Protein Supplements & Creatine at Work

HEALTH - If you've been keeping track you already know I am on a high protein diet as part of my weightlifting regimen. See my past post Hamburgers & Protein at Work for example.

I am also planning to get yoga lessons (to improve my core musculature) and my final goal is to look like a male supermodel (ie. Marcus Schenkenberg).

The thing is however is that in order to put on lots of muscle it helps if you eat the right amount of protein. Its recommended people who are working out regularly to be eating 1 gram of protein for every pound of their target weight. So if you want to weigh 200 lbs of pure muscle you need to ideally be eating 200 grams of protein per day.

That however is trickier than it sounds. Especially if you are on a budget and can't afford to buy meat as much as you want to. If you're a vegetarian you can just forget about it.

Meat (especially fresh meat, not that processed crap) contains creatine, an organic acid which supplies energy to muscle and helps in the production of new muscle tissue. Creatine got it name in 1832 when scientist Michel Eugène Chevreul discovered it and named it after the Greek word for flesh, Kreas.

Because creatine is only found in meat its much more difficult for vegans to grow muscle and they tend to have less energy and stamina in comparison.

Today I went to the Shoppers Drugmart across the road from me to buy some new shampoo (Yeah, Herbal Essences was on sale!) and pick up some Multivitamins.

Across the aisle from the vitamins however I spotted the protein supplements. The big round containers with the flashy logos and shiny packaging. Woooo. Shiny! And better yet they were on sale.

The problem is they all offer the same basic thing "Bulk Up Faster", "Build Muscle Fast", "Scientifically Superior to Other Strength Supplements"... bla bla bla. So how do you choose?

So I picked up some packages and went to talk to a pharmacist. She just kind of looked at me blankly and tried to explain what she knew about it... which wasn't a lot. I wanted to know how it worked and apparently she didn't really know much about protein supplements.

Thus when it came to choosing I just picked the chocolate-flavoured one with 52 grams of protein per serving. Since my target weight is about 180 lbs an extra serving of this every time I workout at the gym would be beneficial. I don't think I am getting enough protein in my diet currently.

I also asked the pharmacist about a package of creatine pills. She didn't really know too much about it either, hence why I had to do some research when I got home (and am now passing that knowledge unto you!).

I did NOT however buy the creatine pills. The package I did buy already contains creatine. I figured I shouldn't really by doubling up on the stuff, plus I wanted to do some more research on the topic before I invested $19.99 on a bottle of pills that I didn't know how they worked.

(I am one of those people who like to disassemble things to see how they work. One of the reasons I love Lego.)

Now the trick is that I don't want to bulk up too much. Sure, I bought the supplement, but that is all it is. A supplement. Extra protein and vitamins because I am not getting enough. I don't want to look like a big bodybuilder. Its too grotesque.

I am much more concerned about not looking like my father did when he was in his 30s and 40s, with a paunch et al. I want to have a body I can be proud of and once I reach that goal maintain it.

And yes, I did take some before pictures. When I reach my goal I will post the before and after photos.

Some People are just Dumb as Bricks

The following discussion applies equally to men and women:

When I was in high school I had a membership in a website in which, if you forgot your password, you could have your password resent to your email address.

Additionally, if you couldn't remember your login you could have that resent too.

I was discussing this marvel (such a new concept when the internet was young) with a friend in the library who couldn't remember his password when a passing moron (who apparently didn't have anything better to do and decided to listen in on our conversation). The moron had this to say:

"But that doesn't mean someone could break into your account if they just resent your login and your password?"

"No, it doesn't work that way."

"Yes it does. You just said you can get the login and password by resending them."

"But then how do you get into the person's email to retrieve them both?"

"Oh."

Hours later I got two emails, one containing my login and a second containing my password. The moron had apparently gone home, remembered my email address from listening to the discussion. He was apparently trying to get into my account but was too dumb as bricks to remember he also needed access to my email.

Days later I smacked him over the back of the head and told him off.

"Hey, don't do that. I'll tell the principal!"

"You mean the vice-principal. The principal doesn't deal with troublemakers. I am sure the VP would be interested to hear you've been trying to break into other people's personal stuff and that you're too dumb to figure out its not possible. At least not possible using the method you did."

"A hacker could do it!"

"Are you a hacker? No. Stop hanging around me loser."

Not the exact words of the conversation, but the general jist of it. Him and his friends tended to follow myself and my friends around. We were the seniors, they the juniors and apparently they had nothing better to do than emulate us older students.

I remembered he bugged me to play cards with him once, in an earlier incident, and he kept cheating because he didn't know the rules. Finally I decided to leave and go to class and swore I would never play cards (or anything else) with him ever again. So if you're wondering why I was rude to the moron its because he kept following us around.

