Bryan Parady's Blog, page 9

Trying to Cram Calories for Bulking?

Everyone has different goals.  For some it’s to lose weight, for others it’s to bulk, for others cutting is what they are after.  I personally love to bulk.  Probably because it’s such a challenge to do and put on healthy weight.

Because of this I have to eat a lot of food.  But not any food.  Sure I could down a whole pack of oreos and hit my calories for the day but it definitely wouldn’t be the weight I’m looking for.  Couple that with a high metabolism, and an active lifestyle, and active job, and it’s hard to get the calories I need to continue to bulk.

I have to consume at least 3,400 calories to maintain my current weight/muscle mass, and if I want to grow, which I do, I have to add to it.  Getting that many clean calories is challenging.  So how do you eat that much without puking?  Well sometimes you feel like puking, at least I do.

But one thing that really helps is smoothies.  I drink a smoothie in the morning and in the evening in addition to all my meals.  They are my own blends, and while they definitely are not very tasty they give me a little over 1,500 calories, so they are a necessity to me.

So what’s in them?

1 Cup of Milk

1 banana

1 and 1/2 scoops of a blend of protein powder

3 Tablespoons of almond butter or all natural peanut butter,

1/2 cup of yogurt

and last but not least, 6 Tablespoons of heavy whipping cream.

No the whipping cream is not the best thing, but I can get 300 calories from 6 Tablespoons, and it’s one shortcut I do take.

Smoothies are great if you are gaining, or losing weight, for losing they act as a great meal replacement, and with just some almond milk and protein powder you can hold yourself over.

Would love to connect with you.  Hit me up at my email: directorb.blog@gmail.com if you have any further questions.

Also follow me on Twitter by clicking my Twitter profile on the right side of the screen.  Happy lifting and eating!

Healthy Prep Meal

So prepping is something I harp on a lot.  It’s so key to healthy eating.  I love chili and I love meals that are simple that last.  So here is a great healthy chili recipe.  It last me, my wife, and daughter 2 dinners, plus lunches.

What you need:

1 large can 28oz of diced tomatoes,

1 small can of 14oz diced tomatoes,

2 can of red beans

1 can of black beans

2 cans of corn

1 – 2 lbs of ground turkey

1 Tablespoon of garlic powder

5 Tablespoons of chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste.

Throw the turkey in a large pot and brown, then throw all the tomatoes in a blender and pureee, add to pot, along with all the beans and corn.  Fill rest of pot with water.  Add seasoning.  Let cook on low – medium heat for at least an hour.  That’s it you are don!  Easy as pie, but way healthier ;).  You can also make this in the crockpot and let it simmer all day.

Add some blue chips or organic yellow chips and some cheese and you are set.  Would love to hear your easy to make, healthy prep foods!

If you’d like more info on healthy eating or have questions, comment below or email me at: directorb.blog@gmail.com

Get There Mentally

If you’ve been on a fitness journey for any length of time you know that the biggest struggle is with staying strong mentally.  Your mind can play tricks on you, it tells you that you are not making progress, it will come up with a million reasons of why you “deserve” to take a day off, or have another cheat day.

If you want true results in the gym you’ve got to stay strong mentally.

Our society and busy life can really drain us mentally.  I’ve been struggling with this myself lately.  Not anything related to fitness, but just other things that have been a drain mentally for me lately, and it carries over into the gym.

That’s why it’s so important to build your mind up.  Read books, if you don’t have time to read, listen to some audio books.  There are times when I’m driving and I think “I just want to veg out to some music”, but it doesn’t help my mental state, but if I put in some kind of motivational audio book, or something that is teaching me, I find my mood drastically and quickly changes.

We’ve got to make conscious decisions to stay strong mentally.  Whether it’s reconnected with someone you are in a relationship with where there’s been strain, or whether it’s setting aside some time to meditate and read to recharge, take care of yourself mentally so that you can truly build yourself physically.

I Don’t Have Time

“I don’t have time!” Not only do I hear that for just about everything in life, but I also hear it especially in regards to working out.  Well, in the words of my grandfather, “you’ve got time for what you want to have time for”.  And it’s true.  I work full time, am a reservist in the military, run a side business, married, have a 3 year old, and run my fitness blog, and get the gym in almost every day. I know about being busy.

