Playlist and Workout for June 22nd Bootcamp

Hey Internets

At the request of my bootcampers I'm posting my playlist for today’s workout! I'll also include the workout they did.

They had to stay on each station for 3 bouts of 45 seconds with roughly 15-20seconds rest in between each bout and when transitioning between each station.

There were 8 stations hitting all major muscle groups. One of the girls in my class who is about 115lbs burned roughly 600 calories doing this workout. It's really simple and effective. I told the ladies that the goal for the class was intensity, hence why they got the breaks in between bouts.

Station 1: Burpies with Push-Ups

Station 2: Deep Squat to Military Press to Reverse Lunge Each Leg Combo

Station 3: Traveling Box Jumps

Station 4: Back Trio: Assisted Pull Ups, Lat Pull Down Station and Inverted Pull Ups on Smith Machine

Station 5: Sprint to Side Shuffle to Run with 2 Hurdle Jumps

Station 6: Bar Floor Uneven Push Ups (ask me if you'd like to know how to do it)

Station 7: TRX One Legged Squats Back Row Combo

Station 8: Bosu Cardio Station

Now for the Playlist

 Warm Up: Beyonce: Girls (Who Run The World)

1. Lady Gaga: The Edge of Glory

2. Katy Perry: Last Friday Night

3. Christian TV: I'm In Love

4. Britney Spears: I Wanna Go

5. New Boyz: Back Seat

6. David Guetta ft. Chris Willis: Gettin' Over

7. Far East Movement ft. Snoop Dog: OMG (If I Was You)

8. Don Omar ft. Lucenzo: Danza Kuduro: this is the one a lot of you liked.

9. Britney Spears: Trip to Your Heart

10. Far East Movement ft. Will I Am: I Wanna Go Crazy

There you go ladies! Enjoy!

Stay Strong

Byn

Overcomplicated Inconsistency? How Simplifying Can Increase Your Effectiveness

Good Morrow to you Internets!

Simplifying your life is something I strongly believe in. I find the more complicated we make our lives the harder it becomes. This is one of many important philosophies I try to live by. When we want more or when we want different it can sometimes hinder our progress, even when it comes to working out. The people that know me best know that I have a standoff approach to what I consider “fitness gimmicks”. I like some of them, I love bosu balls, but for example I don’t agree with kettlebell training or pilates equipment. I know there are some people that swear by these pieces of hardware to see the “results” they want, but to me, good ol’ fashion working out is the way to go. I find that a lot of beginners are intimated because they feel there is so much to learn when it comes to working out. This may be true to some extent, but if you keep your workouts simple, one step at a time, one day at a time and stay consistent, you will see results. You just have to be patient. I think that a lot of people fail by overcomplicating becoming physically active and living better, which results in inconsistent behaviour and thus little results.

I’d like to focus on three areas where we can simplify while on the path to a happier more fulfilled healthier life in this blog post. This will include working out, nutrition and life in general. This is so I can show that sometimes less can be more.

Working out

My workouts are relatively simple. If you were to look at a typically Byn week you would see that I lift, I do cardio/circuit training and I stretch. Those are the three components you want in your workout program. If you want more detail on what my workouts consist of specifically go back to previous blogs or shoot me a comment below.  For lifting, I make sure I hit every muscle group once or twice for 8 repetitions and 3 to 4 sets once or twice a week. This is nice and simple. I guarantee you that if you do this every week consistently you WILL see results. For example, I’ve been doing my workouts consistently for 2 months and I’ve seen results with simple exercises like squats, lunges and deadlifts.

So it doesn’t have to be overly complicated, like bosu ball squats, one legged deadlifts and backflips to achieve your fitness goals. You don’t need a pilates contraption to get the results your dreaming of. I think it’s also important to remember (as afore mentioned in previous ramblings) that you have to realize what you’re working with. If you want to be long and lean but you are 5’4 and stalky like me there is no way in hell you’re gonna look like a runway model unless you have some leg implants or something. You will look better if you work out, plain and simple

Nutrition

When it comes to nutrition, the simplier the better as well. Look at it this way, a lot of people eat out which can contain a lot of calories. Why do we eat out... well because it’s convenient and easier right? Well look at it this way, you want to order a pizza. First you have to call and decide what everyone wants on it, then either go pick it up or have it delivered which costs you more. Also, for the pizza itself it is a rather complicated piece of food. You have processed...well everything, including cheese, meat, sauce, and crust. That can’t be good for your body, and at a whopping 400+ calories a slice it hardly seems worth it.

