ellipticer’s cooking & supplements

I don’t know if I can keep up this pace. I never wanted to be so skinny, but I guess I have a new goal. In 5 days I’ve dropped about 8 pounds; at this rate, FitDay says I will weigh a lean and mean 54 pounds in only three months!

Brilliant coding, eh?

I’m sure some people will cringe, but this is great for a keto, TKD/CKD diet. I always used to boil or steam my asparagus and then add some butter or olive oil on at the end. Pan-roasting with the following recipe is so much incredibly better; it makes me want to have asparagus every day. (Besides being one of the most healthful vegetables, it is an excellent diuretic.)

From Cook’s Illustrated: This recipe works best with asparagus that is at least 1/2 inch thick near the base. If using thinner spears, reduce the covered cooking time to 3 minute and the uncovered cooking time to 5 minutes. Do not use pencil-thin asparagus; it cannot withstand the heat and overcooks too easily.

Serves 4 to 6

If you’re like me, getting a new bottle of the latest whatever-supplement is a thrill.

I KNOW 99.5% of the results come from hard work and diet. That isn’t in question… but spending some money on supplements always used to get me going to the gym. I’m not going to do that anymore. Hell, I have a laundry basket full of supplements that I’m not even taking. Seriously, a laundry basket full. I run Supplement Judge and that has gotten me more than a few free samples.

What do I take? Right now, E/C. Lean Green. and that is it. Nothing else needed, I think. I have some leftover AMP and HEAT that I will alternate once I grow tolerant to E/C again.  (BTW, that is still a killer combination if you haven’t tried it; and not just for energy reasons. AMP + HEAT + no tolerance = an awesome day).

I’m sure that will change though and I will be popping the latest pill soon enough. I guess I’ve always been a chemical experimenter. For now, I’m going to try and ignore the latest and greatest threads in the supplement forum.

So why do you take supplements when you know that proper diet and gym dedication are the real keys to looking good?

I dunno how many times I heard it from people at the gym… people who didn’t squat or deadlift… whenever they would see me doing it they would say, "Wow, don’t hurt your back!" I must’ve heard that 20 times.

Well, congratulations, I finally hurt my back. I gave myself a bulging disc at L5 probably from doing box squats and going down to fast. I let myself heal for 9 weeks, went back, and hurt myself again doing deadlifts.

Now a year later I’ve gained 20 pounds of pure fat (at least).

I started my cardio again this morning and I don’t have any excuse for stopping it. I should’ve been doing it all along but without being able to lift, doing cardio seemed pointless. I will try and get back to the weights soon but I’m a bit hesitant. I’ll really miss squatting and deadlifting and I’ll probably relegate myself to the machines for a while.