Time to Treat Myself

Counting
Eating whatever the heck I want... within moderation.  So not really, but I will be satisfied.  Skip boring part to story time to see food pics and videos.  Sometimes I think food pics are like baby pics.  People who post them love them, then my friends give sympathy...

Anywho,

As I enter my 4th Carb Nite, this will be the first and real structured and planned Carb Nite.  I didn't do the others as I was actually supposed to because I like to challenge myself.  As in reported in my previous blog entries (just scroll down), my previous Carb Nites consisted of a Carb Weekend in Germany, Carb Murika, and... I can't really remember what I did the weekend before.

The weight swing from the first days of Carb Nite to the day of this Carb Nite made a series of swings anywhere from 201 to reaching low as 193.5 on my initial setup period.  Currently, I am at 195 and as far as strength is concerned, I am stronger on bench and deadlifts than from 2 months ago and squats are just about the same.  No one cares about legs anyways.

From the beginning of actually giving a damn about what I'm eating starting from January (because I'm totally a New Years Resolutionar... Resolutionary?)  I don't think either of those are real words or the correct spelling.  Eh, I'm just an engineer and poser-personal-trainer.

Yet, that was a result of doing a structured carb backloading diet from January to June, then Carb Nite actually started in June.

For the first real calculated Carb Nite, I was aiming for 500g carb, 200 protein, and around 100 fat.  I also tried to aim for carbs that spiked my insulin levels because of science stuff related with leptin levels and metabolism and blah blah.  Mostly we want carbs really high and fat lower.  Keep in mind my usual macro around this point was 30g carb, 200g protein, and 125g fat.

Also, I might start lifting weights so I can work on toning.  Source of Epic Fail:

I also encourage to Palm to Face.  Over and Over.  It makes your face more defined.

For realz though... toning is a misnomer.  You have to build muscle and lose necessary levels of fat to look toned or defined.

Story and Vine Time

Started off Carb Nite with a bro-workout of chest and arms and 196lbs.  AND MORE THAN 15 MIN ON THE ELLIPTICAL!

Cardio for weight loss.  AM I RITE?

 As to make sure to honor my family, I started off with..

CUTE AND DERRRICIOUS

Well... I didn't have a grill or oven on hand, so I had to go with something more modern.  Some Americanized mess of what they think my people eat.

I love Pandas though, like the animal.

That was about 120g carbs, 45g protein, and 16g fat.

After not eating carbs for a week, I was half worried if I was able to meet my macros today, this I got this:

Then... I was full and I didn't think I can do anymore.  So I was left with this:

JK.

BASK IN THE AMERICAN CARB GLORY

Insert in face

I haven't been to CiCi's for over three years due to a very saddening and unfortunate circumstance of the one in Lafayette, IN shutting its doors.

Now it is a pizza buffet and don't get me wrong, you can spot the regulars right away.  However, the macros on these pizzas are pretty dang amazing.  For instance, the macaroni and cheese pizza:

 29g carbs, 6g protein, and 3g fat.

DAYUM.

IIFYM THAT SHIT.

Ended up eating 8 slices.

Ha.  Look at all those fatties pigging out at Steak and Shake.  Disgusting.

Then 2 Soft Pretzels.  First time I had them was in Germany and everyone who knows me knows I love salty food way better than sweets.

I actually didn't get anything from the cookie store, cause I'm on a diet and all.

BUT THEN.  Just sweets just to say I ate a shit ton of ice cream during my very difficult diet.

Don't ever buy Skinny Cow.  You will never stop.  Dang good macros too.

19g carb, 3g protein, 2.5g fat AND 3g fiber.
Also did not buy this below, it's not even neon orange:

I couldn't even fit in this thing before my Carb Nite.

Then I'm an engineer and engineers are problem solvers.

Handicapped

The day after I weighed in at 197.  Pretty sure I ate more than a pound of food.

My Life is So Hard

America, My People, Murika, and Carb Nite

Patriotic Galore

A lot of my outlook and planning for this diet changed as I have done more research into the whole ketogenises, leptin, and insulin levels, but before this radical diet, a carb-up day, which can kind of be interpreted as a cheat day, is planned once a week.  As part of this ever so difficult diet, this one day usually fell on a day when I knew I'd be partying.  This particular July 4th... it ended up on Independence Day... which is July 4th.

Like any other proud American on a typical American day, I started off carb-nite with this glorious insulin spike:

Food for Bulking Angels

Had about half of this cake after a pretty legit... some sort of activity of picking things up and down.  Don't really remember.  I don't even lift.  That amounted to about 200g of carbs which was about half of what I was aiming for.

Then I ate... and we danced, and we cried and we laughed and had a really really really good time.  Took my hand, had a blast with fireworks and remembered this moment for the rest of our lives .  Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Started that long weekend off at 201 (apparently Germany had it out for me)... then ended at 199.  All gainz lost.  Was another... Carb Nite turned into... having a good time with friends.  Friends are just awful people.