On the other hand, let’s look at a home cooked meal. I’ll use what Scott and I had for dinner to save some brain power here. We had fresh fish, which we baked in the oven (i.e. turn on oven...put fish in), sautéed veggies, corn and bread.  You can see all these ingredients for what they are and track nutritional quality and caloric intake much more efficiently (i.e. a piece of fish is fish, and corn is corn period). Also, the process of preparation and cost is much simpler, quicker and you don’t have to worry about tipping anyone. Seems like a much more positive route to go.

With simple food, you know what you are getting. An apple is an apple... is an apple, it’s nothing but an apple. Something that drives me bonkers is people who think granola bars are healthy. Unless you are making it yourself, you have NO idea what is in that granola bar (sure there are some ingredients on the side but do you really know what potassium sorbate does to your body?). Plus they are PACKED with sugar and perseveres...step away from the granola bar.

So as you can see, simpler is better for nutrition for a plethora of reasons.

Life

I don’t want to sound preachy in anyway, but I find the more I simplify my life the happier I am generally. I used to lust after shoes, clothes, toys and things I don’t have rather than what I did have. This kept me in a cycle of “if only” rather than the here and now. Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE shoes, but I find that if I don’t lust after something I appreciate what I have a lot more.

I find the same thing applies to my friends. I find a lot of people get pressured to do things they don’t what to do because they are scared to lose their friends. I find the friends that you have are going to be your friends now matter what you do (if they are really your friends and if you don’t like, kick them in the leg everytime you see them), and if you take a laid back more simplified approach to the relationship the people that really matter will stick by you. For me, I enjoy seeing people during the day. I prefer keeping my nights for myself and I find that going to a coffee shop and having a conversation is much more enjoyable than trying to have a grand extravagant (and often expensive) night every time I go out. I enjoy modesty; I find that my life is a lot better when I don’t live in excess. I think that is what I’m trying to get at. I find sometimes I revert back to living in excess (I think it’s a product of socialization), for example last night I over indulged a little too much, and today I feel like crap. It’s just, I’m a lot happier when I don’t overdo things. I have lived on both sides, and I find the simple much better.

So, try and simplify your life in little ways. Do you need to keep that thing that you’ve had since you were 14 because it represents some special memory or time in your life? The answer is no because you will always have the memory of that specific, and you don’t need a thing to define it. People will always trump things. I think this is a good philosophy to adopt when trying to simplify your life, that people will always trump things. Now, I love pictures and picture frames, but those are people.

So that’s my post for the week. Maybe try a couple of tips I have provided in this post if you are looking for a less complicated existence. You don’t have to try and tackle all three areas all at once. You don’t want to overcomplicate simplifying your life now do you? Maybe try and eat a little cleaner with simple ingredients and smaller portions, or get rid of some things you really do not need.

 I look forward in the near future to start my vloging (video blog) workouts. Ma and Pa bought me a camera so I can start vlogging for you all. So stay tuned for that!

Stay Strong!

Byn

Cardio Core Workout and How to Make Our Favourite Food Healthier!

Hello Internets!!!

It's time for my weekly instalment. Today I'm going to give you a kick ass 1 hour cardio core circuit training workout and some tips on how to make your favourite foods a little healthier.

So to start off, here's my cardio core workout. I did this last Friday and it was awesome. What you'll need is to eat properly 2-4 hours before so you have enough energy, a skipping rope, a mat and some awesome music.

What you want to do for your music is make a play list with cardio songs followed by ab songs. For this workout you skip for one song then do an ab workout for one song. Each song should be between 3 and 5 minutes.

Workout

#1: Skip for 1 song

#2: Leg Raise followed by Toe Touch 1 song

#3: Skip for 1 song (S41S)

#5: Leg Raise, Spread Your Legs the Crunch Up: 1 song

#6: S41S

#7: Oblique Jack Knives (Do other side half way through song)

#8: S41S

#9: Sit Up Twist Crunch

** This will roughly take you 30 minutes, take a break

#10: S41S

#11: Plank Roll Unders

#12: S41S

#13: Russian Twist

#14: S41S

#15: Jack Knives

#16: S41S

#18: Plank

#19: S41S

#20: Bicycle Crunch

So there you go! Have fun with this :)

Ok, time for the second half of my post. I'm going to tell you how to make some of your favourite foods a little healthier or nutritious. I'm going to focus on 4 things: Hamburgers, Hotdogs, Chocolate and Pizza!

