Weak willpower: Nutrition consistency when going from Skinny to Good-Looking

[Rust]

The title of the thread says it all.

I am going to have about 12 months of just basic working, living kind of laid back in my own apartment time.

This means I should propably have a real opportunity to finally do my transformation from weak to fine. I'm 6ft 2inches, weighting 150, want ****ing more.

I have a base problem: I have all kind of ****ty nutrients to be consumed but I can't really do it consistently every 3 hours. If someone was to cook and make me quality meals I'd be fine with it but I don't have no one but myself, and my situation is:

Wake up at 8-9
Work from 11.30-19.30
Monday to Friday
Sleep at 24-01.30

I was wondering, about asking who has ever fitted a consistent nutrition plan in their life...

What have been the little, all-important secrets and details to your success at really succeeding at the nutritional back up of Bulking Up?

I mean, I don't live with my mom no more so I feel kind of lonely spending hours on fixing up meals, then chewing them up by myself, then always struggling how to fix up calories for workdays, etc.

It would be so simple living with my family and having that fridge be filled up by someone else but now I'm in a different situation, and wonder how to overcome it smoothly if there is a way.

I know with Will Power you could do this but I don't want to suffer, I want to have fun with this thing. Help me out, guys!

Oh and BTW I'm new here, my handle is Rust, cause I have a thing for dirty things, and like a little imperfection and breaking of patterns a lot. Got directed here by a good man from another forum... I'm Finnish and live in Finland, anyone else here Finnish?

So glad to find a bustling forum with cool topics, I feel I relate to the place quite well. So hey everyone and yeah, you got something to throw to the table here, help a rookie out, I'm in a situation here

Looking forward to getting this thread filled up with quality information and make it a hub of knowledge of good practices of keeping up nutritional backup going for these bulking up periods.

Love. :cuss:

 

[Warboss Alex]

no offence dude, but weak willpower + a desire to gain strength and weight don't mix.

you need to man up and prepare/cook the food, and lift the weights. no-one on this board has someone to prepare their meals for them! if you live alone things can get pretty lonely sometimes, but keep the TV/radio/computer on for company, or get a cat or a dog.

there is no secret and magic trick to make this work, you just need to make sure you get in the food each and every day for days and weeks and months. if you do this and train properly, you will be very pleased at the end of it.

some things you can do to save time is bulk cook your food. like if you want to cook ground beef or chicken breasts, don't cook one mealsworth at a time, cook enough for the day/next three days/whole week. meat keeps in the fridge for several days. or you can freeze it if you want.

same with eggs. hardboil a dozen of them and eat them throughout the day.

or better still, drink them raw with protein powder between meals. make up a drink with a dozen raw eggs and protein powder for flavour, and sip it every couple of hours between your solid meals. that leaves you needing only like 4 solid meals a day. cook all of these while you cook/eat breakfast so during the day you only need to eat your ready-cooked meals or swig your drink.

really, you only need to devote a couple of hours a day to cooking and most likely less if you organise yourself. you don't have to go to work until 11 in the morning, if you get up at 8 that's more than enough time to prepare yourself for the day, wash/shave/whatever, cook your meals for the day and cook/eat breakfast.

yeah it would be simpler if you lived at home, but if my girlfriend had balls she'd be my boyfriend.. lol.

once you get into a routine with all this, it'll be easier. but the first thing you gotta do is get rid of the "lonely/suffering" attitude. you need to be optimistic, ambitious, driven and FOCUSED on your goal. you don't need to give up your happiness, or suffer, or lose your friends/social life to do this. you just need to find that willpower you lack. and that's your issue - we can't give you willpower. advice yeah, but the motivation and discipline to train has to come from within if you are to succeed.

 

[Quiksilver]

I mean, I don't live with my mom no more so I feel kind of lonely spending hours on fixing up meals, then chewing them up by myself, then always struggling how to fix up calories for workdays, etc.

It would be so simple living with my family and having that fridge be filled up by someone else but now I'm in a different situation, and wonder how to overcome it smoothly if there is a way.

You sound like a girl dude. Take responsibility for yourself and your life. I've been filling up my own refrigerator for 2 years now, its not that hard to buy enough food for 3 or 4 days, cook it all up, and store it in the refrigerator. I spend 3 hours every 3 or 4 days buying and preparing food, that's all. Is 3 hours too lonely for you?

know with Will Power you could do this but I don't want to suffer, I want to have fun with this thing. Help me out, guys!