A Very unPinteresting Attempt

Pumped Up Kicks

While there will be an update on the overall diet and the related happenings in the next few days ago, tonight I tried to make some "baked" goods.  During the day, I was pretty excited for this project as it is very well known, I am an excellent cook, but my "baking" skills have yet to be tested and annoyingly posted on social media.  It might also have to do with not finding a descent low-carb protein bar that was at a good price range and my need for a compact and quick source of appropriate micro-nutrients while I travel and derail varies engineering projects.

Here's some bro-science explanation on why I made the bars... skip it if you want to go to the bars without pre-gaming.

Bro-Science Stuff

In truth, there's actually a lot of low-carb protein bars on the market which are priced fairly low.  Yet, most of the low-carb protein bars, you run into sugar alcohols.  Sugar alcohols, which are actually listed under carbohydrates, are not like the alcohols one may find at a unapproved fraternity function in a college setting, but is a sort of colorless, odorless, and sweet-tasting chemical structure that bonds with water well.  It in fact contains around 2-3 Cal/gram, but manufactures put them under carbohydrates in a nutritional label mostly because there is no where else to put them.  Both protein and carbohydrates are around 4 Cal/gram, but since the sugar-alcohols don't contain nitrogen, they are shoved under protein... err carbohydrates.  The question comes down to whether or not these are considered low-carb.  Well, they provide calories for sure, but studies indicates blood glucose spikes are very low when sugar alcohols are consumed, therefor, there should be very minimal insulin spike.

So why don't I just buy those?  But then this GI chart shows a little different story.

Ingredient	Sweetness	GI	Cal/g
Sucrose(sugar)	100%	60	4
Maltitol Syrup	75%	52	3
Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysate	33%	39	2.8
Maltitol	75%	36	2.7
Xylitol	100%	13	2.5
Isomalt	55%	9	2.1
Sorbitol	60%	9	2.5
Lactitol	35%	6	2
Mannitol	60%	0	1.5
Erythritol	70%	0	0.2

Source: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/sugaralcohols.htm

Sources make shit legit.

So most of the sugar-alcohols don't really cause as much of a glucose spike as sugar does, but it still might.  Worth the risk?  IS IT?  Considering the amount of fat I'm consuming is about the same as the average American, I think I should definitely do the upmost care in keeping my glucose spike low outside of my post-workout feeding.

There's also "Quest Bars" which are rated G-A-F and don't have sugar alcohols, but prettttty pricey.

Baked

The base recipe originated from food.com.

OMFG SO PINTERESTING

But I need the gainz and laziness + foresight has me baking en mass so it has been changed to down below:

-Coconut Oil, Organic Extra Virgin , 30 tbsp
-Cocoa Powder - Unsweetened 100% Cocoa, 8 tbsp
-Splenda Essentials - No Calorie Sweetener 1 Gram Fiber, 1.33 cup
-Cream, Heavy Whipping, 4 Tablespoon
-Natural Creamy Peanut Butter - Peanut Butter, 16 tbsp
-Walnuts, 1 Cup
-Casein Powder, 24 Scoop

You basically mix the first 3, melt them together, then add the rest, and freeze.

Total macros:

Total:

Cal: 9,420

Carbs: 238

Fat: 672

Protein: 664

Fiber: 128

Sugar: 36

 SO I didn't EAT IT ALL AT ONCE.

I made 25 portions which came out to:

Per Serving:

Cal; 377

Carbs: 10

Fat: 27

Protein: 27

Fiber: 5

Sugar: 1

 Pretty good aye?  It was Canada Day 2 days ago.

So I'm getting tired and have to go to work tomorrow so here is the picture diary.

SET UP.  IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN TO FAIL

This is not how you cook meth.  Well, I don't know.  I think.

Almost 2.5kg when complete...

DONE

How does it taste? Takes like peanut butter cookie dough brownie thing.  I guess it's okay if you're into that kind of thing. Dieting is hard. Honestly, it wasn't that hard to make... kind of.  It was just really time consuming to make every single bar and wrap them.  Next time, I'm just paying for the comfort and premium.  Gosh dang, I love America.

Living a Little in Deutchland

 

Look at all these people that came just to see me.

There's More than Beer in Germany

 A small narrative, but mostly a picture blog of my "company" trip to Germany while on my 'diet.'

I don't drink btw.

While Germany is very known for its delicious, succulent, and, ever so mouth watering beer, there's so much more than that in Deutchland.

Just

A

Good

K... well.  I got one.

Time

There's some other savory goods too.  But then Europe is also known for its wine too and I am sophisticated and diverse individual.  Hence...

Yes, just jugs of it.  This isn't even France or Italy.