1: Byn's Healthy Hamburgers

There are several different ways to get your hamburger fix with fewer calories. Try some of the following;

• Replace hamburger patty with vegetarian patty: My favourite: Lick's Nature Burgers.
• Better yet, replace your meat patty with a Portobello mushroom!!!
• Use twelve grain buns rather than white bread.
• Load up the fresh veggies on your burger. Raw red onion, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce or avocado are some of my favourites.
• Minimize condiments and use low sugar low fat options. Ketchup is way worse for you than some people realize. Use hummus instead.
• No cheese, you don't need and honestly won’t miss it...trust me.

2: Byn's Healthy Hotdogs

• Follow the same rules as above! Try vegetarian hotdogs, they are so much better for you and low in calories, such as Yves brand hotdogs.
• Try vegetarian chilli on your hotdogs instead of the meat version.

3: Chocolate

• Let’s not kid ourselves, we crave sweets sometimes, it is going to happen. I find a great way to deal with these cravings is to keep or get some chocolate. But not just any chocolate, get high coco chocolate.
• I would recommend starting with a lower percentage such as 60% or 70% and slowly work your way up to 80% or 90%. After awhile regular chocolate will be too sweet for you.

4: Pizza!

Pizza is my favourite thing to play around with because.... I love pizza! There is a whole bunch of things you can do such as...

• Make your own crust. Use whole wheat or 12 grain crust. This is fun thing to do on the weekend since you have more time, and then you can eat it for dinner on Monday.
• Low cheese high veggie. Load up your pizza with things like mushrooms, onion, broccoli, zucchini, sweet potatoes... you get my drift. The more veggies the better, the less cheese the better.
• Less processed the better! Do not put processed meats of cheese on your pizza, these foods are not only high calorie, but high salt ect.

With these little tips you can still have some of your favourite foods but still make positive changes.

Stay Strong Internets

Byn

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: How to Decrease Your Stress Under Pressure

Good Morrow Internets!

We all have immense power, even if we sometimes do not realize it. This power is what allows us to live our lives we want to live them, be happy, successful and productive. The power we possess is the freedom of our own actions, or in other words, the power of choice.

I believe all of the great people in this world, whether they were writers, leaders or just every day people like you and me realized at some point in their life they have complete 100% control over what they think, do and say.

I used to think that things in life happened to me because of a magical force I had no control over. Externally blaming the world for our problems is the war cry of the unhappy. This might manifest in some things you say to yourself, such as “I have no time to de-stress”, “I’m too busy to be happy” or “If only a, b and c would go away then I could finally be successful”.

Now, taking ownership of your life is a long process. You just don’t go from being a stressed out, miserable, out of shape ball of person (aka me 5 years ago) to a happy self fulfilled successful individual, it takes time.

However, the first thing you must say to yourself from this moment forward and believe is “I am 100% in control of everything that happens in my life, and I am going to live the way I want to live”.  You might be saying to yourself while you read this “but Robyn, I can’t control if I get a flat tire, or the bus is late so I’m late for work, or that asshat cut me off”. True, you cannot control some external things from happening, but what you can control is how you react, how it affects you and what you’re going to do about it.

Take this example from my former unproductive life. I used to think I was dumb. I was never the top student in the class and as a result of that I ended up working as a full time waitress with no aspirations of doing anything other than that. I treated people like how I wanted them to treat me to re-affirm my negative view of myself, so I didn't have to deal with life.

 Five years later I am graduating top of my class with a bright academic career in front of me. Now what is the difference between 19 year old Robyn and 24 year old Robyn? I now know that I –am- smart, despite what anyone says and that I have the choice to either accept a fate I feel I have no control over or stop bitching and take ownership of my life. I treat people how I want to be treated, and the results are very rewarding indeed!

So start today living your life the way you want to. Stop making excuses. You do have time, you do have the money, you are smart enough, you are strong enough and you are determined enough. Now make it happen.

