Leaning Out

You don't see me with my clothes on often do you? Ha Ha!

I always get a little extra boost when I start getting to this point, I like to wear form fitting clothes, but I also like the "form" to be "fit"....

Here I am Tuesday after work, these are one of my Lucky brand jeans, soft and worn and they shall now be relegated to the "larger" end of the closet, they are size 2.

I have clothes arranged by size since it fluctuates so much throughout the year. I have 0's to 4's. I think I may have a couple 5's in there somewhere, but they must be "skinny" 5's if you know what I mean.

I can see how people go on a diet and get discouraged, it takes time! When I get to this point things continue rapidly so I have to be careful, and being careful means beef more often (it has more calories and slightly higher fat), and peanut butter! Yum!

Recently I wrote about the changes I made to my diet, but unless you follow me and have for a while, you have no idea what it was to start out! So, let me give you a run down of a typical day for me (now).

Keep in mind I am giving estimates and I am including the calories, carbs and proteins for the vegetables. Many people don't even count them.

4:15 am Supplements & Lean 1 meal replacement drink
       200 calories; 20 grams protein; 18 grams carbs

6:30 am Supplements & Endurox R4 Recovery drink (1 scoop only)
       135 calories; 6.5 grams protein; 26 grams carbs

7:45 am Homemade Waffles (egg whites, oats, flavorings)
       300 calories; 31 grams protein; 39 grams carbs (if you are counting only starchy carbs it would be 27 grams)

11:30 am Lunch #1 Supplements & 4 ounces chicken breast; 3 ounces lentils; 2 cups vegetables
       320 calories; 37 grams protein; 29 grams carbs (if you were counting only starchy carbs it would be 17 grams)

3:00 pm Lunch #2 4 ounces chicken breast; 3 ounces black beans; 2 cups vegetables
       320 calories; 37 grams protein; 29 grams carbs;  (if you are counting only starchy carbs it would be 17 grams)

Here is a picture of Lunch #1 and 2 the day before, I have a lot of it pre-measured and frozen, I assemble it the evening before.

5:45 pm Dinner Supplements & Homemade Curried Chicken and Cauliflower soup (I make a bunch and freeze it in bags)
      186 calories; 24 grams protein; 15 grams carbs  (if counting only starchy carbs zero)

8:30 pm Bedtime meal Supplements & 1 cup egg whites with 1 cup spinach
      160 calories; 29 grams protein; 14 grams carbs,  (if you are counting only starchy carbs, zero)

Add to this the nuts I eat, about 1/8 cup total (3 before each starch meal), using cashews as an example:

80 calories, 2.5 grams protein and 4 grams carbs (6 grams fat) Nuts add up!

9:00 pm Sleepy time tea.....
     

So grand totals:

Calories 1701; Protein 187; carbs 174 (but only 61 starchy).

The starches are very low but I make up for it in vegetables! The vegetables keep me full, provide fiber and energy and my muscles are super full despite the low starches. In this (rough) calculation I added the calories from any splenda too.

There are days when my starches will be much higher, and my calories might be also. For instance I occasionally have starch at dinner, the key is keeping it different so your body adapts to the variances.

Do not get in the rut of eating the same thing day in and day out, just like weight training, your body will make sure it adjusts to that and it will maintain it's weight, that's what it is designed to do. Your body was designed to survive quite well on what it gets, and survive with a layer of fat!

The Endurox R4 is a specially formulated recovery drink that is high in carbs. It is the preferred ratio of 4 to 1 (carbs to protein), studies show this is the best ratio of nutrients to ingest immediately after weight training. When not dieting to lose fat I will use 2 scoops of this.


I take a lot of BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) and Amino Acids throughout the day. I will write more on my supplements at another time, because that's not where you start. That is why they are called "supplements", they are meant to be added to an existing good diet!


Add to this very low caloric intake my exercise today:


1 1/4 hours heavy weight training (it was leg day again!)
Stairs/jump rope at lunch, run up 300 stairs, run down 300 stairs, jump rope 300 times.

Tuesday is not a day I go to the gym after work.

My Diet

I have mentioned several times how I have changed my diet. I thought I would explain a bit of what I have done.

I weigh my food year round, at least the protein and the starches. I don't weigh vegetables as you can eat as many of those as you like, provided you don't mistake one of the starchy vegetables which for diet purposes are considered "starches" for a "vegetable" (that would be things such as peas, corn, winter squashes).

So, I am always adhering to some "diet" although I relax it quite a bit when I am not in the cutting phase. I believe that this makes me more successful when I do need to drop the body fat as I never let myself get overweight, and I don't pig out for months at a time.

I have been reading some books that have inspired me to make a few changes, very slight ones and that is all I need as my diet is fairly dialed in year round anyway. I don't pack on 20 extra pounds in the winter just to have to lose it in the spring, I don't believe in that, and not many people do any longer, research has proven it is not necessary to gain a great deal of excess fat just to gain lean mass. If you eat properly, you will gain properly.

Here is an example of my lunch (meal #3) on Sunday:  3 ounces black beans, 1 cup mushrooms, one cup oven roasted cauliflower (with paprika), 1/2 cup Brussels sprouts and 4 ounces thin chicken breast with Mrs. Dash and some lemon. Very satisfying and filling! I eat a lot!

