Eating, The Manly Way

Let's face it.  Eating "healthy" sure doesn't sound manly.  It sounds like you're some pansy who's trying to watch their figure and stay trim.  Seriously, who wants to be all meek, skinny, and worst of all, weak?  Now there's nothing wrong with trying to lose a few pounds, but it just so happens that you're a man, and men should eat big, meaty, chunky meals that fill their belly and build big, strong, manly muscles.  How else are you going to move that massive weight?  The good news is that you can eat that masculine food you love, and still be lean, ripped, and BEASTLY.  

Oh, and to any women readers, there's no sexist nature intended in this article, it's all in good fun.  You can enjoy this food too, and get the exact same benefits, I promise.


So let's go over a list of the manliest, most heftily nutrient packed muscle building man foods we can find, and see if we can't figure out how to fill that plate with something big and meaty (and then maybe slip a few of those meager little veggies on the side...as if they'll even fit...HAR HAR.)


Beef:  Steak, ribs, burgers, veil, ground up, I don't care.  Beef is delicious, protein packed, and filled with so many nutrients that I won't be able to list them all here.  It's packed with B-12 and B-6, two vitamins that will aid in maintaining healthy metabolism and high energy levels, as well as assisting in central nervous system health.  We've already mentioned the protein, you'll get a LOT of it in every delicious, perfectly juicy bite.  Worried about the fat content?  Of course you're not!  And you shouldn't be, as every bit of fat in that beef is beneficial in some way.  Most of the fat is monounsaturated fat, the same stuff in olive oil!  The saturated fat is actually an EXCELLENT energy source, and may actually aid in losing weight, as it encourages your body to use fat as fuel instead of sugary carbs.  And contrary to popular belief, the saturated fat in beef isn't related to rising levels of bad cholesterol.  Pile a big fat steak on your plate and dig in, beef will make you BEEFY.

Whole milk:  That's right, we don't need none of that frilly "fat free" stuff, we want the whole, creamy, yummy, thick and refreshing kind of milk, the way nature intended it.  Every cup of whole milk is packed with 8 grams of protein from various sources including both whey and casein, and the natural sugars are great post workout to help those growing muscles suck up all those nutrients quick.  Mix in some whey protein and you've got yourself some of the most delicious drinkable stuff on earth.  And the fat?  It's the same deal here.  Saturated fat gets a bad rap, but when it's in its natural form it is actually quite healthy.  It will benefit blood lipid levels and is an AWESOME source of energy.  Pour a glass and be proud of that milk mustache.

Bacon:  OK....seriously...WHO DOESN'T LOVE BACON?  Thought you had to avoid it on a healthy diet???  WRONG-OH!!!!  Bacon is no less healthy than many cuts of chicken, turkey, beef, or any other meat you can think of off hand.  Sure it has some fat in it, but that fat, once again, is a great LOW CARB energy source that will both satiate you quickly and actually elevate your mood.  That's right, dietary fat makes you happy.  Before you complain that it can't be part of a clean diet, realize that there are thousands of people who've lost untold amounts of body fat while eating bacon almost every day.  Don't believe me?  Just do some online searching.  Bacon, like beef, is also packed with B vitamins, and DEM DER PROTEEEEEIIINNSSS.  I can hear those heavenly strips sizzling now, mmmmm.  Breakfast of the gods.

Eggs:  Fry 'em, scramble 'em, poach 'em, boil 'em, and PIG OUT.  Egg protein is one of the greatest sources of protein in the entire world, with a bio-availability in the high 90%'s when cooked.  That means your body can use almost all of the protein available in eggs with the upmost efficiency to build strong, lean muscle.  BUT, as manly as it may look, drinking raw eggs is a bad idea.  When left uncooked, egg protein only has a bio-availability of about 50%, so much of that protein is wasted in your body.  Plus, nobody wants salmonella.  You won't look too manly puking your guts out all night, right?  But seriously, eat those eggs.  Oh, and dietary cholesterol hasn't been proven to have nearly ANY effect on blood cholesterol, so don't worry about that either.  Sound good?  Great.

Sausage:  Awww yeah, brautwerst anyone?  Sausage comes in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of fillings.  Sure, it's not the highest quality meat you can buy, but it's a great source of protein and has a lot of healthy fats in it as well.  Want something lean?  Go for the chicken or turkey sausage.  Want the tastiest thing this side of Neptune?  Get some biggun's packed with pork and beef, and pile them next to that big morning omelette.  I recommend eating sausage in moderation, but you definitely don't have to cut it out of your diet.  Just watch the sodium, as it can pile up quickly in certain kinds.  Also, look at the ingredients, and make sure as much of the stuff inside is stuff you can pronounce, preferably meat without additives.

