Jettisoned Ponderings

Just got home a little while ago from GJ getting a wisdom tooth extracted this morning. Everything went well as expected (I had all 4 of mine taken out at once from the same practice a couple years ago) and she was in and out in about half an hour. It does suck that its 2 weeks out from her show and she can’t do hard foods for a while or chew, but she should be alright still. Just wanted to let everyone know and I’m sure she’s love lots of loving comments should you guys wish to leave her some to read for when she’s up and about more.

I may as well post this. All shakes are with water and I get an additional 2 litres down daily:

Meal 1
Big Max 50 Gainer    3 scoops
Xango    1oz

Pre/During Workout
Full Blown Xtreme    1 scoop
GlycoMaize    1 scoop

Meal 2
Whole Eggs (AA Grade, Medium)    2
Egg Whites International    1 cup
Shredded Cheese    1/4 cup
Yogurt (Yoplait Original)    1 "Cup"

Meal 3
Big Max 50 Gainer    3 scoops

Meal 4
Raw Spinach    2 cups
Walnuts    1/4 cup
Tuna Packet    3oz
Shredded Cheese    1/4 cup
Kroger Light Asian Dressing    2 tbsp
Yogurt (Yoplait Original)    1 "Cup"

Meal 5
Chicken Breast (Grilled)    8oz
Asparagus (grilled w/VERY little extra virgin olive oil)    4 spears
Xango    1oz

Meal 6
MaxPro Chocolate    1 scoop

Totals: 2675 calories, 254g Protein, 286.5g Carbs, 56.5g Fat

Its been so long since I’ve really been on a hypocaloric diet for a cut that I forgot about a few of the annoying things that happen when doing so. The top of the list has to be tied in with the fact that I have never been one to sleep straight through the night unless I’m absolutely beat tired. Usually I’m woken because its too hot (common since I grew up in a home that didn’t have A/C). Now the problem is that the heat isn’t coming from the ambient temperature of the house, but my own body. So now I’m learning to keep a spare pillow by the bed since now when I get woken up I’m usually sweating a little bit and have a damp pillow. So I have to swap pillows, turn up the ceiling fan, and resume slumber. No big deal, just annoying. The other is that even in shorts and a T-shirt/polo at work I still get hot. Its worse doing massages since there is no circulation at all in the rooms except for maybe a small desktop fan in the corner that try as it may, still fails. Is it all worth it in the end? Heck yeah! I just don’t necessarily like feeling Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam when he said, "Its hot! Damn hot! Its so hot that today I saw a man in an orange robe just burst into flames!" Ok, well, maybe its not that bad even, but those random heat flushes do like to sneak up on me. Yay ephedra (for now…)! Next round I’ll be giving ACL’s "BRN-2 Xtreme" a go. Quite anxious to see how that one works out as I’ve heard quite a lot of good things about it.

This week has been a pretty good one overall as my energy has been back up and workouts are going great. I’ve backed my calories down to just over 2600 for the time being on a lifting day and around 2400 on an off day. I’m not sticking 100% to this, but its my baseline. If I start to crash I’ll add in an extra yogurt, some oats, etc. to get me through the next meal. I’m trying to find out where I feel the best overall and still maintain my weight since its a completely different game now with an extra 20+lbs. The upside of backing down the carbs, too, is that my appetite is back up and its easier to get the water in that I should be drinking. Carbs on a lifting day are around 250 and on an off day closer to 200. I’m still getting about 60g of good fats on both days for my sustained energy, mostly from whole eggs, ground flax seeds, and cheese. Whole milk is out for the time being to keep the sugars lower, but as I mentioned the yogurt is still on the table. Visually I’m looking a bit leaner and certainly feeling the thermogenic kicks throughout the day and I get much warmer in my workouts (all be it with the help of a little ephedra and evodiamine). I want to keep this up until GJ is done with her show then gradually bring the calories up a little more and see at what points I maintain and bulk. I think as PulgasStrongMan has reiterated a few times, I was probably throwing a wet log on the fire with too much protein, though I’m thinking it was just flat out too many calories and my body was spending most of its fuel just to try and digest everything I was feeding it. All part of the learning process, but I’m liking what I’m feeling thus far. Still keeping most of the carbs and fats earlier in the day, increased my greens, and avoiding many carbs after about 4pm in the day (more salads with tuna or chicken and broccoli). Time will tell as always.

