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So far today!!! :rock

todays10.jpg

Where u get this calculator at??
 
Where u get this calculator at??

Website called fitday.com awesome for putting foods or you can even create your own foods and logged them daily, really keeps you straight on the calorie intake and you'll be shock how much little food adds up.
 
Having a hard time getting my 7 hours of sleep.

My mind never shuts off!

Anyways, an article that makes feel a tad better

The Recommended Hours of Sleep

Author: Tom Venuto

www.burnthefatbook.com
tom-venuto.jpg
Dear Tom,
Your fitness newsletter is great - please keep it up! It is very motivating to receive it every month. I had a question about the importance of sleep to those of us who are trying to gain muscle and stay lean. The weight that I am able to lift when doing most of my routines continues to increase steadily. However, I am still finding it difficult to gain much lean muscle. I am 38 yrs old and about 5'9" and 165lbs. Over training doesn’t seem to be an issue - I am lifting about 4x per week and working each body part 1x about every six days. My diet is also pretty solid and I am getting at least 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight each day. The only issue seems to be lack of sleep. Because I have a fairly demanding Wall Street job I am only able to get about 6 hrs of sleep per night during the week and about 8 hrs on the weekends. Do you think that this could be keeping me from putting on more lbs? Let me know what you think Tom.
Regards,
Dave F.
Answer from Tom Venuto:Sleep is very important, but sleep is also a very misunderstood subject. Three years ago in my newsletter I wrote something about sleep that stirred up some controversy and really disgruntled a lot of readers…
In issue #6 of BFS newsletter, August, 2001 in an interview with Lori Braun from female muscle.Com, I wrote:
"Sleep is for wimps! A friend of mine likes to say, ‘Life is for living; there's plenty of time for sleeping when you're dead!’ I don't sleep that much. There's too much to do, see, read and enjoy and just not enough hours in the day to be sleeping them all away. Usually I sleep 5-6 hours a night. I wish I could get by on 2 or 3; I would get a lot more done that way.
I’m being a little facetious, but seriously, though, I think the amount of sleep you need is largely an individual issue, a matter of certain lifestyle factors and is also tied into your belief systems. I believe all the emphasis on needing 8-10 hours a sleep a day to recover and grow muscle is a bunch of crap. I've achieved the absolute best condition of my life sleeping only 5 1/2 to 6 hours before contests.
Take a look at high achievers in any field: sports, business, whatever, and you'll see a lot of people who don't buy into the 8 hours theory. I remember reading Skip Lacour's daily training journal from 1999 and he said he slept less than I do - maybe 4-5 hours a night (Skip is arguably the best natural bodybuilder in the world). He was up at 4 or 5 am doing cardio - What a guy! And he won the overall Team Universe at around 225 lbs. Doesn’t seem to have hurt his gains!
We've been brainwashed into believing it and if you believe in something strongly enough, it will become your reality - any good psychologist will tell you that. The truth is, athletes, entrepreneurs, and people in other highly creative fields are filled with so much "juice" and passion for life and for what they do, that they can't wait to get up in the morning and go do it!
Quote all the scientific studies and physiology you want, but there are a lot of psychological "X" factors involved. Some people oversleep simply because they’re bored, they hate their jobs or they’re depressed and don’t want to wake up to face what they’re depressed about."
Phew! You should have seen the emails that stirred up!
For example,
"Tom, have a question for you. In your last newsletter you stated that sleep wasn't important but it seems that every article I have ever read in a muscle magazine says you need sleep for your muscles to repair themselves (in other words, to get bigger). True?"
(Actually most of the emails weren’t this nice – most of them were people yelling at me because I was "irresponsibly" giving "bad advice" and it was my ‘duty’ as a certified fitness professional to recant)
My reply was that I didn’t say sleep wasn’t important - getting enough sleep is critically important - I said that how much sleep (a) was an individual matter, (b) was tied in to lifestyle factors (more on that in a minute) and (c) was heavily tied into psychological factors and belief systems. In other words, if you believe you need 8 hours of sleep, you probably do.
I would even go a step further and say this myth is hard-wired into some people at a level even beyond beliefs, it has actually become a part of their self-image and identity: "I AM just the type of person who has to sleep AT LEAST 8 hours or I AM a ZOMBIE the next day!" Nice self-hypnotic suggestion! Have you noticed an increase in the living dead lately?
Well, I’ve stumbled upon some very interesting facts about how much sleep you really need that you might want to know about. I noticed a long time ago that I seemed to require less sleep before bodybuilding competitions. Then I started doing some research because I was concerned about whether I was sleeping enough for my health and my success as a bodybuilder. My initial findings seemed to confirm the 8 hours theory and I thought maybe I should sleep more.
I found studies showing that inadequate sleep:

