Joanna asked; Could you review why you like wheat bran in favor of other foods like oats or Cream of Rice? Why do you consider wheat bran to be no calories or free food? How do you cook it? How much at a time for meal planning?

My comment: wheat bran is the outer layer of the wheat grain. The nutrients are not found here but in the nucleus. Wheat BRAN is made up from insoluble fiber which are NOT digested in the large intestine. It goes through without being processed and turned into energy. All it does is add bulk to the food which is good for the gut and the bowel movement. In American Dietary Law or whatever you call it, fiber is classified as a carb and thus it theoretically contains calories. These are however not absorbed.

I eat wheat bran to satisfy my hunger. I do not want the calories from this kind of food. If I were to eat oats or cream of wheat I get energy or calories just like I would get from other carbohydrate rich foods like rice, pasta, bread etc. Wheat germ comes from the wheat nucleus and is very nutritious. Thus all nutritious things contain calories more or less.

Wheat bran is IMO a free food because fiber is not absorbed and packed into energy in your body. That is why I eat it. If I wanted to eat grains for energy I surely would go for oats etc, but it does not fit in my diet as much since I want to stay somewhat lean constantly.

When I refeed I use oats and other high carb foods. This time i DO want the calories and the carbs.

So, I use these for two different reasons.

The body is in a constant change so with that comes new areas to work on. I have some issues with one of my hamstrings which means I need to tweak my deadlift day and focus on fixing the problem. Years ago I’d be devastated I could not just go all out without thinking twice about it, but with age and experience one learns and now I don’t mind this prehabbing at all. Quite the opposite, I know I grow from it and thinking outside the box or go extra miles always change you for the better.

Another area I want to work on is fuller shoulders. Yeah, mine are good already, but why settle for good when you can make GREAT right! So, I added an additional workout with exercises in another fashion and where the goal is different than normal. I did the first workout yesterday.

I also felt my arms were a bit too small when relaxed LOL, so I just picked up some biceps training again after three years of more or less no real focus on the guns. haha.

When it comes to strength, I always strive to get stronger, but it’s in my nature, nothing I have to remind myself about. If a pair of dumbbells feel easy I would never hold back and stay with them.

Today is my day off. My body is tired and I need some serious poking and foam rolling…

Did you know about this one? I love the concept. Milk with less calories!

So, on demand, 10 BAD diet habits:

1. Insisting on abusing refeeds as stupid cheat days with crap food
2. Refeeding without first seeing increased leanness
3. Not reading labels or stop half way down on it
4. Believing in protein bars being good for your health
5. Not realizing nutritious foods still have calories and can make you gain fat when eaten in excess
6. Not realizing all those “I just eat a little of it” add up to a big surplus of calories
7. Not accepting one day of clean eating does not do the trick, it takes several.
8. Not getting the concept consistency with the diet
9. Undereating veggies
10. Refusing to accept if you don’t sacrifice, you won’t gain any results.
11. Finding it unfair you cannot have exactly what you want all the time.
12. Hunger is NOT the same as having cravings.
13. Thinking you will die from some deprivation of your favorite foods.
14. Wanting super extreme results in a week while you’ve been working on getting fat for years
15. Thinking 700 calories calorie burn on the machine makes it ok to eat 700 more calories and still lose fat.

Ok, so it got to more than 10. I could give you 100!

Some days I get approached by some individual who asks me “what shall I do to get lean and muscular?” and I wonder if they knew what kind of a Pandora’s box they were opening… I don’t know where to start, because there are so many aspects where does one begin? And amazingly, the next question the person asks is “should I eat more protein?” like THAT is the answer for every issue in the physique creation department. “Yeah, more protein, THAT shall do it right no matter is it about shredded abs or a tighter butt or less bulge or faster metabolism, higher jumps, longer strides, better lifts”. Why does nobody wonder if they eat clean enough? If they train with enough effort? I guess because they KNOW that is the truth, the missing link is the lacking foundational work. Which they assume I don’t care for to know about! So, I ask about ten stupid diet habits and if they are guilty as charged and they say yes, yes, yes to each of them and wonder “how did I know!!!”. Well, seriously, 99% of the people I know are just the same…So it does not take a genius to figure out what is the problem… And the funny thing is I usually tell them they do know deep inside the whole solution and what is the real issue. Everyone knows what is the problem if they stay true to themselves. But they don’t, it is so much more convenient to stay blind and pretend “I do everything right but is is something wrong with my body”. No it is not. Your body is damn smart, it just behaves the way you encourage it to behave. So like a spoiled kid, it will keep on having an attitude until you show who’s the boss and who’s the servant.

