Labrada Nutrition: Lean Body Gold Protein Energy Bar

These just came out at my gym the other day and we've been running a buy one get one free promo on them since. So I of course hopped on the opportunity and bought a bunch because when you're in a hurry sometimes, it's hard to come by good calories that you can consume rather quickly and easily; and this is where the energy bar comes in! There are all kinds of bars out there, all different, all targeted toward different audiences with different goals. Generally I try to stay away from energy bars and protein bars alike just because they usually pair a bunch of fat and carbs, but sometimes it's better to put fuel in the tank than run on empty and right now since I'm trying to put on size I don't have to worry too much about calories or macronutrients.

Now for the bars, we have three flavors, s'mores, pb&j, and caramel peanut which is by far the best one in my opinion. The caramel peanut one has 360 calories, 14g of fat 6 of which are sat. fat, 33g of carbs, and 25g of protein. Now depending on how serious you're dieting it's actually not that bad when you need a quick light meal or snack and you don't have a whole lot of time or options around. The carb content is a little high especially if you're on a lower carb diet, but at the same time you're getting a lot of calories with this bar. Even though it's a good bar, and I like Labrada Nutrition, don't let the name fool you; you aren't going to be getting a lean body eating these bars unless you're putting in some serious work at the gym and prepping your other meals. For the average person/gym goer these bars aren't a bad choice to use for a light meal replacement or a big snack in my opinion; just as long as you don't go overboard, no more than one a day.

Great Video on the Health Benefits That You Can Expect to Receive from Even Very Minimal Amounts of Exercise, Check it Out!

Cutting Back on Your Sleep? Then expect to Gain Weight!

My dog, Xena, knows all about the importance of getting enough rest!

Caught an interesting little tidbit in this months issue of Men's Health... Basically all it said was that in a study where people only got 5 hours of sleep each night in a 1-week period, gained ~2lbs of bodyweight. Now whether that was fat, or just the body holding onto water the study didn't say, personally I don't think the body can put on that much fat in such a little amount of time. Keep on practicing bad sleeping habits though, and the fat will surely creep up on you! This is why sleep, rest, and recovery, are such a critical part in the renovation of your body no matter what your fitness
goal(s) is, losing fat, gaining muscle, becoming healthier, getting in shape and so on... On average the recommended amount of sleep you should get each night is 8 hours; if you're trying to lose weight you'll find that getting the right amount of good quality sleep will actually help you to burn more fat! So do whatever you have to do in order to get your straight 8!

LÄRABAR®: The Super Clean Snack Bar

Larabar's have been around for a while, and when I say "clean" I mean there is minimal ingredients in them. Generally the more ingredients something has in it, tends to make it more and more unhealthy; especially when you start seeing weird names and chemicals in them. The Cherry Pie flavor Larabar, my favorite one, has only 3 ingredients! Dates, almonds, and unsweetened cherries, and that's it; pretty crazy when you compare it to other foods especially other snack and energy bars where they all have 20+ ingredients in them!

Now if you're super picky with food and you don't like tasting new things then they might take a little getting used too, but I personally don't think they're bad at all; especially because they're not bad for you at all. The only thing you really have to look out for in them is just the sugar and carb content because well they're primarily consisted of fruit! They make for a perfect post-workout snack because they have the fast digesting sugar which comes from fruit, the only thing I'd recommend if you're eating them post-workout is to drink a scoop or two of whey protein with it because they're lower on the protein side of things. As for the flavors I've tried most of them, and I like the cherry pie ones the most by far, so try them out!

ZERO Water: 100% Contaminate Free Drinking Water

If you're one of those people who always drink bottled water because you worry about all of the "bad" stuff that comes with drinking water from the tap, you'd be suprised to find that even your precious bottled water isn't as squeaky clean as you'd think! If you really want the cleanest water money can buy, then you need to get a Zero Water filter! Zero Water is similar to other water purification  systems you may have seen like Brita for example, but it's the only one that can boast having a TDS reading of 000, hence the name zero water. What's is TDS? Here's an explanation from, http://www.tdsmeter.com/what-is, which you

can also visit to get more information on the subject

"Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) are the total amount of mobile charged ions, including minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water, expressed in units of mg per unit volume of water (mg/L), also referred to as parts per million (ppm). TDS is directly related to the purity of water and the quality of water purification systems and affects everything that consumes, lives in, or uses water, whether organic or inorganic, whether for better or for worse."