Stay Strong

Byn

Losing the Fat you Want to Lose

Hello Internets

Before we get started, I just want to let you know that I will be posting my blog every SUNDAY NIGHT from now on. This is so you know when to expect them and keep reading! Remember you can also subscribe to my blog at the top of this page.

This post is to follow up my previous post on spot reduction and how to lose fat in the places you want to and not in the places you don’t. To make a long story short, non-surgical spot reduction is physiologically impossible despite what ANYONE tells you…so sorry ):

However, you CAN lose fat relatively easily with some simple life changes. So how do you get started?

1. Realize and Accept:

Before embarking on your fat loss journey the first and most important thing to do is to accept and realize what you are working with. If it took you 2 years to gain the excess fat you have right now, then it will take a similar amount of time to lose.

Now, coming to this realization is not meant to discourage you but empower you. When you accept where you are and are ready to move forward then nothing can stop you.

Try this out. Get naked all by yourself.  I’m serious… do it right after reading this post (unless you’re at work that is). Then stand in front of a mirror. Look at yourself, every part of yourself and accept yourself as you are right now. Smile and do a little dance, even if you don’t want to, and tell yourself “I am 100% ok with how I look right now, but am ready to make some positive changes in my life for my health starting today.” Say this over and over until it feels natural. I reccommend doing this exercise at least once a week.

Why? Because you need to accept yourself and stop beating yourself up because it is de-motivational and will only detour you from becoming empowered. I’m not just making this stuff up either; they have seen this correlation over and over in research.

2. Small Changes Lead to Bigger Changes

I cannot stress this enough, do not take the world on starting next Monday. Trying to go from not working out and eating like crap to working out 6 days a week and eating like a fitness model will not end well. Trust me, I’ve tried to do it over and over. I say to myself “Byn, next Monday you are going to stop drinking, consume no sugar, eat 5 times a day every 2-3 hours and will starting  workout 6 days a week”.

Unless you are extremely neurotic (which also isn’t healthy) you will FAIL if you take on too much. Once this happens the cycle of self loathing will continue, and you possibly will just say “who cares, this is the way I’m suppose to live”, “it’s too hard”  or my personal favourite “you’re a failure, you can’t even do something so simple as eating right and working out”….STOP THINKING LIKE THAT RIGHT NOW.

So what can you do?! Excellent question! Just like the title indicated, start small. Try the follow schedule for a month.

Week 1:

·         Workout/be active for 2 bouts of 30 minutes or 4 bouts of 15 minutes.

·         Example: Go for a brisk walk (like you’re late for catching a bus) on Monday and Wednesday or jump on an exercise bike Monday-Thursday for 15 minutes.

·         Decrease your caloric intake by 200calories/day 3 days a week.

·         For example, drink water with breakfast/dinner instead of juice or beer. Hate water, use crystal light and slow cut back the amount you put in until you DO like water.

Week 2:

·         Up your workout days for 20-30 minutes 3 days of a week.

·         Eliminate all sugar drinks from your day (including juice) 2 or 3 days in the week.

Week 3:

·         Do cardio 3 days a week for 20-30 minutes and 1 full body weight training session once a week.

·         Try and eat 200-300calorie meals (depending on your BMR) consisting of protein, veggies and complex carbs every 2-3 hours once a week.

·         Eliminate all sugar drinks from your day 4 days this week.

Week 4:

·         Do cardio 4 days of 30 minutes and 2 full body weight training sessions this week.

·         Try for 2 days of 200-300calorie meals (depending on your BMR) consisting of protein, veggies and complex carbs every 2-3 hours.

·         Try 5 or 6 sugar free drink days this week.

This program allows you to have concrete and easily obtainable goals weekly to increase the amount of time you are moving and improve your nutrition. Reward yourself to sticking to your goals each week. Make sure to not fall into the habit of rewarding yourself with food or booze. Buy yourself a cute hat, or some jewelry, i.e. something to make you feel good.

As always, we are all different, so you may need to modify this plan slightly to fit you. For example, if your problem isn’t sugary drinks (which includes booze and beer) but eating sweets or crap replace sugar drinks with “junk food”.

3. Consistency

My third, and final, tip for how to lose the fat you want is to stay consistent. This was also a big problem I used to have.  I would workout for a month then take four off, feel like crap, then go back. This is a bad cycle to be stuck in because that nasty ol’ self loathing and fatigue that seems to come back in this cycle, which can make it easy to feel like a constant failure.

