The Most Important Bodybuilding Supplement… EVER!

I could have added this to the whole shock body exercise preparation series that you have all been bombarded with this week, seeing as taking supplements is a key part of taking your muscles to the next level. But I decided to give this supplement some special treatment, by giving it it’s own post.

Most important supplement you say eh? How is that so? Our bodies need a variety of supplements to enable us to build hulk size muscles!

Yes that is true. But just like all of the other secrets that I unveil here at stayfitbug.com, It has usually been sitting right under your nose the whole time. Yet I bet you don’t take enough of the stuff.

WATER!

What the hell… that’s info even a 5 year old kid would know Shaun. Rubbish post… I’m outta here!

….

But wait!

Check out this info before you decide to hit the X button. I can guarantee you I will correct your current ways. Because I can guarantee you that you are not drinking enough water… even if you think you are.

Water is so important, that I consider it a ‘supplement‘ more than just some human need.

Scientist Fact

According to Jonny Bowden’s book ‘The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth’ and a few other scientists out there, our body is 83 percent water. Your muscles are 75 percent water. Even your brain is 74 percent water.

Since you now know that… how the hell are you going to be trying to fill your body full of some whey protein shake. Eh?

I bet your diet looks a little something like this

• Food 40%
• Shakes and snacks 40%
• Water 20%

Or something not far off from that. I like taking protein shakes and supplements as much as you do. In fact, you need supplements if your goal is to take your body to the next level. But your current ‘ways’ are just wrong.

And now for the high school science lesson.

The Benefits Of Water

• Crucial to live and survive
• Can help improve energy
• Increase mental and physical performance
• Remove various toxins and waste from your body.

But most importantly for you, is that drinking water is necessary to digest and absorb vitamins and nutrients. That means,

No water = No digesting those ‘protein shakes‘ That you love ever so much.

And you’ll have a hard time staying true to the saying,

You are what you eat

As your body won’t be very effective in converting protein into muscle.

Have I converted you to remain on this post yet? Yea… I think so!

But I’m not going to beat you up about it too much though. Because not drinking enough water is something that we all do, myself included.

Here Is a Quick Solution.

1. Drink a large glass of water with every meal
2. Carry a large bottle of water with you and make it a daily goal to finish it by the end of the day
3. Have a glass of water after every alcoholic drink when you are out partying

The third one I have been doing for years. It seemed to prove effective every time I tried to drive back home. Oops! Did I just say that well, I was sober almost every time, so not guilty!

Sure, water is far from a sexy supplement, and doing the above might even bore you to death at times. But doing so and following through with it will allow for some drastic improvements to your body, for the way it looks AND feels. And this is definitely something you will want to do if you are preparing for shock body exercises.

See you in the comments.

How to Develop Great Bodybuilder Skin

After the age of 16, it is inevitable that the skin on your body would have been through many wars.

• Acne
• Scars and bruises from playing around in the playground
• Scratches on your body from girlfriends
• Skin infections

And as you age, it will only get worse.

If you are bodybuilding then you probably feel quite strong about have good self-appearance…, which is great. And if you are into building a great body, then you might as well go for near perfection. A part of reaching for that perfection is by having great skin, after all, that is the first thing people will notice on you before anything else when showing off your muscles.

Muscles and crappy, dry looking skin… I’m quite sure that’s a no go for the ladies.

So here we’ll go over some great ways for you to develop great looking shiny and healthy skin.

Eat well

This is a no brainer. You are what you eat. Eat crap and you will look like crap. Eat well… you will look ‘well’. I’m not going to name any specific foods here, but make sure you keep a diverse diet of all the foods that I have covered over at killer foods for fitness.

Break a sweat

You can do this by working out like a barbarian. If you sweat a lot then you are doing well. When you sweat your pores stay open. This may leave your skin open for invasion by infection nasties, but you can fight them off with simple good hygiene.

• Use a clean towel every time you are in the gym
• Wash your face 3-4 times a day
• Use a good facial cleanser

Drink cod liver oil

I don’t bother reading the facts. I just do what grandma tells me to do, and that is to drink cod liver oil. Cod liver oil has many benefits and one the benefits it will give you is good skin. So keep drinking or swallowing those daily capsules.

