VitaMix

I make a smoothie almost everyday, it is my usual post training meal. I use 1 1/2 scoops whey protein, glutamine, BCAA's, creatine and a very small frozen banana (along with ice and water). 

I have cursed my regular blender for ages, it did the job but took forever and made a mess. I researched and decided I needed a Vitamix. It made sense, they are the best and can be used for many other things, but the cost was way too much. I mean $500.00? seriously folks, that's a lot of smoothies!

I looked on Ebay, I looked on Craigslist, nothing. 

Then the auction, remember - the gym in Santa Cruz that closed? I got the VitaMix! Many experts will say the best meal to ingest immediately post training is easily absorbed protein (whey) and fast acting carbs (the banana). I add the other things as these are regular supplements I take pre and post training.

I am struggling with the lid, it certainly seals well. David says "use those muscles!" This is my inaugural smoothie, David said to drink it straight out of the container. "Chug, Chug, Chug, Chug!"

I'm happy, this will make life so much easier. I no longer need to pick little red pieces of plastic out of my drink. Oh, I didn't mention that?  See, the ice and frozen banana kept getting stuck, so I would push them down with my spatula, and it would get stuck in the blade and every week it would look more and more cut up.

This even has a mark with permanent marker from Dave Draper's place! I know just where to fill it up with ice and water now. 

If you ever get a chance to get one of these at an auction, garage sale, estate sale, or you just happen to have an extra $500.00 burning a hole in your pocket, I would highly recommend buying one!

The Diet

Looking good huh? So this is after dieting for 4 weeks. Not bad really, now I realize I didn't start out chubby, but I had some fat to lose and I did, it hasn't been too hard, although I still have more to go.  This is "a day in the life of Kristy". I am going to give you a general time, food (macro-nutrients), some supplements and then discuss particular meals and strategies for making them tasty in separate postings.

My diet contains lean proteins, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, whey and supplements.

My diet doesn't contain alcohol, sugar, snacks, dessert, soda, packaged garbage.

You are what you eat. 

Garbage in- Garbage out!

If you think you can eat dessert several times a week and still look lean and ripped, I hate to be the one to break it you you, but you cannot. Sure you can look good, and maybe even great, but you cannot even consider stepping on stage if you don't do the time with the proper nutrition. It's easy to cover it all up with jeans, t-shirts or spandex, a little more difficult in Underamour boy shorts. 

So...if you wanna look good naked......read on.

I don't eat like this all year, this is a competition diet, but I know some of you want to LOOK like you compete, so this is what it takes. Keep in mind my age, gender, size and activity level as that all makes a difference. 

This is a day I train in the morning (and to me, cardio isn't really training, lifting is training to me). It varies when I train with Roy at night.

I am up at 4:00 a.m. and I have a meal replacement drink (20 grams protein and 19 grams carbs) not just plain whey protein. I also have a serving of cooked oatmeal (not shown), 1/3 cup dry measure. It's just plain old cooked oatmeal, nothing fancy. If you eat steel cut they have a different carb measure so be aware of that. Much more carbs in the same amount of steel cut oats. I take lots of supplements but the ones you should really be concerned with are these:

5 grams glutamine

BCAA's in gel tabs

500 mg L-Carnitine

Green tea extract

multi vitamin

800 mg fish oil

I then dump 20 mg BCAA's into my drink to be consumed while training. I go through a lot of BCAA's.

Post training, within 30 minutes, (about 7:00am), another shake but this is whey protein (as opposed to a meal replacement shake) so it's almost all protein, but a few grams carbs. I have 1 & 1/2 scoops of whey protein blended in a blender with 1 cup water, a two handed scoop of ice, 1 SMALL (6 inch) banana and 5 grams glutamine. I like chocolate or chocolate-peanut butter flavored whey.

500 grams L-Carnitine

BCAA's (gel tabs)

Green tea extract

This is the most important time for quick absorbing carbs (the banana) and then the whey which is more easily digested than whole food. It is also important to ingest it right away, as soon as possible after training. Your body needs the nutrients to build and repair, even if you don't think so.  This post training meal is probably the one single most important meal you will ingest in a day! Make it a good one.

10:00 a.m. is my largest meal and the one I most look forward too! It is my second and last serving of starch (the first was at 4:00 a.m.) I have 4 ounces chicken breast, 4 ounces brown rice, 1 cup broccoli.

5 grams glutamine

BCAA"s (gel tabs)

1 gram CLA

500 mg L-Carnitine

800 mg fish oil

water

1:00 p.m. is 4 to 5 ounces baked tilapia, 1 cup asparagus and 15 raw almonds.

water

4:00 p.m. is a big salad (3 cups) of greens- spinach or super greens, something with nutrition not iceberg or romaine; about 1/4 cup cucumber, 1/4 cup sliced endive and maybe a couple sugar snap peas; 4 ounces broiled shrimp, 1 teaspoon olive oil, rice vinegar and sriracha sauce (hot sauce).

5 grams glutamine

water

8:30 p.m. is a scramble made with 3/4 cup egg whites, 2 ounces lean meat (steak or chicken), 1/2 cup sautéed greens (chard, kale, spinach), and 1/2 cup sautéed vegetables (red onions, mushrooms, tomatoes).  Salsa.