So what I have done is simple, following my past successes I have reduced my starches on meal 3 and 4 each by one ounce, and on meal 5 all together. 

I have replaced the starches in meal 5 with kabocha squash, or one extra cup of vegetables. I like kabocha squash as it is satisfying like a yam or potato, but without the carbs!

1 cup has 30 calories and 7 grams carbs, whereas if you had butternut squash you would be eating 82 calories and 22 grams of carbs!

I have also increased my overall vegetable intake by about 1/2 to 1 cup more at each meal, which means I am eating 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups of vegetables at a time. So - decreased starchy carbs, increased fiberous carbs.

I am not so hungry, I am getting carbs through vegetables but not the starchy variety that tends to be stored as fat.

I have also stopped eating brown rice, replacing it with beans or lentils. I have eaten rice on occasion, but not everyday as in the past.

In addition, I am eating 3 to 5 raw nuts (almond, cashew or macadamia) or 2 tsp oil (olive, flax, Udo's, CLA) prior to or with each each meal containing starch.

I am eating the nuts/oil just prior to each meal to reduce the insulin response for the meal. Eating the nuts or oils will help control the rate of entry of glucose into the bloodstream. So slower entry, less insulin is produced.

The reason why you do not want a rapid rise of insulin is it will cause too much glucose to be taken up by the cells, which results in low blood sugar, which in turn stimulates the appetite for more food!

I have also continued having a post training carb and protein drink, although it isn't a huge one like I might have when not cutting fat. I think this has helped me to hold onto the muscle and still look full and round, while losing the overall bodyfat. I don't have much more to lose, maybe 3 or 4 pounds at the most. It's hard to tell until I see it, but I will stick to the diet, and I won't be doing an insane amount of cardio, as I don't need to, I don't have a lot of fat to try to lose.

My post training drink has 26 grams carbs in it, I will probably stop that about 4 weeks out, and right there I should start to lose and tighten up more.

Vinegar to fight fat

I turn to vinegar as a flavoring for food quite often, especially when I am dieting. I will use lemon or vinegar and stay away from soy sauce or other sauces that often contain sugars.

I am quoting a blog below that states that vinegar fights fat! I don't know how extensive the study was that is discussed, and it doesn't really matter to me because I like vinegar and I put it on my food already, I am not planning on changing anything or perhaps start drinking it or anything silly like that.

Just some interesting tidbit to file away and think about. Maybe you want to try vinegar on your food? It's a great change when you are reducing calories as most condiments really add up!

This is from a website called Technorati. Technorati was founded to help bloggers succeed by collecting, highlighting, and distributing the global online conversation. Founded as the first blog search engine, Technorati has expanded to a full service media company providing services to the blogs and social media sites and connecting them with advertisers who want to join the conversation, and whose online properties introduce blog content to millions of consumers.

This particular blog was written by Hector Corsi

Some exciting research on vinegar proves that it really does reduce body fat levels, triglycerides and sugar in humans.  I will outline the exact doses you need to achieve these beneficial effects, and when to use it to achieve them.

Fat and Sugar Busting Effects in Mice AND Humans

If you’ve ever had a high carbohydrate meal, or worse, one that was also high-glycemic, you already know that these sugars will convert to fat.  If you use vinegar after a high-glycemic meal, your glucose levels will not rise, according to new research published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The study examined the effects of a high-glycemic meal with and without vinegar on diabetic humans.  Those who also had vinegar experienced lower glucose levels after their meal.  Previous research has also shown this effect in healthy people.

Another study, but on mice who were on high fat diets, also shows that acetic acid, the active component in vinegar, enhances fatty acid oxidation and thermogenic proteins such as UCP-2, and prevents body fat accumulation.

Vinegar Reduces Body Fat and Triglycerides in Obese Humans

The most interesting research though,  is a study published in the journal Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, performed on 175 obese patients who were administered different doses of apple vinegar, but did not change their diet or exercise patterns.  One group received a low dose of vinegar, another a high dose, and the placebo group got a beverage that tasted like apple vinegar, but had no vinegar.

The 500 mL beverage (about 2 cups), contained mostly water, with the low dose group getting 15 ml (1 tablespoon) of vinegar mixed in the water, and the high dose group getting 30 ml (2 tablespoons).

Subjects drank 1 cup of the mixture after breakfast, and another cup after supper.  After 4 weeks, body fat levels decreased significantly in both the high and low dose protocol. The higher the dose, the greater the body fat decrease.  After 8 weeks, waist circumference decreased in the vinegar groups.  Body weight, visceral (belly) fat mass and triglyceride levels also decreased in the vinegar groups.

The study reported no side effects, and it suggests that you have to keep drinking the vinegar mixture to keep the beneficial effects.  The good effects go beyond weight reductions, and so vinegar could be an easy, safe, and effective compound to fight fat, and enhance health.

Tortellini in Broth

Tortellini in broth, who doesn't love that?!

I am on a diet, so I am not eating this, but my husband and son are not on a diet, and they like this. First I made my dinner:

2 ounces sweet potato, pureed
4 ounces ground turkey, sauteed with chorizo spices
6 spears asparagus, steamed
1 cup mixed sauteed bell peppers

Then the boys wanted something and we hadn't really given it much thought so it's off to the freezer to see what we have.