I did a quick little test just to use as a reference to show you guys the comparisons between tap water, bottled water, and Zero Water and their contaminants... It comes with it's own TDS tester which is simple to use, all you do is turn it on, wait for the display to read "000" and plunge it into a cup of water, that's it! I'm not sure if it's just placebo, but when I drink Zero Water it feels lighter almost, like I'm drinking air; it's very fresh and crisp tasting. All you have to do is load tap water into the top portion of the filter and wait! It can take a little while so every few glasses of water or so you gotta be filling it up with more water, not that big of deal though! Try it!

ALLMAX Nutrition: Isoflex Chiller Whey Protein Isolate Review

The other day at work I was able to get my hands on a couple of samples of this stuff and was pretty eager to try it. I've never really heard of ALLMAX Nutrition, but they're a pretty good company from what I hear. I can't really say anything as for the quality of the supplement, it could be grade A quality; but as for the taste and consistency it was pretty bad. I had a couple of samples of the Citrus Peach Sensation, which reminded me of something along the lines of putrid fruit. Rather than use a shaker cup I tried stirring it in a glass of water with a spoon which could be why it came out so clumpy and inconsistent; which is odd because whey isolate generally mixes very well. I also figured that it would be clear looking like Isopure, instead it was a sherbet colored orange. I don't know how it would come out if you used a shaker cup or blender, but in all honesty I don't even think this product is worth a try. If you're looking for a good whey isolate, get it from a good brand like Optimum Nutrition, where you know you're getting the best quality protein at an affordable price and it tastes good! That or even just regular Isoflex is better than the Chiller version.

You can see that this stuff did not mix well at all
and what got stuck to the glass was stuck on there like glue

Progression - 7/12/13 - Where I'm at, what I'm doing? SHOULDERS

Seriously this is my serious face; oh my gawww

I thought I'd take a little time to talk about where I'm at and where I want to be in terms of my physique and fitness goals for once. I'd like to do a show in the future, possibly in 2014, but I have a lot of work ahead of me and I still need to decide if I want to compete in a bodybuilding show, or physique. For those of you who don't know the difference to sum it up pretty quickly physique competitors are a smaller in comparison to bodybuilders, they wear swim trunks and generally go for that aesthetic "beach body" look, or that athletic look; and there is really no posing involved.

regardless of what I decide to do both require a ton of work, constant effort, dedication, and discipline both in and out of the gym and in the kitchen as well. Currently I'm trying to put on size as cleanly as possible (putting on minimal fat); right now I'm at about 210lbs at 6'3" and around ~14% Body fat. I'd like to put on 10-20lbs of clean mass over the next 3-6 months, and I'm also going to start incorporating  a lot of supplements into my regimen to help get me there so stay tuned for the reviews on those...

Having trouble developing my shoulders, we should start to see
some big changes in them very soon!

Right now one of my greatest weak points has got to be my shoulders, in terms of what they look like, I can't develop them to save the life of me. At work a couple of the trainers like to call me "Dove" because my shoulders look like that of a girl's in a Dove soap commercial, soft with no real definition, haha gotta love the people you work with sometimes. Although my shoulders are very strong they never seem to grow; it makes sense though as I hardly ever train them by themselves, and when I do it's only once a week. So for the past 3 weeks I've been hitting them twice a week and have been seeing decent results already!

Over the next couple of months I'll be keeping you guys updated on my overall progression and posting pics; hoping to see this transformation take shape soon!



I know these mirror selfies aren't the best, I'm gonna get a
permanent photographer; cuts the cheesiness in half at the least