Getting fit with SwordsMaster

[SwordsMaster]

Let's see:

There is nothing wrong with your quads being bigger than your arms: think about it, if you walked on your arms all day, surely they'd be bigger too!

There is nothing you can do about a "heavy head" so don't worry about it, and leave it alone. Maybe you have a big brain. Or maybe you should cut your hair every now and again .

As of food: Don't mix protein: if you're having fish for a meal, then have just fish. If you're having chicken, then don't put tuna in the salad.

The chocolate must go. If you must have something to keep you awake, have coffee, but not at least 4 hours before bed.

I personally don't recommend eating just before bed, but if your body can take it, go for it. Eat cottage cheese and fiber - brown bread toast or something like that, and add that to your eggs in the morning. 2-3 eggs with tomatoes and brown bread toast usually do it for me when i have the time to make them. In between meals, have a glass of milk and an apple, it'll keep you going for quite a while.

Again, for proteing during the day go with fish or chicken, it's leaner, I usually only eat beef or pork about twice a week, eat fish at least twice too, and chicken or eggs the other days.

Basketball is a cool sport to play, and you need strong legs, so train them!

Pretty is not half as important as strong and useful, so remember that. If you want pretty, the easiest is to get surgery. Now, did you ever see an olympic athlete who had liposuction?

It takes some discipline to give up food like chocolate. Sugar triggers "feel good" chemicals so you always want more. But you have to suffer for your art. So If you really do want to be strong, you'll have to make the effort.

[edyzmedieval]

I always have a Beckham-style mohawk for my hair. So that's not a pile of hair.

Ok, thanks for the advice for the protein thingy. It depends on the school routine too, because they decide what we eat. When I dont like I just make a mega-salad and stick with that. I never put sauce or something else, I dont like it plus its unhealthy. Except when it's just a tomato+cucumbers salad, where olive oil and vinegar go really well.

Chocolate will be a problem. I don't drink coffee, and the energy consumption is very high because I run a lot through the campus, I use my brain....everything. A healthy alternative? Bananas? Fructose?

I'm training my legs heavily because I will seriously need it. Right now I want to dunk, so I have to work on legs A LOT... I need to jump almost 1 metre!

What do you think about my workout?

[SwordsMaster]

What you're telling me about eating chocolate "for energy" is an excuse, and we both know it. If your goal is to lose weight, chocolate is out. No discussion bout it. The whole idea behind losing weight is to use more energy than you eat.

In any case, how old are you? if you're under 19 or 20, cutting energy intake and reducing bodyfat drastically should only be done if you're really overweight and under medical supervision. Your growth might be affected, and it is generally a grey area where not much conclusive research has been done.

Your routine seems ok for what you're doing. I would focus on the basics: squats, bench presses, deadlifts, pullups, and do a lot of sprinting.

[edyzmedieval]

I'm around 1.76-1.77, around 72kg (so not even close to overweight) and turning 17 in July.

Sprinting I will really need, as I suffer in basketball because of the lack of speed. Will try the other ones too.

[Beirut]

Hey SwordsMaster,

A question: what is the best sugar to use when making energy bars. I usually use molasses (a 1/4 cup for roughly 8 to 10 good size bars end product), but brown sugar makes the bars nice and chewy and seems to help hold them together. White sugar is out because white sugar is white death, as my sister puts it. What about honey? I already put in a good amount of dark chocolate chips but all in all the bars aren't very sweet at all nor do I want them to be. But I do want something in the bar that will give me a quick boost, as opposed to all the slower acting stuff I put in, like oats and nuts. Oh, I do put in raisins and dried cranberries as well.

[SwordsMaster]

Hey SwordsMaster,

A question: what is the best sugar to use when making energy bars. I usually use molasses (a 1/4 cup for roughly 8 to 10 good size bars end product), but brown sugar makes the bars nice and chewy and seems to help hold them together. White sugar is out because white sugar is white death, as my sister puts it. What about honey? I already put in a good amount of dark chocolate chips but all in all the bars aren't very sweet at all nor do I want them to be. But I do want something in the bar that will give me a quick boost, as opposed to all the slower acting stuff I put in, like oats and nuts. Oh, I do put in raisins and dried cranberries as well.

Wow, that's a lot of energy there. General rule of thumb: sugar, as unrefined as possible.

Now, raisins are ridiculously high in energy. This one summer, I spent a week days eating raisins for 2 of my meals a day, only stopping for one meal - was driving through France, time was of the essence - long story - and in a week of driving 6 hours a day and eating about 2 pounds of raisins a day I put on 4 kg. So you might be getting enough energy already, specially if you complement with chocolate. Of course if your weight is steady, i guess no harm is being done (unless you're losing the muscle and packing on the fat...)

Generally also, the darker the berries in their original state, the better they are for you, so cranberries are great, dark grapes and dark raisins (and red wine!) are great too. (And so is Guinness, for example, but that's a different can of worms...)

Honey is also great stuff. Again, go for the least refined, darker variety you can find, and generally use at your pleasure. There are few natural sugars that are as good and easy to work through the system as honey.

So roughly, pure sugar should account for the least calories possible. For quick energy use raisins, honey or berries instead, if you can. Oats should be a substantial component so you keep going, as well as nuts, that have great fats and pack some of the best calorie-per-gram densities you'll find.

I hope this helps. Generally remember that fat has 3 times as much energy per gram as sugar. Protein is in between. Sugar is the easiest to absorb, followed by protein - so unless you use it to build muscle, will get burnt for fuel, and fat takes longest to get rid of (never woulda guessed...)

Beirut and his talk of baking made me hungry now...

[Beirut]

The bars are in the oven as we speak. I checked here before I finished mixing the batch, but I only saw your post after I had made them. I ended up using some maple syrup and some (very little, tablespoons) brown sugar. The end result for a dozen muffins is: 1 1/2 cups organic oats, 1/2 cup organic spelt flour, 1/2 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup ground pecans, small bag crushed walnuts, lots of raisins and chocolate chips, 2 eggs, olive oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, and heat.

I use soya or hemp protein sometimes, and usually cranberries, but I don't have any now. Any additions you think are a good idea, please share.

This won't be the best batch, but they should be pretty good. For the most part, they serve as a daily second breakfast and emergency stop-the-shakes food to keep in the lunch box. But I usually eat only one a day. The rest of the day, aside from lunch, is always a litre of fruit juice, and lots of green apples and bananas.

The problem with bananas is they make you very sexy to the blackflies for some reason. But that's what Off! is for.