Runnin' Wild!

I'm not much one for cardiovascular endurance training. I'm more of a resistance hypertrophy  and strength kind of bro. That being said, I'm also not one to ignore March Madness spirit or spending time with my family. So when my mother asked if I was interested in running in the Big XII 5K, I accepted!

It's a common theory of BroScience that any sort of long distance running will burn all your gains away and thus make you tiny. This is, of course, contrary to my goal of getting huge. But I didn't care. I ran the 5K with my mom.

It was interesting for a number of reasons. One, I had never run any sort of event like this before. All of my prior running experience is confined to that of a treadmill, which is in no way equivalent to running outside. That being said, I felt great for about the first mile. It was cloudy, relatively cool outside, I wasn't sweating, and my confidence was growing by the step. When we hit about the 1.5 or 2 mile mark, I noticed a solitary drop of sweat running down my temple. Then, before I knew it, I was soaked in electrolyte-rich cooling secretions. I then became acutely aware of the dull burn slowly but steadily growing in my calves and quads. But, when faced with such a great adversity, the only thing to do is to power through! So we did.

But, as per aforementioned potential loss of gains and potential tininess, I took advantage of the post-race recovery devices that were so graciously provided.

As much as I wanted to eat all these bananas, I had a stroke of consciousness and decided to leave some for the other participants. I made do with 2 bananas, a bagel, and some chocolate milk.

Feeling as though this was still not enough to prevent massive muscle loss, my parents and I visited one of the best places for food in Kansas City; that is, if you like Buffalo Wings. The Peanut was recommended to me by my tennis coach (who hails from Buffalo, NY) as the best place in KC to get authentic Buffalo wings. He very well may be have been absolutely right.

First of all, this place is awesome for a very simple reason. When you ask for water, they bring you this:

But really, the real draw is the food. We only ordered two things: wings and rings. The onion rings were also really good, especially with some ranch.

But the main main attraction is, of course, the wings. We ordered 12 wings for 3 people, which would normally obviously not be nearly enough. BUT... these are no normal wings. One of these wings is equivalent to two wings from most other places, as one of these wings is both a "wing" and a "drumette" still stuck together. Plus, these wings are in general bigger than most other places. So, really, 12 wings is just about right for 12 people. My mom only wanted 3, so I volunteered to eat the extra. I had 5 of these wings.

But these wings are not great simply based on their larger size or anything like that. These wings are great because they make them great. The sauce they use has the perfect combination of taste and spiciness. The wings are seasoned perfectly they are sauced, and then fried to a perfect crispness. The wings are not breaded, and so the sauce doesn't make them soggy, and the sauce is just the right consistency to stick to the wings (and your fingers, too).

This was just about the right amount of food to keep me from getting tiny. But not getting tiny is only half of the equation. The other half is getting huge. So later in the day Sidney and I went to Panera.

I got bread with a side of bread. This should be enough to help me get at least a little bit huge.

Midnight Snacks

I agreed to drive Andrew to the airport this morning. But since he was returning to NY, his flight couldn't have been at a reasonable time like 0700. Oh no, it was scheduled for a 0550 departure. And no, Andrew couldn't have been located close to the airport. Indeed, he was located almost an hour away. And since I was about 20 minutes away from Andrew and needed to get gas, I woke up at 0330 this morning. Still fully asleep, I grabbed a chocolate covered butter cookie on my way through the kitchen in near total darkness. 

 ***these pictures are from later in the day when I had a second cookie. I was in no shape to take a picture earlier in the morning.

Like yesterday, albeit for different reasons, I left myself stranded for a large part of the day with no food. So, similarly, I had to wait until returning home to eat. This time, it was about 9 hours. When I got home, I had a few small handfuls of M&Ms.

I also found a brownie lounging on the counter.

And there was a community of crackers looking for a fearless leader. I had probably 10 or so crackers.

Oddly enough, this somewhat satiated my appetite, and once again with seemingly small portions. My stomach must be shrinking due to the lack of use in the past couple days.

Later, I returned to my parents' house, finally home for Spring Break. I caught a whiff of that classic chicken salad scent, and I was like a newly vegetarian shark relapsing into carnivorism upon catching a whiff of a confused blue fish's blood. I, however, needed no intervention. I indulged in some delicious chicken salad, prepared by my dad, and placed between two surprisingly ultra soft slices of wheat bread.

Of course, I would need some meat at some point. Enter...