Oh and BTW I'm new here, my handle is Rust, cause I have a thing for dirty things, and like a little imperfection and breaking of patterns a lot.

Then you throw in this disclaimer telling us you don't even want to buckle down and do the hard work?

It takes consistency and raw dedication, take a good hard look and ask yourself if you even want to put the time in, because if you aren't consistent and you don't eat/lift properly and have a lazy "someone take care of me" attitude, you're gonna get nowhere and might as well just attend Yoga classes with your time instead of wasting money and half-ass effort getting bigger.

 

[Rust]

Thanks for giving me honest responses. I don't like to defend myself because it doesn't serve a purpose, so if you allow me I'll skip to the core of it.

So far I am getting that the one path that could take me where I wanna go is the way of cooking in bulk.

Cooking in bulk, sites with tips for that, or you guys got any? What's the first meals that are basic, solid, great ways to start cooking in bulk?

I'm fresh off the service, but they made me a trooper and not a soupman. I never seen anyone cook in bulk I don't think... Never spent time with mommy when she was cooking. :cuss:

Finally, constructive off-topic feedback, I'll want to moderate the thread a little more optimistic. There's information, there's honesty, and then there is negativity. You wanna play bad coach, throw in a **** load of negativity, low amount of information and assumably all the honesty.

True leaders know better.

So another tip so far is that there is a way to make eating all the meals easier by replacing solid meals with liquid ones. A ratio of 4 solid and 2 liquid each day works fine?

 

[Rust]

http://www.google.fi/search?hl=fi&q=cooking+in+bulk&btnG=Google-haku&meta=

Think I found something, guys.

You still got a secret for the topic, let us hear it.

I got a Survey.

How many days do you cook in forward to? 2 days, 5, a week? A MONTH?

 

[Warboss Alex]

Cooking in bulk just means you cook a lot of food at one time. It's no different to cooking one meal, you just cook a lot at a time. So you get your big pan out and you cook 1lb of meat instead of 4oz. Same with chicken, instead of cutting a chicken up and cooking a couple of thighs, cook the whole bird. If you buy chicken breasts bake a dozen at a time instead of the two you need for your dinner. Hardboil a dozen eggs instead of three. Make up a big protein drink with eggs and protein powder or whatever, instead of making up a small one several times a day.

Seasoning and stuff is done exactly the same as if you were cooking one meal, you just need more. Search on Google for basic recipes and just increase the quantities.

I don't believe in liquid 'meals' if you can avoid them. Meals should be solid food, 4-5 a day. Between those meals you can take in liquid food. But I don't believe in eating breakfast, waiting 3 hours, drinking a shake, waiting another 3 hours, eating a solid meal. It can be done if you have to but it's better if you didn't. Far better to eat a solid meal, take in some fluid calories 1.5-2hrs later, then a solid meal 1.5-2hrs after that liquid meal. So about 3-3.5 hrs between solid meals. That's how I like it anyway.

Finally, constructive off-topic feedback, I'll want to moderate the thread a little more optimistic. There's information, there's honesty, and then there is negativity. You wanna play bad coach, throw in a **** load of negativity, low amount of information and assumably all the honesty.

I don't know what you're getting at here. No-one is being negative, YOU're the one being negative in saying stuff like you can't cook (learn to cook then) or you don't want to 'suffer' by eating and cooking all the time (organise your time better or just deal with it, there's no shortcuts). We're being honest.

I was in the army myself, I was an officer and I had a platoon of guys going through basic training. There were times to play 'good coach' with them and times to play 'bad coach' but always you had to be 'tough coach'. If you're a good coach all the time, they don't listen to you. If you're a bad coach all the time, they hate you. If you're always tough, they respect you - that means being bad when you need to be, good when you need to be, but always tough. Tough doesn't mean insulting or belitting anyone and we're not belittling you. Tough means showing respect and demanding respect - that means expecting the troops to obey orders without question, but not jumping up in salute when you're all off duty and you're just doing your rounds.

It's tough to gain weight, it's tough to lose weight, it's tough to get stronger and stronger. We're not insulting you or being negative, we're giving you the honest (and tough) truth. No-one's gonna pretend it's easy to work up to a 500-600 squat or gain 60lbs of bodyweight. We're showing you respect by being honest.