I almost always have homemade chicken stock, it is easy to make and there is no comparison to the canned or boxed garbage.

I heated that up and then put in a bag of Barilla 3 Cheese Tortellini.

Take a look at the front of this package. It says in very BOLD letters:

Dinner for 2 in 10 Minutes

Well, this is quite alluring isn't it? I can toss this in the stock and the boys will have dinner in 10 minutes.

Let's just take a look at the nutritional facts on the side.

It says that each serving has the following:

230 Calories

8 Grams fat

500 mg Sodium

32 Grams Carbohydrates

8 Grams protein

About what I would expect, you know pasta is high in calories and carbs. Not really too bad for a meal...(if you aren't on a diet).

But wait a minute, there is something wrong here. Look at the very top of the label. It says the serving size is 2/3 cup and there are 4 servings in the container!

This means that based on what it says on the front, you and one other person have just finished eating this because it was Dinner for 2 in 10 Minutes, and this is what you really consumed:

460 Calories

16 Grams fat

1000 mg Sodium

64 Grams Carbohydrates

16 Grams protein

Not only did they fool you into thinking it was a lower  calorie dinner, but had you been serving more than 2 people, you probably would have bought more of this pasta based on the front label, say three bags for 6 people. They screw you twice! You consume too many calories based on their label and spend too much money too.

Sneaky marketing that's what it is. No wonder why most of America is obese and dying of heart related disease.

Damn! Should have gone out for a burger!

Oh, plus they had this:

Good thing they aren't on a diet, they would not be very happy with the results.

If you eat packaged foods, please be very careful and thoroughly read the labels.

Christmas Treats, Diet Wreakers

My Christmas gifts from my husband, you can see I am thrilled! In case you cannot see everything, it is two small bags of Doritos, two Jo's Salt Caramels and a book called My Horizontal Life, A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Chandler.

Oh what fun! Smut and junk food!

I will most likely end up saving it all for vacation, our real gift to each other. We go to Mexico every February for a week on the beach. While folks here at home are dealing with wind, rain and cold weather, I am wondering which of my 12 bikini's to wear in the 85 degree sun and what to drink as I lay on my chaise lounge on the beach.

The point of this is really the Doritos though. Some people eat a bag of chips every day. Every...Single....Day.

I eat a bag after every competition and I have two at Christmas. Five bags a year, tops.

In case you haven't looked at the nutritional facts (or lack of) on the bag, let me show you right here why you shouldn't be eating these "snacks"

1 3/4 ounce bag of Cool Ranch Doritos

260 Calories
13 grams fat
320 mg Sodium
31 grams Carbohydrate
2 grams Sugars
3 grams Fiber
3 grams Protein

This is practically a meal in itself, a very, very bad meal. I will put it into perspective for you.

Each of my meals ranges from 200 to 350 calories total.

Each of my meals (other than post training) has 20 to 25 grams carbohydrates total.

Might as well suck on a spoonful of mayonnaise with all the fat in these beauties.

If you are really serious about losing body fat, you should not be eating things like this.  Don't close your eyes and mind and pretend that one little bag won't hurt, it certainly will.

If you are at a place where you can afford it, like I am when I am at 4% bodyfat, then it's not a problem. If your bodyfat is over 20% (women) and 15% (men), get your hands outta the bag for good!

Oh and our vacation spot? Hacienda Eden, on the Pacific Coast. This will be our 15th year there, room #4! It is quiet, secluded, has no discos, few tourists, and great food surrounds us.

I am looking forward to walking down the road to Marta's, on the small cove in the neighboring town of Majahua where we will sit in plastic chairs with our feet in the sand and eat fresh lobster as we watch the fishermen.

The Doritos? I will probably eat them in the plane on the way down.

Post Exercise Eating Part II

Excuse the funny face, I wear a mouth guard when I lift.

You know, the kind football players wear? (sorta) I know, most people think that's overkill, but when my dentist looked at my teeth a couple years ago he said I was clenching my teeth and cracking them, along with causing the gums to recede, only on the eye teeth! That was the give away, the gums are only affected on the eye teeth.

SO, he made a custom made guard for me. It fits on the upper teeth only, it's not a pretty sight.

"R" took this picture a couple weeks ago. She is very patient with me.

So, what to eat after training? I am going to discuss what to eat when trying to gain lean mass. If you are trying to lose weight, it's  not the right ratio for you. The concept is the same, but oh that fat loss is a whole other world!

Carbohydrates:

You need high glycemic load carbohydrates , so they can quickly fill your empty stores. A smaller amount of lower glycemic carbs are also good, to provide a longer, steady release into the blood.

Glucose is good for the quick high glycemic carbs. What is glucose?

It is the sugar in starchy foods such as potatoes, rice or grains.

Fructose is good for the slow steady carbs. What is fructose?

It is the sugar in fruit and fruit juices.


Protein:

You need amino acids for resynthesis of protein that may have been damaged during exercise. In an intense 1 hour workout, it is possible to use 30 grams of muscle protein for fuel.

Protein, especially sources high in branched chain amino acids should be taken in with your carbs.

The ratio should be 4 to 1 ( carbs to protein).

