God is in the Details: Planning Ahead 101

Well, well, well...

In about two weeks I would have completed 10 whole months of straight up Wellness Logging. I could not be happier. Most of you who follow me on social media already know about my obsession with the Wellness Log and how it organizes my entire life in terms of exercise, nutrition and supplementation as well as being the sole program I follow and the entity entirely responsible for my progress over the past year both physically and mentally.

But the Wellness Log isn't just about reading it day-by-day and following it as it comes; it's all about planning ahead. Most people see it as more of a daunting premise that they're told what to eat day in, day out for eight whole weeks. I, on the other hand, think of it another way entirely. I believe that knowing what I'll be consuming - down to the midday snacks - for eight weeks gives me an advantage over others. It allows me to plan way ahead. It allows me to set tight budgets for groceries and know that I won't be squandering money on things that'll end up taking up shelf space then going to waste. Most of all, it allows me to deal with the curve balls life throws at me, whether it's business travel, a weekend getaway to the beach or just simply staying at the office a little longer than I had planned.

Obviously I'm on the extreme side of the spectrum, I in no way try to convince others I'm "normal" or a "standard" to follow. I treat my body like the machine I believe it is. I feed it the right fuels, make sure it's moving and functioning properly and above all; ensure that it gets the rest it deserves and needs from time to time. I do however believe that my methods are universally applicable to anyone who wants to take charge and make sure their approach is fool-proof. I digress.

Where do you start? Read up.

Whether you're following the Wellness Log or any other program, you should know up ahead that nutrition is 80-90% if the game. Exercise is the easy bit. It only happens for an hour a day or less. The remaining 23 hours of the day make or break your entire progress. Planning ahead comes down to read up and understanding all the variables which you need to be aware of in order to control.

Fig. 1: Sample shot from The Wellness Log Eight-Week Schedule

When I get my new log, I spend an entire day reading the whole thing, understanding my meal schedule, its patterns, and making up a grocery list of the items I'd need every week in their specific quantities which allows me to set a specific budget.

Next up is learning how to cook in bulk.

This one comes down to gaining experience over time. You're to burn a lot of food at first. Under-cook it, overcook it or straight up fuck shit up in your kitchen. We're not all natural born Julia Childs. You gain experience in the kitchen and you get better at managing multiple tasks and eventually getting good enough to cook for the entire week and knowing how to store foods properly and knowing which foods can live out a week in your fridge and which foods can only be made on the day of.

Fig. 2: Cooking in bulk can help alleviate the mental stress associated with daily cooking

Things like oven roasted/grilled chicken or cooked vegetables generally tend to live out just fine in sealed Tupperware containers inside your fridge or freezer over the week. Things such as salads on the other hand are best made fresh on the day of to avoid wilting of greens.

The biggest weapon in my arsenal though? The briefly aforementioned Tupperware.

Fig. 3: Your new bestest of friends, family and loved ones all compactly stored together in joyous harmony

Air/Liquid tight Tupperware containers can and will become your new best friends. You will store cooked food into them. You will scurry your daily meals into them and carry them across town to college or work. You will wash them. You will cherish them. You will be committed to them. You will drive up to Vermont and hold a commitment ceremony with them. You will love them forever.

At the end I guess it all comes down to how much you want it, and if you want it bad enough, you'll find yourself willing to make sacrifices you found laughable just weeks or even days ago. You'll be cooking the next day's food the night before. You'll be the guy with the comically large backpack who walks around everywhere with his 3,000 calories-a-day in tow. You won't be fazed by the ridicule you get even from your friends because at the end of the day; you do what you do for you, to become the best you.

Are you ready to walk down that road?

The Bouncing Yo-Yo That Is You: Weight Fluctuations

Well look at you. You've done it. You've conquered your lazy fuck of an alter-ego and managed to get that cellulite-infested tushy off the couch, away from the screen showing repeat episodes of Game of Thrones and committed yourself into adopting a healthier and more active lifestyle.

Except oh wait look at that those two kilos you thought you'd shanked off of you last week seemed to have come back. With a vengeance I might add. Now I'm not talking about a plateau here, I'm talking the scale is showing you going up in numbers despite your more than humble efforts in the gym and in the kitchen.

Overwhelmed by confusion, you try to re-visit your actions over the past week. Was it the extra banana you decided to gorge on thinking that fruits are kosher? Was it your mother secretly rubbing butter all over your steamed broccoli, which would also explain why you could suddenly swallow broccoli without feeling repulsed? Was it perhaps invisible calories floating in the air? Can breathing make you fatter? Should I stop breathing?