  • Decreases testosterone (1998, Archives of Andrology: Disturbing the light darkness pattern reduces circulating testosterone in healthy men)
  • Impairs insulin function (1996, American Journal of physiology: Relationships between sleep quality and glucose regulation in normal humans),
  • Increases cortisol (1997, Sleep: Sleep deprivation results in elevation of cortisol levels)
  • Decreases Growth hormone (1995, Journal of clinical endocrinological metabolism: Nocturnal wakefulness inhibits growth hormone secretion)
We’ve also learned from research that disruptions in your circadian rhythms as a result of sleep disturbances can promote disease and degeneration - literally making you old before your time. (1998, Hormonal Research: Alterations of circadian rhythms and sleep in aging: Endocrine consequences)
And those are just a few selected studies.
YIKES! Based on the research, it looks like shortage of sleep is a very, very bad thing and that’s why most health professionals continue to recommend between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night.
So what the heck am I talking about when I say some people may not need as much sleep as they think they need, and why the heck do I only sleep 6 hours per night if I’m so concerned with health and building muscle? And how does a champion bodybuilder like Skip Lacour get away with 4-5 hours of sleep per night? Why aren’t we terrified of increased cortisol and other problems, if not now, then down the road?
As a matter of fact, I was and still am concerned with my health and the results from my training. However, the more I kept looking into it, the more I found more to the story than just the results of these studies. For one thing, there are some simple and easy ways you can improve the QUALITY of your sleep, which can result in a slight decrease in your required QUANTITY of sleep while giving you the same benefits. Anyone who knows anything about sleep will tell you that 6 hours of undisturbed, quality sleep is better than 8 hours of low quality sleep.
I first stumbled onto this completely by accident: One of the things I noticed is that prior to competitions, my life became MUCH more scheduled, structured and regimented than any other time of the year. I ALWAYS went to bed at the same time and woke up at the same time very early in the morning. After a while I didn’t even need an alarm. I woke up automatically feeling very alert. I went to bed at the same time every night, even on weekends and slept like a rock. There was no partying and no late nights. Not a drop of alcohol touched my lips. I only drank coffee in the morning before my early cardio session. I stopped ephedra and all other stimulants. I often took a very short nap right after training (especially leg day). I also was NOT consuming any carbohydrates late at night.
During my contest training, the intensity of my workouts increased dramatically and my volume of cardio increased substantially. Even though I was probably on the verge of overtraining the entire time, I noticed that I needed less sleep and I felt more energy than usual. I maintained my strength and lean body mass, and my body fat decreased every week.
Earlier this year, I found out about a sleep science researcher (Kacper Postawski) who was studying insomnia to try to find a cure for this very common and life-disrupting problem. During the course of his research, he made some intriguing discoveries about why some people sleep 8, 10, 12 hours a day and still feel tired and why oversleeping like this is actually bad for you.
The reason Kacper’s information grabbed my attention was because he was studying the problem on two levels: The physiological level and also the psychological level, using Neuro Liguistic programming (NLP) as one of his tools. I knew he was onto something because one thing I know for certain is that lasting change of any kind – especially health and fitness changes – must be approached from both the physical and mental planes.
In Kacper’s articles, reports and book (Powerful Sleep), he mentioned some of the downsides of sleep deprivation I had already heard about from my own research. But he also showed another, little-known side to the story. He pointed out that controlling sleep quality, sleep cycles, light-dark cycles, circadian rhythms and lifestyle factors (exercise, stress, light exposure, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, etc.), are possibly more important than the quantity of sleep itself. I was amazed at how Kacper’s findings matched my pre-competition experience.
There was even more: He revealed info on psychological "triggers" and NLP tricks to fall asleep instantly, sleep soundly and wake up energized - automatically. It’s too much info to cover in this column, but Kacper has promised to become one of the contributing writers for Fitness Renaissance, so watch for some of his articles in upcoming issues.
Anyway, the bottom line is that all of this information reinforced what I had suspected all along - that the 8 hours of sleep idea wasn’t such a hard and fast rule after all and that I could, by using a few almost embarrassingly simple techniques, not only "get by" on less sleep, but actually optimize my health and improve my muscle building and fat burning efforts.
But I think the biggest benefit for me is that I’ve simply gained more time - because time is life! Almost every person in the industrialized world today complains that they don’t have enough time. Some people even say they don’t have time to exercise. If that’s true, then you owe it to yourself to explore ways to give yourself more time.
Strangely enough, one of the things I keep hearing over and over again is that people who exercise regularly don’t need as much sleep. Some of my busiest clients, including Wall Street executives, gave up one hour of sleep and used that time to exercise early in the morning. After a brief adjustment period where some willpower was required, they found that they actually felt better on less sleep once the early morning exercise had become a part of their lifestyle. According to Kacper, "The biggest antidote to feeling tired is exercise and movement, NOT more sleep!"
So… I’m NOT saying sleep is not important for muscle growth and overall health – it is… and the research proves it. The question is how much? I’m not saying you personally can get by on 4 or 5 hours. Maybe you do need 7 hours of sleep. Maybe you need 8. I am only suggesting that you should optimize your lifestyle and sleeping patterns for sleep quality first and then see for yourself the impact it has on your energy and your need for sleep quantity. Doing this, people often find that they can reduce their sleep time from 9 or 10 hours down to 7 or 8, or even from 7 or 8 hours down to 5 or 6, while at the same time increasing energy, health and free time.
If you pick up an extra hour or two a day, grab your calculator, punch in the numbers and multiply that out over 10 or 20 years and see how much extra time you’ll have in your life to spend doing the things you love to do most.
I highly recommend Kacper’s book, by the way. If you are interested, you can go look at his website now and download the first two chapters for free: www.powersleepsystem.com

