It's mine and I'm keeping it!

Me, I'm all about muscle. Its Austin! Looks cool, like a freaky suit of armor, or some futuristic exo skeleton. When properly cared for and stretched it helps to create a grace in motion. It also acts as amazing engine that burns fat thus keeping the machine, keeping on. The goal of everyone who begins this endeavor of athletic training, body sculpting, or body building, should be to keep as much of their hard earned muscle as possible. Recent studies have stated that a pound of muscle is only burning six calories as opposed to fats 2, but that's not really the point. You don't want to step backward. Due to the stressful lives that we live and the additional stresses we place on ourselves by working out, staying up late, yada ,yada ,yada. You all know what your doing. Stressing over things we can't change. Our bodies release a stress hormone called cortisol. Its supposed to help bring our bodies back into homeostasis, but depending on our levels of stress, it can run amok. Like angry little robots, rebelling against their human oppressors. They begin to tear down the masonry that you just constructed, burning the drapes. Its a mess. Some things that you can do to keep cortisol levels in check are through supplementation. I've recently adopted the habit of taking ZMA before I power down. ZMA is zinc/magnesium designed to replace deficiencies caused from exercise and stress. I also like to take about 40 grams of a time release protein with about a quarter tea spoon of glutamine powder before I go to bed. I slowly feeds your body throughout the course of the night. You could also add a scoop of natural peanut butter. The fat in the peanut butter is going to further slow the digestion. Now, most of us sleep for between five and ten hours. Ten is extreme, and extremely lucky. Optimal is eight, so that your body can recover. Its not just recovering, its actually fasting as well. So when you get up in the morning, more then likely that measly shake is long gone and your body has renewed its feast upon itself. To end this unauthorized party, I have a shake consisting of about 20 grams of whey protein with the quarter tea spoon of glutamine. That's pretty much it. If you wanted more of the sciency information on cortisol check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol
and for more information on ZMA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZMA_(supplement)

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.—Albert Camus

Alright people, go out there and channel your inner Austinness, yes it is a word, and go get it!

Oh by the way, feel free to forward this to anyone that you feel could benefit from it, lets see how big we can build this thing.