http://women.webmd.com/features/7-diet-mistakes-fast-fixes

WTF is this? .... as my little brother, Fahad, would say... ZONG!!! that's some really fucked up advice right there. I'll tell you why it makes perfect sense to you and it sounds just fine, but it sounds stupid and makes no sense to me. let's take cars for example.

if you are a person who doesn't know how to drive, and you don't know the rules of the road... suddenly you decide to drive without learning, and within 5-10 minutes, you have a car accident. and every time you leave the house, you have an accident. you want to drive so bad but you don't know how and you don't know what the fuck is going on with traffic and all these rules and shit... here's what this article would translate to if it were the situation...

1- never put the pedal to the metal
just go half as fast. because if you do, it'll probably take you double the time to have an accident as it would if you were going full speed.

2- Always make right turns
because taking a left turn is usually more dangerous. if a store is on your left, just turn right 3 times and you'll be there safely.

3- Don't close your eyes if you are about to have an accident
this will only make the situation worse. just try to improvise and frantically turn the steering wheel left and right to try to dodge the other car


... etc

anyone who would read that would go "WTF!!! ZONG!!!" because you actually understand the rules of the road. So this shit wouldn't make sense to you. if you bring someone out of the jungle and tell him these rules, he'd say "oh.. ok. sounds logical"... you see where i'm going here?

most people... nah, i'd say fucking everyone cannot comprehend how diets work, or even how their bodies work. the few who know are considered statistical anomalies and we can't include them here. If you don't understand all that shit, you would believe anything that is spewed at you from, basically, anyone.

At my family's house, i am usually considered the asshole. You know how Dwight is an ass in "the office"? yeah, kinda like that in a way. anyway, I usually repeat the same shit over and over again, especially in ramadhan.
My mom says "god, i don't know why we all feel so tired after eating breakfast". As you know, i can't shut my mouth and say "Ofcourse you don't know. You don't even know that you probably ate 2000 cals worth of fat and sugar in 3 minutes flat! you want me to explain?" and the usual answer would be "our food is 100 times more nutritious than that bland, unhealthy junk you eat. and i don't want you to explain anyway."... but, i do! :) ... and i've probably explained it over 200 times, but it never sinks in.

anyway, this shit isn't difficult. hell, i'm an idiot and i learned it! There is no secret diet or what not. you just have to learn how your body processes food. hell, I even tell you how i setup shit for my clients on this blog! but you still don't know what the fuck i'm talking about. how many of you know how many grams of protein, fat, and carbs an egg has?

I recommended a couple of books to a friend of mine who is trying to lose some weight and gain some muscle. i've worked with him before (was my client) and tried to teach him about ratios and shit like that. the books i recommended to him went into detail about the ratios and explaining how they work and what not. anyway, the guy still calls me up every five minutes to ask me if what he's doing is ok. and 100% of the time it's not. It does not make sense to a person with an IQ score of "1" to conclude that you can eat 2 cups of rice and 1 pint of ice cream for one meal, 8 scoops of why protein for another meal, and 1 stick of butter for a third meal if i tell you to eat 2000 cals per day with a 40/40/20 macronutrient split. yet some people still do that.
this same person whom i taught will go and say "for dinner, i had 2 servings of pasta with some olive oil, and a 200 gram pack of low fat yogurt. that's good, right?" ... I'd immediately say "no, that's horrible. that's worse than eating a big mac. why would you do that? it's an awful ratio you're using there." so his excuse would be "but you said that whole wheat pasta is a good source of carbs, olive oil for fat. and yogurt has protein, right?" still, people cannot understand what to do and how to do it. I can explain this a million times over again, it wouldn't matter. people DON'T WANT TO UNDERSTAND IT.

Another thing... i know people whom when i say "eat 200 grams of blah blah blah", they don't even bother to weigh it. they eyeball it without having any experience. I know someone who was eating 100 GRAMS OF GROUND BEEF!!! when i actually told him to eat 250 grams. when i asked him why (he has to explain himself), he says "it looked like 250 grams to me"...

look, rule of thumb... carbs and fats are usually a lot more than what you assume (in most cases, more than triple your estimate), and protein is usually 1/5-1/10 of what you expected to eat.