Ninjabill recently made a comment, "This isn’t gonna make me grow like a squirrel is it?" Well, today I came across this and dang, if anything’s gonna make me look like this lil fella then get me some!

I’m sold, this stuff is great. The only soreness I’ve had at all is from injury or strains and recovery time from those has been quicker. Tuesday night things were going great training doing legs, which includes 3×8-10 of Romanian Deadlifts. Last set was 295×8 and I was getting tired. Couple exercises later on my last set of hack squats I had my upper back/shoulders arched a little as I was adjusting before the last couple reps. 2nd to last rep I felt a tweak in my erectors right along the mid thoracic. Of course about an hour later they were guarding and quite cranky in the morning. By the time I went to bed last night though I was almost good as new. Today they’re just a little stiff but no pinching or pain. Usually it would take me about 3 days to get to this point. I’ll gladly welcome cutting that time in half. I still have little or no DOMS in the muscles I work. I know they’re being worked plenty hard because I physically cannot push any more reps by the end of the workout with my usual weight and I’m still having strength gains being a little hypocaloric until GJ is done with her show.

So I know there are skeptics, and again, its a food product so there aren’t guarantees. For me, the aforementioned is the most noticeable improvement (taking 1oz 2x a day). My parents are also seeing positive results. My mom is a professional pianist and teacher and has noticed that the arthritic symptoms in some of her hand joints is gone. My dad had prostate cancer surgery a few years ago and since they had to remove some tissue in the bladder he’s had to get up at least once or twice a night and he’s now sleeping straight through the night without having to do so. I’m staying optimistic that he’ll see some improvements with his cholesterol and diabetic symptoms down the road at his next check-up he has every few months, too. So they’re both sold on it as well.

Of course, there’s a business perk, too, and I’m not complaining about the extra cash flow at all. Honestly, who would? Its also freed up some of the money I typically was spending on other supps, namely joint support (none of which really gave me any relief, I just was taking them to try and keep things from getting worse). I’ve noticed my joints pop about half as frequently as they used to as well, and the only ones that do it the most are my elbows and knuckles during massage because the tendons tighten up. That should improve also since I’m now doing massages 2 days less per week and work for Max Muscle on those days instead.

I can’t encourage you guys enough to at least give this product a try. If it sounds at all appealing let me know and I can show you how to get it much cheaper than retail. The way I see it, everyone is right for the juice but not everyone is right for the business. That’s fine. My first concern is helping people out. I wouldn’t be in the health and fitness industry if that wasn’t paramount. People say its too pricy at $1/oz (ironic I know most of these people pay $4/shot at the bars on the weekends…). Consider this: The average American drinks 1.6-3.2 cups of coffee a day. The average price for an espresso based drink is $2.45 or for brewed coffee is $1.38. Maybe go more health conscious and think of the wheat grass shots that’re still around $1.49/oz. I could keep going but I don’t need to. Point is that c’mon people, its plenty affordable. Personally, I’ll spend a little more now to save a lot later ’cause I dunno about you but I’m not holding my breath for "health care" to get any better anytime soon…

I’ve been taking Xango for about 2 weeks now. I’m always a fan of using something whole food and natural instead of medications. To list all the benefits of mangosteen juice and studies on it would take quite a long time to do, but here are conditions its been shown to help with:

Anti-Aging, Antibiotic, Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, Anxiety, Antioxidant, Suppress Allergy Symptoms, Anti-Depressant, Peridontal, Supports Eye Health, Migraines, Skin Rashes, Hypertension, Pan Systemic, Energy/Fatigue, Anti-Inflammatory, Analgesic, Anti-Tumor, Anti-Cancer, May Reduce Nerve Pain, Anti-Pyretic (Fever), Antiviral, Supports Red Blood Cell Growth, Ulcers, Osteoperosis, Immune Modulator, Cardio-Protective, Cataracts, Anti-Fungal, Irritable Bowel, Anti-Fungal, Anti-pathogenic, Anti-Parasitic, Supports Weight Loss, Hardening Of The Arteries, etc.

