Spaghetti Squash...its not just for dinner anymore

No, that's not a toy I had removed by doctors from my buttocks (or is it?), its a spaghetti squash and let me tell you they are damn good.  Consider this...if you eat this stuff instead of pasta, the taste is every bit as good, its healthier, and the calorie swing is something that NASA would have to calculate because its so dramatic.

How do you make one of these babies you ask?  I'm not totally sure how its made but I see the wife stab it with a knife 40-50 times, then put it in the microwave and run it for five minutes, then take it out while she swears like a sailor, then rotate, then microwave some more, then do it all again.  Once its done, you take it out, shred the inside and it looks just like spaghetti, then pour a nice healthy marinara sauce with some lean ground beef or chicken breast over it and you're having a hearty meal that is extremely healthy.

We ate one of these little beauties last night and the whole family liked it.  Sure my ass sounded like a bullhorn all night and all morning but that's a small price to pay for clean living!

GO OUT AND GET ONE TODAY

Oh m'Legs Ache

I got to the gym today and decided to do some leg lifting for the first time in a long time.  This chick was next to me showing me how its done.....ok maybe not, but holy balls my freaking legs are sore already.  Pure agony.

On the nutrition and weight front, I'm doing good, down 20 pounds and feeling like a champ.  Last night I let temptation get to me and I got into the Triscuits.  Triscuits are awesome but you can't eat just one of those babies, I think they were made by the devil to tempt me.

Three Cheers For The Wife

We've got some people coming over today and that means a disaster for Beast Mode.  However, since nobody's here yet, I've been trying to keep it together and not go DEFCON 1 on the food.  So I had a healthy breakfast, and one hot dog for lunch but I was still not full and I was considering a second hot dog.  That's when my little lady, the wife, stepped in and got the save.  Turns out the wife had just made a tasty peach and vanilla protein smoothie (pictured above) with crushed ice in the Vitamix 5200 and that sucker was just what I needed.  The smoothie tasted just like a Pina Colada without the booze (unfortunately) and it did the trick for now.  Teamwork...that's what its all about.

There is Now Less of Me

Sorry I've been off the radar for a while, beast mode and job searching have been taking up a huge amount of time.  The good news is, I've lost 12 pounds in the past couple of weeks and I'm going full steam ahead with the workouts and eating right.

Instead of chowing down on delicious fast food and hooch all the time, I've been watching the booze intake and most of my meals look something like this:

That's right people, the kid is getting it done!

Gnome Beer

Beast Mode was slightly modified last night when I went out with some friends and had more than a few of these little babies.  The good news was, I ate lite and kept it together.  The crazy part is, when I had my cab driver drop me off a couple blocks from home so I could walk through the hood and enjoy the night air, a whole bunch of cats came out of nowhere and started following me.  I'm not sure if this Belgian ale with the farting gnome on the bottle makes you smell like catnip or something but it was freaking odd.

I did decide to get up and weigh in this morning.  To my pleasant surprise, I'm down seven pounds so far this week.  Beast Mode rules!

Master of the Dawn

Here's me this morning in the middle of my 6:45am ride trying to look all cool but ultimately looking like a massive dork.  Was I listening to sinful rock and roll music you ask?  No, I was listening to 'The Startup of You' because its about time I get my ass back to work and make some money.  Just remember, if it don't make dollars, it don't make sense.

The wife made me healthy poached eggs this morning and as I was eating them, she politely suggested to me that drinking wine every day and eating like a pig could possibly be hindering my weight loss and fitness goals.  She's no expert on human biology, but man, I'm telling you, that lady cold be on to something!

According to Shapefit.com:

Pure alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram, which makes it nearly twice as fattening as carbohydrates or protein (both contain about 4 calories per gram) and only just under the caloric value for fat (9 calories per gram). This means that if you want to lose weight and reduce excess body fat, alcohol is not a good choice.

I wish those health folks would be more clear about things.  What are they really trying to say?

Chubb-O-Reeno

I realized after I saw some video of me this weekend that my five weeks of an unemployed life of excess are taking their toll on my gut and getting on the scale this morning confirmed as much.  I've gotten so large, that I'm in talks with some movie studios about an action film dedicated to me called 'The Not So Hunger Games', where my character "Largeness Gravyspleen" battles eclairs, bacon, and cheeseburgers to the death armed only with his bow that shoots hot dogs that boomerang around and go right back into his mouth.  Yes, the eating must stop.

This morning I did a seven mile ride on the SART to the gym, followed by an upper body workout, followed by a seven mile ride on Serena to get back home.  The above photo was my breakfast, a whole fresh peach, and a scoop of banana protein powder thrown into the Vitamix 5200 with ice.

The Day is Upon Us! IT IS TIME FOR MY ANNOUNCEMENT

Without further ado, I'm finally going to make my big announcement:  I quit my day job.  That's right, you heard me...done, quit, jumped off the cliff and there's no safety net.  I am a free agent and I'm going to set the artist free! (Probably just end up getting another job).

