PenteKing’s BodyBlog

…is the toughest challenge - ever! There is simply SO MUCH TEMPTATION! Everyone is offering you a taste of his or her "favorite" holiday treat. "Honestly," they say, "you’ve never tasted anything like this. And besides, my [insert your choice of spouse, lover, partner, significant other] made this especially for the holidays." I try and let people know that sweets (especially cake) is not in my plan, but they persist. "One little bite isn’t going to kill you." OH, YEAH!? I want to shout. What do you know?

Seriously, it’s a tough row to hoe. I’m surrounded by sugar. A veritable tidal wave of empty calorie treats threatens to drown me. I feel as though I’m trapped in Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, with no way out. It’s scary, I tell you. I hide in my office, terrified of coming out - scared that I’ll be tackled by a co-worker brandishing a sugar plum and a cup of rum-laced egg nog. Is there no refuge - no sanctuary? Is there no bodybuilding island to which I can retreat until the fruit cake and toasted marshmallows have gone the way of the dodo bird?

What is a dedicated bodybuilder to do? I thought about feigning a broken jaw, but that seemed a bit too coincidental and contrived. How about I fake an allergic reaction? I can paint my face with a realistic-looking rash that would make a hardened dermatalogist shiver. Do you think that would work? I’m trolling for suggestions and advice. Don’t let me face this on my own, my brothers and sisters in iron. Send me - if not the plan of action that works for you - at least support for my plight.  Act quickly. I think I hear the gumdrop trolls knocking at my door.

It’s not like I like the stuff anymore. The taste of it is no longer pleasing to the palette. The alcohol poisons my body to the point where it takes the better part of two days to recover. The short-lived euphoria of the alcohol gives way to the long-lasting agony of the dehydrated body and mind. (And one is NEVER as witty as one thinks, when under the influence!)

So, why do I do it? Is it the peer pressure? (Hey; everybody else is drinking, and if you don’t drink as well, you’ll be labeled a weirdo). Is it the holiday? (Come on; it’s Thanksgiving. One glass of wine in honor the day isn’t going to kill you.) Is it personal insecurity? (If I refuse the offered drink, will it make me look like a snob? What will they think of me?) Whatever it is, I vow that it will no longer sway my promise to abstain from alcohol. That’s it. I’m done and finished with drinking. No more. I stop right here and right now. It’s not in my plan, therefore it’s not in my body. I will stick to carbonated water or fruit juice. I will have mulled apple cider instead of a hot toddy to ward off the chill. Like cigarettes, alcohol is a substance that is no longer welcome in my body. In the immortal words of Mammy Yokum, "I has spoken!"

As a notoriously hard gainer, I have tried a variety of muscle-building products in my lifetime. I don’t claim to be an expert in the field, and don’t even claim to know any one product better than any other. What I do know is what works on my body and what doesn’t. Casein works. Other protein supplements do not.

Why this is so is a baffling mystery to me. I use whey and casein protein from the same company. By virtue of this, I think I have effectively ruled out any significant variation in the manufacturing process. By the same rationale, I believe this eliminates any difference in quality. The amount of each that I consume is the same, as is the time of day and the beverage with which I mix the ingredient (fat-free organic milk in both cases). So why does casein work and whey not?

Could it be the slow-digesting properties of casein? That may be, but I find it incredibly hard to believe. Why would the rate of digestion have that signficant an impact? To me, that explanation makes no rational sense. Yet, as Sherlock Holmes was so fond of pointing out, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever else remains, however improbable, must be the truth." I believe I have ruled out every other possibilty. Therefore, I am left with the sole fact that casein is slower-digesting than whey, and this, therefore, must be why I can gain muscle using casein.

Has anyone else experienced this, or am I the only nut job on the planet holding this cockamamie theory? Enquiring minds want to know. If anyone has a comment or thought on this, please let me know.

Today is week 11 (of week 12) of the Rock-Hard Challenge. I’ve followed the routine pretty rigorously, and I’ve seen some pretty good changes in my body. The one complaint I have is that I STILL cannot lose the last residual belly fat. I simply do not understand. My diet is uber-clean; I have been doing some intense cardio, and I’ve even taken to using Lipo 6. No matter what I do, however, I still have this little roll of fat around my middle. It’s depressing as hell. After all this time; all this work; and I still can’t lose the last bit of blubber around my gut.