Yes when you are busy it makes things sometimes hectic and crazy.  There’s some days when I am exhausted, and in all honesty I look forward to those rare weekends that aren’t jammed pack and scheduled 2 months in advance.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You’ve got to make the time. I know. I know, it’s hard. Do it anyway.  If I counted how many days a year I had time or felt like working out it would be very few and far between.  But I make it a priority.

Time management is key here, and yes you may have to give up something.  Like your 2 hours of netflix and chill every night.  Like your having to be planted on your couch for the next episode of whatever tv show is popular right now.  It takes sacrificing, but a year down the road are you going to be more glad that you gave up a tv show and got in shape, or that you saw every episode without fail of your show?  Which is going to matter when you are 80 years old? I mean really.

Time management is key.  If you can’t get to the gym at night, then start going to bed earlier (that’s right earlier) and get up and go to the gym early.  I’m in bed by 10 every night, sometimes earlier.  It’s so important to be in bed early so you can be up early.

So let’s stop with the excuses, make the time and get in the gym.

If you are have any questions on workouts comment below or email me at: directorb.blog@gmail.com

 

Weight Training Tips

So you want to start weight training but you’re unsure how to.  Well it’s actually far more simple than you think.  Get to a gym and start.  That’s right.  You’ve got to get in there and start trying.

Break your weight days into muscle groups.  Here is how I break my weight training days up.  I do 2 days then off 1 day.  I break my muscle groups into chest and triceps, then arm day, then rest. My third day is shoulder and back day.  And my fourth day is leg day.  Then I do another day which I call my power day.  I do all my really power house workouts like bench press, shoulder press, squats and try to max out on all of them.

Now that you have an idea of how to break up your muscle groups you need to start focusing on those groups.  If you are unsure of what exercises to do go online, and look up arm day exercises.  With some dumbells and a barbell you can pretty much do any arm workout.

If weights are still somewhat scary to you, start off on machines.  Ask a gym employee to show you the arm machines, chest machines, etc, or if you’d rather not ask just walk around and look at the labels on the machines, they will show you what muscle groups they work as well as how to perform the workout on the machine.

Lastly, there are some great libraries of workouts for different muscles groups on bodybuilding.com.  Click here to go there: Weight Training Exercises

Slow and Steady

There’s lots of stories about working hard, about perseverance.  They sound nice right?  Till we are face to face with having to persevere through something.  Then it’s not such a great story.  But in reality the slow and steady is the only way to fitness.  There is no overnight cure for getting in shape.  Regardless of what anyone tells you.

Now that doesn’t mean there are not some great products out there to aid you on your way to fitness because there are, I know because I strongly believe in the one I distribute, but it’s stepping stone to living a healthy life, not a quick fix band aid.

So if you are trying to figure out how to do the whole gym or cardio thing here is some advice.  First off, don’t give up.  It will be hard, you will have days you don’t want to, but keep going.

Second, focus on your goals.  Are you wanting to lose weight?  Bulk?  If losing weight is your goal, do more cardio, 3 days a week cardio and 2 on strength training.  If you definitely don’t want to lose weight, go a full 5 days on solely strength training.

There are a lot of ways to get your cardio in.  Running is by far the best.  Even if you can’t run far, get on a treadmill or outside and run as far as you can, then walk, then run again.  Keep this up, day after day and you will gradually build up.  Biking, and the eliptical machines are good too.

For weight training, you really want to focus on different muscle groups.  You don’t want to work out the same muscles everyday.  I’ll touch on some ways to get yourself on a weight training schedule in my next blog.

How To Get Buff

So you want to get bulked.  Want to look buff.  It’s not the easiest task, but it is definitely doable with some hard work, discipline, and long term commitment.

I used to be a twig.  No really I was.  I decided one day to start lifting some weights.  I went to the store and bought a bench and some free weights and just started lifting.   I felt embarrassed at how little I could lift, and I probably looked silly for a very long time.

Over time I started to see some improvement but it wasn’t to the level I wanted.  Then I discovered the importance of diet.  I know many people who think that as long as they go to the gym they can eat whatever they want.  Well you can, but don’t wonder why you are seeing the results you want.

Fast forward a few years.  I am a far cry from the person I started out as.  I am up over 40 lbs of muscle with more to go, when you truly get into fitness, you never stop wanting to improve and set new goals.

