Eating Good In The Neighborhood

So after talking about cooking in bulk last week, let's stick with my favorite topic, FOOD, and talk about combining dining out and dieting. Eating at a restaurant and loosing weight usually do not go too well with each other, so when I prepare for a contest, I try to stick to my meal plan 24/7 and avoid eating out as much as possible.

However sometimes you have to bite the bullet and eat at a restaurant, be it for a business lunch or dinner, a social event, a date night with your significant other or while being on the road traveling without any prepared meals. 

So when you do, follow a few simple rules and you will still be able to almost stick to your diet or meal plan 100%. 

The first secret is to find a healthy dish or trying to get healthy/semi-healthy versions of the featured meals without giving in to the multiple temptations from the menu. Looking at the menu beforehand or selecting a restaurant with healthier food options will definitely help.

While this sounds like a no-brainer it is not that easy as it seems. 

The problem with most restaurant meals is that they are oftentimes prepackaged, high in sodium, smothered with butter or fat to increase their taste and most of the times pretty huge. Especially appetizers are usually loaded with carbs, saturated fats and cholesterol. So stay away from them as much as possible. 

A salad might be a healthy alternative, but keep in mind that dressings and toppings, such as cheese, croutons and meats can secretly add hundreds of calories, making a "loaded" salad as "bad" as any other choice on the menu. 

When choosing your food, try to follow the macros of your meal plan as outlined for this specific meal of the day as good as possible. 

If you are having breakfast or lunch at a restaurant, you might even be able to select some starch with your meal to provide you with your required carbohydrates. Since most "pre-contest" bodybuilding diets avoid carbs after a certain time, it will probably highly unlikely that you have to find a good source of carbs at a dinner. 

Good sources of carbs, that most restaurants offer, are sweet potatoes, obviously without any butter or toppings, brown rice, baked potatoes, also without any toppings, or whole grain pasta. 

Bad choices are french fries, mashed potatoes, breads, fried rice, regular pasta, chips, nachos, tortillas, and potato skins. 

 As with the entire meal, portion control is key, especially when it comes down to carbs, so just at the amount that you are supposed to. 

When selecting your source of protein, stick to lean options, such as grilled or steamed chicken breast or white fish and avoid anything breaded or fried. 

 If you decide to eat beef, choose from the extra-lean cuts off the menu that are labeled as "USDA Choice" or "USDA Select", such as eye round roast and steak, sirloin tip side steak, top round roast and steak, bottom round roast and steak or top sirloin steak and avoid "Prime" cuts. 

Vegetables are great fillers and usually available on every restaurant's menu as part of a meal or as a side dish. Broccoli, spinach, green beans and side salads are great choices but should only be steamed and not sautéed, as well as without any seasoning, oils or dressings. 

Gravies, sauces and condiments might add flavor to your meal, but they are also adding calories, so stay away from them or use "healthy" condiments, such as yellow or spicy mustard, hot sauce, vinegar and natural herbs and spices. 

 Another helpful technique which can help you keep your nutrition on track when you have to dine out is the concept of "Pre-Eating"."Pre-Eating" basically means that you have a protein shake mixed in water before the meal to satisfy your protein requirements and/or some fruits and vegetables if you expect the restaurant having lots of unhealthy meal choices. Now you can select an item off the menu that is low in calories and high in fiber, such a big salad without any dressing or toppings, or other vegetable dishes. 

To finish off this post, I want to stress one more time the importance of portion control. As I mentioned before, meals at restaurants have the tendency to be quite sizable and larger in quantity than what you would usually consume. So try to stick to your macros as good as possible, even if it means that you have to leave some food on the plate or get a leftover box. 

Another "food for thought" (just could't resist this one). Not to sound cheap, but not eating out constantly does not only make it much, much easier to stick to your diet, but can also save you some serious money.

Buca di Beppo: $33.00 Chicken Breast with Broccoli

Chili's Grill & Bar: $15.00 Chicken Breast with Broccoli and Rice

6'8" Kitchen: $1.53 Chicken Breast with Broccoli 

Time flies and I am now only two weeks away from my first competition. As the date approaches quickly I am getting more and more excited and work harder and with more focus.

I finally picked the music for my posing routine and had my friend DJ H Mazz remix and shorten the piece to fit the required length of 90 seconds. He did a great job editing it and I am very happy how the track sounds. 

Now with the music in place, I am beginning to put the actual routine together by selecting poses that will show my strong points and arranging them in such a way that the movements form pose to pose are fluent and that they align well with the chosen music. 