You, my friend, are merely a victim to ignorance. You see, a big part of the whole taking the reins in regards to fitness and overall wellness is research and more research. You need to learn a great deal about the human body and its intricate complex network of inner workings in order to truly prepare yourself for the inevitable fact that comes crashing against everyone just like that wave that destroyed the pathetic excuse of a sandcastle you built as a child during that one time your parents decided they could feign being happy together enough to drag the entire family on an uncomfortable road trip to some godforsaken overcrowded smelly beach for a week where you'd endure nothing but mosquito bites, mediocre food, odd family gatherings and sun burns. Ah, to be young again...

I digress.

Your problem is that you're awfully focused on a number. Not just a number that you hope to reach, but the concept of numbers itself. Scales are about as good an indicator of overall fitness as tigers are experts in the field of vegan cuisine. The story they tell you is contorted, if at all true. Scales do not account for the amount of muscles you have gained. They can't tell the difference between bone, fat and muscle. They can't tell you if those two kilos you've gain are split evenly among 300 grams of new muscle mass, a one-kilogram poop currently held up inside your rectum and 700 grams of water weight. A scale can give you a number that is as representative of who you are as that Gothic phase you adopted during high school speaks to who you are as a person. (Editor's note: This analogy only works so long as you had decided to drop the Gothic alter ego from your life by the time you got to college or later on, and if you hadn't, well...I'm sorry for all the anger?)

Weight fluctuations are a very natural part of the life-long fitness journey we're all meant to embark onto. People who maintain a solid figure year-round are those whose lives revolve around that very concept. Their livelihood depends on it, they're sponsored athletes who must be at certain numbers depending on whether or not they're in contest-season. You on the other hand are a college student or someone with a 9-to-5 to job. You don't compete in contests that demand you fulfill a certain number in order to represent under a specific weight class or category.

You're someone with a higher calling. You're someone who wants to be the best possible version of themselves despite of all the odds of modern life and her temptations stacking up against them. Professional athletes have impressive physiques, but I'd say a more impressive feat is maintaining that resolve and sticking it out without being a sponsored athlete whose sole occupation is to workout and eat right.

Me and my pops tearing it up in the gym

What I'm trying to say is this. Relax. It's not a quick stop till you hit a goal weight then unwind. This is a life long commitment. A commitment to always being active and treating your body the way it deserves. Think of it this way, you can have a Mercedes S-500, but if you pump that sweet motherfucker full of diesel, all you're going to end up with is a very expensive car-shaped paper weight. You give it the 95-grade fuel it deserves, and it'll take you places. Your body is the same way. Wholesome nutrition and proper exercise transform your body into an entity that will take care of you down the line just as you have taken care of it.

Weight fluctuations mean nothing if your eyes are really focused on the prize; to be better than you were yesterday.

Office Fitness: Healthy Tips for Corporate Slaves (Part 1)

Do you toil in a desk job for a living? Do you punch in your timestamp at 9 AM on the dot and not a moment sooner lest your boss dock off a couple of days from your pay? Are you expected to perform at optimal levels day in, day out from 9 to 5 (and sometimes even later) every day of the year? Are you and the office chair spending so much time together your ass has effectively been molded to fill the entire space?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, then this post, dear fellow corporate slave, is most definitely for you.

Fitness and leading a healthy lifestyle in general is always a bit of a hurdle to those of us who lead the corporate life. Many of us end up with a “choose this or the other” type of option and often follow the money trail at the expense of their fitness, believing they’ll make enough money in a couple of years to quit while they’re ahead and get right back on track. Only suddenly you’re 36 and your shirts’ buttons aren’t as cooperative as they used to be back in the day and your belt holes are only getting wider and you’re still working the same job.

Image Source/Photodisc/Getty Images

It’s not a matter of selecting being fit and poor or being unfit and bringing home the greens, thinking like that only highlights the fact that you’re not really 100% committed to the concept of being fit. If you think of it as a choice or an option then that means you’re probably not that into it in the first place. Fitness or leading a healthy lifestyle isn’t a phase or passing trend, it’s a lifelong commitment and it requires dedication.

Your two main assault weapons as a corporate whore who wants to make sure they stay on top of their fitness game will be Planning and Discipline. There’s no shortcut when it comes to it. It’s all in or none at all. The trickiest part for those of us at corporate usually stems from nutrition and how hard it is to stay faithful to the course with temptation, office kitchen snacks, co workers’ birthdays and many other factors influencing us.

The biggest challenge for those who wish to stay fit and still maintain their corporate benefits usually stems from believing they don’t have the time or energy to plan things out or make arrangements and it honestly revolves around how lazy you are. If you want it bad enough, you’ll make it happen. No, you don’t have to order McDonald’s or Pizza Hut with the rest of the office gang just because it’s more convenient. No, you don’t have to starve yourself at the office all day subsiding on oxygen and prayer till you make it home so you’re not tempted to gorge on junk food at your desk then cry it out by the paper shredder later that afternoon. What your tie or skirt wearing ass needs to do is shake your brand name wallet and invest in some microwave air/liquid tight tupperware containers.