Ideally, a liquid form is best, as it is absorbed more readily and it begins the re hydration process.

You can buy a recovery drink, you can make your own, or you can eat whole food. It's not critical for the average fitness enthusiast, just make sure you don't wait to refuel!

I personally aim for about 40 grams glucose, 10 grams fructose and 20 grams protein. You will find many thoughts about this, people have lots of opinions. I aim for this ratio because I try to ingest whole food instead of liquid as I need the food to satisfy my hunger. Liquid just doesn't do it for me.

What you should notice is that I am taking in about double the amount of carbs that I normally would at a meal.

There is a recovery drink that does this already:


Pacific Health Endurox R4

It's great tasting, I like the tangy orange. It's not cheap though. If you need the specific ratio and are not prepared to make it yourself, this is great.

This is not to be taken if you are not training really intensely though, you will gain weight! If your training is less intense, you can cut the servings or just calculate it yourself. Endurox R4 was developed for an endurance athlete, so if you haven't really busted your butt at the gym, its probably a bit too much for you.

One serving of Endorox R4 is:

270 calories
52 grams carbs
13 grams protein


But, I can eat this:

As soon as I am done, I fill up my water bottle with a homemade mixture (L- glutamine, beta-alanine, amino acids, L- leucine).

I get home then have 1 cup egg whites with 3/4 cup brown rice mixed in, and a half a grapefruit (or some fruit).

Or, 3/4 of a bagel, 1 Tablespoon low sugar jam, and 1 cup of microwaved egg whites

Or, oatmeal with a small amount of fruit and the egg whites.

Or, my homemade oat/egg white waffles.....all in one.


There are many choices, just take the time to figure out the carbs and protein and feed your body!

Be very careful with dried fruit, for instance, 1/4 cup of raisins is not an unusual amount to add to some oatmeal, yet look at the nutritional breakdown:

130 calories
31 grams carbs
29 grams sugars

So if you have one serving of oatmeal and 1/4 raisins, you are getting way too many calories and carbs, double the numbers above and that's what you have...opt for a heaping teaspoon of the raisins at most.

There are many theories about post training feeding, most people will agree that this meal "doesn't count" meaning don't worry too much about the higher calories and carbs as your body really needs it. I chose to be a bit more conservative, I increase but I don't go overboard.

When I am dieting for a competition, I change it completely, no fruit, no dairy, no bread, very little fat, very little sugar.

Related articles

• Post Exercise Eating Part I (readyin5weeks.blogspot.com)

Post Exercise Eating Part I

Whoa Nelly!

One look here and you are thinking "Damn...she got big!"

Yes I did thank you very much, and that was and still is my goal. It's all a cycle, just like life itself. There is a starting point, changes, backslides, moving forward, nothing is constant.

In the sport of figure, you have to get very, very lean. You also need to sport some pretty impressive muscle. You cannot stay on a diet all the time or you start to look haggard, you lose muscle and you look old and tired.

You may also be interested in doing this even if you don't compete.

So life goes in cycles. Gain and lose, gain and lose.

You bulk up part of the year. You don't have to get fat, in fact, that's not a good idea at all, but with muscle gain comes some fat gain, they sorta go hand in hand, but you can control how much of each if you eat properly.

Eating post exercise is critical because your body is better prepared to receive and store carbohydrate that at any other time during the day. I shudder when I hear women (mostly) talk about how they exercise on an empty stomach, then they don't eat anything for hours, just to make sure they have "burned off all those extra calories".

What they have done is ensure they will look like helpless, skinny, emaciated waifs for a long, long time. Yuck!

Timing is critical. At no other time during the day is your body as receptive to nutrient intake as it is immediately after training. Research shows that the restocking if the muscles' carbohydrate stores is two to three times as rapid immediately after exercise as it is a few hours later.

In the same way, other research shows that the repair of muscles damaged during exercise is more effective if protein is consumed immediately after exercise.

Tomorrow, exactly what and how much to take in?

Artichoke Chicken Shiritaki Pasta

I came up with this on Sunday evening and I loved it! I was in need of some greatly reduced carbs due to the massive amounts that I ate the previous evening at a party. There were enough in my stores, I needed a hearty dinner but not a lot of carbs.

I have written many times about shiritaki pasta, it is a tofu and yam flour pasta. It takes some getting used to, but it is wheat free and has almost no carbohydrates.


This was easy to prepare, I assembled or pre-cooked most of it then microwaved it when I was ready to eat.

This serves one person and the ingredients are:

1 package shiritaki pasta
4 ounces cooked, cubed chicken breast
1/2 cup roughly chopped canned artichoke hearts

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

black pepper

Rinse the shiritaki well, then boil 2 minutes and rinse and drain again, set aside until ready to use.

Combine all remaining ingredients except the cheese and pepper with the pasta, stir to mix. Warm in the microwave about 2 minutes. Top with cheese and pepper.


Nutritional breakdown is as follows:
Calories 224
Protein 33 grams
Fat 2.5 grams

Carbs 12.5 grams

Sodium 636 mg.