Passing the two week mark also meant another slight change in my diet. I added 20gr of Glutamine to my daily list of supplements. I split up the 20gr into three portions and take one before my workout, one after immediately afterwards, and one before bedtime. Glutamine is supposed to support my muscle recovery and stimulate muscle growth. We shall see if it will work as intended and bring a noticeable effect on my physique.

Now it's time to pack and head to the airport. Fabulous Las Vegas is calling. This should be the last major distraction before the show and required a little bit more planning and preparation than the previous trips, but more about that when I get back from "Sin City". Until then,

...stay hungry my friends.

Cooking for Bodybuilders 101

As you probably figured out by now, I have a slight obsession with food. Not only do I like cooking, eating and trying out new recipes, but I even watch the Food Network, occasionally.

Strangely enough however, only when I am doing 45 minutes of cardio at 3am in the morning. Guess I must have some form of masochism hidden deep inside of me, cause I am actually enjoying watching Guy Fieri biting into a greasy burger while climbing up the treadmill at a 10% incline. Maybe it's some kind of fetish. Maybe a food fetish???

With this being said, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that this post will focus again on, duh, FOOD.

I often get the question what I am doing to get bigger or to get leaner, and the answer is quite simple. I eat.

Obviously not everything, but the foods that I eat, I eat a lot of spread throughout the day as you can read in one of my previous posts about my diet. 

Oftentimes I get the response that following my, or any kind of, diet would be impossible for various reasons. I call BULLS***. 

Yes, it requires discipline, planning and some work but it is easier than some people think. Well planning and preparation is. Regarding the discipline part, you either have it or not, but if you're lacking it, you should probably consider a different sport, hobby, lifestyle.

For me the easiest and most efficient way to ensure that I stick to my diet is to prepare my meals in advance and in bulk. 

All you need is a grill (Gas, Charcoal or George Foreman), a rice cooker/steamer, and a whole lot of plastic storage containers.

Once the "hardware" is in place, you figure out your daily food intake requirements based on the diet you will be following and use this to calculate the total amount of food for the week.

I go grocery shopping once a week and prepare my meals right afterwards.

Since I am purchasing in bulk, my shopping trips lead mostly to Costco, the local farmer's market or, since I periodically check out the weekly grocery store circulars and compare prices maybe a local supermarket.

While I used to buy the frozen Perdue chicken breasts at Costco for the longest time, lately I am "hooked" on fresh chicken which I buy on sale at my local supermarket. Lucky me I found the pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast this week at $1.99. That deal was too good to pass up, so I ended up buying 30 lbs. of it, which should last me around 10-14 days. 

The brown rice is purchased in 20lbs. bags at the local farmer's market for dirt cheap and the vegetables come "freshly frozen" in 5lbs bags, along with the lean steak from Costco. 

Considering the amount of meat I consume per week I think I made it officially on PETA's most wanted list. 

The preparation part, including cooking time, etc. takes about an hour and is usually done on the weekend. 

I simply put the rice in the rice cooker and while it cooks by itself I clean up the chicken, cut off excess fat and crappy parts, weight it, cut it to weight, season it and throw it on the grill. 

I was never really into seasoning or adding spices to my food, but ever since I tried sodium-free seasoning from Mrs. Dash, I realized how much of a difference it makes taste wise and use it every day.

Amazing what effect a little bit of garlic, paprika and pepper can have. 

While the rice and chicken are getting ready put the vegetables into a pot and let the steam for a couple of minutes. 

Once everything is done I take out all my plastic containers, measure out the rice and veggies, add the chicken or steak to it, seal it and put it in the fridge. 

This preparation allows me to simply open up the fridge in the morning, take out the required number of containers for the day, put them in a cooler and take them to work. 

Another benefit, besides the convenience, is the ability to be more spontaneous when it comes to business or pleasure travels. All you need is to grab your cooler and off you go.

Little note on the side. To avoid any food poisoning, make sure that the food is cleaned, cooked thoroughly, stored in the refrigerator and eaten within a couple of days. 

And before I get any comments, yes this method will also work if you prefer fish or turkey over chicken and /or sweet potatoes over brown rice.

Putting the Kelvinator to good use

Now three weeks out, my coach Jack told me to add some extra Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C to my diet. And by extra, I mean a bulk load. To be exact a total of 1,500mg of B6 and 4,500mg of C per day. 

In terms of established daily values, my vitamin B6 intake per day until the day of the competition is 75,000%, in words Seventy-five THOUSAND percent, of the recommended daily intake value and 7,497% of the daily requirements for vitamin C. 

