Jason-John’s BodyBlog

We often seem to put so much importance on our exterior beauty and strenght, while often neglecting to nurture and focus our inner beauty and strenght.  Like polishing the outside of a glass while leaving the inside dirty.  We are taught from a young age all the skills needed to get ahead in our outside life, yet nothing is mentioned about the inner life.  Our  inner life with its many shades of emotions, thoughts and perceptions can paint the tranquil waters of peace and solitude or the crashing waves of anger and despiration.

Hence the importance of building INNER as well as physical strenght.  It is only through self-reflection of our inner state that we can ever hope to have true control of our exterior reactions.  It is through a personal inner journey of self-realization that each of us can realize our deepest essence….. and at once begin to see that same new found strenght and beauty in others. 

We seem to suffer from a collective illusion that we are incomplete and lacking.  That we need something and/or someone to find joy, peace and happiness.  We think that we need something external, that is outside of ourselves to be complete.  So we often become attached to things and people in a misguided attempt to find that WHOLENESS.  It is the attachment to things and relationships that brings us pain and much suffering.  So many go through relationship after relationship and collect material after material yet still feel lacking.  It is a bottomless pit of desire.  It is actually IRONIC that the more you let go of things and people the more you actually feel COMPLETE.  The answer is not through gainig things, but in letting go that you can find what you are looking for.

True wealth is not who has the most things.  True wealth is who needs the least things.

The first will always desire more and appreciate little.  The other does not desire anything, but appreciates everthing.

That is the difference between attachment and non-attachment.  It is the eternal strenght inside you and me.  Your physical strenght can bench 300lbs, but our inner strenght can move MOUNTAINS of obstacles. 

Well if there is one thing that I have proven to myself is that it is all in the diet.  I am a true believer that 80 percent of your success will be through your diet alone.  As a beginner we often put so much importance in the actually exercises and not enough on nutrition.  Bodybuilding is not a sport done in the gym with dumbells and barbells, it is a 24/7 lifestyle.  The way you eat, sleep, and drink is what will determine your performance in the gym as well as how you will look.

I treat carbohydrates like an anabolic drug.  I take it when my body needs it, not when my stomach wants it. LOL  I never touch white bread or white rice or white pasta.  I stay with the whole wheat high fiber stuff.  I take in a fruit or 2 a day for its vitamins and minerals as well as its anti-oxidant benefits.  Plus the fructose in most fruits don’t spike insulin levels like other simple sugars.  I get most of my carbs in the morning and pre/post work-out meals and limits them as the eveing progresses.  Most of the carbs in the evening will be from fibrous green vegetables.  The key is to maintain a stable blood glucose level through the day.  The only time to spike your insulin with fast acting high glycemic carbs is post work-out when your glycogen stores are empty and your muscles and liver are able to absorb a higher anount of glucose faster.

Protein which is the building blocks of your muscles provide the needed amino acids to building and repair muscle.  So I like to get 1gram per LBS of body weight.  So I am about 180 LBS and take in about 180 grams of protein.  I make sure to get my protein from lean meats such as chicken, tuna, lean cuts of red meat, egg/egg whites, Whey powder, ect. 

Essential fats are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated.  The omegas that look like oils at room temp.  The body cannot poduce them so they must be obtain from your diet.  Although they are calorie dense the are needed to maintain proper hormone and cardiovascular health as well as a whole host of other benefits.   Just don’t go over board with it. 

In order to provide all of these macronutrients to your bady and especially your muscles it is ideal to eat smaller meals more often.  By eating every 2 to 3 hours you accelerate your metabolism and prevent a catabolic state. 

I stay away from juice and drink water…..a lot of water LOL.  Why drink fruit juice?  Just have a fruit instead and stick to water.

This is what I have been doing for about 2 months and I have really seen a difference.  Obviously I am not saying anything new or ground breaking LOL.  I just felt like writing something down here tonight because nothing good is on TV. 

I make sure not to be that idiot in the gym making love to his reflextion between sets.  However I must admit that when nobody is around….. I’m doing some pretty funny $h1T in the mirror myself.  I like to tell myself it is not vanity, but it probably is.  I guess a little vanity is not all that bad if it gets your butt to the gym and changes your habits to a clean healthy lifestyle. I guess its normal to be looking at yourself a lot when you first start out training.  Like a new toy that you just got and are excited to play with, you kinda go over board. My mirror in my room is a great mirror!!!!!  I look 13 percent sexier in it, kinda like how people are sexier if you had enough to drink. LOL.  I go to my room and check myself out in my 13 percent more sexier MIRROR and then run for the camera!!!!  I snap the photos and look at them…..nope they are not what I just looked like in the mirror.  DAMN YOU 13 PERCENT SEXIER MIRROR YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A LYING %?*%/.  HMMMMM…..maybe if I take a picture with the camera of my reflextion through this magical lying sexy mirrior my picture will come out 13 percent sexier…GENIUS!!!!!  Got to go….my mirrior awaits me LOL.