10 Commandments of Getting Cut Part 2 of 3

Part II from The 10 Commandments of Getting Cut

Losing Fat, Not Just Weight by Chris  McClinch

Eating the Right Foods

5. Thou shalt eat the right foods.
To burn fat, you've got to know what makes you fat. The first thing that makes you fat is eating more calories than your body can use. Rather than eliminating the excess calories, your body stores them as body fat. We've taken care of that problem with the caloric deficit, but it's also important to understand that certain types of food are more likely to make you fat.

Some of the foods that make you fat are obvious: candy, soda, beer, chips, pizza, and fast food have no place in a healthy diet, period. When you're not dieting, they're okay as occasional cheat foods, but even then, pay careful attention to the words "occasional" and "cheat." As in, you're not going to be eating these foods on any kind of a regular basis, and you're fully aware of the fact that they represent a step back from your physique goals. An occasional step back is healthy, but 90% of what you eat should be quality bodybuilding foods.
 
The next group of foods is less obvious, especially since so many foods in this group are traditionally considered "diet" foods. This group includes pasta, bread, pretzels, crackers, white rice, rice cakes, breakfast cereals, and fruit juices. What do these have in common? They're all highly processed carbohydrates--high on the glycemic index, low in fiber, low in nutrients, and not terribly filling. They massively spike insulin release in the body, don't provide much other than calories, and leave you feeling hungry again shortly after you eat them. You don't need to go aggressively low-carb to lose fat, but you do want to severely limit your intake of processed carbs. You're much better off with fruits, vegetables, brown rice, yams, and old-fashioned oatmeal (the stuff that comes in the canister, not the packets) as your primary sources of carbohydrates.

Healthy sources of protein are hugely important for getting cut. Remember, you're not just trying to lose fat; you're trying to preserve as much muscle as possible, and one gram of protein per pound of body weight should be your goal here. Good sources of protein include lean cuts of beef, 90% or leaner ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, chicken breast, turkey breast, pork tenderloin, fish, eggs and egg whites, cottage cheese, and egg-, whey-, and casein-based protein powders. I can't recommend soy to anyone other than vegetarians or vegans because of the high concentrations of phytoestrogens present in soy protein. Other protein sources to avoid? Bacon, pork chops, sausages, hot dogs, prime rib, fatty cuts of beef, and the other high-saturated fat usual suspects.


Finally, you need good fats in your diet. The big message moving forward should be that you need to eat the right fats if you want to burn fat. Let's start with what the wrong fats are: saturated fats and trans fatty acids. Saturated fats you're familiar with--they're the fats in butter, red meat, and hard cheeses. Any fat that's solid at room temperature is a saturated fat and to be eaten only in moderation. Try and keep them at less than half of your daily fat intake. Trans fatty acids are chemically manipulated vegetable fats such as you find in margarine or Crisco. Essentially, they're polyunsaturated fatty acids with hydrogen atoms added to them to turn them into pseudo-saturated fats. If the words "partially hydrogenated" appear anywhere on the label, it's best avoided entirely.

Good Fats The good fats are the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, particularly those high in Omega-3 fatty acids. These fats can help boost testosterone levels and lower blood cholesterol. They also blunt insulin release and aid in the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K. The majority of your fats should come from sources such as flax oil, olive oil, fish oil, natural peanut butter (if it has ingredients other than peanuts and salt, it's not natural), macadamia nuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, olives, and ground flax seeds.

Diets, Carbs and Cutting

The traditional high-carb, low-protein, low-fat eating plan is out.It's a nutritional and hormonal disaster, prompting massive insulin releases, obesity, adult-onset diabetes, and higher hunger levels. Uncontrolled insulin levels are the primary culprit here, so you want a plan that controls insulin while creating the caloric deficit you need to lose weight. There are several plans that have proven highly effective, but some are far more restrictive than others. Your ideal plan is the least restrictive one that gives you the results you want.
"Zone Diets"

The least restrictive of the plans I can recommend is the Zone--Barry Sears's diet. The basic premise is that every time you eat, 40% of the calories should come from carbohydrates, 30% should come from protein, and 30% should come from fats. Basically, the easiest way to plan a Zone meal is to get 1 1/3 grams of carbohydrate and half a gram of fat for every gram of protein. My only real caveat is that the calorie figures are too low for most athletes and that the advice on exercise (walk 30 minutes every day) is insufficient.

Not everyone does well on The Zone. Research has shown that while combining fat with carbohydrates blunts insulin release, the combination actually increases insulin resistance in some people. These people--the rare individuals who find themselves gaining body fat on a Zone diet--are better off with an eating plan that stresses separating fats from carbohydrates. This is John Berardi's Massive Eating protocol, which calls for eating your meals as either protein and fat or protein and carbs. Essentially, protein and carbs would be eaten immediately post-workout and for breakfast, with protein and fat constituting the rest of your meals. This one's a little more restrictive than the Zone, but if you find that your body doesn't handle the combination of fat and carbs well, this one's probably for you.

