Abs Diet + New Hobby

For those of you who don't know, the Abs Diet is a book published by the guy's from Men's Health. It's a great book because it teaches you something that no other diet does. In a way, this form of "diet" is like a smart investor. The average joe will go to work for his money (no work, no money). the 401k Joe will make his money work for him (no work, still getting money). This applies to exercise. I really pity the people who run on treadmills and eat paltry amounts of food. Sure they're keeping off fat, but they're also keeping off MUSCLE.

A skinny person on a treadmill can burn a few hundred calories an hour. A fit person can burn 50 calories an hour PER POUND OF MUSCLE when he's typing up a blog for BiA.

In addition to Muscle being seksi, it is also the body's equivalent of a high interest investment. Your body continues to burn calories long after you finish some sets at the gym. Each time you work out, you also build more muscle (which means more calorie burn). You see the benefits? It's like an accumulating interest account! You can see that adding muscle will give you more calorie burning power. But you must eat healthy in order to let your muscle stay stable. If you starve yourself, your body will cut down on the muscle to save the fat!

Luckily for me in my teenage years, I figured this form of diet without even knowing. I remember when I was a fatty that I would run on a treadmill for like 30-60 minutes and burn only 300-700 calories. God good if you eat a double double with fries you've already consumed more than 700 calories. It was really depressing to count calories so I didn't. I just decided to cut out any unhealthy food and eat mom's food when I was hungry in small amounts. I would eat often but I never really downed chips because I never let myself get that hungry with all the healthy food surrounding me (steak, chicken, yogurt, fruits, shakes). Luckily for us, Vietnamese food is very healthy! We eat food that's seasoned instead of injected with grease (Chinese), and our vegetables are much more healthy than the American salad. The only downside is white rice. You gotta cut down on white rice to a small bowl a day. Or can switch to brown rice.

Anyway, that's the mentality you gotta have.

1- Eat yummy food that's not fatty (you can use common sense here). This means home made steak is ok, but not hamburgers. Baked potatoes with some cream cheese and bacon bits are okay, but french fries are a downer. Make your own fruit smoothies, it's cheaper and healthier than Jamba Juice.
2- Plan your meals before you get hungry, you don't resort to fast food or chips.
Also by planning out your meals, you have increased willpower over tempting snacks.
3- Eat whenever you feel hungry, don't starve yourself.
Just keep your meals smaller than you would normally eat. Small multiple meals is better for you than a few big meals. The multiple mini-meals promote muscle growth and reduce fat storage.
4- You have to do some form of exercise a couple times a week
In addition to looking better, you'll also enjoy your food and sleep much more.

Other than the healthy mentality, the book also gives you two really important pieces of information

1- Foods that are yummy and healthy (so that you don't have to resort to common sense, but rather, have proven scientific foods).
2- Sets of exercises that give you the most return with limited input

In the end, the book gives you the mentality to make your body work for you, as opposed to only working for your body! I highly recommend this book!


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My new hobby

I went to Speedzone the other day and tried out the Grand Prix track. It's a track that is very curvy and it requires you to have a driver's license to drive there. The cost is affordable in my opinion, they charge two dollars a lap.

They state that their carts go up to 35 miles an hour, but I don't even think I was able to reach max speed. I love this compared to the stupid carts they have for the kids. Those are so slow that the best strategy is to hug the curves. Here if you hug the curves you will CRASH. Each lap lasts around 50 seconds. I did five laps when I was there. The best part is that they some kind of equipment to time your laps, then it shows up on a big scoreboard. My first lap I took it slow to see what the track was like so my time was around 52 seconds. On my second lap I crashed into a wall from going too fast so I finished with like 60 seconds. I kept on cutting time as I found out more efficient driving lines and where I could go faster without crashing. My last and best time was 46 seconds. They said the all-time track record is 36 seconds which is pretty epic because I don't even know if I can cut my time back to 40 seconds, but I will definitely be back to try! I also need to try out their drag racing thing, they are stick shift cars that accelerate from 0-70 in 3.5 seconds!

http://www.speedzone.com/losangeles/racing.html

3 comments:

Willy Bob said...

I will be looking for abs this summer from you mac!

J.Frosty said...

lol. oh boy. Mac's P90x. The race for washboard abs begins!

& is that what you've been doing? training to become a race car driver!?

vinster said...

oh yeah speedzone!
darn, and i got so excited about them kid carts.

good luck on them abs
next up: that tan for them abs