Terminated!

We'll we've had another short break from onebuffdad.com but I'm back. I was in shock since Monday when I got called into a small conference room by my senior manager only to see a HR guy sitting there. I knew at that time my job was terminated!

I've been taking these few days scouring the internet for new work. So, let's talk about cortisol!! So for my troubles, I've had my exercise--I've kept at it. I've got my health and that's everything as the saying goes.

So as we go forward you may see some tips on keeping healthy on a budget..cos baby I'm living it.
More to come but I'm going back to monster.com God Bless!

Protein Bread, Ezekiel Bread

We got some new bread yesterday: Ezekiel bread.  If you’re looking for a good way to cut carbs or looking for a way to add some protein or both, this is your bread.  Here’s the blurb from Food for Life Baking company:

Inspired by the Holy Scripture verse Ezekiel 4:9., "Take also unto thee Wheat, and Barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and Spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it..."

Ezekiel 4:9® Organic Sprouted Whole Grain Products are:

• Flourless,
• Organic,
• Complete Protein,
• and Sprouted Whole Grain

We discovered when these six grains and legumes are sprouted and combined, an amazing thing happens. A complete protein is created that closely parallels the protein found in milk and eggs. In fact, the protein quality is so high, that it is 84.3% as efficient as the highest recognized source of protein, containing all 9 essential amino acids. There are 18 amino acids present in this unique bread – from all vegetable sources – naturally balanced in nature.

This is definitely worth looking into so check it out—you probably won’t find this at your local grocery store, so check a health food store near you.  The price is about the same as a good whole wheat bread that you’d get from the supermarket (we got it for $3).  As for the taste, I’ve heard that some folks don’t like it but I really did.  It’s got a strong grainy flavor that I like quite a bit.  I’ve got a busy weekend ahead so hopefully you’ll see a post on Sunday, but certainly Monday.  Take care y’all.

Insulin sensitivity and your Post Workout Shake

So yesterday I talked about cortisol, today let’s talk about insulin.  While cortisol as a rule breaks down muscle (as it relates to our discussion here), insulin builds it up.  You may have read about spiking your insulin levels—that’s what we’re looking at here. 

To get the most out of your workouts you need to invoke the power of insulin to help you to build your muscle back up.   Post workout you need to have something to repair your muscles quickly so make sure you’re getting a good serving of whey protein.  I usually get between 40-50 grams, whey is a quickly absorbed protein and something you should absolutely consider supplementing your diet if you don’t already.  So to make sure all this whey gets packed onto your muscle you need to spike your insulin levels.  To do this you need some sort of carbohydrate and studies have shown that dextrose has the best effect on your body.  Generally you want 2 grams of dextrose for every 1 gram of protein. 

Remember you only spend about an hour in the gym but the results you get occur when your body is repairing itself—make sure you give it the right tools to do so.

Reduce your Stress to Increase your Muscle

Have you been stressed?  I have…sorry for the break in the action.  Hopefully I can start posting with some more regularity but we’ll see!

Did you know that it’s a bad thing to be stressed?  Sure you did, but why?  When you get stressed your body releases a hormone called cortisol.  This hormone breaks down material in your body to release energy—so as to aid your fight or flight response.  Cortisol needs to be controlled so that it doesn’t go crazy releasing energy in your body, because muscle is the source of that energy.  If you’re interested in building muscle, you need to keep cortisol in check.  To start that you need to reduce your stress level.  So here’s some ways to bring down your stress level:

• Plan: uncertainty causes stress in most people’s life.  The less you have to decide in the heat of the moment the lower your stress levels are.
• Eat regularly: eating spikes your insulin which is the opposing hormone to cortisol.  So eating regularly keeps your body busy processing food and cortisol is less active.
• Relax: Make sure you plan in down time during your day.  Having a packed schedule will not do you good in the long run.  Do everything you can to keep this time margin in your life.

I mentioned insulin above, we’ll talk about that tomorrow…

5 ways to reduce your junk food intake!

Getting into a healthy lifestyle is a hard thing to do.  Sometimes you just have to ease into it.  One of the things you definately need to do to get that awesome body is reduce your intake of junk food.  You know what I'm talking about--we're almost to Halowee so you probably have bags of it that of course you haven't broken into yet...just tempting you.  So, let's look at a few ways to look into reducing your intake of foods you shouldn't be eating!

1. Keep it out of the house: Like I said with Haloween almost here you may have some bags of this in your house--if you do keep it out of sight in an inconvienent place.  If you have a choice, keep that stuff out of your house or you WILL eat it.
2. Replace your bad food cravings with good ones:  It's OK to snack sometimes but snack on good stuff.  Baby carrots or celery with a LITTLE natural peanut butter for taste are great ways to get your snack on.
3. Be your own event coordinator: sometimes when I fall to the nasty snack monster is when I have nothing better to do.  If I'm busy with yard work or stuff around the house or visting friends, I think about food a lot less.
4. Plan your food: I've talked about this before but when you plan what you'll eat you're less likely to eat a whole meal of junk. 
5. Moderation in moderation:  allow yourself some of those sweets once in a while.  Try to plan this but if you have something little once in a while it's not going to cause you a coranary.  There's good benefits to a cheat meal--If you don't let yourself have something once in a while it'll drive you crazy and you'll end up binging and regretting it. 