Why?  Because you’re body needs exercise, just like food, air, and water. So those unpleasant feelings that come along with being sedentary is your body’s way of telling you to do what it needs you to do. Think of it this way, do you feel like crap if you just drink pop all day….the answer is YES, because your body needs water, just like it needs to be active.

So how can you stay consistent when your life is SOOO busy and stressful and things that de-rail you always come up, e.g. like getting sick.

My answer to this problem is A. stick to a schedule and B. schedule break weeks.  Part A is basically to continue what you are doing in my second point of this post. Have a goal for each week and stick to it. Write in your schedule/I pod/blackberry what days you are working out and what you are doing. Do not change these plans for anything.

For example, I circuit train on Monday at noon, I do legs Tuesday from 4-5 then spin from 5-6, Wednesday is an optional rest day or circuit training, Thursday I do arms from 4-5 then spin from 5-6, Friday is my make up day if I didn’t work out on Wednesday. Saturday and Sunday I try and stay active if possible, but if not, no biggie. I never work out less than 3 days a week unless I’m on break.

These days are in my schedule and I stick to them. If I get sick or really busy I take the week off .  This is where Part B. comes in. I schedule 3 break weeks a year, well I guess I don’t really schedule them, but I find I usually get sick once or twice a year (2 weeks) then I have a break week just in case.

These break weeks can happen anytime throughout the year as long as they are not back to back.  It’s good to see it like vacation time from work.

So those are my tips. As always, any questions or comments are very much welcomed. I’d love to hear your challenges with this fitness journey we are all on. I care about my readers and hope I’m making a difference in your lives.

Stay Strong and I’ll see you next class or Sunday night!

Byn

How Do I Lose Fat From Here? The Myth of Spot Reduction

A common concern I hear among clients is “how can I lose fat from my *insert area of interest here*.  Although the thought of “toning” and/ or losing fat in a certain area (i.e. spot reduction) is certainly attractive, it is unfortunately theoretically faulty.

The very smart business and marking people of the fitness industry have latched on to these spot reduction dreams we have and prey on our misconceptions. You see programs and products everywhere promising decreased belly fat, arm fat, “love handle” fat and long lean muscles. These cleverly marketed products, however, are merely falsities.

I’m writing this post not to berate you for wanting to lose fat or look better in a certain area of your body (hell I would love to have a little less softness in some places), but to educate you on the reality of being a fit and healthy person and the aesthetic desires that often accompany these aspirations. Without going on a “we are a product of socialization and should not care what we look like” rant, I’ll stick the premise that we want to look good…for now.

Basically, the reason we can’t lose fat in a certain area, like our lower abs, by simply “working” that area is because the body will take fat from where it wants to. Depressing, I know, but this is just the physiological truth of our body.

We are all genetically different, so we will lose fat from places first before others. For example, I lose fat in my boobs first, then my stomach, then my legs, then my butt. How do I know this? Because I have been working out and changing and playing with my diet for almost a decade now.

To help you understand how and why our body loses fat, I’m going to give you quick exercise physiology crash course on what happens during and after exercise.

As you know, when you work out your heart rate increases, you sweat, you get uncomfortable. This is what you want, because all the good stuff happens when you’re in this state and more importantly, directly after. Without going into crazy detail, the increased contraction of your muscles and heart rate causes the release of chemical messengers such as norepinephrine. While working out, these messengers cause vasodilation (increase of blood flow) to the working muscles and vasoconstriction (decrease of blood flow) to the non-working tissue (i.e. fat).

Due to where blood is flowing during exercise our body mainly burns carbohydrates in their simplest (glucose) and stored (glycogen) forms. “But I want to burn FAT Robyn not carbs!” I know, I know I’m getting to that.

So when you stop exercising the exact opposite happens with blood flow. You get vasodilation to the non-working tissue during exercise (i.e. fat) and vasoconstriction to the muscles. Now, this is a good thing because your catecholamine (blood chemicals) will still be elevated from the kick ass circuit training you just did, which will bind on to receptors and cause lipolysis or fat burnage.  So, in theory, the harder you work, the higher your catecholamine levels and the more lipolysis that happens when you stop.