Both supplements are intended to enhance metabolic functions and  to further help achieving water depletion to look vascular and hard on stage. 

"Le chef" himself boating on Memorial Day

Ya Man!

Jamaica, vacation, beach, sun, all-inclusive resort, best friend's wedding. 

Not necessarily the greatest conditions for an all-natural bodybuilder in the middle of his contest preparation.

Despite countless temptations in form of jerk chicken, fruits, juices, endless dessert buffets and open bars, I somehow managed to stay strong and did not give in. Just looking at my pictures of the trip and thinking back of the sheer endless food selection at the various restaurants, I am still amazed and surprised by my own will power and self-discipline. 

Temptations, temptations, temptations!!!

 Even though the buffet selection was catering to the taste of the average vacationer and not really to the low crab, low fat diet of an "in-season" bodybuilder, I was still able to somewhat eat "clean". Okay, I had to cut some corners, for example instead of my "beloved" brown rice I had to go with its high glycemic "white" cousin, but overall I stuck to my meal plan, portion sizes and eating times. 

Again planning and preparation was key to keep on track during this trip. 

Just as I did for my trip to Germany, I prepared chicken and brown rice for the flight and packed it along with some extra low carb protein bars in my carry-on luggage. Having extra food proved to be good idea, since my flight was overbooked and I was rerouted with a three hour delay. 

Since I knew that I was staying at a resort with limited opportunities to go grocery shopping and the trip would only be for a long weekend, I also packed enough whey protein, casein and even dry oats to provide enough protein and good carbs. Protein powder and creatine packaged in zip lock bags and a plastic container full with minerals, vitamins, BCAA and weight loss pills surely caused some raised eyebrows at customs but "whatcha gonna do"? 

Being the "meathead" I am, I even packed my protein shaker bottle, a plastic spoon and a 1/2 cup measuring cup. "Crazy is, who crazy does". 

So while I felt confident that I was prepared from a nutrition point of view, I also planned ahead in terms of working out. 

I did some research online about what to expect in terms of facilities to train at and adjusted my workout accordingly. Due to the limited amount of pictures and bad experiences with hotel gyms from previous trips I had to assume the "worst" and was expecting maybe one or two pieces of cardio equipment and maybe if I was lucky some free weights. 

So instead of my regular routine, I postponed my Wednesday cardio and abs session to Thursday night and replaced it with Friday's leg workout. Going heavy back-to-back-to-back-to back without an active rest day also required a slight change in my Tuesday back routine to avoid injury or overtraining (Now how often can you spot the word "back" in the previous sentence?). Instead of dead lifts I did barbell bent-over rows to not put too much stress on my hamstrings and lower back, before hitting them hard with squats the next day. Thursday morning was business as usual and Thursday night at 2am I had the great idea to do abs and cardio. 

After my arrival at the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach in Montego Bay on Friday my first "excursion" led me to the hotel gym and I was actually positively surprised of what I saw. State-of-the-art Life Fitness cardio equipment, a real bench, a Smith machine, a good amount of free weights, dumbbells going up to 60 lbs. and machines for every major muscle group were more than I expected from a "hotel gym". 

After catching some sun, I did my 45 minutes of cardio on Friday and met up with my friends for dinner. Saturday I was able to get a solid arm and cardio workout in and Sunday I did my active rest training. The equipment actually even proved to be sufficient to get a half-way decent chest workout in on Monday, before I finished off my stay with some more pool time and a nice sunburn. 

Again I "survived" another trip but after seeing the amounts and especially the quality of food and the impressive beverage selection I will definitely make sure to book an all-inclusive trip again and that time I will make sure that I will not be living on grilled chicken, brown rice, oatmeal and broccoli. 

So instead of the usual lame bathroom mirror self-portrait, how about a picture update straight from the Caribbean?

No Problem, Man!!!

"Eating and sleeping are a waste of time."

The above quote was made by the late U.S. president Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford and could not be more incorrect when it comes to bodybuilding, lifting, strength training or any form of athletic training in general.

A proper diet and the right amount of sleep are key factors to get the most out of the tedious efforts you are putting in at the gym.

During the "off-season", I am following a meal plan which factors in my body weight, as well as body fat content to help me increase lean muscle mass. In one of my previous posts I went a little bit more into detail on this plan. While I usually stick to this plan most of the time, I allow myself a "window" every once in a while to enjoy a "cheat meal" or something sweet.

