"Chipotle Burrito Bowl"

"Chipotle Burrito Bowl"

Ingredients:

4 oz meat of your choice ex. ground turkey/chicken/steak/lean ground beef/fish
1/2 cup white or brown rice
1/2 cup black beans
spinach
red pepper
low fat or fat free cheese
hot sauce

Directions:

1.) Cook desired meat until done
2.) While meat is cooking, cook rice on stove top or microwave as well as beans on stove top
3.) Once meat, beans and rice is all cooked, assemble onto plate with spinach, cheese and hot sauce as topping.

*** You can include or exclude ingredients if you desire. An option to add in would be fresh guacamole to get in some healthy fats. If you do not like black beans, you can use pinto, red or no beans if preferred.

Protein Pancakes

Breakfast is probably one of my most favorite meals of the day. In my eyes, it sets the day off for you and can really determine the rest of your eating habits for that particular day. One of my favorite foods in the world are pancakes. Most pancakes are loaded up with crappy carbs that are no good for you and can really pack on the calories that are unnecessary. Thankfully, protein pancakes are in this lovely world of ours and have been perfected by many people in the fitness world. I have made protein pancakes many times and have succeeded on most and failed on some. With that being said, I feel I have a good recipe for a delicious protein pancake that is not dry and rubbery and will satisfy your pancake taste buds. This is just one of my pancake recipes. The following is a basic pancake recipe using a standard whey vanilla flavored protein. A chocolate pancake recipe will follow very soon! 

Vanilla Protein Pancakes: Yields about 4-5 pancakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dry oats
1 scoop protein powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 egg whites
Splash of milk (I use almond milk)
50 grams of banana (about 1/2 average size banana)

Directions:

Start with two bowls, one for the dry ingredients and one for the wet. Mix up the wet ingredients first starting with the banana. Take the banana and mash it up to make a paste out of it so its not chunky. Then add in your milk, egg, egg whites and vanilla extract. In the dry bowl, add in your protein powder, oatmeal, baking powder and ground cinnamon. Mix up the dry ingredients so they all blend up together and then add in your wet. Stir this all together and you should have a pancake like batter. Heat up a frying pan and spray with a non stick cooking spray. Pour batter into desired size on pan and cook for about 30 seconds and the flip and cook for another 20 seconds or so. One thing to remember when cooking with Whey protein is that it cooks fast and if overdone, it will turn out rubbery and taste like you are eating cardboard.

**One option if you want a smoother batter and not want the oatmeal texture is to grind up the oatmeal first in a magic bullet type of device or even a blender to make a powder out of it

Macro-nutrients for the above recipe using Cellucor Cor Performance Whey Whipped Vanilla


Calories: 440
Carbohydrates: 43 grams
Protein: 47 grams
Fat: 10 grams

11 weeks out

Yesterday marked the 11 week out period until my competition date. When I think about this, two things come to mind. First one is holy crap, that is closer than I realize and my butt needs to be in competition mode as far as training and dieting goes. Second thought is more positive in the sense that I have a lot of time to accomplish my goals for this competition. 

I will be honest, there is a small part in the back of my head that doesn't think I will be ready but I feel that's okay. It lights a fire under my ass and motivates me to not only prove myself wrong but anybody else that doesn't think I can do it either. There will be haters and I say bring it on because it will make me grin ear to ear when I step on stage in the best shape of my life. 

A couple things do need to change to help me make sure I accomplish my goal of competing this October. First one is to not have as many cheat meals as the weeks shorten. Once at the six week mark, it's going to be 100% strict. The other factor that needs to change is making sure I get my cardio in every session. I have more body fat than most people expect me to have that know me but its the stubborn kind that is difficult to go away. 

Those are my current thoughts at the moment and a mini update on my prep to the New York State Grand Prix bodybuilding show. 

Healthy Personal Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza in this crazy world of ours?! Unfortunately most pizza is full of grease, crappy carbs and fat. Most people in the fitness world will reward themselves with a "cheat meal" and have pizza. Well I say forget that, lets have pizza be part of an everyday diet and not feel guilty after eating it. Here is my recipe that I use when I want to have my own healthy pizza. It has good protein, good complex carbs and the fat is minimal.

**On a side note, the following recipe are just the particular ingredients I use. Feel free to add more vegetables, add a different kind of protein source or take out the protein completely. It is a recipe that you can customize 100% to your liking.