Thanks, Tom Venuto
 
I just found this video and thought it was kinda inspiring!
<param name="movie" value="https://embed.break.com/MTI2NTExMA=="></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://embed.break.com/MTI2NTExMA==" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess=always width="464" height="376"></embed></object><br><font size=1><a href="https://www.break.com/index/365-days-of-exercise.html" target="_blank">365 Days Of Exercise</a> - Watch more <a href="https://www.break.com/" target="_blank">Funny Videos</a></font>

I'm gonna go hit the Gym today!!!!
 
Done, here you go.... I have tons of info on there, check out the blog sometime!!!! :wave :rock
https://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/blog.php?b=381&referrerid=3464

More MEALS SONS!!!!!

Chicken+carbs for days
Ingredients
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
10 medium potatoes, cubed
3 cups white rice uncooked
8 oz. can vegetarian chili beans
8 oz. can garlic tomatoes seasoning (to taste)

cooking spray (olive oil)

Directions
Cook rice according to package directions, and then set aside. Grill the chicken breasts in your BBQ or grill, or broil them in the oven under the broiler. Cut into 1/2 inch strips. While the chicken and rice are cooking, bring water to a boil with the potatoes in a large pot, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20 minutes. Combine chili beans and tomatoes in a large pot, add seasoning and let simmer. Add chicken, rice and potatoes, and cook for another 5 minutes. Serves four.

Nutrional Information
Cal 580
Protein 59 g
Carbs 76 g
Fat 3 g

Ground Turkey, Eggs, Hot Sauce
Ingredients
2/3 cup(5 oz) 99% lean ground turkey or 93% if you like a lil bit of taste, cooked
5 whole large eggs
Hot Sauce (optional)
Seasoning (to taste)
Cooking Spray (Olive oil)

Directions
In a skillet coated with cooking spray, scramble the eggs and then add the cooked ground turkey, stirring for 2-3 minutes. Top with seasoning and hot sauce to taste, and cook for another 2 minutes. Serves one.