 ...beef brisket pastrami. It was interesting and slightly expired. Not too bad, but a little. I feel fine, though, so it was obviously still good. I had a fairly large slice, of which I'm sure the majority of the mass was salt.

Later, for a bedtime and 5k-eve snack, I had a graham cracker broken into bite sized pieces and dipped in peanut butter.

It's never too early, or too late, to carb up!

03.10.2016 Pre-Test Carbing Up Done Right

Midterms can be taxing on the CNS. So, with just that scenario bearing down on me this morning, I loaded up on early morning carbs to ensure my large hunk of grey matter had an ample supply of its primary energy source. Yes, glucose is a wonderful thing neurologically speaking. So I ate bunch of carbs before I left home and then headed off to my Systematics midterm.

Unfortunately, when lunchtime rolled around, I realized that I had eaten both my breakfast and lunch's worth of not only carbs but food in general. So, I starved until I got home, which incidentally was about 6 hours after I had consumed my breakfast of mostly sugar. To put it simply, I was in need of some sustenance.

Luckily, I found a slow cooker full of "Drunken Pintos." Some freshly boiled quinoa (kwee-noh), some freshly chopped parsley, and some frozen cheddar cheese made this a delicious meal.

For some reason, even given the amount of sugarous carbs I had eaten earlier in the day, I felt the need to eat more sugarous carbs. At least this time the sugar was extra-healthy since it came in the form of a fruit.

This combination of beans, grains, and sugar surprisingly satiated my appetite rather well. But, alas, this was not to last. Soon enough, and under the whimsy of the power of suggestion, I would come to eat yet again. At the suggestion of pizza, I couldn't say no. I mean, who says no to pizza? (No one, that's who.)

On top of these slices, I had a couple more. This would mark the end of my caloric intake for the day.

Am I huge, or am I tiny??

You be the judge.

I had my usual 4 granola bars today, none of them brotein.

I had my usual after gym brotein shake.

I had a handful of peanut butter cups (maybe 4 of the small ones) and a milk chocolate Lindor truffle.

I had a salad. I had a turkey and cheddar sandwich with mayonnaise. I had some interesting and tasty cheesy crackers, some grapes, and some magical Golden Grahams cereal.

Ground

I again had my share of brotein bars today. I had four in total and one regular granola bar.

For dinner, I found some cheesy ground beef with peppers and onions. I ate it all.

It amounted to 2 full bowls, a little of which I used to make a grilled sandwich on sourdough bread. It was very good!

All in all, it was probably more than a pound of beef, and ample cheese was mixed therein. Hopefully this is enough to keep me from getting too tiny.

Get Huge

Though try as I might, I have been losing a slight amount of weight in the past few days, in spite of seemingly eating big. 

I tried to stave this off today. I did, however, have my daily bars. I had one for breakfast, and three immediately pre-gym. I had a scoop of protein post-gym.

For dinner, I the last of the potato salad, some baked beans, and a little pudding cup that reminded me so much of my childhood.

I also finished off some vanilla Greek yogurt with some brotein granola. Tasty!!

Hopefully I'll get back to getting huge!

Operation Anti-Tiny

On the day immediately succeeding a buffet feast, one would reasonably expect to weigh a little more than on the previous day. This, however, is not the case for me today. I actually weigh a full pound less than yesterday. In fear of getting tiny, I promptly got to work in staving off such an occurrence.

I then had to go off to work. Wanting to be as efficient as possible with my time, I sneaked some food on my break.

It was carb heavy and, being fresh out of the oven, surprisingly tasty.

When my shift was over, I had some more anti-tiny provisions.

Another slice of pizza, some "homemade" chips, a pepper jack quesadilla chicken wrap with onions and lettuce, and some ranch to go around. An "all-natural" chocolate-frosted cupcake topped of this anti-tiny lunch.

But this simpleton cafeteria lunch would not be nearly enough to keep me from getting tiny. Alas, more food was in order. It just so happened that plans were made to patronize one of our favorite local Mediterranean restaurants. Alladin Cafe is just about the best in Mediterranean cuisine that is available in the Midwestern college town of Lawrence.

The meal started out with appetizers of pita and hummus and Raja dip, which is essentially deep fried pita with a wonderful cheese dip.

This is absolutely wonderful.

Next was the soup or salad. I chose soup, of course. It was a nice lentil soup.

When the main course arrived, it turned out to be Chicken Biryani. It was also quite good.

I supplemented my dinner with additional pita and hummus on an availability basis. In the end, I think I may have eaten enough food so that I don't get tiny. That is a good thing.