For example, we're talking about breakfast. if i tell anyone of you to "make sure to get a lot of protein, moderate carb intake, and just a little bit of unsaturated healthy fat. no need to be (as one of my friends said) anal about the numbers"... people would go and make this:
1 or 2 whole eggs cooked in a little bit of oil or butter
5 slices of whole wheat toast
1 glass of skimmed milk for protein (yeah... sure)
1 glass of orange juice
handful of peanuts for good fats

If one of my clients did this, i'd hit them in the face with my shoe. most of you would say "yeah, looks about right. eggs and milk have a lot of protein. orange juice is healthy, has no calories, whole wheat toast is very healthy... so it's probably protein and a little complex carbs, and nuts are very healthy... the cardiologist said so."
let's break it down here...
Protein: 20 grams (this is counting 2 eggs, and not just one)
Carbs: 100 grams
fats: 25 grams

that "small" breakfast had around 700 cals in it... the ratio was 11% protein 57% carbs 32% fat.



You know what the real killer is? people usually don't get nutritional advice from people who "look" like they should give advice. your fat friend's emails, your fat dietician who over charges you, and your obese doctor and the "authorities" when it comes to this issue. and you wonder why you, and the rest of the world, are actually getting fatter? and trust me, it's not because "i don't exercise", you can exercise min ilyoam ilain bukra (figure of speech, from today til tomorrow) and you won't look a bit better unless you are genetically gifted and you have amazing insulin response when you exercise (some people are like that... around 1% of them... so fat chance, bitches)... It's hard work, it's not easy. simple? yes. but the shit needs dedication and guts. And no... i take back what i said. not anyone can do it. You have to be determined and push everything you have in life aside and keep this as a priority til you hit your goal, then you go back to living like a normal person.




In a nutshell... you'll never look good unless you do this like a bodybuilder would. Otherwise, you'll either look like a small piece of shit, or a big piece of shit.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080919/hl_nm/obesity_fertility_dc;_ylt=AlxHnnLiFtSKKQFhjgPH4yDVJRIF



it's just evolution... don't be mad.

another issue here... the BMI and shit... although i don't believe in that crap because i'm a bodybuilder... it's pretty accurate for people who never trained or exercised in their lives (probably 99% of the people out there). So, a BMI of 25-30 is considered overweight... and anything above 30 gives you the fat ass status.

since i have 52 minutes until i leave work... i am going to tell you where you are on the scale...

height (in/cm) weight for 25 bmi weight for above 30 bmi
5'0/153 128lb/58kg 154lb/70kg
5'1/155.5 132lb/60kg 159lb/72kg
5'2/158 137lb/62kg 164lb/74kg
5'3/160.5 141lb/64kg 170lb/77kg
5'4/163 145lb/66kg 175lb/80kg
5'5/165.5 150lb/68kg 181lb/82kg
5'6/168 155lb/70kg 186lb/84kg
5'7/170.5 160lb/72kg 192lb/87kg
5'8/173 164lb/74kg 197lb/89kg
5'9/175.5 169lb/76kg 204lb/92kg
5'10/178 174lb/79kg 210lb/94kg
5'11/180.5 179lb/81kg 215lb/97kg
6'0/183 184 lb/83kg 222lb/100kg



remember, this is for normal people. Not bodybuilders or people who are athletic.
In my experience, normal people who fall in the 25-30 BMI range are anywhere from 20-25% fat (men) and 30-35% fat (women)... If they are above 30 BMI... where the hell did you go wrong? don't you know when to say "enough is enough"?

I have a couple of friends who are at the 5'11-6'1 range... 4 to be exact.
one weighs 240+ at around 6'
one weighs 200+ at around 5'11
one weighs 360+ at around 6'1
and the last weighs 205+ at 5'10 after a year of dieting. (down from 297 lbs)

basically, every tall guy i know is severely overweight or morbidly obese. what am i trying to say? one of them thinks he's just a little overweight, one of them is considered "thin", one of them had enough and did something about it, and the last one does not even want to accept the fact that it's affecting his health. you see where i'm going? most people who are actually obese don't even know it!!!

the really messed up thing about all of this is... in a Samual L. Jackson voice... THE GODDAMN FIRST QUESTION THEY ASK!!!
"can i get rid of this before summer?" - holding a belly that looks like a sack of potatoes
"how long will it take to lose this?"
"i just need to lose 20 kilos. how can i do it without getting tired?"