Nutritional Information
Cal 497
Protein 53 g
Carbs 2 g
Fat 31 g

Grilled Tuna with Black Beans
Ingredients
2 Fresh Ahi Tuna Steaks each 4-6 oz (dar red, purple color)
Cajun seasoning
8 oz can ranch style black beans
1/2 cup sushi rice
1 medium Roma tomatoe, chopped
1/4 small white onion, chopped
Fresh cilantro
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Directions
Prepare rice according to package directions, and then set aside. In a small skillet, add beans and heat at medium-low for a few minutes. While beans and rice are cooking, sprinkle each side of tuna steaks with Cajun seasoning. Drizzle olive oil in another skillet over medium high heat. When oil is hot, place tuna in a skillet and seat for approximately 2 minutes each side. Serve tuna on a bed of warm rice and beans, and garnish with tomato, onion and cilantro. Serves two.

Nutritional Information
Cal 504
Protein 46 g
Carbs 61 g
Fat 16 g

Ground Turkey Pasta
Ingredients
1 lb 4% lean ground beef
4 oz pasta your choice
1 tomato, diced
1/4 cup mushrooms, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup olives, sliced
4 oz can tomato paste

Cooking spray (Olive oil)

Directions
Cook pasta according to packing directions and set aside. While pasta is cooking, coat a skillet with cooking spray. Heat at medium-high, add ground beef and stir until cooked through, then strain. In another large skillet, saute the tomato, mushrooms, onion and olives over medium heat for 5 minutes, then add beef and pasta mixing well. Cover let simmer for approximately 5 minutes. Top with Parmesan cheese (optional) and then serve. Serves two.

Nutritional Information
Cal 541
Protein 62 g
Carbs 36 g
Fat 20 g

Ground Turkey Chili
Ingredients
1 lb extra lean ground turkey
2/3 cup green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 8 ozcans tomato sauce
2 cans v8 tomato juice (12 oz)
1 cup water

Your favorite spice to taste (chili powder, dried oregano, paprika, cumin and/or cayenne pepper)

Cooking spray (Olive oil)

Directions
Coat a large skillet with cooking spray, add turkey and cook over medium heat until no longer pink. Drian, and then add onion, garlic and green pepper. Stir in the tomato sauce, V8 tomatio juice, water, spices and salt to taste. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 45 minute, then server. Serves two.

Nutritional Information
Cal 452
Protein 45 g
Carbs 34 g
Fat 14 g

Protein Panckes
Ingredients
10 egg whites
2 tablespoon baking powder
2 cups of oats
Sprinkle of cinnamon
blueberries (optional)

Sugar Free Maple Syrup (optional)

Directions
Pour egg whites into blender, drop in a couple tablespoons of baking powder for fluff and rise. Next dump in the 2 cups of oats and sprinkle cinnamon to your liking, use sparing. Fruits are optional but not necessary. Blend until mixing well and then pour each serving into large skillet (should make 4 large pancakes). Flip once pancake is rising and then serve. Serves two.

Nutritional Information
Cals 550
Protein 60 g
Carbs 64 g
Fat 6 g

Ground Turkey Pizza
Ingredients
1 8 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 cup of mozzella cheese
1 lbs ground turkey 99% lean
1 cup of oats
1/2 cup of green pepper of topping of your liking

Seasoning to taste (oregano, cumin)

Cooking spray (Olive oil)

Directions
Use a nice large cooking pan and spray evenly with cooking spray. Spread evenly the ground turkey and a sprinkle of cumin or oregano. Cooking in over at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Pull out pan and spread tomato paste over the ground turkey evenly and add the cheese then proceed with toppings. I like green pepper so that is what I always use. Cook in over for another ten minutes and prepare to serve. Serves 4

Nutritional Information
Cals 256
Protein 43 g
Carbs 22 g
Fat 1 g

Ground Turkey Burger, easy
Ingredients
1/2 cup of green pepper (optional)
1/2 cup of onion (optional)
1 lb ground turkey 99% lean

Worcestershire sauce to taste (optional)

Directions
Prepare the ground turkey until thaw. Chop up green pepper and onion for more desire taste. Prepare the patties with the ground turkey and mix in the green peppers and onions that have been chopped. Pour some Worcestershire sauce over the patties on each side to desire taste. Cook on large skillet with medium-heat and flip until each side is properly cooked and serve. Serves four.

Nutritional Information
Cals 120
Protein 25 g
Carbs 0 g
Fat 1.5 g
 
Went to the gym twice yesterday!!! Went in the morning to lift weights, but for some damn reason it was really crowded so I decided to just do cardio. Did 45 minutes on the treadmill and 15 minutes on the bike for my cooldown. Later that night I went back to do the lifting and had most of the place to myself.