Your face

You will sweat a lot more when you workout and I would usually tell you to sweat it out and drip dry as wiping away the sweat just makes the situation worse (And your hands will be full of germs too). However, this may not favour well with your gym counterparts. Leaving your sweat all over every bench is just straight nasty and if those who attend your gym are anything like me, they will tell you to clean your shit up!

The sweating is great as it opens up your pores, but that also leaves your face open for infectious nasties to get in there and wreck your beautiful skin. Most of you reading this probably shave too, so that leaves even room for potential infectious nasties.

My solution

There are some great facial and body products out there that you can wash use to keep your skin clean and fresh through out the day. But my star product and brand for the last 12 months goes to,

KING OF SHAVES

I’ve been through the wars with my face. See my history

• Major spots between ages 12-14 (Used various face washes with no real results)
• Acne at 14 years old (double dosage of antibiotics to slow it down – 4 pills a day)
• Fungal infection on skin at age 15 (affects whole body (luckily it was a mild case)
• The spots never really did go away, even after the teenage years… until now.

As of November last year I started to use various king of shaves products for my face and body and I can tell you ‘hand on heart’ that KING OF SHAVES is the good shit!

I’m quite active inside and outside of the gym and I consider myself to be quite high maintenance ‘for a guy’ as I think it is important to look good.

- Feel better

- Positive body language

- Confidence

And I sweat a lot, as I workout like a barbarian. But for quite some time, I just couldn’t get rid of these tiny spots on my forehead and face. Yea my skin looked relatively good, but relatively good is not good enough. I want that picture perfect skin.

The moment I started using KING OF SHAVES, my skin became very CLEAR! It’s not often that I rant and rave about a good product, but this done wonders for me, and if you are sweating away and getting skin problems because of it, get yourself some KING OF shaves products.

You will look better, feel better and it will match the model bodybuilder look that I know you are after.

Whether it is the skin on your face or body, follow what I have told you here and get that flawless looking skin, you might even find yourself being scouted by agents once you do so

Do you have great looking skin?
Do you use any products that help you achieve that?

Do let me know.

See you in the comments.

5 Great Bodybuilding Sandwiches

Recently I have found myself snacking on sandwiches quite a lot through out the day and in between my main meals. This is an important habit to get used too, as you have to eat small meals throughout the day to lose or gain weight. And this is especially important for us high metabolism types, as we tend to lose weight from doing nothing! So we have to make up those loses somewhere.

But if you are going to do it you might as well do it properly and have a fun and tasty time while you are at it. That’s why today I’m going to share with you 5 great sandwiches that will stack your guts a plenty until your next meal.

Grilled Cheese with Pears

If you want to get creative and add some fun to your daily snacks then this is one way to do it.

• Get two pieces of sandwich bread
• Butter or spread with olive oil
• Then layer and fill with cheese and thinly sliced pears
• Then stick the sandwich into the grill until the cheese has melted and the bread is crisp.

Enjoy!

Egg Mcmuffin Alternative

I’ve covered the benefits of the egg Mcmuffin back in 10 power foods to eat for breakfast . But now I have an alternative that you can make from home and take with you on the move.

Check the combination

- Get a piece of ‘crusty’ bread

• Layer 1 – Pancetta or bacon
• Layer 2 – Poached egg
• Layer 3 – Bitter greens (Frisee works well)
• The topping – Olive oil, wine vinegar and mustard

Shrimp and Veg Wrap

I have always preferred a wrap over a sandwich. Probably because you can get away with stuffing them to the max and in this case you will be stuffing your wrap with,

• Slice cooked shrimp (in sesame oil and soy sauce)
• Chopped baby bok, Choy or cabbage
• Mung beans, crisp sautéed shiitake mushrooms

Mix and match, stuff and wrap it up!

The Nut Sandwich

The only other sandwiches I have had that had nuts in the mix is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the ever so tasty peanut butter and banana sandwich. But here is another that you can experiment with.

Some combinations

• Banana, honey, and almonds
• Avocado and peanuts
• Sweet potatoes and hazelnuts
• Apricots and almonds
• Peaches and pistachios
• Roasted beets and walnuts

And just like the banana sandwich… toast it.

Salad and Crab

Ok… this one is mainly for the purpose of having a salad sandwich; it’s just that crabmeat goes pretty well with it.

