Inside the Mind of Deserusan

Among supplement consumers there is a love/hate relationship with the FDA. On one hand, they want to be protected from potentially dangerous ingredients or mislabeled products. They want protection essentially. On the other hand, they often complain about government intervention and oversight into their private choices. Often you’ll hear these cries when popular stimulants like ephedra get banned or popular DSHEA compliant hormonal products like “andro” get scheduled as controlled substances. Regardless of which side of the fence these fickle consumers are sitting on any particular day the FDA often has bigger fish to fry other than the supplement industry.

Just recently Coke a Cola received a pretty strong warning from the FDA regarding the labeling of their Diet Coke Plus product. Essentially, the FDA feels that the fortification of carbonated snack beverages with vitamins and minerals is not in the best interest of consumers unless it falls within an acceptable range for the established Recommend Dietary Allowance (RDA). You’ll see these RDA’s often listed on nutrition and supplement labels (yes there is a difference). Obviously the FDA is not happy and is quite clear when stating “The above violations are not meant to be an all-inclusive list of deficiencies in your products or their labeling. It is your responsibility to ensure that all of your products are in compliance with the laws and regulations enforced by FDA. You should take prompt action to correct the violations. Failure to promptly correct these violations may result in regulatory actions without further notice, such as seizure and/or injunction.” Obviously, they FDA is not mincing words.

I guess my point in bringing this up today is that the FDA isn’t always the bad guy and actually spends most of its active enforcement efforts on food products as opposed to dietary supplements. Believe it or not, the large majority of warnings and recalls issued by the FDA are regarding food products and rightfully so. Contamination and mislabeling of food products is actually a common problem in the United States and the FDA is stretched to the limits sometimes enforcing proper safety initiatives to protect you. While supplement consumers often point fingers at the FDA it is my hope they understand  most of their enforcement efforts don’t involve the supplement industry in all reality as this recent enforcement effort with Coke clearly shows.

Please take a minute to join my BodySpace group here on Bodybuilding.com. The is a relatively new feature but as functionality is added we will be offering exclusive promotions through our BodyGroup page to BodySpace members.

http://groups.bodybuilding.com/gaspari_nutrition

Check the press release for a list of tainted fat loss products currently being sold. This list is quite long and Uncle Sam will most likely be taking swift action regarding these.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01933.html

Since the weather made a turn for the worse over the past few days Vanessa and I really haven’t made it out much. However, today we decided to venture out into the cold from some good old fashion junk food Brooklyn style. Since my competition I’ve certainly loosened my dietary restrictions on the weekends and today was certain a page out of the annals of gluttony.

First up was Nathan’s Famous which is Brooklyn’s most famous hot dog joint. We really couldn’t decide what to eat all day so this seemed like a good choice as I’ve never been there before. Quite honestly, we made pigs of ourselves but it’s all good. The hot dogs were amazing as were cheese fries. Hopefully this summer we can make it out for their annual hot dog eating contest and witness the debauchery.

The next stop was Mona Lisa Pastry Shoppe and Café on 86th street just a few blocks from Nathan’s. Talk about diabetic coma waiting to happen. I’ve never seen so many beautiful pastries, pies, cookies, and bunch of things that I don’t know the name of. I actually don’t even know what we bought and let Vanessa handle that.

It really was a dazzling display of colors and sugar infused scents which seem to bring a smile to everyone’s face that entered the place. I’m used to the typical bakery items that you’d see in grocery store because I had been sheltered in the Midwest for the past few years. The closest thing I came to a bakery was Krispy Kreme and that doesn’t really count.

Is it pathetic I was so excited about junk food? I don’t know really but when it all boils down it’s the holidays and I’m enjoying the cuisine in Brooklyn now. I earned it that’s for sure and as long as things don’t get too out of control then it’s all good. Life is too short not to be the kid in the candy store every once in awhile when the opportunity presents itself.

Hey everyone. I wrote a brief article regarding my 22 week transformation on the Gaspari Nutrition website. Just so you know, I’ll be writing a series of detailed training articles geared for fat loss for Bodybuilding.com and GaspariNutrition.com in 2009. This first article is more or less just a showcase of my motivation for transforming my self from a fat ass to someone with a decent physique. Anyway, check out the article titled “My Name Is Daniel And This Is My Story” and let me know what you think. Here is the link again.

