Tag Archives: Food

Tips for Hard Gainers

Posted by Tim on

It seems that most people are never happy about where they are in life. Being content is completely alien to most people. Its sad, really, but this is the way it is. If we were content we wouldn’t be where we are. Think about it – if we were content being hunters and gatherers, we wouldn’t have come up with domesticated animals and farming. Its true - not being content has improved our way of life greatly. So has greed. Altruism is phony. (See Ayn Rand for details.) But I’m getting away from what I want to talk about.

No one is happy. If you’re skinny, you want to be muscular. If you’re fat, you want to be skinny. Well, being that I’m just so pleased with myself (physically, at least) I thought it’d be nice of me to give all the skinny guys some easy ways to pack on a few pounds. These are simple ways to add some calories to your diet each day. Before we get started, however, its important to understand the basics of how to gain weight. In the end, you’re going to need to eat more. Get over it. Everyone says they eat a lot, but really – you’re going to need to eat more if you want to put on weight.

TIP 1 – Gas stations are the place to go. We live in a day and age where gas stations show up on nearly every street corner, and most of them have a few relatively healthy food choices for the average wannabe meat head. Get yourself over to the fridges at the back of the store and buy 1 quart of chocolate milk. Get the highest calorie version you can. I’ve managed to find one that’s 200 calories per serving – 4 servings in a quart – tada! There’s 800 calories right there! Combine it with a Kind granola bar and you have over 1000 calories.

TIP 2 – A common problem people have is that they’re too busy at work to eat anything throughout the day. I call bulls**t. You just need to be more creative and resourceful. Most employers offer their employees a lunch break or a short 15 minute break every 6 hours or so. Most employers also have a break room with a refrigerator in it. Mix yourself a shake at home, take it to work, put it in the fridge, and halfway through your day find 2 minutes to chug it. Its simple, fast, and gives your body the extra nutrients it needs to stave off muscular atrophy.

TIP 3 – Buy in bulk. Instead of buying a protein bar here and there for $3 at your gas station, buy a box of them. I’m lucky enough to have Supplement Warehouse based not too far from my home here in Wisconsin, so I can buy bulk easily. Some of you may need to buy online instead. Either way, it helps to have a box of protein bars around the house when you’re in a rush. Grab a bar as you walk out the door. Most of them taste like crap, but I’ve found the Supreme Protein bars to be tolerable.

TIP 4 – I’m going to go ahead and NOT recommend doing a dirty bulk. I’ve talked about it before – the dangers of it. So let’s not even go down that route. Instead of fast food, opt for Subway or Q’doba. When you’re at Subway, double up on the meat. Subway isn’t the healthiest option, but its good enough. The problem is that the sandwiches don’t always have enough calories to help you bulk up. With that in mind – double the meat, get as much mustard and mayonnaise as you like, and throw in a bag of chips.

Well, that’s all I can think of right off the top of my head. Enough with the excuses. Find the time to reach your goals. Plan ahead, spend a little extra money, and be aware of the cheap and easy ways to fill your stomach when you’re on the go.

Who Said Diets Don’t Work?

Posted by Tim on

I hear all of the time that diets don’t work. Sometimes people just don’t lose weight when they’re on the diet, but more often people complain that the diet failed because once they went off it, they gained back the weight they had lost. To me this is perfectly reasonable. Of course you gained the weight back – you went off the diet! Its for this reason that whenever I talk diets with someone I stress that a diet isn’t something you go off and on. Its a permanent lifestyle change.

Along with that change comes a slew of other things. Diet alone can only solve so many problems, and it can only solve them so fast. If someone wants better results, or faster results, they ought to drastically change their whole life. This means more than switching to diet soda and low fat ice cream, and exchanging fries for salads at McDonald’s. While someone might lose a few quick pounds by doing these things, in the long run, they’re still eating crap and their body will reflect it.

On the list of important things in your life, where does your health go? For most people its near the top. For me, its after God and family. Its more important than my job, and more important than any possession I could own. Like anything else that is important, its important not to take it for granted and not to half-ass it. Either play to win or don’t play at all. All or nothing. That’s the kind of mindset that people ought to have if they really want to get in shape.

Don’t switch to diet soda – give up soda entirely! The diet sodas contain far more harmful chemicals in them (often linked to cancer), and studies have shown that these chemicals actually encourage your body to store fat. Some people like to enjoy a soda at the end of their day. They say they’ve “earned it”. Well that’s bull! Why would you sabotage any progress you’ve made by sucking down something that will rot your teeth and stomach, spike your blood sugar, and raise your blood pressure? Those extra 200 calories could be the difference between losing weight and gaining it. Don’t be stupid and lazy!

Don’t switch to “healthy” options at McDonalds – avoid McDonalds all together. We all know that Big Macs and Super Sized fries are awful for us, so instead we make a weak attempt to change our diets. We skip the fries, and get a salad. Sorry guys – that salad probably has no nutritional value in it, and was most likely sprayed with some pesticide designed to kill bugs. But the pesticide probably wasn’t washed off the plant before it was put onto your plate. Low and behold – something designed to kill bugs will also kill you! (Exaggeration) Well… you’d have to drink a lot of it, but poison is poison. Skip fast food all together, forever!