let me just tell you how hard it is to lose weight in the real world. turn off the fucking E! channel and listen to some real shit. you can't lose it in 8 weeks by doing the britiney spears diet (and she still looks like a block of white shit with no waist, might i add)... let's take our 240+lb friend at 6' tall...

he's around 30% fat (rough estimate)... so, that would mean he has 72 lbs of fat on his body. This is not the fat he needs to lose... it's the total fat on his body. his lean mass would be 168 lbs. assuming he is going to do this naturally (no steroids or shit involved), he is going to lose muscle/fat at a ratio of 1:1 if he does it slowly (1-2 lbs per week). let's say he diets and trains perfectly for a whole year (52 weeks)... the first 10 weeks he gained 8 lbs of muscle (being very optimistic here)... which took him up to 248 lbs and brought his bodyfat down to 29%. then he started losing muscle and fat at the ratio mentioned. so, in 42 weeks (let's say an average weight loss of 1.5 lb per week) he would be down 63 lbs. 31.5 lbs of muscle, and 31.5 lbs of fat. let's tilt the odds to his favor and say 25 lbs of muscle and 38 lbs of fat. this will mean he now weighs 185 lbs. his fat mass went down from 72 lbs to 36 lbs... but, his lean mass also went down from 176 lbs to 151 lbs... this whole process took him down from 30% fat at 240 lbs, to 185 lbs at 19% fat.

you see how this goes? he went down from obese to overweight in a year!! this is usually the case with everyone i train. it takes fucking time, and lots of it.

lets take your friend.. you know, the one you mention whenever you want to argue with me and you say "but i know someone who lost 100 lbs in 6 months"... where you just look at the number of lbs he lost but don't pay attention to how he actually looks like... thinking of how he looks like now makes you wanna vomit, right? ... anyway, you know who i'm talking about. this is how it goes...

they crash diet... lose 5 lbs per week for 20 weeks at a ratio of 3:1 muscle to fat (this is being generous with the muscle loss), then stop and can't lose weight for shit... let's take the 240 lb guy at 30% fat...
lost 100 lbs... out of those 100 lbs, 75 lbs were muscle, and 25 lbs were fat. he originally had 168 lbs of lean tissue... now he has 93 lbs... he originally had 72 lbs of fat, now he has 47 lbs... let's do the math... he now weighs 140 lbs... that's a lot of weight to lose... BUT!!! he is at more than 33% fat... he actually got fatter, relatively speaking. and all this excess fat is somehow called "excess skin"...


anyway... according to the scale, he is thin... according to doctors, he's underweight... according to me? he's still a fat ass.
the way you look has NOTHING to do with the number on the scale. it has to do with fat percentage, and that is directly reflected to you everyday when you look in the mirror. hell, even ask one of my clients who only lost 3 kilos but lost 4 inches off the waist!

Future plans and shit

Well, as i said, i won't be training seriously or even thinking of dieting until October 4th. The only difference is that this year, i have a plan for the whole year and i'm gonna stick with it... why? cuz i have no contests i have my eyes set on or any other shit to get in the way (hopefully). So, i will write up (briefly) the plan i'm going to follow... if you have any input, questions, or ways you'd think you can help, please put it in the comments section.

week 1-3
the diet will be 6 meals per day. each meal will be 50-55 grams of protein and 15-20 grams of fat. there will be no carb intake other than negligable vegetables and psyllium husk (fybogel).
that comes to a total of around 2200 cals (300 grams of protein, 110 grams of fat).
my cheat day will basically be protein and fat (steaks, burgers with no buns, fried chicken... etc) and the only meal that will have carbs in it is the last meal of the day (300-400 grams of carbs).

week 4
fat will be kept to a minimum, and replaced with 50 grams of carbs.

this diet will be cycled 3 times, and each cycle will have an extra meal. so in week 5-8 i will be getting 350 grams of protein per day, and weeks 9-12 i will get 400 grams of protein per day.