I’ve personally seen improvements for people with severe arthritis, pain reduction for our friend from Scotland who’s been in 13 national championships for soccer and rugby (hardly sore after a 3 day rugby tournament), replaced Nexium and stop acid reflux, etc. Yeah, all this from a juice from a fruit we can’t get in the US in whole form. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Some people will say that, but their loss. Tell that to my dad (Type II diabetic, prostate cancer survivor, had triple bypass last year) and my mom (acid reflux and multiple sclerosis) who are seeing results from it.
For me personally the biggest thing I’ve noticed is an almost complete lack of soreness or aches in my body both from workouts and doing massages at work. Recommended dosage is 1-3oz daily (but more can and should be taken for people with pre-existing conditions) and I take 1-1.5oz in the morning with breakfast (Xango is fat soluble). Most of you know what my workouts look like, or have tried them. Guys, I’m serious… no aches or pain. I wake up the next morning and I’m all good. I’m not even getting DOMS 2-3 days later! Its certainly not a matter of lack of effort. My last leg workout took an hour and a half and finished with a leg press century drop set. I felt fine within 2 hours since I take my Xango post workout for its antioxidant value and anti-inflammation benefits, namely. No other recovery supp has ever done that. Additionally I haven’t needed any joint support supps, surprisingly. Elbows, knees, and wrists are all good. Wrists may be a bit tender at the end of the day after 5-6 hours of deep tissue massage, but they’re back and ready the next morning. I’ve seen some benefits in my parents as well, but I don’t have time to get into all that either. If you’ve never heard of this stuff before I’d recommend you look over my site (I have 2, this one is for product only): Clickenzy Here! ^_^ It’ll ask for your contact info, but don’t worry I’m the only one who sees it. If it looks interesting to anyone, lemme know because there is so much more to the business than just the product itself. You could buy it from the bb.com store, but if you get to that point talk to me first and I’ll explain why.

I’m definitely behind on this, so I’ve set a goal to try and get through 1 chapter a day. I may have a couple hold ups here and there to do the lab work they mention, but I need to get on top of it so I can start that job. My wrists just aren’t liking the massage 5-6 hours a day. I will say the Xango is making a significant difference in my recovery times in that I’m waking up pain free, whether its from a workout or more commonly elbow/wrist pain from the day before. Though I’d like to save any abuse to my joints for when I want to lift rather than being worn down before a workout. I put in my application and date of availability as July 1st. I can’t see when the next exam date will be until I actually register for the exam (Yay another $299…), so I’m hoping one is in that time window. Fortunately we know the gym manager and I trained the now operations manager there so I essentially have the job, just need the little piece of paper to make a bit more on my commissions. All in due time…

So for now I’m just suffering through work, hitting Xango full steam, and squeezing the trainer cert in where I can. They’re all important, however residual income would make more things a lot easier than struggling with smaller paychecks while I wait for training clients to build up.

GJ and I were going to a show yesterday but ticket prices went up at the door and all general admissions were sold out. Since we didn’t know anyone personally competing in it, we opted to save the $60. I’ve been in a slump lately and needed something to cheer me up. So I finally did something I’ve wanted to do for some time and it didn’t cost me anything… I went for a drive. More specifically I went to test out a car I’ve had my eye on for a couple years now since I saw it at the auto show back in ‘06 and waited for the turbo to come out. Its a GM, but was designed and built with heavy influence by Opel over in Germany and tested on the Autobahn… I even got to test the last one they had left at the dealership that was on the showroom floor. A personal favorite, the Saturn Sky Redline.

Its been brought to my attention that I haven’t posted in about 2 weeks, so I figure I may as well update. I’m in a bit of a rut, namely lacking motivation at the moment. Its hard to come off a successful few months and hit a wall, which I feel like I have. I’m glad that my weight has held at 195 and not dropped back down, but nothing much else has happened. I got sick and that got me down for a while from missing a lot of workouts. Now I’m trying to catch up but have no idea what to go for. GJ has to cut, therefore the routines have changed a bit to help her more with that and consequently are a bit counter productive to bulking for me. I’m also tired of having to eat so much food. I usually have a great appetite, but lately I’ve had little motivation to eat my meals on time when I should. Some of my lifts have dropped recently while others are remaining static. Work has been a bit frustrating because its been so slow and has a few more weeks before we hit our busy season. About the only thing I’m excited about is our new business with XanGo because we’ve teamed up with one of the top distributors in the country who actually has his head in the right place and knows how to truly make the best of the compensation plan. Quite frankly, I’m more interested in that than lifting because of course money issues are always an extra stress in life aren’t they? Add on that we’re looking into buying a house and other things… Its a lot on our plates. It’ll all pass, I’m sure, but for the moment I need to figure out how to get motivated to push again because I can’t seem to keep any momentum for long.