People tell me that it’s my age, and that it’s much harder for someone past the age of forty to get and stay lean. But I reject this. I had no trouble leaning out everywhere else. In fact, my legs are like tree trunks after all the biking I’ve been doing. My arms have no residual fat. So why is my middle so flipping stubborn? Frak! Is liposuction an alternative? Or do I suck it up and redouble my efforts?

 What thoughts have you, my bodybuilding buddies?

I’ve been a fan of Labrada products for quite some time now. (Lee, if you’re reading this, I can be had for a nominal fee <wink>). I’ve mainly used his Lean Body protein packets. I find them to be extraordinarily convenient, and better yet, they taste great. It doesn’t matter whether you get chocolate, vanilla or strawberry. Not one flavor (and I’ve tried them all, including the chocolate peanut butter) leaves that weird, chalky taste in your mouth that so many other protein powders do. (I’m not mentioning any names, but you all know who I’m talking about.)

At any rate, I forgot my shaker and packet at home this morning. (It was one of those days. If you don’t believe me, ask Wall Street.) My gym, like any good iron palace, carries a slew of protein drinks to slake the thirst of its iron-throwing denizens. Seeing that they stocked Labrada Lean Body RTD, I decided to give it a try. All I can say is "WOW!" It was hard for me to believe that something that tasted so good could be so good for me. Seriously. I selected the banana flavor, and was simply blown away. It was more like drinking a shake made in an old-fashioned soda fountain. Forty grams of protein, less than four percent fat, and great taste. What more, I ask you, could you ask for in a protein supplement?

I don’t normally endorse products in so blatant a fashion, but this product was so good, it has turned me into a shill for Labrada. (Not that that’s a bad thing.) Give the product a try. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Before anyone tells me that I should post this in the forums, let me tell you that I already know that I should. But there are two types of people in this community - those who forum; and those who blog. I’m in the blogisphere. I am not now, nor will I ever be a forumite. Now that we’re straight on that, let’s move on to the topic at hand.

I’ve been trying (vainly, it appears) to lose this last ten pounds of bodyfat. All the articles I’ve read; all the people I’ve consulted; and all the experts I’ve talked to agree that the last remnants of adipose tissue are the most difficult to unload. They’re like that annoying relative who comes to visit for a week and ends up hanging around for months. You love them, but they’ve GOT to go. So it is with this last ten pounds.

In an endeavor to hurry the process along, I’ve used both Hydroxycut and Lipo 6. Lipo 6 is my current mainstay, and I find that it is both better and worse than Hydroxycut. On the plus side, it makes me less jittery and give me additional energy (with the exception of today when my body refused to go another step unless I treated it to twelve hourse of uninterrupted sleep. I accommodated it. I had to. It’s not like I had a choice in the matter. It’s like being married. Your wife makes you think you have a choice, but you really don’t. But I digress.)

In Hydroxycut’s favor, it keeps my engine humming longer during the day (and therefore, I assume it’s burning fat longer and with more consistency) than does Lipo 6. It does, however, make me feel as though I could jump out of my skin at any moment. It’s the main reason why I switched to Lipo 6 after finishing the bottle of Hydroxycut. I couldn’t stand the feeling. A swarm of insects crawling over the entire exterior of one’s body was preferable to the agitation I felt when taking Hydroxycut.

I’m nearly finished with the bottle of Lipo 6, and while my weight hasn’t decreased appreciably, I have been shedding fat (albeit rather slowly). My waist line is down another half-inch (yea!). Still, I’m not exactly happy with either product. Would I recommend either or both? Perhaps, but then again, perhaps not. I suppose my recommendation would depend upon my mood on the day I was questioned. Yesterday, I would have endorsed Lipo 6 enthusiasically. Today, I’d offer a more ambivalent recommendation. The same goes for Hydroxycut. When I first started taking it, I’d have called it (in a booming announcer-type voice), "The world’s greatest weight loss product." Today, I would say, "It’s okay. It’s not great, but it doesn’t suck either."