Low Carb Diets

Next on the list come the diets in which carbohydrates don't make up a significant portion of your daily calories at all. I wouldn't recommend these unless you're dieting for a competition or are obese and looking to lose the weight quickly, because they're not much fun. Most people feel drained, cranky, and dumb without carbohydrates, and there's a 1-2 week period of gastrointestinal adjustment that isn't pleasant. The least restrictive version of the low-carb diets is the cyclical ketogenic diet. There are two ways to do this. The most common way is to eat less than 70 grams of carbohydrates a day from Monday through Friday (under 30 on days that you don't lift), then eat whatever you want on the weekend. Obviously, the better your weekend choices, the better your results, but I can tell you from personal experience that it works even if your weekend choices run along the lines of pizza, Doritos, Coke, beer, candy, and Hot Pockets.

The less-common, more restrictive version of the cyclical ketogenic diet is to eat low-carb every day, with 2-3 carb-up meals a week. Typical carb-up foods here run along the lines of a sweet potato with butter, a banana, and two cups of brown rice or oatmeal. Not much fun, but it replenishes the muscle glycogen and temporarily boosts insulin enough to keep you training.


Next, there is the targeted ketogenic diet. On this plan, you eat just enough carbs to fuel your workouts, with no carbohydrates the rest of the day. This is the only one of the diet plans I've mentioned here that I've never followed, but I've had personal training clients do it with excellent results. The easiest way to do it is to carry a bottle of Powerade to the gym and sip from it between sets.


Finally, there is the strict ketogenic diet--the Atkins diet. All low-carb, all the time. Frankly, I don't recommend this one for people who work out because I don't think it provides an optimal hormonal environment for recovery or conservation of lean mass. Use this one only if none of the less restrictive diet plans work for you.

Chris McClinch is an Arlington, VA-based bodybuilder and personal trainer. He won the middleweight title at the 2001 International Natural Bodybuilding Federation's collegiate national championships. As a trainer, he specializes in physique transformation and sport-specific strength training preparation, and is an active member of the IronOnline bulletin board.

Gummy Bears

I don't think I have ever met anyone who doesn't love, or at least like Gummy Bears. I love the texture the most, they start off soft and actually become firmer and chewier as you chew them (I know because I just put one in my mouth to describe this!)

Gummy bears, like so many things in life can play tricks on you! Who would think that little, innocent, unassuming gummy bears could be deadly to a diet?  

Deadly?


You betcha!

See that cute little .99 cent bag above? Well, flip it over and look at the back.

 In case you cannot read this, 17 gummy bears (yes, 17) have 140 calories, 31 grams of carbohydrates and 21 grams of sugar.  YIKES!!!

This is more carbohydrate than I eat in any meal (other than post training) and way more sugar, the calories are about half of one meal for me.

All in 17 little gummy bears.....

I caution you to choose wisely and given an option, I would say "don't even have one" 

However, I do feel that gummy bears have a place in life, and can be extremely beneficial. 

Here is my son, Cooper holding a bag that is well over one pound of gummies, I just bought it at Cosentino's.

He doesn't look thrilled only because he doesn't want to be in the blog, but he loves gummy bears!

 

 

I encourage him to eat gummy bears.

 

Huh???


Active teens do not ingest enough carbohydrates to keep them going. I mean REALLY active teens and young adults, not just your average kid.

Cooper plays lacrosse, and sometimes he is playing several hours a day.  It is proven that everyone needs carbohydrates for energy, and often, young adults or very active people just cannot eat right before or in between events, so they need quick acting sources of energy.

Enter the Gummy Bear!

They are a great quick energy source, kids love them and will eat them. If you have a child or teen that plays sports and you worry about them not eating enough to sustain them, give them little bags of gummies to take with them on the sidelines, they will eat them I guarantee it!

Cooper had several friend doing the same thing  last year in outdoor lacrosse, they started feeling tired and popped a few of those colorful friends and everything was back to normal.

Again, if you are a weekend warrior, Figure competitor or general fitness buff- stay away from the gummies, leave them  to your kids.

Yam Noodles

I have written about Shiritaki noodles already, and these are similar, but they are made with yam flour and no tofu. They come in white or "black", although black is really brown as you see here above.

I didn't notice much difference in taste or texture and bought these because they were a bit thicker and I wanted some variety.

I was looking for a low to no carb meal and a quick one, so I made some chicken soup and it was good, not stellar but filled me up on a cold rainy day.

1 package yam or shiritaki noodles
4 ounces cooked ground chicken
2 cups Chicken broth

I  chose the ground chicken because I had it in the freezer and wanted to use it up. Cooked, cubed chicken would be just fine. I used chicken broth in a box, but homemade would be best, I don't always have homemade in my freezer though. Any kind of cooked vegetable would be great thrown in, but like I said, I was really, really hungry and needed food fast.

End result:

 

I will make it again, but allow myself a little time so I can add some more ingredients. Chopped green onion, slivered jalapenos and basil, maybe some sliced carrots, almost anything and it will become almost pho-like.

What was the breakdown?

Calories: 190
Protein: 27 grams
Fat:8 grams

Carbs: 7 grams

Basically the noodles are free food, hardly any calories or carbs...

I gained weight over night!

This is me and Phil Heath, the night of my competition in October, shortly after he won second place in the 2010 Olympia, we make a pretty good looking couple huh?
We both have very full, round, healthy looking muscles don't you think? There is a reason, and it's what we ate.

I have heard so many times from friends "Oh I went out last night and I had pizza (or pasta, or fries, or cake, the list is endless) and I now weigh three pounds more than yesterday!!!!
 