Yes sirs and madams, that does indeed mean planning ahead and preparing your day’s meals or even your week’s ahead of time. The process is fairly simple, some things can be made in bulk and stored in airtight containers in the fridge to be taken out and heated in the microwave for consumption throughout the week while some others need to be made fresh (salads, sandwiches, etc.) on the same day to be edible. I personally dedicate one of my weekend days, usually Friday to do my entire week’s grocery shopping in the early mornings before all the moms and pops are invading the aisles with their mismanaged carts. Getting all your week’s groceries also means you need to plan ahead what you’ll be eating that week and that’s completely dependent on your fitness plan, your exercise style, current goals and of course, your picky ass pallet.

So now you’ve settled on what you’re having throughout the week, you’ve gotten your meats, fish, carbs, dairy, fats and beverages in bulk and are now back in the kitchen - sans a hefty sum of cash - and a fuckton of ingredients. Now what?

Now you get to the real fun part. As mentioned earlier, investing in some quality tupperware is essential for the success, sustainability and ease of this plan. The whole point is that you want to get a routine going for you so that the process becomes easy and without surprises. If you’re planning to have chicken breasts or white fish fillets for lunch throughout the week, start grilling/roasting/steaming those en masse and once done store in their respective containers. If you’re roasting/steaming vegetables or sweet potatoes get on that as well and store accordingly. Many of your snacks will comprise of raw fruits, nuts and yogurt for instance so that will require little to no preparation on your part past packing them in your food bag in the morning.

Which brings me to my next point, packaging. Obviously this means waking up a tid bit earlier - or if you’re a real bed hugger, preparing it the night before - so you can section off your day’s meals in your tag alone tupperware containers before you head out to work. I assume you’re smart enough to eat breakfast before you leave the home so realistically you’ll only need to be packing two to four meals (snack #1, lunch, snack# 2 and dinner if you’re staying late at the office that day). As mentioned items such as salads and sandwiches need to be made fresh hence the waking up a tidbit earlier part so you can get on that. A good mixed green salad or sandwich shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes total in terms of preparation and packaging once you get the hang of it.

Alright, that seems fairly simple in regards to nutrition, no? On to the second half of the equation, to get your ass shaking!

If the saying that “Abs are 20% in the gym and 80% in the kitchen” is true, that still means those 20% are essential motherfuckers as far as you’re concerned. When it comes to the 9-5 life, the concept of working out is summed up to one simple premise; choosing the right time. I for one decided long ago that the whole hit the gym after work simply was not for me. I had no energy, no motivation and certainly no capacity to withstand the hordes of other people in a now packed gym so I hit the weights before work around 6 AM. Naturally that choice simply isn’t for anyone and everyone. Some people genuinely can’t wake up that early, while some others don’t mind working out after their work day at all. It’s completely up to you. An added bonus for early risers however is the unmatched pleasure of a gym you do not have to share with others!

Image Source/SimplyShredded.com

So yes choosing the right time is essential, but more important, choosing a time you can consistently work out during is all the more important. Remember, we’re trying to instigate a routine at play here. Routine means order, order means focus, focus means results.

Having a good well thought out long term plan is essential for your overall fitness goals. Good nutrition only compliments a good exercise plan. Make sure you have a plan that addresses your goals and has milestones and check marks so you can always review your progress and tweak as necessary as you go along.

If you think this is anywhere near over, just hang in there and stay tuned for Part 2 about the Office fitness!

The Worst Kept Secrets In the Fitness Industry (Part 5): Weight Maintenance & Management

Don’t you just hate how we’re in a constant state of yo-yo-ing? Haven’t you always wondered how your weight can shift by two to three kilograms every other week? Don’t you just hate how you can’t figure out why your body is being a little bitch about weight gain?

It’s science time, bitch!

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. Specifically some 200,000 years ago right around the time Homo sapiens really made their breakthrough on this floating rock in space. You ought to know what our over-glorified species has evolved since then with hardwired mechanisms for survival just like every other creature on Earth. Much like other animals, we were opportunistic feeders, gatherers and hunters, eating whenever possible because you never knew when the next meal would come by. Fast forward to today, we’ve allocated millions of square kilometers to farmland, grocery stores fill every corner of our streets with foods stacked up further than you can reach, your fridge is within arm’s reach and filled with goodies.