What are your thoughts about either product (or another product in this category). What is the community’s consensus of opinion on this? Enquiring minds are dying to know.

Well, it’s been one month since beginning the three-month Rock-Hard Challenge. How have I done? Largely okay. I have cheated here and there (I like wine), but overall, have been sticking to the principles pretty well. I’ve become very much stronger and my endurance has increased noticeably. Has my body changed? I think it has, but I’m not the best judge of such things. I’m notoriously hard on myself, and am never satisfied with how I look. I look at the progress pictures I’ve taken, but that’s not much better. All I see are the flaws. I see none of the progress. When I post new progress pics, I’m going to reach out to some of you on this site to give me an honest assessment. I can’t make progress unless I get some honest critical feedback (and I don’t mean critical in a negative way). So, I hope that my friends in the community will tell me the pros and cons and the things I have to focus on in order to achieve my goals.

As part of the Challenge, I’ve been taking Animal Cuts. Frankly, I haven’t seen any changes as a result of using this product, except to say that I seem to pee more than I did before starting on the cycle. If anyone else has experience with Animal Cuts, I invite you to write me and let me know of your progress (or lack thereof). I promise to write back. And I know I’m supposed to post things like this in the forum, but I’m not a forum guy. The threads make me nervous. (I had a bad thread experience as a child.)

It’s true. I am never satisfied; especially with the way my body looks. Have I made progress since I’ve started? Yes! Am I happy with the progress I’ve made? No; absolutely not.

I recently took new body shots for the Rock-Hard Challenge. I posted one of them, but am reluctant to post the rest because, in my eyes, I look terrible. I am still carrying too much weight around my middle, and my arms, legs, chest and back could use about 10 more pounds of quality muscle.

I’m having one of those days when I’m discouraged. I watch what I eat - I measure portions - I do cardio - all to no avail. I would kill to have abs like Nick or KendaFriend. But, nothing. Nada. Zip. What, I wonder, do I have to do to see a little progress? Help me, Lord; help me.

As I suspected, the hardest part of the Rock-Hard Challenge is the diet. I am having all kinds of trouble packing away the recommended number of calories. The light calorie day is easy, because it’s right in my sweet spot. The medium calorie days are moderately harder, but I can manage to consume the 3200 calories that is called for. The high calorie days though? Oy, vey! Who would have thought that eating would be so much work? It wasn’t this hard when I was munching on pizza, burgers and beer. Clean eating is hard work. You can only shove so much chicken and tuna down one’s throat before the stomach looks up and says, "Whoa, buddy. You’re about to have a revolt down here." I thought maybe ingesting the calories via protein drinks would make the task easier. In my stepfather’s immortal words, "What are you, stupid? It ain’t that easy, bubcakes." (My stepdad honestly uses this expression. To this day, I have no idea what bubcakes is supposed to mean.)

Anyway, as I was saying…the exercises (while difficult) are achievable. This diet? Oy, vey!

Recently, I ordered a bunch of products from Bodybuilding.com (Fanfare music, please. Thank you very much.) Having done so, and having tried said products, I now want to comment about them, and also want to solicit the opinions of those who have used similar products. (Kind of a poor man’s comparison.) The powers that be here at Bodybuilding.com (Fanfare music, please. Thank you very much.) suggest that I use the forum to post my observations. That venue, they say, is the proper one to share experiences, product progress, etc. I have perused the forum, and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. The folks who inhabit it are regular contributors - much like the ones who blog daily - and they seem like nice people. So why, I wonder, am I reluctant to forgo this blog in favor of the forum? Is it an anti-Roman thing that harkens back to halycon days of yore? Or is an aversion to the strange and unfamiliar? Do I secretly fear that I will lose myself in the forum’s maze, never to be seen or heard from again in blog-land? Or is it something even more insidious? Is it, perhaps, a fear that I will come to love the give and take of the forum, and having tasted of its sweetness, abandon forever the bland prose of the bloggers?

There are times when I blather on like an idiot. I fear that this is one of those times. I would erase this and start over, but that would entail work, and I’m feeling lazy today. Until next time, I remain yours in iron.