~~Made some homemade chili today!!!!
 
Went to the gym twice yesterday!!! Went in the morning to lift weights, but for some damn reason it was really crowded so I decided to just do cardio. Did 45 minutes on the treadmill and 15 minutes on the bike for my cooldown. Later that night I went back to do the lifting and had most of the place to myself.

~~Made some homemade chili today!!!!

Thats awesome!! Which gym do u go to? I'm thinking about gettinga membership at the Body Tech near Dale Mabry.
 
Having a hard time getting my 7 hours of sleep.

My mind never shuts off!

Anyways, an article that makes feel a tad better

The Recommended Hours of Sleep

Author: Tom Venuto

www.burnthefatbook.com
tom-venuto.jpg
Dear Tom,
Your fitness newsletter is great - please keep it up! It is very motivating to receive it every month. I had a question about the importance of sleep to those of us who are trying to gain muscle and stay lean. The weight that I am able to lift when doing most of my routines continues to increase steadily. However, I am still finding it difficult to gain much lean muscle. I am 38 yrs old and about 5'9" and 165lbs. Over training doesn’t seem to be an issue - I am lifting about 4x per week and working each body part 1x about every six days. My diet is also pretty solid and I am getting at least 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight each day. The only issue seems to be lack of sleep. Because I have a fairly demanding Wall Street job I am only able to get about 6 hrs of sleep per night during the week and about 8 hrs on the weekends. Do you think that this could be keeping me from putting on more lbs? Let me know what you think Tom.
Regards,
Dave F.
Answer from Tom Venuto:Sleep is very important, but sleep is also a very misunderstood subject. Three years ago in my newsletter I wrote something about sleep that stirred up some controversy and really disgruntled a lot of readers…
In issue #6 of BFS newsletter, August, 2001 in an interview with Lori Braun from female muscle.Com, I wrote:
"Sleep is for wimps! A friend of mine likes to say, ‘Life is for living; there's plenty of time for sleeping when you're dead!’ I don't sleep that much. There's too much to do, see, read and enjoy and just not enough hours in the day to be sleeping them all away. Usually I sleep 5-6 hours a night. I wish I could get by on 2 or 3; I would get a lot more done that way.
I’m being a little facetious, but seriously, though, I think the amount of sleep you need is largely an individual issue, a matter of certain lifestyle factors and is also tied into your belief systems. I believe all the emphasis on needing 8-10 hours a sleep a day to recover and grow muscle is a bunch of crap. I've achieved the absolute best condition of my life sleeping only 5 1/2 to 6 hours before contests.
Take a look at high achievers in any field: sports, business, whatever, and you'll see a lot of people who don't buy into the 8 hours theory. I remember reading Skip Lacour's daily training journal from 1999 and he said he slept less than I do - maybe 4-5 hours a night (Skip is arguably the best natural bodybuilder in the world). He was up at 4 or 5 am doing cardio - What a guy! And he won the overall Team Universe at around 225 lbs. Doesn’t seem to have hurt his gains!
We've been brainwashed into believing it and if you believe in something strongly enough, it will become your reality - any good psychologist will tell you that. The truth is, athletes, entrepreneurs, and people in other highly creative fields are filled with so much "juice" and passion for life and for what they do, that they can't wait to get up in the morning and go do it!
Quote all the scientific studies and physiology you want, but there are a lot of psychological "X" factors involved. Some people oversleep simply because they’re bored, they hate their jobs or they’re depressed and don’t want to wake up to face what they’re depressed about."
Phew! You should have seen the emails that stirred up!
For example,
"Tom, have a question for you. In your last newsletter you stated that sleep wasn't important but it seems that every article I have ever read in a muscle magazine says you need sleep for your muscles to repair themselves (in other words, to get bigger). True?"
(Actually most of the emails weren’t this nice – most of them were people yelling at me because I was "irresponsibly" giving "bad advice" and it was my ‘duty’ as a certified fitness professional to recant)
My reply was that I didn’t say sleep wasn’t important - getting enough sleep is critically important - I said that how much sleep (a) was an individual matter, (b) was tied in to lifestyle factors (more on that in a minute) and (c) was heavily tied into psychological factors and belief systems. In other words, if you believe you need 8 hours of sleep, you probably do.
I would even go a step further and say this myth is hard-wired into some people at a level even beyond beliefs, it has actually become a part of their self-image and identity: "I AM just the type of person who has to sleep AT LEAST 8 hours or I AM a ZOMBIE the next day!" Nice self-hypnotic suggestion! Have you noticed an increase in the living dead lately?
Well, I’ve stumbled upon some very interesting facts about how much sleep you really need that you might want to know about. I noticed a long time ago that I seemed to require less sleep before bodybuilding competitions. Then I started doing some research because I was concerned about whether I was sleeping enough for my health and my success as a bodybuilder. My initial findings seemed to confirm the 8 hours theory and I thought maybe I should sleep more.
I found studies showing that inadequate sleep:

  • Decreases testosterone (1998, Archives of Andrology: Disturbing the light darkness pattern reduces circulating testosterone in healthy men)
  • Impairs insulin function (1996, American Journal of physiology: Relationships between sleep quality and glucose regulation in normal humans),
  • Increases cortisol (1997, Sleep: Sleep deprivation results in elevation of cortisol levels)
  • Decreases Growth hormone (1995, Journal of clinical endocrinological metabolism: Nocturnal wakefulness inhibits growth hormone secretion)
We’ve also learned from research that disruptions in your circadian rhythms as a result of sleep disturbances can promote disease and degeneration - literally making you old before your time. (1998, Hormonal Research: Alterations of circadian rhythms and sleep in aging: Endocrine consequences)
And those are just a few selected studies.
YIKES! Based on the research, it looks like shortage of sleep is a very, very bad thing and that’s why most health professionals continue to recommend between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night.
So what the heck am I talking about when I say some people may not need as much sleep as they think they need, and why the heck do I only sleep 6 hours per night if I’m so concerned with health and building muscle? And how does a champion bodybuilder like Skip Lacour get away with 4-5 hours of sleep per night? Why aren’t we terrified of increased cortisol and other problems, if not now, then down the road?
As a matter of fact, I was and still am concerned with my health and the results from my training. However, the more I kept looking into it, the more I found more to the story than just the results of these studies. For one thing, there are some simple and easy ways you can improve the QUALITY of your sleep, which can result in a slight decrease in your required QUANTITY of sleep while giving you the same benefits. Anyone who knows anything about sleep will tell you that 6 hours of undisturbed, quality sleep is better than 8 hours of low quality sleep.
I first stumbled onto this completely by accident: One of the things I noticed is that prior to competitions, my life became MUCH more scheduled, structured and regimented than any other time of the year. I ALWAYS went to bed at the same time and woke up at the same time very early in the morning. After a while I didn’t even need an alarm. I woke up automatically feeling very alert. I went to bed at the same time every night, even on weekends and slept like a rock. There was no partying and no late nights. Not a drop of alcohol touched my lips. I only drank coffee in the morning before my early cardio session. I stopped ephedra and all other stimulants. I often took a very short nap right after training (especially leg day). I also was NOT consuming any carbohydrates late at night.
During my contest training, the intensity of my workouts increased dramatically and my volume of cardio increased substantially. Even though I was probably on the verge of overtraining the entire time, I noticed that I needed less sleep and I felt more energy than usual. I maintained my strength and lean body mass, and my body fat decreased every week.
Earlier this year, I found out about a sleep science researcher (Kacper Postawski) who was studying insomnia to try to find a cure for this very common and life-disrupting problem. During the course of his research, he made some intriguing discoveries about why some people sleep 8, 10, 12 hours a day and still feel tired and why oversleeping like this is actually bad for you.
The reason Kacper’s information grabbed my attention was because he was studying the problem on two levels: The physiological level and also the psychological level, using Neuro Liguistic programming (NLP) as one of his tools. I knew he was onto something because one thing I know for certain is that lasting change of any kind – especially health and fitness changes – must be approached from both the physical and mental planes.
In Kacper’s articles, reports and book (Powerful Sleep), he mentioned some of the downsides of sleep deprivation I had already heard about from my own research. But he also showed another, little-known side to the story. He pointed out that controlling sleep quality, sleep cycles, light-dark cycles, circadian rhythms and lifestyle factors (exercise, stress, light exposure, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, etc.), are possibly more important than the quantity of sleep itself. I was amazed at how Kacper’s findings matched my pre-competition experience.
There was even more: He revealed info on psychological "triggers" and NLP tricks to fall asleep instantly, sleep soundly and wake up energized - automatically. It’s too much info to cover in this column, but Kacper has promised to become one of the contributing writers for Fitness Renaissance, so watch for some of his articles in upcoming issues.
Anyway, the bottom line is that all of this information reinforced what I had suspected all along - that the 8 hours of sleep idea wasn’t such a hard and fast rule after all and that I could, by using a few almost embarrassingly simple techniques, not only "get by" on less sleep, but actually optimize my health and improve my muscle building and fat burning efforts.
But I think the biggest benefit for me is that I’ve simply gained more time - because time is life! Almost every person in the industrialized world today complains that they don’t have enough time. Some people even say they don’t have time to exercise. If that’s true, then you owe it to yourself to explore ways to give yourself more time.
Strangely enough, one of the things I keep hearing over and over again is that people who exercise regularly don’t need as much sleep. Some of my busiest clients, including Wall Street executives, gave up one hour of sleep and used that time to exercise early in the morning. After a brief adjustment period where some willpower was required, they found that they actually felt better on less sleep once the early morning exercise had become a part of their lifestyle. According to Kacper, "The biggest antidote to feeling tired is exercise and movement, NOT more sleep!"
So… I’m NOT saying sleep is not important for muscle growth and overall health – it is… and the research proves it. The question is how much? I’m not saying you personally can get by on 4 or 5 hours. Maybe you do need 7 hours of sleep. Maybe you need 8. I am only suggesting that you should optimize your lifestyle and sleeping patterns for sleep quality first and then see for yourself the impact it has on your energy and your need for sleep quantity. Doing this, people often find that they can reduce their sleep time from 9 or 10 hours down to 7 or 8, or even from 7 or 8 hours down to 5 or 6, while at the same time increasing energy, health and free time.
If you pick up an extra hour or two a day, grab your calculator, punch in the numbers and multiply that out over 10 or 20 years and see how much extra time you’ll have in your life to spend doing the things you love to do most.
I highly recommend Kacper’s book, by the way. If you are interested, you can go look at his website now and download the first two chapters for free: www.powersleepsystem.com