They really think they gained weight!  Oh I fall for it too, it's that nasty scale! Stay away from it!

You cannot gain three pounds overnight, sorry, it ain't gonna happen, ever! You may weigh more, but it's a temporary situation, honestly.

You must ingest over 3,500 extra calories to gain one pound. So...thinking about what you ate in one day or night, do you think you ate enough to gain three pounds? Nope, didn't think so.....

There is this sneaky little thing called GLYCOGEN and it can make or break you!

Where does it come from? Carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates can be thought of as molecular necklaces with carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms strung together in chains. These necklaces are broken apart during digestion by digestive enzymes and converted into individual beads or molecules of blood glucose, also known as blood sugar. Assisted by the hormone insulin, blood glucose is ushered into cells to be used by various tissues in the body.

Several things happen to glucose. Once inside a cell, it can be quickly metabolized to supply energy, particularly for the brain and other parts of the nervous system that depend on glucose for fuel. Or it may be converted to either liver or muscle glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrate.

When you exercise or use your muscles, the body mobilizes muscle glycogen for energy. Blood glucose can also turn to body fat and get packed away in fat tissue. This happens when you eat more carbohydrates than you need or than your body can store as liver or muscle glycogen.

You can generally store about 1600 calories of glycogen in your muscles and liver. On average, about 1,200 calories of glycogen are stored in your muscles, and 400 calories in your liver.

The amount of glycogen stored in your muscles is directly related to how much carbohydrate you eat and how well trained you are. Diets containing 60 to 65 percent or more of carbohydrate allow for the greatest storage of glycogen in the muscles on a daily basis.

The more glycogen you store in your muscles, the longer you can train or work out. So to maintain an active lifestyle, your diet should always be high in carbohydrates (the RIGHT ones though).

Back to why you weigh more though. For every gram of glycogen your body stores away in the muscles, it also packs away 2.6 grams of water!

Just sleeping for several hours can deplete your stored carbohydrates anywhere from 140 to 260 calories (depending on your size and fat free mass).
What exactly counts as a carbohydrate?

Fruit, Vegetables, Breads, Cereals, Milk, Soda, Fruit juice, Grains, Pasta, Legumes, sweets. Maye we should name what is NOT a carbohydrate!
So, look at what you ate the day or two before the "weight gain", was it high in carbohydrate?  You may just be packing a little extra energy and water. It will go away as you deplete the stores and/or reduce the carbohydrates in the next few days.

If you are a competitor and are carb cycling, don't go getting freaky on me! Your weight WILL fluctuate as you cycle through the carbs. 

 What's the best way to figure out what is going on with your body? Write down what you eat, everyday. Everything. Be honest, if you aren't, the only one you are cheating is yourself.

Acme Spelt Bread

This is something that I have been looking forward to eating! I don't eat much bread, it's generally not the thing one would want to eat when maintaining a lean  physique.

 I do make exception for this, and a few others like it. I am sure there are several bakeries around that make something like this, but you cannot find it in the grocery store. It's not the same as Ezekiel bread or any other whole grain bread, at least not one that I have found.

This is from Acme Bakery, and I bought it Saturday when we were in Berkeley. You can get it at the Berkeley bakery or their branch in the Ferry Plaza Market in San Francisco, the place I go every Saturday morning after a competition, to eat fish tacos and red wine for breakfast, it's sort of a tradition.

Acme makes a different one everyday few days. This one happens to be spelt. You can see the seeds and nuts in it. It comes in a square loaf about 6 by 6 inches, and is so dense, it is almost like a brick. My favorite is the rye.

These breads are heavy, dense, loaded with whole grain and chewy. The exact opposite of wonder bread.

I cannot have this now, but in 14 days or so I can, so I bought a loaf, David cut it in 1/2 inch thick slices, and wrapped each individually and popped them in the freezer.

After my competition, I will be looking forward to ONE slice of this, toasted, topped with a small amount of chunky peanut butter and low sugar jam. That will be my carb after I train that morning, I will have it with scrambled egg whites and salsa on the side.

If you eat bread, this is the kind you want to try to get to like, the soft, light stuff has no nutritional value, it's empty calories, and lots of them. 

I want it all!

Put your training into perspective. Here is another excerpt from "Winning Ways: How to succeed in the gym and out"

Self-Canceling combinations.

"I want to get huge, shredded, strong- I want it all." It's a familiar refrain, and it would seem that with a little creativity and a lot of effort, it's possible to pull it off. As you know, however, appearances can be deceiving. As much as you might like to believe you can have everything, you can't. In fact, the best way to get nowhere is to try to get everywhere at once.

It's easy to see why you can be led down the path to the everywhere-nowhere syndrome: every day images of everything from pro bodybuilding victories to Olympic gold medals are around to tantalize you. One moment you may be captivated by someone winning the World's Strongest Man competition, and the next you may be thinking triathlons. Left, right, up, down: add them all up and you land just where you started. That's the problem with trying to combine too many things or, more important, things that work in opposition to each other. It's those self-canceling combinations that can really block your progress.