Do you know what the problem with that is? Our bodies simply didn’t have enough time to co-evolve alongside our progression as a species. Your bodies have historically been hardwired for fat storage - for the purpose of survival - and to store a % of consumed food (which was historically consumed over prolonged intervals, sometimes days) into fat. Your bodies simply haven't caught up with the concept that you can eat every hour on the hour. That's why you look around and see obesity rates skyrocketing across the globe. Humans need to understand that their bodies are unaware that we've evolved into growing and hoarding food so close to our hearts. The same concept applies to gaining muscles!

Believe it or not, it's somewhat contradictory to your body's mantra to even put on muscle mass. Your body views it as an unnecessary expenditure of energy and resources towards something that is otherwise used sparingly. Your body is much more geared towards fat storage because fats are an excellent source of energy whereas muscles promote increased functional movement but aren't an optimal energy storage mechanism. And that's not taking into account the actual energy which goes into maintaining muscle mass let alone create it.

Muscle is created when an external force exerts itself on existing muscles, rendering the need for more muscle fiber in order to perform the same movement (lift the same weight) more easily the next time. Weight lifting operates by the mode of creating micro-tears in your muscle fibers, which your body then fixes by filling up those tears and then adding on new fibers and motor units to increase functional strength. But maintaining such muscle mass in the modern era is like fighting an uphill battle. Our ancestors were arguably much fitter and much more capable of holding onto their muscle mass due to their more active lifestyle, whether as hunters, warriors or farmers prior to the automation of the process and reliance on machinery. A constantly active and engaging lifestyle guarantees an easier maintenance of weight due to the interexchange of calories between muscle gain and fat storage/loss. Nowadays though, it's a different story...

The trick here is about ensuring you have a good plan with two attack angles. Step 1: An active routine. You can't expect to labor away at a desk for eight to ten hours then go back home to crash in front of the TV for three more hours and then magically keep your weight and waistline stable. You need to get moving.

A weight lifting routine (girls, don't freak out and go running for the hills just yet you WON'T get bulky and manly looking) ensures that your bones, muscles, tendons and joints are challenged towards putting on muscle mass and burning through fat storages while boosting overall metabolism. Weight lifting also ensures increased bone density which is arguably far more important for women who are at a constant risk of bone density loss on account of pregnancy. Weight lifting routines which are consistently maintained and tweaked every four to six weeks also create a hormonal balance which puts the body in the right state for anabolism (muscle building) rather than catabolism (muscle breakdown).

And remember, when it comes to muscles, use it or lose it. Your body will not waste energy on something that's taking up space and offering no functionality. The process is known as muscle atrophy and it simply means that muscles that aren't constantly engaged and have their limits pushed are broken down into basic elements and their nutrients recycled back throughout your body. If you use the muscle, it will grow and stay there.

Step 2: Nutrition Plans. No, I'm not talking about counting calories. I leave that shit to Victoria's Secret models and celebrities. Normal people who have school, university or desk jobs don't have the luxury of having teams of people whose sole occupation is to ensure they look good. Which bring me to a good point. Stop comparing yourself to celebrities and their physiques. They operate on entirely different levels. They are paid to look like that. Their lifestyle revolves around that. You can't expect to achieve the same levels while leading your normal life with all its shit and giggles. But I digress...

Your nutrition plan needs to account for both your active routine as well as your largely sedentary lifestyle (which you need to change!). That means that meal timing is everything. Don't munch on apple for breakfast and reach out for the chicken and pasta before you sleep. Eat heartily when you wake up. Your body needs the energy and your body is likely to burn through whatever you eat for breakfast (unless it's ice cream, which it shouldn't be, unless your name is Willy Wonka). You should eat a good combo of proteins and complex carbohydrates before your workout and a similar meal after your workout when your body needs nutrients the most. Your dinners should be consumed at least three hours before bedtime and should focus on giving your body something to do while you snooze (think Cottage cheese) with snacks throughout the day including fruits, nuts or yogurt.

What you need to do is be honest to yourself about this. It's not easy. Acknowledge it. It's not a short trip. It's not a one off trip till you reach some fantasy goal. This is a lifestyle. Your weight will still - to a degree - bounce around until you find that balance and learn enough about yourself, what affects you, what works for you, and what doesn't. You might discover that dairy makes you bloated and you should cut it out, you might discover adding oats to your diet helps you lose belly fat, you might figure out that drop sets workout for your muscle building capacity than normal sets, etc.

Take this as an opportunity to learn about yourself, your body and what you think you can do. The results may surprise you.

Remember that your body doesn't know what you're doing, it doesn't know you want to hit 10% body fat and look like a model at the beach. It doesn't care for your muscle building. It's a cold calculating machine which allocates resources (and strips them off!) as necessary. All your body wants to do is to store some fat and ensure that your dumb ass survives long enough to propagate and spread your genetic material down into the genetic pool. 

You need to control it, don't let it drive you around.