Peanut Butter:  I eat this stuff by the spoonful.  Packed with healthy fats and Omega-6 fatty acids, peanut butter is the bomb.  It's an incredible source of healthy calories, especially when you get the natural, or "natty" stuff.  Natty PB brah...all the way.  In fact, the best peanut butter out there has the fewest ingredients.  While the general rule of thumb is to make sure there is NO trans fat in the peanut butter, you also generally want to avoid the stuff with "partially hydrogenated vegetable oils."  Those oils are used to make sure the peanut oil doesn't separate out of the butter itself, which is a pretty useless task unless someone is unbelievable lazy.  A little stirring might help those forearms develop anyway.  Brands I like are Teddie natural chunky, Smucker's natural, Jif Natural, Naturally More, and Power Butter.  Go ahead and have a couple tablespoons, and watch those muscles EXPLODE.

Spinach:  OK, you may be looking at me funny.  But hey, if it made Popeye a monster, it could do the same to you.  It's an aquired taste, but the aggressive flavor almost makes it manlier, right?  Try some light sauces or spices on it to make it more palletable, like mustard, salsa, cayenne pepper, curry powder, whatever floats your boat.  It's packed with vitamins and minerals, and will help you lose extra  body fat covering those shredded guns of yours.  Have a couple of forkfuls a day, and release your inner Popeye.

There you go you beastly dude you, eat up and get big, shredded, ripped, and NOTICED.  Enjoy your meat, your steak, your peanut butter, and those huge, giant, bacon filled omelettes.  Compliment any of these manly dishes with a side of veggies and you're in business.  You can eat healthy and retain your manhood, it's easy!  Now go eat some food, lift some weight, and growl at all the little meager folks cowering away from you.  You're a beast, and noone gets in your way.

GOOD LUCK DUDES!

Egg Whites, Better than the Rest?

Eggs are a staple in the vast majority of modern diets.  They hold our bread together, they form our breakfast omelettes, they can be a nice hard boiled snack, and for my fellow gym-goers they represent a fantastic source of protein.  You eat more eggs than you probably realize, and that's not a bad thing.  Eggs are a natural food loaded with great substance that your body can make use of.  In fact I suggest getting a few more eggs into your diet, especially around breakfast and lunch time.  They're low calorie, high protein, and absolutely delicious.  But is there a way that you can make this natural super-food even better for you?  I'll let you in on a simple little diet change regarding eggs that might make them that much more enjoyable to have in your diet.

Now maybe you've heard, but the only really iffy part of an egg happens to be that nice creamy yellow yolk.  Egg yolks do contain "bad" cholesterol, which you definitely don't want to be getting too much of in your diet.  One egg yolk contains about 213mg of LDL cholesterol, and if you're consuming multiple eggs a day I'd suggest limiting your cholesterol from other sources.  Will this cholesterol kill your healthy diet?  No, not at all, in fact the average person doesn't eat enough eggs to even feel the effects of that added cholesterol.  Still though, it'd be nice to get more of the benefits from eggs (of which there are numerous) without worrying about heart health.  Also, egg yolks contain the majority of the calories in eggs.  One egg has about 78 calories, and the yolk contains between 55-60 of them.  Wouldn't it be nice to have an extremely low calorie egg white source, free from cholesterol and saturated fat?

Well that's a pretty easy thing to do, actually.  BUY EGG WHITES.  Liquid egg whites come in small cartons, and are extremely useful for everything from omelettes to cakes to breads or anything else you want to bake.  They contain all the benefits from eggs such as:

High Vitamin D Content

Dense, usable protein

Healthy, unsaturated fat

High Sulfur content

But how do you use egg whites?  Well in omelettes, it's pretty easy.  Measure out your desired amount (I'd suggest either 1/2 cup or 1 cup, which contain 60 and 120 calories respectively), and throw it on a greased up griddle.  Add some peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheese, and a lean protein source to have quite the healthy, satisfying breakfast.  It's pretty easy to do scrambled eggs as well, just follow the same process, but run the spatula through the egg white liquid as it's grilling to "scramble" it into a soft, lumpy egg pile of goodness. I'd suggest seasoning with some cayenne pepper, I really like it spicy.  But stay away from the salt!

How about baking?  Obviously this gets a little more iffy if you're trying to substitute egg whites for whole eggs, but it can work.  There's a general formula which says if you want to replace whole eggs, use two egg whites (1 egg white would be the amount of white contained in one egg.)  If you're using carton egg whites (such as egg beaters, which I would STRONGLY recommend considering they add a whole lot of yolk nutrients back into the substance without any of the cholesterol or fat), you need a conversion factor.  This conversion was pulled directly off their website www.eggbeaters.com:

In my recipes, how do I substitute Egg Beaters for whole eggs?

For recipes, simply use Egg Beaters as follows:
4 whole eggs = 1 cup Egg Beaters
1 whole egg = 1/4 cup Egg Beaters
1 egg white = 3 tbsp Egg Beaters

Try it in a few recipes!  You can really add a new health factor to many of your old favorites.

On a side note, if you're making an omelette with traditional carton egg whites, don't be afraid to add one whole egg in there too for both flavor and the nutrients that the yolk contains.  While the yolk does contain LDL cholesterol, it also has a lot of benefits as well, like all sorts of rich vitamins.  And believe me, one egg won't hurt you.  Better yet, use egg beaters.  Like I mentioned before, they separate the yolk out, but add all the lost nutrients back into the mixture.  That's a win win situation right there.  It's also a great source of beta carotene!