Thanks, Tom Venuto

I totally agree with him, I usually only get 4,5,6 hrs of sleep if I get more then I feel sluggish and through the weekends I'll sleep in since work is not in the way of getting to the gym I have the luxury of sleeping in and still getting my workouts during the weekend. I believe the getting up and wanting to get up because I can't wait to do if pure mental strength, it's the drive that brings us there to the gym. It's the wanting to change our bodies, it's the wanting to change our lifestyle and be in better health for a long fulfilled life.

By getting up early I get all that out of the way and make to work at a decent time (I work 8hrs shift but I can get there as early as I want and as late as I want but I have to put in my 8hrs) by the day is over at work it's only 3:00pm. I have the rest of the day to do anything I want, go to the gym again, come home relax, spend time with my wife, other hobbies, friends and family, etc....

I believe it's a lifestyle change that ppl have to adjust to, we are in a society that bad food is all around us, parties are all around us, everyone drinks, smokes, parties, etc... Well there's a healthy balance to all that, doing that more so and living in the rock 'n roll lifestyle only shortens are expected life span. Now those who don't care about their health and say "Hey I'm living it up because I only live once", well same goes for me on the same note, we do only live once. I love being the only one on the roads making that trip to the gym and there's no one in site. I love being the only one that has the strength the determination to make these changes, improvements and live a long filled life. I AM LIVING!!!! I'm living it to my dream it just has boundaries, goals, expectations that others might not consider that important to themselves until it is too late. That visit whenever you 50,60, 70 to the doctor whenever he tells you have diabetes, high cholesterol, or maybe on the break of a heart attack that is when most ppl make the change to start caring.

You always hear about ppl saying that they don't have enough time, well if you could see the impression on my face whenever I read that or someone tells me that at the gym and they want to make the change or become in better shape it's sort of a smirk or smile that I know you are not serious and that you are not ready. This person needs a trainer to sleep, eat, and live with them. Sort of like the UFC fighters that go away to a camp and there's nothing you can do about it whenever you are with ppl that are that strong willed they won't even let there companions slip up or have a relasped. If you are on my team my name is going to be tied with the affiliation, there's no way I'm gonna let it ruin my name or whatever team we are on. I will literally pick you up out of bed, put you on my shoulder and throw you in car and by the time you wake up and we are at the gym, it's time to work! It's like living a soldier behind on the battle to die, why would you do that...

