Rest day rambling

I'm really tired from yesterday, which I consider very positive.  But I'm really tired.  Time to eat more.

I think this is a point often lost: eating is restorative.  Most are concerned about getting fat, feeling too full, whatever.  If you aren't eating enough, recovery will be hampered.

Another way to think of it is this: Berardi's Scrawny to Brawny first habit taught is to add three blender shakes a day, and it's usually wildly successful for adding lean mass.  Why?  Because most of us think we eat enough, but we don't; add a few more quality, protein-laden calories, and lean mass results.  Does lean mass just happen?  Of course not, but if you're lifting heavy, activating the GLUt pathway, and eating a lot of clean calories, your chances are much improved.  Unless you track your calories faithfully, I'm willing to bet you don't eat enough.

Worried about getting fat?  Check out CBL from Kiefer and/or Robb's Paleo stuff.  Both are solid.  Carbs matter, as does timing.  If it didn't have a face or grow in the ground, don't eat it.  Simple.  Most Americans are getting fat from eating processed junk. (this from the guy who downed a pizza yesterday -- no need to be militant, but do be realistic)

Also, I got some BCAA+ from True Nutrition.  It's my blog, so I can shill for companies I like.  AtLarge is the bomb-diggity for protein and other supps, and True Nutrition (nee True Protein) is fantastic for just about everything.  Plus they are just up the road from me, so I get my orders within a day.  Awesome.

BCAAs pretty much suck -- no amount of froofroo additives can change the basic, fundamental compounds.  And shouldn't.  TN's BCAA+ are not cheap (you can buy cheap BCAA powder from them, but I like the additives (extra leucine, citrulline malate, etc.) and flavoring (I got watermelon), so I spend and get the plus.  The taste is not the remarkable part (it sucks, slightly hidden by the tasty watermelon) -- the solubility of BCAAs these days is amazing.  Used to be, taking them was like drinking water with crushed styrofoam on top.  This stuff dissolves entirely.  Much better, and much more likely not to induce gagging.  Joe Bob says check it out (obscure cultural reference, I know.)

Another thing I've added is a morning shake two hours after waking.  I freeze a couple of very ripe (must be badly spotted) bananas, stick the frozen things in a blender, add heavy cream (about half a cup), three scoops of Nitrean+, two squares of dark chocolate (must be 72% cocoa or higher), and some almond milk to motivate everything, and blend.  Fantastic and a jolt of quality calories that doesn't leave me dragging.  Delicious.  Word to the wise: buy the bananas in bulk (think Costco or Sams or whatever), let them get super-ripe, PEEL THEM and put them in plastic ziplocks, and freeze.  Then you just shake out the frozen nanner and don't have to worry about that peel, which never wants to come off after frozen.  Peel them before freezing.

One other bit of babble: if you have a big box store like Costco, buy the McCormick taco seasoning in the gargantuan size that you'd never normally use in a year -- don't bother with individual packets.  Buy a ton of ground beef, whether from there or your favorite grass-fed source (highly recommended, and I can offer recommendations for online sites you can order from), and make up five or six pounds of taco meat.  Then go to the refrigerator aisle and buy a 5-pound bag of shredded cheese -- cheddar or Mex mix, doesn't matter.  Buy a gargantu-bottle of hot sauce.  You can eat a pound of taco meat with a half cup of cheese or more, throw some lettuce and diced fresh tomatoes on it, and eat a pound of the stuff while reading email at lunch time.  Seriously, otherwise I'm deadly bored with food by 6 ounces, but I can down a pound of this without thinking.  Mix in some mashed potatoes (Costco has excellent mashed pots in the section over by the roaster chickens and fresh fruit) and warm up a couple of flour tortillas, and it's a slice of heaven.  Drink with water and chocolate milk and you have a caloric orgy.  I make six pounds of ground taco beef at a time and freeze it in individual pounds.  Works like a champ, is stupid-easy to make, and takes nearly no prep on the day you eat it.

Another winner is to make a chicken divan -- chicken, broccoli, and cheesy sauce.  If you want a recipe, someone let me know and I'll publish one.  Might anyway -- that's a slice of my childhood right there.  Use rotisserie chickens (Costco's are bigger than anyone else's and at least as cheap, so buy two and pull them as soon as you get home; store the pulled chicken in ziplocks and freeze it if necessary) and it's very easy. 

Anyway, enough rambling for the moment.  Hope some of this is helpful.  Go eat.