Friday, June 05, 2009

Deadlift & Diet Reconstruction

5 days down on the June Diet Reconstruction and TT Reconstruction program and things are going pretty well. I miss the chocolate milk but only a little. Had a few experiments with some new foods this week, and some stuff was good, others not so much.

First, today's workout...

1A) Deadlifts - Did about 7 sets of 2 reps, worked my way up to 375x2 with alternate grip. Then finished with a couple of sets at 315 for 10 reps.
1B) Standing 1-Arm DB Shoulder Press - 4x6 with 65's

2A) Good Morning - 3x12
2B) Cable Abs - 3x12

3) DB Split Squat 1x15

That's all I had time for...45 minute workout.

After training I tried another health food store to see if they had anything interesting...I grabbed a couple of boxes of Ezekial Cereal. I'm not a huge fan of this stuff but I want to have a lot of variety in vegetarian foods this month.

I also grabbed a couple of snack bars, and it was borderline to cheating on the "no added sugar" because of the honey and malt that held the bars together...but I'm calling, "Not cheating - just close!".

Here are the ingredients of the first bar, "Mango Almond" from "Earthly Goodness":

- pumpkin seeds, dried mango, natural almond, honey & malt (196 calories, 9g protein, and not very good)

The second bar was much better..."Gluten Free Carob Bar" from "Earthly Goodness":

- Cashews, sunflower seeds, coconut, peanuts, peanut butter, carob, sesame, quinoa flakes, honey & malt (209 calories and 12 g protein)

Then I had a bowl of Ezekial Blueberry Cereal with almond milk, and a slice of rice bread with cashew butter.

Now time for some watermelon,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS - I started the week at 183.5 and I'm back up to 185...

...TT Reconstruction is going as planned.

Must have been the workout & diet tips from Jay Ferruggia.

=> Click here for Jay's Muscle Gaining Secrets

6 comments:

Ashley Mahaffey said...

I'm sending you virtual pats on the back for going gluten free with the bread!

We've done that for the most part with our home team. It's not easy, especially if you're eating any packaged foods.

Not quite sure about what your reconstruction diet entails,as I haven't read prior posts. However, I do know the Larabars with cashews and dates are phenomenal tasting!

And, although I don't eat them a lot, in a bind I will eat a Jay Robb cashew butter protein bar. Sooo good and you can pronounce all the ingredients (hmm novel concept).

Ebony said...

Amen to that! I just discovered Larabars on sale at CVS. They are great and it's not even close to cheating because there is absolutely no sugar added in any form. The peanut ones are made with: dates, peanuts, and salt. Delish. The cherry pies are 100% raw: dates, almonds, unsweetened cherries. Give em a try.

Russell D. said...

I'll jump onto the bandwagon for Larabars. The cashew ones mentioned (called Cashew Cookie) are amazing, and there are 14 different varieties. Not only that, the five Jocalat versions of them all contain chocolate (fair trade certified, organic cocoa).

The only varieties of Larabars I haven't tried are Peanut Butter Cookie and Key Lime Pie (because I haven't seen them), and Coconut Cream Pie (but I have two of them that I haven't yet eaten). There's two of the Jocalats I haven't tried either (Mint, Coffee). Regardless, they're delicious.

http://www.larabar.com/

Of course, knowing Craig, he probably already knows about them... ahahaha

Frank said...

Reconstruction diet sounds great and very vegan.

Snack Bars are very tricky especially if you're trying to cut out refined sugars. I think Vega Whole Food Energy Bars are a good pick if you want to keep added sugars to a minimum. I believe Vega uses agave nectar as a sweetener in their bars and they are a strong advocate of keeping foods raw and minimally processed.

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Jami said...

Hi Craig...One suggestion on bars I found was a macronutrient bar that comes in 3 different flavors and has a lot of protein and about 6 ingredients. love them! The cashew one has 18 grams of pea protein. Larabars are good but protein is slim to none so I usually stay away from them. Here is the link to the bars I suggested just in case you are interested
http://www.gomacro.com/faqmacronutrient.htm