Training

I will not change my training for the whole year. it will be DC training with a twist. If you don't know what DC training is, read up on it to know exactly how it's done... these are the changes i have made to the 3 day split:

1- all body parts will have a widowmaker
2- there are only 2 exercise rotations due to availability of equipment

here are the exercise i will rotate

Chest
smith incline press, smith decline press
machine flies for widowmaker

Shoulders:
behind the neck presses, upright rows (wide grip)
side lateral dumbbell raises for widowmaker

Triceps:
close grip benchpress, reverse grip benchpress
behind the neck dumbbell extensions for widowmaker

Back thickness:
barbell rows, deadlifts
no widowmaker

Back width:
pull ups, chin ups

Biceps:
barbell curls, preacher curls
incline dumbbell curls for widowmaker

Quads:
squats, leg press
front squat for widowmaker

Hams:
stiff legged deadlifts, leg curl
no widowmaker

Calves:
standing calf raises, seated calf raises
no widowmaker

Here's how i will split them:
Saturday: chest, delts, triceps
Monday: back thickness, back width, biceps
Wednesday: legs
calves and abs will be performed every workout

4 warm up sets on the first exercise of that day, then an all out set on all the exercises (yes, just one set)

On most safe exercises (chest, delts, triceps, biceps, back width) the all out working set is as follows: 9-11 reps, 15 deep breaths, 2-4 reps, 15 deep breaths, 1-2 reps and i'm done.
the range will depend on where i fail in the exercise
rest of the exercises will be done at 8-12 straight reps with the rest/pause thing.

after training each muscle, i will do the extreme stretches DC explains on almost all of his articles and posts. I have tried them before... they are as painful as fuck, and i don't know if i can do them for 60 seconds, but i'll try.

The whole aim here is progression. more reps to failure, or more poundage. I will have my log book with me and post it every month.

The first 4 weeks will be no cardio weeks. just training and diet.
weeks 5-8 i will add 50 minutes of low intensity cardio in the morning 6 days per week.
weeks 9-12 i will add fat burners and will up the intensity on the morning cardio.

The aim of the first 12 weeks is to lose all the fat on my body without losing muscle. If i am not shredded at the end of the 12 weeks, well, i guess i'm gonna have to add another 4 weeks of cutting.

After reaching my goal, i will add 100 grams of protein to my daily intake, and take it up to 500 grams per day. after reaching another plateau, i will exchange the 15 grams of fat before, during, and after training with 60 grams of carbs.

I will post pictures every 4 weeks, starting October 4th.

wish me luck

How to diet and train in ramadhan

well, even if i write a diet and training program that would work in ramadhan, and would take someone from 35% down to 3% fat in 2 weeks, i know that 99% of the people out there won't follow it. why? because this is the general way of thinking:
"exercise? diet? ofcourse it'll work... but i don't have time to do any of that. i need something where i can just take a pill or something"
ofcourse, not having time means being a lazy cow. I know a guy who doesn't fucking sleep from all the work he has to do yet he still finds an hour a day for exercise. and guess what? he doesn't do it to lose weight (he knows it doesn't work without dieting), he does it for stress relief! anyway...

in ramadhan, you basically need to switch yourself back to anabolism the minute you eat. let's say you have been awake for 7 hours... this is after less than 5 hours of sleep, and there is no food or water whatsoever in this 12 hour period. you are extremely catabolic at this stage. this is why i tell my friends who work out while they are fasting that they are fucking retarded and don't know whta the hell they're doing. They are going to be thirsty as hell, dehydrated, low blood sugar, and burn a ton of muscle. some people care about health, others care about how they look... anyone who does this is basically a retard who doesn't care about any of those things.

now, when you break your fast, you should eat no more than 800 calories (and this is for the giagantic bodybuilder at negative 5% fat)... mere mortals should eat anywhere from 400-600 cals. preferably a carb/protein meal with minimal fat intake.

work out should be around 1-2 hours after eating. remember, if you stuff yourself like a pig and eat 1500 cals at breakfast (for those who don't know how to count calories and don't weigh their food, you are easily eating 1000+ cals per meal on a normal day. in ramadhan it turns into 2000 cals. so, don't think i'm not talking about you), you will not be able to train until it hits 1 am. you will be bloated, tired, and feel like throwing up all the time.