Thinking back about that idiot I have to wonder if that he ever got into college or university. If he did it would be proof that entrance standards are shockingly low and that any moron can get in.

Judging from my two degrees and 6 years in university, yes, quite a few morons do get in.

I remember I was dating a girl in 3rd year of university and her roommate was a fashionista. She went to a fashion show and came back yapping on about how the models would strike a pose at the end of the catwalk and how "it was so avant-garde!"

What she actually meant to say was that it was a cliché, but she didn't know the difference between avant-garde and cliché.

cliché = its been done before so many times its considered lame.
avant-garde = its never been done before.

And neither I nor my girlfriend at the time bothered to explain the difference to her. We had both dealt with our share of morons before and trying to explain things to them was about as effective as banging your head against a wall.

You'd think someone would come up with some kind of test similar to SATs or an IQ test that would allow universities to screen out the rejects more thoroughly. Oh well, I guess some people just get in on money alone and some kind of semblance of good grades.

I think some teachers take pity on students and artificially raise their grades. It creates a series of lowered standards and eventually those students end up in universities where they are much more likely to drop out when they run into professors who DO NOT take pity on them.

Like the morons who hire other people to write their essays for them while they go out and party, smoke pot and snort cocaine. Its sad because these are the type of people who manage to weasel their way into powerful high paying jobs somehow. ie. George W. Bush or the executives that worked at Enron.

What is also sad is that Canada and the United States need to be training more scientists (engineers, physicists, chemists, biologists, doctors, the works!) in order to keep up with other countries internationally. Technology wise we are slipping in our ability to stay competitive.

That problem is two-fold:

#1. We seem to be letting too many morons study whatever they feel like.

#2. We have too many programs/fields that are interesting to the more nerdy people and cause them to enter a different field of expertise which is ultimately useless (ie. studying Klingon in university). Seriously, what is someone going to accomplish in life with a degree in Klingon? Impress Worf? Not bloody likely.

Would it be so hard to increase university standards so we make sure we're not wasting teaching time on people who frequently drop out anyway? Or cut funding to some of the programs which are draining our more technologically inclined?

And why does it cost extra to study engineering? That is a highly valuable skill and we always need more engineers. We should be lowering tuition costs to engineering programs to make it more affordable for the people who are faced with a dilemna: Klingon (or some equally useless degree) or Engineering? Well... Klingon is cheaper so I guess that will have to do...

Maybe there's something in the water that makes so many people in North America brain dead? Are we not testing the water for lead poisoning any more? Or is there just way too many people smoking pot and snorting coke (and then having kids) that our society is just going downhill quickly due to a combination of drugs and lack of education?

We need more discipline and vigilance when it comes to educating the leaders of tomorrow.

21 Ways to Please Your Man

1. Shopping for lingerie or sex toys together.

2. Wear a hockey jersey to bed. Or lingerie. Both are good.

3. Sandwiches cut diagonal. Guys love that.

4. When ordering food at a restaurant, keep your order simple and don't break our wallets if we are treating you.

5. Moaning loudly during sex. No complaints from us.

6. Beer is good. Beer is always good.

7. Don't ask us loaded questions like "Does this make my butt look fat?" or "Would you ever want a threesome?" when we both know those questions are a trick.

8. Don't get upset when you find our porn collection. All guys have them, just ignore it and don't talk about it. The same thing goes when you're older and we have teenage boys and you find their collections... its best to just ignore it. (We turn a blind eye to your used tampons and pads, so please ignore our dirty Kleenexes.)

9. We hate shopping for shoes and we hate waiting while you try on different shoes. Its very boring. Bring a magazine or something for us to read at least, or maybe make conversation about something you KNOW we like to talk about.

10. You don't need to repeat yourself when arguing. We heard you the first time. We don't mind listening to you discuss your feelings, but you don't need to keep repeating the same line again and again. (And while we are at it we also like makeup sex after arguments.)

11. Listen to our feelings. We listened to you.

12. If it becomes obvious that we're not interested in the latest gossip its best you stop talking about it and phone/email one of your female friends instead.

13. Pick a chick flick that has sex and/or violence in it. We love that.

14. We have eyeballs and we can see. Yes, we noticed your friend with the huge knockers, and yes our eyes may have lingered on them (natural reaction), but you don't need to make a big fuss about it. We are with YOU. We like your cleavage too.

15. Quickies are great. Who doesn't like quickies?

16. Blowjobs are always wonderful, and it wouldn't hurt if you brushed up on your technique.

17. Don't confuse flirting for sexist comments. When we compliment your body its not meant to be sexist, it means exactly what we say it means. Its a compliment.