This is a process to get here, most people can't go just cold turkey, take little steps everyday and you'll be eating great before you know it.

Obese Enjoy Food Less and Less

I saw this article on WebMD.  It basically says that obese folks have been so blunted to the pleasure of eating “high energy foods” (aka things like quadruple chocolate cake) that they no longer have any pleasure from them—though they have higher expectations than leaner people. 

This opens a really interesting debate in the clean eating movement…do you eat food for pleasure on one extreme or see it only as fuel on the other?   There are more people on the food is fuel only extreme as we all know we need food to live. Where do you need to settle on this continuum? 

The food as fuel argument says that we have other things in life to enjoy like friends and activities and because the wrong food in the wrong quantities can be harmful, it’s best to just put your wheat grass and tofu in a blender and man up. 

The food for pleasure side thinks any event or happening will be made better by food.  They think we all die one day so let’s eat drink and be merry.

Obviously we need to find some middle ground here.  We were made to enjoy food, that’s why we have taste buds and why there are so many different kinds of foods (just watch Iron Chef America one night when they do a vegetable and find how many varieties of them there are)—this is no accident again, we were made to enjoy food.  Then there is the other side of the argument, we need to take care of our bodies by being careful about what we put into them.

So how do you decide how to eat?  This goes to your long term goals.  If you want to die of heart disease at 55 or younger, go ahead and eat whatever you want.  If you want to be mobile and healthy until you die at a ripe old age you’ll probably eat differently.  By the way: I know there are things out of our control but the marathoner who eats right dropping dead truly is the exception. 

This is a tough thing to decide on but you really need to sit and consider a comfortable range that helps you balance adding not only years to your life but life to your years. 

T-Bar Row Substitute

I’ve been working a new set of exercises and the program I’m on called for a T-Bar Row.  Some gyms have a T-bar but I’ve never seen one in the gyms I’ve been to—so what’s a meathead to do?  Try the incline bench pull.  Thanks goes to Phil at my gym for thinking this up for me.  So, how do you do it?

Move the bench up to an incline of about 45 degrees.

Lie face DOWN on the bench and place dumbbells or a weighted barbell at the level of your head.

Now grab it and pull it up as if you are doing a reverse bench press.

Remember to look up and keep your back flexed.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is the Devil!??

Sorry for the sparse posting, I’ve been quite busy lately. 

I was going to write a post on the evils of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) but in looking in to this issue I found I need to have a less dogmatic response to this popular sweetener.  There’s been a lot of controversy lately regarding HFCS since the Corn Refiners Association is trumpeting an AMA study showing that HFCS contributes no more to obesity than sugar.  Further folks have pointed out that show HFCS causes obesity don’t seem to show a clear link, only a correlation between its consumption and obesity.  So what do we take from this?

1) Be careful about ingesting this stuff.  There are folks smarter than me who are apprehensive about this sweetener, but until there’s something conclusive, we know it will not kill you.

2) Go back to the moderation rule.  You don’t want to overdo it with sugar any more than you want to with HFCS.  Too much of either WILL make you fat. 

3) If you are eating something with HFCS, chances are it’s already processed more than you need it to be.   Always try to get most of your diet from foods that you know where they came from and what’s in them. 

Full disclosure: I don’t work for the Corn Refiner Association but I do love corn on the cob. 

Also: it's also worth noting that HFCS does not interact in the same way with your body as sugar.  It does not signal your body in the same way sugar does with regard to satiety, your body will be hungrier after eating HFCS vs. sugar. 
It's really best just to avoid both sugar and HFCS as much as possible....there are many better ways to get good carbs into your body that will leave you fuller and in a better state nutritionally.  Look at things like fruits and vegatables to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Faith and Fitness Sunday

Philipians 4:13 says "I can do everything through Christ who strenghtens me"


I went to a different church today since my kids who go to preschool there were singing. The minister alluded to this passage and said you can do anything with Christ's help...this is true to a degree...we can't fly but we can do things that are outlined in the Bible for us--like helping our brother or sister. 
The same goes for fitness--I have stretch goals...like someday I  want to bench 300 pounds but I know that I probably won't ever bench 400.  We're given different body make ups and God intended them all for His good purpose.  We need to examine ourselves, then find our limits and our strengths and find how God wants us to use our bodies.  At the very minimum we do need to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating right and exercising.  But challenge yourselves today and ask what you can do beyond that?  Be healthy this week, God bless!

Buff Dad Goal change

I wanted to get a quick update to you guys—things have still been really busy at work and home.  I’ve still been carving out some time to work out but not as much as I need to for my new goal.  I’ll be in a bodybuilding show in March—I was planning on being in the light heavy weight division that goes up to 198 pounds, but my friend who’s a trainer at the gym suggested I try for the middle weight that goes up to 176 pounds.  So, in the next 5 months, I’ll be dropping from 192 to about 176, 16 pounds to lose. 