So there you have it.  Some of the benefits of egg whites, and why it'd be a great idea to try some in your diet.  The cartons are really easy to find, and even easier to use once you start giving them a chance and making the effort to change up those recipes.  Give it a shot!

Scramble with determination, fry with confidence, and as always, good luck!

Breakfast: What You Should Have, And Why

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  There is no denying it.  This post will explain what you should have when you finally decide to crawl out of bed, why you should have it, and how it'll help you.

Why?  Because your body has been starving for 8 hours up until breakfast.  It's in a catabolic state (muscle fibers are deteriorating) right until it gets that next little bit of food.  The longer your body is in this state, the more essential muscle fiber you will lose, and the more your metabolism will decrease.  An early breakfast can help reverse this state quickly and kick your metabolism into high gear.

Breakfast will also be the meal your body depends on most throughout the day for energy.  So the pressure's on to make this meal your best (if you're going to choose just one).  But what can you eat that will ensure your body a good start to the day, and in turn produce a great feeling that'll keep you smiling and awake as the hours roll by?

A good place to start is with a good helping of natural, complex carbohydrates.  These will feed your body all day, and give you lasting energy, not to mention your muscles will get constant fuel.  For your carbs, you have lots of options.

You could have:

-Two slices of whole wheat toast

-A whole wheat bagel

-Whole grain cereal (be careful on this one, a lot of cereals are absolutely LOADED with sugar, read the nutritional label and attempt to find a cereal high in dietary fiber and relatively low in sugar.  Cereal advertising oats, bran and whole wheat is a good place to start.  I would recommend some of Kashi's cereal).

-Whole wheat English muffin

-My personal favorite, and still probably the top contender for the all around BEST breakfast carb:
OATMEAL (and I mean good old rolled oats boiled up in the microwave, not that instant oatmeal.  That stuff is crap, I guarantee you.  Loaded with sugar and artificial flavoring.)

  Oatmeal is piled with complex carbs, or in other words, long lasting energy.  It also has a good amount of protein, and a large amount of dietary fiber.  It's some of the best fuel you could ever put in your body, as far as I'm concerned.  Give it a try, I bet you'll like it as much as I do in no time.

  But just a carbohydrate would be a pretty boring breakfast, eh?  So lets get some protein in there.  And where else but eggs?  Scrambled, fried, made into an omelette, they're all fine choices.  In fact you can go one step further and use cartons of egg whites.  This will take out any bad cholesterol from the yoke, and still be absolutely delicious with a little pepper and cayenne powder.
  You can also get protein from a dairy source, such as milk, or yogurt.  I would suggest skim milk, and greek yogurt, however you can choose what you prefer.  Just make sure to look at the nutrtional label and know what you're getting BEFORE you buy it.  Those sugar loaded yogurts will do you no good in the long run.

  One of my favorite breakfast compliments is a tablespoon or two of either natural peanut butter, or natural almond butter.  Either one is positively delicious on a microwaved bagel, and will give your body the good fats and protein it needs to function.  Give them a try.  For natural peanut butter I would suggest smucker's Natural creamy or chunky.  The only ingredient on the ingredient list is "peanuts".  You can't get much more natural than that.  Just stir the oil back in before usage, and flip the jar over every couple days while it's stored so the oil can float back up into the butter.

  And we can't forget about fruit.  The simple carbs that will get you going for the day.  This is completely your choice here, because nearly any fruit will do the job.  I prefer a banana or apple, but when I'm home from college I usually grab a peach, a plum, a kiwi, or even a mango.  Fruits are packed with nutrients that you need for the day.  You may substitute the fruit with a glass of natural 100% juice, but stay away from concentrates with lots of dye and artificial flavoring.  Just look on the ingredients list.  If you see High Fructose corn syrup, artificial flavor concentrate, and around 6 different dye colors, do yourself a favor and steer clear.

  So this is all fine and dandy, but as always you'll have to make some choices.  A lot of people may be wondering, how many calories should I be eating at breakfast?  While that's an impossible question to generalize, I will say this:  Breakfast should be the big meal of the day, as it will be your main energy source.  As a weightlifter I aim for 700 calories.  That may be a little bit over what you might want, but maybe not by much.  A good range to shoot for is around 400-500 calories.  And if you're still hungry, have another plum.  Your body needs this energy.

  And here's my final word.  Do not, I repeat DO NOT skip breakfast.  You may think it will help you lose weight.  It will do the EXACT OPPOSITE.  It will slow your metabolism down, make you extremely hungry later in the day, send your body into a starvation mode, and in general will make you feel like absolute crap.  Eat a healthy breakfast and I guarantee you'll feel better, look better, perform better, and even make a good first step toward losing those unwanted pounds, or gaining that much desired muscle.

Wake up and eat, my friends.