May 17th I drank 21 beers in one evening and a bag of Dorritos while partying the whole day.  The next day I looked at myself in the mirror and said, dude this is it…. grow the hell up.  You got a great career, wife and family and its time to start setting an example.  At this time I was depressed, stressed out and not in control.  Sure I pulled it offf day by day.  I was puting 100% at work, spent time with the kids, my relationship with my wife was strong ( Probably because she is a damn SAINT).  However inside I was in a spiritual coma.  My inner life was a web of fear, doubt, shame and needing.  Day by day the same routine of putting on a happy face play the part and get through the day.  When my day was done all I wanted was to drink a few beers and numb the chaos of emotions and thoughts that haunted my mind and flooded my heart.  On the week-ends beer was there again. 

So I knew that I needed to change, but I needed to throw myself into something so that I could focus on something 100%  Keep my mind distracted from my previous awful lifestyle habits.  I said to everyone that I was not going to drink a beer until I could see my abs.  My 20,s had left may body a mere shadow of my former fit body.  Obviously everyone kinda laughed and said, " YAY Sure".  The fact that nobody really took me seriously made me more motivated.  This time was different… I could not keep living in this inner darkness that I had created.

Today is 3 weeks that I have not had a drink.  21 days closer to the person I know I should be.  I still can’t see my abs though….LOL. I can actually say that in only 3 weeks I feel like a new person.  Or better yet I am remembering the person I once was.  When I smile now I am not hiding the pain that I once had. I am less stressed.  I have more energy to play with the kids.  I get up early and go to bed at normal hours.

Proper nutrition and bodybuilding does not only build your physical body.  For me it is helping to to rebuild my spiritual body as well.  I hope that anybody who has ever been through this or knows somebody reads this.  If ever anybody want to talk I’m here.  I don’t know what the future will bring, but for now I am living in the moment…and it feel good.  We all have the power to make this world a better place, and I am starting by changing myself.

Wow low carb days really make me come up with some deep stuff LOL 

I’m that guy that trains his calves on the machine by going up and down super fast at warp speed.  Yes I admit it…SIGH.  Being a newbee at the gym I just did what I saw others doing.  Its easy put on a TON of weight and bounce baby bounce.LOL. Well after reading and getting a little bit of help from articles on this site and Mens health magazine, I realize how wrong I was.  So Yesterday during my leg training day I only put 40lbs but I went slowly up and held it there and flexed then down the full motion.  Wow what a difference!!  When you do it slowly and the full range you do not need a lot of weight.  My calves are nice and sore today….not to much just enough.  This fools gonna get him a set of COWS now….MOOOOOOOOO LOL 

So May 17th I started this whole transformation lifestyle change.  I was a regular beer drinker, but I atleast ate clean.  I am sure I would be about 250lbs if I was a beer drinker and a crappy fast food eater.  May 17th I weighted 195lbs.  I felt lethargic, lazy and depressed.  I was very stressed out and would drink a couple of beers every few night then eat before bed.  On the week-ends the few beers often turned to many.  I knew that I had to change so I told my wife that I was not drinking another beer until I could see my abs.  She laughed and said, " Ya right".  That was all it took to get me off my butt.  Most of my friends or people who knew me had a similar response.  Each time it did not insult me but motivated me to prove them wrong.  One of the rare benefits of having an ego. LOL

So I have not had a drink since May 17th.  I feel so much more energetic and relaxed.  My sleeping schedule is much better and I fall asleep faster.  I do not feel depressed at all, in fact I feel happy.  My happiness is not dependant on external circumstances, in fact I can just be sitting doing nothing and feel a inner sense of well being.  Talk about the power of proper nutrition and exercise.  I got a gym membership and train 3 to 4 days a week.  I eat every 3 hours about six meals a day.  Lots of clean protien like eggs, egg whites, tuna, chicken breast, shrimps, salmon and steak once in a while.  My carbs are from fruits, fibrous vegetables, brown bread and fiber1 cereal.  I usually get my daily fats from almonds, salmon and olive oil.  And I drink water like I used to drink beer.

For the first 2 weeks I was eating a very low carb intake of 100 g /day.  My protein was about 150 g/day.  My fats about 50 g/day.  I lost about 7 Lbs in 2 weeks.  It also left me very weak at the gym.

Now I have uped my carbs to about 175 on training days.  My largest carb meal is long acting carbs pre work out and fast acting simple carbs post work out. 

On cardio only days I will stick to 100 g/day and once or twice a week if I am not active those days I will try a really low carb day of 50.

So I am basically cycling my carbs to my activity level that day.  I will see how my body reacts and make gradual ajustments from there.  My protein is usually a constant supply every meal of atleast 30 g with of course the whey protein post training.

Any suggestions are welcome.  And if anybody reads this that felt the way I did, have courage to make the plunge into the unknown LOL