To start off I plan to have a macro breakdown of 40% carbs 40% protein and 20% fats…I’ll be getting in the neighborhood of 1800 calories per day.  I’ll be adding a good deal more cardio in to this as well up to 45 minutes to an hour per day while keeping my weight routine going.  You can use the last pic I posted as my starting point.  Things have been going good so far—I’ll keep you guys up to date!

Count the Cost

I've been crazy busy today, stress makes me want to eat refined sugars!  I was (mostly) strong tonight.  Anyway I saw a great blog the other day.  We need to consider where we want to pay.  Life is relates a lot to this credit cruch on Wall Street...you can pay as you go and be a lot better off or treat life like credit card buy now and pay later.

Check out http://www.faithfirstfitness.com/

Pay Now

o The struggle with schedule that makes time to workout consistently.
o Planning ahead in order to eat healthy.
o Muscle soreness from a challenging fitness plan.
o Resisting the temptation to derail a good nutrition plan.
o Working out when you don’t feel like it.
o Discomfort during a challenging workout.
o Swallowing pride in order to try something new.
o Get outside help, training, accountability.
o Changing a whole lifestyle that promotes health and fitness.

The Pay Off
o Increased self-esteem
o Increased self-confidence
o Increased mental focus
o Increased strength and stamina
o Increased energy level
o Decreased stress level
o Weight loss
o More restful sleep
o Measurable results that move towards life goals.
o The overall GREAT feeling of health and fitness.

Pay Later
o High blood pressure.
o Type II Diabetes
o Heart Disease
o High Blood Pressure
o Sleep Apnea
o Osteoarthritis
o Gall Bladder Disease
o Fatty Liver Disease
o Chronic headaches
o Varicose veins
o Breathing problems
o Coronary artery disease
o Increased risk of stroke
o PREMATURE DEATH
We will all pay. Either “pay now” or “pay later.”

Faith and Fitness Sunday

I'm getting ready for a bodybuilding show in March but it's important to remember that our strength and physique is not for ourself alone.  Everything we do needs to fit into the big picture.  For me the bodybuilding show will hopefully kick off a personal training career or add to my resume.  The same thing with your fitness needs to apply.  If you're trying to lose weight, why are doing it?  For health?  So then why do you want to be healthy.  This all fits into God's big story and what we do needs to fit in so that we can serve Him better. 

It's important to be intentional about what we do so that our time is not wasted.  Keep your mind on the big picture so that you don't get lost in the details.  God Bless have a great Sunday.

Today's tip: Take pictures of your progress!

When you are in a workout program it's hard to see any progress because you see yourself everyday.  Have you ever looked at an old picture of yourself and said "I can't believe I wore those clothes" or "wow my hair was bad"...you probably didn't think that at the time becasue these things change slowly.  So too with your physique's progress.  I take a picture of myself every month--you may want to do that or you could do it every three months, but do it somewhere in that range.  Also try to have the same poses and similar clothes.  You may not want to do it to start but it will be of great encouragement when you get going and think you're not making progress--just take a look where you started and know that you ARE making progess. Take a look at where I started and where I am now.  There's no stopping your or me!  Lets go!

What’s your gym personality?

We mostly go to the same types of gyms, they have a row of cardio stuff, some machines, and a free weight area.  Be that as it may, we don’t all use the gym in the same way, I think everyone can be put into a few categories…let’s take a look.

Free weight only (maybe a few of those girly machines too).  Some days I fall into this category.  Sound the lunk alarm at Planet Fitness!

Machines only—these people like to do circuits, the same one every time they come.

Cardio only—(sometimes called cardio bunnies) –these folks get on the elliptical or treadmill for 20 minutes to 2 hours at a mid level speed and then shower.  They faithfully come years but just don’t look any different!  We know the culprit don’t we?  NUTRITION. 

Free wheelers—these guys do things that you’ve never seen before and thought you’d only ever see on an X-rated movie, like a guy doing hand stand pushups on a moving treadmill or jumping like a frog from one side of the gym to the other….this category is fun these folks always give me new ideas, check out the crossfit shovel workout!

Balanced approach: Naturally most people would say they fit here but I don’t see that from my experience at gyms I’ve gone to.  But this is generally where we need to be (depending on your goals of course). 

Just like your nutrition you need to plan what you’re going to do otherwise you’ll just fall back into what’s comfortable and you won’t push yourself to new levels. Give yourself variety so that you don’t get bored and stop coming.  Remember though to come back to the basics to see how you're progressing.

Second you should record your exercises so that you know what you’re going to do and then how you did.  You can keep track of your progress in various ways but however you do it you can look back on your benchmarks a year from now and be encouraged by your progress.  You can do that on a blog, a notebook or there’s a nice workout tracker on Bodyspace.