Dine Like a Prince, Spend like a Pauper: Quick Tips for Muscle-building & Fat Loss on a Budget

So umm...I'm kinda poor.

I'm not saying that I'm living on the streets, blogging on my laptop from a dark alley somewhere downtown, eating the freshly discarded half of a bearclaw in a fort made of cardboard and a cloak made of pigeon feathers; just that I work in a sandwich shop and have no other source of income at the moment.

"I'll do anything for a an electrical outlet.  Anything!"

I make slightly more than minimum wage and as you probably very well know, living a healthy lifestyle and having the goal of becoming simultaneously fit, strong and incredibly hawt has its price, both psychologically and financially.  In the past I made the mistake of living far beyond my means.  I bought supplements that were both unnecessary and ineffective, and I bought carts full of expensive groceries without realizing there was a better way to go about things.

It's absolutely possible to eat like a king (a healthy, awesome-looking one) and not break the bank, and here are a few tips to help you get started so you don't make the same mistakes I made:

1.  Buy meats & veggies in bulk.

I buy somewhat large amounts of chicken breasts, seal them in individual freezer bags and keep them in the freezer.  It's possibly the most versatile food on the planet, so you can just defrost a couple of them overnight and use them to make dinner the next day.  I also buy ground sirloin in large quantities for burgers.  Just mix in your seasonings and whatnot, form them into burgers, and seal them in individual baggies (just like the chicken breasts) and freeze them.  You can defrost them in the microwave and cook them up whenever you want in a jiffy, which works really well for a quick lunch or dinner.

For vegetables, I usually just buy big bags of things like frozen broccoli and cauliflower, which work great on the side of your burgers.  Just steam, season with lemon juice and sea salt, and you're golden, Pony Boy.

2.  Don't buy a bunch of supplements that you don't need.

Pretty early on after I was bitten by the fitness bug, I thought that a massive pile of pills would solve all my problems.  I didn't bther to realize that supplements are just that: supplements.  They're for supplementing what should already be a fairly solid diet; they won't make you lean and strong when you're scarfing down Snickers and Golden Grahams all day.

Also, don't get caught up in the hype of certain "wonder" pills.  Acai extract won't help you lose fat any more than banging your best friend's mother will, and spending $30 on a bottle of mangosteen juice will only result in giving you permission to be slapped in the back of the head.

(On second thought, banging Mrs. Anderson would probably be condusive to fat loss.  Especially when you're on the run while being hunted down like a dog by your best friend.)

As far as I'm concerned (and people far more qualified than me will back me up on this), the supplement staples are:

Fish oil

Greens/superfood

A good multivitamin

Vitamin D (normally the multi won't have nearly enough)

I also take zinc because most people (especially athletes and people who work out intensely) are generally pretty deficient unless they're eating a lot of organic nuts and oysters and such.

I consider protein powder to be more of a food than a supplement, so that's why I didn't include it in the list.

I do take more than what is listed depending on the situation, but I'm only listing the supplements I take every day no matter what.  I might blog about everything I take in the future, but for the purpose of this post, these are what's important.

So there you have it.  Two tips to help you get fit, tough and further out of debt if you're financially challenged  like I am.

Any advice to give on how to get muscle on a budget?  Comment!

To Arms! Let's Defeat Childhood Cancer.

When I was 12 years old, I lost my older brother to cancer.

(Awesome way to start a blog post, I know.)

Somewhere around 9 p.m. in the September of 1995, my brother Jason and I had climbed into our respective bunk beds (I was on bottom) and began chatting about sign language.  Jason had been taking a sign language class in high school because it counted for his language credit and it seemed easier than going with Spanish or French.  He tought me how to sign a few words and promised to teach me more the next day when he had his textbook handy.  Of course I can't remember if I was genuinely interested in sign language or if I was just excited about the prospect of doing something with my older brother that didn't involve a black eye or hurtful insults, but I was looking forward to it nonetheless.  To have such a civil discussion that lasted more than two minutes was a somewhat rare occurence in that point in our "brothership."

We went to sleep.

A few hours later at around 4 or 5 a.m., I awoke to the sound of something thrashing around on the top bunk.  I didn't know what was going on, so I immediately jumped out of bed and climbed up to see what my brother was doing.  His back was arched, his arms flailed and he was grunting as if he was in pain, though he didn't seem conscious.  Assuming he was just having a terrible dream, I tried hitting him and shaking him to wake him up, which in retrospect wasn't the best idea.

I ran to my parents' room and woke my mother, telling her there was something wrong with Jason.  It wasn't long after that he snapped out of it and we got him down from the bed and into the kitchen.  My mom called my dad, who was at work at the time, to tell him what had happened and to come home right away.  As we waited for my father to get there, my brother (who was aware he wouldn't be going to school that day) went into the livingroom and sat down at our then-brand-spanking-new Acer computer. 

As Jason sat at the computer, suddenly he collapsed.  His head fell forward and hit the wooden desk with a loud bang.  I pulled him back to the sitting position in the chair and he then realized he had trouble moving his right arm.  If there was ever a time during this morning to panic, this was it.  My mom called 911 and the ambulence arrived minutes later.  My dad still hadn't made it home yet and because the ambulence couldn't fit both my mom and I, we had to let them go without us and go to the hospital when my dad got home.

Thus began the most difficult 11 months any of us would ever endure.

On August 7th, 1996, after nearly a year of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and several surgeries, after a year of training myself to become almost completely emotionally detached, after 11 months of fighting the angry bitch that is Cancer with everything he had, my brother died at the age of 16.

No one should have to go through what he did, and that's why I'm asking for your help.

While I don't have the means or the knowledge to seek out new, more effective ways to treat cancer in children, the St. Baldrick's foundation does.

From their website:

"The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives."

Now that's something I can get behind.

For more info, visit www.stbaldricks.org.

You don't have to shave your head.  In fact, my favorite fitness guy, John Romaniello, has organized an effort to raise $10,000 for St. Baldrick's.  All you have to do is follow the link below and hit the donate button near the bottom of the post.  There is no minimum or maximum donation, but anything over $15 gets you a bunch of free workouts by some of the best trainers in all the land.

http://www.romanfitnesssystems.com/blog/baring-it-all-for-charity-help-me-fight-childhood-cancer

Read the post, watch the video, and please donate what you can.  Whether it's $1 or a million, everything helps.