Posted on Monday, 7th December 2009 by oildrops
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Achieving your best body ever requires that two elements merge as one: solid training and good nutrition. This book provides the nutritional component of that muscle-bulding equation, offering the Men’s Health take on food for fitness. Men’s Health Muscle Chow gives you more than 150 simple recipes for delicious meals ranging from workout protein shakes to healthy dinners the whole family will enjoy. Inside, you’ll find:
- Eight easy-to-remember dietary strategies to keep your eating habits in line
- Filling breakfasts like Banana Protein Pancakes; energizing entrées including Muscle-Bound Chili and Mahi Fish Wraps; hunger-killing snacks such as Malted Almond Bombs; even desserts like Key Lime Pie—all designed to help burn fat and build muscle
- A shopping list that makes it easy to stock up on essential ingredients and kitchen tools
- A troubleshooting guide for guys with more experience at the gym than in the kitchen
- Insider strategies, tips, tricks of the trade
Tags: Chow, Health, Meals, Men's, More, Muscle, Than
Posted in Blogroll, Health Fitness, Healthy Choices, Vitamins, thieves Oils | Comments (10)
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Get some things straight…
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Ok. I’ll start with this: I am a firefighter, not a bodybuilder or extreme athlete. So, I do NOT make a lot of money. Your average parking meter makes more than I do, as a matter of fact. I also never cooked once before joining the fire service. Plus I come from a Mexican upbringing, so you can imagine the food I am used to eating.
I bought this book mainly because I wanted a good cookbook so I could learn some cooking skills along with some healthy dishes. I am a pretty avid reader of Men’s Health, and after reading Greg’s columns I finally caved in and bought the book. This book is very greatly organized and gives some great tips for anyone who IS looking to increase muscle mass, or things like that. (such as tips on creatine intake) Now, it is also organized so it can also be a great resource for someone who just wants to get leaner or just wants to eat cleaner. The book starts by telling you that this book is also a diet program, which works in three phases. This program basically works by starting your diet nice and easy and then restricting it more and more throughout the workout program. By the most restricted phase of the program, you can only eat foods labeled “Ripped” in the book. And as I thumbed through the book, I thought to myself, “The ripped phase is gonna suck. There doesn’t seem to be many recipes that you can eat in this phase.”
Well it turned it around on me when I really focused on the chapters. There are a great amount of options you can choose from for this phase and they all ROCK! Not too mention, the Ripped phase is only for 2 weeks! Now, let me clear this up even more: there are three phases to this program. They are:
Relaxed: 1 Week
Lean: 5 Weeks
Ripped: 2 Weeks.
In the fire station, we usually never eat earlier than 11 PM. And even for me, the program was VERY easy to handle! I never got bored, or aggravated with repetitive recipes. My personal favorite recipe was the avocado toast. It is fantastic! My commitment was there, and I was sick of making excuses. If you have the same, this plan is EASY! Granted, you have enough money of course, which brings me to my next point.
Greg gives you two shopping lists in the book: one for ingredients and another for tools and utensils. ANYBODY who has ever been in a grocery store will tell you: Eating healthy is EXPENSIVE! Some of these ingredients are actually not very expensive at places like a Wal-mart or Costco. But finding things like organic ingredients can be a pretty big chore. I am lucky enough to have a store that provides these close-by but it can get quite expensive. But honestly, the shopping lists save you quite a bit of money if you go into a grocery store blindly looking for healthy foods. I didn’t see this until further down the road.
Now, for my last point. You’re not a huge fitness enthusiast? Neither am I! I hate counting calories like bodybuilders do. Greg made it VERY easy to balance out your meals for max effectiveness. The beginning of the book gives some priceless tips on general health, supplements, meal timing, what to eat more of and what to eat less of, etc. So even if you do not plan on following the diet like I did, the tips and recipes are worth it alone. I passed the book on to a fellow fireman because of his high cholesterol. Withing something like two months, he was a cardio machine. He did not follow the diet like I did, so the results were not as dramatic, but they were still awesome. Now I have the entire firehouse stealing recipes for our dinner from the Muscle Chow book. Trust me, that says a lot!
In closing, what do you have to lose? The book is inexpensive and if you have trouble with affording the ingredients, just save for a while and you will see it was worth it in the long run with all the stuff you learn. Especially if you don’t know the 1st thing about cooking. Try it and stick with it. You’ll see what I saw.
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
You have to try this!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Muscle Chow is the best cook book that I have ever purchased. The meals in this book are easy to cook up. It provides step by step explanations on how to make each meal, along with an effective program you can follow that ensures your muscles get what they need. If your going to purchase a cook book for your muscles, this is it.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Makes Eating Right Simple
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Numerous delicious meals that are simple to prepare. A easy to follow guide for building muscle.
December 5th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Excellent Book
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is perfect for someone who wants to know how to take their nutrition to the next level. Greg has done all the work for us. He makes eating healthy while getting fit easy. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is trying to learn how to eat a more healthy diet that will complement and help attain a more fit body at the same time. Although this book is written with men in mind it is great for women too, we just have to make our portions smaller than what he recommends.
