Food

Leaning out

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

You cannot serve two masters.

If you exercise, you can’t try to gain muscle mass, gain strength, and lose fat all at the same time. You can’t serve all of those masters. Pick one.

However, I do think while you serve one master you can at least acknowledge the others. For instance, if you are focused on building muscle mass, that’s generally going to work against fat loss. To gain muscle mass at any sort of decent rate, you’re going to have to eat more and that will mean some of your weight gain will be fat gain; however, you can be smart about it and not gain weight like a blob. So, serve a master but give a nod to the others.

My focus right now is building strength, with mass being secondary, and fat loss bringing up the rear. I want to get strong(er) and focus primarily on that goal. But, in doing so building muscle mass comes with it: muscles will get larger as they get stronger, tho not as much as a pure mass-building program. Plus, my flavor of the Wender 5/3/1 cycle is “boring but big”, directing my assistance work specifically towards mass building because to lift big you do need to be big.

But the big thing I struggle with is the fat situation.

I don’t want to become a fat slob. In fact, I’d love to shed the muffin around my middle. But it won’t necessarily happen with the path I’m on, and I’m OK with that situation. I have had some thoughts that in 2012 I may take a couple of months break from Wender 5/3/1 and focus on the fat loss goal, or perhaps stay with Wender 5/3/1 as a general template but modify the particular program. We’ll see.

The one thing that I am attempting to do tho in giving a nod to fat “maintenance” is my food intake. Of course, I must have a lot of protein in a day and strive to eat 30-50g about 6x a day (exactly how much depends on what I’m eating and when, but the goal is at least 200g a day). I don’t mind the fat that much other than ensuring I’m getting some but not overdoing it (e.g. eat 6 hard boiled eggs but give 1-2 yolks to the dog). Carbs tho are another matter… and have generally been my problem spot.

One thing that I’ve been toying with, tho have yet to fully master, is WHEN I have my carbs, in addition to what my carb sources are. I will say, getting our veggies from Johnson’s Backyard Garden Organic Farm is a boon because so much of it is green leafies and other “good stuff” that I don’t have much problem just shoveling it down and not worrying much about caloric impact. But still, I need some sources of carbs that have caloric value to help with glycogen stores so…. what and how to deal with this?

I read something that started me down a slightly different path. See, I was trying to avoid carbs as much as possible (quasi-atkins) but my body balked at that, and understandably so. So I needed to find what and how and when to take them in so they were beneficial but not harmful to my goals. What came up was consuming my carbs around my workout. Carb up beforehand to have energy for the workout, then carb up afterwards to replenish and the body should take them up well. But otherwise, don’t take in much for carbs throughout the rest of the day.

I saw a tweet last night from Dave Tate that sums it up well:

What has always worked best for me (getting lean) is 6-7 meals per day with 70% of the carbs before and right after training. #eliteftschat

– Dave Tate via Twitter

And that’s about the size of it. If you know who Dave is and the transformation he went through, there’s something to what he’s saying.

I’ve been trying that, tho haven’t mastered it yet (slave to old habits, working to change them), and so far I seem to be working well with it. I can see in the mirror that muscles are getting larger, and I do think fat may be going away because I swear I might be seeing my abs a little better and it doesn’t feel like there’s as much muffin over my belt. But my bodyweight remains the same, around 235-240 (fluxes depending on the time of day or what day it is, and I’m 6’3″ tall) and has remained pretty steady there since I got off the PPNP program. Strength continues to go up, mass seems to be going up (tho perhaps not as fast as if I was shoveling food), and fat seems like it might be dropping off… slowly, but that’s ok.

I am not trying to serve all 3 masters, strength is still the prime goal. But if I can keep a nod to the others in the mix and still make overall progress? Great. We’ll see where this leads me.

Efficiency

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Every Friday we pick up our veggie box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. Yes, still going strong, still enjoying it. But that’s a topic for another post.

Maybe it’s the engineer in me….

The veggies come in a thick, sturdy, wax-coated box. Makes good sense, and given their durability (and cost to produce), JBG likes to keep the boxes to reuse them. No problems there. We pick up our box, take it home, and bring the empty box back next week. Works fine.

We see many of the other people who come to pick up their veggies bringing bags (reusable cloth type). They stay at the pick-up place, move all the veggies from the box to their bag, then take the bag home (leaving the box). I guess that works but…

Box –> Fridge

Box –> Bag –> Fridge

The extra step doesn’t make sense to me. Doesn’t seem very efficient. More work. More time.

Sometimes I think too much about stuff…. 🙂

How goes the veggies?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Two months ago I we opted for the long term commitment, and purchased a full year of veggies from Johnson’s Backyard Garden.

So how has it been going? (this is 3 months of veggies now).

Overall pretty decent. There are positives, there are negatives.

On the negative side, you get what you get. For instance, right now there is arugula… and none of us like it. But we get it, we paid for it, and so… we give it away. 🙂 If we had a choice, I’d love more beets or summer squash (in terms of what’s coming in the box right now), but alas… we only get so much of those.

Another negative is quantity. We get a crapload of peppers; in fact, we’ve got a lot from weeks past still sitting in the fridge. Yes, I’ve tried my hand at pickling peppers, but even then we’re all not huge fans. If there were more straight-up bell peppers and the like sure… but all the jalapeno and serrano and such doesn’t go over well with everyone in the household. But still, we’re overflowing with peppers. On the other hand, we’d love more squashes, be it winter or summer, but we only get so many. Plus, many times they are small, so putting all the squahes and eggplants and everything together makes enough for one side for one meal for our family of 5. Yeah, maybe I should get a second box.