5 grams glutamine

BCAA's

1 gram CLA

800 mg fish oil

500 mg L-Carnitine

water

Bed time is a cup of herb tea, ZMA, Inositol, Night Time Herbs. RIGHT after eating! Who says you shouldn't go to bed with a full stomach!? 

Over the next few days I will discuss what I change when I lift at night (because I still go to the gym at 5:00 a.m. those days), what variations I make on the food, how I cook it all and the reason for such silly things as 15 almonds or 1 teaspoon oil! 

Did you notice all my plates had green stuff on them?

I will try to delve into the supplements too, but this can be a very personal issue. Some people are for 'em and some are against 'em!

Travelling

When faced with the thought of travelling, many people start to get a little freaked out because they think they are just going to ruin their diet.

Now, of course, it all depends on what stage of your diet you are on. Are you just eating clean to maintain your health or are you actually in a preparation stage for a competition? The former would not be such a big deal, the latter could, it all depends on how you set yourself up!

I spent the weekend at my father's house along with my brother and one sister. As I have mentioned, my dad has cancer so he (in our opinion) could use a little extra care right now, although at times he is fighting us!

My brother is visiting from Barcelona and staying with him for a month, I think he may just be driving him crazy too.

I knew that many good foods would be prepared, and I had to make sure I would stick to my diet. I wrote down how many of each meal I needed while I was gone, measured out each portion and made big zip lock bags full of my food, portioned into littler bags.

One bag, had several 4 ounce bags of cooked, cubed chicken breast. One had several bags of cooked rice, beans and potatoes, and another had bags of different cooked vegetables.

I bought along a carton of egg whites, low sugar ketchup, hot sauce and plenty of spring water.

I also had my pre-made oat/egg white waffles and my supplements and whey protein.

It is important to bring more than you need, you never know what you might feel like eating and it is safer to have a bit extra than to risk eating garbage right now.

You may wonder on occasion where I get my sense of humor? Could be my dad. Here he is after we all drove him nuts for several hours fussing.

I guess the medication they gave him was no match for his nagging children! I think this shows that I also inherited some of my positive outlook from him, I mean, he is joking and laughing! It's not going to help to cry, might as well have fun.

I was fine with my food, when I walked in my brother had a wonderful smelling curry on the stove, so I had to make some myself.

I asked what spices he used and put my vegetables into a pot, added those spices, cooked it until aromatic then added some chicken stock and rice, then chicken. I had a pretty good curry along with them.

I avoided the biscuits with butter, chocolate chip cookies, Swedish fish, special brownies, and all the rest of the goodies.

I know where the closest gym is, I have been there before and it isn't convenient, but that didn't stop me. It is a 13.46 mile drive each way and a $10.00 fee.

I slept on the love seat and then tried the floor. Neither was quite like my bed, but no matter, I had a good time. Kept my phone nearby and as soon as it was time, got up, drank my protein and off to the gym I went each morning.

By the time I got home (3 hours later), everyone was up, had eaten and cleaned up and we could spend time together.

Diet? No problem!

Cookie Dough Porridge

I am always interested in new foods, so life doesn't get boring. You will never read any recipe here that I haven't personally made and tested, I usually make my family taste them too and will report back what they had to say.

I read about a dish that Monica Brant supposedly eats every single morning, 365 days a year. Man, I would get so sick of the same thing.

It sounded interesting so I made it. I made some changes though. First, she uses some specific brand items, and I am always a little leery about recipes that have brand name products, so I looked up the ingredients and substituted. The first change was the protein powder. Monica recommended Proto Whey protein powder. I just wrote down the macro nutrients (carbs, protein, fat) and calories and used a protein powder that had the same ratios.

Next was a product called Myofiber. I researched that and it has ingredients in it that I already take (CLA and Flax) along with Psyilium  husk. It is a proprietary blend, which means they have to tell you the ingredients, but not how much of any one thing. Proprietary blends are usually really expensive too.

Myofiber is basically a filler/fiber to make sure you have regular bowel movements (that's the psyllium husk) and I eat so many vegetables that I really don't feel the need to add more fiber, so I decided to leave this one ingredient out altogether.



Here is the recipe as she provided it in oxygen magazine.

Cookie-Dough Porridge


Ready in 5 minutes •


Makes 1 serving


1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup egg whites

1 scoop Proto Whey protein powder

1 scoop Myofiber

Stevia or natural sweetener of your choice, to taste

In a glass bowl, microwave old-fashioned oats with 1 teaspoon water for 1 minute.


Add egg whites, protein powder, Myofiber and sweetener. Stir.


Refrigerate and let cool.


So, what did I think? I thought it look horrendous when I made it. Raw runny egg whites, uncooked oats. I actually let it sit overnight. The egg whites are from a carton, so they are pasteurized, no need to worry about salmonella.

It turned out the oats soaked up a lot of the liquid, but not all. I think that if I had used the Myofiber, it may have been a thicker consistency. I would use some oat fiber I think, maybe try some of the stuff that Pauline Nordin sells on her Fighter Diet site.

Was it good? Actually yes! It was a creamy, sweet, chewy desserty flavor, I made Chocolate Peanut Butter (that's what the protein powder was).

What did David think? He thought it looked and sounded disgusting, and there was no way he would even come near it, in fact, our friend Virginia came by when I was out and he thought it was so disgusting he told her about it and I believe he even pulled it out of the refrigerator to show her. Next time I saw her she commented on it, saying it was probably one of the most disgusting sounding and looking things I have ever made.