We could just tell you to do routines out of men's health and take CellTech.

 

[Rust]

Perception is a funny thing, we seem to have a different view on what is negative and what is not. I get a lot of your point on toughness though, but we are different on that as well, because I beleive in cleverness and strategy over hard work. It's just the way I am, not the farmer, but the merchant.

8 wake up
8.30 have eaten 1st solid meal, breakfast
10 drink 1st shake
11.15 have eaten 2nd solid meal (before work)
11.30 arrive work
13.30 drink 2nd shake (1st break)
15.45 have eaten 3rd solid meal (work's eating break)
18.30 have eaten 3.5th something solid as a snack (15 min 2nd break)
19.30 off work
21.30 have eaten 4.5th solid meal
24 take casein protein in form of liquid

This should be perfect for Monday to Friday.

How do you guys cope with going out on Weekend? Does it matter if you take it easy on Friday, Sat nights? Sunday could be pretty easy to handle if you gonna stay home. How about travelling?

How do you handle the days when you might not be at home?

 

[Warboss Alex]

because I beleive in cleverness and strategy over hard work. It's just the way I am, not the farmer, but the merchant.

Then you might as well quit if you don't want to work hard. Honestly, there's nothing clever or strategic about lifting weights. Big strong guys are stereotyped to be dumb for a reason. Being brainy is all well and good but when it comes to lifting weights and getting bigger, the people who think least gain the most. Save the strategies for your business enterprises, not the gym (and I speak as a postgraduate ex-army officer so I'm not hitting out at people with degrees by any stretch of the imagination).

There's plenty of 150-160lb guys constanting trawling the internet and message boards and books and magazines looking for strategies and shortcuts and magic pills. There aren't any. Lifting is about heart, not about head. You need to work hard, very hard. And that goes for just about anything in life. You get out what you put in. But it's ESPECIALLY true of getting big and strong. No-one can think themselves into a 700lb deadlift. (some critical thinking is okay, like "Hmmm, my off the floor strength is bad, okay let's do some platform deadlifts and more quad work to counteract that weakness" .. but it shouldn't go any further than that).

Revert to a farmer (or a caveman) as far as weight lifting is concerned. Work as hard as you can and don't think about it.

Your meal plan looks fine.

No, you must not take it easy on Friday, Saturday or any other day. You must get your food in each and every day. If you mean take it easy by having one day where you eat some junk food or have a couple of beers that's fine, or if you wanna go out Friday night for a meal that's fine too, but 90% of the time you must be on point and you must STILL eat your food, even if it's inappropriate food. (I don't count alcohol as inappropriate btw, I count it as pointless)

If you travel, or are not at home then you have two choices:
a) eat out (which could get expensive)
b) take food with you in tupperware. food such as nuts, cold meats, hardboiled eggs are very portable as are shakes

Either works as long as you don't miss meals. Just plan your day around your travelling. If you're gonna be on a train for 4 hours, be sure to eat something solid before you leave, take your protein/egg drink on the train and drink a good amount of it after two hours or so, and eat something solid as soon as you get off the train.

It just takes a little planning ahead, that's all.

 

[Quiksilver]

look at this as an opportunity to gain both a good body AND work ethic. You have an 8hour job so you know something of hard work. On the other hand, getting stronger should be fun and it would be hard for anyone to keep at it all day every day if it was otherwise.

We can give you plenty of help, as we all travel this road together. The main thing now is just to jump in and get dirty.

Good luck

 

[Rust]

I will, thanks again! This reinforces me with just the right information.

It's time to stop planning and start executing... I guess I will have to check up a few things time to time, when I don't know what I'm doing, but I'll have to get started to get into those situations 1st.

Thanks again mates! I'll post a progression chart later.

 

[Rust]

Steps

1. Bought groceries for around 50 dollars, and some small plastic containers
2. Used my supplies to cook superb, protein-rich solid meals

- ****load of chicken, rice, creamsauce. Chunks and bits of pineapple, bell pepper, maize, peas

3. Filled the fridge with milk, got 4 litres for 3 days
4. Also bought: Big sack of carrots, pack of cottage cheese, Green Tea bags, 10 Eggs, pack of butter, Porridge

Ok I forgot:

Breakfast breads, cheese, sliced ham
Frozen Berries (For mixing into morning porridge and shakes)
Extra shakers to store shakes into

So tomorrow morning I will hunt down shakers and Frozen Berries and Cheese and some kind of bread, propably rye bread, and sliced ham.