• Get a baguette
• Fill it with crabmeat
• Add sesame oil, a scallion, a Thai chilli. garlic and salt
• Add the salads – Napa and cabbage (shredded)
• Finish of the topping with Limejuice

I got to taste and become familiar with all of these from eating out with associates at some trendy diners. There are many others, but these are a great variety of those that I tried which I think you will like, and be great for your weightlifting diet snacks.

See you in the comments.

10 Top Foods To Keep You Young

Now, admit it, you wouldn’t be on stayfitbug.com if you weren’t into maintaining your youth by building sweet lean muscles… right?

Well for now I’m going assume that the answer to that question is yes and today I am going to share with you 10 foods which will help you maintain your youth.

Dark chocolate

As Christmas is coming up, you will probably be eating quite a lot of this, and you shouldn’t hold back either. Contrary to common beliefs, you won’t actually be breaking many healthy eating rules (which I often encourage you to do). It will be the opposite, and here’s why.

• Contains flavonoids – A natural nutrient in cocoa which improves the blood flow in the brain and which helps boost cognitive function.
• Contains procyanidin – Can keep your arteries flexible and your blood pressure low.
• Better skin texture
• Stronger resistance to UV rays

Eat one ounce a day to get all the benefits

Alaskan King Crab

High in protein and low in fat.

This is filled with Zinc, which is a great antioxidant. It also helps keep your bones healthy and gives your immune system a boost. The reason why this has made it into 10 top foods is because Alaskan king crab stacks a massive 7 milligrams per 3.5-ounce serving. So don’t wait up on this one. Get crabs already

Pomegranates

This has made its way to the top because of the juices contained within it.

Benefits

• Can reduce your risk of most cancers
• Slows the growth of prostate cancer cells

Bok Choy

I’m not a huge fan of this one, and you certainly won’t catch me eating it by itself. However, it is a top 10 food. And here’s why,

• Rich in calcium
• Vitamins A and C
• Folic acid
• Iron
• Beta-carotene – Can reduce the risk of lung cancer, bladder cancer and macular degeneration.
• Potassium – keeps your muscles and nerves good.

Oysters

The keyword here is ‘boosts testosterone levels’. Anything that can do that is great. But this shellfish also has some extra benefits.

Contains

• Zinc
• Calcium
• Copper
• Iodine
• Iron
• Potassium
• Selenium

Kiwis

I like to call this one the nutrient king. Most of you probably know about the Kiwi. But maybe you are not including them into your weightlifting diet. If you want to keep your youthful look and feel then you’d better start. Eat them once or twice a week after a workout. If you want an energy kick, freeze them without peeling the skin off.

Benefits

• Potassium
• Vitamin C
• Lutein – Can help reduce the risk of heart disease

Artichokes

I call this the super bone building vegetable. Check the stats.

• High in magnesium and potassium (more than any other fruit)
• Contains flavonoids and polyphenols – Helps reduce the risk of a stroke
• Vitamin C – Helps maintain your immune system

Go for them when ripe – Should feel heavy and squeak when squeezed.

Grass-Fed Beef

Pure Protein and protein builds muscle!

I love eating cows just like most of you do… after all, we need that muscle. However, most of those cows are grain fed, which would give the store bought beef a high ratio of omega 6/ omega 3 fatty acids.

= Inflammation

Eating grass fed beef however contains more omega 3, which is always good. But what makes this a top 10 is that it contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). This has been found to reduce belly fat (build that 6 pac) and help build lean muscle. So this is something to think about on your next food-shopping trip.

Figs

You might not have heard of this fruit before, but now you do. But even better, look at the benefits it brings.

• Potassium
• Manganese
• Antioxidants

Helps support proper pH levels in the body

The fiber in figs can lower insulin and blood sugar levels that reduce the risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Choose figs with dark skin (they contain more nutrients) and eat them on their own.

Chili Peppers
Eating chilis will help stimulate your metabolism. They will also act as a natural blood thinner, and help release endorphins.

Other benefits

Rich in beta-carotene (which turns into vitamin A in the blood and fights infections) Capsaicin – which inhibits neuropeptides (chemicals that cause inflammation).
Has been found to contain elements that can prevent prostate cancer

Eat half a chili pepper (or one tablespoon of chili flakes) every day.

That probably didn’t take you long to read, but guess what? You just became slightly older (sorry for stealing your time). But there is no need to waste anymore time. Add these foods to your weightlifting diet, stay fit and stay young.