That's the way I look at this with us Freaks here, we are all a team trying to help each other and learn from one another. I learn something probably everyday on information sites and from other bodybuidlers, fitness gurus, etc... It's exciting the amount of knowledge the fitness world or the world in general has to offer and if I can help someone that hasn't been there and done it or is clueless about how to get started why not. Why not eliminate the guess work out of all this, because it's really much easier than the world makes it up to be. First build your mind, that is the foundation, the rest is cake from there on. If you can train your mind to eat the right foods, get up at the right times, go to bed at the right times. This is a walk in the park. BE THE ELITE, become the ones that people come to the gym to and ask WTF are doing in order to get a back like that or how can you keep that pace with weights, "U DO HOW much CARDIO?"

Everyone has limits I know that but push those limits, don't let the norm become what works for you, supersede the norm. If you need 5-6-7-8, 10 hours sleep then so be it. If you don't need rest between sets don't do it. keep going and press forward. Everyone is different and everyone has different pain tolerances, thresholds, conditioning levels but it is up to you to break the mold.

Ok I'm done, sorry just a few words that I hope you guys take the time to read and I hope that I've help as many of you as I can because it only makes me stronger, motivated to keep on doing this until I can't :lol

Take care for now Fitness Freaks.


Ski
 
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I myself believe 8 is overrated. Obviously sleep is important, just overrated. Besides, isn't it the first few hours of sleep that are the most important? I do 6 and i'm up like clockwork, i am a light sleeper though.
 
ok....just came back from the gym....i did 30 minutes on the treadmill....pumped some iron, and used other machinery that where there and just did what was on the little pictures that show u what to do on them :lol...oh i did some situps with the medicine ball then 15 mins on the bike


I hate exercising -_-
 
I don't know how u guys do it. I have no willpower whatsoever to stay at the gym! I'm currently bingeing on carbs right now as I'm typing this!:rotfl
 
I don't know how u guys do it. I have no willpower whatsoever to stay at the gym! I'm currently bingeing on carbs right now as I'm typing this!:rotfl

mmmmm....carbs :drool


Believe me it's a struggle for me to go ahead and do exercise...but i don't wanna quit this time like i've done before.:rolleyes:
 
Believe me it's a struggle for me to go ahead and do exercise...but i don't wanna quit this time like i've done before.:rolleyes:

I'd say the first two months are the hardest, trying to break out of old habbits and getting routinely into it enough it becomes addicting, and then, if you can hit about 6 months, you should notice such significant changes that the "ideal" you're aiming for actually starts to feel tangible.

The hardest part for me when I started numerous times was that, even when I'd lose a few pounds, I'd get self defeating, feeling like what I was trying to achieve was impossible. Once I reached the point where my body was changing enough that I felt it was heading towards what I wanted it to be, the "no quit" mind kicked in, no only do I not want to go back to what I was, but I feel so close to what I want to become, I refuse to settle.

That's why I'm hung up right now on my current loss, 59lbs is a big deal, but, 60lbs was my initial goal when I started, and I'm so focused, I really don't care so much at how much I have achieved, the 1lb I haven't annoys the crap out of me, I will not settle for close enough to my goal, I set a goal and I won't be proud or happy with myself until I've achieved what I set out to do, and then I'll keep working from there.
 
mmmmm....carbs :drool


Believe me it's a struggle for me to go ahead and do exercise...but i don't wanna quit this time like i've done before.:rolleyes:

...and now I'm eating yogurt!:rotfl

I feel for you, though. I know it's very hard to keep focused and motivated. Most of the time, I just wanted to hurl dumbbells at the trainer! That's why I quit after almost 3 years of nothing! Well, it was mostly boredom and the fact that the gym was across a restaurant!:monkey4
 
Alright... Hit the road for the first time in quite awhile. 2 miles under my belt in 2010. Need to keep it low initially so I don't hurt anything. It did feel good! Followed it up with my crunch routine of 250 total crunches of various movements. This mornings tunes were The Draft:

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