Breakfast can be one of the most difficult meals of the day. Not only is it hard to find the motivation to make a proper meal first thing in the morning, it can also be tough to think of new things to eat. Here are two breakfast ideas. The first is for those who are “bulking”:????????

1 Glass of orange juice
1 Banana with peanut butter
4 scrambled eggs
1 cup of oatmeal

If you’re “cutting” and aiming for fat loss, here’s a slightly different looking breakfast:

1 Glass of water
1 Apple
6 Egg whites
1/2 Cup of plain oatmeal (sugar free)

Some days, if you wake up late or are just feeling particularly lethargic, a simple solution is to make a protein shake (either a mass building protein shake, if you’re bulking, or a low-fat, low-carb MRP shake if you’re cutting). Combine that with a banana and you’ve got yourself a healthy, decent breakfast that can fully count as a “meal”.

Also don’t forget that you’re never constrained to traditional breakfast foods. This morning, chicken was the staple of my breakfast. I had it pre-cooked and waiting in the fridge, and the entire meal took me 10 minutes to prepare and eat. So don’t think that you’re limited to eggs every single morning!

One reader emailed me last week with an intriguing question. “If you could choose only one meal to eat,” he asked, “what would it include?” Naturally, I would want a meal that would healthy and taste good. But more importantly I would want a meal that would be ideal for muscle building.

It would need to be relatively low fat, high protein, and have complex carbohydrates. It would need a fruit and a vegetable, and probably a source of lean meat. It would probably be a fairly big meal, too – after all, I’m a bodybuilder, and I need plenty of calories to fuel my muscle building efforts. Here’s what I came up with:

• One glass of water
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cooked
• ¾ cup of whole grain rice, cooked
  
• 1 Cup of mixed vegetables (broccoli and carrots), cooked
• 1 Cup of fruit salad (pineapple, orange, grapefruit)
• 1 Cup of low-fat yogurt

Some might look at this and say, “wow, that’s a huge meal.” Keep in mind, though, that not every meal needs to be this big, or as complicated – it’s just my idea of a perfect bodybuilding meals. I’ve got protein (chicken breasts), complex carbs (brown rice), fruit/vegetables, and a dairy product. For these reasons, I think this meal is about as close to perfect as a person could come.

I might eat two or three meals of this size each day, while the other meals interspersed between would be smaller – something more like a can of tuna and a banana, or a fried egg sandwich and a salad. Not every meal needs to be complicated or difficult to prepare. Sometimes it also helps to pre-cook food for a couple of days in advance. In a future blog post, I’ll discuss ways to save time while cooking. Until then, bon appetite!

Sadly, most people who begin any sort of muscle building or weight gain campaign fail miserably. Granted, many of them are not training properly and spend most of their time slaving away on the pec deck or curling dumbbells until their eyes pop out. Most, however, fail to achieve their goals primarily because they ignore the huge importance of eating. Eating will make or break your entire muscle building program! To learn more about the importance of eating, check out bodybuilding guru Tom Venuto’s article entitled “Training or Nutrition: Which is More Important?“. Venuto really knows his stuff, and this is a great article worth a few minutes of your time!

I woke up this morning with a splitting headache, queasy stomach, and general lethargy. To top it off, my memory of last night is spotty at best. Granted, these symptoms will pass in time. My memory of the night might even improve. But what about the effects of alcohol on my muscle building campaign? How much damage have I really done?

 Too much alcohol – that is to say, a full night of near-binge drinking – will have a significant harmful effect on your muscle gains. Having a few drinks is nothing to worry about, but slamming back a 12-pack of your favourite brew over the course of an hour is probably not such a swift idea.  (more…)

As a hardgainer, I have always had trouble gaining weight. My metabolism works at light speed, and it seems as though I’d have to eat ten meals a day just to put on a pound. Throughout my bodybuilding career, packing on the necessary mass has always been my greatest challenge.

A couple of years ago, I came to a point where I felt I had reached my nutrition “peak”. I was eating 6 to 8 meals a day, only an hour or two apart. I was stuffing my face constantly, even when I was full. I was choking down huge, chalky weight gainer shakes several times a day. In fact, I was absolutely certain that I was doing everything that could be done to gain weight. I had come to terms with the fact that I would always gain weight at a snail’s pace.

One day, after I finished a long session venting my weight-gain frustrations, my training partner had an idea.

“Hey man, why don’t you wake up once or twice in the middle of the night and eat something? I mean, when you’re asleep, you’re still burning calories. By the time you wake up, you must be in a serious catabolic state.” (more…)