Want to exercise? Get off the treadmill and take a walk outside. The fresh air will do you good. There is a big difference between running on a treadmill and running outside. I’m sure many people are self conscious about being seen exercising, especially when they’re disgustingly overweight, but look at it this way – people will see you and know that you’re making a positive change in your life. For that alone, you’re a step above a lot of people. Not only that, but you may inspire someone else to start making changes in their own lives.

The point is that people ought to make big changes – not little ones. The problem isn’t that you get fries at McDonald’s instead of a salad – the problem is that you’re going to McDonald’s in the first place! When you dance around the real problem you not only avoid reality, but you push off progress longer and longer, eventually discouraging yourself to the point when you give up entirely. People see small changes and they lose their motivation, but they’d see big changes if they made them! Stay motivated by going all out. End rant.

Picking a Protein Shaker Bottle

Posted by Tim on

If you’re a health nut, or maybe just a guy looking to gain some muscle for summer, you’ve probably come across all the different protein supplements that are being sold not only in GNCs and Vitamin Shoppes, but even at your local grocery store and Walmart. These powders usually come in big buckets, and are artificially flavored to taste like chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. The prices range – supposedly in accordance with how “pure” the protein is, but I imagine it has more to do with name recognition and advertising. None the less, people buy this stuff up.

I’ve used a variety of protein powders over the years, and I’ve come to chose only Optimum Nutrition brand protein supplements. The taste:price ratio is pretty fair, I think. It also mixes well in what we meat heads call a “shaker bottle”. Not familiar? It’s a water bottle, basically, that you put your liquid into, then your powder into, and then shake until its mixed. Unfortunately, the powder doesn’t always mix real well with the liquid, which can lead to clumps of non-dissolved powder floating in your drink. It’s pretty gross, especially when your drinking and you feel a big chunk hit your tongue without warning.

Many of these problems can be solved by adjusting how much liquid you use. If your protein powder doesn’t dissolve, use more water or milk. The proportions listed on the back of the tub of protein aren’t always right. Experiment and figure it out. There are times, however, when this still is not enough. Some substances just aren’t easily dissolved. With that in mind – here are a few tips for picking out a good shaker bottle.

1. Find a shaker bottle that is big enough. Not all shaker bottles are designed for weirdos like you and I. They’re designed for middle aged women who heard from their holistic wanna-be docter/trainer friend that “protein helps boost your metabolism”. These women buy little shakers, for their little shakes. (After all, they don’t want to get huge!). Find a bottle that is made for bodybuilders. Whether you’re a pro, an amateur, or just a wannabe, you’ll appreciate having a shaker bottle that can hold 20-25 ounces of your favorite drink.

2. Find a shaker bottle that doesn’t have a lot of grooves on the sides. The best shape for a shaker bottle is a simple cylinder. There are bottles with hand grips built into them, odd decorative designs, etc. Forget that stuff. Not only does it make your shaker bottle a pain to clean out, but it allows protein to stick in these grooves. When they’re in the grooves, they either a) are getting drank or b) are getting drank but aren’t getting dissolved. A bottle that is as close to a basic cylinder is the best.

3. Chose a grater over a mixer. There are bottles that come with weird spiral “mixers” that you put in them. Although this may look like it will help mix your drink, for me it’s done nothing expect add something for me to clean. So, instead of cleaning something that has no purpose, get a bottle that has a grater. This will keep you from drinking all the gross chunks that don’t get dissolved.

4. Make sure the mouth opening is big enough. Remember, this isn’t just water or milk – its water or milk with a bunch of protein in it. You don’t want to sip it, you want to chug it. Make sure your bottle has an opening larger than a straw. You should be able to just tip the bottle and easily drink.

5. The simpler the better. Skip the electric bottles, the automatic mixers, the mixers with a ball in them, and all of that crap. The fewer pieces involved the better. The shaker should consist of three parts – the bottle, the grater, and the top. The more parts, the more hassle when cleaning it, and the more likely that you’ll lose a piece of it or break it altogether.

It may seem that a lot of thought went into buying a $5 shaker bottle, but its quite the opposite. Very little thought should go into it – buy a simple bottle that will serve its purpose, be easy to clean, and keep gross protein chucks out of your mouth. Drink up!

Changing My Diet

Posted by Tim on

Have you ever noticed that when you are under time constraints you can actually get a lot done? Procrastination isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, I’d say it can really be a good thing. It allows you, no wait, - it forces you –  to get things done quickly. “If you wait until the last minute to do something, it will only take a minute to do.” That’s what I believe. Well, in most cases – and that’s what we’re talking about. Most cases. This post is like most cases. Hurry – type!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I watched Food Matters, and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead on Netflix. Since then I’ve been eating a lot better. I also cancelled Netflix since then because I didn’t want to pay the higher fee for the mail option, and I was very disappointed in their online selection. Very rarely were any movies I wanted to watch on there. Instead I was stuck choosing from the “You might like” section, which I rarely like. But I digress.