So where do you begin?  Well, just start.  You don’t have to have everything together before you start.  You don’t have to have the 200 dollar shoes, the perfect under armour outfit (I still go to the gym in some basketball shorts and a plain white t.  I can’t bring myself to spend a ton of money on clothes I’m gonna stink up and sweat in). You need determination, you need grit.  Get into a gym, ask someone working there to help get you started.  If you are too shy, go to bodybuilding.com and look up some different workouts (there are tons for free).

 

Once you are working on the fitness aspect, start eating right.  Again if you don’t know where to start here are some basic pointers.  Get a fitness app that allows you to track calories.  Input your info and find out how many calories you want to consume for your weight goals.  myfitness pal is a good one.  You can input your height, weight, age, and your goal of either losing or gaining weight and it will tell you what amount of calories you need to hit.

Next cut the crap food.  No fast food, no soda, no sugar, no white anything (breads, pastas, etc.  go all whole wheat).  Stop cooking with grease, use butter or olive oil.  Replace sugary drinks with water, and drink lots of water.  64 oz a day bare minimum.

There’s so much more, but this will get you off to a great start.  If you have more questions, feel free to email me at: directorb.blog@gmail.com

I am also a distributor of a fantastic, weight loss/energy booster product.  So if you have questions on that hit me up.  Would love to connect with you.

Healthy Snacking

So you want to get healthy but those dang snacks keep creeping up on you.  The sodas, the candy bars, the vending machines.  The fast food.  It all looms at us every day.  It’s easy to say we aren’t going to give in to those snacks but when we find ourselves hungry we find ourselves turning towards the unhealthy.

So what’s a person to do?  Replace the bad with good.   Yep if you just vow to stop eating snacks but don’t replace it with anything, you are going to fail.  You’ve go to replace it with healthy alternatives.  Make your own trail mix with, almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, peanuts, sunflower seeds etc.  Trail mix is a great healthy source of protein that will curb your hunger.

Bananas or other fruit are a great substitute as well, they are easy to take with you on the go.

Granola bars, like kashi bars are good, but be careful here because the calories add up with granola bars.

Mashed dates rolled in peanut bits, or coconut make a great snack when you are craving something sweet.

If you are looking for snacks at home, grab some blue chips (most stores sell these now), and some salsa.  It’s a great pick me up snack that’s healthy.  You can also substitute the chips for different veggies, cucumber, carrots, and celery are all great dipped in salsa.

There are endless possibilities for substituting snacks.  So grab something to replace the bad!

 

Weight Training

Maybe you have been doing weight training for awhile, or maybe you are just starting, either way there is always more to learn.  I am constantly learning new workouts, new techniques, new ways to kill it in the gym.

I don’t know if you are familiar with microcycles, but I cannot tell you how much stronger I am since starting microcycles.  I’ve hit my personal bests on almost every single weight training workout by focusing on microcycles.

So what is a microcycle? A microcycle is a set way to do training for a week and then you switch it up.  I personally base my workouts off of Jim Stoppani’s microcycles.  Basically it’s 4 microcycles each consisting of one week in length.  For one week all my workouts are targeted at 12-15 reps.  The second week, the weight increases, and I am doing 9-11.  Week 3 weight increases again and doing 6-8 reps.

By my fourth week I am doing very heavy weights and only 3-5 reps.  Then after the 4 weeks the cycle continues, only this time, the weight I do on my 12-15 reps is a lot higher than it was 4 weeks prior.

I’ve tried a lot of different things and this has been by far what I’ve seen the most results on.  If you are just starting or need to take your weight lifting to the next level, I highly recommend using microcycles.

Get Off Your Butt

So you want to get in shape?  You want to be healthy.  You want more energy.  You want to get off meds that you are on because of high blood pressure, diabetes, or some other ailment.  Any of these ringing a bell?  We all have different reasons we want to be fit.  And you want to know something?  Any reason is a good one.

I love watching the biggest loser.  I love seeing the transformation in people.  Even more than the physical transformation, I love seeing the confidence, and the excitement pour out of people as they get their weight and health on track.  It gives them hope, encouragement, and the desire to be a better version of themselves.

Find your reason why.  Declare you reason why, don’t let anyone change your view on it, write it on your walls, your bathroom mirrors, put it in your car.  Tell yourself your reason why every day.  I mean it.  You are not crazy for talking out loud to yourself.  You need to affirm yourself.

Find your why and do whatever it takes to get there.

 

Biggest Loser Motivation