18. When all else fails, show a little crack or cleavage.

19. Don't expect the moon from us, but do expect us to make an effort.

20. Walking around wearing our clothes or nothing at all is always a welcoming sight. Just don't get out the power sander and start with the bad naked (see the Seinfeld episode).

21. Sometimes we just want to know you love us. It would help if you said it or showed it more often and we will try to do the same.

Do we really need more proof of global warming?

ENVIRONMENT - This a little off topic but I will to relate it how men and women think...

I got this amusing photo in my email today with the caption "Proof of Global Warming" and after laughing I thought to myself do we really need more proof beyond that which we already have?

I mean seriously. 100% of scientists agree that global warming and climate change is real and its happening around us. The only naysayers are people who don't even work as scientists but are "science advisors" for conservative politicians and the oil/coal industries. No REAL scientist has ever come out with proof global warming doesn't exist.

Who are you going to believe? Rush Limbaugh and his cronies? Or the scientific community with degrees and PhDs and the actual data on rising global temperatures?

For fun I did some Google image searches for words like global warming proof and global warming before after to see what came up. There is a lot of images available, some jokes, but most of them serious.

But do we (men and women) need visual proof? Or do we need to wait until global warming effects us personally before we realize its real?

The oil/coal industries know global warming is real, but they're refusing to acknowledge it and they are determined to keep the public ignorant or at least skeptical enough so that politicians won't do anything about it that might hurt their industries.

That much will be pretty obvious to anyone who reads a newspaper and can read between the lines.

But what about the rest of the population? The people who don't read newspapers, who aren't very intellectual or scientific in their reasoning and instead think this is all "natural" or god is doing it to punish the world?

After all god drowned the world once, what is to stop him from burning it the second time around?

But if we ignore god, then its Mother Nature isn't it? The Great Flood, Ice Ages, Global Warming... that sounds like Mother Nature's department doesn't it?

We all know Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Mother Nature don't exist, but the concept is still the same... nature is doing this, but its not very natural this time around.

And is it really so hard to think humans have the ability to change the temperature of the world around us? We've overrun this planet. There are is 6.7 billion of us and in 2008 we pumped an extra 33,534,965,760 metric tons of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas which causes temperatures to go up) into the atmosphere.

And the silly thing about CO2 is that the more there is, the more effective it is at raising temperatures. In the last hundred years CO2 levels have gone up from 290 ppm to 405 ppm. That is a 40% increase and is entirely man made.

The point is that greenhouse gases, global warming and climate change are all scientifically proven. Its the naysayers and skeptics (whom have no scientific background) who have managed to sway the ignorant.

According to a 2005 Gallup poll only 69% of Americans realize that global warming is real. More so there is a gender gap between men and women. 81% of American women know that global warming is real, whereas only 57% of men have clued in on this fact.

So why is it that men are less accepting of scientific evidence? Is it because men are more stubborn? Do they think they know better? Is it because men are less likely to have a college or university education? Maybe.

But an interesting factor is when you compare Republican men/women to Democrat men/women. Republican women are almost twice as likely to realize global warming is real when compared to Republican men, whereas Democratic men and women are on equal ground.

This tells you something very important. The naysayers are almost exclusively all white conservative men. Maybe they've been reading too many pamphlets from the oil industry. These are the kind of men who are still convinced smoking and guns don't kill people and they will argue until they are blue in the face to defend their right to be lazy and pollute as much as they want to.

I've met people like that. The only way they will ever change their minds is if Global Warming effects them personally. Only then will they see the proof in front of them. Until then they will continue to do as they please.

Lets pretend for a moment that we live to see the northern polar ice caps melt and the sea levels rise enough to flood Manhattan island. Would that be proof enough? I'll bet that even then there will be ignorant people who are still naysaying, saying its just a freak of nature rather than humans meddling with nature.

Hopefully by then politicians learn its time to just IGNORE THE SKEPTICS.

Celebrities Sinking to Despicable Lows

ENTERTAINMENT/SEX - Remember Paris Hilton's sex tape that was accidentally released?

How about the rather disturbing video "2 Girls 1 Cup"?

Well now a group of three celebrities have sunk to a new low... Eric Dane (McSteamy from Grey's Anatomy), his wife Rebecca Gayheart, and Miss Teen USA Kari Ann Peniche have released their own video... a naked threesome with drugs and drunken giggling.

Its not so much a sex video as it is just a naked video with cocaine/etc, so anyone looking for the video will be sorely disappointed.

But what interests me is that this was probably released on purpose... with the idea of taking three relatively small celebrities and trying to turn them into bigger celebrities.

It just proves that celebrities will do anything to get noticed and move up the business ladder when it comes to getting noticed. If there is any JUSTICE these three will see their careers ruined instead.