Now that I am dieting for a show, all those "cheat meals" are history and my food intake got even more boring and strict. My plan calls for 8 meals per day, including pre-and post-workout meals. Since I am basically required to eat every 2 hours, proper preparation and planning is key. I usually prepare my three main meals (chicken and brown rice, chicken and vegetables) the night before, pack it into plastic containers and just take it to work the next day. For the afternoon Protein Shake, I keep an extra container of protein and a Protein Shaker Cup at work. While I am preparing the food for the next day I also make dinner and eat it while the other food is cooking.

PROTEIN:

To meet my daily protein requirements, I am relying on Whey Protein Isolate, which I mix with water and consume 3 times a day, Casein, chicken, lean red meat and occasionally tuna.

Whey Protein Isolate is a dietary supplement created by filtering milk protein. Since it is quickly absorbed by the body and used to fuel working muscles and stimulate protein synthesis, it is the perfect protein for my pre-and post-workout meals.

Casein is a slow digesting protein and provides a sustained slow release of amino acids into the body's blood stream. This release can last for several hours, depending on the composition, and helps to maintain the muscles in an anabolic state. It is my choice of protein right before going to bed, since it will provide my body with protein for muscle recovery and growth during my sleep.

My main source of protein is chicken breast, of which I currently consume three meals of 10 ounces each. To keep costs manageable, I purchase a 10 lbs. bag of frozen chicken once a week and just throw it on my George Foreman Grill.

To get some variation and fat in my diet, I have an 8 ounce piece of lean red meat for dinner.One of the leanest cuts of beef is the so-called "eye round", which I purchase as a roast, trim off the excessive fat and cut into 8 ounce pieces. In case I did not have time to prepare chicken or feel like eating something different, I always keep a couple cans of tuna (obviously in water) at home.

Protein makes up the majority of my daily caloric intake with around 54%.

CARBOHYDRATES:

I have tried different foods to meet my daily carb intake, such as yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice and oats, but out of sheer laziness and measuring convenience I stuck with plain oats and brown rice, as well as Carbohydrate Powder. I buy everything in bulk and just measure whatever I need.

For my pre-workout meal I have 1.5 cups of oatmeal mixed with my Whey Protein and water and for faster absorption after my workout, I mix Carbohydrate Powder with Whey Protein and water for my post-workout meal.The 10am and 12:30 meals consist each of 1.5 cups of brown rice with chicken.

By now it should become obvious that I probably lack any taste buds in my mouth, so it should not come to a surprise that I actually enjoy plain oats in water or reheated brown rice. However to add some taste to my oats, I usually mix them with my Whey Protein, some cinnamon and Stevia or a spoon of Calorie Free Caramel Dip and to my reheated brown rice I like to add some Calorie Free Barbecue Sauce. When your diet is that plain, every tiny, little bit of additional flavor is amazing.

Carbs make up roughly 34% of the calories I eat every day and consumed with the first four meals of the day.

FATS:

My daily intake of fats is currently very minimal, with most of it coming from meat (chicken and beef) or in form of healthy omega-3 fatty acids from Flaxseed Oil Pills.

Calories from fats account for approximately 12% of my daily calories.

VEGETABLES:

To get more vitamins and also add some "volume" to my meals, I have two meals daily to which I add two cups of vegetables. I keep it here with the rule "the greener, the better" and switch between green beans, lettuce, spinach and broccoli. Again, mainly out of convenience, I buy them frozen and in bulk.

A detailed version of my current "pre-contest diet" can be found in the "FREE NUTRITION PLANS" section on the right hand side.

Besides proper nutrition, rest is one of the most essential principles of performance enhancement and oftentimes overlooked. Ones sleeping habits can seriously affect the body's own muscle building potential and prevent one from reaching his or her full potential.

Muscle adaption or in other words muscle growth is occurring during the recovery time after workouts and not during them. Rest periods give the body time to repair muscle tissues and replenish the muscles' energy stores.

While not getting enough sleep is detrimental in the long-term and has serious negative effects on ones athletic progress, mood and overall health, too much sleep can make one lethargic and slow. By sleeping longer, the body also has to go longer without food and much needed nutrients cannot reach the muscles. A great way to provide continuous "fuel" for your muscles at night is by taking the above mentioned Casein before bedtime.

Recent studies recommend that athletes should sleep for 8-9 hours to give their bodies and minds enough time to rest, recover and refresh. I have discovered that my body reacts best to 6-7 hours of sleep at night.

Sleep, Eat, Train, Repeat!