Getting More Strength

Well okay....I've just about finished my first case of Full Strength and I have to say that I am very pleased with the product.  Now, I'm not claiming that I popped out in muscles just by drinking one of the shakes every day.  I got the muscles through a lot of workouts in the gym.  What the Full Strength did give me is good nutrition that was easy to fit into my busy day AND satisfied me so that I wouldn't get hungry after an hour or so and stuff my face with a bunch of crap.

It helped.  This is good stuff, I just can't say that often enough.  I'm ordering more before I run out.

....and getting some chocolate this time...

Warm for Form

There were two very different type of people at the gym this morning.  One was a dude that appeared to load massive amounts of weights and almost bust a gut doing one or two reps before moving on to something else.  Basically, wandering all over the gym trying a little of this and a little of that, but not really having any plan.  The other was a rather smallish woman who was doing multiple reps, increasing the weight a bit with each set, and maintaining absolutely impeccable form.

Guess which one was making better use of their time?  Guess which one is, pound for pound, much stronger?

I think the woman may have thought I was ogling her but I was actually just studying what she was doing...because I wanted to copy for myself.  I was paying very close attention to how she was lifting.  I would hire her as a personal trainer because she evidently knew what she was doing.

The dude may have thought I was trying to hit on him since I was smiling when watching him too.

Why The Gym?

That's what I was asking this morning while I was trying to get in my upper body workout at the YMCA.  Actually I was asking myself silently in my mind but directing it, along with my best WTF glare, at several guys sitting on the machines.  Not doing anything.  Just sitting...talking....on their cell phone....looking at the birds through the windows....hell, just about anything but actually using the machines.  Oh, I ask to work in and they were at least courteous enough to allow that but...jeeze...I really shouldn't have to ask some asshat to move his butt off of every single machine so that I can do weird things at the gym, like exercise.  Even the free weight area was crowded with guys just milling around and mostly yakking on their phones.  One laid his right by my feet while I was doing curls and I was sorely tempted to have a little oopsey and drop a dumbell on the thing.

This is what confuses me.  Why go to the gym just to socialize?  Seems that it would be a better venue to go to a coffee shop or something.  At least there you don't have to pay for a membership, just buy some crappy overpriced coffee and maybe some pastry with an unpronounceable name.  The point is, at a coffee shop they could sit on their butts and yammer till the cows came home.  They would still have about the same risk of breaking out in a sweat.

At the gym, they are in the way.  Shoo.  Shut yer pie holes.  Bodies under construction.

Got Strength?

I took the plunge and bought a case of Full Strength.  It's a nutrition shake specifically designed for men and particularly good for (ahem) more seasoned men.  It was a bit of a difficult plunge because, as most people who know me know, I'm picky about how I spend my money.  Full Strength is pricey.  Including shipping costs, this stuff comes out to about $5 a serving.  That's not outrageous for a nutritious and satisfying meal...but if it turned out to be just another BS product that sits on my shelf, then I would be annoyed and my wife would be more so for wasting money AND kitchen space.  So I had to be careful.  Had to make sure this was something that I really wanted and something that would really be beneficial for me.

I've tried Full Strength before and liked it.  It's probably the only nutrition shake that I've ever had that didn't taste like some chemical cocktail mixed in a dirty sock.  This stuff is actually pretty tasty.  The nutrients it has is ideal.  Also, it is put out by Shawn Phillips, who is a no-nonsense straight-talking fitness guru that I trust.  There was a slight problem when I tried to order a case and they were out of chocolate.  Evidently, they only make this stuff in small batches and it's not stockpiled somewhere in a warehouse for several years...which is good.  Still, I didn't know if I would like the vanilla flavor (they only make it in the two flavors).

The primary reason I need a shake to replace a meal is due to my job.  I don't get an official lunch break, I just eat when I can where I can.  Most times that means at my desk.  More times than not, it means that I don't have enough time all at once to eat a decent meal.  The nutrition shake is my answer.  I can mix it up and drink it down in a few minutes...but there are some requirements that I need for that; it has to be something that will satisfy me because I don't want to be hungry again in an hour or so, it has to taste good so that I will actually look forward to drinking it rather than holding my nose and gulping it down, and it has to mix well in a shaker bottle since I rarely carry a blender in my shirt pocket.

The Full Strength met those requirements.  Some time ago I had done a taste test on the shakes and thought they were great but I had only tried the chocolate at work in the shaker bottle.  Would the vanilla taste okay shaking it by hand at work?  Should I risk getting a whole case of something that I'm not absolutely sure will work for me?

Fortunately, there was an answer.  Full Strength and Shawn Phillips will offer free samples.  You pay for shipping but that's reasonable....can't expect a company to give out freebies to any yahoo who asks for it and stay in business for very long.  Paying shipping makes you put some skin in the game.  They only give out so many samples a day so, if you don't make it one day, try again the next.  Anyway, I sent off for a sample so that I could try the vanilla at work.  Needless to say it met all my expectations and I am now a confirmed customer.

I usually don't shill for products, but this is a really good one.  Check out the web page.  Check out Shawn Phillips.  Get a sample and try this stuff yourself.  You won't regret it.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Hauling Ass

It's one of my pet peeves.

 Yeah...I know...I have a bunch of them, but this peeve really peeves me more than usual.  They are in stores all the time.  Huge fat people using the store-provided scooters to navigate down aisles loading up on food.  Now, I really am not one to judge others, and I completely understand that some physical disabilities are not always obvious...but c'mon....these folks are using the scooters because they are fat and too damn lazy to waddle around the store to pick up their supply of Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

Don't get me wrong.  Being a few hundred pounds overweight is definitely a disability.  I would imagine that even taking a few steps for some of these people would be flirting with heart attack or stroke, and I'm not against people using the scooters who just are not as fortunate as me in being able to walk around during the day.  What it is that really burns my grits are those who use the scooter to load up on all the types of food that most likely got them into the shape they are in to need the scooter in the first place.  It's just a lack of personal responsibility.

For example.....

I have type 2 diabetes.  The reason I have it is because of a lot of bad health choices over many years.  I could have avoided it but I chose to be in denial until it hit me in the face and I couldn't hide from the facts anymore.  From that point, I could have gone in two directions.  In one, I could have continued doing what I was doing, continue with the denial, take medications to treat the diabetes as well as the host of other physical ailments that would have followed, and complained about poor little me having a disability.  In the other, I can accept responsibility.  I couldn't do anything to change what I have already done to my body, but I can damn well control how I take care of it in the future.  That required changing some things....what to eat, what not to eat, stop smoking, exercise, exercise, and more exercise

And that's the same with morbidly obese people.  I'm not blaming them for being fat.  There really is no point in that.  What I do blame them for is STAYING fat.  If I see a really fat guy at the gym, I don't sneer and ask them what the hell they are doing there.  I know why they are there.  They want to change.  I respect the hell out of that because everybody at the gym is there for the exact same reason.  If I see a fat person on a scooter in the store picking out veggies, fruit, and lean foodstuffs....I think it's great and I will really admire them for wanting to change.

I see a fat person straining the load limits of a scooter while piling their basket up on Twinkies and day old donuts....I might sneer, but I'll probably thank the heavens that nobody I care about has their short unhappy life.  I'll feel sorry for them and hope they want to change before it's too late to change.