272lbs to 198lbs in 22 weeks

I’m not used to be around kids much so hanging out with Vanessa’s extended family is always an adventure. I admit though, I do get a kick out of the personalities and creativity of little kids. For example, who would have thought my bald head would make an excellent canvas for stickable foam numbers and letters?

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

-Pablo Picasso

Today’s workout was a bit more optimistic from the get go. I haven’t taken a traditional stimulant loaded preworkout "nitric oxide" supplement in a while. I do take these on occassion when I’m feeling sluggish and before today’s workout I certainly qualified as that. I don’t like relying on these to get a "pump" but on days you need a nice jolt Superpump250 does hit the spot.

On a side note, I can’t believe how cheap gas is. In central New Jersey I saw it was going for $1.43 a gallon which is absolutely ridiculous. I can’t complain really because in New York City they are raising public transportation costs by about 25% and even thinking of adding a 15% tax for full calorie soda (non-diet). Isn’t that some shit? Actually, I think the soda tax is pretty cool because they really are unhealthy. Granted, diet soda isn’t that great for your teeth nor for your acid base balance. I guess the politicians trying to implement this new tax don’t know about that.

Looking back over the past six weeks I realized that I wasn’t really "training" in the gym. I was more or less going through the motions as my first competition approached. So where does that leave me now that I’m actually training again? Really freaking sore.

I guess I’m going through one of those phases few bodybuilders talk about, or maybe I’m just a wimp. My strength is down and all my muscle groups just feel trashed. It reminds me when I played football back in the day after the first day of practice. No matter how much I prepared in the off-season I was still EXTREMELY sore after the first day of practice. Hopefully this subsides pretty soon and my strength returns.

Very rarely these days do I watch a movie that I find truly entertaining and moving to the soul. Let’s face it, in our pop culture where everything is broken up into sound bites and manipulated with CGI often potentially great story boards get watered down with effects and watered down dialogue. Fortunately, I stumbled across A Very British Gangster directed by Donal MacIntyre while perusing a list of Sundance documentaries. I’m a glutton for a good war or gangster movie.

This portrayal of a Manchester England’s Noonan crime family is quite blunt and many times you find yourself saying to yourself “Holy shit!” I don’t mean to come off as crass but within the first few minutes of the film if you haven’t said that to yourself there is something wrong with you. Let’s face it, any film able to pack in murder, crack addiction, homosexual evolution, mob warfare, an Oasis song, two funerals, a kid who smokes at age seven, and the use of the word F-CK more times than you can keep track of in only 102 minutes has to be a great film.

If you get a chance, I implore you to take a break from reality and enter the slums of Manchester, England and let Donal MacIntyre be your guide as you travel along with the Noonan crime family. It will touch your soul and will give a glimpse into something real as opposed to the typical gum flapping, spineless blinged out wannabe gangster that has infested American society.

A VERY BRITISH GANGSTER

This was quite the train wreck. While walking down the stairs to start my workout with Vanessa one of my calves seized up. Talk about PAIN! Anyway, I kept this workout light because I haven’t really trained "hard" in about a month. The last few weeks of contest prep were more or less attempting to get blood in the muscle as opposed to really exerting myself. Pretty much all my energy and effort was devoted to my cardio sessions.

I figured since I’m a lot stronger then Vanessa I’d go pound for pound with her. That shouldn’t be a big deal right? Needless to say, even lifting at 50% completely kicked my ass. I have to hand it to Vanessa, she kept the workout tempo fast and didn’t let me slouch around too much. On a positive note, the pumps were pretty insane since my muscles have quite a bit of glycogen in them. The vascularity was pretty sick actually which just goes to show you, preworkout glycogen status is by far the best controllable factor for inducing sick vascularity and pumps. Don’t get me wrong, preworkout pump products serve their purpose, but are essentially worthless if you aren’t eating right.

Anyway, pardon my ego, but I won’t be putting up the numbers from the workout. I’m hoping to get back up to normal speed within a week or two.