for most people is also the first one for a reason. Sugar, whether it be in the form of sugar in your coffee, high fructose corn syrup in your daily 44-ouncer from 7-11 sugar alcohols in your sugar free cookies, do more to derail you on the way to your goals than anything. Its hard too because anymore, there is sugar in damn near EVERYTHING that we eat. Did you know that there are 9 grams of sugar in a Quarter Pounder from McDonalds? That’s the same as 3oz of Coke or Pepsi. You don’t taste it like that though do you? Remember, its everywhere, and paying close attention to food labels is going to become very important. Now, it is going to be impossible for you to really eliminate all of the sugar from your diet, as even potatoes and rice have some sugar, but you really need to cut out as much as possible. If its sweet, and its not a Diet Coke, you can probably figure out that you’re wrong. a few things you can do is switch your sugar in your coffee for splenda. My wife did it and she hates anything that isn’t full flavor! trade out your regular pop for the diet variety. Coke Zero and Pepsi max beat the crap out of diet coke and diet pepsi, and it only takes a day or two to completely forget that it tastes a touch different than the norm. Take a week, cut out as much sugar as you can, and keep your sugar intake at this new lower level as you go on. You may find that you lose 10-20lbs just from switching from regular pop to diet. My dad did. You can to. Now get to reading those labels!

Like I said a bit ago, this is just a bit of some of the things I have for you guys to help you out on your way to losing weigh, getting fit, and having a kick ass 2010. ALL of these have been used not only on myself, but after i tested them, I introduced them to my personal training clients, and they are having great results with them as well. Keep in mind that with your diet, little changes can go a long way, especially if you were way off track in the first place.

If not, you should be. Look at this abstract i found. If you aren’t supplementing with Vitamin D, you may want to consider it. Granted it was a study using older adults, but I would think it would have some application to athletes.

Vitamin D and skeletal muscle tissue and function.
Ceglia L.

Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Bone Metabolism Laboratory, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA. lisa.ceglia@tufts.edu

This review aims to summarize current knowledge on the role of vitamin D in skeletal muscle tissue and function. Vitamin D deficiency can cause a myopathy of varying severity. Clinical studies have indicated that vitamin D status is positively associated with muscle strength and physical performance and inversely associated with risk of falling. Vitamin D supplementation has shown to improve tests of muscle function, reduce falls, and possibly impact on muscle fiber composition and morphology in vitamin D deficient older adults. Molecular mechanisms of vitamin D action on muscle tissue include genomic and non-genomic effects via a receptor present in muscle cells. Genomic effects are initiated by binding of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)(2)D] to its nuclear receptor, which results in changes in gene transcription of mRNA and subsequent protein synthesis. Non-genomic effects of vitamin D are rapid and mediated through a cell surface receptor. Knockout mouse models of the vitamin D receptor provide insight into understanding the direct effects of vitamin D on muscle tissue. Recently, VDR polymorphisms have been described to affect muscle function. Parathyroid hormone which is strongly linked with vitamin D status also may play a role in muscle function; however, distinguishing its role from that of vitamin D has yet to be fully clarified. Despite the enormous advances in recent decades, further research is needed to fully characterize the exact underlying mechanisms of vitamin D action on muscle tissue and to understand how these cellular changes translate into clinical improvements in physical performance.

As a personal trainer, if there is one question I get asked after “How much do you bench press?” It is “How do I lose weight?” Well, to be honest, I always recommend a structured diet and exercise plan, but it often goes deeper than that, especially on the diet end of things. Making it to the training sessions is easy, all it involves is a little scheduling, and perhaps some rescheduling, if you are new to training. The diet aspect of the program is where it seems that clients miss the most. For some, it is the inability to eat 5-6 meals per day, whether it be due to travel, incompatible work schedule, or what have you. For others, it is the sudden influx of all healthy foods, replacing their normal fare of comfort foods, is too much for them. We all know that people have different abilities when it comes to willingness, or ability to stick to their plan. For the ones who have a difficult time with the conversion to clean eating, I try to recommend two things:

• TRY TO ADHERE TO THE 90/10 RULE

The 90/10 rule is actually one that I try to recommend to any client who walks through the door of our facility. On the most basic level, what it amounts to, is that we would like to see a personal training client stay the course 90% of the time. It sounds great to expect clients to have a 100% compliance with the dietary program that has been laid out, but in the real world, some slipping is to be expected. As the saying goes, “Life happens!” Think of it like this. If you are eating 6 meals per day, that is 42 meals per week. If you adhere to the 90/10 rule that means that 38 meals will be spot on. It also means that you have room for 4 meals to be a bit looser than what they normally would be. Judging by the way most people eat on their first trip through our door, 38 good meals per week will do wonders for getting them well on the way to their health and fitness goals. There is one thing to remember here though. Just because you have 4 meals a week that can be a bit more “loose,” it doesn’t mean that it is a free pass to run to the chinese buffet, then head down the road to the ice cream parlor, and finish it off with some beers at home watching the game four nights a week! Try to keep it reasonable. Some icecream at your kids birthday party? Go for it. Beer and wings for Monday Night Football? Try to avoid it if you can.

• BREAK INTO NEW EATING HABITS SLOWLY

As a trainer, it pains me to say this, but sometimes, breaking into the diet slowly is sometimes the path we have to take to make sure that clients are making lifestyle changes that they can stick with, versus just going on a diet, doing it for 12 weeks, and then going right back to their old ways as soon as they finish the program. By breaking in slowly on the diet, it allows you to make small changes to your diet, one at a time. While this may seem like the wrong way to go about it, it allows people to break old dietary habits and relearn new ones. If you have been stopping at the gas station every morning for the last few years and grabbing a big 44 ounce Pepsi, it may take some time before passing the fountain and reaching for the liter of water becomes a habit. I know this because I struggle with it sometimes too. Something you should do in that situation is simply stop, and ask yourself what is more important? Getting that Pepsi, or losing those 10 pounds to look great at your daughters wedding? I bet I know the answer to this one, and I am guessing that it is the same as mine.

If losing weight and getting healthy is something you have wanted to do, but arent sure how to start or what to do, why not give us a call?