Fast Food Rules

There may be times when fast food is your only option. When this happens, follow these rules for a healthier fast food visit:

1. Eat fast food occasionally, not as part of your daily or weekly routine.
2. Do not Super-Size or you will Biggie yourself. Don't give in to the "more for less" thinking.
3. Drink water or low fat milk, not soda. OK, pick a diet drink every now and then.
4. Get a salad to go with your burger, wrap or sandwich or as your main entrée. Use half of the reduced calorie dressing.
5. Avoid or limit anything that is deep-fried or breaded. Otherwise, you will eat half of your daily calorie requirement (or more) in one meal.
6. Even if it's labeled as being healthy, it is probably still too big.
7. Share your meal or doggie bag ½ of it BEFORE you start eating.
8. Buy healthy sides like fruit or yogurt, if available.
9. Skip the ice cream and cookies for dessert. Some cookies, alone, contain 500 calories!
10. Make it a priority to exercise and eat well the rest of the day.

Phase 2. On my way to lean muscle!

I'm back for sure now for phase 2 of my transformation... I sort of had started a new workout to put some lean weight but a lot was going on and I started losing confidence and i was down for a while but recently I received great news and now I'm back baby!

So I've bought a quiet a few of supplements such as multi vitamins, zma, glutamine, creatine, amino acids, ginseng, casein protein. I got a free bottle of Hemo Rage for a pre workout drink. I've started eating vegetables for the first time in my life and i've also added blue berries to my post workout protein shakes. My diet is pretty much perfect. Around 2200 calories a day and 170g of protein daily. I'm weighed in today at 147.2 pounds. I'm surprised but not totally surprised that i lost another 3 pounds while not working out seriously like i was when i lost all the weight BUT my diet was pretty strict these 2 months! I'm eating 7 to 8 meals a day. Plenty of carbs in my breakfast and lunch, keeping my dinner with lean protein only and avoiding carbs after lunch.

My goal: 15 pounds of lean muscle weight in 3 months!

I will try to keep a daily blog of everything. Dont know how much i will succeed with that with a long hours at my job and battling my lower back and hamstring injuries. But I will try! Same with my workouts! I know I cant go too hard to not hurt myself more but I will keep pushing it!

This is me right now.. Hopefully in 3 weeks I'll look much better and bigger than that!

Do not skip breakfast!

When you start on a diet to either lose weight or gain lean muscle weight it all starts with a good healthy breakfast! If you are in a rush grab a protein shake. And no even if you are losing weight you should have protein shakes, specially if you are exercising.
Remember to eat enough to satisfy your hunger but NOT make you full.

Some good examples of things you can eat for breakfast is:
apple, turkey bacon, whole wheat bread, almond butter, whole grain english muffin, oatmeal, egg whites..

If you looking to build lean muscle weight:
apple, turkey bacon, whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter, oatmeal, egg whites with 1 whole egg omelet with mushrooms or spinach. if you really want to take it to the next level add Whole Wheat Pasta with a Protein Shake.

Oh and Skim Milk is always better.

cut alcohol

Tips for the weekend and summer:

Drinking alcohol will decrease the amount of glucose and amino acids by the skeletal muscles, they affect your energy supply and impairs the metabolic process during exercises.

Alcohol is like a central nervous system depressant, it can kill the strength gains you're seeking to both lose weight and gain lean muscle.

Alcohol is calorie dense it packs 7 kcal per gram. So if you are looking lose that stubborn layer of fat that covers your midsection you should strongly consider cutting back or preferably stop drinking altogether.

Trust me it won't take long to notice the weekly or daily subtraction of hundreds and most likely thousands of calories. A beer can range from 60 to 250 calories per serving, one shot of liquor contains up to 200 calories and when you're swallowing that in a sugary fruit juice or soda, you are looking at hundreds more calories per drink.