December 5th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Feed your muscles and Fuel your workout
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I enjoyed everything about this book. He seems to have all of the bases covered. I would highly recommend it.
December 7th, 2009 at 3:53 am
MUSCLE CHEW
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I accidentally ordered two, gave the other one away to a friend, whom raved about the book. I have two reservations about some of the recipes. Did anybody check these recipes out in a test kitchen? Reason I ask is some of the recipes leave out ingredients or don’t tell you where to put the ingredient in or the recipe doesn’t turn out right. Some not enough ‘wet’ ingredients for batter consistency. But this is all forgiveable because there are some really great recipes: Eggplant Lasagna (pg 142), Tarragon Chicken with Vegetables (83), Hearty Oatmeal’n'Bran (107), Eggs’n'Oats (107), Muscle Toast (42), Avocado Breakfast (38), Giant Scramble – I added asparagus (101), Tuna in Celery Stalks – I’ll never make tuna the ‘other way’ again (209), Zucchini pasta (133). A hint for the Muscle Toast, which is like ‘French Toast’, make up all the soakings of the bread first before frying. I found more bread is needed than the recipe calls for, which is gr8! I freeze leftovers and warm later in the toaster. Last BAD comment, which leaves no excuse, the book is falling apart, terrible binding job, Rodale! Other books I’d recommend using with this: ABs diet books series by David Zinczenko – responsible for me losing 120 pounds. ‘Powerfoods’ Nutrition Plan by Susan Kleiner, addresses men’s health and is a great resource/reference guide. I’m learning alot from it. ‘The Portable Personal Trainer’ by Eric Harr, daily devotional ‘health’ inspirations. ‘Pilates for Men’ by Daniel Lyons Jr., ‘Anatomy Stretching’ by Arnold Nelson, ‘Powersculpt for Men’ by Paul Frediani (CORE-lots of exercise ball illustrations and included DVD) OT: ‘Deep Survival’ by Laurence Gonzales – get a bicycle and don’t forget the helmet! Get a Bianchi C2C 928 Carbon Monocoque ‘Centaur’ 10sp-mix compact
December 7th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Muscle Chow
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Excellent book compiled by someone who knows both fitness & nutrition. Very good read with practical suggestions for properly fitting nutrition into fitness workouts.
December 8th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Chow Now
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
If you’re serious about the business at hand- getting into shape and getting stronger this book provides excellent information. Understanding without application is fruitless- Don’t ya know?
December 8th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Good food, whether you’re looking for muscle or just new recipes
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a really good product that not only gives you some really great recipes, but also teaches you about how to eat and be a healthier, leaner you. Some of the knowledge in here is pretty remedial (such as how to bake a chicken breast) but there is a lot of advanced stuff and easy, quick recipes. I recommend it to anyone looking to bulk up, get ripped or just eat healthier.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Useful, with some flaws
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
What I like about this book is that it addresses something few other books do: a nutritional regimen for a bodybuilder or strength training athlete. There are a number of good, healthy ideas in this book, and the nutritional information is listed for each recipe. The majority of the recipes are easy and quick to prepare and cook, which is nice. Also, many of the recipes taste great!
One thing that some other reviews have said is that there are filler recipes. This is true to an extent, but I don’t think it ruins the book. For instance, there is a recipe for putting fruit preserves on some toast for breakfast. This shouldn’t be news to most people, however to suggest it as a healthy option and to list the nutritional information could be useful. The goal of the book is not necessarily to provide recipes that you might not know, but to suggest healthy options for the amateur nutritionist. And certainly, there are recipes that I had never made before that I just love, like Burmese chicken curry.
Unfortunately, this book falls short in a number of ways. First of all, I bought this book on amazon.com as a paperback, and the binding was horrible. Within a couple months it completely disintegrated, which is terrible for a cookbook because it’s hard to flip through and keep it together. Cookbooks need to be heavy duty.
The other way this book falls short is that it is a bodybuilding foods book more than it is a strength training nutrition book. I make the distinction because bodybuilding in and of itself is not a healthy sport. Real bodybuilders use a variety of tricks to get their bodyfat below healthy levels for contests, and often tout distorted nutritional ideas promoted by the supplement business. Some certainly use steroids, which the general consensus is that they are unhealthy. I digress. This comes into play in this book because it suggests using supplements I don’t agree with (e.g. creatine), and also uses stuff like protein powder in some of the recipes. Some recipes otherwise use ingredients that aren’t necessarily “whole foods.” The bottom line with all the supplements and junk out there, I picked this book up looking for a cookbook with balanced, whole-food meal options. However, I find myself omitting or substituting ingredients in some recipes, or simply avoiding them. To be fair, this probably will not concern most people buying this book.
Overall, this book has some great ideas and recipes, as well as some useless ones. It probably makes a good addition to the average weight-lifter’s cooking arsenal. The only caveats are don’t rely solely on nutritional information from this book, and pray it doesn’t fall apart!