One thing we didn’t count on was the routine. That is, we must pick up veggies every week. It’s not always convenient and sometimes becomes a friendly “I don’t want to do it, you do it… let’s get Mikey!” sort of thing between Wife and myself. 🙂  And then yes, you better consume those veggies because there’s nothing preserving them. Those sweet potato greens must be consumed immediately or they go kaput (but they are soooo yummy).

But that’s really the big positive: everything is so delicious. There are varieties you don’t get in the big stores, like these purple skin but white flesh peppers (not sure what the variety is, but the flavor is pleasant). The flavors are so much better, the quality is overall so much better.

You can only have so much idea what will be in the box. Sure, we can guess what will generally be in the box but we’ve been at it long enough to watch things fade in and out. It’s sad when something goes out of season (those sunburst squash are awesome), but exciting when something new comes around (like okra). It’s also really neat to try things we’ve never had before, like the sweet potato greens. It forces you out of your box, out of any sort of rut you might be in. It’s not just a parade of corn, peas, green beans, broccoli, and the usual typical veggies that we eat. I really like that. Every week I pull up the farm’s website to see what’s coming in this week’s box, and there’s always an excitement with it. Long-term, I really look forward to seeing what’s going to be coming in the box as the seasons change… what will there be in November/December? Then what will there be come April? There’s a fun excitement involved.

I’m still pleased with what we’re doing. We’re eating more fresh veggies. The only reason we’re buying any veggies at the store, be it fresh or frozen, tends to be because we need it for something like making the stew we feed Sasha (dog).

The one hard thing is trying to determine if we should do something different, like getting a second box. I still don’t know if we should. I guess it’ll just take more time before we know. Go through more boxes, more cycles, more seasons.

Nevertheless, I heartily endorse this approach. It supports local farmers. It provides you with better selection, better quality, seasonal food. No, it’s not perfect, but what is? Overall I’m happy.

Simple roasted butternut squash

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Take a couple butternut squash. Peel. Halve. Scoop out seeds. Slice down into 2″ cubes (more or less).

Put squash chunks in a glass casserole dish. Coat in extra virgin olive oil and “Good Shit“. Not too heavy, just enough to season. You want the flavor of the squash to be primary, the seasoning just accents.

Oven to 400Âş. Put the squash (uncovered) into the oven. Minimum 60 minutes, but I found 90 minutes really softened it up and helped break down the squash sugars more, really sweeten things up.

Maybe a dash of salt to taste just prior to eating, but that’s up to individual taste… not to make it salty, just to wake up the flavors.

Delicious.

Enjoy life

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

A reporter asks a question:

Grilling some meats is reputed to increase cancer risk thanks in part to chemical compounds called HCAs, which form at high temperatures. So what’s a July 4th cook to do?

Their answer: Grill tofu.

My answer? Grill more meat — preferably beef, or something you killed yourself like venison — and eat it. Wash it down with a beer.

Life. You’ll never get out alive, so enjoy it while you have it. 🙂

Long-term commitment

/ hsoi

We decided to stop dating and settle down with commitment.

After only 4 weeks of “dating,” Wife and I put down the money for a 1 year membership with Johnson’s Backyard Garden. That’s 52 boxes to use within a year. It’s a program they’re working on to build some up-front capital to purchase 146 more acres. That works for me: helps them build their business, gives us good food, and over the long term it saves us money. It cost $1500. That locks in a price of $28.85/box instead of $33/box, provided prices don’t go up over the next year. That amounts to a $215.80 savings on the grocery bill for the next year. Sure, the up-front cost is high, but I think about the long-term, and $215.80 is substantial.

I’m looking forward to what it will bring. A little unsure how the winter will roll, but the adventure is fun and it’s nice to force some expansion into our diets. I mean, I had sunburst squash last week… never had that before, but it’s good stuff. Plus, it’s exciting, in a dorky sort of way… it’s like Christmas every week, because you don’t know what will be in the box. A fun little surprise.

It’s kinda like my marriage to Wife. I knew after about a month with her that I wanted to marry her, and it didn’t take us long to settle into the long-term commitment. It’s been quite an adventure, and boy… it’s sure been good for me. 🙂

More veggies

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

OMG!!!11!1!

Just picked up our second box of veggies from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. Wonderful lot of stuff in there, but the better part? The farm is having a big tomato sale and we picked up 40# worth: 20# San Marzano roma’s, 10# large slicers, 10# heirloom. Why so much? Because we could, and they were running a 50% off sale. We’ll cook the roma’s down for sauce. Kiddos just like eating tomatoes straight up so the slicers are good there. And darn it… I’ve never had heirlooms and thought I’d try it.

Wow.

The moment we got home I pulled one of each out, washed, sliced, and ate. I wanted to see how they all tasted. First up, they of course all tasted so much better than store-bought given how fresh they were and how long they got to stay on the vine. But those heirlooms… I have no idea what exact variety I tried but it was large and had a purple-ish hue to it. Very nice flesh inside. Wow. The flavor was deep, robust, wonderful. You go back to the slicers, which were wonderful in and of themselves, and they just paled in comparison. It was delicious.

After that, Wife and I washed more veggies and made a salsa. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. We will work on perfecting the recipe as we go along; wasn’t perfect, but was still good.

So… so… so… good.

We have 2 more boxes left to go. I’m pretty sure I’m going to renew. I think I’m growing curious to see what will come as the season changes… like in the winter.