See you in the comments.

10 Power Foods To Eat For Breakfast

In previous posts such as how to increase your metabolism, I have noted the importance of why you need to eat breakfast in the morning. In terms of increasing your metabolism it is a very important thing, but it is also important when you are building muscle. It will help you kick-start your day and keep you focused through out.

But it’s not just about eating anything when building for muscle. The foods listed below will give you more energy, provide life long health benefits and more importantly, be very satisfying to eat.

Shredded wheat

Now I’ve been eating cold cornflakes as my default breakfast for years, but when I was younger, my mother always told me to eat more shredded wheat. The thing is, shredded wheat just isn’t as nice as cornflakes (and I still think that), but that fact is, a high fiber breakfast will do you a whole lot more good. Having a high fiber breakfast such as shredded wheat will also decrease your chances of heart failure in the future.

If you don’t like shredded wheat that is fine, you just need to make sure that the cereal you go for has whole-wheat, oats or bran listed first on the box.

Whole grain bread

If you have been serious in your weightlifting workouts then you will without a doubt be wanting to eat more food, quite simply because your body will be demanding more energy. If that is the case then you may want to eat some whole grain bread along side your cereal. Eating this carb packed food will keep your stomach at bay until midday.

Left over Pizza

Now if you are anything like me, you will be a fan of ordering food/ dinner at least once or twice a week. If one of those orders is pizza then you may often fall asleep watching a movie and have some pizza left over. If so, then you have a great breakfast awaiting you for the following morning, and here’s why,

The Pizza

• Vegetables (tomato sauce)
• The cheese (protein)

And the variations of other toppings leave the options open for all types of benefits from eating left over pizza.

Low-fat cottage cheese

The main reason for eating this is because of the high protein stores contained within it (with no sugar). That is

4 ounce serving = 15 grams of protein

However, I understand that Cottage cheese isn’t everyone’s favorite, so if you want to opt for something else, go for plain yogurt.

Sausages

I am a big fan of the fry up breakfast and one of the best foods to include in your fry up would be sausages due to its leaner, nitrate-free and protein packed nature. If you want to spice things up a little, go for tomato and basil chicken sausages (it’s light on the calories too)

Steel-cut oats

This will be your fiber breakfast meal. A decent sized bowl of oats would be packed with approx 8 grams of soluble fiber. Again, this will be a belly filler for the morning hours. You may also want to add some berries or honey to awaken your taste buds for the morning.

Tea

And I’m not talking about the Starbucks kind either. Unless you are breaking the rules (which you should do sometimes), most Starbucks teas wont do your diet any good.  In terms of tea, Indian tea is my favorite, but for the purpose of power foods, go for Mighty Leaf Organic Earl Grey.

Why?

Other than being a great tea, it is also very tasty and you won’t feel the need to add milk or sugar.

Whole eggs

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been told to not eat the yolk in eggs, but I was never told the real reason why. Yes, it does increase your cholesterol…. but that is, your ‘good’ cholesterol, so I found that eating whole eggs wasn’t so bad after all. The yolk also contains the vitamin b12 which helps break down fat and helps the muscles contract better. So go for the whole egg.

The Egg Mcmuffin

Many off us like to eat on the move, especially in the morning as time is usually against us at that time. If you do have to stop off at the drive thru at McDonalds then go for the egg Mcmuffin for your whole egg alternative. The good thing about the Mcmuffin is that it will provide an equal amount of fat, protein and carbs. That is,

Fat = 12 grams

Protein = 30 grams

Carbs = 18 grams

So don’t wait up, wake up and get your egg on.

A glass of milk

If I happen to miss out on my Shredded wheat, Quaker oats or cornflakes, then I make sure that I at least have a glass of milk for breakfast. Milk in general is great, despite all of the things that you hear about it being a cause of cancer. It is also good for your teeth, which will enhance the glow of your grill as you migrate into old age. If you want to spice things up you could always go for chocolate milk. Chocolate milk gives the perfect balance of carbs, protein and fat and is great for repairing your war torn muscles from the weightlifting workout the night before.

Feel free to play around with combinations of these foods and post your ideas and experiences in the comments too if you have any. Either way, these are all foods that you should include for your morning meal at some point.