Ingredients:
2 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin Slices
1/4 cup pasta sauce or low sodium pizza sauce
1 large white mushroom
1/6 cup Low Fat/Fat Free mozzarella cheese
4 oz precooked chicken breasts ( 2 ounces per individual pizza)
1/2 oz feta cheese crumble
Baby spinach leaves

Directions:
Pretty self explanatory haha. Just assemble the ingredients into a pizza using the sandwich thin slices as your crust. I personally keep my sandwich thins together and not separate them, but if you want to cut down on the calories and carbs but still have two personal pizzas, you could split one of the sandwich thins.

The Macro-nutrients for my meal with the ingredients above are as followed:

Calories: 498
Protein: 54 grams
Carbs: 52 grams
Fat: 12 grams

Supplements are not a miracle

So supplements are a key part of my diet and usually any one else who does some sort of physical activity on a daily basis. They range from multi-vitamins, fish oil pills, protein, creatine and the biggest one of the supplement industry.....FAT BURNERS. You know, the miracle pill that will help you shed off the unwanted weight and get you looking ripped and ready for that beach body. 

If there is one thing that has really begun to annoy me over the last year or so is talking with people and they ask me what fat burner to use. Now I have two routes I usually take this conversation into. First one is if you have been working out and doing your thing for some time and have made it a part of your life on a regular basis, I will give you my opinion on a couple different brands of a fat burner to take if you choose. My second route is for the newbies in the fitness world and think the first supplement they should buy is a fat burner. I straight up tell them don't wast their hard earned money on a fat burner right now because when you really dig deep into that particular persons life, all they need is a change in their diet. 

I know it sounds crazy, but I really wish people would pay attention to what they eat instead of trying to take a magic pill to "get ripped". I am not saying completely avoid them because I just recently came off of taking one. If your interested in which one I took, it was called Super HD by Cellucor. What people need to realize is that fat burners are there to do just what the bigger name implies, supplement your DIET. I did see results from the HD when I was taking it because I had a constructed diet plan that had clean healthy food. Combine that with a little bit of cardio and you have a formula to start changing the way your body looks. 

In the end, make changes in your diet and it will be the best fat burner you could ever ask for. Your body will love you for it and you will love you for it because you will feel great all the time. If you do choose to use a fat burner just be smart about it and realize that it is just there to help you supplement your diet. 

I will share my top 3 personal picks about which fat burners are really worth the hype :)

(My personal favorite. Warning on it though, they come in "packs" and is 9 pills a "pack")

(Just got done using this, pretty good product) 

(I have not used this yet, but really want to try it. Plus its such cool packaging haha!) 

Patience is Virtue

Patience is something that I have come to learn on my bodybuilding/fitness journey. In the beginning about 4 years ago I thought all I had to do was lift in the gym, take my protein and magically in about 1-2 months time I would be rocking the body of my dreams. 

Boy was I wrong. The people you see in the magazines have been doing this for years and years and a little help from photoshopping plays a big part in the final appearance. It has taken me a long time to realize this but I'm glad I finally did. You learn new things everyday and nutrition in this lifestyle is one thing you can never have enough knowledge of.

A little over a year now I have really strapped down and payed attention to my nutrition and what a world of difference it has made. My body has completely changed for the better and I receive complements on it now and that is rewarding in itself. 

So the moral of this blog is to not give up on your dreams whether they be fitness related or something else. Patience is virtue and eventually everything will come together in the end :) 

New to the blogging world

Hello everyone! 
I am new to the blogging world and wanted to give this a try seeing as my wife does it and seems to like it a lot. I wanted to start blogging for a couple of reasons. One of them being to gain a little more support for my adventure into the bodybuilding/fitness world. It is a goal of mine to get into the industry and make a career out of it. I love to work out, eat clean or healthy or however you want to put it and I put 100% dedication into the lifestyle. Another reason is I am currently training to enter my first bodybuilding competition. This will be a huge step and accomplishment for myself when I do step on stage. 

My adventure into the bodybuilding world has been a crazy one since I picked up the lifestyle roughly 4 years ago. To put it into terms, I have made a 180 transformation in many aspects of my life and I contribute it to finding this lifestyle. I have lost nearly 100 pounds and have become inspiration for a lot of other people! To look back at old photos of myself makes me cringe but also realize how far I have come and that helps me know whatever I put my mind into, I can accomplish. 

Stepping on stage is going to be the craziest, most nerve racking roller coaster ride of my life come October. To know that I went through all the dieting, cardio (which I HATE lol) and depletion workouts will be so rewarding and nothing will be take the moment away from me. It will showcase the best shape of my life that I will be in and I will be enjoying every moment of the competition. 

Just a little sneak peak into why I will be blogging and will have more detailed blogs to come about my journey with the workouts, my days of dieting and will also create a section for recipes of food that enjoy on a daily base and taste awesome! Thanks for reading and thanks for the support!