immediately after training, you should have your post workout meal. if you don't know what it should be, please educate yourself and read my entire blog... even that won't work... i know a lot of people who i've dealt with personally (some whom i have this conversation with everyday) that think post workout should be 2 scoops of protein powder... they think that even if they don't eat anything all day, or if they don't change their old junk food diet, but add 2 scoops of protein after training they will gain 80 lbs of muscle and burn off all the fat on their body. No... please stop being foolish.

this is the last meal that should contain any carbs. rest of the meals of protein/fat meals with veggies.

the trick is to know how much protein/fat/carbs you should take in, and when to take them in.

remember, this is to have slight progress, or to maintain what you have. you cannot have superb progress in ramadhan. I know people who start programs in ramadhan and say "i will walk everday after esha prayer, i will eat 1 sambosa and some soup for breakfast, and grapefruit for suhoor" and they fuck up everything.


Misconceptions about ramadhan

1- this kind of fasting is not healthy. so don't use that arguement with me please. the healthy kind of fasting is the one where you don't eat foods that don't digest easily and limit yourself to fresh juices (certain kinds) and lots of water and fiber. this is healthy to do for 3-5 days every 6 months. but to not eat anything for 14 hours and not drink anything... you should get the fucking point. and "cleansing the body from toxins" is the not the point. so don't tell me it's healthy.

2- The whole "you shouldn't eat a lot on breakfast because your stomach isn't ready" crap. what? is your stomach gonna go into a boxing match or something? you need to warm it up? and the real problem is, people who say that have heavy creamy soup, dates, fried sambosas for an appetizer... pray... then eat half a sheep. eat 500-700 cals... that's always a healthy amount of calories for a meal (ofcourse, ratios and food sources make the difference)

3- "Vimto causes cancer"... seriously?

4- well, this is not a misconception... but this is what i see... ramadhan is not about food. do you know that a lot of non-muslims actually fast for days on end because they actually get the point? but we don't. a family of five will cook for 20 people daily... why?
seriously, just think about it a little.

I'm back, bitches!!!!

Montreal was a BLAST!!! that place is so wonderful... the weather, the people, the food... everything was so fantastic. anyway, i won't blabber anymore... i'll leave you with the pics and the comments :)... enjoy!

The flight was fucking HORRIBLE!!! 7 hours from bahrain to amsterdam, a 9 hour lay over there, and a 7 hour flight from amsterdam to montreal.

I tried to read a book and get myself edumacated, but i still never learned to read

when we reached montreal, we found the butter people, they looked pissed

according to us... people who go here are all going to hell




It took me a while to figure out that most public bathrooms were in malls disguised as old buildings... the problem is that you'd spend 45 minutes looking for a damn bathroom, and in that time, you would've already passed by 3 or 4 strip clubs. these guys love their strip clubs. in the end we reached starbucks on st.catherine street, and you had to actually buy something for them to open the bathroom door with a buzzer. and the bathroom was filthy. anyway... when you sit outside of starbucks and enjoy your coffee... this the view you are stuck with..




if it's too small to read... the place is called "octopussy"... very creative name... it's a "gentlemen's club" ... mmmm hmmmm...

also.. before you go workout, you can get pumped up full of adrenaline by passing by the place next door




also... after a nice meal at nickels... you can enjoy some entertainement...




I shit you not, these 3 places are a 10 minute apart from each other on the same street...

anyway, went down to the ciniplex and had an arguement with an excited hockey fan







and now, let's talk about.... FUDS!!!!































and this is my friend... Goliathus Goliathus




These guys would not want to hear the speaches we give on the friday prayer ;)




The botanical gardens was basically just a bunch of crap... plants... wu ba3dain??








all the attractions in the botanical garden were in one area, and then there was "the old tree house" which was the "main attraction" as the map said. we had to walk up hill for about 30 minutes to reach that fucker... and in the end... it was just a little fucking room with this shit!!!





this shit just brought back memories of the karate kid... BANZAIII!!!!!




then we went to La ronde (six flags)... almost got a heart attack. i'm too old for this shit.















and here are some random pics...

























and after eating all this food...







you gotta take a dump!!!!




On the trip back... you kinda lose your mind from being so fucking bored





well... dats all, folks!!

i will talk more about dieting in ramadhan in a couple of days, and other stuffies... so stay tuned.


Ramadhan kareem