Now, a funny outlook on this would be that they don't drink any water.  AND THEY DON'T.

All they have is this:

Sparkling water.  No normal flat, real people water.  And each bottle is at least 2 to 3 Euroes.  Like dayum.  Even in my company office when I asked for a normal, flat, water, that cheeky German brought me normal, flat, mineral, water.

Though that hotel I stayed had the best freaking coffee ever... and the best hotel breakfast.

German smoked meats, including cow tongue, and smoked fish.  NOM NOM NOM

ALAS KLAR?

Then everything else I ate was also quite delightful.

Impact on diet?

Went from 196 to 201 to 199... and stayed there.  Yeah "one" carb feeding into 4 days was... not so good.

I only blame the McDonald's that wouldn't let us take pictures and the confusing, but not really confusing, nutritional labels.

Cheers to that.

On the Road to become the Next Arnold

 On the road less traveled...

Once you're in the groove of a diet, you basically have everything bought, everything organized, and every thought of temptation and diversion planned out.  It makes it even tougher while traveling because you can't even cook your own food conveniently and places you can stop along the way may not have the choices you want to fit into your diet.

However, like a diet this is easily remedied by foresight and planning.  Which I don't do on purpose because what's life without a little risk?

Yet, I had it all figured out pretty easily.

I had a 14 hour drive, (divided into 4 and 10 hour blocks) and here is what I packed:

For the first day of the 4 hours of the journey, I had smoked salmon and brisket beef which were left over previous dinner menus.

I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE A MONSTER, EVEN IF I HAVE TO BE ON IT

For the second day, an epic discovery.  Now keep in mind, my macronutrients were of the following:

Fat:135g Protein:235g Carbs:30g Fiber: 10g

Now check this out:

I love weiners in my mouth... for the purpose of dieting.

If I ate the whole pack in 1 day.  That's 15 sausages, then it would total:

Fat: 135g Protein: 255g Carbs: 30g Fiber: 15g

I was 20g of protein over.  Terrible.  I know.  Diet ruined.

I went into this trip weighing 193.5lbs... and came out of the trip 193.5.  Didn't lose a single pound.  Diet ruined.

Keeping in mind I sat in my car for 14 hours not moving at all.  Diet ruined.

Terrible Terrible

Yup... and this moved into my first Carb Nite.  By my calculations, I needed about 600g of carbs and I did the first third of the carb requirements with white rice to honor my ancestors, but I used minute rice because I had to hurry to the wedding which was 4 hours away.  I dishonor my family.

Box of white people food.

So... like 2.5cups of dry rice, which is about 5 cups of cooked rice.  That's a lot... especially for a guy who went without carbs for 14 days, but minuscule for an Asian.  So it worked out.

Not your typical bodybuilding diet at all.

As for the rest of Carb Nite?  Well there were lots of delicious food catered from Qudoba and lots of fermented liquids.

BUT I DIDN'T GET ANY PICTURES OF IT.  #AznFAIL

Maybe I was having too much of a good time... or my brain was overloaded.

But I ate a lot of cup cakes... and apparently I was craving milk.

DIETS ARE HARD

So what was my weight right after?  201lbs.  ALL MUSCLE.

But I'm already down to 197 as of today, (Wednesday morning) and still dropping steadily.  So all is terrible since I lost all that muscle in so few days...

 Also... Denny's on the way back:  RATED GAF

GAF: GOOD AS FUDGE(But better than Fudge)

On the Home Front

So when I got back from the wedding back home to Rochester Hills, which turned out to be beautiful once the Michigan winter passed away, I was actually back for the first time in 2 months.

So all I had in my fridge was frozen chicken, frozen bacon, and frozen stew meat.  SCORE.

Yet, not much of it.  So Prep Time here we go!

Chicken thighs to make her leave her guy.

They also have a lot, A LOT of fat.  The left is all meat, the right is a pile of skin and fat.

Breast cause boobs.

Also real meat.

Company Business

Company 'business' calls me now to Deutschland.  Which means 11 hours of flights both way.  This puts an extra challenge on my ever so challenging 'diet' because of the restrictions they place on flights, which I am still very confused on what they are.  I know about liquids and gels, but can we bring beef since the whole mad cow deal?

Who knows, but I think these are okay, but probably not for your heart.

My heart is forever broken anyways.  Tears (of fat).

Yet, they fit my macros.

Then I wanted to act badass and like any road trip, needed to operate a little drug manufacture and packaging.

"Yo, do you even lift?  bitch?" - Jesse

I dear hope not they take these away.  "They can take away my freedom, but not my gainz."

The only problem I see with this trip is I won't know how internet will work, so I will have to mental math to calculate my nutrition.  Shit.  Only if I had some sort of applied science degree along with some sort of health certification.

Yet it will not matter, I will return as the Asian Arnold.