I have now done the cooking in bulk correctly for the first time, but I'm still gonna need to find good routine to fill up the slots for snacking at work, and a routine for mixing all the shakes. And I need to buy some pure casein I guess, milk is not concentrated enough it makes me feel bloated if I drink loads of that before going to sleep.

Tips for snacks at work?
Whats the correct way of doing the shakes, day in day out week in week out?
I think tomorrow morning I'll do the coolio breakfast...

Omelet of 3 eggs, porridge with the berries mixed in and with milk, plus a few carrots and maybe a slice of rye bread with cheese and ham on top.

I LOVE PROTEIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cuss:

The shakes though... What would be big enough, when I have 4.5 solid meals and 2 shakes during the day and one before going to sleep? I'll have work-out shakes on work-out days but they will not be counted for the everyday meal plan.

I'm at 155 lbs, so... 300-450 calories per shake? I guess 3000 calories is just about my daily use of calories +500.

Solid meals would be worth 500 calories, when you count that I have lots of milk to drink with them as well. That would be 2250 from solid meals, leaving 750 from shakes... So I guess the shake just before bed would almost be nothing but casein protein, so I guess it could be like 200 calories... And then the other shakes would fall to 'round 300 huh?

300 calories, comprised of 35 grams of protein, and rest carbs...

Means I should have around 35 grams protein, 45 grams of carbs in the shakes.

Is this fine for NON-workout shake?

 

[The_last_Gunslinger]

I am undergoing the same process you are Rust. Its still in the works but I found out about bulk cooking a few months ago and applied some lessons:

1. Invest in some re-usable plastic containers of various sizes that have sealable tops. You'll need these for a variety of foods that you will cook. Plus with various sizes they can be taken to work or portion control for your dietary needs.

2. Don't season the food. Cook your meats naturally. Don't salt or pepper your vegetables. This will be apparent once you decide to make chicken parm, but all of your chicken was cooked in lemon pepper sauce. You see my point, season your food after you cook so you can flavor for variety though-out the week.

3. Dedicate one day to cooking. I do it on Sundays. I get up, turn on football pre-game and start cooking. This will become habit once you do it enough. This is part of the discipline and routine you'll need to establish.

4. As for gaining weight I'm still refining my process. But I have made some noticeable gains by understanding one fundamental rule:

Eat before you work out, wait 30 minutes, eat after you workout, wait no more than an hour. Your pre-lifting meal should be heavy carbs, light protein. Your after-lifting meal should be a 3 course meal; protein, starch and vegetable. Add Whey protein to your glass of milk that you drink with dinner.

Results may vary depending on training and metabolism, tool with it until you notice results. If your doing it right you should notice more lean muscle mass within 2 months. Just make sure that your lifting technique is top notch or you'll waste energy and make few gains.

Goodluck man!

 

[I-tallionStallion]

Your pre-lifting meal should be heavy carbs, light protein. Your after-lifting meal should be a 3 course meal; protein, starch and vegetable. Add Whey protein to your glass of milk that you drink with dinner.

Why should the protein be light before lifting???

For post workout nutrition read THIS Rust

 

[The_last_Gunslinger]

"Originally Posted by The_last_Gunslinger


Your pre-lifting meal should be heavy carbs, light protein. Your after-lifting meal should be a 3 course meal; protein, starch and vegetable. Add Whey protein to your glass of milk that you drink with dinner.

Why should the protein be light before lifting???"

no particular reason other than proteins tend to be more expensive food type. I do not care for supplements so I manage my protein consumption for my after work out meal for maximum benefit.

Its all very customized. For example since my metabolism is raging, I've found that I need less time for recovery than people who do not have such a fast metabolism. I can lift for 1 week straight, take the next week off and show gains. I do need rest mind you, its important in lifting, I just don't seem to need as much. For now that is, I understand people who lift for long periods of time require more sleep as they progress.

Ultimately the one above poster was right, don't over-think it, lift and eat as much as you can. Stretch out your stomach by eating a little more than you feel like each meal.