Due to many questions emailed to me about my workout routine… I just want to write down today’s workout as an example:

Starting with flexibility warmup according to what I learned at Pro Camp. Getting a high flat bench and warm up with bilateral dumbbell rows. A set of 15 reps with 20s. After that, the 50’s 10 reps x 2, then 5 reps with 60’s. Over to pullups. I do wide grip ones, going for 5 plus 5 jump style ones. Second set I do 10 partials up half way, then jump up for negatives 5 times, then add a static rep in the top and hold it for 15 secs. Over to seated row. One arm at a time. 3 sets. Pulldowns, 6 reps, then resting without letting go of the grip and cheat down 4 more reps. Now reverse pullups. 1 set of 5 reps. I do one arm reverse pullups, negatives, 8 reps. Bentover row with dumbbells for rear shoulders, 1 set of 10 reps. I go back to pulldowns for another set 6 reps. Done.

As you can see it makes no sense, there is no plan. I plan as I go. And take notes on how the muscles feel with each thing I do. 55 minutes total.

If you want to see pics of me training, click the link for EXCLUSIVE GALLERY

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When I wake up in the morning I am eager to start the day. It’s quiet here where I live in what I call “ghetto Venice” except for the birds who start singing around 6 am. I love that it’s quiet as I walk to the gym. I wonder where all those people hide who are said to live in the area… I feel like I’m the only one here!

For the last two or three years I’ve practiced on being happy and that meant a lot of questioning about what and why I do things as I do, a lot of double checking my motives, my intentions, my moves. And then one day I more or less just found that place where I just feel like home… And you know how I know I evolved? Well, the last few days I am daydreaming about growing my own herbs. So, I am going to get a big kind of box to plant stuff in and have hanging out my windows. I was never into gardening! But now I feel like I need to know exactly what I eat… As much as I can… I do live in a big city, so no country farm for me, but suddenly I saw where I will end up somewhere when I am old: up somewhere where it is quiet and I can have a garden to grow carrots LOL. I will have a little gym there, equipped with stretching mats and all my trigger point tools and pipe rollers, and all connection to the outside world will be via internet. I would spend all my time reflecting on life and write, write write.

I am proud of myself for day dreaming about daily small things that just make the day wonderful. Meetings, acquaintances, seeing things like they have never been seen before. I’ve never been materialistic and here I am in the number one materialistic world and I am not dreaming about a ferrari or a condo or something like that, no I want a little garden and my own little get away gym. But it is way far ahead in the future.

Today was day off but a lot of stretching.

btw, I use raw cacao nibbles instead of cocoa powder in my greek yoghurt. tastes great! Try it! Good fats and chocolate…oh who can get enough of that! Not me!

Soon to be ready for purchase in the webshop: wallpapers for cell phone and computer!

The constant hunt for the cookie cutter program… Seems like it cannot be emphasized enough times: there is no workout routine that will produce results for an eternity. Sooner or later the stimulus on the muscles will stop stimulating and you will reach a status quo. No matter how great the routine, the concept was, no matter how rewarding it was in the beginning, just like everything else in life, sooner rather than later it will all come to a halt. And you must think outside the box.

One principle to gain lean muscle mass is you must get stronger to get bigger. But getting stronger does not always lead to muscle gain. You can throw around big weights and grow muscle, but one day your joints, tendons or muscles will rupture and how good was the heavy training then? If you cannot train due to overuse injuries, you won’t grow at all.

I get emails with statements about how I always train brutally hard, intense, with big weights… Well, that is ONE Pauline you see… That is just one part of my training style though. My instinct is of course to strive for increased strength, but after a few years, it is nothing you can rely on 100%. The longer you train the more your body tries to resist your attempts to get bigger and stronger. The stronger you become the harder it gets to get even stronger.

I have a purpose with all my different training principles. The one taking up the most time is actually preventive training, prehab, stretching, massaging. I do all this crap so I can work out as hard as I want without getting injured. So, when you see me lift some big weights and it looks cool and the way to go, well, stop for a second and just remind yourself I incorporate more preventing exercises than most fitness gym rats do. I refuse to lay off training due to injuries, I do not want to work around things either, so the only solution is to see potential consequences of my training and counter act it with boring prehab exercises.