The bad news is, especially for us women, not all fat receptors are made equal. Some fat receptors (called beta adrenergic receptors) do not cause lipolysis when these messengers bind to them.  Women have these receptors, in my opinion, mainly for protection as we still need a set amount of body fat to menstruate. Unfortunately, we cannot change these receptors, you can get rid of them threw liposuction, but I don’t recommend this of course.

Therefore, because your blood goes everywhere in your body, which you cannot control, you cannot spot reduce as it is physiologically impossible. Some trainers (either ignorant or trying to sell you something) may promise you loss in belly fat without losing it from your boobs, but I can assure you this is false. Promises of certain “target fat burning” exercises may even feel like they are burning fat on your inner thighs, butt, abs ect, but you are actually strengthening and building muscle under the fat. This is great and will increase your BMR and muscle tone (see previous posts), but it won’t burn fat from this area.

So what can you do to lose fat in those areas you want to? Well, as always I have some tips to decrease body fat, while acknowledging what you are in control of. Those tips, however, will be for my next post.

As always, I appreciate comments, questions and feedback.

Stay Strong

Byn

Eating for Your Goals Part 2: Eating Clean For Size

Hello Internets

Here is part 2 of my nutrition post. This one is going to focus on gaining size, specifically muscle mass, while minimizing fat gain. 

First things first, to increase muscle mass you have to eat. This is unavoidable because to build muscle your body needs to fuels to do so. Now, there is a plethora of information out there on eating correctly to gain muscle, but I'm going to provide my take on the subject. As always I know there is people out there with a lot more experience with this and I welcome your input!

If you're thinking, as many of my female clients do, "I don't want to get bulky and look like a man", don't worry. Muscle growth is partly dependent on testosterone levels and because women naturally have lower testosterone levels than men this prevents us from getting huge (unless you take steroids, which you shouldn’t).

Why should we gain muscle? A lot of reasons including my favourite; the more muscle you have on your body the higher your BMR (see previous post), which means the more calories you burn when you are not working out.

Points to Gain Muscle While Minimizing Fat Gain

#1: To Supplement or Not to Supplement

I'm kind of on the fence when it comes to whether or not to take supplements when looking to gain muscle mass. I think that whey protein and similar products (i.e. shakes, bars, cereal ect.) have their place for sure. I also think some people get carried away, which can lead to over supplementing.

I get uncomfortable when someone tells me they are on several different types of supplements to get bigger. I'm not sure why. I just believe in good ol' natural food I guess. Nature provides us with lots of different, healthy protein choices, which I will discuss in a bit. Also, your body has a limited amount of muscle building potential, and when you over supplement you just end up with very expensive pee.

I guess my conclusion on this is everything in moderation. Supplement if you feel it’s an "easier" way to get your protein instead of eating more protein, but don't go overboard.

#2: Eating to Gain Muscle While Staying Lean

I think a lot of people (mostly men) simply think "If I eat more calories, I'll get bigger". Well, yes this is true, but you're gaining fat mass rather than muscle mass. As previously mentioned, our bodies have a limited amount of muscle building capacity and if we supersede this capacity then the rest of the fuel coming in turns to fat.

So how do we eat to gain muscle but stay lean? Bobby Tran shed some much needed light on the subject for me last year.

He says to eat protein at EVERY meal, eat every 2-3 hours and eat your food in this order= protein first, then your veggies then your complex carbs if you are still hungry.

Making sure you have protein in every meal 5-6 times a day is a sure fire way to stay lean while gaining muscle mass.

#3: What to Eat

There are lots of great protein options out there, but also some not so great ones.

• Good Protein
• Quinoa
• Egg Whites
• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
• Salmon
• Bison
• Lean Ground Beef (in moderation)
• Turkey Breast
• Not So Good Protein
• Lunch Meat: high in sodium and has cancer causing agents
• Any meat that comes from fast food including subway
• Steak: I only say this because too much red meat can be a bad thing.

Basically, prepare your food, don't buy it pre-made. I know this can be difficult on a busy schedule. See my previous post on how to eat clean on a busy schedule on tips of how to overcome this barrier.

#4. How Much to Eat

This is the trickiest part. Simply put, to gain muscle you need to be getting enough calories. See my last post on how to calculate how many calories your body needs a day. To gain muscle you want to be meeting or slightly exceeding this number.

I think this is it. As always, if you have any questions let me know. I would also like to hear from those who know a little more on the subject *coughBobbycough*

Stay Strong

Byn