There, announcement over, and now its time to fully commit to Operation Savage Fist.

Since I'm now unemployed, I figure its going to take a bit of time to find a new gig and I plan on using that time to throw myself at my nutrition and fitness regimen.  Gone are the days of me snacking and boozing and carrying on like some kind of cretin.  Operation Savage Fist isn't about decadence, Operation Savage Fist is about enjoying life, taking care of the body, and getting myself ready for whatever comes next.  Respect Operation Savage Fist or be run over by it!

I got on the scale this am and have determined that I need to lose 42 pounds.  If you're about to rapidly scroll down hoping for a 'before' photo with me being shirtless, you can just fucking forget it.  I don't need public scorn and ridicule, I need motivation.  I need Operation Savage Fist to work like a champ and be slicker than Katie's legs.

This morning I hit the gym for a massive upper body workout.  Tomorrow will be cardio day, and so forth.  I plan on mixing in many adventures with my beloved bike Serena too!

If you follow the Gut Chronicles, you'll note that exercise really isn't my issue.  My issue is shoveling massive amounts of food and booze into my gullet and just going for it on a daily basis.  So clearly, if Operation Savage Fist is going to work, I need to get back on the nutrition plan as well.

My lunch today was a delicious tortilla crusted talapia served over micro greens and salsa with a nice side of quinoa.  Check it out folks (first pic is just the food, 2nd pick is the wife enjoying her post workout portion)

Gonna Give it a Try

I'm just going to come right out and say it:  I've been living like a complete swine for the past week and I need to get my expanding ass back in the gym.  Today I'm going to try and get in the weight room and do something with myself before I reach the point of no return.  I've got one day to work out before I go on a little trip to a place you may have heard of called 'Hawaii' tomorrow for a golf weekend.

I'm sure you're saying "Hey dude, didn't you just get back from Hawaii?"  The answer to that question is yes, but lets be honest, ballers ball and I'm a baller so I'm going back and I'm going to golf and live it up.  It's a blessing and a curse.

The Low-down on the Gut

I was at a fund raiser carnival thing yesterday at my kid's school and while I was waiting in line for a sno-cone, one of my friends walked up to me holding a deep fried chimichanga and said hi.  After talking for a minute or two, he smacked me on the gut and said "Hey man, what's this, I thought you had this big workout thing going? You're starting to look like me!" (as he patted his own prominent beer gut with the hand that wasn't holding the massive chimichanga).  I explained to him that while I do workout on a very regular basis and with great vigor, you're pretty much not going to make any real progress unless you stop putting so much food and drink in your mouth.  This fact, that I thought was known to everyone, seemed to surprise my buddy.



Bottom line is, the science is in and there is no way anyone's going to lose weight unless they stop eating so much...me included unfortunately.  Some good points are made in this article from a Dr. at the Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss/AN01619).:

"The key to weight loss is burning more calories than you consume. Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound. So if you cut 500 calories from your diet each day, you'd lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories)."

Obviously, this is no shocking news to anyone but its important to just do the simple math.  3,500 calories is one pound.  I'd say the average workout for most people is roughly 500 calories burned.  So if you just bust out the old calculator, you'll note that fewer (and better) calories means a hell of a lot more than exercise if you're just considering weight loss.  Some food for thought below (pun intended):

• One can of coke is roughly 155 calories.  Say you have one of those babies per day, that's 1,085 calories or a little less than 1/3 of a pound per week added to your panza just for having one soft drink per day
• Chick Fil A - my favorite fast food by a mile and, as far as fast food goes, much healthier than other fast food joints.  One #5 (12 nuggets, small fry, and a medium coke) is 960 calories.  Three of those adds a pound to your fat ass or if you look at it another way, it takes two full cardio workouts (for most people) to burn off one of those delicious badboys.
• Just going to have a salad you say?  A grilled chicken Caesar salad at Chilis is 680 calories.  That's not very healthy...never mind the 22 grams of fat and a heart stopping 1,500 grams of sodium in that badboy.
• My buddie's chimichanga you ask?  According to my internet machine, there are 425 calories in a regular chimichanga.  The forearm sized chimi that my buddy was about to down was probably the size of three regular chimichangas so, even though they are delish, you're looking at three days of cardio to burn off that one chimi.
• Last but not least, our good buddy In-N-Out.  My usual, the #3 (Double double, fries, and a big coke) - Hold on to your hats and glasses folks because this $hit's about to get real!  1,265 calories.  Roughly three cardio workouts or a little over 1/3 pound straight to the old boilermaker.

Long story short, it's probably known by most but rarely thought about, but you can work out all you want and it won't do much for your weight unless you quit strapping on the feedbag and eating high quality food in normal sized portions.

Here's another good article on the subject:  http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/best-healthy-weight-loss-plan-diet/

This concludes our lecture on the painfully obvious