Let's oversimplify things just to illustrate a point. To get bigger, you need to consume more calories than you burn; to get leaner, you need to consume fewer calories than you burn; Thus, when you simultaneously want to get bigger and leaner, you should eat more calories than you burn and you should eat fewer calories than you need. That's the classics self-canceling combination- whatever you do  in one direction is offset by what you do in the opposite direction, so you end up where you started. It certainly is possible to simultaneously increase muscle mass and decrease fat, but the point remains that some goals are easier to combine than others, and some goals are largely mutually exclusive. It's the mutually exclusive goals that you need to learn to manage, not just for your physical progress, but also for your peace of mind. 

At the heart of these conflicting goals is the unwillingness to make choices- after all, if the game show host only lets you choose one of three possible doors, your decision automatically requires you to give up the other two. In real life, with nobody enforcing rules like that, you want to try to open all three doors- at once no less. Part of the problem here is just knowing, or not knowing, what you want most. You can argue that one of the best ways to figure out the answer to that question is to give things a try, to see how they work for you.

The first thing to realize is that no choice, no matter what you think, is going to be perfect, and as long as whatever you choose isn't lethal, you can probably correct your course if you want to. Most people stumble in the first part of the process because its too easy to get fooled when we consider things like potential goals. Research psychologists talk about "focusing illusion" when people make judgments. You make focus on something that's actually inconsequential, or you may exaggerate how much something will change your life. For example, you may think that if you can add five inches of muscle to your upper arm, your whole life will change for the better, but what you may find is that having a bigger upper arm means just that: your upper arm is several inches bigger than it used to be. You didn't get smarter, better-looking, more merciful, or anything else that's good in the process-your arm just got bigger. Sometimes that's exactly what happens, and you can imagine the cold showers awaiting all the commercially ambitious Olympic gold medalists who didn't end up on the Wheaties box or with a Coke contract.

The point is not to denigrate any goal you may have but to make it easier to pick your goals by realizing that nothing is perfect- and that the concept works in both directions: whatever you give up isn't likely to be the be-all and end-all any more than whatever you choose is. Once you realize that, you can lighten up on yourself a little and use the breathing room to pick one goal or maybe a couple that go together. You may decide to train for size and strength at once, but combinations such as simultaneously trying to gain weight and run a faster marathon don't mix.

In a word that has a lot of compelling choices, sometimes it's hard to pick one while giving up another. The way out, you think, is to mix a little of this with a little of that- a reasonable approach, as long as you avoid self-canceling combinations.

Breakfast

Breakfast is very important, you should never skip it! I know you hear that all the time, but there is a good reason. Study after study has been done on subjects who ate breakfast and those who did not, and the "eaters" come out ahead every time.

When you wake up, you have been "fasting" for many hours, your body needs fuel so you have energy, fuel so your brain can function.  It is a myth that you burn more fat on an empty stomach, it is absolutely not true. 

Believe me, if the only magic trick to burning fat was to exercise on an empty stomach, we would not be a country of obese people!   And, if your body turned to burning fat every time you had an "empty stomach", then again, society would be awfully slim because most people go way too long in between meals anyway!

So just what does your body burn when you are exercising on an empty stomach? Hard earned lean muscle mass.... 

And what happens when you finish exercising and you don't consume a carbohydrate rich meal? Same thing, anything you thought you were building up is being thrown right out the window and you still have that layer of fat hanging about.

So many people are afraid of eating a healthy, balanced diet for fear of gaining weight, but by incorporating this one meal, you could actually start losing weight!

I love steel cut oats (above) and I sprinkle flax seed on them. How much do you eat? Well, they just so happen to tell you what a "serving size" is right on the box, and they are correct. Yes it has lots of carbohydrates!

I make a batch of several servings and put them into the refrigerator, so I can just pull one out and heat it up as soon as I get home from the gym. Don't microwave those plastic containers! Transfer the contents to a glass dish first. By making batches you ensure you have breakfast ready and made so you won't be tempted to stop at Starbucks or a fast food restaurant.

I will top my oats with splenda, and sometimes some peanut butter if I am not prepping for a competition. Serve with a bowl of scrambled or microwaved egg whites and I am set for the morning.

13.5 Meals

  

I frequently talk about how important it is to set yourself up to be successful, you just cannot leave things to chance.  I am working a lot right now, August is a very busy time for my entire family, David is an elementary school principal, I work in on-campus housing at a university and my son, Cooper starts back at school.
Because I am working weekends too, I need to do a bit more prep ahead of time, more than I usually might.

Above you see 6.75 pounds of cooked chicken breast, that is 108 ounces. I got home from work and had to start, there was no time to do this on the weekend as usual. I flavored two cookies sheets full of boneless, skinless chicken breast with smokey paprika, red pepper flakes and black pepper and baked them until just cooked through.

I then started cubing...and cubing.

I then got out all my little zip lock baggies and started weighing them out, 4 ounces in each bag, and into the pile the full bags went. 27 of them. I then put the small bags into bigger freezer bags and into the freezer it all went.

I eat 6 times a day, two of those meals (meals #3 and 4) are cubed chicken, vegetable and starch. The chicken here will make 13.5 meals, so 6.75 pounds (cooked weight mind you) will only feed me 2 of my 6 daily meals, for just under 2 weeks.

It takes a lot of food to create a magnificent body. And if I didn't prepare ahead, who knows what I might end up eating?