See you in the comments

5 Super Foods For Your Weightlifting Diet

It is time to get your taste buds buzzing again because I am back on the food agenda today. In killer foods for fitness, I introduced super foods into the equation and you may ask,

What do you mean by super foods?

Super foods are those foods that give more nutrients than your average food type and which are sometimes the best type of food in its category. The foods I list here usually go unnoticed by the masses despite the fact that they can instantly improve your diet and health, with factors such as

• Lowering blood pressure
• Reducing stomach fat

But I’ll also include some recipes that you can partner them up with.

Hemp seeds

Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that Shaun is going to cook up a great cannabis themed meal for me to try out this weekend.

As much as I’d like that to be true, I’ve not yet perfected my magic wand to create such a thing, but don’t worry, I’ll inform you if I ever do

Why Hemp seeds?

Out of all of the following super foods, I call this one ‘medicine food’ because of the omega 3 contained within it, which helps reduce the risk of heart disease. Hemp seeds do come from a plant, but what makes this a super food is that hemp seeds contain a better protein than those found in other plants. That is,

1-ounce serving of the seeds = 11 grams of protein

The other great thing about hemp seeds is that they provide amino acids. You can buy supplements that provide amino acids and you will also find it in foods such as eggs, meat and diary too, but you’ll get the same benefits just by adding these hemp seeds to a recipe.

What to eat with?

I’ve personally included them with my porridge, which I eat every morning. But you can also add them to your protein shake.

Seaweed

I have talked about seaweed before in killer foods for fitness. Nori wrap to be precise, and if you have read that post you will have seen that one of the best foods to eat seaweed with is sushi. But I didn’t really talk about why you should eat it with seaweed.

The main super food benefit that seaweed provides is a great source of calcium. But it is also a great source of potassium. In terms of reducing blood pressure one should reduce their sodium intake, but another way to reduce a high blood pressure is by increasing your potassium intake, and that is where seaweed comes into play.

How else to eat seaweed other than with sushi?

One thing you can do is grind the sea weed into a powder and sprinkle it over your salad or soup recipes.

Scallops

Why scallops?

This is a super food simply because of the high level of protein contained within it.

• 80 percent protein
• One 3-ounce serving = 20 grams of protein
• Only 95 calories

- How to eat them
- The best type of scallop
- The recipe.

• Purchase fresh, dry-packed scallops and place them on a large plate
• Preheat a skillet on medium high
• Dry the scallops with a paper towel and season the exposed sides with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.
• When the skillet is hot, add a 1-tablespoon of olive oil to it.
• Lay the scallops in the skillet, seasoned-side down, and then season the topsides.

Cook the scallops for about 2 minutes and then flip them to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes, depending on size and thickness.

EAT

With sautéed vegetables, or place them on a bed of brown rice.

Celery

When I was younger I would always have celery served to me at dinner, dinner parties of family members and in restaurants and I would always leave it to the side. But that changed, as I grew older as I started to learn more about foods.

Celery contains chemicals that help increase your blood flow. But if you were like the ‘Kid Shaun’, then you will probably find celery boring to eat by its self, so lets add them to a recipe.

In a bowl

• Mix a 4.5-ounce can of low-sodium tuna (rinsed and drained)
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped apple
• 2 tablespoons of fat-free mayonnaise
• Ground pepper

Then spoon the mixture into celery stalks. Makes 2 servings

Lentils

Why lentils?

I would have put spinach here, and I have mentioned the benefits of spinach before (good for repairing muscles) but this is super foods and lentils beats spinach on this occasion.

• 16 grams of fiber (in every cup)
• Cooked lentils contain 27 percent more folate per cup than cooked spinach does.
• Colored lentils (black, orange and red) have compounds in the seed hulls that contain antioxidants that help fight diseases.

The recipe

• Pour 4 cups of chicken stock into a large pot
• Add 1 cup of red or brown lentils
• A half-cup each of onion and carrot chunks
• 3 teaspoons of minced garlic

Bring everything to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the lentils until they’re tender for about 20 minutes. Remove the lentils from the heat, add a hint of red-wine vinegar, and serve!

Most of these foods are simply pushed to the side, overlooked or forgotten about in most cases, but make sure that you include these in your weightlifting diets. They will definitely benefit you in the long term.

Do you include these foods into your diet at present?

See you in the comments