When I watched those movies it reminded me of all the stuff I already know. Pretty dumb, right? I know just about everything that was said in both movies, but I hadn’t heard it in a while, so it went to the back of my mind. Well, it was brought back to the front, and since then I’ve done a 180.

At first I wanted to go all organic, with half my food being raw. In the end, the organic stuff is just too expensive. For instance – a normal carton of eggs costs around a dollar. A carton of cage free omega-3 eggs? Five dollars! Now, I expected to pay more, but not five times the normal price. Forget it. So, I didn’t go all organic. Instead I buy a few items organic, and the rest I just get at the regular grocery store. I do buy cage free chickens to eat, and I do buy grass fed beef from a local butcher shop. (Wow! Amazing steaks I cooked the other day!) You don’t have to go ALL organic, but switching to a few items here and there helps.

Along with the organic switch came no fast food. Fast food has got to be the worst stuff we eat. It’s filled with everything that humans should NOT be eating. Not only that, but once you ween yourself off it, then try it again – it doesn’t even taste good. Cook your own food for a while, then try a big mac. It’s not as good as it used to be. Oh, and soda is gone too. Water, juice, milk.

No more fast food – easy enough. Also no alcohol. Well, I made an exception. I do still have a couple beers or a cocktail at gigs. But I don’t go out to bars or parties anymore. Sorry, but that period of my life is over. I’ve been there, done that. I know what I’m missing, and I know it isn’t much. Wow, so no alcohol either?

So far it’s been pretty easy. I still eat out occasionally, but I usually get some kind of chicken salad dish. It’s not as good as the chicken I prepare at home, but it does the job. I still eat on the road, but I opt for Subway or Qdoba instead of McDonalds or KFC. I haven’t lost any weight – which is really important to me. I’m not on a diet to lose weight – I’m not fat. If anything, I want to maintain my weight. Losing muscle isn’t cool. But I get enough protein from the sources I eat – chicken, steak, milk, supplements.

I find that in the short amount of time I’ve been doing this that I already feel a lot better. I didn’t feel bad before, but there is definitely a difference. More energy, less aches/pains, I don’t colds, my mood is better. Why do we think that food doesn’t matter? Of course it matters. In fact, it makes a bigger difference in the way your body works than almost anything else. I recommend to everyone to eliminate the poison they’re eating everyday. Really guys. You’ll feel a lot better.

VIDEO: Food Matters Trailer

Posted by Tim on

I finally subscribed to Netflix. I’m a cheapskate though, so I only got the online version. It’s $8 a month and it doesn’t come with any DVDs or Bluerays via mail. Only online. I was pretty disappointed in the movie selection. Most of the movies I want to watch are only available if you pay the extra few dollars and get movies sent to you. But I don’t want that. It’s not instant enough. Besides – I found something that online Netflix is good at –  documentaries.

I recently watched one called “Food Matters”. It’s all about how we feed ourselves garbage constantly, complain about getting sick, and then instead of fixing our diets, we take drugs that don’t really fix the problem. The movie goes more in depth, but you get the idea. What you eat will impact the way you live. Even as far as diseases like cancer. After watching the movie I’m slowly starting to eat more organic foods. I’ve cut out all fast food, I’m limiting my alcohol intact to only when I’m playing a gig, and I’m virtually eliminating all soda. A good start, no?

Obviously the movie had an impact on me. I strongly encourage everyone to watch it. So many people have Netflix, so if you do – it’s only a click away. Here’s a trailer for the movie.

Dog Food vs People Food

Posted by Tim on

Back in the “old country” people had pets just as we do here today. Their pets, however, were not a source of entertainment. They weren’t friendly little companions that stayed inside the house 23.5 hours of the day (with the other 1/2 hour spent on deficating in the backyard, and going for the occasional walk). No, they weren’t like our pets. The dogs of the old country had jobs, whether it was herding cattle, gaurding a Roman military site, or pulling a cart around town.

At the end of the day these hardworking dogs were rewarded with a cold stone stoop to sleep on and table scraps to eat. Oh, how things have changed.

Nowadays things are better though. Our dogs spend most of their days inside a house, sleeping or starring out the window, waiting for the exciting daily event of the mail delivery. They go outside to do their business, then come back inside. Maybe they’ll get the pleasure of going to a dog park a few times during the summer months.

At the end of their long boring day, they have cute little doggie beds, and specially formulated doggie food. They have specially formulated dog chow because the table scraps today are bad for dogs. Wait, what?

Years ago, dogs ate the leftovers and were perfectly fine. Today, it’s not good enough? Well… sure. I can’t really argue with that. But, I can’t help but think that things are a little bit backwards here. Our food has gotten so bad that we can’t give it to our dogs.

We’ll say things like, “Oh, Poochy can’t have that. It’s loaded with salt and fat and sugar. It’s not good for dogs. It’ll give him diahrea.” But those are the exact same reasons that it’s bad for us. And to make up for this, we buy special food for our dogs, because we care about their health MORE than we care about our own health. The food that gives dogs diahrea, gives US diahrea.

We might need to reevaluate our priorities…