In the first years of training you get away with a lot of abuse without any problems, but after a while it does not work anymore. Just because you have yet to get injured, it does not mean you won’t later on. So, this is where you need to drop your ego and accept the weights are just tools. You won’t get the same physique someone who curls the 40’s has just out of using the 40’s yourself. When you ask how much someone lifts, it really does say nothing since you have no idea about what range of motion, speed, form this person uses for that weight, and the fatter a person, the stronger he or she usually gets. So a leaner person might look stronger but the fatter one is.

The longer you train, the more you realize there is no absolute way to train. There are good and bad with most philosophies. That is why I encourage looking at the leaning out process as a lifestyle. In life you do different things depending on where you are right NOW. It would be sad if you did the same old same old every day for the rest of your days right… You do several different journeys, your life changes, you approach situations differently… Same goes for training. it is not a constant, it is a flow of influences. As long as you stay hungry and commit to improve, there is just one way to go and that is up, up, higher higher.

I know I´ve mentioned before I always work on trying to stay open minded and avoid creating walls or keeping up a face to protect myself from disappointments, criticism and from being judged. It is not an easy task to accomplish, so just like being patient and consistent with the other elements in a good life, I am on a never ending workshop about having a free and open mind… But lately it hit me again what has hit me and hits everyone else time over time: you realize your so called friends are actually not your friends at all. An old saying goes “In good times and bad times, friends are there for you”. Well, are they really? What is it with human nature that thrives so well on negativity? How come these “friends” are there when you face obstacles or struggle with something, but when you come out of it and you are relieved, they all seem disappointed? Should they not be happy for you? What is worse is when you can really see in their eyes the disappointment… They really wanted you to have those issues or mountains to climb, so they could feel you neither had a “perfect” life? The other so called “friends” are the ones who are there when everything is going good for you, and when you need their support they are all gone… But I tend to still find the first kind the worst…

When I get hit by envy or jealousy, I constantly remind myself why I feel that way. It´s because I want this or that success too. I refuse to turn into a greedy, miserable person who wishes he or she had less luck, less success, less happiness. That does not make ME happier, it only creates negative thoughts and it stops me from going for it too. “It should be ME!” does not create happiness. Finding inspiration from those people I admire who have all that I want, taking lesson from how they got to where they are AND remember the truth “if he or she can do it I can do it too” is a lot better and encouraging.

Everybody told me I was a dreamer and would never come to America to pursue my happiness. Everybody told me I would never accomplish what I set up for myself to accomplish. I refused to believe them, I stopped trying to convince them too. I stopped trying to prove people wrong. It was for no good I realize since new doubters and haters would come along every day anyway. The only thing I could do was to focus on getting what I wanted. I had to put on mental ear plugs and tunnel vision to stay on track. I was put down so many times, I found myself getting influenced of doubts, but I did all in my power to chop down every rising weed of pessimism and nurture every flower that I found on the way to where I wanted to end up.

I refuse to learn the lesson that there are no true friends. I refuse to learn from empirical data my life collects. I refuse to become one of those cynical people who´ve seen so much shit they turn ugly and bitter. Smiling takes more energy than keeping a poker face, being suspicious is easier than being open. All good traits are hard to keep on. But once again, I thrive on challenges and I am not settling for being half-hearted, reserved or too cautious. Man, it is hard. But hard is better than having it easy because from having it easy you learn nothing. And life is about learning. I hope anyway.

here is a pic from me experiencing with new stretching positions to get in better angles without the need for a partner. Because those..where are those? LOL

Weeks of worries and I finally saw a little peak of the sun thru a clouded sky, today a little little good sign gave me the feeling of being a millionaire of happiness! As heavy my legs, mind and soul have been lately, it all changed today and suddenly I got thousands of energy vibrations making me wanna run mile after mile after mile after mile!!! The aches in the joints, muscles were once again gone, all went smooth, my training felt light as a feather, nothing was holding me back. It reminded me so well about what really matters. And where did all this come from I know you wonder, but that I will keep to myself, the point is it’s amazing how the things you take for granted mean the most and how much it wears you out when it’s being questioned. I feel like the world is right in front of my feet and I cannot sleep, I am just so happy, so relieved!

I could not stop stretching and prehabbing today, I just wanted to do another one, I found new ways to get deeper into my hip muscles and I sensed how they let go of the stress more and more. And this was the day post leg training! I did not even care the heart rate monitor still did not cooperate, hey, I just was all smiles!

Over to a new topic. Today I bought cocoa nibbles and dried goji berries. I am trying to incorporate more of those wonderful foods I believe in so well but fail to include. I also got more of my rolled roasted oats for the next refeed. I cannot wait til tomorrow to train… I am on a high!